I have already written about the diversity of small churches in Britain. In this post I want to assess their potential for subversive ecumenism, undermining the authorities of the mainstream traditions.
There is a continuum of post- denominational Christians. Some younger people have stayed with the mainstream churches but their adherence to one particular tradition is weaker than previous generations. As parts of a consumer society, the traditional (and other) churches are products that can be used and discarded at will. Why not shop around until you find a church that suits?
This is seen positively as a form of post-denominational ecumenism (Christians Together). The old divisions no longer make sense, so there is no need to allow yourself to be formed by a specific tradition in a real time and place.
Where traditional churches have lost a sense of purpose, many new churches bring experience of the faith to groups of people otherwise untouched by the traditional churches. As such they are a necessary challenge to the traditions, calling them to recognise a larger world than their rules and regulations might allow.
What happens when the new churches grow older? Some people will leave, perhaps to join other churches or just cease to meet. Others might seek ordination in a traditional denomination or move on to set up their own churches.
But what about those who remain in churches that become institutionalised? Their problem is they have to avoid being institutionalised into a non-catholic authority. The spirit of division can turn a spirit filled church into concrete amazingly quickly. Interpretations by unaccountable leaders, intolerant of dissent, can soon petrify a small church.
A truly catholic church is necessarily diverse in two ways at least. It must be diverse in terms of theology, otherwise its leadership will become authoritarian and unaccountable. This can happen in liberal churches as much as evangelical or fundamentalist. A single interpretation stifles dissent and stifles the spirit.
The other diversity is in the social origins of its members. It is alarming so many churches are made up of entirely one age group, for example. How do we develop churches where people unlike each other learn to live with and love each other?
It is clear the traditional and new churches need each other. This is not so that the members of the new churches join the traditional. It is so that old and new together can find a new way to preserve the fountainheads and receive new insights from the spirit.
Ecumenism is almost solely the property of the traditional churches. Subversive ecumenism, reaching out across divisions, creating relationships beyond the doctrines that still divide comes from lay members, post-denominational worshipers or new churches. They need the traditional churches as partners in a greater task of re-formation of the churches together. Without the traditional churches, these small churches lack catholicity and can lose contact with the wider body of Christ.
Comments