Should we preach at Carol services?
A couple of years ago, David Walker, the bishop of Manchester, conducted some research on the distinctive needs of occasional attenders who might come to Christmas services, simply don't nourish the remainder of the year. This appears to exist an important group; I have noticed each year how many people are reporting increased attendances at ballad services, and nosotros saw the same at St Nic'southward in Nottingham.
Some things were slightly surprising about this group.
Typically, two-thirds positively believed in specific details of the Christmas story: the shepherds, stable, and Wise Men. All but a tiny proportion of the residual were unsure. Simply 13 per cent, withal, felt that the facts were more of import than the mystery. Half felt closer to God at Christmas, and yet more thought Easter to exist, for them, the more than important festival.
But other things were less surprising.
They were noticeably pluralist: they were far more likely to hold that all world faiths lead to God than that Christianity is the only truthful religion…On moral problems they were progressive: but 28 per cent disagreed with ordaining gay men as bishops.
(I wonder why a bishop labels this view 'progressive'—or fifty-fifty why this is an important question to inquire occasional church-goers at all…?). In other words, this is what yous would expect to find in a respectable fringe group who call back positively about church.
Out of this, David offers some helpful advice.
- Don't update the words of well-known carols to fit your theology…
- Be imaginative. Use poesy, prose, and art…
- Welcome people, but respect their personal space…
- Mention other special events coming upwardly in the calendar…
But in amidst them is one extraordinary suggestion:
- If in that location is to exist a sermon (and at carol services, information technology really is not a expert idea)…
Not a good idea? Really? Here is a group of people, open up to Christian things (possibly considering they have attended church in the past) simply without regular commitment—and it is non a good thought to preach? This is a very odd suggestion, for several reasons. Start, it is not very Anglican. If you look at the ordinal and the 39 Articles, it is clear that the Anglican understanding of ordained ministry is that it is one of both word and sacrament—that preaching is as important every bit mystery, explanation every bit important as feel. (That is why, as Andrew Atherstone points out, information technology is historically odd that we are very happy with the delegation of preaching to lay ministers, but feel uncomfortable with delegation of eucharistic presidency to lay ministers.)
It is a specially odd proffer in relation to Christmas. The Christmas story itself is full of declaration and proclamation—indeed, if there is 1 thread running through every aspect of this multi-faceted story, it is that of annunciation. Gabriel to Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary, the dreams of Joseph, the angels actualization to shepherds, the Magi to Herod—how odd it would be to have no annunciation regarding a story of successive proclamations.
And what a story we have to proclaim. Peter Wilby was editor of the Independent on Lord's day from 1995 to 1996 and of theNew Statesman from 1998 to 2005—and is an atheist. Even so he loves to celebrate the Christmas story:
Nil draws me more to religion than Christmas. That is not considering I lose my atheist religion only because I intensely dislike all the commercial baggage and babble that surrounds the festival. So, in a spirit of protestation, I shall try to attend at least 1 carol service and peradventure a midnight Mass, too, too equally listening at 3pm sharp on Christmas Eve to the Radio 4 broadcast of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from Rex's College, Cambridge.
All religions have stories at their heart. Christianity, to my heed, has the all-time: an almighty God who chooses to be incarnated equally a human, born in the almost humble circumstances imaginable. Whether or not we are believers, nosotros should all celebrate that story in the coming days and ponder its meaning.
And then why would anyone resist this? There are, perhaps, two clues in David Walker's article. The first comes early on with the only other reference to preaching.
There has always been a type of mission that ignores context, and but struts its stuff. It is best illustrated past those who stand in city-centre streets, clutching microphones and tracts, and harangue shoppers and commuters with their favourite Bible verses.
If this is your understanding of preaching, then you probably should avoid information technology—it is certainly the kind of preaching I would want to avoid! But the best response to bad apply is not no use—information technology is good apply. There was a brief but wonderful example of this in a Christmas episode of the 1 Show. The terminal scene came from ballad singing in All Soul's, Langham Place, and Matt was talking to the Rector, Hugh Palmer.
HP: Giving appeals to our common humanity—I suspect the people who gave came from all faiths and none.
Matt: And that's at the middle of the Christmas message that yous would like to give…?
HP: Well, nosotros often talk near clemency beginning at home. But I call up that clemency begins with God, the good God, who is highlighted at Christmas. He looks and doesn't only encounter children in need, just a world with all kinds of needs, and gives extravagantly, and not with a cheque, just gives himself, Jesus, and that's the heartbeat of Christian giving. We don't give and then that God will requite to us. We give, we love, considering he starting time loved u.s.a.—and that's Christmas.
Matt: Well, thank you lot for that bulletin…
It was a superb case of a curtailed, contextual and clear exposition of the Christmas story—to someone who came with rather different assumptions only some sympathy and openness.
The second inkling about this reluctance to preach arises from the research questions. Although the attenders have been asked about the details of the Christmas story, and some broader questions about belief in God, they don't appear to have been asked about themeaning of this story. Once again, this is curious, since the New Attestation stories themselves are laden with meaning and significance. As nosotros can quickly tell, they are no mere recounting of facts. This tells us something important about this kind of research: the assumptions yous put in are going to be the assumptions you get out. So if you don't think that explaining and understanding the Christmas story is a priority as you start the research, your conclusions might just miraculously ostend this!
(Something similar has happened with the research into 'ordinary theology'. It turns out that the majority of ordinary Anglicans don't have a peculiarly orthodox understanding of either who Jesus is or what he achieved. And apparently, to take this seriously we don't need to teach nigh orthodox Christian faith—nosotros need to redefine it to include these views!)
Underlying this appears to be a lack of confidence that the story itself is compelling and attractive. If the Star Wars phenomenon tells united states of america anything, information technology is that people love a good story. And at that place is no story as engaging and compelling every bit the story of the Give-and-take made flesh.
So, this Christmas, do preach. Brand information technology contextually appropriate. Make sure information technology sounds like good news to those who might not take heard it before. Make sure y'all hold out the compelling truth of the story, and how information technology promises so much more than. Make sure yous focus, not and then much on what people did or what we should do, but what God has washed.
Only any else y'all do—preach!
(A version of this was first published in December 2015)
Come and bring together us on Jan 30th for the Festival of Theology!
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