Our 'collective attitude to buildings' may have shifted, says Truro Diocesan Secretary

Anyone interested in Truro Diocese leadership's thinking on the future of church buildings in the county should definitely take a look at a paper by Diocesan Secretary Simon Cade, presented at the most recent meeting of the Diocesan Advisory Council (DAC).

Rev Cade says said that during the Covid pandemic lockdowns, people had ‘learnt to say that “the church is not a building”. The last three years ‘may have shifted our collective attitude to buildings’, he goes on to argue.

His thoughts in this short paper (slides below) veer from apparently supporting parish churches to saying that they do not matter, as he draws our attention to what he calls 'four stories'....

The View From the Diocesan Secretary's Office

Story, place and buildings in Cornwall

1. 

• During lockdowns we learned to say that the church is not a building

• This is a theological and linguistic ‘truth’ and it was important to sustain the life of the church when we did not have access to buildings
•  The last three years may have shifted our collective attitude to buildings as well as our capacity to sustain them

 2.

• · It is also true to say that ‘this building is a church’ - even experienced as ‘the church’
• · For someone who's given their career/time/professional love to a building ‘not the church’ might may be difficult
• · For someone whose identity is invested in a place then ‘not the church narrative’ may be very difficult

 3.

The pastoral and evangelising ministry of the church has always sought a profound understanding of the story that belongs to the person, community or institution that we serve

Thinking about ‘Cornwall’ I have found four stories useful - and I think that they speak to into under understanding of church buildings. I offer you

• four stories
• the idea that understanding the story of people in place is important in Christian ministry        
• the idea that understanding the story (stories) of people and place is therefore important in our stewardship of church buildings

·       Some of this is informed by ‘The Road to Somewhere’ by David Goodhart, he talks about somewhere people and anywhere people - it's about identity

 4. The stories are

• . familiar (we often hear them)
  ignificant (important to people either directly or because of what they reference)
  · complex (same story told from different perspectives, meanings, intentions also overlapping
  · not exhaustive (there are other stories)
  · not necessarily true a wholesome (they may be destructive)
  · not exclusively Cornish

 5. Story One

“People left but we're still here”

• mining diaspora

• · young people to uni or employment
• · at congregational level fewer people
• · small schools, diminished local services
• · visible collapse of methodism
• · shrinking resident population
• · loss, regret, abandonment
• · faithfulness and persistence

6. Story Two

“It is good, now it is not.”

• · town centres, community
• · mining, fishing, agriculture
• · rural life
• · education
• · legacy of mining
• · Church golden age
• · Nostalgia industry / presumption of preservation
• · My life was better than my parents, my children's life will be harder than mine

 

7.  Story Three

“People have come here from elsewhere.”

• · the Saints
• · holidaymakers
• · second home owners and ‘incomers’
• · leaders
• · can be them, can be us
• · fancy upcountry ideas 

8. Story Four

“Here is not like there”

• · Kernow not England
• · Redruth is not like Camborne (localism)
• · inequalities of wealth, opportunity, health
• · town/ rural/ coast/ inland transport/Devon
• · Truro centricity
• · this place is connected to my identity

 

9.  Stories and church buildings

• · buildings may embody (and record) these and other complex stories in subtle ways
• · people who tell these stories relate to church buildings in different ways it means something different to them (eg this church not that church)
• · for many of us ‘place’ is important in our identity and buildings may be important in that (somewhere/anywhere people)
• · there is a lot of loss in these stories (and in peoples stories) church buildings can be one of the very few remaining constants
• · in story one, did you ‘hear people left’ or ‘I'm still here’ as thevimportant element?
• · we can examine how we as church leaders respond to the stories we hear

 

10. Setting the gospel alongside the stories of our communities

·   

• Road to Emmaeus -Jesus listens to the story first, OK he isn't considering a faculty application, but for the church that submits A faculty application it may be part of a theological work serving in community (it may not be of course)
• · By ‘a theological work’ I mean a work that responds to questions about God, what is God doing here? How are we called to serve God here? How might we reveal God's love here?
• · What are the stories of the communities that our buildings serve?
• · How can we in our roles help our buildings to engage with the vital stories of their communities? Should we even?
• · The experience of the pandemic in general and the lockdowns in particular have changed how we understand buildings particularly church buildings. There are some new stories and existing stores may have been amplified. What are the stories that will inform the next chapter and in particular whose stories will we be listening to?
• · As an aside, ‘place’ is important in scripture, arguably place rather than buildings but the stories that people tell about themselves and one another a vital to their identity and to their understanding of God's calling.

 

Simon Cade`