On Saturday 9 May, Katharine Vinver, editor of the Guardian, published an article that began:
“I have a confession to make. It has taken me years to write this article.”
I also have a confession to make. I’m going to write a long blog quoting extensively from her article, but I can’t find it online now, so I’m unable to link to it directly.
She continues that for a long time now she has felt that something was missing in the public conversation about human connection and community and how they are being eroded. I also have been experiencing a “something missing” in the state of human connection and community in the Church of England and a sense that something vital has been eroded.
Viner thinks our attention spans have been degraded, our thinking skills blunted, and that somehow, we can’t concentrate on or lose ourselves in a project. What got her to the point of being able to say what she wanted to say was talking it through with friends and colleagues. They held the answer to her writer’s block - all she needed to do was talk to other people.
I read her article on Saturday. I re-read it on Sunday, highlighting passages in green, aware that she was expressing ideas and feelings that I have been trying to communicate in blogs for some years. I’m not sure why, but I then got cold feet: I put the article on one side, unsure on a third reading whether it really was relevant after all. What has changed my mind is something that happened after Malcolm Johnson’s funeral at St Martin-in-the-Fields on Monday. The retired Bishop of Salisbury and past Vicar of St Martin’s. the Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam, said the words of commendation, farewell and committal towards the end of the funeral, censing the coffin and sprinkling holy water as he circled the coffin. Nick and I had been contemporaries as ordinands at Westcott House, Cambridge in 1979. Now we were among the few people lingering at the end of the reception following the funeral. He asked me if I’d like to go for a coffee. We ended up sitting outside a restaurant in St Martin’s Lane drinking a carafe of white wine. It is the conversation we had that finally motivated me to write and post this blog.
Our age of crises
Viner says the world really has become a more bewildering, less hopeful place. Look at the headlines in recent weeks, she says, from a shocking spike in antisemitic attacks in the UK, to Donald Trump’s threat to blow Iran “off the face of the earth”, to daily stories of mass displacement. There is a growing sense that we are living in an age of many interlinked crises and that our collective survival is at stake.
The environmental crisis: in February, scientists warned that the world is closer than previously thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped. The global food system is under threat. Wildlife populations have declined by more than 70% since 1970.
The global political crisis: For the first time in 20 years, autocracies outnumber democracies. We see the dismantling of democratic norms and the erosion of checks and balances. For Orban in Hungary it took about four years; for Vucic in Serbia, eight years; for Erdogan in Turkey and Modi in India about 10 years - for Trump, just one year.
The international surge in violence: Russia’s war on Ukraine; Israel in Gaza, a genocide; Sudan, over 13 million people displaced and hundreds of thousands killed; the US and Israel’s illegal war on Iran, over 3,300 killed; the US secretary of war boasts about unleashing “overwhelming and punishing violence” on America’s adversaries.
The economic crisis: The failures of neoliberalism become ever clearer; the richest become ever richer and more powerful; extreme wealth concentration, a democratic toxin weakening social cohesion and pulling apart communities.
Crises in everyday lives: basic goods unaffordable; housing crisis; uncertain jobs market; loneliness growing; a trend towards atomisation; austerity policies weakened the social fabric; social media influencers enriched extolling individualist capitalism; misogyny; crypto schemes; politicians unable to meet the moment.
The information crisis: the digital revolution, a tidal wave of data, and a lack of social and informational structures to manage it; the feeling of being forever assailed by new and disorienting information leading people to feel defensive, alone and angry; bad actors stoking the crisis; trolls, bots and propagandists making the truth impossible to discern. The tech critic Jacob Silverman says: “Today’s internet isn’t really designed for us, but rather to elicit certain responses from us that are hostile to human flourishing.” A whole generation of brilliants minds spend their working lives getting us to spend a bit longer on their app in the name of maximising corporate profits rather than creating a good society; truth has been downgraded and AI slop and deepfakes are rampant; the majority of people doubt their ability to distinguish truth from fiction while AI systems are steeped in racism and misogyny.
There are also reasons to be hopeful – we have sophisticated networks for the dissemination of good information.
Meeting the moment
Viner believes we must look up and out instead of looking inwards, to connect with one another. Good journalism can do this. Done well it can help nourish civic life, build a shared understanding of reality, and forge the kind of connections that people are missing and long for. As a contemplative, I believe we have to look inwards as well as up and outwards,
Churches and other religious and spiritual networks can also help us connect with one another, but I do not witness a Church understanding reality, focused on nourishing healthy community life or competent in forging connections between people. The Church of England is focused on maintaining unity without resolving theological and spiritual failings, dominated by unresolved conflicts over gender and sexuality and a desperate drive for survival though numerical growth, church planting and HTB takeovers.
Viner says that for democracy to survive and for society to progress we need a shared foundation of facts. The Christian Church is fractured into multiple denominations and sects, the Anglican Communion is fractured by disputes between traditionalists and progressives, those who believe in equality for women and LGBTQIA+ people and those who don’t, and the many who believe in the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and other religious systems.
Facts are essential but on their own they are not enough. We also need stories and new ideas that inspire hope. We need to fight the gloom with bold thinking, nuance and thoughtfulness, offering credible visions of a fairer society. Viner wants the Guardian’s journalism to be nourishing, offering the vital ingredients that create a life well lived as an antidote to empty, depressing feelings after hours of mindless scrolling.
Life in all its fullness
I want to find the same elements in the life of the Church of England as Viner is arguing for in journalism and democratic society. Some contemporary Christians believe they are not inhabiting quite the same space as everyone else in society. Christian spaces and lives are superior, thanks to the added extra ingredients of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. My friends, the Church is living in exactly the same culture and the same time in history and evolution as everyone else. We are ALL affected by this age of crises. And we too need new tellings of our stories, new visions, new awareness, new hearts, new spiritual depth. None of these elements are in truth, ‘new’. They are the elements human societies and religions have embodied through three millennia of evolutionary development.
‘Our fates are now intertwined’
Viner reports that for many years now, the majority of the Guardian’s audience has come from outside the UK. Because of this, the Guardian aims to connect the dots between different countries and offer a broader perspective, connecting the global audience together by illuminating many somewheres. All our fates are now intertwined, the energy supply disruptions, the movement of refugees, the expanding military conflicts, are no longer foreign stories but domestic ones. We are global, and at the same time, we have roots.
“The shift in attitudes to the idea of diversity has been dramatic in the past couple of years. Companies and brands that once made bold pledges have dropped them. The Trump administration has criticised diversity as a “destructive”, anti-meritocratic ideology and slashed federal DEI programmes. Right-wing populism abhors diversity, pluralism, breadth.”
Human values, community and connection
Viner’s vision for the Guardian is about putting human values, communities and fellow citizens at the heart of what we do. Sounds obvious, but isn’t, because so much of the world is organised according to different principles. Silicon Valley CEOs preach that we must prioritise “convenience, efficiency, productivity, profitability” above all else. To go out into the world is “perilous, unpleasant, inefficient, a waste of time.” The rise of AI seems to be exacerbating these anti-human trends. Sometimes we treat people online as if they are already computer generated.
At the same time Viner wants the Guardian to emphasise the things AI cannot. Talking to people in deep and intimate ways. Holding the powerful to account. Questioning conventional wisdom. Curating and editing thoughtfully, so that audiences encounter serendipity rather than being fed more of the same by algorithms or so-called “liquid content”, magically generated in response to your perceived needs. The Guardian is committed to building communities and hosting conversations, bringing people together, providing that feeling of recognition or relief when you discover you are not the only one to see the world as you do, part of a global community of like-minded people
Like-minded people in church?
Viner names other institutions that do this: the library, the school, the sports team. Churches do not get a mention. I do not find in churches many people who see the world (or God) as I do. I do not find in the Anglican Communion a global community of like-minded people. I do not find many people thinking in deep and intimate ways, questioning conventional wisdom. I meet complacent people who are remarkably unaware of the things that haunt me. Viner says we naturally sometimes have strong disagreements. This is part of being human and how we manage our disagreement is a measure of our humanity. After experience of the Pilling Report, the Listening Process that followed, after six years of the Living in Love and Faith Process and seven months visiting over 70 churches in the Stepney area of the Diocese of London; after conversations with close friends in ministry I find the Church of England to be an institution still incapable of creating spaces in which disagreements can be safely explored, let alone resolved. The idea of good disagreement in the Church of England is laughable.
Readers help fight for a shared reality
Viner says it is because the Guardian has put human-centred, hopeful, public-interest journalism first that the paper has build a loyal community of readers who sustain the paper. Almost 1.5 million people give money every month. Many give so that other people can read the Guardian for free. Some see the Guardian commitment to keep good information available to all as a highly political act. Readers are valued not just for their money but for their ideas, their community and their belief that we don’t have to accept things as they are, that together we can make the world a better place, acting together to save our planet from climate breakdown. The Church of England redistributes wealth by resourcing ‘successful’ congregations and parishes by reducing the resources available to the most needy.
As I reached the end of the article, I became aware that Viner’s descriptions of the Guardian’s ethos and vision were pretty much the same as the core of my vision and priorities as a Christian. I could have edited the article and made my point by replacing the Guardian with the Christian Church as its subject. Primary Christian values are at the heart of her vision, allied to an energy and a dynamic that is achieving growth in sales and financial security at the same time as clearly pursuing very particular goals. The Guardian took a risk in 2016 by adopting a totally new business model. I’m aware of the contrast this week with the Labour Party that is proving unable to take visionary risks, to follow its election success in a way that captures the public imagination and our desperate desire for new hope.
The C of E as core connective tissue
The Church of England should be a core, visionary, grounded, integrated, energised part of “our shared civic infrastructure, human infrastructure, societal infrastructure”, “the connective tissue that helps fight isolation and sustains [community]”. Its role should be in part to counter the “apocalyptic narratives” with a far better story about how to survive and flourish without leaving anyone behind. Christian hope is about having faith that we have the power and agency to change the future.
I know that many churches and congregations, members of Synod and progressive groups (and even some bishops) do share this vision, but this is not apparent at parish level or within the structures of the Church.
To campaign for the revitalisation of the Church of England is not to sign up to and become dependent on money from the Revitalisation Trust. It is to do even more of what the Guardian is doing, “fighting for the human right to live in a reality that is shared and true.” It is an urgent task. Hope and connection and the vision of God in whom we experience life in all its fulness are how we followers of Christ and members of the institution will survive and enrich our humanity.
I know of examples where churches are committed to and exemplify a creative, prophetic vision. I’ll name one. St John’s Waterloo where, led by Giles Goddard, the church is actively campaigning for climate justice and is the proud home of the Faith for the Climate Environment and Social Justice Group which is passionate about reducing our carbon footprint and promoting biodiversity.
What is it to be a follower of Jesus? What is it to ‘believe’ in God? What is it to connect the dots that create faith in depth? I ask these questions because, after 70 years of regular attendance at and first-hand experience of the Church of England, my experience of God is not widely shared – and it is the experience that matters to me. My faith was communicated by Southwark ‘South Bank Religion’, Honest to God people whose presence, vision and deep humanity worked it’s slow, transforming magic, helping me to become aware that what passed for being a faithful follower of Jesus didn’t begin to scratch the surface of life in all its fullness.
I’m also concerned about the Christian exclusivity and, I suspect, superiority underpinning Thy Kingdom Come, the global ecumenical prayer movement that invites Christians around the world to pray from Ascension to Pentecost for more people to come to know Jesus.. I suspect the aim is to attract people to church to grow the numbers attending rather than to grow the number of people living life in all its fulness, transforming lives across our fragile planet. The Christian vision of God is too small. We live in silos defined by categories designated Anglo-Catholic, Evangelical, Liberal, Progressive, Charismatic, Prayer Book, Traditional, Orthodox, etc. etc. My concern is that the content and weekly practice of life in churches today is a mere shadow of what I had come to understand as healthy Christian practice, life and teaching. Our tribal identities dominate; we are not a people helping our planetary community to live into a shared reality, energised by the Spirit within as much as the Spirit we pray will ‘come down’.
Changing Attitude’s vision of a Church in which full equality in ministry and relationship is granted to LGBTQIA+ people is still my vision. I still write the Unadulterated Love blog because my intuition still tells me that my daily contemplative spiritual practice of silence and meditation is a global, universal path that underpins Christian life and the lives of all people of compassionate faith. Every person has the potential to contribute to life in all its fullness because every human being is infused with divine essence, love, wisdom and truth.
Discovering this essence would be a valuable outcome, helping people develop lives well-lived and reversing the erosion identified by Catharine Viner. There is indeed something missing in the public conversation about human connection and community – and I observe that it’s missing in the Church of England.
Changing Attitude and Unadulterated Love
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