I put a question to Humpty. ‘You have just moved house. You are getting to know the neighbourhood. You are eyeing up the local churches. Which do you choose?’
Humpty eyed me suspiciously. ‘You’ve been talking to Robert Stanier,’ he said.
‘True,’ I said.
‘Well,’ he ventured. ‘It depends on what’s on offer.’
Fair enough, I thought. So let’s call to mind universities and their students. Students are likely to have the bracing experience of encountering more ideas than they did in their school and parish life. But their significance is that their life is in front of them, not behind them. They will shape the common life and beliefs of a rising generation. In a fragile world in which the future may seem to belong to the next USA president and Messrs Putin and Erdogan, they are obliged to consider a panoply of philosophies and manifestos.
Students also ask the question I put to Humpty. College chaplains know this. So do vicars in university towns. They make a point of having a special welcome for students. St Nic’s, Durham has the slogan ‘A church for everyone’. That includes students. So St Nic’s affirms: ‘We offer all students an opportunity to be in a spiritual support group.’ St Aldates, Oxford and Holy Trinity, Cambridge similarly emphasise the place of small groups. Holy Trinity, Platt, Manchester welcomes students with the formula: ‘We love the CUs and encourage our students to support them.’
Reading University chaplaincy has gallantly offered freshers and others a guide to the local churches. We find the range of choice is enormous, intimidating. If we restrict ourselves to Anglican churches, we find the following phrases:
Lively, informal New Wine church; relaxed and friendly Anglo-Catholic worship with a mix of modern and traditional worship; large Evangelical Anglican family community; Evangelical, Reformed church using 1662 services and KJV Bible.
Going beyond the Church of England we have: Vibrant, loving, grace-motivated Bible-teaching, passionate about outreach; Bible-based charismatic.
It seems to be the case that a local church in a university town or indeed elsewhere can be seen by those visiting its website as a friendly gathering of like-minded people. Doctrine hardly enters into it. At another level a local church is venerated as an authentic expression of scriptural Christianity. At yet another level there may be an emphasis on what is dignified or informal, ceremonious or Spartan, ecstatic or sober. Doubtless, cradle-Christians view the choice differently from others.
I went back to Humpty. Could he have been reading my mind? ‘What it amounts to,’ he said, ‘is genuine Christianity, whatever the label. When I fell off my wall, I didn’t ask the King’s men for references. I welcomed practical help no matter what.’
Humpty, I thought, you have a point.
I left it at that. Instead I gave thought to something else equally important: the design of church buildings. For an outstanding example, see Holy Cross church, Gleadless Valley, Sheffield. It’s a stunner.
SEVENTEEN
Clive Todd, recently appointed incumbent of Sibsey, Lincolnshire, has no fewer than 17 churches to look after. As if that was not enough, he edits a 46-page monthly magazine that can be down-loaded. Another stunner.
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