FELLOW TRAVELLERS II

I am surprised to find that it was six years ago that I wrote a Five Alive editorial under the heading “Fellow Travellers”; we had a cover illustration of bushmen trekking across an area of Kalahari desert wasteland- the oldest, perhaps the most genetically unadulterated, remnant of humankind's ancient ancestors. A suitable time has elapsed for me to reflect on my thoughts of that time. It is interesting that the theme of the Bishop’s Council residential weekend earlier this year was “Moving from where we are to where we might be”. There is a new urgency in the Church to consider both its current position and where it is headed in the next ten years.

The spirituality of the African bushmen was graphically illustrated by Laurens van der Post ; these were and still are people who live basically and closely in tune with the earth around them. I suppose we would have to acknowledge today that their carbon footprint is nil, apart from small cooking fires. In the daily task of searching for food and shelter, these people develop a deep sense of their own spirituality. We too can become aware of our own journey of self-discovery. Who am I, really? Where have I come from? Where am I in the wider scheme of things? Where am I going?

We can begin to take stock of our lives and have a greater appreciation of the value of the present moment - which, in a sense, is of the utmost importance.

What has gone, has gone. What is to come may, or may not, happen.

The Church is having to focus more acutely on where it is. Many church parishes in our part of the world struggle to pay our share of the overall cost of running the Church. By that I don’t just mean maintaining old church buildings in our towns and villages, but the operation of the organisation which provides, trains and pays clergy, pays clergy pensions and offers the wide range of support services through the Diocesan system. Difficult decisions will have to be made and there are doubts in some quarters whether the churches we see dotted through the rural landscape of our country will remain in their present form for much longer. These are buildings which we have all come to rely on for baptisms, weddings and funerals even if we have chosen not to worship

in them frequently. The small number of regular subscribers in the past two years have been unable to meet the necessarily large ‘levy’ by the Diocese and currently carry a huge deficit.

There is likely to be more reliance on lay ministry and non-paid clergy. How we see and think of Church may well have to change, perhaps with a return to small groups of Christians meeting in each other’s houses, only occasionally journeying to meet with fellow Christians in communion in larger urban churches or cathedrals or public festivals such as the annual “Spring Harvest” and “The Big Church Day Out” .

We should be aware that many more people today live out the true value of ‘loving their neighbours as themselves’ by responding financially with part of their disposable income supporting aid relief in needy situations around the world. Given the choice, significant numbers of people view this as more important than upholding a creaking Church structure.

People in some countries of what we regard as the ‘developing’ world have a far more highly ‘developed’ sense of caring for neighbour in the fundamental needs of life than we seem to have - the bushmen of the Kalahari are perhaps an extreme example, but there are other examples nearer to home. Our heightened awareness of issues ecological, reducing our carbon-footprint, and having to contemplate a reduced house-keeping allowance from which to offer a regular percentage to the Church may well concentrate our minds on developing fresh expressions of Church.

In the early days of the Church, small was beautiful. Running-costs were kept low and overheads at a minimum by meeting in each other’s houses, leaving the opportunity to dispense limited financial resources to those in need.

The world outside Church structures will move on in the next ten years. There is already a generation to whom Bible stories and hymns are unfamiliar and for whom a greater choice now exists in how they wish to spend their free time on Sundays - and their disposable income. When we do not move, we remain stationary and the gulf widens. Village church life is already part of history, but there is optimism and signs that the faithful will adopt the ingenuity of the early Christians and find ways

of worshipping, spreading the Gospel and caring for the needy in their communities without necessarily using church buildings. This could be a fresh expression of what it means to be Christian and usher-in a new age of worshippers no less-filled with the Holy Spirit than their forebears.

May we all have the courage to move from where we are now to where we might be and may that place be nearer to God.

Graham Pharo

June 2010