Planning Putting out Fires.

Planning Putting out Fires.

I wonder, am I cynical or a realist?

I write the following as much for my own personal therapy as anything else!

When a diocesan plan was proposed five years ago, the initial meetings were very much a collection of ideas. “From Consultation to Consensus” was the strap line. It was in my opinion, which really does not count for much, another exercise in naval gazing. The initial meeting was a case of being told to put down on paper the words you feel and then pin them on a board…I don’t swear but at that meeting I wanted to! We know what the malaise is, we don’t need more years asking the same questions that were posed thirty years ago and before then too. I was frustrated then and am still now.

I felt the meeting was like being in a room with people trying to work out how to put a fire out that had reached the door of the place where they were meeting, discussing ways of how to do it, ideas were on the table being shared but not one that everyone agreed with, and so the dithering continued, and the flames entered the room. Meanwhile in the corner of that room the equipment was sitting there to put out the fire and it was being ignored. Its not that the people in the room don’t want to put the fire out, they just want to explore all avenues to reach a consensus before doing anything practical.

That was then, since then we have had a pandemic that stopped everything. Then the Synod arrived a side show of global proportions so that everyone can let somebody know what everybody already knows, so that somebody can say “I hear you” Or something like that. Agenda driven, the Synod voices will make their way to another meeting, where the fire is lapping at the door.

When I came to Coventry six years ago now there were so many parishes in a small space, people could go to several churches within a few miles of each other. Sitting down and looking, it seemed that Coventry was ripe for a role in that change needed.

A Coventry Hub could have been created. A purpose built or existing building adapted to house the priests and all Coventry parishes would be served from the Hub. Giving them administrative and fraternal support, while maintaining a level of space to breathe, an accommodation could have been sought to support, but also give space, an existing presbytery could have been built upon to provide the space needed. At the Hub it could have been the centre for admin, for planning, for meetings, for outreach, for community cohesion and action.

This would be a Hub brought about by the reducing of parishes and the gathering together in strength all others. A practical response to decline and an opportunity for growth, for renewal, for a collective strategy to evangelise afresh the people in Coventry. Churches would still be the places of worship doted around the Coventry area, but admin would become more manageable. Instead of having a parish priest there would be several priests supporting one another, serving the whole community.

Seeing a collective approach to Coventry priests, people, working together from a larger base covering the whole of Coventry, to bring about interest in the Kingdom. This looked hopeful at one stage but the planning for such an idea has not taken place, it will not happen by design now.

This Hub idea would have taken careful planning, creative thinking, overcoming obstacle and challenge. It may well not have been possible either. It is one idea hopefully in a stream flowing with other ideas.

Our parishes are places of love, but they are creaking at the seams with wear and tear, some kind of tender loving attention to the details of each parish are required to make them fit for purpose, for the purpose of evangelisation. We need support, we need hope, and we need it soon.

In a place like Coventry, it can appear that the priesthood is a viewed as a popularity contest, some people have this idea and maybe some priests too! Humility is not weakness and weakness is not to be sneered at either.

Three or four generations of lapsed families, bouncing around the school buildings, but neglecting the church and parish life week on week is the reality of what we face. We do not have the structure in place at present to address this major problem. The Lapsed need much attention and love and support lavished upon them, but the structure of a deanery needs that lavish love and support and the tools to do the job first!

In the six years I have been here parishes have become vacant in the deanery and appointments have been made. There seemed then to be no thought to stop and realise that maybe this is the fire equipment moment presenting itself. A moment to help us change, to help us put out the fire, to steady and renew the mission, by bolstering structures, alas not, this was not the case.

In fact, the deanery has become even bigger now with the addition of half of the Rugby deanery parishes and so that Hub idea has gone and won’t be the future. It was not the one solution that would solve every problem, but I know that clergy welfare, support, and motivation, that has taken a battering over the years, requires bolstering, love, and care. The structures we serve, go a long way to helping steady aching limbs and trembling hearts. If we can see the way forward, we can journey on enthusiastically.

(perhaps in the following paragraph it is time for the confession of cynicism)

For me it is all too late already “Hello mate, I need my child who is three christened, so I can get a place at the school” When I take this type of phone call, I fear it’s too late already. What should I do when faced with such a request? I am mindful that swearing is not an option!

Faith is nurtured in families, but there are three, four generation of an absence of faith in the home, and so this is where the initiatives should begin, this is where the support is needed. This is the fire to put out, the lapsed, and until it is addressed then not much will happen to facilitate change, renewal and growth.

In the present I do what I can to understand better my vocation as a priest. I love being a priest and I am thankful for the gift that it is to my life. I know more and more that standing at the altar is where my work and prayer come together, intersecting upon the pilgrimage and journey of my life and priesthood. I am called to love and despite my many failings and weaknesses I am loved by Christ, who calls me still to follow him. Who daily calls me to take up the cross and move forward one step at a time.