Home and away

I’m involved at General Synod and sometimes there is a sense in which you realise that the decisions that are being made have the potential to transform the lives of others (for good or ill). And yet there is such a disconnect in time and place, culture and value systems, between Synod and the local parish that it is very hard to bring the two together.

Each Sunday, and throughout the week, our ‘little’ parish church goes about its business. At the core of our congregation is a diverse bunch of people, brought together by the irresistible pull of God’s saving grace and the fact that we’ve ended up living in this particular part of Cornwall.

Each week we gather together, welcoming many others who join us, to hear and receive God’s Word, pray for the needs of the world and seek the forgiveness of our sins. We sing songs of worship, we break bread together and at the end of the service we pray that our lives would be ‘distinctive and attractive’ and ‘live for Jesus and speak for Jesus’. The Word is taught, people are loved, we fail, we forgive and by God’s grace we see individuals and families transformed by God’s work. The congregation is significantly larger, and younger, than when my husband and I first started worshipping here 15 years ago.

On one hand and the other

Yet, having travelled the five hours and 14 minutes to Westminster for Synod, I discover that this is not ‘normal’. On the one hand, I am told that our ‘little’ church is in fact ‘large’ (at just over 100, it is more than twice as large as the average Anglican church) and that our congregation is also surprisingly young. On the other hand, I am told that our way of doing things is irrelevant to outsiders and that churches like mine are ‘the problem’ because young people are looking for something different. When this is being said by the same people who have just announced that the Church of England will not see growth in the next 30 years, you can perhaps imagine my frustration.

But the return journey can also be difficult. It is hard to know how much to share of the legal wrangling, of the potential dangers ahead, of the culture of ‘relativism’ that undermines the authority of God’s Word and of the subtle transition from a gospel of grace to a gospel of tolerance. The time these things take to drip through the system means that if you say too much, too soon, you are in danger of appearing to ‘cry wolf’, yet to say nothing prevents the congregation from being prepared.

Gospel Partnerships

Those of us who are confessionally Anglican recognise a need for connection between local congregations. So it wonderful to know that Fowey Parish Church is not that unusual. As Director of Reform, I have the pleasure of being in contact with similar churches throughout the country and throughout the world. Through joining with others at Gospel Partnerships, the Renew Conference and GAFCON, we have experienced the benefit of a regional, national and global communion that crosses cultures while remaining faithful to Scripture. We know, too, the heartache that comes when that communion is under threat from false teaching and those prepared to tolerate it.

These links mean that when I’m at General Synod I can join with representatives of these churches to read the Bible, to take counsel and to pray for wisdom as we seek to live for Jesus and speak for Jesus both in the political bubble and in our churches at home.