Ministry is done at the local level. No serious discussion can begin without that overriding fact and concern. Christians that are Anglican need to concentrate their resources at local levels where people need to find and experience Jesus. We already know that our structures are too onerus. We were told several months ago in our national paper that our layers of oversight from diocese, to province to national church are too complicated and expensive. We need the resources in parishes where ministry and outreach occur.
We elect men and women we respect to be our bishops and thereby pastors. But they are caught in ‘reactive’ crises of one sort or another and seldom have time for parishes or their clergy. We should look at the role of our bishops and determine the efficacy of electing pastors to be personnel directors, problem solvers and disciplinarians in variour crises. Bishops should be a resource to the ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ and the ‘proactivity’ of sharing the ‘Good News’ of Jesus Christ.
We need to innovate! Our services can be varied. Some desperately need joy infused. Some need quiet meditation to centre ourselves on God. Others need to experiment with new ideas as well as those ‘tried and true’ liturgies we love. But Jesus moves as he reaches out, and as His disciples we need to walk with Him on the journey to new challenges and opportunities.
Finally, by 2019 I hope we can recognize that we are the church together you and me. We need to listen with love, (the only commandments Jesus gave), and appreciate different views on divisive issues. The scandal of Christianity is our brokeness when Jesus called us to love one another as He loves us. No position on any issue demands walls of certainty and absolute authority. If we are the living body of Jesus now and in 2019, we had better act like and shoulder responsibility together.
