Paul Overend reviews Dear Rowan... Please save the C. of E. by Robert Van de Weyer John Hunt Publishing Ltd. 2002, pb, pp.1 11, £7.99, ISBN 1-84298-098X ‘The Church of England is ceasing to be comprehensive and becoming a religious brand’ (p.36) This short book offers a timely reflection on the state of the Church of England to coincide with Rowan Williams’ appointment as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury.
Robert Van de Weyer is a heterodox, ‘ultra liberal’ priest who calls himself ‘an agnostic’ (p.107) although he admits that ‘in the eyes of many church-people my religion is not merely heretical, but non-existent’ (p.71). Drawing on his own experiences as the priest of a rebellious parish in Upton, he writes an extended letter to Archbishop Rowan, with a warm affection and genuine respect that makes for a read that is as appealing as it is stimulating.
The book portrays a church that Van de Weyer loves but which is in rapid decline and failing in its role as a national church. He argues that the democracy of parishes has been undermined with changes regarding the election and responsibilities of churchwardens, and that in a centralised institution there is a lack of accountability of the clergy and hierarchy and poor financial controls. Also, as membership declines, there has been a hardening of the edges of the church by the exclusion of those who are not the ‘committed Christians’ of the Evangelical or Anglo-Catholic parties. To such analyses Van de Weyer brings a familiarity with economics and models of management, and he provides insightful reflections on the church's increasing adoption of a centralised hierarchical model, as in the army, while models of business management move in the opposite direction.
The author’s aim is to offer a few simple points about democratic procedures at the parish level. However, while much of what he says is true, and most relevant for Upton parish, what he says raises further questions and invites further exploration. For example, he assumes that a Christian church can be a national church which provides a spiritual home for the majority of the people of England, but this assumption is odd in a pluralist and increasingly post-Christian religious context. He therefore does not consider the disestablishment of the church, with the ecumenical opportunities of disestablishing the church, but with the risk of adding to a cacophonous religious marketplace. As a principal concern of the book is with numbers attending church, he excludes the role of the church's reflections on contemporary social and political issues, but there is surely a role for all organized religions here, a role to which Archbishop Rowan is well-suited as a spokesperson. There is no reflection on the nature of selection and training of church leaders, which is still largely based on an army selection procedure and a residential semi-monastic model of clergy training. With Robert Van de Weyer’s emphasis throughout on the spirituality of a local community, this is surprising. He does not consider the failure of the church to engage with young Please save the C.ot = oie + people and their rapidly changing cultures. Countercultural worship is attracting young people to liquid religious communities, such as those of www.alternativeworship.org, but they can suffer from the manipulative ‘heavy shepherding’ that is found in evangelicalism (as in Sheffield’s Nine O’Clock Service). Also, little is made of the divide between academic and confessional theology or the problems of becoming more democratic without increased theological literacy.
The analyses given do raise further questions. The characterisation of a church of party politics is familiar, but inaccurately homogenises Evangelicals and AngloCatholics. After all, Archbishop Rowan lectured and underwent ‘formation’ at what many believe to be a party college, at Mirfield, but that the Anglican monastic community to which the college is attached can accommodate liberals like Harry Williams CR and can foster the Archbishop’s sense of vocation shows there is diversity within such parties. It is only the ultraconservatives of such parties who would exclude the old tradition of liberal catholics and the maturing phenomenon of ‘post-evangelicals’. And though the book commends more democratic structures, these can be less adaptable, as churches can become stuck in a ‘this is how it’s always done’ rut. The decline of Presbyterianism in Wales (a loss of 150,000 members, or 4/5ths, between 1910-1995) and of Welsh Independent Churches (a loss of 130,000 members, or 6/7ths, between 1910-1995) has been far more rapid than that of the Anglican denomination in Wales (which between 1945-1995 has lost only 80,000 members, or 2/3rds). Robert Van de Weyer’s prescription is not, however, congregationalism but a more subtle, interconnected matrix between the committed and others living in the parish, which is more accurately described as parochialism, wherein both church members and local community make significant decisions regarding the running of the church.
This may work in a rural community, which retains a sense of owning the village church, but it would not work in a city, where churches have eclectic congregations and are not often not identified with by a community any more than are the local mosque or temple. Where such a church’s raison d’etre is principally to keep its own style of worship or orthodoxy going, it is unsurprising that others don’t identify with it. Besides, the problem of decline is bigger than the structures that provide the medium for the message: it is the message itself, as the book’s closing lines indicate.
Only one part of the book did I feel was less than fair.
This was an early analogy that contrasted the failing role of a national leader at home with the leader’s turning his attention to international affairs, as at the end of President Clinton’s term of office. But in comparing political and ecclesiastical leaders in Britain, it was rather unfair to Tony Blair to compare him with George Carey. Although the PM sof 59 May 2003 and the Archbishop of Canterbury both have an international role, the PM takes some tough stances, which may be good or bad, but which clearly earn him harsh criticism, whereas the former Archbishop of Canterbury merely handed over decisions of the previous Lambeth conference to the vociferous evangelical churches overseas, in a desire for apparent uniformity across the communion.
As Bishop J.S. Spong observed, that was neither good nor bad leadership — it was simply not leadership at all.
There is, in an interesting afterword to the main text, a note explaining that Archbishop Rowan had originally given the book an approving endorsement, ‘very good indeed...all power to your elbow’, though not necessarily agreeing with its content. But he later felt the need to withdraw this support following advice from another bishop. This illustrates the difficulties of leadership, and how the liberal-minded voice gets drowned out for fear of offending the illiberal parties of church politics. No wonder then that the church is in the state it’s in, but will Archbishop Rowan have the courage to enable debate or, in our media-conscious age, will the desire prevail for an image of a church that appears to be confident in its beliefs and vocation (as in the recently presented ‘Statement of Anglican Primates on the Doctrine of God’), in spite of being led by many senior clerics who do not know the way and dare not ask the questions?
It is, all said and done, a worthwhile book, which is thoroughly engaging, asks many questions and stimulates further reflection. It is marred only by some rushed proofreading, which is understandable when getting timely ideas into print, but this has let some obvious typographical errors slip through.