Mission Shaped Cathedral
Since the publication of ‘Mission Shaped Church’ there has been a growing and understandable concern to direct the church’s scarce, financial resources away from maintenance and towards mission – particularly towards ‘fresh expressions’ of being church that do not fit easily into our traditional patterns of ministry.
In all this debate Cathedrals have hardly had a mention - except when targeted by the Church Commissioners for cuts in grants or in removing the guaranteed provision of 2 Commissioners Canons to fund mission elsewhere.
Despite this, Cathedrals are at the heart of Mission in the Church of England. Ely Cathedral has around 200,000 visitors every year. Yet this is small fry compared with, for example, St. Paul’s or York Minster. People come for concerts, for special events, for national occasions such as Remembrance Day. They come to light a candle for Hurricane Katrina or Tsunami victims. And they come simply to see the magnificent architecture or enjoy the choral music. Most are not regular church-goers. Indeed, formal worship is what they generally hope to avoid. At evensong we often have as many people sitting quietly in the nave as worshippers in the choir. Sitting outside the brass gates. Not wanting to get too involved. Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Churchgoing’ seems to sum up the general attitude:
‘Once I am sure there’s nothing going on
I step inside’
John Drane did an internet survey a few years ago and asked people to put a list of words into two boxes – ‘Spirituality’ and ‘Religion’. Under Spirituality they put words like ‘open, explore, experience, searching, interior, questions, relationships, journey.’ Under Religion they put ‘rigid, static, closed, rules, answers, external, words, structures, arrived.’ They all added the word ‘Yes’ to Spirituality and ‘No’ to Religion! No wonder they don’t want to get trapped behind the brass gates at evensong, but do want to sit, anonymously, and allow the music and the words to flood over them, in the twilight. Religion – no. But a place to explore, to wonder, to engage – yes!
And it is exactly in that creative space that Cathedrals come into their own. The question for us is how to engage with people so that what may have begun as tourism, turns out to be a pilgrimage, something which moves people on in their spiritual journey.
Cathedrals are complex buildings. They are full of symbolic meaning. Unfortunately, much of it is lost on the average visitor. So how can we help people make those connections again?
We are also looking at providing some tangible things for people to do rather than just words. |
 For
example, the Lady Chapel in Ely is the place where you see most clearly
the work of the iconoclasts. The stained glass has gone. The statues have
been removed. The paint stripped off. Even in the alcoves, where small
figures form part of the walls, the heads have been systematically smashed
off. People, rightly, find it shocking. Hence we have put a votive candle
stand with the following notice by it: |
‘The Lady Chapel is the place where we see most clearly the damage done during the reformation period. Statues of saints were removed, paint stripped off walls, windows broken and, as you can still see, even the heads of the small figures in the alcoves were smashed off. It is a place of brokenness, reminding us of the brokenness of our world and the brokenness in our own lives. It also reminds us of Christ’s body, broken, for us, on the cross. Lord God, through Jesus you are no stranger to betrayal, rejection, pain, suffering and a cruel death on the cross. We lift before you those who suffer and whose lives are broken. And we lift before you the brokenness of our own lives. Lift us from despair to hope, from death to life, though Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. You may wish to light a candle for those on your heart who are broken.’
|
 We
have similar pricket stands expressing welcome, engaging with pilgrimage
and inviting reflection at our RAF Window and Regimental Chapel. People
can weave a permanent record of their prayers into our prayer net. They
can think about Christ as they contemplate an icon. They can leave a
written prayer request which will be mentioned in Evensong. They can
renew their baptismal vows at the font. They can engage with the world’s
troubles in our Amnesty chapel. They can think about what it means to
be ‘Risen Wounded’under the Octagon.
|
| The leaflet people receive when they arrive also promotes pilgrimage. It is no longer simply a historical guide with, perhaps, a separate section on the Christian faith for interested parties. It is integrated, inviting people to enter the ‘triangle of engagement’. |
 We
are in the process of redesigning our Faith Exhibition on similar lines,
replacing the current, static display with a series of short DVD films
which will engage with different aspects of the building, as well as with
the seasons of the church’s year. How we label different parts of
the building is also changing. And then the next really big job is the
Website! At the moment a virtual tour is simply a journey into history.
In the future it will be an integrated tour, giving historical and architectural
information but also relating issues in people’s lives to the gospel. |
Likewise, we are working on bringing pilgrimage into our guided tours and ‘Son et Lumiere’evenings. After all, for much of Ely’s history, people came from far and wide to seek healing, guidance, assurance, forgiveness and to offer thanks. Those longings have not gone away in the wider population today. But as well as tourists, Cathedrals, for the most part, have thriving worshipping communities which have bucked the trend of decline in recent years. We have about 350 people worshipping with us on an average Sunday –not too bad for a city of only 15,000 with several lively churches. (Not to mention the other 20 regular services each week.) St Albans Abbey has around 800 people at worship on a Sunday and 1200 on their electoral roll. But as well as the regular pattern of worship there are all the special services and events which allow creativity and innovation to blossom. |
 In
October we have around 3000 children coming to four special schools days
culminating in creative acts of worship. Each year in July, 1300 teenagers
turn up for ‘Rave in the Nave’- worship to blow the wax out
of your ears! This is on top of all the regular weekly visits from schools.
Three years ago we started a toddlers Christmas service. That first year
there were about 50 mums and toddlers. This Christmas there were around
600! And adults too. We had over 4000 people attending worship between
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. |
And it isn’t just worship. Lectures, debates, courses are all part of Cathedral life aiming at deepening understanding and discipleship. Etheldreda, a Saxon Princess, founded the monastery here in 673AD. We have recently launched the ‘Community of Etheldreda’, a loose network of people from across the region who seek to live by a simple rule of life based on our Benedictine heritage. Of course, one of the great things about Cathedrals is that they are open! In Ely we deeply regret having to charge (though there are plenty of times you can come in free). Unfortunately, Cathedrals are incredibly expensive places to maintain and run. But they are also National treasures which attract millions of people each year. Ely Cathedral is open pretty much 365 days of the year from 7.30am to 7pm - or later. How many of our parish churches are open these days? And all these mission initiatives are ‘extra parochial’, since Ely Cathedral is not a parish church. This is, of course, ‘work in progress’. We are not complacent. There is still a great deal to be done to reach out with the Good News of God’s love and grace. Furthermore it is difficult to assess the impact of what we do, since many of those who visit only come for an hour or two and are gone. We only experience a small part of their journey; only hear the occasional anecdotes of lives touched, challenged or changed. |
‘We had the experience but missed the meaning’ |
In
Ely we are working with what we might call the ‘Triangle of Engagement’.
Our aim is to make connections for people between the building itself
and its history, the message of the gospel, and the experience people
have brought in with them. 
Cathedrals
respond to a desire for anonymity and our search for the ‘numinous’.
In a rapidly changing and uncertain world they speak of the God who
is the same yesterday, today and for ever. Their huge size gives us
a sense of God’s majesty and of our own created-ness. They allow
for spiritual engagement without the trappings of religion. They affect
us deeply, leave us awe-struck, gob-smacked. T S Eliot describes it
thus:Our job is to help people find that meaning. Meaning which is about allowing the building and the gospel to speak to the inner depths of our lives. This is what Cathedrals are doing, all around the country, in all sorts of creative and different ways. This is, it seems to me, very much ‘Mission Shaped Church’. It is the cutting edge of mission with the un-churched. And we strip resources from it at our very great peril!
Alan Hargrave, Canon Missioner, Ely Cathedral.
(Reprinted from the Church of England Newspaper, 20th January 06)