A year remembered

Alasdair Pratt Moderator, I feel like asking for permission to defer this report until this time next year.

Two years ago, Elizabeth Welch, on completion of her year as Moderator, wrote a pamphlet to which she gave the title ‘No time to dream’. In recent weeks I’ve hardly had time to think, let alone dream, for the year has been so full of experiences meeting so many people that, quite seriously, it has been hard to process everything in time to make a report of the kind you may be wanting. This is not meant to sound like a whinge, but by May it felt as though saturation point had been reached, and I was somewhat relieved when I met a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA, who empathised, describing it as ‘information overload’.

You see, I don’t want this to be simply a catalogue of places visited, sermons preached and beds slept in, which is just as well for I lost count of the number of beds I slept in! I preached somewhere between forty and fifty times ‘on the road’ Apart from three holiday Sundays I was involved in or leading worship every week, including - when I could - my own congregation. As I will be retiring in three months time - a good congregation going vacant, folks - it was important to keep in touch with Guildford. I’ve no idea how many churches we visited during sixteen District visits but they were numerous and varied. One significant statistic I do have. The Moderator is asked to write to all those ministers who have retired in the past year. I wrote 48 such letters.

On wider travels we officially visited Cuba, Guyana and Germany, each one fascinating and in each place we were received with great generosity. These were very special experiences.

At home we were taken over the navy’s latest warship by the chaplain, a URC minister. On another occasion, quite unexpectedly, I had a twenty minute journey with the Archbishop of Canterbury in the back of his official car, an honour he had not anticipated!

I’ve quoted one Moderator; I’ll quote another who, some years ago, raised questions about what a moderator is for. Obviously one year is not enough time for any individual significantly to influence the direction of the whole church. Some other denominations expect their leader to have a ‘theme’ that they promote in their year of office. That is not our style. My approach - surprise, surprise - has been very traditional. I have seen my role as representing Assembly to the local situation, to make personal this body which can seem so remote and impersonal to folk in the congregations, to be a presence, to listen to people telling their stories and hoping that as they do so, it is not just for the edification, entertainment and information of the Moderator. This sharing can be a way of themselves seeing their own situation more clearly and therefore gaining a greater sense of where they are going.

This may have been a modest aim, but early in my ministry I was taught the importance of letting people start where they are, and share their stories, needs and problems. This, I think, we have done both with individuals and groups. And here I want to acknowledge my gratitude to Sheila who has not only been everywhere with me, who had particular professional skills available if necessary, but who simply brought a relaxed openness that gave people the confidence to open up. I am very grateful to her and so, I believe, were many others.

Last August I received a letter from a long-retired minister who said, ‘Please do not, at the end of your year, tell the assembly you found the church to be in good heart. He had obviously heard too many of my predecessors say this and he felt that if that was their conclusion, then it was a very superficial one.

I have taken that advice seriously. I have tried very hard to be realistic and not to be overcome by sentimentality. So, I have to tell you, with all the hard-headed, critical honesty I can muster, I have found the church to be in good heart! Surprisingly so, perhaps, given the pressures we face. Obviously people want to show the Moderator the best things that are happening. That’s human nature. At the same time, some Districts made sure we saw really tough areas. There have only been, literally, one or two congregations where we wondered ‘Why are they here? Couldn’t what resources they’ve got be used in more creative ways?’ Only one church we visited hadn’t heard of Catch the Vision!

As we’ve travelled we’ve seen one imaginative programme after another. Many churches have modified their buildings or are in the process of doing so. In one place we were asked, with no prior notice, what - from our experience - we could suggest for a church facing a very bleak future. Right off the top of our heads we came up with a brilliant scheme to renovate a dying church. I thought it was realistic, if a touch expensive, but I don’t think the Synod Moderator was quite so impressed!

We have seen many churches saddled with unwieldy buildings, often hampered by conservation orders. In one situation, where the minister was almost embarrassed to show us round, the synod is so confident that the congregation has a creative future it has invested a large amount of money apparently without any clear idea of how it will be repaid. That may be unscriptural in one way, but totally scriptural in another. We visited what I hope is the most depressing church building I will ever see. It does not belong to the URC, but we are associated through an LEP. We repeatedly found tensions about whether or not pews and pulpits have a place in todays worship and architecture.

There really is imaginative work going on in many places and we never came home depressed or downhearted.

There were downsides, of course. As I set out in my address last year, there is a great deal of faith-searching going on at the fringes as well as within churches, but it wasn’t clear to us that this was being recognised, let alone addressed. This is probably one of the concerns that lies behind my retired friend’s plea that I shouldn’t be beguiled by easy optimism.

We didn’t have enough chances to talk to small groups about their situations. Where this did happen it was really valuable, but too many conversations were with individuals, fleeting and inevitably superficial. This might be borne in mind by those still to plan this years visit by the moderator.

We met a number of ministers in very real pain. Our contact was inevitably brief and, of course, our ability to help very limited. Problems included dispute with the structures; a disgraceful experience of bullying; and sheer frustration. In some cases synod moderators are deeply involved - in some they may not even know, because they haven’t been told. We had anticipated that some would need to talk. Not everyone who seems to be coping well is actually doing so.

The other major cause for concern is the fact that the majority of churches we visited had few, if any, children involved in Sunday worship. We know Pilots is thriving, though we didn’t actually see it at work and we were unable to be at Legoland, and we know that churches have other midweek contacts with young people. However, we could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of places where there was a really viable Sunday Junior Church.

Against this, the FURY camp last summer was a great experience, while the number of young people attending Holiday Forum seems to be increasing every year.

One of the most humorous moments came when a church advertised my visit and included the text of the sermon. Forget about the photo. You just need to read the heading carefully when putting it alongside the text.

For three years the Moderator has the great privilege of attending every Assembly committee! I have not been able to take full advantage of this opportunity, but I still have a year to go! One of the theological reflectors who came to Mission Council queried whether, both in the Council and the wider church, we are all rather marking-time until the Catch the Vision process is complete. This may be so. What I have discerned is how great a weight of expectation is being put on David and his group. It is quite unrealistic for some of those committees who feel their agenda items have to be central to the review. Five people have been set free - as well as burdened - with considering priorities for the future shape and work of our church, not integrating the detailed concerns of committees into that future.

As we travelled we heard much talk about clusters. People are always apprehensive of new ideas. It is scary to change from the familiar, even if the familiar doesn’t work very well. At the same time, some valid questions were being raised, some on the basis of actual experience. It was heartening to hear of the Synod that having suspended but not abolished Districts, will give clusters a fixed trial period and then review the situation. We visited one district where the geographical distribution of churches is such that they believe clusters would be unworkable, even though in other parts of the same synod change is, realistically, going ahead. Flexibility - that in-word - will be needed.

As ecumenical relations develop, ministries are shared and LEPs evolve, we’ve found that people are wrestling with what it means to sustain the Reformed tradition. Mindful of the teaching that unless a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die it cannot bear fruit, those who are seeking - and creating - Christian unity are still having to ask how the characteristic marks of reformed churchmanship are enriching the ‘new forms’ of church life. Is it simply a matter of bargaining, or is there something more?

Moderator, this year has been a wonderful privilege and once again I thank Assembly for the honour and the trust. I thank my congregation in Guildford for whom this has not been an easy year, though it has also been creative. I repeat my thanks to Sheila who has kept me balanced, healthy and diplomatic! I thank the districts we have visited for their consideration and graciousness. I thank the individual congregations for their welcome, and especially the minister who greeted us with champagne. The greatest highlight is one particular situation where the minister resists publicity, but whose work I will never forget. I thank my chaplain, Carolyn, for her steady, quiet support and sensitive worship at Assembly and Mission Council. I thank the General Secretaries, the support staff at Church House, and my other colleagues at this table.

Above all I thank God for all that serving in ministry has meant. We may not know the future for, as I have not tired of saying the future is by definition uncertain. However, since I have so much cause to be grateful for the past, I have every reason to have hope for the future.

Menu

Links

A year remembered

Highlights

Search Hotline

Moderator's Address

Catch the Vision

Photo diary

Have Your Say

Profile