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It has become a tedious commonplace
to say that the church is in crisis, in decline, will not last out the
century. What is needed is critical analysis of the reasons for this state
of affairs and analytical overviews of what can be done to rectify the
situation.
One of the signs of hope today is the appearance of an increasing number
of such critiques and a more open spirit of willingness to admit to the
defects of the present state of the church, and to engage new ideas.
In The Suicidal Church I attempted to sketch some of the factors that
I believe have contributed to the decline. I was particularly interested
in structural and attitudinal factors, such as the Anglican Church's middle
class value systems and dislike of proselytising, as well as its hierarchical,
bureaucratic structure and links with the establishment. If these are
indeed some of the problems, how can the church shake off a century of
gradual but inexorable decline and move ahead?
Certainly not by more messing around with the liturgy or introducing 1970s
pop hymns. The problems are largescale, so the changes that need to be
made need to be large-scale, structural and attitudinal. In Australia
the Anglican church is not "established", as it is in England, but it
has, in the minds of many both within and outside the church, strong links
with the middle-class establishment.
This is patent in some ways, such as church patronage of prestigious and
affluent schools for the sons and daughters of the professional classes.
It is less obvious, but even more critical to the church's welfare, in
its whole underlying ethos. This derives from its origins in England as
the established church during the era of "Christendom", when the whole
nation was Christian (at least in name) and the church had political and
temporal power. Today, in Australia, it is and has none of these things,
yet it still thinks and acts as thought it did, as though it was still
the "master narrative".
This is a mindset problem, and the change that is needed is a mindset
change, away from this nonfunctional model to a conception of the church
that more truly expresses its real position today. Change in attitude
is the necessary precursor to change in strategy. Despite the fact that
three-quarters of Australians are nominally Christian, the church is no
longer part of the dominant culture. Practising Christians are effectively
a minority group.
The sooner we realise this and begin to think and act accordingly, the
sooner the church can begin to make its way again in the community. Ironically,
the church could benefit from looking at the example of some of the social
groups which it has most alienated, such as homosexuals. The gay culture,
which is very strong, is a minority culture. This has given it energy
to promote its cause, and solidarity among its membership. Being gay is
a bond which draws strangers together and gives newcomers instant rapport
with a group. The same occurs with ethnic minority groups.
Christians are now a cultural minority, like gays or Muslims. All the
complaining about the increasing secularisation of Australian culture,
surprisingly, has not yet driven this message home. We do understand that
it is we who are on the margins, we who are sidelined, we whose interests
are not taken account of; but we have not added all this up and grasped
what it really means. We have not understood how inappropriate, in this
environment, the whole Anglican mindset is to the project of continuing
to exist and promote our cause - the Gospel of Christ.
To do so today, we need to re-envision ourselves as a cultural minority
group. This might seem like a mere quibbling over words, a slight change
of emphasis, but such a change would go to the heart of Anglican culture
- not its doctrines, but its ethos and therefore behaviour. The church
will need to give up arguing over trivia and engaging in arcane rituals.
It will need to cease wasting its energy on factional infightings and
being snobbish about those who do not fit with the white, male, heterosexual,
middle-me truths class value system.
It will need to stop narcissistically gazing into the well of its own
history, and become united in its mission, outward-looking, accepting,
supportive of its members and fully engaged with the world around it.
It will need to become daring, experimental and prophetic. It can do all
this with God's help, and there are signs of hope that it will. It can
then re-enter society from the margins, and re-position the Gospel where
it belings - at the centre of our society.
Caroline Miley is a
lecturer in Art History at the Victorian College of the Arts and is the
author of The Suicidal Church (Pluto Press Annandale 2002 $29.95)
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