Us and Them

The Bishop of London was quite right. In death, Margaret Hilda Thatcher was just 'one of us'. Death is the great leveller: no social, class, racial, gender, or political divide there. What a shame it is that there can't be more equality this side of the grave. But where there's death there's hope.

On Tuesday, Alan (my colleague) and I went on a training day for clergy in 'multi-church benefices' - i.e. where there is more than one church per vicar. He and I oversee 3 churches between us. Such situations require significant changes in the way vicars do their work, compared with the traditional one church/one vicar model (though in fact, this has never been a universal pattern). In the next 10 years, 40% of all full-time, paid vicars will retire: Alan and I are two of them. There won't be enough vicars being ordained to fill those gaps, so we are already having to work differently. I have for years seen this more as an opportunity than a problem, believing that (in the words of the Bishop of Carlisle, James Newcome) bishops should be more apostolic, clergy more episcopal, and lay people more priestly. That needs unpacking, but for us clergy it basically means more sharing of ministerial tasks, standing back to offer oversight, direction, spiritual and human resourcing. For myself, it's been a journey 'from vicar to leader.' In other words, the clergy/lay divide needs dissolving. To quote another favourite saying of mine, 'it's not that lay people help vicars to run the church; rather, vicars help lay people to change the world!' Despite many signs of decline in the church, there are even more signs of life, as the church - realising the challenge of the age - learns to live and to serve differently.

Yesterday, I convened a meeting of various professionals and volunteers at the riding stables for the disabled near where I live. Because of government cuts, the City Council can no longer fund this establishment so we're having to think about how to manage ourselves. This will involve finding the necessary money, employing staff, caring for animals, maintaining buildings and equipment etc. Most of us were well beyond the limits of our experience, but without exception willing to have a go. Why? Because we believed in the importance of what the stables have to offer and because we could see the potential. Scary though! None of us was prepared to think in terms of closure.

We have heard of yet another dreadful atrocity in Boston, Mass. and then of the factory blast in Texas. In both cases, and in many other similar situations we hear of amazing tales of courage and compassion. In the face of death, many heros are found.

Somehow, 'death' (literally or figuratively) always seems to bring some hope or blessing with it. As Christians, we have the best reason of all for never giving up!