Question 5: Parish and Community

What are the most important features of a parish’s relationship with its community, now and in the future?

Stuart Pike:  I believe it is critical for each parish to be engaged with the community in which it is centered. At St. Luke’s we performed a community needs assessment several years ago sending teams of two to speak to social service organizations, the hospital, apartments buildings, educational centres, community centres and more. We asked people in these locations what they did, and what they thought were the gaps in services and the unmet needs in the community. We found, even in the perceived wealthy City of Burlington there were pockets of people with low-income, food security issues, lonely people, often seniors. This enabled us to put together food programs to feed the people and bring them together for a community meal, addressing several needs. This needs assessment is an example of what I think most parishes should consider. It is in keeping with my idea of assessing ourselves at each parish and at all levels of the diocese with the concept: “This time, this place, this people.” Who are our people: not just the ones within the walls of our Church building, but those in the wider community? How has that changed over time? This contextualizes the Church to be dynamic and show leadership in carrying out the mission of Christ in each of our local contexts. This would be a repeatable exercise.

 

Martha Tatarnic: In Jesus’ final Resurrection appearance in the Gospel of John, he asks Peter three times whether Peter loves him. And each time that Peter affirms his love, Jesus asks Peter to put that love into action in very practical terms: “feed my sheep.” The work of the church from the outset of its creation ties our actions of praise, and our receiving of God’s reconciling love, to a calling outward into the world in acts of service. There are no short-cuts for us in this calling.  Each congregation must invest the time and energy in:

• understanding the needs and blessings that exist around them
• entering into the conversations that are already happening in our surrounding communities around addressing these needs
• inviting and empowering our people to see how they can contribute in meaningful ways to making a difference in their community and linking that work back to the promise and experience of God’s love
• telling the story of where and how we see God at work in transformative and challenging ways.

Again and again in parish ministry, I see that when churches are faithful to the identity God has set upon us, amazing things happen. Faith communities are energized and renewed.  New people who come into our midst can sense that generosity (“this is a community that doesn’t just live for itself”) and want to be part of it. The surrounding community takes seriously and gratefully the church’s participation in key conversations about social justice and care for the vulnerable. The church’s role in the community is visible and valued.

 

David Anderson:  Definitions are important. What do we mean by a “parish’s community”? I ran into this question when I was completing my doctoral research and talking about the parish neighbourhood. Although social scientists use terms like “community” and “neighbourhood,” they defy precise definitions. I defined the neighbourhood as “the place where you live.” By this, I meant more than the place where your house is located, but all the places where you live your life: where you go to work or school, shop, go to church, and take leisure. Our neighbourhood might not only then, include multiple locations, but wider circles as well. We live on a street, but also on a block, in a district, within a municipality, in a province, a country, all in the world we share. Our neighbourhood is all of these places and, as such, corresponds well with Jesus’ description of the identity of our neighbour (Luke 10:36-37).

A parish is a visible sign of the gospel when it finds ways to love its neighbours. This doesn’t mean that we need to be limited to the local neighbourhood where our church building is located. We are people sent into all the places of our lives. Loving our neighbours and being signs of the good news of Jesus may look different in each place, depending upon the context. In each place we should ask, what might the reign of God look like in this place? What might it mean for us as a church to contribute to the common good in this community? We can help each parish to explore these questions.

 

Susan Bell: Today our parishes are faithful places of worship, of Christian nurture and education.  They are places of refuge and where good works are done.  But you have to walk through the doors to know and access these things. In a post-Christian society where the church is now a strange space for many if not most in our society, the courage it takes to do so is often a barrier so high, few traverse it. 

I believe we need a fulsome recovery of the idea that we as Anglicans have responsibility for the cure of souls in the geographical parish around the physical church.  It is after all, our tradition and our formation.  In all the latest missional literature blessing the neighbourhood is proclaimed as a “new” idea.  And yet this structure is foundational for Anglicans.  However, it is not the relationship many of our parishes in fact, have with our neighbourhoods. 

So in the future, the hope is we will be good neighbours who do good works out of the overflow of our faith in Jesus Christ; that we’ll seek out ways to build bridges with those who do not yet know the name of Jesus through radical hospitality and Christian nurture that begins with where our neighbours are.  This presupposes that we will intentionally get to know who the people in our geographical parish are and that we’ll seek to change and grow with them as we develop an even greater fidelity to the places we are planted.

 

David Burrows: In John Philip Newell's book The Rebirthing of God: Christianity's Struggle for New Beginnings, he identifies five essential features of Christian community (Newell, Rebirthing, 2015):

• A relationship with the earth as sacred
• Holding compassion as the source of true relationship
• Reverencing the wisdom of other faith traditions
• Holding spiritual practice as the basis for transformation
• Living the way of nonviolence in all communities

In our living of the Way of Jesus, the parish is integral in the life of Christian community and beyond.

The parish is our spiritual home. We engage in worship of word and sacrament; in learning and discernment - emanating love. Sometimes our current parish structures limit the ways in which we can respond to the needs of the wider community while being true to the Spirit.

As parishes we pray for God`s presence in the wider community and world by engaging beyond our doors, listening to the needs and hurts of society, and building relationships with other community organizations and faith traditions. This requires humility, advocacy, service and love from the Christian community.

Parishes are to hold open doors of welcome, open their hearts to the hurts of the world, care for creation and the dignity of human beings while breaking open doors of justice and advocacy.

Above all we are called to hold the world in compassion, so that "Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love." (Ephesians 3:17)

 

Robert Hurkmans:  Two years ago, after much prayer, study, and teaching, St. J&B adopted a new mission:  to be “The Heartbeat of the City”.  Now, every Sunday morning I remind our congregation of this important calling: to bring both life and love into our community of Port Colborne. 

In Jeremiah 29, when God’s people found themselves in exile, living in a foreign city, they were tempted to turn their backs and detach themselves from the problems of that city. But God spoke to them, saying: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” In short, our churches are called to make our cities BETTER places.

Too many people associate churches with what they’re “AGAINST”, but instead let’s let our communities know what we are “FOR”.  Our churches need to be FOR our cities, FOR our politicians, FOR our schools, FOR our residents, and FOR our businesses.  Its easy and tempting to criticize our community’s problems, but Christ calls us to be “salt and light” instead. (Matthew 5:13-16)  

At St. J&B we’ve put this principle into practice by buying an ugly downtown property and redeveloping it into a new park, a Youth Centre, and an art studio all for the benefit of our community (www.blessthecity.ca).  I can attest to the fact that when a church commits itself to the good of its community, the community quickly recognizes (and supports) the ministry of that church.

 

Robert Fead:  Building community partnerships is vital as our parishes expand their mission to the wider community. There are already many secular and religious organizations that have well established outreach and social programs. There is no need for parishes to invent programs that may already exist. Community partnerships are also vital for the management and stewardship of resources. A good example of the benefit of community partnerships is our refugee sponsorship program. It has been such a blessing to see how different government, community and religious organizations worked together to welcome families from war torn countries.

It is important that we as people of faith bring our unique perspective to community organizations. We have the opportunity to witness to the dignity of every human person because they are made in the image and likeness of God. The church cannot simply become another social service agency or NGO, it is our faith in Jesus and his example of love that inspires us to reach out and build up the common good. It is an opportunity for us to speak about, and witness to, our faith in the “public square”.

Moving forward I think it is critical that our parishes work to breakdown the barriers of parochialism. With 90 parishes in the diocese we have the potential to really do more than we can ask or imagine. Imagine the good we could do if we not only worked more cooperatively with community partners but also with our fellow Anglicans and others of faith in our communities.

 

In the lead up to the election, the Electoral Synod Nominations and Planning Committee is asking candidates to respond to a final series of questions. We’ll post the responses to two questions each week on our electoral synod webpage and share those responses on Facebook and Twitter too.