Lay V Clergy

A considerable controversy has arisen over a recent report presented to General Synod, which proposed that 10,000 new Anglican churches should be established in England over the next ten years, largely under the leadership of lay people. Many clergy were quickly up in arms, suggesting that the Myriad report had marginalised them and that there were umpteen good reasons why this sort of initiative should not be left to lay people. This reaction was entirely predictable, but begged the question of why such a major campaign should have been deemed necessary anyway.

The sad fact is that the Church has reached its present miserable number of regular communicants largely because of the mistakes it has itself made. In the first place it has abandoned the old parochial principle that every community should have its own minister. Especially in the countryside, parishes have been ruthlessly amalgamated into frankly ridiculous groupings of up to thirteen, as has happened particularly in East Anglia and Herefordshire. No priest can possibly offer a personal pastoral ministry on such terms. A nervous breakdown is a far more likely result!

In the inner city the retreat from the parish has been equally damaging, but it has been happening for so long now that most are unaware of its remorseless creep. Congregations in many such places were very small anyway, but the church premises could have offered a magnificent opportunity to open outreach into their local communities through sport and other social activities, reaching the disconnected young in particular.

Whatever environment the Church was operating in, the abandonment of the parish principle was catastrophic. Faithful lay people felt abandoned and much loved buildings were demolished or left to be vandalised, sending the crystal-clear message to both parish and people alike that the Church was just not bothered about them. This may have been an unfair conclusion for people to reach, but the damage was done.

We all recognise that it would have been impossible to staff 15,000 parishes with full-time priests, but it should have been foreseen long ago that many could have been staffed by SSMs, Readers and other keen lay people. What people were really asking for was at least one leader and pastoral focus in every parish – and that would have been perfectly possible. The reason it never happened was the intransigence of the professional clergy. Now at last, and very belatedly, there is some episcopal support for this important development. Meanwhile new housing estates are springing up everywhere, many outside the reach of existing parish churches.

To write the next paragraph is not easy for Ridley, as he is a priest himself. The modern ordinal is frankly not very demanding of new priests. Compare its humdrum words with the solemn charge of the 1662 Ordinal at the head of this article. These words are heavyweight and almost frightening – as indeed they should be. We are asked to devote our whole lives and efforts to building the Kingdom of God by caring for His people, leading them in teaching and worship and encouraging them to tell others about our marvellous Jesus and introduce them into His family. It is quite sickening to hear clergy talking about planning their holidays and making sure they have their days off when their lay people give their spare time and personal resources in such large chunks to the service of God and His Church – after they have already done a week’s work!

One of the main criticisms of the Myriad principle is that the laity won’t be trained for this huge responsibility. We have lived too long under the illusion that carting people off to theological college or distant SSM courses constitutes the ideal training for what is basically a pastoral and evangelistic ministry. The twelve Apostles learnt from Jesus “on the job” and apprenticeship is a far better basis on which to proceed. We already do it when we send men from the colleges and courses to their first curacy. New lay- led churches are not only possible but highly desirable, if they are overseen by some good mobile professional clergy trainers and the critical eye and encouragement of the local bishop. This way we might actually start moving towards that forgotten 1945 dream “Towards the Conversion of England.”