ADRIAN PLASS AND THE CHURCH WEEKEND.
By Adrian Plass.
Hodder & Stoughton. 198 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 444 745 443
This is a hilarious fictional account of a church weekend. If you've ever been on one, or have been involved in organising one, you will recognise all the features.
The attendees who won't commit to coming, ridiculous preferences insisted on by people who are supposed to be mature Christians, the evening concert ... and a description of a ‘plenary session’.
Plass has an eye for human foibles, and a heart to love the ‘bewilderingly mixed bag of people we call the church’ with all their pains and sorrows. His writing style is engaging, amusing and sometimes side-splitting. Some of the references are a bit earthy – Luther would certainly have laughed. Let the reader decide how close he sometimes gets to irreverence.
I do worry though. The good news of the holy God who sent his Son to die on the cross for pickles like us is assumed, but not explicit – but then, would we expect that? The Unitarian church people who show creative kindness are portrayed favourably ‘no matter how many gods they believe in’ (p.149). Father John, the twinkly-eyed monk who epitomises spiritual sanity, relativises so much that we are not really sure what he is saying. The only characters who express the view that God might have an angry side are portrayed as unpleasant or unhinged.
Laugh at ourselves, yes! Take this as a full account of the grace of our kind, human-loving God? Hmm, I wouldn't settle for it.
