Living God's Covenant: Exploring the Issues

Some reflections following the conversations at the 2006 Regional Workshops

1. Spaces for sanctuary within the parish or circuit

Sanctuaries are places for worship and prayer; places that challenge and comfort, stimulate and encourage, and even offer refuge – that take people out of themselves and deep within themselves. Every parish or circuit will have several such places – and they will not just be the religious buildings.

Perhaps it is time to ask, “What special places have we got and what do people need?”

Between them local churches might be able to provide a range of sanctuary spaces. The challenge is to offer open and accessible space that is nonetheless ‘prayed-in’. Tourists notice when this quality is present in a church building and when it is absent.

And are there spaces that people need that currently we cannot provide?

The conventional expectation might be for Methodists and Anglicans to collaborate by using the Anglican premises for worship and the Methodist for community uses. But maybe this expectation can be reversed: How about using the Methodist premises for congregational worship and adapting the historic Anglican church for solitary prayer or as a retreat centre?

However, even in the most evocative of sanctuary spaces, the basics cannot be ignored: Premises need to be open and available, cared for, and offer basic modern comforts such as heat and light, running water and toilet facilities.

Resources:

Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life–
Hardcover (27 April 2006) by Christopher Jamison

Beyond the Wood and Stone and Building Confidence CDROMs.

Re-pitching the Tent: Re-ordering Your Church Building for Worship and Mission by Richard Giles (Paperback - April 1999)

2. Create centres of hospitality together

Many of our neighbourhoods lack meeting spaces. Places where people can drop in and simply pass time with their neighbours. Many churches have adapted their premises and so are able to offer this simple facility for the people who live around them.

Which church building is closest to the routes people take?

Such places can be places for refreshments and toilet facilities (a guaranteed attraction in many neighbourhoods), and for information exchange – which might be anything from posters on the walls to presentations of issues of interest to local people.

Food is a basic means to draw people together. Many churches have lunch clubs – how many share food on a Sunday lunchtime? How many places are able to open their doors to all who wish to share in food and fellowship?

Resources

Archbishop Rowan Williams’ address to the Forum of Churches Together in England in July 2003 gave a good summary of the importance of hospitality.

3. Preach inclusive faith together on the streets

Most town centres have their share of open-air preachers. Too often they preach exclusive doctrines, conveying an image of Christianity that is about salvation of an elect few and punishment for the rest. Far too much of the proclamation of the gospel is left to those who are enthusiastic for a partial gospel.

Methodists and Anglicans are both from traditions that are deeply inclusive and celebrate good news. Are we unable to find ways to convey this message to those who are interested? People are prepared to stop and debate with those who are prepared to open discussions in the open air!

This is something in which everyone can participate. It only requires a few to speak publicly; others can engage in conversations in the crowd. Other possibilities might be street stalls, street theatre and music. The aim should be to open up witness beyond ‘professional’ evangelists.

Careful planning can help people who have not previously witnessed feel safe enough to take part. The aim should be to return evangelism to the people, an essential step if our covenant witness is to be inclusive.

Time to Talk of God: Recovering Christian conversation as a way of nurturing discipleship (MPH Reference PA339)

Lost for Words– a learning programme with modules for children, young people and adults – available from CPAS

4. Be somewhere people get real help when at the end of their tether

Many churches offer counselling or listening services for people who are not regular worshippers, in addition to the usual pastoral care for the congregation. Given its historic vocation, those ministering in Church of England parishes would readily recognise a need to go further and not only extend the offer of pastoral care to all parishioners as individuals, but also find ways of serving whole communities under stress. How can churches respond in urban and rural contexts where the constant pressures of debt, discrimination, violence, poverty, crime means that many cannot cope and a crisis might happen at any time of day?

Clearly, there are many possible responses to these situations. Churches do not respond fully through pastoral care alone or indeed social action alone. Together, a variety of churches might combine their various gifts (alongside the gifts of others) to offer a range of support, services and responses to local need.

Many statutory and voluntary agencies now recognise the breadth of networking that local churches sustain across their local community. All this is part of the ‘social capital’ with which they enrich the whole community.

Resources

Angels & Advocates: church social action in Yorkshire and the Humber and
Sowing the Seed: church and rural renaissance in Yorkshire and the Humber
Both these reports are from the Churches Regional Commission for Yorkshire and the Humber

5. Be together a place of encounter so all may be able to find a space in which to engage with neighbours

Together churches might act to bridge the divisions within their communities. Just as Methodists and Anglicans through the Covenant have embarked on a journey of discovery of each other, so they can encourage further encounters within their own neighbourhoods.

Many churches are already reaching out to people of other faiths. Any Methodist church can offer hospitality to people of other faiths. Where Model Trusts restrict worship by other faiths on Methodist premises, other denominations may be able to help.

Church of England churches would not be available for worship by members of other faiths, but there might be circumstances when it was right to offer hospitality in church halls.

More constructively, both our churches might volunteer their premises as meeting places for local community groups or forums, perhaps providing hospitality. Many local authorities have some sort of devolved area panel or assembly and churches are often the most accessible places for these meetings. Attention to the presentation of the premises and their facilities, the possibility for offering hospitality and for participation in community events are all potentially part of the mission of the local churches together.

Resources

May I call you friend? (MPH Reference PA179)

Presence and Engagement– the Churches’ task in a multi-faith society
Report of the Inter-Faith Consultative Group of the Archbishops’ Council 2004

6. Celebrate festivals together with all who will come

The churches need to be seen to celebrate the great feasts as part of a wider community. The days of chapel culture where people gathered for the great feasts such as Christmas or Pentecost seem to be over. However, large numbers of people find their way into parish churches at Christmas for carol services or for the Midnight Mass. To a lesser extent these people also appear at Easter.

But are there other ways these Christian festivals can become celebrations for all people once again?

Religious services can be linked to open community events so that people can choose how much ‘religion’ they take part in. Over time, as trust grows more people will be confident to take a greater part in the outwardly God-centred part of the celebration. If not, they may still take advantage of the hospitality.

Many Methodist churches celebrate a Passover meal on Maundy Thursday. This is a good example of an event that could be opened out to others as an educational, devotional and celebratory event. If it were transferred to the Church of England, the meal could also be enhanced by the use of wine and so be more ‘authentic’. The differences of approaches to alcohol and gambling on premises might open up possibilities as churches collaborate.

But this poses another question: Why celebrate rites from other faiths within the churches if there is a possibility of sharing the celebration with the people themselves? Hospitality is not only about giving but also receiving. Being able to participate in the celebrations of others in the community is a step towards building the bridges we need for genuine change in communities divided by ethnicity and religion.

Resources

There must be heaps of material on this subject although we don’t seem to have notice of any. Can anyone refer us to suitable websites – especially for events with a bias towards children!