This blog comes after some rather sad news that 3 Roman Catholic churches in Burnley of which I do not represent have been earmarked for closure due to falling numbers and resourcing issues. Also in the news today the Bishop of Burnley, my boss reported his reasoning why much of Burnley voted to leave the European Union in the recent referendum.
The Burnley estate mentioned in the report is that of Stoops Estate, Burnley’s most deprived estate and just across the road from where I reside. For the last twelve months I have travelled through Stoops to the next parish where I work at St Matthew’s as the curate. Sometimes I travel by car and sometimes on foot. It has the feel of something from the popular Chanel four drama Shameless, kids in large numbers playing out, teenagers on top of bus shelters, children smoking on the way to school, drug dealers frequenting street corners, scrap dealers trading from front gardens, wind ravaged union jack flags, motorcyclists without helmets, aggressive looking canines, and individuals who look like they are living on the edge. Probably wrong to judge but this is what I see.
Although I live on the edge of the infamous estate I don’t officially work there, and yet I live in the vicarage for the Parish Church that is even closer to the edge of Stoops. I live just over the road in my lovely four bedroom house provided by the Church of England as a base for me to live and work in my public ministry. The church over the road has one service a week at 6pm on a Saturday and I don’t know how many people attend because it’s not my patch and don’t want to be seen as interfering and so stay well away.
St Marks, Parish Church for Stoops Estate
Living in Burnley most of my life has been a real pleasure and it has been lovely learning and hearing stories how churches in Burnley were absolutely the heartbeat of the community it served. Some of the old walking day pictures are quite fabulous, hundreds if not thousands of people joining together in a walk of public witness expressing their belief and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Families dressed in their very best attire for a community day walking up and down the cobbled streets of Burnley provide some wonderful historical moments of nostalgia for some of the elderly people I talk with as the recollect their lives as young Christians.
When reading the report about the closing Roman Catholic churches I was struck by some of the comments made by individuals who had written comments about the closures. It appears that some people believe that the ‘Muslims’ should be held responsible for the decline of these churches and it only a matter of time before they are converted to Mosques, in a dangerously provocative suggestion that Muslims are on a mission to wipe out the Christian community of East Lancashire. What utter bile!
I am a far too insignificant clergyman to give 100% clarification why churches are closing but I would hazard a guess a number of reasons are possible and most of them covered by professionals employed to analyse and predict when the last church door might slam shut at the last remaining church of England place of worship in the former cotton capital of the world.
An issue I face is I don’t want any churches to close of any denomination of any faith, I would like nothing more than the Parish church of Stoops estate to be bursting with families, thriving with community groups, fighting issues of poverty, supporting the elderly, preaching the gospel and baptizing new disciples. The fact is I’m not sure I would know how to do this, I have kids, but I’m not a skilled youth worker, I have elderly relatives but I’m not a skilled community operative but I do get upset seeing kids not fulfilling their potential, struggling to read and write, and I feel quite desperate at unsocial behaviour I see pretty regularly.
As I drive through Stoops estate, I always wonder what Jesus would do in this Eastern part of Lancashire, would he drive on through to affluent areas of town, or would he too despair at a community that appears not to be fulfilling it’s God given potential.
Would he worry about the closing churches, or would he be unsurprised that for whatever reason people had lost their connection with a beautiful place of worship because it offers nothing or very little to the community it was provided for? Or would he provide a miracle ensuring everyone believed in his existence?
Deprivation, declining churches and dying churches can be blamed on many things, finance, education, government, policies, drugs, hardship, etc. etc., but I feel the biggest single factor in the collapse of communities and churches is the loss of trust and faith in Jesus Christ and his single biggest instruction, to love thy neighbour.
And who can blame them, the seedy, vile, disgusting stories of abuse, physically and mentally, educating kids through fear and the fist is difficult to listen to and incredibly damaging. Alongside this the secular movement that just dismisses Jesus as the way and the truth is slowly but surely sucking the small faith out of anyone who dares to suggest they might believe in God.
And because of this many people see Islam as the single biggest threat to a ‘Christian’ world that they claim as their own, but tragically do not represent and do nothing to support or participate in. Traditional churches are without question at great risk and this announcement from the Roman Catholic Church today is a sad indictment of modern times.
Christians in England are under attack not from the horrendous sick minded terrorist that our Christian brothers and sisters suffer in Africa and the Middle East, but under attack from an, apathy for faith and apathy for loving ones neighbour and a lifestyle that has little room for prayer, reflection and old fashioned hymns and a boring sermon. And yet the irony id in places in the world of such extreme deprivation such extreme violence, such abject horror and abuse is where people turn to Christianity in great numbers. It is my hope that our church and our community don’t have to fall so close to the edge, so close to being wiped out that it becomes too late for these amazingly complex and reviled parts of Burnley.
As a former Manager I offer a limited skill base but a deep passion for Christ, an absolute insistence that for anything to prosper it has to underpinned by core Christian values. Not a political ideology, not a new government or a community afflicted by deep lying racist undertones and lifestyles that focuses on gain rather than giving. No matter where I am or where I will be Jesus is and will be my starting point. A church with a community that reflects a loving Jesus, and remembers him through Holy Communion and a safe place without fear of anything, particularly hell and damnation.
Black, white, straight, gay, muslim, Jewish, fat, thin, tall or small people that God created and Jesus loves is my fantasy blueprint for a brighter future nervously along with a trust that whatever happens God is very much in control.
Till next time
Alextheanglican
PS find my comedy at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvtXy1o70jBgYrmdLfZEVfg
