Volume 7, Part 2, 2009
In this issue:
- Discipleship and vocation: living theology today
- The dear departed: prayers for the dead on a prayer tree in a rural English parish church
- Living the pressures of rural ministry: two case studies
- Biblical perspectives on established stressors within the farming community
- Tiller twenty-five years on
- Research report: The Cana in Galilee phenomenon: influences on biblical literalism among rural Anglicans today
- Book reviews
Discipleship and vocation:
living theology today
James M Francis
This essay is offered as a gentle encouragement to help us value some ways in which our learning in discipleship has a very wide significance. I want to explore how the call to grow in our faith through learning belongs within the vocational significance of knowledge for all human beings to explore, to discover and to be creative. The thread that weaves these together is the human vocation to learn, which is the core meaning of 'disciple'. In other words, to enrich our discipleship is to deepen the appreciation of our faith in public life. These points are illustrated by the Living Theology Today course which is a year-long lay study programme which I wrote and which is offered in County Durham, a partly rural diocese.
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The dear departed:
prayers for the dead on a prayer tree in a rural English parish church
Lewis Burton
This study originates from a larger investigation into the prayers left by visitors on a prayer tree in an English parish church. In the original collection of 2,170 prayers which came from a twelve month period from October 2007, 620 were related to prayers for the dead. These prayers were addressed to four categories of addressee. They were complex in their structure and 886 different concepts and ideas relating to death were identified in the prayers. The conclusion indicates that prayers left on a prayer tree in a Christian church provide a coping strategy not only for those attending church, or those who are particularly Christian, but for anyone who cares to use what the church provides in its ministry. Insights were also gained into how ordinary people theologise about the experience of death and bereavement.
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Living the pressures of rural ministry:
two case studies
Paul Rolph, Jenny Rolph and John Cole
Two case studies are the basis of this inquiry. A Church of England priest and a Methodist minister, each serving in a stipendiary capacity in a rural setting in England, were interviewed about the pressures of rural ministry. The aim of each interview was to listen carefully to their experience of rural ministry and to ascertain the key recurrent pressures identified by these two ministers. Analysis of the interview data revealed a large number of economic and social pressures on them, which have been described under the following headings: ministering in a rural setting, travelling in a rural area, managing church buildings, resourcing rural ministry, developing resilience, and coping with stress. The two case studies conclude with practical recommendations and suggestions for further research.
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Biblical perspectives on established stressors within the farming community
Jeremy Martineau
There are a number of established and well-documented stressors within the farming community. This article seeks to establish a dialogue between these established stressors and recurrent biblical themes. The aim of this dialogue is to expand the theological resources available to local rural churches in their engagement with the farming community.
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Tiller twenty-five years on
John Tiller
It is now twenty-five years since I wrote a report for the Advisory Council for the Church's Ministry (ACCM) entitled A Strategy for the Church's Ministry. The report called for a longer-term strategic view to take into account the serious decline in numbers of stipendiary clergy available and what other resources might be developed to sustain the Church's nationwide mission. In the following article I look at some of those developments in the ministry of the Church of England since then and ask how far the proposals of my report remain relevant to the current situation. In particular, I argue for the Church as a whole to be more positive about the distinctive place of Ordained Local Ministry (OLM) as a key part of the corporate ministry of the local church.
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Research report:
The Cana in Galilee phenomenon:
influences on biblical literalism among rural Anglicans today
Leslie J Francis, David Walker and Mandy Robbins
This strudy examines the level of belief among rural Anglican churchgoers (N=1,083) that Jesus really turned water into wine, together with the personal and religious characteristics associated with that belief. The data demonstrated that over half of these churchgoers (52%) accepted the account literally, and over a third (35%) were agnostic about it, while only one in eight (13%) clearly rejected the literal account. While biblical literalism was only weakly associated with sex and age, it was strongly associated with frequency of public church attendance and personal prayer. These findings suggest that personal piety and churchgoing may support and be supported by biblical literalism. As a consequence, non-literalists and liberal believers may find themselves in a minority and ill at ease with many rural congregations.
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Book reviews
Reader, John and Baker, Christopher (eds.): Entering the New Theological Space, by Edmund Betts
Reader, John: Reconstructing Practical Theology, by Andrew Village
Thompson, Judith; Pattison, Stephen; and Thompson, Ross: Theological Reflection, SCM Studyguide, by Stella Mills
Kinross, John: Discovering the Smallest Churches in England, by Stephen Cope
Jennings, Anthony: The Old Rectory, by Leslie J Francis
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