THE MESSENGER - Vale of Pewsey Team

The
Clergy
Letter
Dear readers,
In this article, I am sharing some thoughts from the Future of the Countryside
Conference held last year:
RURAL CHURCHES CONSTANTLY SURPRISE WITH NEW LIFE
Faith and the Future of the Countryside conference took place in November
2010. Marking the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Faith in the
Countryside, the report of the Archbishops' Commission on Rural Areas, 33 sets
of recommendations were made for future work. A prioritised short list of five
was agreed by the conference delegates. Work has already started to
implement these five:
1) We call upon Government to enable affordable rural housing schemes to proceed where this
need is established through a local housing needs survey and a community led plan formulated
to an agreed national standard.
2) We call upon Government to remove barriers to churches accessing funding for community
benefit.
3) We urge the Church to recognise and strengthen its contribution to sustainable communities and
to use this as a basis for engaging with government and local communities in the Big Society
agenda.
4) We urge the Government to ensure that proposals about the future of the public forest estate
safeguard the ecological, cultural, economic, recreational and spiritual benefits that are already
in place.
5) Appreciating the distinctive nature, demands and stresses of rural mission and ministry, we
recommend that:
Those in training for public mission and ministry should have effective preparation for rural
and multi church work. This should include the preparation and equipping clergy moving to
rural posts. Church leaders should develop improved support to address the well being of
the clergy and lay officers engaged in rural mission and ministry.
The rural church continues to explore alternative, flexible and radical models of collaborative mission
and ministry. Jill Hopkinson Editor of Country Way in Rural Britain suggests:
Rural churches are good at mission. Good at mission because rural churches have great potential to
share the gospel and make a difference to the lives of rural residents due to the links and contacts,
friendships and relationships that are intricately woven between church and community. We need to
get better at finding out how to use these networks in creative ways to share our faith and hope with
a wider group of people.
Hope is not some naïve optimism that things will always work out fine. The resurrection is about
rebuilding, a new start, a new life. Resurrection is both spiritual and practical, faith and hope. I will
rise again.
Rural Christians must be realistic, for many rural spirituality is not located in the practices of the
church, but in those moments of insight and vision that comes from spending time in the natural
landscape, or in community activities with fellow residents. The church can only hope to reclaim rural
spirituality if it is prepared to meet people where their lives are lived and in work. The church needs
to be present in the wider life of our villages, rather than being narrowly focussed on its own issues
and concerns. Rural churches need to provide sacred space for the whole community, whether on a
Sunday or not.
If the church is to take rural ministry seriously, it needs to embody its story about how such a life can
be lived by all God’s people.
I hope these points will add to the Think Tank for present and future styles of ministries in the Vale of
Pewsey Team of Churches. Please contact me if you would like to share your thoughts.
Best wishes and prayers,
Hugh
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