How is the rural church different?

Hampshire Rural Group
Meeting at Colden Common Vicarage, 30 October 2012

Ministry on the Edge: Rural Ministry on the fringes of towns / Suburban Ministry on the Rural Fringe.

Starting point, Archbishop Rowan Williams' Theological Reflection on the essays in Changing Rural Life: A Christian response to key rural issues, ed Jeremy Martineau, Leslie J Francis and Peter Francis (Canterbury Press, 2004)

Points made in dialogue with that article:

•    Faith taken from towns to countryside
    •    ‘not thinking of countryside for itself’, most tend to see it through urban eyes: worldview shaped by urban
    •    many in modern villages have urban mentality - commuters, secondary schools are in towns, young use networking media
    •    successful buy into countryside living, some into ‘rural myth’

•    Land
    •    sense of trusteeship not always evidenced by farmers and estate managers – but some do
    •    theology of place: sense of place; in countryside ‘people need to know their place’: people living away who wish to celebrate their weddings and baptisms in home rural church
    •    history of place important: development from Roman times into Anglo-Saxon, Roman villa ➔ estate ➔ village
    •    minster small monastic settlement at heart of estate, monks and secular clergy, with church
    •    Church is often much loved as ‘our church’

•    Limit
    •    human nature desires to control: this year’s bad harvest is taken philosophically by farmers
    •    countryside as a place where death is in view: road-kill, livestock, open churchyards
    •    small scale: both beautiful and challenging (parish share large): small makes for greater interdependence, more loving, greater need for good relationships.

•    But what is really distinctive about rural ministry?
    •    is it only that it is ministry in rural context to range of people with rural attitudes, expectations, dreams, by definition living in small settlements
    •    it is likely more traditional
    •    hypothesis: in village communities church goers are representative: someone dies, but then another takes up the responsibility so numbers keep up.
    •    ‘old village’ may be isolated from church, but still support the building
    •    sense of identity, sense of belonging sometimes highest in those who are overlooked
    •    multi-parish – need to regain balance between ministry and management

Brainstorming at the inaugural meeting of Hampshire Rural Group, 13 April 2005 What, from our experience, is distinctive about Rural Ministry?  Sociology of Villages •    different countrysides (Russell) •    farming •    change, in a setting thought of as more traditional •    eclectic •    rurality — ‘in the mind’ •    different models of ‘common space’ •    perception of ‘community’, while sometimes not actually knowing each other •    class: people don't laugh if your name is Rupert ... •    parochial Church •    community ownership of church •    multi-parish •    un-ideological •    organic •    church primary schools common •    a (retired) military presence - to vicar, “You’re one of us.” •    managing decline? •    Ministry or management? •    decline of non-conformity •    church events owned by village •    open church, visitors •    churchyard •    value of string (make do and mend)

Thoughts about the discussion (a personal response - MC)

•    The difficulty we had in identifying clear differences between rural and urban ministry has already been suggested in research by Leslie J Francis and team which shows that rural ministers are less differentiated now from their urban colleagues than they used to be (Rural Theology articles).
    •    sub-urbanism is a greedy concept, by definition, erasing difference by making a comforting uniformity: but there really is need in rural ministry to ‘know one’s place’ in every sense, not least by appreciating (celebrating?) difference.
    •    rural society is complex and, the smaller the community the more this impinges on ministry.
    •    rural ministry is most likely to be done in multi-parish benefices: multiple-focus is wearing for all, lay and ordained.
    •    rural churches cannot easily withdraw, whether into a spiritual ministerial bubble or eclectic churchmanship: there is always pressure from the expectation of many-layered engagement with all the parish.

•    So, theologically we could say that the special emphases of the Good News from the rural churches are:

    •    A heightened recognition in our worship of God as Creator and Father: this leads to living in community and church life with an acceptance of limit, and with organic growth supported by human tending – however slow to fruit.
    •    Celebrating in our village communities the incarnate life of our Lord Jesus Christ, through face to face relationship, by knowing our place in its human scale by love and service, with thankfulness for its land, walked and prayed over.
    •    In the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to seek the common good, through the fruits of kindness, gentleness, generosity, etc: and through the reconciling Spirit to gather up the fragments of multi-parish ministry to nourish the people of God.

MC 3 November 2012