Is this Spongian liberalspeak?

ACNS: Church structure mustn't stifle Gospel message - Archbishop of Wales

from ACNS News Digest
Posted On : September 14, 2012 10:38 AM | Posted By : Webmaster

The Church in Wales must be prepared to change if it is to serve God effectively, the Archbishop of Wales said today.

In his Presidential Address to members of the Church’s Governing Body, Dr Barry Morgan said the Church needed to be open to God’s spirit and not be a static structure which stifled it.

That message, he said, was at the heart of the report of the Church in Wales Review Group which was presented to the Governing Body at the start of its meeting yesterday.

Dr Morgan said, “The purpose of a structure or an institution or church, is to express and embody God’s redeeming love.  In other words, the church exists in order to help God bring in His kingdom, not as an end in itself and if it is not doing that as effectively as it might, then there is something amiss. 

“And it is precisely that insight which lies at the heart of the Provincial Review and therefore all its recommendations, when it says, ‘Institutions are built to carry the gospel through time to succeeding generations.  Yet to do so, they need to change and adapt to the circumstances of each age.  The Church in Wales continues to have the structure and organisation appropriate to an established church of 100 years ago but which is stretched beyond what it can or should properly bear now’.  Our church needs to express in as effective a way as it can, God’s care and love for His world.”

The way to do that, said the Archbishop, was to focus on the Gospel, the words of Jesus, as it “demands change, conversion and transformation”.

The Archbishop’s full address follows below.

The two-day meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales is being held at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter.  The agenda and papers can be read here

http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/structure/govbody/sep12/

The Review Group’s Report can be read online at:http://www.churchinwales.org.uk/structure/govbody/sep12/review.php

For more information, please contact:

Anna Morrell
Archbishop's Media Officer / Swyddog y Cyfryngau i'r Archesgob
Tel: 02920 348208; mobile: 07 91 91 587 94
39 Cathedral Rd, Cardiff / 39 Heol y Gadeirlan, Caerdydd
CF11 9XF
http://www.churchinwales.org.uk
http://www.eglwysyngnghymru.org.uk

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS GOVERNING BODY

14^th September 2012

It is inevitable that during this meeting of the Governing Body, our discussions have been shaped by the findings and recommendations of the Provincial Review. That Review has necessarily required us to look inwards; to ask, with the help of sensitive facilitators, difficult questions of ourselves as a church. We have also encouraged people on the fringes of the church to have their say. That is as it should be because in the end, we are here as a church not only to deepen our own faith and live as a new community, but also to draw others to follow Jesus and experience the life he has to offer.

Having to look in the mirror at ourselves entails facing some painful and challenging truths. It will be a rather rapidly changing face.  When we are used to seeing a rather familiar face, it is disconcerting to be presented with an alternative image. But at the same time, the review gives us a chance to be reminded of the things for which we can be thankful and there is a great deal for which we need to thank God.

I regard this then, not so much as a Presidential Address but as musings on the underlying philosophy of The Church in Wales’ Review Report, and the bit of the report I want to fasten on is the section on what it has to say about the gospel and the church as an institution. It reminded me of the title of an undergraduate essay I once had to write about the relationship between structure and spirit in the life of the church and the two classic but contradictory ways of looking at it.

The first way is, that the spirit of God is mediated through a structure – the church.  It is the structure, if you like, which assures us that the spirit is indeed present.  Where the church is, we should find the manifestation of the fruit of the spirit in terms of joy, love, peace, gentleness, patience, self control, etc.  But even when these things do not appear to be present, we have to have sufficient faith that somehow the spirit of God is at work in that structure because it is God’s church after all.

The opposite of that viewpoint is that you cannot restrict or confine the spirit of God – it cannot be controlled or pinned down to any structure for “the Spirit blows where it wills”.  So, it is the spirit and the presence of its fruits which validates any particular structure. Indeed the logical extension of the argument might be that no structure at all is necessary – the Spirit of God is all that is needed.

In the first, we start with a structure and look for the spirit within it and in the second, we start with the spirit and look for the structure, through which it might be conveyed.  Put another way the issue is whether we need a structure, an institution, an organisation, a church to live a Christian life?  And those of us who are ordained will have had many conversations starting with the words “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian”.  And those of us who have to help try and make an institution function, will often say “do we really need all of this?”

And the honest answer is “no  we do not need all of this” as the report makes clear, but we do actually need some kind of structure or church for how else would the gospel of Jesus have been transmitted to us had it not been handed on through some form of institution. And even charismatic movements that have begun with no structures have soon found they cannot function without them. In fact, most of the images we have of the church in the New Testament are, in fact, structural ones – the body, the building, the vine, the temple; the real question is not whether we need a structure but how do we prevent structures stifling the gospel or becoming ossified or becoming ends in themselves instead of being vehicles for the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus, of being open to the Spirit.  But if the images of the Church in the New Testament are structural ones, it is also worth remembering that they are not static ones but fluid and flexible and subject to change – that is open to God’s Spirit.

As the Epistle to the Ephesians puts it in Chapter 2 Verses 21 – 22 “The whole building is joined together in Jesus, and it grows up into a temple that is dedicated to the Lord.  Christ is building you into a place where God lives through the spirit”. Or Ephesians 4 “The Church has ordained ministers to build up the body of Christ into the unity of faith and knowledge of the spirit of God”.  The spirit is given not as a private gift to any individual but for the sake of building up the whole body of Christ which is why St Paul says that “the gift of love is more important than the gift of tongues” and the gift of tongues is of no consequence unless there is somebody there to interpret them for the whole body.

So the essential question is not do we need a structure but does this structure express and embody God’s spirit?  The straight answer to that, the reviewers have said is, that it does not, and to be honest no structure ever will fully embody it because we are fallible human beings who always fall short of what God requires of us. The purpose of a structure or an institution or church, is to express and embody God’s redeeming love.  In other words, the church exists in order to help God bring in His kingdom, not as an end in itself and if it is not doing that as effectively as it might, then there is something amiss. 

And it is precisely that insight which lies at the heart of the Provincial Review and therefore all its recommendations, when it says “Institutions are built to carry the gospel through time to succeeding generations.  Yet to do so, they need to change and adapt to the circumstances of each age.  The Church in Wales continues to have the structure and organisation appropriate to an established church of 100 years ago but which is stretched beyond what it can or should properly bear now”.  Our church needs to express in as effective a way as it can, God’s care and love for His world.

And the only way in which the church can do that, says one theologian, is for us, as individuals and as a church, to meditate on the words of Jesus.  I quote, “Only through familiarity and association with the gospels, do we begin to learn to live like Jesus.  Only in that way will we be inspired by His love for the world, build up enthusiasm for His project of the kingdom of God and be infused by His spirit within us because in the end, people change from within.  It is only what flows through our hearts that changes our lives and frequently it is not the vital sap of Jesus that passes through our hearts as individuals or as a church.  The life of the church would be transformed if believers, priests, bishops and educators, would make the gospels their bedside book”. The gospel demands change, conversion, transformation.

Cardinal Carlo Martini, the former Archbishop of Milan, and said to be the best Pope the Roman Catholic Church never had, in his last interview before his death this month said of his own church,“The church is 200 years behind the times.  Why doesn’t it stir?  How can we liberate the embers from the ash to reinvigorate the fires of love?  Are we afraid?  Faith is the foundation of the church – faith, trust, courage”.

And in case all that has been a bit abstruse and academic, I came across this poem the other day which comes at things from a different perspective but I think makes the same point.  It is a poem by Rob Lacey entitled “Broadly the Same”:

Lord, won’t ya keep things broadly the same
Frankly, revival would drive me insane
I’m busy, I’m tired so I’ll ask you again
Lord, won’t ya keep things broadly the same.
Lord, keep us from the unknown
I know that I’m damaged, but I’ll leave it alone
I’m busy, I’m tired and I’m injury prone
But Lord, please keep us from the unknown.

Lord, won’t ya keep us quite uninspired
At least, please wait till we’re all retired
I’m busy, I’m tired, to be quite so fired
So Lord, please keep us quite uninspired.

When we said ‘Lord, have your way
and change us so we follow’
Can’t you see it was irony
That’s now gone rather hollow.

So, Lord, please keep things broadly the same
Frankly, revival would drive me insane
I’m busy, I’m tired, so I’ll ask you again
Lord, please keep things broadly the same.

And Jesus’ response to that is quite simple: “If you would be my followers, that just isn’t possible”.