A balanced view of parish versus project

Present in Every Place? The Church of England’s New Churches, and the Future of the Parish. Will Foulger, SCM, 2023, pp. xvi, 117.

978-0-334-06203-5 paperback. Also available as an ebook.

This timely and well-researched book examines the tensions between supporters of the parish ministry and those who have developed new patterns of congregation-building. Without taking sides, but by including his own research journey Will Foulger examines the current literature and adds his own objective interpretation. Foulger is Director of Mission and Evangelism at Cranmer Hall Theological College in Durham and Director of the Centre for Church Planting Theology and Research. As such he is one of the best placed people to offer such an analysis.

Instead of beginning by describing each argument and its defence Foulger very wisely choses other criteria by which to conduct an analysis of the virtues or otherwise of the situation in which the Church of England and its leadership now find themselves. The examination is set out in only four chapters, but the Preface, Introduction and Postscript have substance and    give seven distinct contributions. In the first principal chapter, Foulger introduces a discussion of place, saying that it is the places we inhabit, or have inhabited, which shape us. Using a definition from the human geographer Geoff Malpas and drawing much on the seminal theological work of John Inge, he calls place ‘bounded openness.’

From this he then explores space which he says is a concept full of choice and unlimited possibility. It is the limitedness of the parish system which its critics find a problem. Those who want more freedom of liturgical expression and want to break away from traditional Church of England worship and engagement styles find this mindset attractive. It is what has produced a new generation of Pioneer Ministers with their specialised theological and mission training.

Foulger’s second chapter then goes to the debate. He explores the history and ecclesiological defence of parish and local settled congregations. This forms the focus of his title, asking why and if the Church of England should have a parochial presence in every community. In this he is honest about the effectiveness or otherwise of some parochial work. He sources those who have charted an over resourced rural ministry which was then slow to react to population movements as the industrial revolution exploded. Strangely, he seems unaware of the foundational work of Ted Wickham in Sheffield on this subject. Place is strong here, tinged with fantasised nostalgia. There is no discussion of how rural ministry might be sustained or developed for the future and an acknowledgement that many solutions are urban or suburban in nature.

Only then is all this all set alongside the work arising from the 2004 report Mission Shaped Church and the subsequent outworking as Fresh Expressions. It is this movement which has spawned new congregations, creative church growth and church planting. Wisely, after a well-evidenced debate he concludes that this movement can be seen as an over-reaction towards space, experiment, and non-parochial innovation. He has also observed an equal over-correction in defence of the local parish which when it works well can be very effective but when it does not may plead for a partnership of experiment with grounded presence. In each case Foulger’s judgement is that, grafted or planted, effectiveness can only be judged by the earned local social capital which a Christian presence creates.

Fundamental to Foulger’s analysis is his third chapter. It reminds protagonists and defenders of any established position that the places in which Christians and local churches operate are not the places they used to be. Social and economic change require emerging solutions. He says that that we have a God who is always there, with or without us and that we are a church of disciples who in the same image are always ‘becoming’ (p.80). In a time of clergy shortage and increasing lay responsibility he emphasises that collegiality and not isolated individualism is the way forward.

There is an honesty which runs throughout the book about Foulger’s own journey. He has conducted some of his early research in Nottingham and now draws much of his own grounded experience from the Northeast and the Durham which he says is known by many residents not for its cathedral but for the diverse ways in which it has restored itself after the collapse of the mining industry. He says in the Introduction that he set out in his initial research with the intention of defending new churches against their critics. He then found that, as his research continued, he began agreeing with the premises of many of those critics. This questioning honesty led him to the examination of sources, local practice and theological justification which have resulted in this short but immensely valuable book. It reveals a Church of England which continues to be changed as this innovative but tension-filled discussion continues. Will Foulger’s book is an important contribution to a debate which needs to be well-informed and which has many more miles yet to travel.