25/5//99 Faith & Ministry Course Assignment
(Revised December 99)
What Does The Church Mean to Me?
I attend, and belong to, two particular ones which are both dear to me,
but I begin with THE Church.
THE Church
By that I mean, principally, the collection of souls who believe in Jesus
Christ as their Lord and Saviour. But I include the buildings, the
organisations and the traditions. That it exists is of very great comfort,
brings to me great confidence and equally great humility. Comfort that
I and those Christians around me are not alone in our curious belief. Confidence
that there really must be something in what we believe; And whenever I
think I "understand" there are millions who think likewise and equally
millions who think rather differently. What the good Lord makes of the
diversity, not to mention the various squabbles, historic and current,
I cannot begin to imagine. But if He accepts and responds to so many "strange"
people then I am confident He knows me.
My Methodist Church
I became a member in 1953 when I was 15, the only boy in a group of some
ten girls. I was glad that The Methodist Church accepted me and I resolved
to stay with it, more or less regardless. I joined my present Church in
1962 when it was built, having spent a year in one of the two which came
together in its formation. And I love it and rather arrogantly regard it
as "mine" more or less regardless of the incumbent minister. I have seen
no less than six of those, and when relations with one of them was strained,
I remember thinking to myself perhaps a little smugly: I shall still
be here long after you have gone.
There is as much variation between individual Methodists Churches as
there is in the Anglican Church. Mine is fairly low and very theologically
evangelical and to some extent charismatic. It is affiliated to the Evangelical
Alliance.
I am happy with a Biblical Basis, although my
interpretation of that might be a little distance from the majority of
members. I do not much care for the Evangelical Alliance and will have
no truck with predestination. It bothers me a great deal that my Church
affiliated to it without much thought and certainly no discussion. However
I do subscribe to the idea of a relationship
with Jesus Christ and am saddened when I see Church leaders of any persuasion
who do not seem to have really experienced one.
The members of this Church are a warm friendly
and helpful bunch and I love them dearly. I like the, for want of a better
word, amateur atmosphere. This is illustrated by the fact that I occasionally
play for the evening service. I wouldn't dare offer in my Anglican Church.
My Anglican Church
I was confirmed under strange (but I believe God
ordained) circumstances in 1991 and began attending this church in 92 at
the 8 am Communion. It satisfied a growing need for a "proper Communion"
celebrated with appropriate ritual and gravitas. Since I enjoyed the ceremony
I was happy to become a server when the opportunity arose, and take part
in it. It gives a sort of perverse pleasure that most of my Methodist friends
would not feel at all at home and many would find it quite alien.
The whole ethos of the Church is very much affected
by the fact that the building is 900 years old and its spirituality is
quite different from my Methodist Church. Different but, for me, complimentary.
It attracts a very different kind of person and it is interesting that
some of them, having visited another Methodist Church, were disappointed
with the lack of Communion every week. Their relationship with God and
Jesus Christ is centred on the Eucharist, which means they don't talk about
Him much outside that context. And unlike the Methodists to feel impelled,
in quite the same way, to begin or end other meetings with devotions.
I don't love this Anglican Church in the same
way as I love the Methodist one, but through it feel that I have inherited
all Anglican Churches.
Ecumenical Thoughts
I have long been a supporter of ecumenical
endeavour and quite recently been elected on to the Executive Committee
of the local Churches Together, not that there was much competition!
Belonging to two very different Churches might be thought to encourage
my ecumenical endeavours but it does not. There is no hope whatever of
these two ever getting together. I did once, after some hard work, get
the Methodist Church to close their evening service and go to the Parish
Church, but it served no purpose. My ecumenical aspirations are not, therefore,
for any kind of unity, but simply to encourage mutual respect, something
which as far as I can see, is sometimes seriously lacking. My duty is to
put up with both my Churches, regardless, and serve them and the
Churches Together as God seems to direct.