Latest CofE Attendance stats

can be found here, with the details here. I love the fact that here we are in 2008 and the CofE still has 'provisional' data for 2006. My own Diocese, Bath and Wells, shows a staggering jump of over 25% in average childrens weekly attendance from 2005-2006. I don't know if that comes from counting schools who have their assemblies in a church as 'weekly attendance', or whether some mighty work of God is happening amongst us.

I'll probably do a bit more number crunching in the next few days, as time permits. It'll be interesting to see if there's any correlation between a Diocese making church growth a priority (e.g. Lichfield, London), and actual growth as shown by the figures.

One cautionary note in all of this - we collect our figures in October, when there's often a harvest service. It's quite hard to identify a 'normal' month for collecting figures that doesn't have anything that distorts them - June is the only one I can think of that doesn't have a major festival (Christmas, Harvest, Remembrance, Easter, Lent, Mothering Sunday) or a major holiday.

Rowan Williams on Blasphemy

The AB of C did a lecture on Tuesday about the blasphemy law, and Dave Walker has a piece on some of the reactions to it. Matt Wardman encouraged me to blog on this, so here goes.

As someone with a full-time job, I don't have the 3 days necessary to grapple with every sentence in the lecture. It is what it is: a lecture, not an article in the Sun. It's all the more disappointing that some of the reports and reactions haven't taken this into account. The Times report gives just as much airtime to Terry Sanderson, the president of the rent-a-quote National Secular Society (membership 7,000), who called the lecture a 'blatant pitch for new legislation to replace the blasphemy laws'. Sorry Mr. S, but the one thing you can't accuse Rowan Williams of being is blatant. Nuanced, dense, impenetrable even (I don't know if this got a laugh at the lecture - he at one stage restates one of his phrases 'in plainer English'), but not blatant.

There seem to me to be two reasons to have a blasphemy law:

a) A society based on a religious worldview, which sees blasphemy as an offence to God, and therefore enshrines it in their law code. In this view, God's existence is taken for granted, and he is seen as a party in moral questions. The UK blasphemy law is premised on Christendom, i.e. that the UK is a Christian society with established church, Christian monarch, and a Christian moral code underpinning it's laws, freedoms and understandings of the person and society. Blasphemy is not offence against religion, but against God himself, and is seen as an evil thing in a 'godly' society

b) A society based on a pluralist worldview, which takes a pragmatic approach, seeing a blasphemy law as a way of protecting religious people from insult and abuse. In this case it is not God who is being 'protected', but the person of faith.

My understanding of the UK is that we originally had a blasphemy law because of a, but in a post-Christian, multi-faith society the ground and justification of the blasphemy law has shifted to b. A law based on 'a' would be a clear statement of the Christian values at the root of our society and constitution, but the abc seems to be arguing on the basis of b, i.e. he has given up on a 'Christendom' justification and is relying on a pragmatic one.

At one level this is fair enough. Rowan Williams recognises that we are in a liberal, not a Christian society now,

I have attempted to go a little below the surface in the discussion about what protection religious believers should enjoy from the law of the land, in order to pinpoint some of the related issues around what is actually desirable and morally defensible in a society that is 'procedurally secular' but genuinely open to the audibility of religious voices in public debate. It is clear that the old blasphemy law is unworkable and that its assumptions are not those of contemporary lawmakers and citizens overall (emphasis mine)

Williams is therefore trying to argue for some kind of defense against the sensibilities of Christians, Muslims etc. on the basis of a liberal worldview, rather than a Christian one. You will read the article in vain for an explicitly Chrisitan theology of law and public morality - at one level I'm disappointed by this, but it's not what Williams is trying to do. He is starting from the assumptions of society at large, and arguing from there. That way, he has to be engaged with, rather than ignored and put into a religious pigeon hole.

This is a tricky issue: we are a post-Christian society, so to hang on to laws and values which date from the time when we were a Christian society can be archaic. However, many of those laws are good, and we have suffered as a society from liberalising them. We are in a transition between two worldviews, and Christians are both fighting to preserve what was good in the old order, whilst trying to engage with the new: abortion, attitudes to family, blasphemy, embryology, euthanasia - it's the issues where liberal secular and Christian values diverge that the plates rub against each other. On other issues: care for the poor, tolerance, environmentalism, justice, there is less friction, because there is more agreement between Christians and secularists.

I'm sure God is big enough not to need our protection, but those of us who believe God is real, and has will purpose and goodness, find it hard to accept a society which throws out blasphemy altogether. We love God, and to hear and see him insulted is as deep an offense to us as racist language is to people who suffer racist abuse. The statement we make by abolishing the blasphemy law is effectively saying to God 'you're on your own mate, we're not rooting for you any more.' As a Christian I think it's sad that we've got to that point, but if we have got to that point then that's the reality, and we have to deal with it. In his own way, that is what Rowan Williams is trying to do.

Gene Hunt vs Derek Conway

Tory MP Derek Conway has had the whip removed after paying his son £40k of taxpayers money, yet 'no record' had been found of said son doing any work for him. Inquiries are still pending, but this is the latest in a long line of dodgy financial stories coming out of Westminster. A few months ago it seemed that the North-East was the epicentre of financial scandal (the 'dead' canoeist who's life insurance bankrolled his wife's flat in Panama, a Labour financer who had donated via a proxy etc.). That epicentre has moved down to London.

Meanwhile, several million people are cancelling all engagements for Thursday 7th Feb, as Gene Hunt returns to our screens, in Ashes to Ashes, the sequel the magnificent Life on Mars. What has this got to do with Derek Conway? Bear with me.

The core plot to Life on Mars, and Ashes to Ashes, is a police officer who ends up 'back in time' - in Life on Mars it turned out to be (we think!) just Sam Tyler's vivid dreams whilst in a coma. The challenge for Ashes to Ashes will be to lay a different trail of clues for how Alex Drake got to be in 1981. For both of them, catapulted into Gene Hunts sexist, brutal, no-nonsense world from the form-filling, psychological profiling noughties, the challenge is a) how to get back home and b) how to maintain their integrity and values in a world which works in a completely different way to what they're used to.

The classic story of Ulysses and the Sirens tells of how Ulysses had himself bound to the mast of his ship, so that the Sirens call wouldn't tempt him to his death. It's a great parable about temptation, and how we need to master it. Ulysses needs not only the willpower - to decide in advance (not the heat of the moment) that he will not be drawn off course - but also the help of his crew, who tie him up and refuse to let him go even when the Sirens cry is yanking his soul out of his body.

In some ways it's easier for Sam Tyler (Life on Mars) and Alex Drake (Ashes to Ashes) to maintain integrity. They know they are in an alien world, and that they don't belong there. But every MP in Westminster is part of the club, and unless you've decided in advance what your standards are, and found other people to help you keep them, it's easy to lose your integrity, and let standards drop. It's the same in the playground, the workplace, even a church.

It's back to whether we are thermostats or thermometers: do we 'set the temperature' and influence the world around us, or do we merely reflect the environment we are in? There does seem to be a Westminster culture that has forgotten that MP's expenses are taxpayers money, and that honesty is a non-negotiable, not something that can be traded in for, say, the deputy leadership of the Labour party.

And if you ring me next Thursday between 9-10pm and get the answerphone, it's because I'm somewhere in 1981 with Gene Hunt. 'Lets fire up the Quattro.'

Messy Church goes online

Great news: Messy Church now has a website.

Messy Church is what it says on the tin: a form of all-age church which involves plenty of mess, but which is ideally suited for running midweek, Saturday afternoons, after school etc. The 'normal' format includes a craft/activity/play time where parents and carers get stuck in playing with their kids, then a short time of worship, then a meal together. Several churches are picking this up as a monthly outreach, and it's been quite effective in reaching people who normally don't go to Sunday worship. "I don't see it as a stepping stone into Sunday services... it needs to be valid in its own right."

The website has ideas for services, lists of who's trying 'Messy Church', training events, and is a networking site for people who are trying it. One of the holy grails of Fresh Expressions of church is a way of 'doing church' which can be replicated in various settings without masses of effort. It's very hard going completely back to the drawing board with every new form of Christian community, mission or worship.

There's also a book (pictured), details via the website, or via Barnabas in Churches.

British Social Attitudes Survey: Giving up the daily paper for premarital sex

The latest British Social Attitudes survey was published last week, and there's a very useful headline page plus a summary of each of the chapters here, if you don't have a couple of weeks of time and £50 spare for the full report.

Strangely, the headline figure is that 70% of us now think there's nothing wrong with sex before marriage, against 48% in 1984. Personally I'm surprised the figure is that low, there is clearly a bit more residual Christian morality around than we thought. However, most of those who think they shouldn't probably are - apparently though 80% of us know driving our cars is bad for the environment, only 45% are actually doing something about it.

The report also covers family life, gender roles, 'Britishness', politics, citizenship and use of the media. Those of us who read a daily paper have fallen from 77% to 50% since 1984, and the slack hasn't been taken up by the internet. Many more of us feel we're 'living comfortably', and unemployment has become almost invisible as an issue.

The report is based on interviews with over 3,000 people, so a decent sized sample, and lots to chew on.

Forgiveness

Hat tip to Richard Frank for this cracking clip from ER. Not a show I ever watch, but the scenario here is a new hospital chaplain (very liberal and postmodern) at the bedside of a dying man who oversaw a death row execution of a man who later turned out to be innocent.

"I need answers. And all your questions and your uncertainties are only making things worse... I need someone who will look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness, because I am running out of time."

Original source is Mark Meynells blog, which and looks worth a read, especially if you're into TV and mass culture.

new Touching Base

Further musings on sadness and society in the latest Touching Base over at the Wardman Wire, following on from Blue Monday last week. A brief flavour:

(After Genesis 2) When things go wrong in the next chapter, work becomes frustrating, relationships break down, God becomes distant, and Adam becomes dis-eased within himself and starts to experience shame and guilt. The breakdown of key relationships, loss of purpose in life and loss of fulfillment in activity, all are corrosive of happiness.

The next generation faces the crucial choice: be happy for what you have and thank God (Abel), or get angry about what you haven’t got and lash out (Cain).

Yeovil to grow 60% by 2026?

If you're not Yeovil or Somerset-based, this may not interest you, so skip it!!

An official inspectors response has just been published (big file, broadband recommended) to the Regional Spatial Strategy for the South West. The Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) is a region-wide planning document which sketches out the next 20 or so years in terms of housing, transport, environment, employment etc.

The original RSS, published in 2006, planned for growth of 300 houses a year in Yeovil urban area, to meet it's share of regional housebuilding, which in turn was based on national projections. The national projections have since risen, and this has come through in the inspectors report - it equates to an extra 2500 houses per year across the region, on top of what was already planned.

Pages 179-183 of the full report - which seems to be pretty much accepted by the South West regional authoritites deal with the Yeovil area, and project growth of 9,100 new jobs (about 30%) in the Yeovil and district area. To house the extra workers and their dependants, the RSS looks more to urban centres than rural ones to bear the brunt of the housing. So Yeovil's housing projection has been revised upwards from 6,400 to 11,400. The report accepts that finding land for an extra 5,000 houses (i.e. a town the size of Wells) is 'a daunting task', and may involve the Yeovil urban area crossing the Dorset border.

11,400 houses, at normal occupancy levels of an average of 2.3 people per house, translates into 26220 extra people, on top of the existing Yeovil population of just over 40,000. So by 2030 we will be the size of Taunton, and still growing. This will radically change the nature of the town, and it's surrounds, and presents a massive challenge for our urban planners, as well as for the church. It makes the work we're doing to draw together teams for the 3 new housing estates currently in the pipeline (2000 houses between them) look quite modest, considering that over 5 times that number of houses could be built within the next generation.

If you're part of a church in an urban centre anywhere in the SW of England, you need to read the report. This will define the future shape of your community, and the number of people living there.