The lockdown is, wait for it, likely to have lasting effects. One such effect is the survival of the parish as a basic Christian unit. Of course, for most people who are busy earning a living and putting bread on the table this is about as important as the latest advances in crochet technique or croquet tactics. It is, however, half-away as important as what is likely to happen to GP practices and high street shop closures.
Last week an archdeacon writing in the ‘Church Times’ was making the case for the deanery rather than the parish to become the basic unit. Just as, so I notice, Hackney has a hit squad (a team of health professionals combining to form a Health Integration Team), so an area containing several churches (a deanery) might be served by a hit squad with clergy specialising in various sectors of ministry.
This is not without its merits. Nowadays we are accustomed to GP practices serving thousands of patients and we do not necessarily expect to see the same doctor every time. The admirable old conception of a GP who was familiar with family members from the cradle to the grave has been found less than effective in the 21st century. We know that behind every GP practice is a wealth of specialists and medical equipment to which we shall be referred if appropriate.
Sad to say, the parallel between parochial and medical availability is obscured by the gap that has opened up between a technologically advanced health service and a Church that has many signs of a feudal hangover and an air of living in the past. Worshippers today, whether in ‘go-ahead’ churches with worship leaders or ‘CW morning prayer’ centres following a traditional script, are hardly conscious of the larger loyalties of the Churches they are part of. What matters is the authentic nature of the unit whatever it calls itself. ‘What impression does this make on my children?’ may be the decisive question.
Of course, underlying talk about parishes and hierarchs are the more important apologetic questions: Can an intelligent person in the 21st century find the message of the Church credible? Is there a meaning in our brief existence? Can there be a creator behind our far-reaching cosmos? All the organisational changes in the world will not deal with these questions and others like them. We have to exercise our imagination or wait for the advent of another C.S. Lewis to do so.
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