a hopeful moment in the church of england

a huge change has taken place in the church of england. i think it was officially adopted yesterday...

this has been to develop a way to recognise new forms of church within the structures of the church of england that don't fit the existing parish system. the piece of legislation is called the pastoral measure. this is now law in england. this talks about a bishop's mission order being created to enable a new form of church that isn't within parish boundaries. a code of practice (downloadable here) has been published for dioceses that lays out how this can work in practice. the fresh expressions share guide has a page on bishop's mission orders that summarises what it's all about. but here's my sense of it from reading the code of practice.

• a diocese should set up a group with a lead person to consider bishop's mission orders.
• anyone thinking that applies to their scenario should then liase with that group.
• through that process, consultation will need to take place and consideration of a number of issues such as leadership, finance and sustainability, worship and sacraments, identifying how support will happen etc.
• assuming all of that goes well, a bishop then gets a mission order created for a 5 year period. at the end of the 5 years another one can be issued.
• after that hopefully the fresh expression of church will have a maturity so that it can either become an entity with the church of england's structures or if there is no model that fits a permanent mission order can be issued.

the code of practice is wonderful. it may seem dull to some of you - i don't know. but it does set out good guidelines and takes seriously the negotiations needed around other people and anglican worship and so on. this is so different from the practice for years of bishop's turning a blind eye as no other option has been available. sample bmo's and skeletons (i.e. frameworks for particular types of order) will be made available. it will obviously take a while for dioceses to set up groups and so on to take it forward in their area and inevitably some diocese will be more into it than others. but i believe the spirit in which this has been set up is as a mechanism of permission giving rather than control. there really are no excuses now - the permission is there for you for newness.

mission shaped church, the report that was published in 2004 made recommendations and this is a direct result of those recommendations. this is the way it is described in the code of practice...

Mission-Shaped Church identified the need for “a new inculturation of the gospel within our society.”  Fresh expressions of church, and other mission initiatives, are part of the Church of England’s response to that challenge. Inculturation, rooted in the doctrine of the incarnation of Christ, is not a new concept to the Church of England. It underlies the parochial system. The current context of greater mobility, and of networks as well as neighbourhoods, requires a reapplication of this underlying incarnational value, not a departure from it. The Church’s historic parochial structures are still effective in mission but require supplementing by new mission initiatives. Properly integrated these enable a “‘mixed economy’ church.”

i'm kind of pinching myself - this means that in four years the church of england has managed to take a report on mission so seriously that it has opened up a new pathway for ordination recognising that some people are called to be pionnering and entrepreneurial rather than a pastor/teacher sort of gift. and now the parish system has been legally blown open. stephen croft (head of fresh expressions), paul bayes (national evangelism officer in c of e)  and others have spent time, energy and patience negotiating the tricky politics and sensitivities of the church and drawing up the hefty documents and so on that accompany these changes. they have done an incredible thing here. it's such a gift to the church. this must be the biggest change in the church of england for many decades. rowan williams carries a vision for what this legislation makes real - a truly mixed economy church.

now if you are thinking to yourself this is an april fool, it isn't! it just happens to be the day after this practice became official. and i'm still travelling (now in the US speaking at an episcopal retreat on young adults spirituality and how the church here should respond, woken up way too early because of the time difference so writing this in the middle of the night) so my blog is still the quietest it's been for some time...

not everything will need a  bishop's mission order. grace, for example, doesn't as it sits pretty well within the structures as part of st mary's in ealing, but i can see lots of other communities for whom this could be a good and important way to go. suddenly it seems as though the journey that many of us have been on through alternative worship, emerging church, fresh expressions and so on has created a momentum that is going to have a longevity. this is scary at one level and i'm sure feels too institutional for others (and we still need a radical edge that pushes the church in different ways so hopefully there will also be plenty of people creating new stuff who want to push beyond this as well), but this is a very hopeful moment.

church house publishing have a book that was due to be published yesterday - a beginner's guide to bishop's mission orders that i couldn't find on their web site but which no doubt will appear. i'll add a link here when it does.
 

Comments

[Bumbling Saint]

This is encouraging- if the CofE shows the way, perhaps the dear old Lutheran church over here in Germany will get the idea sometime soon.

[Mark]

it looks like the place for communities like ours to find some sense of connection and belonging.

[julie]

i find this to be enormously exciting - makes possible so many things - thanks for the update jonny and for keeping those of us outside anglican circles so well informed - peace, julie

[laul]

i didn't realise you were an anglican ;)

definately very keen about having clear boundaries, rather than the vague 'lets hope it goes away' that sometimes presents itself when dealing with a fresh expression being anglican.

i think its the best thing practically about this, like you said.

laul

[Robb]

Wow. This is earth shattering. This is like a seismic shift in Anglicanism.

I am really hopeful that we can now see about engaging with being emergent Anglicans in a good an positive manner.

I do worry about this signalling the death of the parish system. For all it's flaws the CofE is a church for everyone. There is someone who is charged with the 'cure of souls' for everyone in the UK. They may be less effective at that in some areas but they non-the-less have that responsibility.

Vive le revolution!!

[Duncan]

After 800 years of being locked into the parochial system we at last have the opportunity for mission shaped church as opposed to church shaped mission. Best of all we still have the established church and all the mission opportunities that affords - a truly Anglican both/and solution.

[TonyWhittaker]

One thing I would love to see more mission-shaped churches have, is a website that is primarily designed for outsiders. We try to suggest strategies for this on our church website design self-assessment tool at InternetEvangelismDay.com/design and welcome comments on this and ideas for improving it.

Blessings

Tony

[Andy Rowell]

This was linked to be the Emergent Village USA site at
http://www.emergentvillage.com/weblog/emerging-in-the-uk

Jonny and friends,
I recently wrote a paper on Rowan William's Missional Ecclesiology - specifically trying to piece together out of all of Williams's work what might be pertinent to the Fresh Expressions conversation. I would be pleased to have anyone interact with it.

http://www.andyrowell.net/andy_rowell/2008/03/the-missional-e.html

Andy Rowell
Doctor of Theology Student
Duke Divinity School
Durham, North Carolina
Blog: http://www.andyrowell.net/

[becky]

Jonny - thanks for the update. I've forwarded this to my Anglican buds here in the states. Becky

[andrew jones]

jonny - i have learned not to take you seriously on april fools day. see you if have the same story tomorrow.

[Graeme]

This is great news and has some challenging implications for those of us who are in other denominations. It's good to see that serious changes are already coming to fruition off the back of Mission-Shaped Church.

[becky]

Andrew - I agree except that there are a lot of legit links here AND Jonny is here in the states - he doesn't have the time to devise this elaborate of a ruse. Now, if it was Kester posting this, that's a different story.

[andrew jones]

ok - i believe him. i just posted a link here.

And I enjoyed Andy Rowell's paper. Thanks Andy.

[John Davies]

Mission Shaped Church's social analysis is seriously flawed (speaks solely of middle-class values and trends, not those of the majority of society) but at least the bit you quote acknowledges that 'parochial structures are still effective in mission'. An understatement but yes, thanks. As one who has made a journey through alternative worship to community development work to parish ministry I find it disheartening to read your seemingly gleeful evaluation that 'now the parish system has been legally blown open'. 'Blown open' - the language of violent aggression; 'mixed economy', 'entrepreneurial' - the language of capital. I'm all for fresh expressions but ... wow ... please choose them carefully...

[Duncan]

John,

This allows a both/and - it doesn't force an either/or binary decision. Anglican ambiguity has won the day - again.

I cannot intellectually defend establishment, but as long as it's here I'm going to encourage the maximum use of all the benefits it brings. I also want to encourage sisters and brothers who feel constrained by parochial systems to go and do their thing - as it is discerned that God is leading them.

[jonny]

thanks everyone for the comments...

it wil be interesting to see how it all shapes up over the next 20 years!

[Makeesha]

I think this is fabulously exciting!