The cult of nice
The crowd-pleasing, George Herbert model of ministry must be dropped, says Jonathan Wright

11 September 2009

If You Meet George Herbert, Kill Him
By Justin Lewis-Anthony
Mowbray, £14.99

Fear not. Despite his book's eye-catching title, Lewis-Anthony doesn't hate George Herbert. He's actually quite fond of him, especially his poems. What he detests is the way in which Herbert's legacy has been abused over the past 350 years in order to cultivate a paradigm of ministry that has long since become redundant. Some Church of England vicars still try to live up to the romanticised (historically exaggerated) image of Herbert as the beloved, conscientious minister, living in a bucolic idyll, being all things to all men. It is this phantom Herbert that Lewis-Anthony wants to slay. I'd be happy to join the execution squad.

These are hard times for the Church of England's rectors and curates. Their social status has plummeted; they find themselves in a world of shifting values; but through it all they still have to pay homage to what Lewis-Anthony aptly calls the "cult of nice".

They patiently endure challenges to their authority; they strive not to offend anyone; and this all results in their ministry becoming a crowd-pleasing theatrical performance rather than an authentic expression of their faith. They are often ridiculously busy and they can feel isolated and marginalised.

In such a situation, trying to ape the mythologised ministry of Herbert - being "omnipresent, omni-competent and omni-affirming" - is a singularly misguided idea. Lewis-Anthony offers an alternative vision, one that derives its conceptual framework from a lecture given by Rowan Williams in 2004. It isn't especially extreme. It just adds up to common sense, really. And this is what makes it so compelling.

Lewis-Anthony talks about the three "W"s.

First, we have Witness which, at heart, involves nothing more controversial than praising and serving God, curating tradition, and trying to ensure that your church isn't just one more social club or voluntary society. For all the tea parties and fund-raising initiatives, the Church Militant ought to remember that it is part of a cosmic Christian enterprise.

Next comes the role of Watchman, which obliges a priest to stand on the ramparts and glean a sense of the world around him or her. This requires cultural literacy, the exercise of intellectual curiosity, but also a keen sense that any observations must be filtered through a specifically Christian perspective.

Finally, the minister has to be a Weaver, pulling the strings together both within his own congregation but also in the context of the wider community.

Follow these rubrics and your life as a priest becomes a whole lot easier. The trick, Lewis-Anthony explains, is to be specific.

Establish your personal rule of life: in the author's case, as rector of St Stephen's, Canterbury, this involves combining prayer, study, leading worship, and (since this is the lynchpin of any ministry) making Christ known to those who turn up at church. Also, be quite clear about your role: what you have to do and when you have to do it. This involves nothing more complicated than a detailed job description. Finally, you'll have to master the art of making decisions and resolving conflicts.

I know that this all sounds very straightforward. It amounts to nothing more spectacular than carving out a workable life as a religious leader of your community.

As Lewis-Anthony reminds us, however, this simple-looking task hasn't always been easy to accomplish within the Church of England. A breath of pragmatic fresh air is much needed. The wonderful thing about this book is that it combines level-headedness with a belief in the unique, elevated role of a Christian priest. Lewis-Anthony wants to make ministers' lives more manageable because he regards those lives as supremely important. This, as the title insists, is really quite radical, provided that we remember that "radical" derives from a Latin term denoting something with roots. All Lewis-Anthony really wants to see is priests doing the work they were designed to do in the first place.

This is a witty, well-intentioned book. Behind its conclusions there are sophisticated analyses of any number of theological and sociological ideas and, while the book is unlikely to solve Anglicanism's problems, the Church of England is fortunate to have such a bold, idol-smashing thinker within its ranks.