How good to awaken to another lovely sunny morning on St Swithun's Day with only a few wisps of cloud in a clear sky. Legend has it that Swithun warned his people not to move his body once he was buried in the place he chose. When eventually his body was moved to Winchester Cathedral, the region was subjected to forty days and nights of torrential rain. So if it rains on this day it is destined to rain for forty days and nights. It's a silly tale which I remember my mother telling me when I was a child. It doesn't figure in European folk-lore, but it's a bizarre coincidence that unusually heavy rain hit the Low Countries, Germany and Switzerland yesterday, causing over sixty deaths from flash flooding. The Rhine is higher than anyone can remember in living memory. It's the curse of climate change, not an odd saintly legacy.
I uploaded a link to my offering of Morning Prayer to the Parish WhatsApp group when I woke up, half an hour later than usual, as I'm now sleeping better than I have for several years. After breakfast, I walked to St John's to celebrate the Eucharist with six others, half the regular congregation is away at the moment. Then a quick visit to Tesco's to buy flowers for Clare and wine for me, before returning home to cook lunch for us.
A walk to Llandaff Weir in the afternoon past the Cathedral, the south side Norman door was open and as I stopped to take a photo, Fr Mark came from within to close it, so we stopped and chatted for a few minutes. It seems that a clergy quiet day had just finished, led by Archbishop Rowan. Fr Mark told me it was a new gathering of Ministry Area team members called the 'College of Vicars'. Apparently there's a separate 'College of Ministry Area Leaders', and another for those who are newly ordained and/or serving in curacies. I'm not sure where non stipendiary clergy fit in the scheme, unless there's something in the pipeline I haven't heard about. I don't think there's going to be a College of retired clergy. Demands for ministry couldn't be met to the same extent as they are now without them.
I have to admit that my first reaction to this disclosure was 'divide and rule', and when I told Clare about this, that was her immediate reaction too. Clergy are being managed, obliged to be compliant to the Grand Plan, like it or not. Being entrusted with freedom and responsibility to pursue mission and ministry in their Parish setting is taking second place. I fail to see the point of it. I think the health of the church lies in its diversity, the mixing and interaction of clergy and laity in their different roles producing different creative sparks, and outcomes, rather than segregating them by type to manage them. I draw the analogy between the managed forest of conifers in straight lines (for efficiency and profit) and the mixture of broad-leaf deciduous woodland in ancient forests, far more biodiverse, productive (albeit in a different way) and good for the planet.
The Anglican churches in Britain are spiralling into bankruptcy as overall support drains away. It's not as if people are attaching themselves to other religious communities in significant numbers. Sport is bigger than religion in retaining loyalties, not to mention music and entertainment. Mass pilgrimages in Britain at least, are rare events yet huge crowds endure hardship at outdoor festivals to hear the performers they are devoted to.
For all the skills, expertise and resources still available to churches, finding ways to speak to the perennial spiritual hunger longing and distress is as elusive as ever. We cannot control this situation. Coping with decline has to be done, but like dying and bereavement, it cannot be completely managed. It's painfully hard to let go of what the church has been to society for so many centuries, but there's no resurrection without death. There are many new lessons we need to learn in humbly facing the future
Clare and I went to St Catherine's choir practice this evening. She sings already in the Fountain Choir, but thought it would be good to sing in the church choir also when opportunity arises with the promised lifting of restrictions. Now I'm feeling a lot better singing appeals to me. I feel I've regained the energy for it. Tonight was fun, it was also challenging, my sight reading is very rusty.
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