not too much

Giles Fraser's columns in The Church Times are always interesting. Even when he writes on specifically English matters, there is often value for we non-English. This time (13 Jul 07) he writes about the CofE General Synod.

Reading Alastair Campbell's diaries on the train back from another depressing General Synod made me wake up to the similarity between old Labour and the leadership of the Church of England: both are more concerned to please their own activists than to reach out to the country as a whole.

Australia's Labor Party has been like that; it's not clear whether it will it stay free of it in the run up to our next elections, due soon.

The reason why people like Messrs Campbell, Blair, and Mandelson will always be my political heroes is that they took a basket-case of a party, with zero chance of government, and turned it into an outfit that wrestled with the real problems that ordinary people thought important.

The New Labour project began by challenging the self-righteousness of its own party activists that kept them wedded to outdated statements of belief . . . We, too, are held back by self-righteous party activists, who are more concerned to transform church polity than to transform our mission.

The reality is that millions of people couldn't care less what we say or think. They don't care about covenants or gay vicars: they want the Church to speak about life and death, about love and grace, about justice and hope. And because we are not speaking about it, they will go elsewhere. Tragically, General Synod is as mission-shaped as a chocolate teapot.

Startling simile that. I'd never heard it before. But apparently "as useful as a chocolate teapot" is an established idiom, not that we are talking about disestablishement here. I even found a test: S. Bradshaw, et. al. An Appraisal of the Utility of a Chocolate Teapot. Plokta 23 [Volume 6 Number 2] May 2001. Fraser continues:

What would be funny--if it was not so sad--is that many Synod types act as though it is the centre of the universe, as if changing things at Synod actually changed anything real at all. But the truth is that people are increasingly no longer interested. . . . The "Church" on the York campus feels like a sealed box, impervious to the outside world. It lacks the oxygen of reality. This is why it will not be long before we are no longer the national Church. We circulate reports that nobody reads, and pass resolutions that nobody cares about. Jesus came to bring us life in all its fullness. He certainly did not come to bring us this.

This is a salutary warning, as the Anglican Church of Australia meets in a few months for its next General Synod. Our task is made more difficult by the fact that we meet only once in three years and even then for only one week.

Nonetheless, I look forward to attending as a member, a representative of Canberra and Goulburn. Besides worship in the Cathedral, the Presidential address and formal business, there will be focus sessions on:

1. Millennium Development Goals
2. Mission as "a major strategic focus for the Church over the next triennium."
3. the environment, to "take the politics out of it and focus on the theological dimension and what we as a church can do in a practical way to make an impact on the changing environment."; and
4. the Listening Process, responding to the Lambeth 1998 resolution concerning sexuality, which called for listening to the experiences of members of the gay and lesbian community in their interactions with the Church. I think it's safe to say that we haven't done a lot of listening in Australia," Synod General Secretary the Rev'd Bruce McAteer says.

The sessions are "mission focussed, they're building up the Kingdom," says McAteer. "We're not at the moment being distracted by what I call 'secondary issues'. He added that when the he and the Primate had their first planning meeting with Bishop George Browning, Bishop George had said, 'I hope we can have a Synod this time that not about women bishops and sex'. (As the Synod is being held here in George's Diocese, Canberra and Goulburn, so he is the host.)

"At the moment that's what we're coming up with--a Synod that actually focuses on where the Church should be going, connecting with society and dealing with issues that are relevant to building up the Kingdom and helping people struggle with some of the bigger issues."

British mission and church growth specialist Bob Jackson will present the daily Bible studies at General Synod. On the invitation of the Primate, Philip Aspinal, Bob Jackson will use the studies to lead the Synod in reflections on the theme of 'Going for Growth', based on his book The Road to Growth. Mr Jackson speaks of the 'mixed economy' -- that we need healthy existing churches, but we also need to be developing fresh expressions of church, and new forms of Christian community, geared to meeting people who live outside our existing communities.

So I hope we won't melt away like a chocolate teapot. Yet a few scant hours are insufficient to even begin to work on the Listening Process, the evironment, our mission, or the MDG's. There must be well executed follow through. And the national church has no resources for this. All the resources are with the Dioceses and local parishes.