Ministry for the People, by the People

I mentioned in my blog yesterday that we’ve just finished our synod here in Ballarat - more about that another time! While that might not have been the most edifying of experiences, what followed was very different. After lunch on Friday, we began our rural conference, which this year was entitled “Ministry for the people, by the people”.

We gathered together a number of prominent people from around the church here in Australia to talk about different aspects of lay ministry. Bishop Peter Danaher talked about the living Stones organisation; Peter Corney talked about Cell Groups; from the Diocese of Wilochra we had both Dorothy Thorpe, the now retired Ministry Development Officer, and Bishop Garry Weatherill, who spoke about lay ministry from the bishop’s point of view. Wayne Brighton came down from Canberra to give some insight into Fresh Expressions, and Anglicare gave a presentation about their work, especially here in the diocese Ballarat. The one person sadly unable to come was Archbishop Jeffrey Driver, who was taken sick the morning the conference began.

There was a hugely positive feel to the whole thing, as people moved from speaker to speak listening and sharing. Of course, very little can be said in each of the just over hour-long sessions, but from talking to people afterwards I think that what they came away with was not just the realisation that so much is possible but also that much of what is being spoken about by the Bishop here in this diocese is being spoken about and acted upon elsewhere. We are all travelling this road together.

I hope very soon to be able to put report about the Conference written by someone from the diocese of Gippsland on our diocesan website.

I firmly believe that we are now in a time when God is calling each of us to a ministry of His choosing. We have a lot to learn about how these ministries can be developed, and how we can train people into them. We even, at times, have to find ways of showing people that the ministry is part of being baptised. We have difficulties with clergy who feel very nervous that they might become redundant; and with laity, who used to the clergy doing everything. But there is also a feeling of change.

We also need to sit down and think about some of the theological implications of all of this. As a catholic, I have to start thinking once again about what it means to be a priest, and how that relates to the people I minister with. How do we continue to be Eucharistic communities when there is no priest week by week? And how, as catholics, can we reclaim the spirit of evangelism as well as the spirit to struggle for justice for the poor and the oppressed, which we seem to have lost as we have become more inward looking and fearful of the world around us?

OS 15, Synod & Mission

(If this seems a little disjointed, I blame it on flu!)

As General Synod breaks out in England, and one of the Anglican Provinces in the US holds theirs, it is a bit of a relief that ours here in Ballarat is in abeyance, for a while at least. It was a very painful affair.

What I did like was a comment by the Bishop of Willesden in London, as he commented on the General Synod there:

“lots of people speaking who are fed up with Synod being so introverted and tediously lacking in mission focus”

We really have become an introverted Church, so worried about ourselves that we cease to worry about the world that we are sent to serve.

I have, of course, been looking at the Gospel reading set for today – Mark 6:7-13. It is the story of the twelve being sent out in pairs to heal the sick and bring people to repentance.

What I love about this is the bit that comes before – when Jesus is rejected in his own home town, and is able to performed no acts of miracles. What’s so good about this, is the way that one story which looks as though it’s about failure on the part of Jesus is then immediately followed by another story in which he encourages his disciples to get out and do what he does. The disappointment he must have felt does not stop the mission that he has. He even tells the disciples that failure is going to be a part of what they do; there to shake the dust off their feet when a village or town rejects them. But just because they experience rejection does not mean that the mission must cease. It also does not mean that they have to start looking into themselves; that they have to gather themselves together as a small group separated from the rest of the world.

We as a church have to remember that the mission is not ours; it’s God’s mission. I think that it would be true to say that many people in our churches nowadays feel a sort of desperation that things are not going well. We have lost confidence; we fear too much to speak to the world; not even sure that we should say things that might offend other people. Is all this so different from the church we find early in the book of Acts?

The difference between us and them seems to be that we are retreating further and further into our own institution, whereas the early church saw the institution is being there to serve the mission. The mission had to come first. The early church had a real urgency about what it was doing, about the way it went out into the world to bring the Good News to those around it. We seem to have lost that urgency.

As I said above, the synod that we’ve just had here in Ballarat was a very painful and, at times, sad affair. A number of people wondered afterwards how the synod had advanced the work of the Kingdom of God; those who asked seemed to already know the answer: no advance at all. An outsider seeing that would surely expect the Church to collapse in on itself very shortly!

Temptation

Mark 1:9-15

Even in it’s shortest form, the Temptations of Jesus, today’s Gospel, should speak buckets to us!

Temptation is a part of life; it happens to us all. And we have a God-given right to give into it, or not. While we continue to blame our wrong-doing on the one who tempts or on anything or anyone but ourselves, we shall live in a permanent state of false victimhood, and we will not be able to repent.

Repentance is not just about being sorry; it is about re-directing my life so that I walk in the way God wants. It is active not passive. It has meaning.

Saying sorry is easy; repenting is not.

Maybe this is why confession to a priest has become less common; it is easier to blame something else if we ‘confess’ alone. When we go to a priest, we can only blame ourselves!

And what about Jesus? His temptations, as we read them in the other Gospels, and not terrible. The Tempter offers good, sound ways to do the work he has come to do. But that is not what God wants Jesus to do.

That too we are guilty of. We want to do God’s work, but in our way; and we can very easily justify doing it in our way.

Father, give me the strength to do Your will in Your way.

Mixed Economy

We hear a lot today about “Mixed Economy” churches – it has become a bit of a buzz-word (I know that it is not one word – but you know what I mean.) Archbishop Rowan Williams defines the phrase as follows:

“That is, one [a church] which is learning how to cope with diverse forms and rhythms of worshipping life. Tearing up the rule book and trying to replace the parochial system is a recipe for disaster and wasted energy. In all kinds of places, the parochial system is working remarkably. It’s just that we are increasingly aware of the contexts where it simply isn’t capable of making an impact, where something has to grow out of it or alongside it, not as a rival (why do we cast so much of our Christian life in terms of competition?) but as an attempt to answer questions that the parish system was never meant to answer.”

This concept of a Mixed Economy is one that underpins the whole idea of Fresh Expressions of Church – because Fresh Expressions work alongside what already exists, but does not take over. Both the new and the traditional have an equal importance, and both have to be taken seriously. We have to do both as well as we can.

The danger, of course, comes in not getting this right. A church begins a Fresh Expression, maybe a Youth Service in a hall, or a Mass in a pub, or a Coffee Shop Fellowship. Now, these begin with the best of motives – to draw in those who have little or no contact with traditional church. But our motives may not be quite as pure as we think! The Mass in the pub is exactly that – a traditional Mass done in a pub; the Youth Service is done so that the young people can be drawn into church – if we kick start their faith, they will come to like what we like. But these are not really Mixed Economies. In the same way, we cannot just throw out the traditional. The tradition is glorious; it has held the Faith over the centuries; it speaks to us in so many ways; those who hold it cannot be ignored. But it has to be done in the best way possible, not as a second fiddle to the Fresh Expressions. Our liturgy has to be the best on offer. (Interestingly, young people often find that the mystery of good Catholic liturgy speaks loudly to them of God).

Does this mean that we will end up with two churches – the Fresh and the Traditional? I see no reason for that. The expressions may be different, but the Faith is the same. That cannot lead to two Churches. Does it mean that we will end up with more than one congregation? Maybe – in fact, probably! Why should that be a problem? It’s not as though that is new – many churches have two services on a Sunday. Again, as the different congregations meet as, for instance a Parish Council, they might start discussing important matters of living the mission of God, maybe expressed in different way, but in a way which includes the different rather than excludes those who do not worship like me.

To quote, as an extreme view, The Monkees:

Why don't you be like me?
Why don't you stop and see?
Why don't you hate who I hate,
Kill who I kill to be free?

Viva la difference, and Mixed Economies!

The Young People of Today...

I really believe that we, as a church, have to take the issue of young people seriously – something that one would have thought was blindingly obvious! Last week, I had a call from a woman who said that she was thinking of leaving the church – the Anglican church, not the Faith itself – because there is nothing for her teenage daughters. Now, this is a woman who has gone to church all her life, and is a main supporter of her Faith Community; but her daughters feel that there is nothing for them! This is not as uncommon as it might sound; I know other families whose children go to non-Anglican churches while the parents go Anglican. My first thought is to thank God that these young people still want to go to church; they have faith: my second thought is to ask why we cannot provide for them? And, what does this say about our future prospects?

It seems to be a common idea that “the young people will come back one day”. Underlying this seems to be the thought that eventually ‘they’ will start liking what ‘we’ like as they reach our age; Generation X will evolve into Baby-Boomers as they get older. They will then appreciate the beauty of our liturgy, the wonder of our music, and the glory of our buildings.

It would seem that this is not true: Generation X will remain Generation X, and Generation Y will remain Generation Y. Generation Y, for instance, in general do not like volunteering or going on committees; this will not change as they get older, and churches are already feeling the affect of that; our parish councils are made up of Baby-Boomers or older, and there will be no-one to take their place.

But our young people are the most important; somehow we have to open up the Faith to them in a way that they can relate to and understand. I often sit in meetings listening to people bemoaning the lack of young people; there then follows a session on the reasons why the young people don’t come to church – they’re too busy; sport on Sundays; poor religious education in schools. Every so often, I ask the congregations whether they have ever asked the young people themselves why they don’t come, and there is usually a painful silence. One lady did once answer, with brutal honesty: “No, I’ve never asked. If I did I might hear what they think, and then we might have to change for them. It’s easier to expect them to change for us.”

I am not a ‘Youth Expert’; I have no answers. But I do intend holding a sort of Forum here in Ballarat in the next few weeks. I would like to get young people together, whoever they are, and ask them why the don’t come and what they want. Maybe we can start from there. I think that they want to tell us, if they believe that we really want to listen and act. As my daughter tells me, my generation talks a lot but is not big on action!

Sacred & Profane

A couple of weeks ago I was very publicly criticised; nothing too bad, or unusual about that in itself! But the issues involved did make me think. It all stemmed from the fact that we say Morning Prayer together in the Registry office (Office in the office?) and that once a week the Registry staff get together for Mass, again in an office. The ‘suggestion’ was that these things should properly be done in the cathedral next door – the place set aside for such things.

As I said, this got me thinking. First of all; in Christianity is there really such a difference between the ‘sacred’ and the ‘profane’? Of course, I believe that it is good that we have certain places set aside for prayer and worship – that such places are a natural part of the Faith. But there is also the danger that by being to ‘strict’ about the separation, our Faith life becomes separated from our ‘real’ life; faith is something only practiced in certain places at certain times. Does the theology of the Incarnation teach us something about this, that as God Himself takes on the ‘profane’ in the Incarnation, so all creation is declared ‘holy’? Possibly, this could be explored further…

I also wondered whether there is not something good and beneficial about bringing God into the workplace – into ‘normal’ life. Might it not be a positive witness to the world around us if Christians were seen to take their faith so seriously that prayer could be seen to be an important thing in everyday life? I don’t mean in a pushy ‘look-at-me’ sort of way, but so that it is seen as being just normal.

Maybe we do need to end the split between the religious and the secular; everything belongs to God, not just an hour on Sundays.

Prayer Tree

Today I was in Creswick, a small town just north of Ballarat, which has been without a priest for a while; today they were having Morning Prayer led by a Lay Worship Leader. It was a great experience, because it was done with such commitment.

One thing they did was to have a Prayer Tree. Each person was given a paper ‘leaf’ and pen as they came in and asked to write on it something they wanted to pray about. These leaves were collected at the time of intercessions and read out, and then clipped to the branches of a small tree next to the pulpit.

A very simple idea, but very effective – people felt involved; the prayers really were those of the people, and the prayers remained on the tree as a symbol of the Community’s intercessions.

I’m sure that this has been done before, but I think that it is something that could well be repeated.