Churches together

Oliver Robertson reports on an interchurch gathering

Quakers played an important role in an interchurch gathering which saw the Archbishop of Canterbury apologise for the treatment by the Church of England of black migrants in the 1950s and 1960s.

The triennial Churches Together in England (CTE) Forum (which took place this year on 17-19 September at The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire) brings together representatives of more than fifty member churches, including the Religious Society of Friends. A mixture of plenary discussions, workshops and shared worship are intended to encourage understanding and unity among the various Christian denominations.

The deputy moderator for the 2018 Forum was Birmingham Quaker and national coordinator of the Student Christian Movement Hilary Topp. She chaired a discussion between Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, Roman Catholic Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Archbishop Anba Angaelos of the Orthodox Church – three of the six presidents of CTE.

Talking about ‘the transforming presence of Christ’, Justin Welby spoke about how ‘we are often anaesthetised by our wealth and privilege’ – a thought echoed by Anba Angaelos, who stated that a lot of transformation comes through changing the things we value, often a painful process. He gave an example of a financial trader who, after losing everything in the 2008 financial crisis, became a much more attentive father and husband, practising ‘the priesthood of the family’.

The CTE presidents were asked questions by three young participants, including Hannah Brock, of Sheffield and Balby Area Meeting, who asked about what an ‘unanaesthetised church’ would look like. Responses ranged from ‘one that starts with Jesus and therefore with prayer’ (Justin Welby) to ‘the non-anaesthetised church is in heaven’ because only heaven is perfect (Vincent Nichols).

They were also quizzed by Diko Blackings, from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, who asked about racial segregation within the church and what can be done to bring about racial justice within the church. It was this question that prompted Justin Welby to apologise for the behaviour of the Church of England in past decades, where migrants from Africa and the Caribbean were effectively told by congregations: ‘We like you, but don’t come back next week.’ Justin Welby said: ‘I want to say how sorry I am that we made such terrible, terrible actions.’ In other responses to the question, Anba Angaelos reminded participants that the things which make your church so comfortable for you can also be deeply marginalising for others. However, there were no clear answers about how to overcome racial divisions.

Later in the Forum Janet Scott, from Cambridgeshire Area Meeting, presented her reflections in a plenary Bible study session. Having been drafted in at late notice, she spoke about Luke 24:13-35 (the journey to Emmaus, when the disciples did not recognise the newly-resurrected Jesus). She said that: ‘When all is dark to us, God is acting. God takes what we have broken and makes of it something new.’ Echoing earlier discussions about transformation through pain, Janet Scott noted that when Jesus is encountered in this part of Luke’s Gospel, he carries the wounds of the crucifixion. She said: ‘The wounds are part of what is whole and healed’ – they are not reversed or hidden.

Janet Scott also referenced the writings of Quakers in times of darkness, particularly the Yearly Meeting epistle of 1916, which stated: ‘Christ is not dead. He lives in our midst today.’ She argued that ‘the proof of the resurrection is in the life of the church’, rather than in the words of the Bible, and told participants that as you act out the promptings of love and truth in your heart, you gain confidence in your ability to recognise them.

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