Diocesan Roadshows 2004
Building Stronger Parish Communities
by The Bishop of Chester – The Rt Revd Dr Peter Forster
THE Church of England is changing more rapidly now than has been the case for several generations at least. There are lots of indications that this is the case, and most of us instinctively know it. Money provides such a symptom: the double hit of the loss of virtually all grants from the Church Commissioners, and the introduction of a properly funded Clergy Pension Scheme has increased our clergy stipend costs in real terms by well over 50 per cent.
It is little wonder then that there are considerable pressures for change within the Church, but in addition to financial causes there is also a steadily changing relationship between Church and society. Our society seems to be becoming simultaneously both more religious and less religious, in a rather confusing way. It is becoming more religious in that the 20th century age of materialistic atheism seems to be in process of passing. There is a greater awareness today of the mystery of life, the subtlety of spiritual awareness, the need to look at human beings more holistically in terms of body, soul and spirit. Religious observance is no longer so quickly and easily dismissed by the chattering classes, compared with a decade or two ago.
On the other hand, we live in an age where individual choice, to the point of an ideology of individualism, is ever more dominant. The traditional bonds of nation, community, family, and institutions of all sorts, including the institutional Church with its denominations, have come under increasing pressure. The challenge for us today is to try to discern how patterns of Church life are evolving, and to encourage those developments which most effectively will respond to the sort of changes which I have outlined.
A great deal of change happens under its own momentum, of course, and rightly so. Think for example of the way people identify with their parish church. It is quite common today for a ‘parish’ congregation to consist of a significant number, perhaps a majority, of ‘non-parishioners’. It must be right to go with this particular flow, and to think more in terms of the mobility and flexibility of people in relation to particular parishes or churches. But just as we have seen certain counter-movements emerging in other areas, perhaps we shall also see some assertion of local identity as well.
In addition to parish communities, and interacting with them, we may well see more networks of those with common interests. New forms and fresh expressions of such networks are widely forecast as likely to emerge in the new cultural circumstances of the 21st century. They are to be welcomed and encouraged, provided they are clearly lodged in the overall body of the Church and contribute effectively to its mission.
Communities do matter. We only really become who we are in relationships with those who give meaning, colour, and direction to our lives. We all want to be loved, and to have pegs upon which the symbols of love can be hung. We are certainly witnessing the emergence of new forms of community life, if in hesitant and sporadic ways, and one of the central concerns of the recent report on ‘A Mission Shaped Church’ was to ask how the Church should seek to respond to, and shape, these developments. Let me try briefly to identify some key issues before us.
Firstly, we need to be honest about the cost of maintaining stipendiary clergy in post. The real cost to the Church of providing a priest who is able to be incumbent of a parish is now running somewhere between £35,000 and £40,000 per annum. As a result, the chill winds of realism – perhaps I should say the bracing and creative winds of realism – are blowing through the Church, and rightly so.
I envisage the emergence of a somewhat changed culture, in which parishes and deaneries engage more proactively in discussions with the Bishops of the diocese over the right level of provision of stipendiary ministry, and about the associated pastoral questions. I do not expect that there will be any sharp reduction in the overall numbers of stipendiary clergy, although I do think that the pace of pastoral reorganisation may increase somewhat.
Overall, I expect a greater spirit of flexibility, on all sides, which I would very much welcome. Those changes must equally apply, of course, to Bishops, Archdeacons, diocesan staff and diocesan organisation, as well as to parishes and parish clergy.
In relation to the ordained ministry in the diocese, we are already well into a process of recognising a greater flexibility, in a number of directions. We no longer work with fixed age limits for entry into either stipendiary or non-stipendiary ministry, and indeed an increasing number of clergy in the Diocese receive some remuneration for part-time duties. We are successfully introducing much more flexible approaches to the training of older candidates for non-stipendiary ministry, if they have good prior experience as a Reader or in an equivalent role.
Of equal importance is the development of lay education and ministry. For a couple of decades, this Diocese has also sought to be in the forefront of the development of lay education and lay ministry. We’ve recently refocused our efforts in, I believe, a most imaginative and creative way. Our plans in this area of lay training are currently to seek to respond to the challenges before us, through the wide range of resources and support which the wider diocese provides to its parishes. All this, I hasten to add, is provided very efficiently, indeed on something of a shoestring.
Our aim is to seek to promote the conditions for the Church in this diocese which will enable us to respond to the challenges before us in the changing circumstances of the 21st century. A somewhat falling number of stipendiary clergy working with increased numbers of non-stipendiary and part-stipendiary clergy in a ministry which is shared both with licensed Readers, and licensed Pastoral Workers, as well as with all the people of the Church exercising their God-given gifts, and given the opportunity to develop those gifts. This, together with an openness to experiment with new patterns of Church life, should enable us to meet the challenges which lie ahead.
In conclusion, let me emphasise one thing, the most important thing of all. At the heart of the life of the Church, and the life of every Christian, should be the regular gathering around the Lord’s Table, and before the Scriptures, in prayer and worship. Amid all the ‘chances and changes of this fleeting life’, as the old prayer put it, we have to keep our eye very firmly upon God’s kingdom, which has come among us in Jesus Christ.
Whatever our worries, or the challenges we face, if we do indeed ‘seek first the kingdom of God’, then I believe all the other things which can appear so pressing and necessary will be added unto us.
+ Peter.
Peter Forster