act local, think cosmic

Giles Fraser reminds us why we might want to stay in the Church and not walk away

...the best things happen in parishes. Important bishops may stack up the air-miles travelling to important meetings, but it's really in parishes* that the Church does its stuff: the assembly at the school; communion in the home for the elderly; going for a walk with the woman whose husband has left her; the funeral visits; the youth-club disco; fund-raising for the local homelessness charity; the bloke out walking his dog and stopping to tell you how long he has waited for his operation.

God flits in and out of the conversation. Then it all comes together on a Sunday morning, as the word is preached and the bread is broken. For a real treat, it all has to be topped off with the choir singing Howells's Coll. Reg. at evensong. None of this is theological rocket science, but it's what we do best. Act local, think cosmic.

* - my edit- and in chaplaincies, for all the same reasons!

More here: Church Times - My vision of our great Church.

a Church that will hold our hand and listen to us cry

Comments

[Kathryn]

Yes,yes, YES!!!!
(She says, coming over all excited)
That's why I was ordained. That's what I'm called to.
"It all comes together on Sunday morning as the word is preached and bread is broken"
It does indeed.. :-)

[Paul Fromont]

Too true.True of the decision to remain in many denominations not just the COFE.Thanks Maggi. A thoughtful little reflection.

[Chavlin (ASBO)]

I hope Giles Fraser is right... but everything in me suspects he is not. He speaks of course about the things that ordained and lay ministers do individually. Some of the most amazing moments of my ministry come when I celebrate the God filled now.

But you get a group of us together in one room and we become institution. If you go round the institution on a Sunday morning I'm not sure if it does 'all come together'.

I think there is a real difference between indivduals doing Kingdom and groups doing church.

I hope he's right... but I think I'll need more convincing.

The good news, of course, is that I only have another 40years left!

Thanks Maggi - being reading your blog for a few months now (love it), but only just dared to comment!

[maggi]

Chavlain, I can understand the sense of what you are saying, yet it doesn't (to me) make sense to stay with an individual idea of the Kingdom, despite the dangers of becoming institutionalised. The whole thrust of Jesus' teaching seems to me to be about community, and the central core of Christian doctrine that we can only be Christian if we are community. I know - as you do - that it seems like the impossible dream, but I still think it's a dream we should keep reviving...