Ian Paul Psephizo Is Church of England ministry sustainable?
Andrew Goddard Psephizo Is there progress on the appointment of a new Archbishop?
John Smith Psephizo The Hidden Limits of Class in the Church
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Living by intuitive, experiential, emotional faith
Ian Paul says that “sticking a building and a vicar somewhere is a romantic illusion, and achieves nothing, unless this person is also building a faith community which is missionally engaged with its surrounding context… without this engagement, central funding just becomes a buildings maintenance fund and a job creation scheme for clergy.” In this way of thinking, only particular priests can be trusted to carry out the “right” sort of mission. If existing systems were adequately resourced and left to their own devices, the inevitable result would be that, in a significant number of cases, the building and vicar… Read more »
It’s not an ‘unconscious desire’, Benjamin. It’s a straightforward explanation. The Church of England needs to match income with expenditure. Small churches with fewer and fewer members giving less and less aren’t sustainable. Priests know how to spend money, but don’t want to raise it. Look at the number of well resourced churches, left to their own devices and still shrinking.
John Smith is right about hidden class prejudices in the C of E. In fact, I think it’s worse than it used to be. Roy Williamson was able to become a bishop despite having a working class background and lacking a university education. George Carey was a working class boy from a council estate and became Archbishop of Canterbury – though he had not only a university education but also an earned PhD. I did the ABM selector training 25 years ago, and there was a marked middle class bias. I complained about it a couple of times, but I… Read more »
Like many I have been wondering (day dreaming?) what I would do if I won the huge EuroMillions jackpot. It’s a valuable thought experiment because it helps one form views on how the Commissioners disburse monies, and their priorities. The £11m for Rochester would be well within the range of possibilities but I am not a fan of church plants, other than in new towns or similarly large developments. Equally, I am not persuaded that a large number of smaller grants to individual parishes is particularly effective. I have recently come across the existence of the Solid Rock Outdoor Ministry… Read more »