Bishop's Visitation Charge 2007
The Three Intimacies
First, there had to be a real desire for God and worship that was special. One of the Visitation replies asked how you turn church-goers into God-lovers. Some people attend church as a kind of social club although I think that is less true today than in the past because there are so many other places where people can be social and entertained. There is a story of a mother who had real problems with her two boys who were always quarrelling and fighting. They were not doing well at school and they were in trouble with the police. Their mother decided as a last resort to take them to church and they sat in the back pew. The preacher thumped the pulpit and began his sermon with, ‘Where is God?’ He paused and looked around for dramatic effect and thumped the pulpit again and asked, ‘Where is God?’ With that one boy whispered to the other, ‘They seem to have lost God – let’s get out of here before they blame it on us’.
I am not saying that our churches have lost God, but they need to put God (rather than the church) on the top of their agenda. Worship and preaching – whether elaborate or simple, whether high or low, whether urban or rural – needs to be special. It needs to give people an experience of God and make them want more.
The second intimacy or love, is the deep love among members of the community or congregation. The psalmist wrote ‘Behold how good and lovely it is, when people dwell together in unity’ (Ps 133:1). Our churches should not just be friendly places but places where people can make friends, but when there are divisions, power games and cliques, it kills the spirit. I continually hear stories of people who attend churches and nobody speaks to them – and the same churches tell me how friendly they are! But a church where there is real love among the members is an authentic sign of the kingdom of God. What attracted people to the early church was two things – people with joy (even in the face of persecution) and people who loved one another.
The third intimacy or love, is for their apostolate – their mission. When parishes are involved in outreach in their own community or in projects at home or overseas, they have to embrace it with a real passion of love.
So three loves – three intimacies – for God, for one another and for our apostolic outreach. If we can focus on these things, we shall become attractive Christian communities that others will want to join because we put our faith into action.
How then can we encourage people in ministry to meet the challenges presented by our changing culture? Here of course, our clergy have a vital role as leaders of the local church.