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Synod Moderators' Report
" Consider your call ..."
1 Last year the Moderators’ study tour to Israel/Palestine included a visit to an Arab Christian hospital in Gaza which offers medical care to everyone regardless of race or faith, but works mainly among the poor. The hospital provides eighty of the total eight hundred and sixty beds available to the Gaza strip’s one million residents, and keeps open despite the security restrictions enforced by the Israeli authorities. Ambulances and urgently-needed medical supplies can be held up when the borders between Gaza and the rest of Israel are closed at a moment’s notice for security reasons. Hospital staff living in Israel sometimes can’t get home, and queues of workers can be seen at the checkpoints twice a day waiting for their identity papers to be examined on their way to and from work in Israel. The hospital’s single laboratory and modest operating suite are used to capacity. But despite its limited resources, the quality of care for their patients is exceptional. The Director of the hospital who showed us round, was not optimistic about a political solution for the Palestinians, but was highly committed personally to her work, seeing her gifts as God-given for the elimination of suffering where possible, and helping address the needs of her people at this particular time in their history.
1.1 It was impressive to find evidence of the Christian community creating an oasis of hope among the poor, and, in a place where religious identity is so often a cause of conflict, to see the Church, small in numbers, realising its vocation in conditions which are far from ideal. Though as visitors we came away with only a snapshot of their circumstances, it was enough to raise questions about what we understand our calling as the Church to be, in our own familiar territory.
2 Where we are now: Much has been written already about the context in which the Church exists in this country today: the shift in beliefs within western society, and the ways in which they are expressed. The old certainties of the Enlightenment and science are no longer as compelling as they were. This is the age of self-expression and personal exploration, where human feelings are taken seriously and there is increasing scope for individual choice. Access to information through the media and Internet puts people in touch with the world, and helps them seek answers to their questions without further interpretation or the judgement of outside authority. We are becoming a society with fewer core beliefs and agreed moral convictions. People are as likely to pick up ideas about religious truth from former football managers and media stars as from religious leaders. While Christian faith remains open to new expressions of humanity and diversity, it is itself sidelined as just one other "viewpoint" among many, equally valued, and equally left alone.
2.1 "Believing without belonging" is the catch phrase for the popular attitude to faith in God and the Church, though the sociologist Grace Davie argues that people rarely make this choice consciously. She maintains that people’s lack of attachment to the Church implies for the great majority, a lack of spiritual motivation. There is therefore a wide tolerance of ideas about things sacred, though it does not lead to personal support.
2.2 The Church has to find its orientation and direction within such contemporary trends. Sometimes people talk as if the Church were made up exclusively of "the committed" and the world made up of "the unbelieving", or assume that people in the Church are unaffected by social attitudes. In reality the Church is made up of people who are influenced by the values and attitudes of our time, at different stages of their lives and different places in their
faith development. They are a people who are nevertheless called together by God to "walk to the beat of a different drum", and therefore struggle with the tension of leading authentic Christian lives in what is often an unsupportive and sceptical environment.
3 This report seeks to look at our Christian calling as
• missionary
• corporate
• life-long
in the light of three things:
3.1 Last year’s Assembly resolved that 1999 should be a Year of Renewal for the United Reformed Church in preparation for the Millennium. Churches everywhere are being challenged to consider their purpose, with the help of published material, such as Churches Together in England’s NewStart programme, and Fanfare for a New Generation’s ten challenges to the churches. Mission Council has affirmed the Five Marks of Mission, adopted by Churches Together in England, to stimulate local churches in setting priorities:
• to proclaim the good news of the kingdom
• to teach, baptise and nurture new believers
• to respond to human need by loving service
• to seek to transform unjust structures of society
• to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation to sustain and renew life of the earth.
3.2 If our churches are to be involved seriously in mission they will need resourcing. People need to be encouraged to discover new gifts, develop latent ones, and be prepared to offer them. General Assembly has increased the training budget significantly, so financial resources are in the right place. How can we further motivate "people resources"?
3.3 1999 is also designated the "International Year of Older Persons". Statistics about changing life patterns and longer life expectancy suggest a need in the Church for greater awareness of opportunities for service at different times in people’s lives.
4 God’s call to mission: The Bible shapes our understanding of the life of faith as a response to the call of God. Abraham set out from home in old age to an unknown land; Jeremiah traced his call to be a prophet back to the womb; Paul changed dramatically from being persecutor to champion of the gospel. Though the circumstances are very different, there is a clear interaction between God’s call, the human response of faith, and the spiritual enabling of that faith to be transformed into effective service in the purpose of God.
4.1 The call of individual Hebrew prophets and leaders is set within the wider purpose of God for his people to be a light to the nations. In the New Testament the call of the apostles to preach and teach the gospel is to extend the servant ministry of the crucified and risen Lord. This is done through the founding of the Church, whose people are called together in each generation to "receive and express the renewing life of the Holy Spirit in each place and in its total fellowship, and there declare the reconciling and saving power of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ" (The Manual, page A2)
4.2 Though modern society tends to relegate Church adherence to the category of a private hobby, our calling is primarily to proclaim the universal presence of Christ in our society, even while we struggle to understand our own place within it. The Church has been continually challenged throughout its history to remember that the sovereign territory of God is not restricted to the monastery but is also the market place, and discipleship is not only the preserve of religious professionals but that of the whole people of God in their daily life and work. This principle of broadening the horizon of people’s expectation of where God is, and establishing dialogue between different areas of life, remains a challenge to the Church today as it considers new opportunities for mission.
4.3 To grasp the priority of mission at a time when there are fewer numbers of Church members, is a challenge to all. It requires a developing awareness of different kinds of leadership within Church, and the encouragement of those who are already identified as such, to develop the scope of their ministry, so that the prophets, evangelists, trainers, theologians, creative writers and good communicators are released, to raise our sights and help us make connections between church and world. There are already people within our Church involved in pioneering work interpreting the gospel in secular employment, in industry, economic life, and the community, whom we need to listen to, and learn from.
4.4 If we accept that one of the challenges for ordained ministry is to counter what Walter Brueggeman describes as the Church’s ‘enduring domestication of vision’, then ministers also need to be encouraged to take up the opportunities provided by the Church, in order to be better equipped for their task. The new Continuing Ministerial Education policy is a welcome development. "Belonging to the World Church", authorised by last year’s General Assembly to help widen the horizons of present and future leaders with short-term experience of the church overseas, is a resource with great potential, not only for ministers but for any identified by the Church as being likely to benefit from it.
4.5 The "Belonging to the World Church" programme could be developed to offer more systematic exposure to the different "worlds" within the three nations served by the United Reformed Church, the "worlds" of economic life, education, health, community, as well as the multi-ethnic and multi-faith dimension of British society. It could awaken people to the possibility of a calling to different forms of service in places which are outside their previous experience. It might also encourage a freer flow of stipendiary ministers among the provinces of England and the nations of Wales and Scotland, as well as enabling more cross-fertilisation of experience from one community to another.
4.6 While recognising the diversity of people’s calling in Christ and the scope of opportunities for service, it is important that we constantly anchor this in the calling of the whole Church to be a community of the Kingdom, which bears the marks of the crucified servant Jesus. The Church in its commitment to mission needs also to reflect on the witness it gives to society by being the community of Church. In the 1980’s a leader of the Church in China, speaking soon after the Communist government had lifted restrictions on people meeting for worship, said: "We must now earn the right to be heard". In today’s social climate our need as a Church, is not so much for good communication techniques, as for integrity and authenticity in our life together.
5 Called to live in community: In the New Testament "fellowship" is not understood as a group of individuals united by a common idea or interest. Rather "koinonia" is created by individuals responding to the call of God in Christ, and being constituted by the Holy Spirit into a relationship with others in Christ. Paul speaks of "the fellowship of his Son" (1 Cor 1.9); "the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" (2 Cor 13.13); "the fellowship of the gospel" (Philippians 1.5); and "the fellowship of faith" (Philemon 6). At the Lord’s Supper there is fellowship (communion) in the body and blood of Christ. This union/fellowship which is the work of the Spirit is prior to the experience of fellowship between disciples. The Church may look like any other human society but is constituted on a different basis.
5.1 We have a valuable message for society whose emphasis on individuality has, among other things, led to scepticism about people’s ability to sustain long-term relationships. The gospel declares that it is in relationship with God and other people that sacrificial love is experienced, faith is nurtured, talents are recognised as gifts, and experienced as God’s call to serve the common good. It is only as people in the fellowship of Christ that we dare believe human divisions can be overcome, and that justice and peace are the fruits of his presence. We are challenged by the task before us, to learn how to enter more fully into our corporate relationship in Christ. For John Owen, the local church was the testing ground for such principles: "Let none pretend that they love the brethren in general, and love the people of God and love the saints, while their love is not fervently exercised towards all those that are in the same church with them."
5.2 Many of our failures in relationship are as old as the Church itself, and cannot be laid at the door of postmodernity, but what are regarded as acceptable attitudes today often undermine and attack the spirit of unity and reconciliation within the Church. Selfishness masquerades as self-fulfilment; diversity often comes close to disintegration. While as a Church we strongly uphold the rights of personal conviction, and honour our differences where conscience determines, there are occasions when conscience is not the issue, and the unwillingness of individuals to live with decisions made together in church meetings or councils causes anguish, as does the manipulation of individuals over whole church communities. The fact that our congregations are increasingly ecumenical gatherings with different church traditions represented (and none), can breed confusion and wrong assumptions about the way authority should be exercised and by whom.
5.3 The principles of our Church’s conciliar system depend on our earnestly seeking the will of God together through the Spirit of Christ. The effectiveness of our system depends on good personal relationships, trust, and goodwill; on the discipline of recognising each other as disciples of Jesus; and on the realisation that being in the Church is a learning experience, for which secular society and business ethics do little to prepare us. Though meetings are often criticised for being "talking shops", many of our problems arise when people don’t meet, or when they have, there has been little genuine encounter of minds and hearts. More opportunities could be found for people at every level of church life to share their hopes and concerns with others, and for a deeper sharing of faith experience.
5.4 It is at this level that the Church fulfils its proper task as a community of discernment, finding both God’s purpose for its life in the present, and seeking some vision for the future. It also has an important task in helping the Christian formation of its people, recognising and affirming people’s gifts at different times in their lives, and encouraging their development.
6 Called in the Third Age: An increasing number of pastorate profiles of churches in ministerial vacancy describe them as "predominantly elderly", yet information available in the International Year of Older Persons highlights the fact that the age balance in this country has shifted significantly towards a more elderly population. For a thousand years before this century the proportion of people over 60 was 8%. Today across Europe it is 20%. At the end of this century there are eight times more over-85 year-olds than there were at the beginning. The general improvement of public health and wealth means that many more young retired are available and resourced for voluntary work.
6.1 The Church benefits from all kinds of skills which retired people of churches freely offer in its service, including the many retired ministers who take on part time pastorates, serve as interim moderators, and conduct worship regularly, because they have the energy and wish to use their gifts in further service of the Church.
6.2 The transition from full-time work to retirement is well-handled by the vast majority of our ordained ministers, the pre-retirement course at the Windermere Centre for ministers and spouses, being greatly welcomed. Situations exist, however, where ministers have created problems for their successors by remaining too close, geographically or emotionally, to the place of their final ministry. It is not a geographical problem only, but the consequence of the particular relationship of minister and people, and the continuing influence of his/her leadership.
6.3 In imperial China it was common for there to be a new pair of shoes set in a recess of the city gate. This represented an earlier custom of the community making sure that every traveller setting out, would be equipped for the next stage of his journey with a pair of new shoes. Such customs remind us that traditional societies are often better at marking clear rites of passage from one period of life to another. On the whole, we are better at welcoming people to new tasks within the Church than preparing them for laying down their responsibilities, and preparing them for new kinds of service.
6.4 Some ministers look forward at retirement age to a change of direction, while others wish to continue serving the Church in some way. Both of these options are welcome and provided for under existing regulations, yet the fact that people’s expectations of retirement have changed means more opportunities ought to exist for this active and constructive period of life for more people, including ministers, than ever before.
6.5 The Church may wish to consider how to encourage further personal development, and make advice more widely available about options for further service (e.g. short-term service overseas through the Scottish Churches World Exchange programme, and, in certain cases, through the Council for World Mission). Such possibilities need to be investigated in good time before decisions about retirement become critical.
7 In conclusion: This report has touched on three separate but related aspects of our Church’s call to be part of the mission of God today. We often see things in terms of our own needs rather than the purpose for which we are called and the resources which the Holy Spirit provides. It is well to remember the clear pattern of God’s call - human response - enabling which is found in scripture repeatedly. Perhaps we need to focus on each of those in turn as we respond to the call to renewal of our common life.
7.1 Harry Emerson Fosdick (in The meaning of Prayer) wrote about the people of the New Hebrides who, generations ago, laughed at an early missionary for telling them to dig for water during a time of drought. They believed water came down from heaven, and therefore prayed for some supernatural intervention. They were shown, however, that water came up from their own land if they learned to dig deep enough. The very thing they needed was already within their own possession if only they were prepared to look for it. Our calling is to look at familiar territory and our needs with the ever fresh discernment of the gospel, which is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
8 Personalia
The Moderators’ monthly meeting has been concerned, as ever, about the movements of stipendiary ministers, but has also reflected in its own membership transition from one period of service to another.
8.1 We have welcomed Roberta Rominger as new Synod Moderator of Thames North Province, and John Arthur who brings to our meetings his insights and experience of the Congregational Union of Scotland.
8.2 We have grieved with Keith Forecast at the death of his wife, Frances, and miss her lively and warm presence on the occasions Moderators and their spouses have spent time together.
8.3 We have been grateful to John Rhys, Glyn Jenkins, George Thomas and Michael Davies who have represented their Synods while their respective Moderators have taken sabbatical leave.
8.4 We are glad of continuity in a fast-changing scene, and rejoice that Malcolm Hanson, David Helyar and Keith Forecast have been re-appointed for further periods of service after review.
8.5 We say farewell to David Jenkins as he returns to more local pastoral ministry. His friendship, creativity, wisdom and unfailing good humour have been appreciated by us all. We wish him well in the ministry ahead of him, and look forward to welcoming his successor, Peter Poulter.
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