Response To Bishop North

A while back Bishop Phillip North spoke to New Wine and caused a bit of a reaction one of it was a Tweet to my millions of followers. In response I had a phone call from The Church Times asking for a quote because I serve in a poor parish, I declined and said I would put a more considered response on my blog, so here it is with a link to The Bishops full talk.


https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/4-august/news/uk/there-s-a-future-for-the-church-if-evangelicals-put-the-poor-first-bishop-north-tells-new-wine

1.     One of the issues the church does not recognise is the exportation of people, talents and money from parishes like mine to middle class parishes which is draining and demanding on leadership. For 10 years I thought I was building a community, then it dawned on me I was building people up to go to other places.

2.     Bishop Phillip talks of abandonment of the poor: I think it’s more complicated than that. When I came back to my Deanery in 2000 to my present post, we had 10 full time stipend clergy. 17 years on, we have 6 with the same amount of buildings and more deprivation.  17 years ago we had EU and government money which today we do not have. I work with some great committed clergy in poor areas – they have not abandoned the poor. But I’m not confident that the Church as an organization has the poor as the kernel of our gospel work. 

3.      Keystone Cops and leadership. My experience is that we have middle management-ed the church to the point where it looks like any other corporation or local council. Then we bemoan the fact that no one in our churches wants to join it and lead it.

4.     Renewal. During my sabbatical in Rome, I discovered Ignatius believed and preached that those who wanted ordination must “smell like the sheep”. You cannot study in the university and not serve the poor. Well, I agree with Philip – too many people fear the smell of shit and desire the smell of coffee and freshly baked bread.

5.     2 year vacancy and children. The parish I came to 17 years ago was in interregnum for 18 months before the interviews and the same 9 years before that. Both my previous incumbents left physically and spiritually exhausted. During my 17 years of glorious reign here I have spent time in darkness and depression, but I have asked the question “why can’t we as a family thrive and not just survive in a parish like mine?” Ii have watched and listened to too many clergy colleagues sending their children to the best schools while living in places like mine. My wife and I took the decision to send both of our children to local schools – one went to the Roman Catholic school and one to a failing junior school and a poor secondary school.  Both are well rounded members of society living out their Christian faith today.

6.     For them it’s the only job they could get. Well, then, I’m in trouble. There is a phrase I have heard used, “parish of significance.” It’s used when appointing people to jobs of note. If you have not had a parish of significance you’re not going to get shortlisted. After about 10 years here, a colleague asked me if I was still in my parish. I replied yes. He said, “Blimey, Nigel. They will have no vision and no imagination on your file.” We laughed and I said I like to call it commitment. But I have come to realise in Anglican terms that I, like many, serve in a parish of insignificance.

7.     Well maintained building and carpets. One of the images I have tried to engage with recently is the Pope’s view of church. He sees it as a field hospital, a place where we engage with wounded, the hurt, the forgotten. I have a parishioner who was a medic in the army. The best compliment he has paid me was to say, “I would go to war with you” because he has and we do, but usually we do not have the staff to be a field hospital. Like many buildings across the country in parishes like mine, they are not fit for purpose. These buildings were inflicted on parishes like mine by some drug-fuelled intention to build a kingdom that seems far and faded today.

8.     Church planting. I don’t understand church planting. We are putting money behind a returning fad. We all came out of some mother church at some point. I church planted out of my 500 seater building with no heating into our church hall 15 years ago. We grew the church from 20 – 70. My diocese is planting a church 5 minutes drive from my place, with leadership, a congregation, musicians and office and large church, to support it along with money from the Diocese. In a world of choice and shareholder values, why would you come to my parish?

9.     Grenfell. I cannot comment on that situation as I have not experienced it. In every big city I have been in around the world, the poor and the rich live next to each other. My poor are two bus stops from middle class hope. I will put a second blog to show this in my context. 

10.                        Mocked and demonized Chavs. The only time I ever wrote to the Church Times was when the Church of England closed The Aston Training Scheme. It was a scheme for those exploring ordination, specifically the odd bods about whom the dioceses and ABM were unsure, the raving catholic’s, the bendy liberals, the fundy evangelicals, the ill educated. I was placed on it as I fitted into the last two categories. I wrote to The Church Times because I thought with all its faults without the Aston Training Scheme there was less chance of people like me taking their place in the Church of England.   

11.                        Investment/under- investing. Here is another one of those words that finds it root in the business section of the news paper, investment. I’m not sure Jesus invested in anything we would class today as worthwhile – he shared his life. Jesus spent his time with the poor and marginalized and took authority to task. His kingdom was about investing without return, ridiculous extravagance and undermining what we value above his father’s will.

12.                        Subsidy. I have lived with this label for all my life as a cleric, apart from my time as a curate in a large evangelical church. It’s funny how when I work with my brothers and sisters in South Africa or Mozambique, I am partnering and doing mission together, when the Anglican Church looks at my parish, I am subsidised.