THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY'S ADDRESS AT HESED HOUSE, LEICESTER

"STEPPING FORWARD - TOWARDS A NEW MILLENNIUM"

May I begin by saying again how delighted my wife and I are to be with you tonight and to share in these celebrations. Seventy years as a Diocese is indeed something to celebrate - though, as Bishop Tom has been at pains to point out, that must be seen in its right perspective against the backdrop of the many centuries of an active Christian presence in this area.

May I take this opportunity, too, to thank you on behalf of the Church of England for all you do to keep the Gospel of Christ alive and flourishing here in this Diocese. Even in the short time I have been with you I have seen and heard a great deal that has encouraged me greatly. On a personal note, too, may I thank your Bishop and his wife for all they do here in Leicester and for the contribution they make to the wider Church. His contribution as Chairman of the Board of Mission is outstanding and has its effects up and down our country.

"Stepping Forward towards a new Millennium". Even a few years ago the fact that the year 2000 would soon be upon us felt a long way away. Today we are becoming acutely conscious, whether through dire predictions about its effects on computers or plans for the Greenwich Dome that, in reality, it is just around the corner. Now some will argue that there is nothing particularly special about this calendar date. After all, the work of God in his Church spans the centuries and his vision is not circumscribed by time. Yet the presence of that date does give us a chance to reassess where we have reached, and to look forward, as you have done in presenting your Parish aims, to where, in faith, we trust that God is leading us to in His future.

Now, as I reminded those gathered at Ashby-de-la-Zouch last night, there are those who believe such an exercise is futile. They delight to prophesy gloom and doom. Their meat and drink is to predict that the Church of England has had its day. When the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood failed to split us in a way that heralded terminal decline, as they had confidently predicted it would, they moved on to declare that our financial difficulties would deliver the 'coup de grace'. Once again they have been proved to be wrong.

Now I, for one, have never sought to minimise the challenges that face us. The size of our congregations has dropped this century - as have the numbers of stipendiary clergy. Financially, our giving is way above the figures of a few decades ago, but then so are the responsibilities that face us.

The challenges are real, but, at the risk of blowing our own trumpet, equally real is our response to those challenges. In every diocese, including your own, there are congregations which are growing rapidly numerically. There is a great outpouring of social concern and involvement in our communities. Our increases in giving nationally consistently outstrip the level of inflation. Last year ordinations were up 15%. Patterns of ministry, both lay and ordained, are changing flexibly and sensitively, to meet the changing needs of Church and Society. Our central structures as a Church are being reformed. Wherever I go I hear of a new confidence growing in our Church.

You see, what I want to take issue with is any understanding of the Church that leaves God out of the equation. Yes, the Church of England is a human institution - with all the fallibility, weakness and contradictions that entails. You will certainly never find a perfect Archbishop of Canterbury or even a perfect Bishop of Leicester! But it is never merely a human institution. It has been created by God himself - we are his Church - and we should never lose sight of that fact.

That, of course, is not a new danger. The Old Testament and the New reveal how easy it is for people of faith to face problems with panic and challenges with unbelief. How difficult it can be at times to look beyond them to God himself! So how can we step forward with confidence towards a new Millennium?

One response would be to concentrate solely on what we should be doing over the next four years. And it is right in part that we should. But we also need to foster something of the wider perspective of the joy and faith and vision that spurred on the great saints of old. We need in other words to recapture God's own perspective and to look from his past, in his present, into his future. For it is only when our footholds are secure that we can move forward in confidence.

So, as we gather here this evening, to step forward afresh in faith, I want to issue a call for recommitment in three areas of our life as a Church. None of them are new. All of them you will have heard before. But they are vital if we want to step forward into God's future. We need:-

- A Recommitment to a Serving God.
- A Recommitment to a Saving God.
- A Recommitment to a Renewing God.

1. A RECOMMITMENT TO A SERVING GOD

Jesus delighted to apply to himself those wonderful words from Isaiah 61 we had read just now, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor."

Notice who does the commissioning. It is God who sets us apart for his service and calls us to share in his mission whether you are a lay person or a member of the clergy.

Notice too the nature of that mission. The Lord's servant is one who not only preaches the Good News but also puts it into practical action. The poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, those who mourn - all these and many more besides benefit from the ministry of the servant. Because it is God's mission he defines its parameters. We know from Scripture that he does not limit his care and love for us. His mission includes physical, spiritual and mental regeneration. One word sums it up for me - it is holistic. I mean by that that it relates to the whole of life.

It is holistic because it includes all of us. One of the greatest privileges of my present calling is to be able to travel widely in different parts of the Anglican Communion. As I do so I am constantly amazed by the richness of the Communion. Aspects of worship vary widely though much of the content is very familiar; buildings vary from huts in the middle of a jungle to our great Cathedrals; sometimes the language is English - at other times Arabic, French, Creole, Chinese or Swahili. What is so heart-warming is to see the huge variety of peoples and cultures in our Communion. As St Paul writes, "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." All belong together and we are also able to worship God in our own way and in the context of our own culture - because the Gospel is holistic, it is for us all. I often joke with people abroad that the Anglican Communion has lost its Englishness and I thank God for that! It is a great international family; something we shall see clearly demonstrated at the Lambeth Conference of Bishops next year.

It is holistic too because it relates to the entirety of human needs. Wilberforce was right when he saw that his faith had to be expressed both in denouncing the slave trade and through sharing the Gospel with others. Sadly there have been times in Church history when evangelism and social action have been seen as being totally separate things. One group can knock on doors and speak of Christ, whilst others can run a toddlers' club or raise money for a third world charity. I am glad this perception of separation is being challenged. As many of you will know I have visited the Sudan on two occasions over the last few years. The scale of the suffering that the Sudanese are experiencing after more than three decades of Civil War is almost beyond comprehension. One of the bishops spoke movingly of the connection between preaching the gospel and ministering to people's physical needs. He quoted an African proverb: 'Empty stomachs have no ears'. When people see love in action, they begin to hear the music of the words we utter. It is no good seeking to hive off 'Evangelism' into a clearly defined little box, kept well apart from Mission, sitting in another one. These two aspects of our faith belong together. They are a seamless robe and the Gospel will not allow the savage surgery which splits off social care from the preaching of good news.

Earlier today I visited St Alban's Church here in the City and was very impressed by its work with those who suffer from the effects of domestic violence. And that project is just one among many both in this diocese and around the country which have grown up as congregations and individuals seek to serve their communities in the name of Christ.

Yet those projects themselves are only a part of a truly holistic approach - it is not all there is to it. It is also clearly seen in the faithful work and witness of many parishes and clergy doing the work that has been done steadily over the centuries. Pastoral care is a part of God's holistic mission and it is to that mission that we need to recommit ourselves tonight as we step forward into a new Millennium.

Secondly, we need to step forward through

2. A Recommitment to A SAVING GOD

In many ways this follows from a commitment to God's holistic mission. Isaiah's vision was one that encompassed the whole of society - not just those with religious inclinations. The anointing of the Servant by the Holy Spirit is for service not just to the Church, but to the world.

As a Church, one of our failings in recent years is that we have tended to concentrate overmuch on internal matters. Our priorities have too often been church centred with survival as their focus. But we need to move beyond survival and beyond mere maintenance. The Gospel is for everyone.

As we look at our society, indeed at any society, we are reminded of our need of the Christian faith. Much has been written and spoken recently about the decline in moral values. We live in a society which is losing touch with its traditional religious and moral roots. It is confused and struggles to make sense of what it believes. Individualism and relativism have seeped deep into our culture. Knowledge 'about' has outstripped knowledge 'of'. We know the price of everything as someone once said, but the value of nothing. It has become very difficult to construct a sense of common purpose around an ethic of service to others. Yet one of the urgent tasks we have - not only as the Church of England, but acting together with our sister churches - is to bring the Gospel into our civic culture and to support all those seeking to bring Christ's values into their place of work.

Hence, as a Church we must not become small-minded. I am very concerned that the ways we treat those who rarely if ever come to our services should reflect the fact that the Gospel is for them as well as for you and me. Perhaps there is one word we need to recover these days in representing the richness at the very heart of our Christian faith. It is the word 'generosity'. The generosity of God who gives his own life for the world and who continues to give himself abundantly. So don't build too many barriers around Church life. Don't make the finer points of doctrine a reason for closing doors on people whose understanding of the faith may be woefully inadequate. It may be that risk-filled love and acceptance could unlock lives in which God is as yet a stranger.

Again, as I said last night, I believe we have much to learn from the reactions, both in this country and around the world, to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. As I walked among the crowds on the night before her funeral I found that people were asking profound questions about the meaning of life and death. The flowers and candles spoke too of shock and grief mixed with a sense that death is not the end and that there is something beyond this life. Such beliefs many find it difficult to articulate or express. Our task it to listen to what is being felt and said, and then to travel with those people on their spiritual quest - not to demand that they move to where we are, be that in our language or our liturgies, before we will communicate with them.

For, our commitment as the Church of England is to the people of England. It is something I cherish. And we should never limit our mission to one section of society. Ours is a faith for all people everywhere.

Thirdly, as we step forward, so we need

3. A Recommitment to a RENEWING GOD

That passage quoted by Jesus looks forward expectantly to God's future. A future shaped by God. A future into which he has breathed new life. Here suffering people find hope; tears are turned to joy; sacred buildings, presently in ruins, become alive once more as God restores the glories of Israel. Of course, our situation is different. We cannot simply identify our Church or Nation with the people of Israel. But what doesn't change is the fact that God can breathe new life into individuals and communities. He can make dry bones live again.

Let me offer two illustrations of situations which were changed through expectant faith. I think of the tiny church I visited when I was Bishop of Bath and Wells. The congregation was rarely more than 20, though even that was impressive considering that the hamlet itself had only a very few houses. They needed £80,000 for urgent repairs to their roof and building. I remember going along to a harvest supper and I encouraged them to seek ways of making their building more open and welcoming. When I went to launch the Appeal my heart sank. It seemed such an impossible target for such a tiny group of people. Yet I found a real confidence in God and a determined group of people led by an enthusiastic lady church warden. I moved to Canterbury but 18 months later a triumphant letter came that announced that the Appeal was finished - they had raised over £100,000. It was a courageous act of faith and reminded me of the power of God to confound us.

Or I think of the visit I made to the Coptic church in Egypt just before I went to the Sudan. In that land, where Islam is the dominant faith, the Coptic Church, which consists of 10% of the population, has undergone an astonishing renewal over the last 20 to 25 years. Central to that resurgence of faith are two remarkable men, Pope Shenouda III and Father Matta el Maskeen. Father Matta el Maskeen is a monk. He rarely goes outside his monastery, which, when he became Abbot 25 years ago only had 6 or 7 monks. He then opened it up to parish groups for retreats and spiritual renewal. His talks on the Bible opened up the scriptures to clergy and laity alike. The response was quite amazing. That monastery has grown into one that now houses 130 monks.

If that spiritual renewal was at the heart of the resurgence, then Pope Shenouda III is the human dynamo who energised it. He has raised the expectations of clergy and people. He has focused on the need for education and theological learning. He has launched Sunday Schools and Youth events. Many of the Coptic Churches in Egypt now have Sunday schools which would leave us gasping. One church I heard of has 450 Sunday School teachers! I believe there is a challenge from that Church to our own. I wonder if your Church is focusing on the young as the Coptic Church is doing. If we do not have a programme for young people we are failing the Church both of the present and the future.

However, I am sure that many of you can tell your own stories of faith renewed, of lives touched and churches which have grown either numerically or spiritually. As the Board of Mission's report 'Signs of Life' showed, there are plenty of good stories of faith around and we should not be shy to tell our story of what God is doing with us and among us. The Springboard Team, which I got going just a few years ago, tell me how they are discovering a real thirst for God wherever they go and of people's lives being transformed through meeting with the risen Christ. Together with our sister churches in our land we have a ministry and a mission to all. We have nothing to apologise about - we have a faith worth celebrating and it is worth celebrating it together.

Let me as I close share three final thoughts with you, which express something of my vision for the Parishes and Churches of this country.

First, we must increasingly aim to become "seven day a week" Churches. Such is the pressure on Sunday now, through commercial expansion, leisure opportunities and family commitments that if we allow Sunday to be the only day in which Christians gather together, we shall find commitment to Christ diminishing. Sunday schools don't have to meet on Sundays! Bible study groups can be a focus for worship in the week alongside our regular services on Sundays. Let us cultivate a vision of the Church as a body which reaches out with the holistic Gospel in a million and one different ways into the community and then make our Sunday activities significant elements within that wider programme. Let us cultivate, too, a variety and flexibility in our liturgies. I love the words and rhythms of the Book of Common Prayer and the doctrines they enshrine. I have also maintained consistently that it should retain a significant place in the liturgical life of our Church. But we cannot get away from the fact that some find it a barrier to their worship of God. We need a variety of approaches so that as many as possible of the different kinds of people living in our parishes and nation can find a home in our Churches as they seek for God and long to experience his love for them.

Secondly, spirituality must remain the heartbeat of the Church. We are here not to be alternative social agencies of care but to be the body of Christ whose mission is to lead people to God. It was the Gospel which burned with passion in those who first preached the Good News here. That same Gospel, anchored in the love of God, is the fuel which will keep you burning through a thousand disappointments and discouragements. Maintain your joy in worship and deepen your knowledge in the love of God.

Thirdly, encourage one another and work closely together. The ministry is too important to be left only to the clergy. We need one another if the Gospel is to be shared.

Don't allow just a few to carry the burden. If it becomes a burden the Gospel won't shine through. We have to share the lead together.

I began with the pessimism that some express today. I do not want to leave you with the idea that I am dismissive of our problems. Of course not. We do have great challenges facing us, let us be in no doubt of that. But they are also challenges we can face and overcome together. Of course they will take us into a risk-laden future for Christ never promised that things would be easy. But the challenge is to see them from his perspective.

And that challenge must be met by commitment - our commitment to a serving, saving and renewing God. I love one of the sayings of a former bishop of Bradford, Geoffrey Paul, when he reminded his congregations: 'There is no way of belonging to Christ save that of belonging to the glorious rag-bag of saints and fat heads who make up the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.'

My fellow saints and fat heads, to us God has entrusted good news. Let us share his son's vision of cooperation with a holy and living God in love, hope and expectant faith.

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