The end of the traditional parish
Change is in the air, as I face the challenges being dealt with by any parish wanting to see ‘fresh expressions’ and traditional churches learn to complement each other. I am currently developing a framework for St Stephens to form a reviewable and renewable covenant relationship with the Shepherds Bush Missional Community. There are three lessons that I will absorb to learn for this to happen.
It marks an end to the days of parishes as individual fiefdoms where ever ything is dependant on or decided by the vicar. The fiefdom syndrome is the unconscious or deliberate process whereby the environment is shaped to give the central figure as much control as possible over what goes on. Others as well as myself will now decide the central mission imperative as well as the shape of the Church and it will be better that this is so.
It marks an end to hero theology and individually focused testimonies where the mission of the Church is seen as primarily being acted out through the witness of the vicar. I have given testimonies to this effect talking about how dif ficult things had been at the beginning but that God had blessed my faithfulness and things had changed for the better. There will less valor to a more cooperative testimony where I talk about how well the Church and the Missional Community have worked together but that it was they rather than we who had grown in size. Some of the congregation will want the formality of meeting on a Sunday morning others will prefer the Missional Community’s less structured style of midweek gathering. We all have different roles and responsibilities in God’s garden; neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth (1 Cor 3:5-9)
It marks an end to traditional parish boundaries. The Missional Community has a Bishop’s Missional Ordinance, which gives them as much right as myself to operate in the Parish. City inhabitants do not anyhow operate in discreet geographical units and so this formalizes what is already the case. We will operate, in concert with a neighboring parish that already does youth work in the area, as a Mission Unit with people able to outreach to the group with whom they have the most natural connection. It is easier for people to come to a faith without stepping outside their cultural boundaries and a multi faced church helps to make this so.
Other than absorbing myself in the work of the Parish I have spent my time running. Since retiring from competitive sport I have run a marathon each year to ensure that my levels of fitness remain constant. This year, instead of lining up alongside 30,000 runners for the London marathon, I will be one of only 450 runners for the Right To Movement: Palestine Marathon in Bethlehem. Running a marathon in Bethlehem does not make me a political expert and so I am grateful to those whose letters have helped to provide a balance of Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. A just peace for Palestine provides the best long-term hope for peace and security for Israelis and my running the marathon will be a prayer for this to happen. Running is the ultimate act of egalitarianism; it is a non-elitist inclusive activity. Anyone can par ticipate and everyone wins – the fact of completion is its own reward. It will be a strange experience. My flight lands at 5am and the marathon star ts three hours later in temperatures of 21 degrees Celsius. I fly home three days later after a long weekend away and only one Sunday in the parish missed. Rev Dr Bob Mayo is Vicar of St Stephen and St Thomas Shepherds Bush with St Michael and St George White City Follow Bob Mayo
on Twitter (@RevBobMayo)