‘I’ve been living here for less than a thousand years but some things haven’t changed. I lift up my eyes to the hills and they’re the same as ever. The river may have changed course but it still has the name given to it by the Britons of the Bronze Age. There are stones that once were part of somebody’s house, a track that ploughmen have recognised for centuries, a cross-road where once was a gibbet. It’s all part of the parish I live in. I don’t own the land. I don’t farm it. I’ve been to school here. I know families that have been here since the year dot. That’s my parish.
‘And that’s the way I like it. Part of that liking is the parish church. I don’t often see the inside of it but that’s not the point. It’s there. It’s open. It’s part of me and I’m part of it.
‘But things are changing. What was my parish church is to be one element in an association. Long ago my parish became accustomed to sharing a vicar. We lost our independent status. Now that change is being forced upon us by secularisation. Churches are becoming redundant as a population abandons its historic identity. We had forgotten our institutional ties. Getting on well with our Christian neighbours, we had forgotten we belonged to a national Church.
‘It is of course possible to be living in one parish and worship in another. It is possible for parishioners to use the BCP (Book of Common Prayer) or ‘Common Worship’ in conjunction with one of the many hymn-books on offer. But it is noticeable that whereas people will happily go through one parish after another to reach a supermarket, they will not do the same to join in worship.
‘I suppose there is more than one way to organise a national Church. But the parish model has been with us for centuries. It’s all very well to say: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” but villages find themselves unable to pay their way as far as a classic medieval church building is concerned. Top-down is not necessarily better than bottom-up. I and others like me, I guess, will do what we can to preserve an emblem of a God-fearing community but only if our parish status is respected.’
If you have a comment on this post please send an email to Revd John King at johnc.king@talktalk.net Edited extracts may be published. To forward this to a friend click on the chain icon below.