A Serious Building: Bishop Tim Ellis Managing Major ...
Transcript of A Serious Building: Bishop Tim Ellis Managing Major ...
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A Serious Building: Bishop Tim Ellis
Managing Major Projects June 25 2015
St Mary’s Bramall Lane Sheffield
In the book of Genesis, Abraham builds four altars. Building an altar fixes in time and
space the place where a people have encountered God or an aspect of the Godhead.
The physical building of an altar underpins the truth that divinity is not encountered
in an ethereal way: a 'spiritual' experience, but that truth is encountered in the
concrete physicality of this world. This is the truth also of the crucifixion of Christ:
the reality of God made man happened in the blood and spit and the mud of our
reality: God became man. This is why we set up holy places: to mark a place where
the divine is encountered but also to make an investment in the reality of this world.
Our church buildings demonstrate in stone and wood the reality of the Christian
community's presence within the joys and sorrows and ups and downs of real life.
Inasmuch as the church building points us beyond the world of the senses to greater
truths and realities it also hallows this life and this reality too. So from time
immemorial humanity has set up places of meeting, and it is this inchoate ancient
reality that we have inherited in our church buildings of Great Britain and it creates
the sentiments and feelings that surround them.
Abraham's altars pointed beyond the reality of this world to four greater realities:
broadly speaking, his altars highlight the joys of promise as he arrives in the land of
Canaan; he then moves on to Bethel, building an altar after his pilgrimage and
demonstrating his openness to what lies before him and his people; then he goes on
alone to Mamre and builds the altar that represents his drawing apart from the
world; and then, most famously of all, he builds the altar on which he is commanded
to sacrifice his son, Isaac-the altar of sacrificial offering. The altars of Abraham were
his answer to the question we ask today-‘What is God calling us to do in this place?’
So, we can move from viewing our church buildings as simply shelters over our
heads, to also holding those four realities too-incarnated sacred spaces: they are
places where we can encounter the promises of God; where we can move on
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purposefully and hopefully in our lives and be open to life; where we can draw apart
from the hustle and bustle of the world and where we can witness the sacrifice of
Jesus on the Cross and make our own sacrificial response to it. We are beginning to
achieve a theology of our church buildings.
The question before us today then is 'how can our church buildings in the modern
day serve these ministries of the promises of God, helping us to go forward hopefully
in our lives, of being places of withdrawal and seclusion and safety and places where
we encounter sacrifice and openness?’ And what happens when they are no longer
able to serve these purposes? ‘ So, let’s consider what makes a healthy church and
how our buildings can serve this central purpose…how can they become places of
Promise?
I offer you the first altar that Abraham constructed as he arrived in Shechem:
Abraham had left his native Mesopotamia and, in faith, gone to the land of Canaan-
the Promised Land. He encounters many problems and setbacks in trying to do God’s
will, and his journey is a motif for our own pilgrimage through life. Arriving in
Canaan, he comes to Shechem to the oak of Moreh, and the land is promised to him
by God for him and his descendents to flourish in. It is a land of promise: so Abraham
marks this promise by building an altar. (Genesis 12: 6-7)
A recent survey on church buildings suggested that 86% of people had been in a
church building over a twelve month period for one reason or another (Opinion
Research Business Report. Oct 2003). The more recent report Faithful Cities seems to
confirm this. There is great promise here…
So what are we aiming to achieve?
Seven marks of a healthy church
Energised by faith. Not a sense of managing decline or worn out by keeping things
going, bit a people who are fed and excited by: worship, motivation, scripture and a
sense that their faith is being enabled to grow.
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Outward looking focus. Not just concerned with churchy things, but with the whole
of life: ecumenical, deeply rooted in community, passionate about justice and peace
issues, making connections between faith and daily life, responding to community
needs with loving service.
Seeks to find out what God wants. It isn‘t what we want that sets the agenda.
Vocation, vision, mission, making sacrifices
Faces the cost of change and growth. Rather than resisting the need for change,
being unwilling to take risks and frightened of failure. Recognise need for change and
where it must happen, take risks in achieving it, and create positive experiences of
change.
Builds community rather than functioning as a club of like minded people.
Relationships are nurtured, leadership-lay and ordained-is encouraged, trained and
deepened.
Makes room for others. Inclusive rather that exclusive. Good ministry of welcome,
children and young people are encouraged and helped to belong by being made a
priority, plenty of material for enquirers, diversity is encouraged (rich and poor,
young and old, black and white)
Does a few things, but does them well. Frenetic activity is out of the window, things
that are failing are let go. Do the basics well: worship, pastoral care, admin etc,
occasional offices done well to make sense of life and communicate faith, being good
news as a church, obviously enjoying what we do as Christians and being relaxed
about it.
So, now, let's look first at 'openness‘
Abraham built his second altar at Bethel: a name which means in Hebrew ‘the house
of God’. He pauses, reflects and opens his heart to what lies before him.
The Church of England operates on the parish system, and there is a spiritual reality
to this as well as a purely operational one. Our conviction that we should be 'parish'
churches with 'parish' priests underlines our Church's belief that it has a ministry and
duty to the whole people of a community, not just to the gathered few. Whether
male or female, black or white, rich or poor, the ideal is that our church community
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in all its aspects is open to all. Sadly, this is not always the case and one factor we
have to face in our consideration of church buildings is the exclusive sense of
ownership that a small introverted group can exercise: actively preventing others
from coming in (typical of this is the common revulsion to having baptisms in the
main morning service because they are 'disturbing‘-or referring to ‘members’-the
language of ‘membership’ suggests some people are ‘in’ and others, who are not
‘members’ are ‘out’-and this will permeate our ethos). But having church buildings
which are truly open in all their aspects to all aspects of community life is our real
destiny.
In part, this exclusiveness is because we have fallen into the trap of thinking that
being a Christian and living a Christian life is about propping up the operation locally-
endless money-raising to keep the roof on and pay for the Vicar. In his book Shapes
of the Church to Come, Bishop Michael Nazir Ali suggests that our church
communities... will have to give up their churchy focus on priest plus stipend plus
building and re-orientate themselves to something like faith plus community plus
action
The Temple in Jerusalem was a deeply symbolic and hierarchical place. Here the Ark
of the Covenant containing Manna from the desert was kept at the very heart of the
Holy of Holies, itself a place which only the Great High Priest could enter, and then
only on one occasion each year and after much ritual cleansing and barriers and
airlocks. At the moment of the death of Christ on the cross, Matthew and Mark in
their Gospels record that the curtain which separated the Holy of Holies from the
Temple precincts was torn in two: the barrier between God and humanity is torn
apart and we are opened up to intimacy with the Almighty. Our temples therefore
must also be places of openness: where the things of God are opened to us his
people and which are also open to all people whatever their state or need.
Otherwise it seems to me the words of Richard Holloway, words may haunt us...
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If the original purpose of Christianity was to carry the spirit of Jesus through
history, then it soon fell into the trap of using most of its energies to maintain itself
and the life to which it had grown accustomed
So, one outcome of our openness will be buildings which are fitted appropriately for
wider community use: places where the weddings and feasts can take place: where
our people can mourn, play and laugh: places where social justice and community
cohesion are priorities. This alone will have a profound effect on our sense of ‘being
church’ rather than ‘going to church’…
Slides…
Extension and interior rooms to St Nicholas, Newport, Lincoln by Andrew Wiles
Storage and cupboarding in a church in Kent
John Spong writes this…The mission of Judaism (Edgar Bronfman) suggests, is not to
preserve Judaism but to build human community…the good of all religion is not to
prepare us to enter the next life, it is a call to live now, love now, to be now and, in
that way, to taste what it means to be a part of life that is eternal, a love that is
barrier free and the being of a fully self-conscious humanity’. John Shelby Spong in
‘Eternal Life-a new vision
Our buildings are places where this can become a reality.
To do this we need to be concerned with the practicalities…, we need to have a
programme of 1.community audit, so we truly know the makeup of our communities
and the real needs, rather than guessing our imposing our perceived needs. There
needs also to be a comprehensive and well-funded system of 2.feasibility, so we can
test our buildings and how they may be developed and re-ordered against the
established needs. In any event, church communities can conduct their own audit
and feasibility-starting with a simple 3. ‘SWOT’ process with the church people
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themselves and also a 4. ‘Where are we now and what are we like now-and where
do we want to be and what do we want to be like process’. The strategy is in the
difference between those two positions. 5. Research: look at other churches which
have been creatively and imaginatively re-ordered
All this, demonstrates openness to all opinions and views and involves all parties-and
involvement in the decision making leads to commitment.
And so we will also be open to partnerships with like-minded people-‘find out where
God is at work and join in’. (Abp Rowan Williams)
There are temptations to see the Church and its mission as somehow special;
unique, removed from the realities of the secular society around us-but the concerns
of the world are central to our life as a community of faith. So, we will be concerned
about social justice as we develop and re-order. Our desire will not be to attract
more people to our ‘club’, but to move together with our partners to a fairer society
which respects civil and human rights; to act locally together for the local good; we
will be pooling insights, skills and resources-and expansively encourage others to
participate and ‘get involved’. Most importantly, we will not consider that there is a
point at which we have ‘done it’-the work is always ongoing, always changing and
flexing to new circumstances-we will realise that standing still is to decline (the
sigmoid curve)
Does the ability to lease part of our buildings allow us to enter into more meaningful
partnerships?
And, a great part of ‘openness’ will mean that we are open to the advice and support
of others: we need to be in conversation with the parish architect, the DAC and the
Amenity bodies from the outset and before plans are drawn up or solidified because
we can go to great expense only to have it turned down. Seek their advice first so
that plans can be drawn up which are in accordance with that advice-thereafter,
regularly consult-walk along with them.
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Slides…
Computer suite at St Aidan’s, City Road, Sheffield
Nave of Kneesall Church, Nottinghamshire
All Saints, Hereford-restaurant and nave
Particularly if you are the custodians of a Listed building, but in any event it is useful
to produce a good Statement of Significance and Statement of Needs after all these
bodies have been consulted and before plans are drawn-again.
All Saints, Hereford
Let's move now to consider how our buildings might become places of Pilgrimage-
places where we walk through life together…
St Peter’s, Newton on Trent, Lincolnshire. Clearing and re-ordering of nave to create
a weekday assembly hall for neighbouring church school.
We have been following Abraham as he made his way into the Promised Land, a
progression he marks by building altars-fixing in the reality of the material world the
spiritual journey he is making. In Genesis chapter 13: 18, he comes to Hebron-a word
which in the original language means ‘fellowship’. But it is the saying which Abram
received from Yahweh, his Lord, which I want to draw attention to:
Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northwards and
southwards and eastwards and westwards; for all the land that you see I will give to
you and to your offspring forever.
What an expansive view! Here is not introverted, fearful engagement with life, but
one which encompasses the vast horizon. Abraham is relating the life of his people
with the life of the world-faith. And it is this panoramic, all-encompassing view of life
that we, as Christian people and congregations, are called to. Yet, one of the aspects
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for institutional decline is that we become inward-looking, caring only for our own
life and the survival of those things which we associate with the Church: the building;
paying for the priest; increasing our numbers simply for the sake of increasing our
numbers. Those things which are secondary to a faithful life and are meant to be
servants of it, take on a primary significance and become the reason for our
existence. In this, and in so many ways, the original vitality of the Christian Faith has
been lost.
There has always been a desire in the human psyche to physically locate that which
is intangible and numinous, but which just evades our grasp and our ability to pin it
down.
Speaking of this, the former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, says of the work
of John Betjeman, the poet…
Of course, he knew well that it is the very transience of the objects of our love that
moves and compels us, because we are reaching through them to a permanence that
escapes us at the very moment of possession.
In ‘Godless Morality
As we look at the church building as the gathering place of the Faithful, we are
reminded that our gathering together in worship is not to make us introverted and
self -obsessed. Rather, it is to broaden our vision and experience of life as we grow in
community.
It is interesting to remember and look back on the two major reports of the 1980s:
Faith in the City and Faith in the Countryside. The Faithful Cities underlined the
urgency of maintaining a healthy physical presence in urban areas. Both urged wider
and more comprehensive use of our church buildings. In rural areas they are often
the largest and most commodious building in a village. And this is not all: with many
church buildings, many 'employees', roots in each community, schools, financial
assets etc, we learn that the Church in any place, far from being a minor player, is in
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fact one of the major players. We are, therefore, in a good position to offer a vision
of how things could be in the future to the community around us. Two things are
important here: first, to enter into partnerships in our work and to identify who we
can partner with and, secondly, to consider ways in which we can allow a wider
remit for the building: Trusts being one creative way forward.
But let's look also at how they can become places which lack attractiveness and are
not inviting-which actively discourage people from walking with us: encourage
people to stand across the road from their church and ask themselves the question
'what is it saying?'. Are notices tired and worn, pinned with rusting tacks to paint
peeling boards? Is information out of date and too detailed? A senior church
communications officer once remarked that any business would regard the
advertising space of our church buildings alone as a massive resource.
Does all the written material involve asking for money and petty internal church
concerns, or are there Amnesty International posters and other material which
demonstrate that the church community is melded into the everyday life of the
ordinary people of the parish.
People will not give money to problems, only solutions…Alice Mann in ‘The In-
Between
Entering the building, are old furnishings, clutter and carpets apparent? Is the
general feel one of care and respect or neglect and decay? People will judge the
church community, and more importantly what the church community believes, but
the appearance of the building. In short, is it the serious house on serious earth of
Philip Larkin's poem? All of this is a matter for Archdeacons Visitations, a vigilant
DAC and also the help and encouragement offered by Churchwarden's Conferences
and training days.
But then our buildings can be places of education, regeneration and epicentres of
society. Are their evidences of a church community thoroughly engaged with
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contemporary life-posters for Amnesty International, Christian Aid and more...?
Good quality books, leaflets and Prayer Books? And, above all, good noticing and a
lively and bright ministry of welcome.-which is not just about a human welcome, but
the sense of invite and anticipation that carefully ordered access and architecture
can create.
Slides…
St Mary, Bramall Lane
St Aidan, City Rd, Sheffield
St Martin’s in the Field, London-entrance to new restaurant and conference facilities
All in all, the physical care of our church buildings in a routine and organised way will
militate against crises and building problems which can be the factor leading to
closure and redundancy, but also be a factor in promoting an atmosphere of promise
to those who look on and enter our buildings daily:
Watch an old building with an anxious care, guard it as best you may and at any cost
of any influence of dilapidation. Count its stones and bind it together when it loosens
or declines. Do this tenderly, reverently and continually and many a generation may
yet be born, and pass away beneath its shadow.
John Ruskin
The regular cleaning of gutters and downspouts, effective ventilation and targeted
'trickle' repairs can all contribute to keeping a structure fresh and rot free. Prompt
and proficient repairs can prolong life and cut out the spiral of rapid decay
associated with vandalism. All of this will enable our buildings to be assets rather
than millstones.
And finally, we come to Mount Moriah as Abraham is commanded by God to
sacrifice his beloved son. We are told that God’s purpose was to test Abraham and
his obedience. It is a dreadful command, and Abraham was not to know that his son,
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whom he had waited so long for, was not to be sacrificed. By legend, the mount on
which this famous story took place was the place where Solomon later built his
Temple, and which we now associate with the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the
Dome of the Rock mosque. And we are reminded that in our Christian
understanding, Jesus did not know the outcome of his own death-his obedience was
complete. So, the final altar of Abraham is the altar of sacrifice-but actually, the altar
of the willingness to sacrifice to see God’s will done. What are we-the church folk,
prepared to do, give up and offer to see growth and development happen?
To quote Soren Kierkegaard…The Church has succeeded in turning wine into water…
Can we revivify it?
Otherwise it seems to me the words of Richard Holloway, words may haunt us...
If the original purpose of Christianity was to carry the spirit of Jesus through
history, then it soon fell into the trap of using most of its energies to maintain itself
and the life to which it had grown accustomed
So what is our role in all this-the gathered worshipping community?
Slides…
St Nicholas, Poplar, London
Mason United Methodist Church, Ohio
Lady Chapel-St Martin’s in the Fields
Here, we might acknowledge that there is something obstructive in our governance
which, despite our good will and well-meant intentions, inhibits the ability of the
whole community to be involved in the care, maintenance and use of our church
buildings. Put simply, the common perception is that the building is the preserve of
the gathered congregation whilst the congregation believe there is no public love for
the building. A downward spiral ensues. Properly ascertaining the needs of the
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parish and the church communities possible part in answering them through audit
and feasibility will allow adaptation for community use and also be far more likely to
attract grants and public subscription. We must also remember that, primarily in our
rural communities although it’s also very true of urban areas in a time of austerity,
we stand at a point in history where the traditional structural 'glue' of our
communities has been eroded: schools have been privatised, pubs have shut, Post
Offices have closed and bus routes have been reduced, funding for social projects
withdrawn. In many places, only the church remains. Now the building can be a way
of speaking of the inclusiveness and all-encompassing love of God:
slides...
St Peter, Newton on Trent
St Aidan, City Rd, Sheffield
A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognised and clothed as destinies.
Philip Larkin
Slide…
Avonbridge United Reform Church, Falkirk
When my son was fourteen, we moved into a small village in Lincolnshire. One night,
knowing him to be alone in his bedroom we could hear him having an animated
conversation with someone-who knows who. I crept up to his door and tentatively
knocked, to find him in front of his television with headphones on deftly
manipulating the control panel in his hands. ‘What are you doing? I asked. ‘Playing a
game with someone’ he said. ‘Where are they?’ I enquired. ‘New York’ was the reply.
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It was very difficult to get that boy up on a Sunday morning for an 8am Book of
Common Prayer service in a cold and bleak church!
If we are serious about change as Christian communities, one of the things we need
to ask ourselves is ‘what are we prepared to sacrifice for growth and relevance in the
modern world?’.
The Second Vatican Council spoke of the Church as ‘the pilgrim people of God’,
reminding us of a very ancient, traditional description….(it follows that) those who
dislike change and oppose it in the name of tradition are not within the tradition of
the Church which, by its very nature, must be a Church on the move, a searching
Church without any abiding city here.
Gerard Hughes in ‘In Search of a Way’
Those who lead a development project therefore need to have some change
management skills, and to understand that often changing the culture of a church
community is the trickiest aspect of the operation…
First there needs to be a clear understanding that the church and its built resource
are public property and not the private domain of a few-they are sacred spaces, set
aside for use by all…
Primitive people found a clear distinction between so-called 'sacred' and 'profane'
place. Sacred space is the place of regeneration, creativity and transformation.
Sacred space provides an anchor for one's existence in the midst of the hazards of the
environment. This experience of sacred space is all but lost in our contemporary
culture.
Huffman and Stauffer
Slide…
Prayer maze-St Mary, Bramall Lane
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and again...
It needs to be realised that the architecture of the building is capable of exercising a
profound influence on the worshipping community's understanding of itself and its
mission.
Peter Hammond in 'Towards a Church Architecture‘
How the building is ordered will influence how those who regularly use it see and
understand themselves as a faith community and understand what there mission is…
Slides…
RC church of Mary the Immaculate, Grantham
St Catherine, Wakefield
Salisbury Cathedral
When he was considering the theology behind the proposed re-ordering of
Portsmouth Cathedral, Bishop-then Dean-David Stancliffe suggested that, primarily,
the church building is a place where the Holy Week and Easter Liturgies can be
enacted. We know what he means, for it is in our liturgies, especially the Eucharist,
that the Christian family most expresses what it is and what it is about.
Slides…
Portsmouth Cathedral, where we move from the Georgian nave-the Old Testament
and gathering place of the people, through the baptistery based on the font at
Ravenna to the Victorian chancel-the New Testament and then to the sanctuary and
reserved sacrament in the medieval ‘bit’-heaven.
Consider for a moment our own homes: they will tell people who visit what the
inhabitants are like. Are they neat and tidy? What colours are used and are they
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extravert or introvert? The size of the house and its furnishings will tell whether we
are rich or poor, and the pictures will reveal what we value and hold dear in life. All
in all, the sensual experience of a home will reveal far more than words can. The
same is no less true of a Christian church where, for good or ill, its physical condition
and ordering will reveal what its regular users hold dear and to what depth.
So a church must speak powerfully of its central purpose: worship. So, the central
furnishings of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist need to be in clearly
defined, uncluttered spaces and have sufficient weight and presence to underline
the significance of those two actions. I react against the use of fruit bowls on flower
stands for fonts and when the altar doubles as a sideboard for ornaments or, worse,
coffee cups. Allowing these central foci to 'speak' wordlessly informs the visitor what
the building is about:
Slides…
Southwick Methodist Church, Worthing
St Andrew’s Methodist Church, Sheringham, Norfolk
The purpose of a church is to move to worship, to bring a man to his knees, to refresh
his soul in a weary land.
Sir Ninian Comper
Also, our buildings and the way they are ordered internally speak of the relationships
within a Christian community and how they are conducted: whilst traditional layouts
can speak to us of the splendour and immutability of God, they can also speak of a
priestly superior caste with a subservient and disengaged people 'meekly kneeling
upon their knees'. The layout and ordering of the church interior might speak of the
complementarity and collegiality of the different functions within the Church's life.
And also, the numinous quality of a building needs our attention: the special
ethereal quality of patina and age does not just happen, it is the carefully crafted
conjunction of colour, lighting, wood tones, art work and much else. And simply
space is also important: Ron Sims, the great northern church architect, said that 'you
can improve a building simply by taking things out'.
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A Mirfield Father once said that, when the community chapel was empty, it was as if
it was 'resting' between acts of worship.
Slide…Newton Road, United Reform Church, Fulham
And finally, the church building as a place of retreat....
In the normal course of things, our church buildings have been places of solitude and
retreat: places to draw apart from the hustle and bustle of the world to consider and
reflect: to pray. In this, we must also be conscious that the churchyard is part and
parcel of this place of retreat, and is probably used as such by a wider range of
people in a community than the church itself. It is an important aspect of sacred
space in a community, and is one of the greatest offerings that the Church can make
to an increasingly frenetic and stressed world.
Following slides…
St Peter, Plymouth