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Hymns Ancient & Modern - Ruth Harley , Al Barrett

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179 pages

English

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Description

Beginning with a ‘Street Nativity Play’ that didn’t end as planned, and finishing with an open-ended conversation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, "Being Interrupted" locates an institutionally-anxious Church of England within the wider contexts of divisions of race and class in ‘the ruins of empire’, alongside ongoing gender inequalities, the marginalization of children, and catastrophic ecological breakdown.
In the midst of this bleak picture, Al Barrett and Ruth Harley open a door to a creative disruption of the status quo, ‘from the outside, in’: the in-breaking of the wild reality of the ‘Kin-dom’ of God. Through careful and unsettling readings in Mark’s gospel, alongside stories from a multicultural outer estate in east Birmingham, they paint a vivid picture of an 'alternative economy' for the Church's life and mission, which begins with transformative encounters with neighbours and strangers at the edges of our churches, our neighbourhoods and our imaginations, and offers new possibilities for repentance and resurrection.

Sujets

Missions

Christian Ministry

Philosophie et théologie

Religion

Informations

Publié par	Hymns Ancient & Modern
Date de parution	30 novembre 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780334058649
Langue	English

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Extrait

Being Interrupted
Re-imagining the Church’s Mission from the Outside, In
Al Barrett and Ruth Harley
with illustrations by Ally Barrett

© Al Barrett and Ruth Harley 2020
Artwork © Ally Barrett 2020
Published in 2020 by SCM Press
Editorial office
3rd Floor, Invicta House,
108–114 Golden Lane,
London EC1Y 0TG, UK
www.scmpress.co.uk
SCM Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd (a registered charity)

Hymns Ancient and Modern® is a registered trademark of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd
13A Hellesdon Park Road, Norwich,
Norfolk NR6 5DR, UK
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, SCM Press.
The Authors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Authors of this Work
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise stated, are from the New Revised Standard Version: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked kjv are from the Authorized Version of the Bible (The King James Bible), the rights in which are vested in the Crown, reproduced by permission of the Crown’s Patentee, Cambridge University Press.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
978-0-33405-862-5
Typeset by Regent Typesetting
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd

Contents
Foreword: Anthony Reddie
Foreword: Lynne Cullens
Foreword: Rachel Mann
Part 1: Where are We?
Act 1: An Interrupted Nativity
Introduction
1. Who are ‘We’?
2. Finding our Place in Brexit Britain
3. What are We Not Seeing?
4. The Church’s Privilege Problem
5. A Tale of Two Economies
6. Getting on the Wrong Side of Jesus
Part 2: Being Interrupted
Interruptions in Mark’s Gospel – Finding Our Way In
7. On the Road
8. At the Edges
9. At the Table
10. With Little Children
Act 2: Children Writing the Script
11. Amid the Trees
Part 3: Re-imagining
Act 3: From a Homeless Church to a Community Passion Play
12. A Third Economy
Act 4: A Street Party
13. Life at the Edges
Act 5: The Community Talent Show
14. From the Outside, in
Act 6: Unheard Voices
15. At the Cross
Act 7: An Easter Eve Encounter
16. Resurrection
Act 8: An Easter Day Walk
Act 9: A Walk in the Woods

Epilogue: In Conversation – COVID-19, the ‘Great Interruption’
Further Reading
Suggested Reading Plan for Groups
Acknowledgements

If we have more power
than the people we are with,
we need to remember to listen
as much as we talk.
And if we have less power,
we need to remember to talk
as much as we listen.
Both are difficult.
Gloria Steinem

Foreword
ANTHONY REDDIE
The mission of the Church in post-war Britain has been carried out against the backdrop of Church decline and the seeming marginalization of the historic mainline churches, in particular.
Churches in Europe are facing a major existential crisis; some even fearing for their very existence. This is evidenced by: falling numbers in the congregations of their respective churches; diminishing human resources with a shortage of willing people to participate in God’s mission via the Church; and when people do participate it is as volunteers and not disciples (that is, people often do what fits their free time and not what their faith demands).
Falling numbers, diminishing financial resources, tired, dispirited and depleted numbers of ministers and laypeople are but the symptom. It can be argued that an underlying problem is a Christological one: it is an age-old missiological challenge. The primary casualty in this present epoch is that the old certainties of a ‘Church Triumphant’ have disappeared. The identity of white majority historic churches was predicated on the three Cs – namely, Christendom, Colonialism and (a white) Christ. Church growth in Europe reached its zenith during the high watermark of European expansion. Church mission was predicated on a Jesus that reinforced white, European notions of exceptionalism, manifest destiny and superiority.
British churches have responded to this definitional and missiological challenge by developing a range of commodified and market-driven strategies to arrest decline. They have sought to attempt to reconnect with a Jesus that speaks to the cultural contexts in which the Church is currently immersed – trying to share a new image of Christ for changing times.
This can be seen in initiatives such as fresh expressions – new ways of being church, pioneer ministry and renewed forms of lay discipleship.
The rise of popularist, right-wing nationalism as evidenced in the USA, Brazil and Europe represents a major challenge for Christian mission. White nationalism, in particular, is often a reassertion of former impulses that gave rise to empire, white exceptionalism and notions of superiority.
Sadly, the attempt to reinvigorate the Church by means of the aforementioned has done nothing to deconstruct the philosophical and theological certainties that have remained an unacknowledged problem for centuries. The relationship between empire and colonialism, in many respects, remains the ‘elephant in the room’ in much academic theological discourse in the UK. The major theological and ethical challenge for the Church post-Brexit is how the Church can be in solidarity with black and minority ethnic people and vulnerable migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. Given that Brexit has emboldened groups on the political right such as Britain First and the English Defence League, the sharp challenge is: where is the church leadership that will face down the rise in white English nationalism?
The conflation of white privilege and entitlement alongside notions of election that are derived from a deep-seated theology of exceptionalism that is buttressed and exacerbated by the triumphs of empire has seen many historic churches remain somewhat ambivalent to the increased significance of black and minority ethnic people to the future mission and ministry of their churches. Given that British Christianity has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of post-war migration from the Caribbean and Africa, one might have hoped for a greater resolve to oppose the very concept of Brexit, given the ways in which this phenomenon traduced the very multi-ethnic and multicultural paradigms that have benefited the Church in Britain. It is my contention that this apparent ambivalence is a result of the continuing need to placate white sensibilities and the fragility of whiteness that has little agency once it is shorn from its moorings of privilege, entitlement and superiority.
It is in the midst of these wider cultural and social changes, and the lack of any substantive missiological response to it, that I wish to commend Being Interrupted . The authors of this very fine text have sought to dig deep and go beneath the surface of the missiological problems facing the Church, especially the Church of England. The authors recognize the neo-colonial edifice that is the Anglican Church in England and that simply devising new strategies and marketing gimmicks for arresting decline will not get to the heart of the disconnect between this venerable institution and the wider socio-cultural milieu.
Being Interrupted is a searingly honest and challenging ‘insider account’ written by two committed practitioners who are serious about asking critical questions about the Church’s engagement with those who are on the margins. Gone is the seemingly axiomatic trope of ‘hospitality’ as the panacea for all ecclesial ills. The authors recognize the fundamental challenge that faces powerful institutions like the Church of England whose formative identity occurred under the aegis of empire and patrician forms of control.
Simply seeking to be nicer to people will not do. Creating more attractive forms of worship will certainly be an advantage as historic ecclesial bodies like the Church of England seek to arrest their numerical decline. But as Being Interrupted so clearly demonstrates, this in itself will not cure the neo-colonial habitus that has seen the Church assume for itself an indispensable position in God’s gracious economy. Something more substantive and theologically astute is needed; I say this in the knowledge that so much of the top-down institutional attempts to revitalize the Church have exuded little in the way of theological acumen to underpin their various strategies.
This text is, I believe, an important first. In Being Interrupted , Al Barrett and Ruth Harley have written what is demonstrably an important and significant text that will command the interest of practitioners, denominational educators, missiologists and church leaders, who will benefit from engaging with a challenging, insightful and hopeful text that encourages us to seek the generous God we serve in the other. Gone is the assumption that the locus of authority lies within the orbit of the Church, with God moving from the Church to those beyond it. Being Interrupted challenges us to pause and reverse the flow of the traditional missiological direction of grace, away from the Church and towards the often powerless others. This requires a massive change in identity, focus and intent.