What is “church in the pub”? I don’t know. What is church? I’ve been going a wee while and I’m not at all sure I know that either. It does seem somewhat bizarre that at a time when many people report that they are more open to spirituality than ever before, attendance at traditional churches continues to decline (perhaps terminally?). The Church has for centuries maintained its faith in the reality of an unseen but nevertheless utterly real spiritual dimension. Faith in materialist answers to life’s problems is on the wane; many instinctively know that all that glistens does not satisfy, that men and women shall not live, truly happily, on bread alone. People seek more. There is some existential yearning for meaning….relationship….hope, which the latest stuff cannot fulfil. So why isn’t the Church cashing in?
Perhaps it is just the image. Would a repackaging of the product result in people flocking into the churches once more. Trendy vicars in leathers playing electric guitars? I suspect not….though it is undoubtedly true that much of the Church is as connected to contemporary culture as a cod piece. Long live Father Ted. Maybe it’s not the job of the Church to respond to changing culture anyway; it stands fast to eternal truth and the faithful remnant worship. If we pass through a cultural and spiritual “Dark Ages” every once in a millennium or so, the task of the faithful is to keep the light burning in uncomfortable times.
However what if the Church has been caught in a modernist time warp and that the claim to have “Truth” all sown up and neatly packaged in pew sized bites now appears not only arrogant but also unbelievable? What if the Church is seen by some to be the very last place to come to for a sense of spiritual connection? What if the “institutional-ness” of the Church is the barrier? What if the language of Church is no longer culturally passed on and we enter the brave new world of Post Christendom?
Too many questions. It’s time for a pint of real cider. See you there.