Shap Journal 2001/2002

The Christian Community:
The Parish in the Church of England

Michael and Janina Ainsworth

Note. In the Anglican tradition all the people living in a
parish are the responsibility of the parish priest whether they
attend church or not. In this article Michael and ]anina
Ainsworth look at the role and function of the parish and
include some ideas on teaching about the parish in schools.
Eds

The Revd Michael Ainsworth, describes his parish

A geographical entity

On the wall of my study, as in most parsons'
houses, hangs a map of the parish, showing
its boundaries. Although people are free to
attend any church they choose (and some
travel long distances to do so), for baptisms and funerals,
and particularly for weddings (though this may change)
the boundaries matter.

Some parishes are vast, and sparsely populated; others
are small, and densely inhabited. The city of Salford,
where I live, once boasted the smallest parish in the
Church of England: just 70 acres, with a population of
7,500 in back-to-back terraces. (Redevelopment and
pastoral re-organisation have changed that.) Many
boundaries are ancient, following streams and
footpaths. In times past, and still in a few places today,
they 'beat the bounds' in an annual procession -
originally as a way of staking their claim, but nowadays
as a way of embracing the community, celebrating all its
different activities.

To beat the bounds of our parish - which is also a team,
joining three places of worship together - you would
have to cross two motorways and the busy East
Lancashire Road, several railway lines and the
Bridgewater Canal, as well as making your way through
a large number of back gardens under which culverted
streams, which form the boundary, run. We have done
it as an imaginary exercise in church - 'noticing' and
praying for all the things we pass on our journey - but
wouldn't dare to do it for real! The fact is, our parish
boundary is artificial, and no longer co-terminus with a
natural community, or with civic boundaries. But our
parish church still sees its job as serving a geographical
area, and the 18,000 people who live in it, not just
church members. The work of our church school
complements this, of course.

Even where boundaries remain sensible, they only relate
to where people live, and take no account of where
people work, shop, go to school and pursue leisure
activities in a mobile society - the variety of
communities to which people belong. Since our parish
straddles the motorway network, many of our
parishioners travel to work in West Yorkshire or
Merseyside. They shop in Bolton or the Trafford Centre
as well as at Tescos up the road. Our young people travel
far and wide to schools and colleges.

Yet our parish still feels rooted in the wider community.
Although people on the new commuter estates come
and go, as they move up the housing ladder, there are
many families who have been in the area for several
generations, and the social networks remain. They
identify with the parish church - a fine Gilbert Scott
building of 1846, in a prominent position - as 'theirs';
they visit family graves in the churchyard; they may not
come to church on Sunday, but they do for baptisms,
weddings and funerals.

Cure of souls: the parish as a pastoral unit

Our parish has three full-time ministers: myself, a
team vicar and a Church Army officer. We also
have a part-time sexton and verger looking after the
church and churchyard. But pastoral ministry is not, of
course, the preserve of the paid staff. We also have a
licensed Reader, and another in training, and many
others who have been trained or authorised to do
particular jobs, both in church and in the various parish
organisations, of which we have a large number. But
every member of the congregation is - or should be -
involved in the work of the church in some way -
ministry is a shared responsibility.

'So what do you do all week?' the children ask me, when
I'm invited into school to answer their questions. I don't
think they imagine that I only work one day a week, but
they might suppose I am basically a 'chaplain to the
congregation' and not realise that most of my contacts
are with people outside the regular congregation. So I go
through my diary for a week, and describe the range of
different activities (some of which are shared with other
church members):

•   prayer and worship: daily morning and evening
prayer (which clergy are supposed to say in church -
and sometimes a few lay people join us), and midweek
services for small groups; preparing Sunday's services,
and writing sermons.

•   visiting: the days of trying to visit every home in
the parish are gone, but I make it a priority to visit the
sick and housebound (sometimes taking holy
communion to them at home), and especially those who
are dying. Sometimes I visit folk in hospital - or else I
will ask the hospital chaplain to see them.

•   funerals: Anglican clergy will normally conduct the
funeral of anyone who dies in the parish, unless the
family has links with another denomination or faith
(though even here I am sometimes called in - I have
taken funerals for Greek Orthodox parishioners, and for
secular Hindus!) So there are usually two or three a
week, usually at the local crematorium or cemetery, but
increasingly with a service in church first, or with the
burial of the body or ashes in our churchyard. I visit the
family beforehand at home, and our bereavement
support group will make contact after the funeral.

•   weddings: in the Church of England, anyone
resident in the parish, or who has attended the church
for at least six months and is on the church's Electoral
Roll, is entitled to be married in the parish church. We
take this responsibility seriously, and have an 'open'
policy (including the possibility of marriage after
divorce, which other churches will not consider), and so
most weeks there are several interviews or rehearsals.
Quite often the bride or groom, or their family, comes
from another country, so I try to include a blessing in
that language!

•   baptisms: as with weddings, parishioners have a
legal right to request baptism, and so there will usually
be a couple of visits each week to prepare parents and
godparents for the service (which may either be during
the main service, or a separate service with several
families attending - often over 200 people in all).

•   school contacts: taking assemblies and school
Eucharist, occasional class visits to church, the activities
involved in being a school governor.

•   finally, there is administration, and the whole
range of church and community meetings.....

A Christian Community

All the activities of the week feed into Sunday
worship, which is when the Christian community is
most obviously and visibly gathered. Sundays are a busy
day in our parish, with services of Holy Communion at
Sam and 10.30am and Evensong at 6.30pm every
Sunday, baptisms at 12.30pm at least twice a month,
and quite often a burial of ashes and/or a wedding too.

The top juniors recently wrote to the wardens and
council members asking them what their job is, and
some of them were a bit stumped as to how to reply! It's
easy to say what you do if run Sunday School, or sing
in the choir or music group, or edit the magazine, or are
a flower arranger, a youth or toddler or house group
leader, a Scouter or Guider, a bellringer, a member of the
Mothers' Union.... In fact, the wardens and council
members are the leading lay people of the church, who
have a responsibility to work with the parish priest to
make sure all these other activities happen, alongside
the day-to-day worship of the parish. They are also there
to promote the mission of the church - to find good
ways of reaching out into the community in which they
live and work, and commending the gospel.

The regular congregation maintains the building and
supports the ministry of the church as a trust for this
wider community. These days, many 'regulars' do not
themselves come every week - patterns of churchgoing
are changing - but they make a financial commitment.
As well as the local running costs, parish share
(sometimes called 'quota') has to be found. This is paid
monthly to the diocese, and is the mechanism for paying
clergy stipends and pensions as well as central expenses.
(Each diocese calculates it in different ways, but it
reflects the size and affluence of the congregation, so
that richer parishes support poorer ones.)

Church Structures

Mention of the diocese raises questions about the
wider structures of the church, which children
often ask. I struggle to explain why some churches have
vicars and others rectors, and those of us in teams have
both, and that they're all priests or ministers (yet our
Church Army officer is not a priest but is a minister!)
The next stage is the deanery. I am Area Dean of Eccles,
responsible for a local grouping of 12 parishes which try
to work together (Manchester, being an urban diocese,
calls them 'area deans'; traditionally they are 'rural
deans'). This is part of the archdeaconry of Manchester
- one of the three subdivisions of the diocese of about a
hundred parishes, with an archdeacon who has specific
legal responsibilities for church buildings and officers
and administration as well as supporting the clergy.
Then comes the diocese itself, led by the bishop. (Like
most dioceses, we also have area, or suffragan, bishops
who share this work.) Dioceses are grouped into
provinces, each with an archbishop (in England, York or
Canterbury); and all the provinces worldwide form the
Anglican Communion.

Is the bishop the boss? He certainly has authority, as a
teacher of the faith and in legal and disciplinary
matters. But it is best to see him as the chief pastor of a
city or county, a focus of unity who shows how we
belong together. When he installs a new parish priest,
he gives him or her a license and says 'Receive this care
of souls, which is both yours and mine.' He ordains new
clergy, usually in his cathedral (the 'mother church' of
the diocese where he has his 'seat' - lots of questions
here!); he visits parishes to confirm - showing that we
are baptized, not into the local church, but into a
worldwide community.

The Church of England, they say, is 'episcopally led and
synodically governed'. In other words, alongside the
leadership role of bishops there is an elected 'parliament'
of clergy and lay people who have the right to make
decisions about the running of the church. Nationally,
there is the General Synod; in each diocese, there is a
diocesan synod; in each deanery, a deanery synod; and
in each parish, a Parochial Church Council - all elected
by church members who are on the Electoral Roll
maintained by each parish. All this came about in the
early part of the 20th century as a result of the Enabling
Act. In addition, every parish has two churchwardens -
the 'eyes of the bishop', and the leading lay members of
the parish. This is a much older office, and technically
they are chosen at an annual 'vestry meeting' open to
all inhabitants of the parish, not just those on the
Electoral Roll - though in practice, unless there has been
some kind of controversy in the church, this is a bit of a
fiction.

And finally....

....to the church building, which is what 'the parish'
means for many children. It is certainly a fantastic
resource, which we try to use imaginatively and
appropriately at the various KS visits: colour and light,
design and construction, liturgical geography, music,
space and silence. The churchyard, too, is great for
projects about history and the local community - so
long as you can cope with all the comments about
ghosts and skeletons, as well as with children who have
had a recent family internment. The challenge is to use
the building to open up questions about the life of the
parish, and the nature of the Christian community. To
be honest, though, the thing that most of them
remember is climbing up the spiral stairs to the ringing
room, and having a go with the bells!

Janina Ainsworth, suggests how work on the Anglican
parish as a Christian community might be tackled in
schools.

A geographical entity

The whole of England and Wales is divided into
parishes; everyone in England lives in a parish.
Originally a unit of local government (Parish Councils
still function in some places), it is now mainly an
ecclesiastical district. (Roman Catholic churches also
function on a parish basis, but not in quite the same
way.) A basic definition might be: 'the parish is the area
attached to a particular Anglican church and so is the
pastoral responsibility of the priest of that parish.'

What is our parish like? Mapping the boundaries; walking
round; an imaginary journey - what would we see? how
could we describe it to a stranger?
Beating the bounds - when? what for?

Parish boundaries no longer match the shape of people's
lives (if they ever did).
What's happened to our parish? Where do people work/shop
/play? Surveys, pie charts etc

Cure of souls: the parish as a pastoral unit

Why is the Church of England different from other
denominations? It is the national church,
accepting religious responsibilities for all. An Anglican
priest has a care for every person in the parish whatever
their religious affiliation, or none. Anyone has the right to
be christened (baptised), married or have a funeral service
in their parish church, whether they attend or not.

What does the church provide for the people who live in
the parish?

(a) Clergy and other trained/accredited people, for
worship, teaching, visiting, usually for church members,
but also with a role in the wider community, e.g. school,
community projects, playgroup, drop-in centre.
What happens in our parish? Who's on the staff? How did
they become priests? Readers? What do they do? Where else
do they work? e.g. hospital visiting, nursing homes,
meetings...

(b) Baptism: what is it? preparation for parents and
godparents; visit from the clergy and/or lay people; the
service - in the main service or separate?
What happens in our parish? How would we arrange a
baptism? What happens?

(c) Sunday School: teaching for children about the
Christian Faith. Much stronger in the past -
Anniversary Sundays, Sunday School treats/ trips, Whit
Walks, Sermons Sundays

What happens in our parish? Who goes to Sunday School?
What is it like? Who are the leaders?

(d) Weddings: who can get married in church? What
if you live outside the parish? (importance of
boundaries) Preparation of bride and groom - visit by
clergy, rehearsal in church.

What happens in our parish? How do you book a wedding?
What does the (Vicar/Rector) do? How many weddings does
s/he do in a year? How much does it cost? How does that
compare with the reception/dress/'cake/photographs? Any
videos?

(e) Funerals: services in church or crematorium;
burial (the pattern varies widely, depending on
geography and local custom); use of graveyards
What happens in our parish? How many funerals a year?
What happens to the body? What happens at a funeral?

A Christian Community

Out of all the people that live in a parish, some of
them will belong to the church in a different way,
marked by attending Sunday worship and other
activities of the church. The regular congregation:
changing patterns of Sunday attendance - Victorian 3
times a day, 1950s morning or evening/afternoon
Sunday School. Fewer people attend every week now -
other activities on Sunday. Sunday School (Junior
Church/Children's church etc.) now usually at the same
time as main Sunday service.

What's on offer on a Sunday?

•   great variation as each church works out its own
pattern, but using the same service book (Common
Worship).

•   Some churches will have 8 o'clock - a service of
Holy Communion that is quiet, with no hymns,
often taken from the Book of Common Prayer, the
Church's original prayer book from the 17th
century. Who goes to 8 o'clock and why?

•   The main service will usually be another Eucharist
(Holy Communion) between 10 and 11 o'clock,
lasting around 1 hour. Most people attend this
service, and it has the greatest variations.

•   It can be a Family Service; a Parade service with
Brownies, Guides, Scouts or Brigade; a Baptism
service.

•   It will usually have lots of music but that can be
with organ or piano or instruments played by
members if the congregation; it can be old music -
hymns or anthems written at any time in Christian
history - or new worship songs; performed by
congregation and or choir.

•  The clergy and choir may wear vestments/
cassocks and surplices/different clothes to mark
them out from the rest of the congregation / to link
them with the Christian past.

•   The church may be decorated in special colours to
mark the seasons of the Christian year.

•   Some churches will have a service in the evening

•   Some churches have special services for young
people with bands and light-show and young
people taking a major part in leading the worship.

What happens in our parish? How can we find out about
services? Notice boards, magazine, word of mouth. What are
the different services like? Which cater for children? What
kind of music is there? Visits, photos, sketches; representing
the worship; who goes? numbers and people; 
telling their story.

Church Structures

Who's in charge? Who makes the decisions?

•   Vicar/Rector: areas of responsibility; how much is
the (Vicar) paid? How does that compare to e.g. a
teacher/head teacher/lunch-time organiser/ doctor
/(suitable local job)

•   Churchwardens: How many? How chosen? Areas
of responsibility?

•   Parochial Church Council: Who? How many? How
chosen? What Officers are there? Secretary,
Treasurer, etc.

•   Teams and Groups: some parishes will have District
Church Councils as well as Parochial church Councils.

•   Who pays for what?

Our parish? What's on the agenda for the next meeting?
What difference will it make?

•   Beyond the parish: the role of the deanery; Area/Rural Dean

•   The diocese: parish share; services and support

•   The bishop/s: roles and responsibilities

•   Diocesan and General synod

How do we find out where our parish belongs? Area/Rural
Deans - what do they do? How does the deanery/diocese
affect the parish? How do they raise the money? What is it
spent on? What would we spend it on?