‘The Church of England has totally capitulated to market values and managerialism,’ said Alison Millbank, canon theologian at Southwell Minster Last week she was delivering a keynote speech at the launch of a ’Save the parish’ campaign. Joining her on the platform was Stephen Trott, Rector of Pitsford, Northamptonshire. ‘The fundamental principle at stake, it seems to me, is ownership. Who owns our parish churches?’ he asked.
When Canon Millbank said we are at crunch time, she was voicing concern about an issue that unites those of all stripes. In the words of Marcus Walker, the Rector of St Bartholomew’s, Smithfield, this issue commands attention from Anglicans across traditions. When Alison Millbank said resources are being drained from the parish system, she is not the only one to be alarmed.
To answer the question ‘Who owns the Church of England?’ we have to consider as likely contenders the English people, incumbents, bishops, patrons. All the off-shoots that have resulted in a worldwide Anglican Communion at least have an interest in the matter. We cannot afford to ignore those who have found themselves having to become Nonconformists.
Are we well advised to be sceptical? Is it blameworthy to think through schemes that will change the Church of England as we know it? Do we not realise that even though the words ‘decline’ and ‘retrenchment’ are to be avoided, absenteeism and indifference are apparent, despite the exceptions, all over the land? Better, surely to cut our cloth according to our means. Better to be taking a positive view of the future and adopting policies that will open the door to, if not ensure, a Church organised for the 21st century.
Better, perhaps. But we think of ambitious computer systems that have come to nothing. We remember the canals that did what was expected only to be superseded by more efficient railways. We think of that great man Brunel’s misadventure with his Great Eastern. (Big men can make big mistakes.)
It is not just the inherent perils of big schemes. Not only may they be overtaken by events. Not only may they have unintended consequences. They may also wrongly analyse the existing need or the existing problem.
From Chaucer to Trollope we have an instinctive respect for local capabilities, for the inspiration of good men (until recently they were all men) who galvanized their parishioners into worthwhile achievements. To underestimate the significance of that factor in the English Church and to fail to recognise its presence in Nonconformists is to mis-read the situation. Local inspiration will beat top-down organisation every time.
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