April 28, 2013
Cambridge
I attended the 9:30 Holy Communion service at a church – to go unnamed – in the heart of town this morning. It is not the oldest church in Cambridge – the Round Church (or Church of the Holy Sepulcher as it is officially known) that was built in 1130 by people returning from the Crusades, and St Bene’t’s church was built by the Saxons one hundred years before that. But it goes way back, has been linked to the University Church for some time and has been the site of many prominent events – i.e., Luther’s books were burned outside it’s door in 1521, Oliver Cromwell burned a copy of the Book of Common Prayer, etc. etc.
Today it is in a state of major renovation – in fact, we met amidst scaffolding. Full, the sanctuary probably holds north of 500. There were maybe 150 of us. And I’d guess that 50 percent of the group was in their eighties. The service itself was moving. There was lots of Scripture, a meaningful time of confession, and wonderful times of prayer and communion. The sermon was something of a different order. In fairness to the preacher, he started the message by explaining that this was the date of their annual meeting, so perhaps this was a unique message. But still…
The pastor began by noting that the church (again, I am leaving the name out) was “quite involved” in the previous Reformation. He then went on to suggest that it’s unique place in the center of Cambridge – which he noted was recently recognized as the second most influential university in the world (behind MIT) – gave it a unique spot from which to view the trends. And then he wondered whether or not we might be a the midst of a new reformation.
The backdrop to this was a recognition that: 1) even though one-third of Britain’s population identifies as members of the Church of England, only 13% attend services, and 2) in the last twenty years almost no new churches have been built.
He wondered whether what we are seeing is “not the decline of the church but a period of change.” From that point on he spoke about how the 87 percent of Anglicans who do not attend worship services actually worship, and how the church can and should serve them. He acknowledged that “believing without belonging” doesn’t work, but suggested that the 87 percent belonged in other ways. What those “other ways” are, was not entirely clear to me, though he spent a fair bit of time talking about Michael’s House, which I believe provides meals and some other programming.
For the record, he did not mention Christ once. His message was such a contrast to the rich liturgy and Scripture readings. Perhaps I’ve given sermons where Christ’s name has not come up. I may have even used a sermon to justify bad results. Maybe I’m being too hard on this guy. But, wow… it was all a bit painful.