Saturday, October 25, 1997

Jilted twice, but still hoping for a church wedding

By LESLIE GRIFFITHS

London Observer Service

LONDON - Anglicans and Methodists are again talking about unity, and this time they just might pull it off.

The wariness of recent years is easy to understand. Methodists can hardly forget the two occasions - in 1969 and 1972 - when, in effect, they voted themselves out of existence only to find, minutes later, that the Anglicans had failed to deliver their side of the bargain. When a million-strong community opts for marriage, only to find itself jilted at the altar, it is naturally unwilling to risk being humiliated again.

It was no easier for the majority of Anglicans. They dealt with their guilt by turning their attention away from the Methodists altogether - for example, towards unity with the Roman Catholics. Michael Ramsey, who was Archbishop of Canterbury (the head of the Church of England) during all these events, came close to resignation. There was also a tendency to blame God for the debacle - if the Holy Spirit had wanted unity between the Churches he would have seen that the vote went the right way.

The facts were more complex. The failure owed much to human vacillation and deals stitched together in the corridors of Church House. Yet both parties have said, almost ad nauseam, that unity is the will of God for his Church. They just don't seem able to steel their own will for the necessary steps.

When Jesus said, just before his death, that he feared for the future of his followers and urged them to stick together, he added an impassioned prayer - "that they might be one and go on being one." It is as if he sensed how easily social, political and theological pressures would drive them apart.

Today both Churches have had to come to terms with a weakening of their influence on British society. Not only are they smaller, but they have endured painful internal controversy. The ordination of women and the investment performance of the Church Commissioners, the decreasing numbers of candidates for the ministry and the never-ending debate about human sexuality have eroded the self-confidence of both bodies. Even where there have been good initiatives (the Faith in the City report and the recent study on unemployment from the Church of England, and Methodist reports on Sharing in God's Mission), they could have been more effectively done together than apart.

Jesus prayed for his followers to be one, stating that unity was necessary so "that the world might believe." The Churches in Britain have to show that they can display their splendid diversity, appealing to the widest possible variety of temperament, offering a rich menu of worship styles and theological positions within a unity that is visible and attractive. Only with such a unity will the Christian Church occupy the moral high ground in appealing for social and political unity in our pluralistic times. If they can't discover and display their own unity, what right do they have to appeal to others to show theirs?

Pride has to be swallowed, courage to be summoned, but this time I believe the Anglicans and Methodists really can pull it off - and it may well act as a spur to others. If this latest attempt to create church unity comes to pass, we may be able to think the unthinkable and imagine a revitalized Christian presence in this country. But if we fail this time, there may never be another chance.

(The Rev Leslie Griffiths is a former president of the Methodist Conference and the minister of Wesley's Chapel in London. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)