A few years ago, the vicar of my then (Evangelical Anglican) church encouraged the congregation to meditate on the future of that church – so I did, and had a vision of the church turning itself inside out – literally (tales of topographical churches?). The floor lifted through the roof, everything along each side of the church reversed itself in order to become \u201coutside\u201d and the pews rearranged themselves to line the sides of what was now a single thick wall; everyone in them was now facing the streets on either side rather than into the body of the church. The former roof became canopies cantilevered over the pews, and I\u2019m assuming the altar was now decorating the rear wall, which I couldn\u2019t see.<\/p>\n
I shared that vision with him after the service. I’m not sure he was entirely taken with the vision. I read speculation as to whether Christianity can survive<\/a> without an institutional church; he may have had something of that sort in mind.<\/p>\n To be fair to that church, it does already spill out onto the street more than most others. The doors are open more than those of most other churches in the city, there are often events which spill onto the church forecourt (which is effectively just part of the street), and they do immersion baptisms on the forecourt in good weather. They welcome the homeless of the city in particular, and feed them one day a week.<\/p>\n They just need to do something about the 16th century walls and 19th century box pews, and the mindsets which go with them. A people set apart, by walls, and a people intent on themselves, protected by box pews (although the Peace does disrupt that somewhat).<\/p>\n I can relate to the impulse to become \u201ca people set apart\u201d, which I tend to think of as the Anabaptist option, thinking in particular of the various Mennonite sects, notably the Amish. Granted, I don\u2019t do that from the standpoint of the religious conservative, as to a great extent they do; that seems to be the impulse which fuels \u201cThe Benedict Option\u201d<\/a> (a kind of new monasticism as proposed in a recent book by Rod Dreher) which plays to the moral impulses of conservatives to avoid contact with anything viewed as \u201cimpure\u201d, to venerate authority and group loyalty. I\u2019m not a conservative; my primary moral concerns are fairness and care, and I worry less about liberty, following authority and purity, which are values which tend to be placed high by conservatives, as Jonathan Haidt remarks in \u201cThe Righteous Mind\u201d<\/a>. I do however value loyalty to my group very highly \u2013 but I take the definition of my group from Jesus, whose parable of the Good Samaritan (which these days would probably be the parable of the good Isis fighter or, for me, perhaps the parable of the good Tory MP) tells me that everyone around me is part of my \u201cin-group\u201d. I also cringe at my necessary immersion in a culture which values self-centered\u00a0 pursuit of money and conspicuous consumption very highly; I\u2019ve characterised financialised free market capitalism as \u201cThe System of Satan\u201d<\/a> previously.<\/p>\n It\u2019s that last impulse which removes the possibility of withdrawal from society as being a viable option. While I view it as a fairly conservative one at root, I take a radical view of its extent. \u00a0Jesus was renowned for consorting with extortionists (tax collectors) prostitutes and other low-lives; he was typically unconcerned about mixing with women or foreigners (even foreigners who were part of the occupying Roman forces), and didn\u2019t have much time for ritual purity considerations \u2013 women with discharges, for instance.<\/p>\n So maybe that gives the background for my vision. There is a centre \u2013 the church walls in the middle. There is shelter \u2013 the roof cantilevering out in both directions, rather than rising to a central apex. But there are no walls, no separation from the life around it. In much the same way, I look to Jesus as the centre, the model for our lives, and see us as looking out from that perspective and welcoming towards us (and him) everyone \u201cout there\u201d, no matter how far from that centre they may seem to be. If we can attract their gaze in the direction of Jesus, they are going to be moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n And our overriding mandate is to love them as we love ourselves (or God; the second Great commandment is like unto the first), to care for them as we care for ourselves.<\/p>\n