Seeking the sacred

People value the churches, chapels and shrines  in the heart of their communities - not just on this side of the Tamar, but across the country.  Save the Parish Cornwall's Andrew Lane reflects on the need for sacred places in life.

 

It is my habit to listen on Youtube to people like Rupert Sheldrake and other similar thinkers. As you may know Sheldrake is a leading scientist , thinker, philosopher an engaging speaker and man of fascinating insight.

In a recent piece he said how his first action when visiting somewhere new to him is to find the spiritual centre of the community. In his time in India this might have been a Hindu or Buddhist temple, in simpler cultures it might be a sacred tree , mountain or hilltop and in England, where he finally found his way back to Anglicanism, it is a church or cathedral. 

He points out that throughout history human societies have always had sacred places, it is almost the first thing that new settlements have been drawn to and decided upon and over the centuries they have assumed ever greater importance as places redolent of the prayers and spiritual struggles of their forbears , a touchstone for grounded living and spiritual aspiration.

He is right of course. Why else would 75% of non-churchgoers in England say that they value the presence of a church in the heart of their communities ?

Never more relevant 

In times of peace and plenty it is true that these sacred places fade a bit into the background but then in times of war and economic hardship people look for them again, seeking them out for sanctuary and solace and that residual spiritual charge that is there to be sensed if not fully understood.

And right now we are in a time of war with consequencies and duration unknown but certainly with implications of hardship and real suffering for many. Our sacred places are set to assume real significance again , just look at the importance of the church to the Ukrainians.

Yet it is just at this moment that the Church authorities are embarked upon church closures and are set on getting rid of these ‘limiting factors’ to be replaced by people’s front rooms, disused shop buildings or even warehouses.

Church closures 'against the grain'

This movement to give up on old ‘feudal ways’ to stop ‘hankering for an imagined past’ ( both frequent charges cited by the Church ) goes against the grain in so many ways. 

It ignores each community’s need for a sacred place. Front rooms and empty shops just don’t cut it, it denies access to places of tranquillity to people who really need it ( something already in short supply given the number of permanently locked churches) and it completely disregards the burgeoning of pilgrimage , ever more people each year walking the Saint’s Ways and pausing to reflect at the sacred spaces along the way.

I don’t think the Church is inherently arrogant but unfortunately it at least gives that impression. Its current preoccupation is with numbers, the number of people at church services and the financial numbers in the sum of the collection plate. Yet our church buildings belong to the entire community, they have been built, maintained and serviced by generations of people within the community . The central church authorities have contributed not one jot and yet they have assumed the right to merge parishes, close churches and disband Parochial Church Councils, the one democratically representative body within the church establishment. The Church is shutting down the heritage of the English nation without apparently once considering that it may not have the right.

Losing our priests

Of course it is not just the church buildings that we are losing. For over 40 years the Church has been spreading its human resources ever more thinly. A priest who may have lived and served within just one parish ministering to all will likely find themselves now looking after five, six or even a dozen communities rushing helter-skelter from one parish to the next.

 The enduring attraction of the Church of England has always been that urge and obligation to the cure of souls, to give pastoral care not only to the Anglican flock but to those of uncertain belief or indeed no belief at all. A commitment to the pastoral care of all in their hour of need and fear.

Yet how can that mission be performed when the areas covered and the numbers to serve are so great ? It cannot be done and that enforced inadequacy will weigh heavily on the soul of each so overworked incumbent. And financially it is the inescapable law of diminishing returns, a barely glimpsed priest will find the congregation declining and the offertory plate fatally diminished.

Style and substance

And then there is the other problem, the issue of style and substance. The Christian Church has historically catered to a wide range of tastes and inclinations from Baptists and Non-Conformists through to Jesuits and beyond. The Church of England in particular has been exemplary in its breadth and tolerance of different theological interpretations. 

But the Cof E is changing, a change not unconnected to its new attitude towards its historic buildings. There is a wing of the Church which now looks to be in the ascendant, it tends to be more dogmatic and literal in its scriptural interpretation, more prescriptive in its teachings. There has been frequent reference from Lambeth and York of a ‘mixed ecology’ in services and preaching and yet in many places there is a definite monoculture that is causing widespread disaffection. This more assertive and ‘righteous’ theology has its following and should not be excluded from having a place in the CofE but real problems are caused when it looks like this are the only game in town.

The beauty of Choral Evensong, Complin, elements of Taize, BCP Holy Communiion and Morning service, these are the elements that allow so many of us to feel connected to our roots, our ancestors and to the sacred and numinous. Guitars and drums may do it for some but should surely be just a part of the offering and not the dominant style. It is this’ dominant style’ that in Cornwall is prevalent in the five Transforming Mission Churches which have the support of the Church Commissioners and the Diocese to the tune of several million pounds over five years. It is because of this strategy that Diocesan funds are ring fenced, it is why priests in rural areas are taking early retirement or being made redundant and it is why parish churches are running out of funds.

Time to stop the closure plans

The ‘On the Way’ process in Cornwall is near completion. 

Most Cornish people will be unaware of its existence or its profound implications for their way of life. 

We in the Diocese of Truro cannot be complicit in this wholesale change in our physical and spiritual landscape. 

It is for this urgent reason that we are calling on the Diocese to halt the process, to meet with those of us with different views and to debate and properly consider our alternative strategies.