Episcope for beginners

Tag: bible

  • 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.

  • Unforgiveable: A fascinating and challenging book

    Unforgiveable?: Exploring the Limits of Forgiveness, Stephen Cherry, Bloomsbury Continuum, 2024. pp xvii, 222. ISBN 978-1-3994-0132-6 hardback, eBook 978-1- 3994- 0131-9, ePDF 978-1-3994- 0131-2.

    It is unusual for a book to begin with a warning to readers but that is just what Stephen Cherry does. Because his subject is the aftermath of serious, traumatic and life-changing harm done to individuals the content and discussion may be disturbing and to some, offensive. Whether or not some harmed and damaged people can ever forgive, and in what way is the subject of Cherry’s question mark titled book. Stephen Cherry, now Dean of King’s College, Cambridge is an authority in this wide-ranging and sometimes unfathomable subject. His previous books and his personal qualifications in psychology equip him well for this task.

    Equally unusually Cherry’s opening is a dialogue with himself about the content and possible shortcomings or inadequacies of his previous books. He does this by writing a series of letters to himself from imagined individuals. He then begins what is a continuing and multi-disciplined dialogue about the possibilities for forgiveness. Alongside psychological and philosophical dialogue about forgiveness Cherry has the Christian tradition as a challenging theme throughout. All this, as Cherry says early in his book is because he wants to ask if we as Christians have a ‘faulty doctrine of forgiveness’ and if so, what harm has it caused as different approaches have been tried.

    He looks in some depth at the reconciliation ministry of Desmond Tutu and the work which he influenced strongly as Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. Cherry provides a significant critique of Justin Welby’s own approach and writings on forgiveness. He is also helpful in examining from many aspects how survivors feel and how they explain what, if at all they mean by forgiveness. He instances many with their own stories and testimonies who say that unilaterally they can forgive those who have done much harm to them. He is critical of Christianity, especially as practiced by some in the United States when they say they forgive those who harm them without any direct contact or understanding of the situation of the person they are forgiving. It is important to remember that the title of the book, with its question mark, is ‘Unforgiveable?’.

    The chapters on Jesus and forgiveness are important as is the one about Jewish approaches to forgiveness. Challenging the all too prevalent assumption that one of the main platforms of Christianity is unconditional forgiveness Cherry looks at the actual sayings of Jesus on the subject. In St Mark’s gospel the few references are primarily about God’s forgiveness. There is only one mention in St John. Even this invites controversy, ‘If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’ (20:23). He points out that the Greek word – aphiemi – is not usually translated as ‘forgive’ but ‘to let go’, ‘liberate’ or ‘release’. Unlike the current Christian emphasis on ‘forgiveness’ there are far more instances of the verb than the noun. Cherry also reinterprets the ‘seventy times seven passage in Matthew (18:22) and the similar one in Luke (17:3-4), the forgiveness passage in the Lord’s Prayer and the ‘Father forgive them’ last words of Jesus from the cross. He concludes the chapter with his dismissal that, ‘the myth of Christian forgiveness as something that is always possible and always good’ saying that ‘The reality is . . . that there really are limits to the possibilities of forgiveness for every human being, and that recognising these limits is fundamentally important to respecting and supporting those who have been harmed’ (p.122).

    This book was probably written before the outbreak of the current hostilities in Gaza. Cherry examines the Jewish attitude to forgiveness and instances at some length the work of Simon Wiesenthal in his pursuit of Nazi persecutors and the illustration given by Wiesenthal in his book ‘Sunflowers.’ Here, when a dying persecutor wants him to forgive, he listens but then walks away in silence. While agreeing with Wiesenthal’s action, Cherry then goes on to instance Rabbi Abraham Heschel, that you can only offer forgiveness to those who are still alive. Later he references the prayers at Yom Kippur that when the victim is dead there can be no forgiveness (p. 98). In contrast Cherry says that on the Forgiveness Project website post-mortem forgiveness is one of the largest discussion categories. There is a necessary review of the frequency of mentions of our unworthiness and the need for forgiveness in Anglican liturgies and especially in the Book of Common Prayer. This opens up the whole question of confession, repentance and absolution and what ‘absolution’ is meant to do.

    The memorable thrust of this book is not about how the people of any faith offer forgiveness but about the lasting effect of damage and abuse on those who are harmed. This is the content of the letters Cherry writes to himself from ‘survivors’ – itself an important and emotive word. Cherry’s wide experience comes into play particularly in the discussion of objections to blanket forgiveness. He is acutely sensitive to the perpetrator receiving forgiveness and this takes the reader deep into the continuing suffering of victims who are also survivors. They want to explore how to live with integrity and faithfully with the aftermath of harm. The book then goes on in depth with an analysis of how on any side victims and perpetrators can move forward. Issues of repentance and what is means to say ‘sorry’ take the reader to a new place. In doing this he includes many references in literature where an author offers their own interpretations of forgiveness through the dialogue of their characters

    The inhibition at the beginning of this book is well justified. It goes in depth to difficult and painful places for many. It does explore forgiveness but makes no attempt to offer one comprehensive and satisfying answer. He does examine with analytic thoroughness whether the Christian churches have got their traditional and many current approaches wrong. Cherry helps the reader in this by his own dialogue with himself through the imagined objectors and responders to his writing. He then proposes the concept of ‘non-vengeful unforgiveness . . . an in-between or liminal space’ This he says is a space between full forgiveness and vengefulness and is a space which does not desire revenge and has no hatred but is without a victim’s forgiveness for the perpetrator (p.186). Stephen Cherry has produced a landmark book primarily through this challenging refocussing. It is one which should be essential reading in other professions as well as for those within the churches engaged in theological, teaching or pastoral ministries.