A few days ago Ruth Gledhill posted the words of a talk given to the Prayer Book Society by Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali (one of my former Bishops)... it frustrates me when you see/hear people who should have the capacity to explore things beyond the superficial caricature - making statements which seem to me to say more about them and their specific audience than they do about the thing they claim to talking about...
This new fashion of network churches - for people like one another in taste for music or whatever it maybe who want to be church together.
It might be possible for us to agree that Christians can be church in this way as long as this is not the only way they want to be church.
The question precisely with many of the emerging church movements is whether people can be or are committed to such universal belonging.
I have a few questions/concerns about the Bishops words... firstly when we talk of Network Churches let us try to get beyond the consumerist language and culture that has been so embraced by the Church, network church refers not to niche clubs but to finding a way to be together as community, connected to the wider network of communities and followers of Christ, in the reality of contemporary culture... the Church (current/modern) seems to exists in two ways; firstly geographic - the Parish system - let's be honest this system grew up when communities where fundamentally geographic in nature. People lived , surrounded by their extended family, looking inward to a community centre with the Pub, the Post Office and the Parish Church as the central gathering places for community... this is simply no longer the case for much of our population (even in the rural communities in which I have lived over the years this is less and less the case). We live more networked lives, we may work in a place away from our housing, we move far more frequently and continue to sustain social relationships beyond our immediate locale, we may have family spread across the country, even the world etc. etc. network churches seek ride these waves; to form community in the places and relationships in which people choose to invest time and spirituality. They are less niche than the consumer/commuter churches that exist in town centers and suburban heart lands across the country! Niche churches are not new or fashionable, they've been around for years, except before we've called them denominations and/or used terms like high, low, anglo-catholic, evangelical etc. ... or we've had "services" for those who like their music played on an Organ and "services" for those who like it played on a Guitar... etc. If anything I see network churches seeking to move away from this consumerism and theologically/stylistically bound model and to be far more relational and diverse in expression. For me this is a question of seeking to walk together in a way which is authentic to who we are and the culture we emerge within, not creating a "mixed economy" or a uniform definition of Church.
Secondly, What is Church? I can't remember who it was, but someone said in the '80s re. Youth Church... "I'm happy not to call Youth Churches Church, if all the other gatherings that call themselves Church also cease to use that word!"... the same applies here, I might be able to agree that those who gather in large consumer Churches, those who gather in traditional Church buildings, those who meet in warehouses and School halls, those who use ancient liturgies and those who use no formal liturgy etc. etc. are Church *just as long as it is not the only way they want to be Church*!
Thirdly, in my years exploring these "emerging church movements" I have found the people involved to be far more aware of the wider riches and wisdom of Christian and other spirituality than any other experience I've had of Church and Christians... every other expression/denomination etc. seems intent on proving itself to be the right one... the real expressions of emerging church that I have experienced are far less focussed on being right and far more interested in seeing the possibilities for change... sure some like to define the emerging church as a protestant church in it's relationship to modern evangelicalism, but I would see the bulk of it as an exploration of what it means to be Christ community in a context... in some ways we are post-protestant ;) even post-denominational (or to use a more positive term ecumenical)... our small community has Anglicans, Charismatics, Methodists and people of no formal abode... we are community because of our differences not despite them and we see ourselves as interconnected with the depth and breadth of Christian community, wisdom, story and spirituality both across the Globe and through the ages, pre-Catholic, Catholic, Protestant, Monastic, Non-conformist etc. etc. We may not do it well, we may well be flawed but we are definitely conscious of being part of a wider communion... I guess I'd want ask the Bishop what exactly *he* means by "universal belonging"?
Sure there are continual questions that need to be asked of the emerging/organic/po-mo communities, but when Bishops, Church leaders etc, say these kind of things I always seem to be drawn back to Luke 6v39-42.
Technorati Tags: Anglican Church: Church: Community: Culture: Emerging Church
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