From the beginning Jesus encountered people at two levels: (1: the mass meeting) and (2: the individual conversation). A reader can hardly avoid the verdict that Jesus clearly understood what he was doing. Early in Matthew’s Gospel he launched the Sermon on the Mount, aimed at the children of Israel and a wider audience who had not had that privilege. At dusk there came to him a theologian who had questions for him. Jesus gave Nicodemus his time and attention.
This twofold approach went on during the time Jesus spent capturing people’s curiosity and teaching. This illuminates our understanding of what we call Christianity. It is at the same time a shared outlook on life and a deep personal commitment. We cannot take out one strand without damaging the general effect.
Europe has clearly had a general attachment to the Christian faith. The Holy Roman Empire and the hostility of factions Protestant and Catholic are indications of underlying loyalty. Continuing institutions betray a Christian mind-set of some sort. The rejection of this mind-set came late in the day when other ideologies began to take over. For that to happen talented individuals were required to systematise the change but the mass opinion of Europe was tenacious in holding on to what was familiar.
As a Christian Europe lost its impetus, various movements stressing individual commitment came into play. Conformity weakened. Non-conformity gained ground and confidence. It came to be seen as a possibility that the choice of governors and top people was not necessarily the choice of the multitude. The Church of England is writhing as it suffers in the midst of this dilemma.
If we liken the C of E to the canary in the coal-mine, we get the measure of the dilemma. We face a choice between message and institution, between what a nation will accept as its official form of belief and what other priorities it may choose. Archbishop William Temple put it like this for his generation: ‘If we have to choose between making men Christian and making the social order more Christian, we must choose he former.’
That choice is not what it used to be. We are now being invited to consider a possible non-territorial course mapped out for our bishops to ensure institutional survival and a plea to free the parishes, which are the essence of the Church of England. All that is a society that sees beliefs as belonging to a level playing-field.
THOUSANDS
Thousands of people attended the mass meetings at which Billy Graham preached in the USA and elsewhere. Thousands also took part in individual conversations that the mass meetings led to.
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