Moving On

The blog's author is moving to the Diocese of Llandaff in the Church in Wales. She will be installed as Dean of Llandaff Cathedral on Saturday 2nd March 2013. Llandaff's association with St Teilo dates from around 546 and the cathedral is dedicated to Ss Peter and Paul, and Ss Dyfrig, Teilo (whose tomb is situated in the presbytery) and Euddogwy. Llandaff is on the banks of the River Taff, about two miles from the centre of Cardiff.  Thank you all for reading Archdeacon in the Dales over the past two years. Look out for a new blog from Llandaff in due course!



A Celtic Blessing

On our hearts and our homes, the blessing of God.

In our coming and going, the peace of God.

In our life and believing, the love of God.

At our end and new beginning,

The arms of God to welcome us and bring us home.

                                                                                      The Iona Community, Shorter Evening Liturgy



Farewell


Life seems to have been ridiculously busy over the past two weeks with talks to give about the Dioceses Commission, training days for area deans and lay chairs, meetings at Church House and the usual run of services and other meetings. As well as that, organised by Vicki and the good folk of Christ Church Harrogate Centre, we have succeeded in moving the Archdeaconry office to Harrogate. My successor, the Revd Nicholas Henshall, has now been 'in post' for three days he is contactable on nicholas.henshall@riponleeds-diocese.org.uk 

So, sadly, it is time to say 'goodbye' on Archdeacon in the Dales. Thank you to all who have read regularly and to those who have dipped in occasionally. Thank you to all who have commented, encouraged or admonished either on the bolg or by e mail or when we have met. I now realise the potential of digital space to create community. Yes, it is a different sort of community from the one that meets face to face, and it not unrelated to that community as it brokers introductions of people with similar interests and concerns. It is also a community that can lobby for things. I have been astonished how many casues or concerns I have been drawn into through the online community and how much difference can be made by using the internet to organise debate, protest and mutual support. It is also an effective way to get into deep conversations with people about matters of faith. And it can be fun!  

I was delighted to see so many at my farewell service at St Mary's Richmond on 20th January despite the appalling road conditions. A huge thank you to all who braved the elements and also to those who sent their apologies - having broken my arm in the snow in 2009 I am always pleased when people decide to stay at home rather than risk their safety. I cannot reply to everyone individually, but I do thatnk you you all most sincerely for your thoughtfulness, love and friendship. St Mary's choir once again sang a superb evensong and the hospitality flowed. Thank you, too, to John Chambers, Antony Kirby, Colin Hicks, Gillian Lunn and the refreshment team for organising the occasion. It was good to be among freinds and, though we will miss you all a great deal, I am sure we will be back from time to time to visit - we definitely have North Yorkshire on our (short) list of places for future holidays!

Someone asked me what my most abiding memories of the Archdeaconry will be. 'Too many to say,' is the answer, but here are some:

• Slithering around on the ice in Aldbrough St John's on the way to an induction and being rescued by two kind people - one in a landrover and the other who had braved the elements to walk across the ice rink that was the village road.

• Visiting the church at Kirkby Wiske to take a harvest service and finding it almost entirely surrounded by water.

• Carols by candle light and harmonium at Thorton Steward.

• Arranging to meet a farmer in the fog 'at the third cattle grid' on the moors above Nidderdale. I had my doubts, but we connected up OK!

• Chips sitting on the wall with the bikers at Hawes after an evening meeting.

• An open air ordination at Stalling Busk on a sultry summer's evening over looking Semerwater. (I had to remind the congregation that even the mosquitoes are God's own creatures.)

• Complimenting a vet on his goat, only to discover it was a Norwegian sheep!

• Stopping the car in numerous places (The Stang, Buttertubs, the road from Leyburn to Grinton above Swaledale, the road down from Green How across Bewerley Moor to Pateley) just to thank God for the majesty of the land and to drink it in for a few moments.

• Going to countless churches and homes and schools and receiving a warm welcome.

• The wonderful food - I can truly say I have never tasted better food than in Yorkshire!

• Worshipping with 12 people or with 350, using the Book of Common Prayer or a powerpoint projector and Twitter, in a Grade 1 listed building or a tent, sitting on bales.

• The liveliness and willingness to serve of the people who identify themselves as Christian in every community.

Thank you all for 6 years I will never forget. I will keep you in my prayers, especially over the next few months as decisions are made about the future shape of the Church of England in Yorkshire, and hope you will keep me in yours! 

Inspiring Churches

 This looks like a really stimulating and informative training day for churches who want to think about the use of their building in the widest sense - from maintenance to social welfare projects, from heritage to environmental issues, from funding to asset management. Make sure you send someone (or perhaps a couple of people) from your PCC if you are engaged in a building project already or if you feel your building could be made better use of or if you think that your church could be more of a resource for local social action. The day is a joint venture with Bradford and Wakefield Dioceses and will, I hope, be a taster of the kind of training resources utilizing both national and regional expretise that we will be able to offer through the three dioceses working together. The Key-note speaker is author and church development consultant Maggie Durran; our own Kathryn Fitzsimons (Urban Officer, Ripon and Leeds) will be contributing one of the workshops. There is a great line up of other experts too. Don't miss this opportunity to think about how you can develop your church building ansd tyo obtain some very practical advice! BOOK NOW online at

 

http://www.riponleeds.anglican.org/inspiring-churches.html

 

PLEASE NOTE THIS DAY HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL 9TH FEBRUARY. IF YOU HAVE BOOKED,THE ORGANISERS WILL BE IN TOUCH. IF YOU HAVE NOT BOOKED THERE IS STILL TIME TO DO SO.

 

 



Abiding in Hope

I've noticed a lot of articles (blogs and media) lately suggesting that the church is dying. The authors of these pieces are hand-wringing over the fact that there aren't enough resources to keep things going, bemoaning the fact that churches are getting caught up into 'management-speak' and chastising these churches for losing sight of gospel values. Yet death is perhaps the least surprising concept to apply to the church which, in theological terms, is the body of Christ - Christ who died and who rose again. It's certainly true that churches (individual congregations and whole denominations) do struggle and wither and die out or, more prosaically, get to the point of closure. But it's also true that, while some get weaker and die, others blossom and flourish for a season. It is also true that where a church loses its vibrant, lively faith in the gospel, it is indeed as though the body is dying and being buried, but often, from that body, there comes a new shoot bearing fruit in the shape of individual Christians who have 'caught' the faith in that original fellowship and gone on to live it out in other Christian communities.

When I look around me at the churches of this area and indeed in the city where I used to minister, I see two things. I see the 'death' of shrinking numbers and wearied congregations but I also see the renewal of fresh lives changed by meeting Christ and tired lives brought to a place of re-invigorated engagement through exploring with new communities of faith and fresh opportunities for worship. Christian communities are being re-shaped and transformed at the present moment. In the West, they are much smaller than they were but they are also much more open to exploring what discipleship is. Church-going is no longer synonymous with practice of the faith - there are many unconventional, non-denominational and experimental groups outside or on the fringes of the old established denominations that are returning to the roots of the faith. They meet quietly or noisily in public places or each others' homes, members are often few in number and they break up again to reform in new groups to accommodate new members. They often have questions about leadership and the place of the sacraments. Remind you of anything? This shape of church is surely much more like the shape of the churches we meet in the New Testament and for the first three centuries in the history of Christianity.

I'm not sure that 'Christian' and 'large', or 'Christ-shaped' and 'powerfully influential'  are pairs of words that go together well. Resources have often been meagre - at the start of the church's history, at times of persecution and at times before major spiritual awakenings. Size and the sharing of clergy, money and buildings are very human preoccupations. We all worry about our responsibilities and none more so than an archdeacon, I suspect! A more theologically significant question to ask is 'where is
this apparent lack of resources pointing us?'  When churches struggle and need pruning and show signs of dying, there is always, in my experience, new growth in the off-ing. It might be in the very community where there is death - people of faith begin to emerge in other ways in the life of the community. Small groups of believers are suddenly released to focus on what is important and to re-invest their energy. Or it may be that, where whole areas or denominations begin to struggle, new life is found in radically different communities of faith. I do know that where churches are growing, it is almost always true that discipleship is taken very seriously; this happens in all sorts of different ways in different contexts, but attention to the disciplines of faith and, above all, devotion to the person of Christ are essential, whether this is expressed through worship and prayer, teaching, service, fellowship, generosity or usually a combination. 

So I don't share the despair of some. The Johannine sayings of Jesus about abiding in Him, Jesus' metaphors of pruning and the parables about death for the sake of new life give me hope that what we are seeing are the birth pangs (Romans 8) of a, yes maybe smaller, but more deeply rooted Christian community in Europe. Perhaps a more honest and humble community of faith full of people who are determined to worship and witness and serve without huge resources but in the power of God's Spirit. Scarey, yes, but certainly grounds for hope.                    

When A Church Argues

It does seem, as we approach the General Synod at York, next week, that this particular Synod is surrounded by a more-than-normal degree of argument. And there are clearly further arguments pending.... What happens when a church argues? There are those who shrink in horror from such open conflict fearing the pain and the impact it has on those who look on from outside. There are others who think that robust debate which gets to the bottom of differences is not to be feared as it slowly (albeit painfully) reveals truth and provides an honest way forward.

My starting point is to quote Ruth Etchells (a theologian and writer who was Principal of the theological college I attended.) 'I wish we could dispel the notion that the church is anything other than a gathering of sinners.' We none of us have the whole truth about a matter; we none of us are completely right. We all make mistakes and act from mixed motives that are sometimes a great deal less pure than we would like to admit. Most of us find it very difficult to walk a balanced line between justice and compassion, loyalty to tradition and response to new developments. The art of being church is to live repentantly and graciously with those with whom we disagree.

Lavinia Byrne (Roman Catholic religious, broadcaster and writer) says this, 'Discerning is not about arguing one's corner. It is about trying to listen to one another in order to listen to the voice of God.' Messy as things can get, it is by listening to the most outlandish voice, the angry voice, the quiet voice, the voices of the majority and the voice of the wise individual that Christians believe it is possible to move forward. The Holy Spirit is able to work through the church's honest debate and interaction, through its members' pain and frustration and to bring to resonance the voice of the voiceless. Listening requires full attention and the ability to put aside our own ideas while we listen. People sometimes forget that the end stage of listening is to reflect, at a deep level, on whether what you have heard ought to change how you think and live.  The Mennonites, who are well known and respected as bridgebuilders and for their conflict transformation work, talk about 'centred listening' and 'centred speaking' as the basis for finding a way forward in a dispute. Put together, centred listening and centred speaking mean that every party has a responsibility at each stage of the debate to work out what they think and feel, to be able to express it in non-threatening ways, to listen to others without immediately judging what they express and then to meditate long and hard on what they have heard and how it might change what they think and feel. It's always important to ask, 'Is part of the impasse due to the fact that one or other party feels they have not been heard?' They may have talked alot, but they may still feel unheard; this could be their own responsibility or it could be the responsibility of those who might have listened. It is also possible that there are no processes in place to enable proper centred listening and speaking - and I think this may be one of our current problems in the Church of England over some issues.

Centred listening and speaking can be a time-consuming and exhausting process. People outside the church are incredulous that the Church of England cannot seem to find a way forward even in cases where a large majority has expressed a clear view. I'm quite surprised, at this point, to find myself quoting Margaret Thatcher, but she puts it so cogently. 'When Christians take counsel together, their purpose should not be to ascertain what is the mind of the majority but what is the mind of the Holy Spirit - something which may be quite different.' Majorities do tell us important things. But so does the plight of those who find themselves caught up in places where they have little or no voice and little or no power. So another vital aspect of listening is to ask questions about how power is being used to include or exclude, to build up and subvert, to deny people their place with their insight born of their experience of life and of God. And who is doing most of the talking?

Leonardo Boff (South American theologian) says,'Jesus will continue to be condemned to death so long as we do not establish the human conditions that allow justice to flower and right to flourish. Without justice and right, the kingdom of God cannot be established.' In establishing what is just, the church has before it parables such as the one about the owner of a vineyard who pays those who come to work very late as generously as those who have worked all day (Matthew 20.1-16). Justice here mingles with a compassionate acceptance of the needs of those who 'come late', who have been and are disadvantaged.  The parable also shows that it is not for those who receive less to resent the generosity that gives more than might be expected to others.

Our diocese has a link with the two dioceses of Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan theologian, Tissa Balasuriya writes, 'Prudence will decide on the issues that are worth fighting for as well as the means to be used in the struggle. Prudence tells us when it is necessary to bypass an issue or pursue it to the extent of polarization.' The Church of England and the Anglican Communion, partly because of their sheer breadth, do have a tendency to pursue issues to the extent of polarization and this is not necessarily an imprudent thing, as Balasuriya suggests. However, we also have a tendency to lose our nerve when things get difficult and to look for fudging, delaying or opt-out tactics. If we love our Lord and believe that He has called us into our church and placed us in it according to our gifts, we should stand firm, remain engaged, be open to change and respond in charity as the Holy Spirit does the work of bringing out into the open differences that need more work..or more honesty..or more justice..or more compassion..or more risk-taking before they can be resolved.

So what does all this say to the Church of England, its bishops, synods and members? It suggests that we must constantly try to act from a personal place of deep-down integrity; we must acknowledge to ourselves and to God when our motives are dislike (or worse) of one group or another, personal popularity, personal advancement or a personal, unexamined idee fixe, be it drawn from a particular view of tradition or mission, or where we simply assume we know best where 'God' and 'right' happen to sit. We must pray and meditate deeply over all that we hear. We must act according to our conscience within the possibilities provided by the processes of our church and its relationship to wider society through parliament and other institutions.  We must believe that the Holy Spirit will act among us to bring the church to a better place. We must then commit ourselves to live out whatever arises - continuing to listen and to speak in centred ways - perhaps especially if we do not like whatever emerges - and remaining ready to challenge where our conscience tells us it is necessary.  I offer this to you as my personal understanding of the way the Church of England works.