1

2
 Parish Church
As

Community Temple1

1994

1
Flynn, Shawn W. ‘ “A House of Prayer for All Peoples”: The Unique
Place of the Foreigner in the Temple Theology of Trito-Isaiah.’
Theoforum. 2006. 37(1), 5-25. The OT must be viewed as having varying
degrees of exclusivism and of inclusivism. To demonstrate Trito-Isaiah's (TI)
inclusive perspective (Isa 56-66) is to compare TI to texts that deal with
similar themes regarding the pressures of the exile, such as the role of the
foreigner in the community. Demonstrates that TI is a pivotal text for the
development of inclusion in the OT since it stands in sharp contrast to the
general consensus of texts within the context. Compares TI to a wide range of
late pre-exilic, exilic and post-exilic texts that discuss similar pressures
regarding the role of the foreigner in the community and that often reflect on
the role of the Temple. Refines the question: when studying the books of
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Ezra / Nehemiah, Second- and Trito-Isaiah, which texts'
theologies of sacred space welcome the foreigner into Temple / worship and
which do not? TI is an important text regarding inclusion; it is remarkably
inclusive in contrast to texts that deal with similar pressures but respond by
promoting exclusion and limited levels of inclusion.

3
4
 New Edition

Parish Church
As

Community Temple

2007

Second Edition Revised.

5
With updated, post Thatcher and post-9/11
notes and references

6
7
 Biographical Outline

Dr. Catchpole trained for the Anglican ministry at St.John’s College,

Nottingham in England and was ordained in 1974, working mainly
in U.K., inner city parishes.

On gaining his Masters degree in Theology and Ministry from the

Urban Theology Unit at Sheffield Hallam University, spent time in
the Franciscan friary in Dorset, England. His faith was sorely
challenged and radically transformed by this two-year pilgrimage
with Jesus among the Franciscans. Since his conversion in 1966,
his understanding of Jesus, who has been faithful to him even in
the midst of his errors, has been honed and refined by the fire of
the Holy Spirit. Having been awarded a doctorate in Theological
Studies by the Eckhart Seminary in 2006, he is currently engaged
in empirical theological research into Christian Ministry at the
University of Wales, and teaches Theological reflection for the
diocese of Salisbury.
An independent publisher, he is the author of many books on
Christian discipleship. He has lectured on Ethics, New Testament,
and Mythology at Southampton University’s School of Cultural
Studies in Winchester, and on World Religions for the Workers’
Educational Association, and on Contemporary Christianity for
St.John’s Theological College (Trent University), in Nottingham.
Writing academic abstracts for the Universities of California and
West Georgia, S.P.C.K.’s ‘Theology’ Journal, and for the Keston
Institute, he regularly contributes to the academic community’s,
‘Religious and Theological Abstracts’ database resource.

8
9
 SUMMARY

Parish Church
As

Community Temple

10
 The situation and the main
problem

Saint Wilfrid’s Church, Calverton, a rural Anglican

church used to having been the centre of the
community was now losing power and struggling to
find a new role in a changing settlement.

The Specific Change Goals

Attempted

Sensitising the congregation2 of St. Wilfrid’s to the

different traditions within its own life, to recognise
both positive and negative aspects of these
differences, and to become sensitive / responsive to
the multi-faceted nature of the parish.

The Research and resource

Areas

2
McDaniel, Charlotte. ‘Reflection Seminars as Loci for Critical Thinking.’ Theological
Education. 2005. 40(), 63-73. Explores critical thinking as foundational for theological
education. Courses comprising practice of ministry have the potential to serve as the means
of instilling critical reflection. Engages in a meta-analysis serving as a critical analysis of the
Reflection Seminars that are core components of ministerial preparation, particularly in
practice programs. Inherent is the irony that while practice of ministry courses may receive
less emphasis or have less value in theological education, they hold the potential for
development of active learning groups foundational to teaching skills in critical thinking.
Critical thinking is essential to professional competency and the ability to instil pastoral
imagination. The question is whether ministerial practice courses will develop these skills,
especially when theology students may demonstrate other learning preferences. Considers
whether and how such Reflection Seminars can enhance sensitivity to congregational
practices in faculty and/or the curriculum at large.

11
A range of theological, historical, pastoral and
liturgical works was consulted, as well as local
histories, development plans and surveys. Hands-
on experts in the fields of management, psychology,
theology, politics, service-provision, client
management, temperament, were also consulted.
Other sites in the British Isles where similar work
was being done were visited / consulted. Local
knowledge and perception was a major resource.

The Results of the Project

The church has revised its image in the community

as ‘like the temple, a place where God’s glory
dwells’. It has revised its self-image through a
thought-out strategy of getting alongside non-
church people in secular situations. It has gained
new confidence by establishing itself as a provider
of a major local resource. Its religious ethos is to
demonstrate its faith by good provision as well as
by proclamation of the Word.

Outstanding Conclusions

The Priest-as-scribe was a new and important idea

arising from the project. A realisation of the danger

12
of ascribing to the church building a spiritual
presence it did not possess above and beyond what
individuals might possess was also achieved.
The idea of the settlement as ‘Jerusalem’ – a local
secular conviction sometimes stated but more often
covertly believed – was transformed and given
some theological credibility.
The idea of the parish church as a community
temple has provided a theological and pastoral
groundwork, which will credibly support the spiritual
inclination of Christians to become and remain
involved in ‘community work’ as an acceptable
offering of spiritual service to God.

13
14
 Parish Church
As
Community Temple
2nd Edition

Roy Catchpole

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements

of the degree of MASTER OF MINISTRY AND
THEOLOGY.

URBAN THEOLOGY UNIT

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
June 1994

15
16
 MASTER OF MINISTRY AND THEOLOGY

Who Is My Village?

“ Faith keeps watch every day… and daily fear

that for which she daily hopes.”

Tertullian. De Anima (ad fin).

1994
To the people of Calverton with gratitude to the
people of Broxtowe and Hyson Green and all those
who, in both statutory and voluntary capacities
have honed their faith in the living Lord through the
sacrifice of love for others, whether hidden secretly
in the heart, like the prayer of the just, or shouted
from the hilltop like the light on a mountain in the
name of Him who died and was raised for the
redemption of the world, Jesus, the Man for others.

URBAN THEOLOGY UNIT.

SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY. Rev’d. Roy catchpole
The Vicarage

17
Calverton. Notts

18
19
 Contents
Chapter One
Anatomy of a village
The Minister
The Situation
Calverton’s amenities. Sept. 1992
Commuting
Rurality
Farming
Housing
Education
Politics
Community Groups
Public Houses
The Parish Church
Personally…
The Future
Greater Nottingham training/Enterprise
Council.

Chapter Two
Conservation and Hope
Site Team Members
The Site Team process
Phase One
Phase Two
Phase Three
Phase Four
The Problem Stated

Chapter Three
Strategies for Discovery.
Change Goals, Competencies, Evaluations,
Resources, Timing, and Strategy Development.

20
Chapter Four
Temple and Settlement
SECTION ONE
A parish church wrestling with identity.
The temple and Social Conflict
Resolution of Social Conflict
The Temple in the ‘Plan of God’
The Temple as ‘Incarnation’
SECTION TWO
Managing the Temple
The Priest as Scribe
SECTION THREE
The Church as Temple Today
The Church as Temple: a live issue
Future of Church as temple?

Chapter Five
Culture and Community
Change Goal One
The Farming / Village Community
The Commuter Community
The Pit Community
First Address: Farming.
Second Address: Commuting
Third Address: The Pit
Candidate’s reflections
Role of Parish Church (Expectations)
Site Team Reflections
The Farming Culture
The Mining Culture
The Commuting Culture
Concluding Change Goal One
Display (Photographs)
Change Goal Two
New Elements Which Emerged

21
 Social Group Diversity
Church Member Commitment
Physical Oppression and the Human Spirit
Ministerial Competency
Community Groups / Member Commitment
Universalism and Inclusivity

Chapter Six
Images and Witnesses
Change Goal One
Change Goal two
Ministerial Competencies
Personal Witness
Education, Christian Discipleship and Life-
Teaching
Facilitating Through Listening
A changed Situation
Image in the Community
Self-Image
New Confidence
The Church: A Major Resource
Religious Ethos

Chapter Seven
Some Messages
For the Churches
For the Secular Powers
For Ministry and Mission
For the Nature of Christianity.

Main Contribution of this work to the Church

APPENDICES:
A Commuter World
B Church as Temple
C St. Wilfrid’s Church Ground Plan

22
D Community Groups in Calverton
E Parish Church Groups
F Church Crèche Plans
G Trinity Sunday Service

23
24
The Rev’d Dr. Roy Catchpole. Priest

25
26
 Chapter One

Anatomy of a
Village

The Minister
I took the incumbency of Calverton in May 1986. I
wanted to look at hidden rural poverty, to follow-up
a dream I had for the development of a smallholding
in Calverton, and to find relief from intense urban
ministry for my family and myself.
I had been committed to community action ministry
liasing with any locally impinging agency that would
cooperate. I came to Calverton as a priest
converted in prison, a product of the post-war
underclass for whom James Dean had been an
adolescent role model. My recent philosophical
background had an element of disillusionment with
the Church’s reticence for radical political

27
engagement with the causes of poverty. The Faith
In The City Report3 had been mainly developmental
and collaborative in character and insufficiently
radical in setting forth the empowerment of the
poor, offering them consultation, information,
education and placatory moralism stopping short of
self-determination. But a start had been made by
the church and more work would flow from it for
urban poor as the Report gained in respectability
among the churches. I wanted to see how my kind
of ministry, giving rise to pressure and direct action
groups would work in a rural setting where the cry
of poverty was less strident and dressed in better
clothes.
I saw myself as among the pioneers to the rural
underclass in my new job. I did not expect to find
any different problems in the rural setting than I had
found in urban ministries – just greater difficulty in
unearthing them because they would be more
hidden. I would find greater difficulty in solving the
problems because they would not occur in such
3
Faith In The City. The report of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s
Commission on Urban Priority Areas. 1985. CHP

28
numerical quantity as to make their occurrence as
sufficiently tasty to the palates of politicians or
social agencies. My ministry would be a low-profile
one, which would be a novelty for me.
In the first two years of this rural ministry I had
worked with a Nottingham homeless trust,
managing to house upwards of twenty homeless
people in the smallholding buildings on the edge of
Calverton parish, personally supporting the Director
and regularly visiting the site to help with problems
in consultation with the management committee.
During the tail end of that time I had also gained
control of the church hall and re-ordered it, and in
the third year I identified, and worked closely
alongside a local volunteer, to whom I gave the title
‘Co-ordinator’. Her task was to establish local
groups on the principle that they would set their
own agendas and use the hall as a pump-priming
venue with a policy to move to alternative premises
as soon as they had become financially viable,
leaving space for new group developments in the
building. The parameters of the trust document

29
supplied limitations on the types of developments
that were permitted in the building. These were
that they should be educational or recreational in
character. I chose, with the agreement of the
Diocesan Solicitor, to interpret this broadly.
I had already become focussed, under the general
head of ‘poverty’, on two symptoms of underclass
disadvantage. Homelessness and drug
dependency/misuse. The first was a cash
deprivation and the second an emotional one.
Taken together, these two reflected my perception
of ‘whole ministry’ – to the body and soul.
In collaboration with the Director of the Macedon
trust – a group characterised and vilified by some
for its direct action approach – and a small group of
friends I began to investigate the possibility of
focussing the use of the smallholding (purchased by
the Trust four years earlier with a large cash gift
from Paul Getty, K.G.) to the poverty of drug/alcohol
misuse. As a homeless unit the buildings had
become dilapidated through lack of funding.

30
The smallholding would become a rural haven for
urban drug and alcohol dependants who were
motivated to become free of their addictions. It
would be a kind of ‘Arbour’ (Pilgrim’s Progress) in
the progress of our residents on their way to
achieving freedom.
The following year, in concert with a national
Christian housing association, ‘Adullam Homes’4 I
and the rest of the management committee steered
the unit to its present role as a drug and Alcohol
Rehabilitation facility.
We named the smallholding, ‘Manna farm’ in order
to recollect the miraculous provision of God to a
stateless community in desperate need and our
hope for that same source of provision. The project
has been operating for two years and my role is
Chaplain.

The Situation

4
Adullam is the name of a large cave outside the royal city of the same
name to the S.W of Jerusalem in which David found refuge and a ‘resting
place’ in his flight from Saul (I Sam.22: 1), and to which all who were
distressed, in debt and discontented came to him for solace and who
(incidentally) found empowerment.

31
Calverton is a settlement of 6,677 (1991 census)
people lying eight miles north of Nottingham
between the A614 to the west (the M 1 Motorway
lies fifteen miles west of that), and the A612 to the
east, twenty miles beyond which lies the A1 trunk
road.
Its people think of Calverton as a rural community
under threat of having its identity swallowed by the
Nottingham city conurbation. The remains of
Sherwood Forest lie scattered everywhere in a
locality whose major lands are owned by the
Forestry Commission, British Coal, the County
Council and a few private landowners.
The parish itself lies on the silted Dover Beck,
forming p-art of its northern and eastern boundaries
and flowing into the major waters of the River Trent.
At one time this beck provided the land link for the
major industry of Calverton, salt-commerce, which
activity set the course for Calverton to develop into
the present day Key Village of the locality.
Calverton is one bead of a necklace of settlements
lying parallel to the M1 motorway, convenient for

32
commuting south to London and north to Sheffield
and Leeds. Birmingham is obtainable through
Nottingham city and west for an hour. The nearest
seaside resort of Skegness, seventy miles east. The
nearest large urban development is a finger of the
conurbation reaching up from Nottingham through
Arnold (itself a village in living memory now
swallowed up), two miles south of Calverton, to
Dorket Head on the perimeter of the settlement.

33
Urbanities some miles distant from Calverton
include Mansfield City, twelve miles north,
Grantham town, twenty miles to the east, and
twenty miles to the west the city of Derby. All of
these latter are sufficiently distant to argue in
favour of Calverton’s claim to be rural.
The main industries are education, a Wrangler
clothes factory and a cable-making factory (this
began by serving the pit, but diversified and
became an international company some years ago).
The Calverton pit closed in December 1993. The
Nottinghamshire Police Headquarters is in
Calverton, but although this may superficially
present as a major local employer, in fact it employs
only twenty-one females and five males who are
resident in the settlement. The sub-division
includes Calverton and its satellite villages,
comprising five constable beat officers for a total
population of around 10,000. Two nursing homes
provide about a hundred-and-twenty part time posts
for females resident in Calverton. The various
shop[s and offices will not be employing more than

34
a hundred people, and Manna Farm employs nine.
Nottinghamshire County Council unemployment
figures showed a rise in the number of unemployed
in Calverton from 148 in 1990 to 225 in 1991, an
unemployment figure of 7.1% of the resident
population. At 17th December 1992 there were
about 1,500 people employed in full or part-time
work in the parish (not including outworkers or
informal cleaning jobs etc for which no figures
exist), of whom about a third were resident in
Calverton. Of these about seventy were part-time
workers. Gender representation among this group
was about fifty/fifty. These figures do not include
those who commute out of the settlement to work,
but traffic flow figures from the Department of
Transport record a total of 680 vehicles leaving
Calverton on three of the five routes from Calverton
between 7.00am and 9.00am weekdaily. A
reasonable guess of employment on these figures is
that one-third of the 6,667 populstion is in part or
full-time employment, which squares with the 1991
Census figures of 69.6% of those between 16 and

35
pensionable age employed/self/-employed. It must
be borne in mind however that the Calverton Pit has
closed since these figures were collected (local
people had been convinced this would occur since
Mr. Heseltine’s speech in October 1992) and no
longer employs the 200+ men that it did then. I
would have expected this to have doubled the
unemployment figures in the settlement to
around425 people in march 1994, but the actual
figures for the three months, November 1993,
December 1993 and January 19945 were 246 (Nov),
279 (Dec), and 306 January 1994. The impact on
associated industry employment has been greater
than I had guessed it would be (81 people). Of this
figure (306 in January 1994) all but one of these
people were male.
Calverton’s Amenities September 1992
Golf Courses (2) Sewerage Works Butcher
Arts Restaurant Public Geriatric
House Home
centre/Restauran
t
British Coal Post Office Dental
surgery (2)
5
Ms Val Moulder. Employment Services. For Calverton Employment
Training Services. Feb.1994.

36
Landfill
British Coal Video Rental Estate Agent
Pithead
Warden-aided Forestry Commission General Store
Land
Home
Public Houses (6) Public Lavatory Betting Shop
Drug Rehab Unit TV & Electrical Shop Cemetery
Petrol Station Preparatory School Chemist
Ironmongers Private Farm Stables
Buildings
Shop
Craft Shop Grocery Shop Kennels
Village Hall British Gas Substation Library
Private Museum Garage, Petrol, Sales, Footwear
repairs Shop
Wool shops (2) Pet Supplies retailer Hairdresser
(1)
Taxi Rank Cooperative Food Catholic
Store Church
Methodist Church 6-Practice G.P. Post Boxes (4)
Chartered Baptist Chapel & Hall Optician
Accountant
Wrangler Cobbler & general Flower Shop
Store
Seconds
Leisure Centre Schools (Junior & Bakery Shops
Comp) (2)
Police Station Community Centre Dress Shop
Building Society Canine Coiffure Anglican
Church
Public Public Lavatory Clinic
Telephones (5)
Chip Shop Chinese Takeaway Newsagent
Pentecostal Church

Ten months later (July 1993) the following

changes had happened:

37
Two hairdressers No pentecostal One bakery
congregation shop
New Catholic Baptist Chapel TV Shop
redundant Closed
Church
Craft Shop Closed Canine Coiffure Shop
Closed
Geriatric Homes Baptists take
Pentecostal Church’s
(2)
building
Optician Closed One Dental Surgery
Closed

Commuting: a Special Characteristic of

Calverton
The fact that local employers engage a significantly
large in-commuting workforce, and also that an
equally significant number of the settlement’s
residents commute out of Calverton each workday
goes some way towards explaining why residents
cling to their village identity, making it an important
issue for me as the settlement’s vicar to be
sensitive to this feeling in my daily work. Of the 930
employees of British Coal at Calverton Pit in 1991,
only 207 actually lived in Calverton. The remaining
three-quarters of the workforce travelled from other
mining areas where seven Nottinghamshire pits had

38
recently closed and the remaining twenty-four had
undergone reductions in their workforces. With the
closure of three more of these pits in 1993,
including Calverton, no-one now both lives and
works in the mining industry in the settlement.
About three-quarters of the Education Authority’s
teachers in Calverton’s schools commute to the
settlement every weekday, although associated
support staff such as cleaners, dinner servers and
traffic directors (lollipop people) live locally. The
five schools employ 187 full-time staff.
Wrangler LTD runs a daily bussing-in service for
their workers.
The Police headquarters is a place to which workers,
both uniformed and civilian commute from various
parts of Nottinghamshire.

A ‘Rural’ settlement?
Alternative labels than ‘rural settlement’ might be
applied to Calverton, such as ‘dormitory’ or ‘ghetto’,
but if I did this in my funding literature, seeking to
gain financial support for the parish church from

39
Calverton’s residents, the church would be bankrupt
within a year. As it is, the use of the terms, ‘village’
or ‘rural community’ is eliciting a monthly
increasing financial input from local people. I
respond very warmly to the insight of the ACORA
document,6
“ By its nature, the history and
development of a village and its parish
church is specific…the history of no two
villages is the same. Some
acknowledgement of this history is
important, partly because so much of
the current life of the rural church can
only be explained by reference to the
past, and partly because a major
element in the decline in rural culture
and community…lies in the decline of an
awareness of a common past…”
Their recommendation is,
“ That research be undertaken into the
scale and speed of development which
6
Archbishop’s Commission on Rural Areas. Faith in the Countryside. 1990.
CHP 7. 129f.

40
 small communities can assimilate
without detriment…”
My feeling is that sensitivity towards the past must
be demonstrated by those who shape perceptions,
and that there needs to be a conscious effort to
educate perception-shapers. It is clear that the pit-
culture never became assimilated in its thirty years
in Calverton. The pit culture is also an insular one.
It is of men working together in the dark and in
danger, with a well defined and understood
hierarchical structure, employing an alien technical
language whilst working and having a large earning
capacity between the ages of twenty-seven and
mind-forties, whose public culture is mostly
confined to the homes and pubs and clubs in
Calverton and Majorca.

Farming: the setting for the gem of Calverton.

Although Calverton is surrounded by farmland,
these farms are mainly high-tech operations which
employ few people. Or, land is turned over to
recreational uses, producing associated eclectic

41
clubs and associations. It must be said that modern
farming is an isolating and lonely occupation. There
is nom more sitting around on the haywain on a hot
summer afternoon eating ‘doorstep sandwiches’
with the seasonal laboyurers, their wives and
children sharing stories of myth and legend till the
pleasant afternoon labour begins. Because it is a
lonely operation requiring almost constant presence
on the farm by the operators, social opportunities
are few and precious. The actual work demands
come by diktat of Brussels. It is Europe and the
Common Agricultural Policy that provides much of
the identity, self-perception and work goals of the
local farmer. Blue fields of linseed are not grown to
make the countryside look pretty for visiting
holidaymakers. The stalks are almost impossible to
dispose of even by – illegal- burning. There is a
quota requirement from Europe and a subsidy that
goes along with it. Since 1992 a vast car boot sale
operation in Calverton has grown to attract
hundreds of weekend peddlers and their customers
to four large fields at the northern end of the parish.

42
People commute from miles away and turn the
sleepy weekend village’s main street into a major
road every Sunday. Most of the so-named
‘Calverton Brass Band’ and Orchestra commute
from other town and villages for local performances.
High-tech farms, the recreational use of land, local
employment provision, informal commerce, these
too are based principally on a commuting
requirement.
Finally, the settlement’s Key Village status means
that most folk from the surrounding villages (there
are twenty-one in the deanery, a third of which look
to Calverton for major medical/social provision)
depend upon these services and need to commute
to Calverton for them.
Part of the local pathology therefore is an element
of ongoing social trauma.
Residents therefore grasp any thread that will
support the local perception of ‘village-ness’:
The Parish Church tracing its antecedents back to
665 AD forms a major thread in this identity.
Calverton Museum is another thread, harking back

43
as it does to the past, and being owned by the
Calverton Preservation Society, and a book,
‘Stockings For A Queen’7, setting out the story of
the locally born Rev’d William Lee, the inventor of
the stocking frame, and rumoured (incorrectly) to
have been the Vicar of Calverton parish. There is
no documentary evidence of this.. These hark back
and reaffirm Calverton as a village. There is also a
possibly Saxon but probably Roman unexcavated
earthworks and a silted well, reputed at one time to
have been used for healing optical ailments by the
12thCentury Cistercian monks – further threads in
the village identity link. Further enhancing this feel
of ageless rurality, art and craft centres abound.
One of these in particular (the Patchings Farm
Centre) consciously and very convincingly sets out
to make itself into a rural idyll, giving rooms to
innumerable local groups and educational interests
who are artists and craft-producers of various gift
and persuasion. The presence of a sizeable riding
school in the centre of the built-up area and the

7
Stockings For A Queen. Milton & Anna grass. 1967. Heinemann.

44
stables of the Mounted Constabulary just beyond
the settlement’s boundary ensure the presence of
horses and riders in the streets throughout the year.
It is as common to see a constable on a horse as to
see one in a police vehicle.
All of which affirms a reality in romantic historical
terms which conflicts with the real demands of
contemporary daily life in the settlement. It is what
I call a ‘schizoid social pathology’. A fascinating
commentary on this can be made by noting the
1992 erection of the parish Christmas Tree by the
Calverton Parish Council – the tree being a mere
seven feet tall. The parish Clerk sent invitation to
all the local bigwigs, including the clergy, to the
switching-on of the Christmas tree lights. The Chair
of the Council pronounced that the tree lights were
to be switched on, and they were – to much
cheering and applause. A statement of unity and
identity had been made. The village illusion had
been officially confirmed as a reality. The ‘villagers’
had been appeased. In the same settlement at the
same season the schools – and even the parish

45
church, and doubtless all other homes and
institutions and workplaces had trees of their own –
some twice the height and with more and better
lights. But there had been no opening ceremonies
and no bigwigs. In these cases there were no felt
needs to appease the village. There was merely the
administrative necessity that because it was
Christmas, Christmas trees were on the buying-in
agenda.

Housing in Calverton.
Housing is almost entirely post-1946 semi
detached. The small amount of pre-1919 housing
that remains is two-to-three-hundred years old,
much prized and sympathetically maintained. This
is situated mainly along Main Street, part of which
was the original main track through the hamlet of
those times. There are also a few farm buildings of
a similar age scattered around the parish.
Housing groups occur in eight main patches in the
parish. The centre, comprising two preservation
areas and part of Main Street, Paddock Close estate,

46
Top estate, Bottom estate (the designations ‘Top’
and ‘Bottom’ are indigenous colloquialisms which
name two areas not otherwise distinguished by
special grouping names), Cloverfields (1992),
Longue Jumelles estate, Church Close estate and
Broadfields.
The Centre may be characterised as containing the
bulk of the buildings on which Preservation Orders
impinge. The parish church is here, as is the Baptist
church. Paddock Close consists mainly of self-
contained bungalows housing elderly people. The
Top estate comprises semi-detached former p[it
owned and some council housing, semi detached.
There is a small number of flats. Bottom estate is
mostly semi detached former council housing.
Leicestershire Housing Association owns much of
this property and most of the rest is owner-
occupied, as is some of the Top estate. The
Methodist church, Comprehensive school campus
and Roman Catholic Church are geographically
situated between these two estates sharing the
same field. Cloverfields (named after the Dover

47
Beck by the Parish Council but misheard by a clerk
at Gedling Borough Council Planning Department
over the telephone) comprises modern mortgaged
detached and semi detached dwellings, some of
which were built for first-time buyers, and there are
a few bungalows. Until 1993, Cloverfields had a
complex house numbering system, no street names
and an incomprehensible street layout. Steps have
now been taken to rectify this. Longue Jumelles
estate was so named after Calverton’s French twin
village. The estate is privately owned and
mortgaged. Church Close, named for its proximity
to the parish church, is physically like Longue
Jumelles estate and mortgaged but is more
secluded, more expensive, and fewer in number.

Education in Calverton.
There are five schools on three campuses. They are
manor Park Infants’ School, Salterford Independent
Preparatory, Sir John Sherbrooke Junior, Saint Wilfrid
junior and Colonel Frank Seely Comprehensive.

48
The Sherbrooke, manor Park and Frank Seely
schools occupy a single vast campus at the
geographical centre of the settlement (see below).
The Preparatory school is situated in a secluded
woodland west of the population centre and
St.Wilfrid’s Church Controlled school is on the south
side of Main Street bordering on farmland to the
south and the preservation area to the north.
Together the schools employ 187 full-time staff and
cater for upwards of 4,000 daily pupils.

Sherbrooke, manor Park and Frank Seely schools

Politics in Calverton.

49
The Parish Council is solidly Labour with a
smattering of Independent and Conservative
councillors. Its main preoccupations are planning
applications, upkeep of public open spaces,
recreational areas, public lavatories and cemeteries,
street lighting and allotments. Although it runs a
resource centre (like the parish church), it is
sensitive to the ‘village’ identity and I would say is
rarely politically adventurous or controversial. My
view is that it has difficulty in dealing with local
activists, preferring to stay calm and maintain the
status quo in a current Gedling Borough Local Plan
(1990), and its dealings with the new Calverton
Community Centre proposals, which do not occur in
the 1990 Plan. It has now been roped-in to
collaborating with the Training and Enterprise
Council in the wake of the pit closure. The locus of
power and esteem between the Parish and Borough
Councils in signified in the palatial buildings of the
borough headquarters and the run-down hall of the
Parish Council. The largest public controversy in
Calverton in 1992 was over the propose3d removal

50
of an abattoir from a neighbouring town to the
green Belt in Calverton. The most vociferous local
activism came from people who were not Parish
Council members. Subsequent to a large public
meeting, organised by local activists, attracting over
300 people, mostly dissenters, Gedling Borough
Council gave the go-ahead for the abattoir plans,
and the parish council voted against it in line with
local feeling. The process was halted by the
Department of the Environment Public Hearing.
Local feeling had been that the plans would go
through, but in the event, in July 1993 the Secretary
of State refused to grant planning permission. One
of the Inspector’s reasons for refusing the
application was that,
“ I do not consider that the proposal could be
said to be appropriate to a rural area, having
regard to the overall use of the site, the size
and bulk of the building, the facilities to be
provided…abattoirs are mostly found in urban
areas
…”

51
In this particular case it needs to be noted that
when thinking of the choice of rural/urban identity
of the settlement, however, the Inspector’s
comment regarding this particular development
refers specifically to its Green Belt siting viz:
“My conclusion is that the proposal is
inappropriate in the Green Belt.”
The point is, this does not mean that the Inspector
is referring to Calverton itself as being a village, or
as it being itself a rural settlement but rather that it
is quite possible for residents to see themselves as
either living in a rural or in an urban area.

Community Groups in Calverton.

The settlement is rich in community groupings. At
September 1992 there were known to be over sixty
local community special interest, guilds and
associations of differing sizes of membership. Some
of these came and went in the space of a year.
Others are longstanding of many years. Largest
and most influential among them must be the Scout
and Guide Association, the Toy Library, the

52
Preservation Society, the Royal British Legion, the
Calverton Forum, the Golf Clubs and the Saint John
Ambulance Association. The Cricket Team,
Women’s Institute and Drama Group (‘Calverton
Players’) are smaller in numbers but have an
influential and well-educated following. On a
smaller scale there are numerous interest groups,
occasionally supported and/or initiated by the
churches, such as the Retireds Group, Youth Club,
After School Clubs, Flower Design Group, Welfare
Rights Advice Team, Nearly New Clothing facility,
Woodcarving Group, Toddlers’ Clubs and so on.
There was a Calverton Band until 1993, and there is
a Calverton Orchestra. A major social amenity, the
Miners’ Welfare Club was lost to the settlement in
September 1991 when the whole vast complex was
burned down. However local people said that the
building had rarely been available to them, being
almost exclusively used as a cheap watering hole
for miners and their families, the alcohol being
subsidised by British Coal. It is said that the
amenity could have been better managed to cater

53
for the whole population, and it is true that the
‘Geordie Club’ in Calverton is well managed by local
people. One wonders whether the hidden agenda
of the miners’ employers was to keep the workers
happy with their lot by anaesthetizing their
sensitivities with cheap firewater!

Calverton’s Public Houses.

At present there are six licensed premises – one for
each thousand residents The white Lion caters for
young people from many local villages as well as
Calverton. It is Managed, and many of its users
leave between 8.00pm and 9.00pm by taxi or
second-hand vehicles for the night-life of the cities
of Nottingham or Mansfield.
The Cherry Tree serves mainly the ‘Top Estate’ and
is currently Tenanted, its management swapping
from Managed to Tenanted. The local constables
report that there is a higher incidence of violence
and brawling here than at any of the other public
houses, although paradoxically, there is a great
friendliness also.

54
The tenanted Admiral Rodney – a designation
recalling the military preoccupations of former
years – Lord Sherbrooke and Colonel Frank Seeley,
predictably caters for older people, couples, and the
tamer end of the drinking fraternity. These come
mainly from the Western end of the settlement, and
have a strong sense of the village identity.
The ‘Geordie Club’ caters for the general
population. Drinks are cheap and there is a
children’s’ room. The Club is very popular with
retired people, especially ex-miners, and has
provided a retreat for many of the former Miners’
Welfare Club refugees. It is well managed by a local
committee.
The Gleaners is at the eastern boundary of
Calverton on Main Street. It is a well-behaved pub
with customers from all aspects of the settlement’s
life and traditions. The name, ‘Gleaners’ recalls one
of the agricultural tasks of former years and the
class of people who used to frequent this
establishment. It is tenanted.

55
Finally, the ‘Top Club’ – actually a social club on
British Coal land adjoining the pithead. This caters
exclusively to the dominant culture where it is
situated. There is a children’s room, and the Club is
locally managed.

The Parish Church in This Situation.

Saint Wilfrid’s ecclesiastical parish is one of twenty-
one that make up the rural deanery of Southwell
(below). Eight fulltime salaried clergy, three-and-a-
half fulltime unpaid, and nine retired clergy serve
these parishes. Among these parishes, Bilsthorpe
(pop.3, 105) is the only one with a working pit,
Calverton having been closed in late 1992. The
figures for 1993 were as follows:-

Village/Town/Settle Population Priest

ment
Bilsthorpe 3105 H.Wilcox
Bleasby 715 A.DeBerry
Calverton 6,677 R.Catchpo
le
Eakring 430 H.Wilcox
Edingly 285 D.Leaning

56
Epperstone 350 M.J.Brock
Farnsfield 2,570 D.Bartlett
Gonalston 65 M.J.Brock
Halam 285 D.Leaning
Halloughton 90 A.DeBerry
Hockerton 120 D.Bartlett
Hoveringham 345 A.DeBerry
Kirklington 295 D.Bartlett
Maplebeck 115 H.Wilcox
Fiskerton-cum- 715 A.Tucker
Morton
Oxton 550 M.J.Brock
Rolleston 185 A.Tucker
Southwell 1,800 Vacant
Southwell Minster ( ) Vacant
Thurgaton 410 A.DeBerry
Upton 380 A.Tucker
Winckburn 95 H.Wilcox

The Southwell Deanery is in the Archdeaconry of

Nottingham and Diocese of Southwell. There is in
Calverton One Anglican Church, a church hall and a
Controlled Church of England School. The Church is
used almost exclusively for worship, although there
are occasional slide shows and orchestral concerts –
there has not been a flower festival for many years.
The church hall is the locus of two umbrella groups,

57
the Oasis Community Facility and the Calverton
Forum. The former hosts a number of local
community groups, and runs a number of other
groups itself. Its management employs one salaried
person full-time and four sessional workers. Its
current funds come mainly from the Council of
Churches for Britain and Northern Ireland, a central
government disbursement of social security funds.
The latter umbrella group is an information-sharing
forum open to representatives of agencies and local
residents and has a current minutes-list of over
seventy agencies and individuals. Its stated
purpose is, first, to share information so that there
is direct communication about news and views on
matters of concern to local people, and secondly to
discuss these matters, and thirdly to take action
jointly to improve the situation and support one
another through the process. Saint Wilfrid’s Church
Sunday School is also based at the Hall.
Ecumenically, there is an informal tradition of inter-
church worship in Lent and an occasional joint
service of worship in the public square. In 1993, the

58
churches agreed to hold a quarterly service of
worship in one another’s’ building extra to the
traditional Lenten arrangement.
A new Roman Catholic Church was built in 1994
through a land-selling arrangement with a local
builder – a member of the St.Wilfrid’s congregation
– who built the church and a block of dwellings on
the remaining land. The Catholic congregation had
been worshipping in a wooden building on the site
for twelve years and had lost most of their number,
who were now starting to return.
At June 1993, there were a total of about 400
regular church attenders more-or-less evenly
distributed among the existing four Christian
churches.
The parish church membership and attendance
contains very few people between eleven and thirty
years old. There has been until recently a large
Sunday school with fifty children on the roll. The
average attendance at the three Sunday services is
eighty. Three-quarters of the regular attenders are
middle working-class and the remainder working-

59
class in origin. There are no people of any ethnic
origin other than white, and none of mixed race.
This is not surprising since the total white
population in Calverton is 99.7%, and I do not
encourage an in-commuting worshipping
attendance, preferring to encourage and create an
indigenous congregation.
Voluntary lay involvement with the parish church is
high in view of the size of the membership. The
Oasis Community Facility – the community work
arm of the parish church – claims to have fifty
volunteers engaged in various local community
activities. Sunday school has five voluntary
teachers and the church committee infrastructures
engage sixteen volunteers distributed among five
committees including the Parochial Church Council
(PCC). The remaining four sub-committees deal
with the areas of Social Activities and Catering,
Mission and Outreach, Music and Worship, and
Finance, Fabric and Funding. (S&C, M&O, M&W,
and F.F&F).

60
The parish church’s income is poor. Having paid all
other bills a shortfall of £7.150pa remained at the
end of 1992 on the £10,000 bill charges on the
church by the diocese for its Diocesan Share. A
major funding campaign began in April 1993 in
response to this in the hope of alleviating this debt
and I am personally engaged in following-up new
contacts for the remaining three years of the life of
the current Campaign. I am aiming (and managing)
to increase the church’s annual income by this
means by around £1,500pa. See below the
published material sent to all the potential New
Financial Givers. Note especially the little reference
to the rural and historical content of this
information. This was done in order to encourage
people to think of the church as a contemporary
and urban reality, with a parish church looking to an
urban future rather than only as a custodian of a
rural past: -
“ The church was in a sorry state, so the vicar
took a wealthy friend to look at the damage. It

61
so happened that a stone fell from the porch
and hit the friend on the head.
“ I see what you mean,” said the friend, “
Here’s a cheque for £500.00”.
“ Lord!” said the vicar, “Hit him again! ”
In this Funding Campaign we are not hitting
anybody!
All we want is to tap people on the shoulder, to
tell them that
“God loves you, and wants the best for you.”
“ But in order for this church’s ministry to be
done properly without falling to pieces, it
needs – like any other organisation – to be kept
in good order. O it is up to all of us - God’s
people – to maintain the work he has given us
to do.”
“ Our church serves the community, old and
young alike, in many ways. Much of our work
is done by Volunteers who give their time. We
are very grateful to them for their commitment
to St.Wilfrid’s.”

62
 “ Calverton is traditionally both a pit
community and a centre for education. It is
renowned throughout Nottinghamshire for its
excellence in both areas of work. The pit has
an outstanding record of achieving its quotas,
and Calverton’s schools draw pupils from all
over the surrounding villages. For many,
Calverton is a respected focus for the life of
our area. ”
“ We are blessed with many centres for
Christian worship. Thee is not only the ancient
and very beautiful church of St.Wilfrid’s, but
Methodists, Baptists, Roman Catholics and
Pentecostals are also represented in Calverton.
At the parish church of St. Wilfrid we are
making our own contribution, with the, to the
active Christian life of this community.”
“ BUT we need your help NOW!
May God continue to bless you richly. ”
Vicar’s signature……………….

Personally.

63
On a personal level, I find Chapter, friends and
spouse supportive in my having to engage in the
formulation of radical shifts in perspectives of
pastoral ministry, coming from an urban Chapter to
a rural Chapter setting, and from an inner-city
ministry to a country one.
I am chairman of the local Church school governors
and of Calverton Forum; an active founder-member
of the management committee of the Drug
Rehabilitation Unit as well as its Chaplain; a
member and occasional chair of the multi-
disciplinary Nottinghamshire sex Workers’ Forum in
association with Trent University’s Sociology
department; an occasional contributor for both
Trent and Nottingham Radio; a twice-published
author, and I have an unkempt half-acre of vicarage
garden – a victim of the above – and an excellent
vicarage to live in.
I expect to be celebrating my Silver Wedding in
1994. The move from urban to rural ministry has
been a shattering one, which has been recorded in

64
my book. ‘Grown Men Do Cry’ SPCK 1990. But the
rose window of my being is now renovated.
I see the issue the church might profitably address
as being something like: -
“ What might be the shape of my ministry in
Calverton for the next decade?”
The excellent committee structure at St.Wilfrid’s
now sets most of its own agendas. My own priority
is to understand better what rural-urban-shadow
ministry can best be. Since the Church
Commissioners’ Annual report of 1993, announcing
the dissipation of over £8 million – over one-fifth of
the Church of England’s financial assets through
property speculation during the heady eighties,
throwing the financial burden for the upkeep of the
ministry heavily upon church attenders, much of my
preoccupation during that ten years will be
concerned with fundraising.
My perception of how my theological understanding
of the nature of Christian faith and ministry has
changed over the years is that there are more
questions than before. The right questions rather

65
than knee-jerk answers have become my priority.
The wind of the spirit constantly blowing against the
granite of my former Conservative Fundamentalism
has weathered my theology, revealing cracks and
weak points in which have grown lichens and
mosses of liberalism, catholicism, ecumenism,
Pentecostalism and a charismata that have
broadened but not flattened my perceptions. The
actual granite itself has gained a patina of political
radicalism and non-conformity which was the
essential character of the material from the
beginning.
I am fulfilled by seeing a plan formulated in
collaboration with those of Christian faith and no
Christian faith take shape. I am frustrated by the
conflict between administration and street-
preaching. I have a good rapport with the
underclass, marginalized and poor, and am good in
one-to-one support situations. The foregoing, I
think, demonstrates this.

What’s Ahead?

66
There remains space for further engagement in
similar projects as those outlined above.
On the immediate horizon is an informal request
from a committee member of a local group ‘Parents
Aid for Handicapped Children’ (P.A.C.H.) (sic), which
for the past ten years has laboured to show
practical love and care for a number of local people
who suffer particular disadvantage through physical
and/or mental disablements. The request is for
myself and my wife to become engaged with them
on the management committee specifically to help
them lobby the statutory agencies for regular and
substantial financial input into the group for its
ongoing work, and to strengthen links with other
similar groups in other parts of the British Isles,
starting with a group in Southern Ireland – members
of which are currently worshipping at the parish
church on placement from their Irish base. There
has been little responsibility taken by the politicians
or by the statutory agencies such as Health or
Social Security or indeed the church, and the
financing and management of this facility has fallen

67
upon the shoulders of the parents of these people,
and they have kept their heads above water by
borrowing and begging what little they have been
able. The sub-agenda in terms of other than
financial support will probably be to encourage and
help to sustain those Calverton parents who are
already engaged in this work locally, for they are
becoming older, and starting to wonder what will
become of their offspring when they no longer have
the health and strength to be able to support them.
In the coming decade my hope is to further rouse
Calverton’s consciousness with regard to finding
signs of God’s Kingdom in its midst.
This is more than an intention. In pursuit of this aim
I have recently taught a diocesan Theology series
on ‘Signs Of The kingdom’ under the management
of Canon Michael Austin, the Diocesan Director of
Training, and in cooperation with two other local
clergy as tutors for the course, to a group of about
fifteen interested mature laypeople from around the
deanery. Over half these people were from St.
Wilfrid’s congregation. This has been the first of an

68
ongoing series which I intend to continue to teach.
At a local level, it will educate and encourage Saint
Wilfrid’s to be looking for signs of God’s Kingdom in
their midst. Some of these will have input to the
teachers of the ‘Christian Basics Course’ (see
below).
I have also identified a group of Calverton Christians
whom I have enlisted in teaching and/or assisting
me in teaching a series on ‘Christian Basics’ in the
parish to new church contacts locally. There has
already been fruit from this in terms of a number of
new regular attenders at the parish church, and the
creation of a well-attended new weekly study House
Group in the parish.
Again, I intend to continue this series, using new
contacts, to do the teaching and for previous
teachers to act in supportive roles to them whilst
having access to some of the ‘Signs Of The
Kingdom’ students. This has been agreed with those
concerned (the PCC and the teachers), and the
second series began in September 1993, leading-up
to Christmas and its culmination in the Christmas

69
festivities. The last of the Series – as the series
before – was entitled “A Christian Christmas?”
I have recently detected signs of a desire among
some church attending parents of young children to
have their offspring taught in more detail and with
deeper reverence for the Gospel about the Christian
Faith in some of the local schools, and in particular
in the Church School. I will closely monitor this, and
offer encouragement and input to parents, head
teachers and teachers as the assigns are affirmed.
This needs to be done sensitively, bearing in mind
that the Church School is a ‘Controlled’ and not an
‘Aided’ school. This means that the church does not
have the final say regarding religious content of the
curriculum, nor about the Admissions Procedures,
and needs to negotiate carefully and professionally
any desire for a Christian / Confirmation / Church
Attendance school entry requirement. Against this
will have to be balanced the demands of the
lobbying parents. In expectation of this desire
being expressed, I have already offered the Church
school curriculum committee a comprehensive

70
Junior Religious Programme to replace the limited
and often last minute material, which is currently
being offered to the children. One of the local
schools has an ‘Aided’ school and is currently using
this package and its parents are impressed with it.
The cost of the programme material will be
c£1,500.00 out of the school budget.
A Sign of God’s Kingdom in this case might be that
the Church Junior School decides to purchase the
material, and that other local junior schools agree
to having me teach some of its R.E. classes or for
them to request educational / consciousness-raising
visits to the Parish Church (Community Temple).

Greater Nottingham T.E.C.

At December 1993, greater Nottingham training and
Enterprise Council, with a budget of around £2
million came into the settlement in the wake of the
pit closure to help the unemployed learn new skills
and return to the workforce. Their strategy was

71
1. To provide unemployed people with placements
at local employers with the aim of gaining
recognised qualifications leading to ‘real jobs’.
2. To allow unemployed people to use their skills
to do works in the settlement such as landscaping
and environmental works and,
3. To assist local people to start their own
businesses by offering training, advice, and
financial support.
The opinion of the T.E.C.Chief Executive, Mr. Jim
Potts, was that the Scheme would,
“ Improve services and create jobs.”
My opinion was that for a government who had
behaved so badly towards a major industry and its
dependants in the face of oppositions from moral
agencies such as the churches to have done
nothing in response to the imp[act of its behaviour
would have clearly revealed the moral and social
bankruptcy of that government, and that the
application of sticking-plasters such as T.E.C’s over
such deep wounds still failed to hide that revelation
from the more discerning.

72
Nevertheless as the vicar of the parish, lacking any
alternative, I accepted the invitation to join the
Steering Committee with control of the
Environmental Budget.

73
“…their bruised arms hung up for monuments.”

74
 Chapter Two

Focussing On Key
Issues

The Site Team Members

Linda McGarry.
A member of the Cursillo Movement, began regular
church attendance about five years ago, was
instrumental in setting-up and running the
Calverton Toy Library, runs the Church Bookstall,
makes and maintains a variety of friendship
contacts within Calverton mostly but not exclusively
with young mothers of about her own age, relating
such contacts explicitly and directly to her own
Christian faith. She is a lone parent with one child,
has a powerful strength of character, presents as
low key but has a fundamentally outgoing
personality.

75
Doris Wild.
The parish church’s Covenant Recorder, has always
had a church commitment of varying degrees over
the years. Since the Candidate’s time in Calverton
this commitment has increased and it can be said
that she is a key person in the church. A widow now
retired, she had been a civil servant working for
Customs and Excise. Again although she presents
as low profile, she has strength of character belied
by her often-mischievous approach. She is witty,
vibrant, and a source of encouragement and
support to many in the congregation.
Helen catchpole J.P.
She is the Candidate’s wife and a magistrate on the
Nottingham City Bench. She is the parish church’s
Administrator, a manager of the Nottinghamshire
Probation Service and of the Manna Farm Addiction
Rehabilitation Project, of which she is also a founder
member. She is perceived by most as a dominant
personality. There are those who do and those who
do not have a problem with that. She has been a

76
Christian all her life and her emphasis is on Justice,
fairness and equity.
Christine Peet.
Retired from full-time education, she has been a
missionary in Africa and has always expressed her
Christian commitment in terms of pastoral ministry
to the disadvantaged and poor. She has a breadth
and depth of understanding of the human situation
that surpasses that of many who operate in
professional caring capacities. Her input into the
Site Team has been mostly in terms of one-to-one
support and encouragement.
Bill Peet.
The husband of Christine is a regular Methodist
church attender. He is a Storyteller. Like his wife,
his faith has found expression in a lifetime of care
and pastoral support to the disadvantaged both
abroad and in Britain as a Special Educational
Needs Teacher.
Philip O’Brien and Val O’Brien.
Are charismatic Conservative Evangelicals and are
founder members of the Manna farm Project. They

77
do not attend the parish church and are therefore
not perceived as being members of the parish
church community, although they do take part in
Christian worship at the Farm, being resident at the
site as carers, Phil as care Manager and Val as
Housekeeper. In this sense, their ministry from the
Candidate’s point of view takes place in a newly-
planted church within the parish and in which they
are involved in an oversight capacity. Both had
been heroin addicts, and have dedicated
themselves to the care and support of those
similarly challenged.
Eileen Cupitt.
President of the Calverton Preservation Society.
She and her family are acknowledged locally to be
among the better educated in the settlement. She
attends the parish church occasionally and has been
active as a local councillor in local politics. She is
also a local political activist. During the latter few
meetings of the Site Team an issue arose about the
siting of an abattoir in Calverton. She was
perceived as the natural leader of the protest and

78
has been actively and energetically engaged in
guiding this through the Public inquiry. She is a
familiar with a ghostly apparition, which she
describes as a welcome resident in her home, and
she occasionally addresses groups on the subject.
Ian and Margaret McLiesh.
Keenly supportive of the work of the parish church.
They have a long involvement with the Preservation
Society of which Ian has been Chair. He is a senior
librarian in Mansfield Woodhouse, and Margaret a
dental receptionist in Arnold. Neither has been able
to attend many Site Team meetings because of
their commuting lifestyle. The team felt that this
truly did reflect the situation of most commuters in
Calverton, and that insofar as the Team felt their
absence, so the settlement is partly shaped by the
commuter absence from its own life. The
Preservation Society with Ian as chair was a major
voice in placing a stained glass window in the parish
church in commemoration of the 400th anniversary
of the birth of William Lee.

79
Of the Site Team Members, two were in fulltime
paid, one in part-time paid, and two in fulltime
Christian voluntary work. The age-range was from
40 to 70 and the range of life-experience ran from
ex-convicts (2) to the magistracy, casual labouring,
and parlour maid to managerial and professional. In
terms of the social makeup of the settlement there
was also a good representations although there
were gaps regarding farming and commerce. All
were supportive of the Candidate’s ministry. The
gender makeup of the team reflected the gender
makeup of the congregation, as did the age-range.

The Site Team Process

Phase One
In October 1990 I convened a meeting with an
existing parochial group whose agenda centered on
sharpening-up the parish church’s contemporary
ethical edge through the study of consumer
television programmes in the light of the group’s
present theological understanding. This consisted
of eight people who had looked in depth at issues

80
ranging from euthanasia to AIDS, child sex abuse to
armed imperial intervention in subject nations, from
demon possession to the deity of Christ. The
starting-point of the group’s ruminations was this
material.
Five of the group agreed to give me personal
support in my studies for the Master of Ministry and
Theology.
On 22 October 1991, I held an introductory meeting
at which others whom I had identified were present,
some were regular, others irregular and others non
church-attenders. I explained that what I was
interested in doing was discovering local peoples’
perceptions of their own situations in the face of the
statistical actualities. What was of interest was how
the people of Calverton actually operated in their
daily lives irrespective of whether the bases on
which they functioned were statistically ‘right’ or
‘wrong’.
By 12 December 1991 I had received positive
responses from thirteen local individuals.

81
By November 1992, after the Team had been
operating for a year, two members had failed to
attend any team Meetings, one found himself fully
committed elsewhere in his own (Methodist)
congregation, and another found her whole time
taken up with visiting and caring for a sick relative
in Wells, Norfolk.
The early Team Meetings wrestled with issues of
general and particular Christian community
involvement. The question whether Christ calls His
people to give themselves in the service of others
was not asked. It was axiomatic that He does. It
was also taken for granted that if Christ calls, He
also empowers. This calling might be to a
generalist or particular service. Examples of this
were cited as the (generalist) Church Community
Facility, aiming to offer a range of services across a
broad spectrum and taking its agenda from its
consumers, and the (particularistic) Addiction
Rehabilitation Project, focussing specifically upon
one particular social, emotional and spiritual issue.
It was felt that the Holy Spirit almost invariably co-

82
coordinated His human resources across a broad
spectrum, utilising the insights of many people – not
only Christians – to achieve His goals.
These common insights of the Site Team process in
their particular analysis of the situation arose as
findings from the particular and general experience
of Christian service each of them had been engaged
in as Christians, but were also confirmed by their
finding so much in their situation that they felt able,
or at least inspired to consider responding to.
People who are lost may be found. Situations of
loneliness can be alleviated. Faith can be shared.
Broken bridges can be repaired or replaced, and
rivers where there were never any crossings can be
crossed. Things, which are hidden, can be brought
to light. There was a feeling of enthusiasm in the
Team, and of a willingness to see the Holy Spirit at
work in our situation.
Very early on in the process it was clear that the
Team felt that not only certain social but also other-
than-human forces were ranged against Christian
service, expressing itself in the forms of prejudice,

83
and lawlessness, and also in a strong sense by one
member of the Team and immediately confirmed by
the rest that Calverton suffered from ‘an undefined
spiritual malady’ of some kind. None could identify
it, but its nature was malevolent and its
achievement was to make Christian mission,
difficult at the best of times, even more so.

The ‘Ghosts’ of Calverton.

Further investigation of this feeling led the
team into a discussion of the history of the
settlement, revealing a local feeling that
Calverton people had always been shunted
into a siding, their riches plundered and their
genius un-applauded. Many examples of this
were cited in these historical discussions and
many contemporary examples. It saw itself as
innocently suffering the crimes of others. Its
own crimes were abandonment of women to
lone parenthood and of violence against
women (even its ‘ghosts’ were female), and
various forms of prejudice, a divided and

84
 divisive social organisation and the rejection of
ethnic cultures.
Calverton was felt to be a community in a time
warp. It had elements of a glorious past, but it was
one whose glories offered little concrete
contribution to the present and it had a future
threatened by the closure of the pit. Whilst at this
time not describable as a poverty-stricken
community, its commercial industries were under
threat and its major occupation, being education,
offered no immediate or local financial profit. This
was restricted by the fact that such a large
proportion of its residents commuted from the
settlement to work, and such a large proportion of
its daytime population were commuters into the
settlement.
This concluded the First Phase of the Site Team
meetings, gathering information and reflecting upon
it.

85
‘The Commuter World’ A painting by S. Withers depicting how it
feels to be a Commuter living in Calverton. The picture was not
commissioned for this purpose but accurately reflects the feelings
of rootlessness and otherworldly exclusion expressed by
commuters in relation to how they view their home-base
Calverton. Living by day in one world and by night in another.
What is the Gospel to this situation in which the world is distant
and unattainable, lush vegetation springs from no roots and in
which the individual is cut off from influencing the home base?

Phase Two

86
The Second Phase addressed itself to reflecting
theologically on the gathered material. The aim
was to discover Biblical themes – images and
stories relevant to our situation in Calverton. The
process of gathering new material continued
throughout the whole Site Team process, however.
Resulting from these meetings were the themes of
‘Hidden-ness’ and ‘Invasions’, and the images of
‘Bridges’, ‘Windows/openings’ and ‘roots’. Biblical
stories that highlighted the need for ‘ Heart-
knowledge for Salvation’ and the spiritually
stultifying effect of ‘head-knowledge only’ were
selected as being of particular relevance to
Calverton. The Biblical material could be used in
two ways: by ‘head-knowledge’ to support extremes
of prejudice and division, and by ‘heart-knowledge’
to be opened up to the situations of others and
work towards reconciliation. It was felt that the
Holy Spirit as a diagnostic agent empowers
Christians to be humble, patient, trustworthy,
longsuffering and loving, and that members of the

87
congregation needed to access this resource as
much as did the Vicar.
The parables of the ‘Seed Growing Secretly’ and the
‘Mustard Seed’ Mark 4:26-34, provided insights into
the way in which the Hole Spirit was able to operate
in a secretive and undeclaring community. He
operates like a seed: quietly, unobtrusively, in the
hearts and minds of the recipients of Christian
service and testimony, which is the farmer putting
the seed into the ground. It is good seed – it works,
and is fruitful – something not always made certain
by the farmer before s/he plants it. This causes
things, which are hidden to rise to the surface,
presenting them as offerings for Christian ministry.
The minister is the Christian who returns as the
farmer to put in the sickle. It was felt that the most
effective spiritual service the church could offer
would be an imitation of the Spirit’s own mode of
operation, which would require it to be equally
quietly unobtrusive, sensitive to where the Spirit
was operative and picking-up on that fruit as it
presented itself. The Mustard Seed offered a cause

88
for hope in the face of the apparent insignificance of
such a small church in such a large settlement.

Phase Three
Ministerial Competency.
This is discussed in Chapter Three, the Project
Proposal.

Phase Four
In June of 1992, the Team began the Fourth Phase,
which was to focus in on the situation and express
the problem in an agreed form of words.
We had already thought of Bridges, Links and
Hidden-ness, and we decided to test this by looking
at the Southwell deanery Report based on the
discussion paper for deanery Synods, ‘Developing
Ministry’, January 1993, as a source of well-
researched expert perception, and the responding
church membership to that Report which
summarised the role of the Anglican Parish Priest as
one who was required to manage human resources
and to engage the community as its leader, teacher

89
and enabler. This was a counsel of perfection,
particularly in the face of the actual fact that a large
part of the role of the Anglican Vicar is fundraising.
The team felt, however, that the raising of friends
was the key to the problem, and that this was a
difficult concept, although not impossible to fit into
the managerial-speak, ‘managing human
resources’.
Another key issue was forced upon our attention
with rumours in the press that the Church
Commissioners had ‘lost £800 million’ in property
speculation. We produced a questionnaire asking
local people for their responses to the possibility of
Calverton losing its parish church presence. Their
feeling was that it would be a disaster of root
proportions; that they regarded the church building
as a ‘sign of the survival of the settlement’, that is,
themselves, their families, and their way of life.
In February 1994 the official announcement to
stipendiary clergy came in their salary slips in the
form of a leaflet explaining that the Church
Commissioners, whose assets, it said, during the

90
boom of 1989 stood at £3 billion, stood in July 1992
at £2.2 billion. (The Lambeth report. July 1993).
An apology was also enclosed.

Decision on Mission Issues and the Problem.

What became clear in the Situation Analysis was
that there were clearly definable social
characteristics within the resident population.
Three, and possibly four broad characteristics
emerged, which we classified as follows:
• The Pit and pit-related characteristics.
• The Commuter characteristic.
• The Poly-Generational Calvertonian Characteristic.
…and probably,
• The Farming/Landowning/Tenanting
Characteristic.
I say ‘probably’ because Farming was an elusive
area to get to grips with, since it would not fall
within clear geographical, social, economic or task
groups. It was clear however that absent
landowners exercise powers that impinge on the
settlement against expressed local opposition. The

91
abattoir controversy was a prime example of this.
The high cost of the leases of the local shops in
St.Wilfrid’s Square was another.
Clearly emerging from the map classifying types
and ages of housing was the preponderance of
post-1945 housing. In percentage terms it
represents above 90% of all dwelling units. Owner-
occupancy – the 1981 census gave 1,604 of all
housing in Calverton as owner-occupied. A result of
1980s housing policies and the selling-off of pit
housing by British Coal in the subsequent decade
resulted in the present situation of an owner-
occupancy rate of 80.4%, or 1,996. What was
surprising to some was the high percentage of
incomers in relation to current perceptions of the
area as a rural, enclosed, mainly working-class,
renting settlement with a vital and living rural
history. In statistical fact Calverton is an urban,
post-1946 new town, fifteen percent lover middle
class, home owning, 1960s planners’ Key Village.
Many people came to Calverton for a rural life, but
with ease of access to services and work. Incomers

92
want to believe the rural myth, even though they
may know the reality. Rearguard actions are being
fought by the Preservation Society over the openly-
declared move by the County or Parish or Borough
Councils to snatch public open spaces, but the
experience of these people is that ultimately they
find themselves powerless because they are a
divided community in self-contained social and
interest groups.
What also emerged from the Analysis was the
actual employment situation. Running almost equal
first in terms of numbers of people employed, with
the pit running marginally first, were the pit and the
schools. But the schools employ marginally more
Calverton-based residents than the pit, and the
numbers employed at the pit had been steadily
decreasing during the past decade, and continued
to decline rapidly. Added to that, the pit was
discovered to be a major employer of an in-
commuting workforce – 700 of the 900 employees
commuted to work each day. So what was
generally perceived by politicians and others as a

93
‘Pit Village’ was in fact equally if not more than
equally an ‘Educational Settlement’.
There was probably also an issue here about guilt.
The representation in all the churches from those
engaged in the educational institutions was far
greater than that from the pit community. Mining is
experienced as polluting and antisocial. It takes
place in the darkness, and its workers are presented
in the media as dirty, uneducated men with too
much money who beat their wives and get drunk.
When it is convenient, they are also presented as
working-class heroes – neither of which they
actually are. Coal mining is thought of as a
necessary evil. Certainly in my experience of
ministry people generally stay away from church
when they feel guilty. The psychology is, that
individuals take flight from judgement and criticism
and that a special framework needs to be put in
place to enable victims of guilt not to take flight.
This begins to explain why such a settlement
prefers the Christianity of philosophy (education
and learning) to that of felt sin – the ‘polluting pit’.

94
The broad socio-historical characteristics of the
settlement also emerged as an issue in arriving at a
definition of the problem, as did housing types and
employment. These set much of the agenda for
how residents perceived themselves in relation to
their neighbours both within and outside Calverton.
From this, we decided to survey local groups to see
how the groups saw themselves fitting-in, making a
contribution, reflecting the concerns and interests
of the settlement.
One powerful message coming across from the
survey was that Calverton is a rural idyll.
Innumerable painting and craft shops, based on a
long history of creativity ion the settlement
produced endless landscapes and rural havens;
some recreate ancient farming implements such as
scythes, mattocks and Celtic spades. The Tapestry
Group have a fond commitment to producing
tapestries of pre-existing dwelling-houses, the
church, and textiles factors down the ages. The
Calverton Museum houses a wealth of local history,
including the wooden models of the parish church in

95
successive eras, researched and made by the
previous incumbent and gifted to the Museum. Also
numerous local people have stories. One of the
craft centres has reproduced a life sized Monet
Garden, expressing a European empathy for
another rural idyll in another land. The fancy is
superficially reinforced by recent farming
legislation, which encourages farmers to diversify
land use for recreational and leisure purposes, and
they have created golf courses, giving local people
the opportunity to live their rural dream for an
occasional weekend.
The Scout and Guide Association has an
International Camping Centre in an area of
outstanding natural beauty offering adventure, a
healthy lifestyle to a clean, compliant youth culture.
Sewing groups, woodwork and carving and
numerous keep fit classes for women are all here,
and the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA)
regularly produces lectures on history, the arts, and
theology. The presence of all these things in the

96
settlement testifies to powerful aspirations, which
are under threat on many fronts.
The Downside
Very much in the minority are groups making
provision for local disadvantaged people such as
unclubbable and non-compliant youth, lone parents,
mentally and physically disabled people or groups
seeking relief from oppression such as battered
women, drug taking or poverty.
This failure is a result of attitudes formed from
perceptions based upon inaccurate data. What, for
example is the significance of the fact that in a
settlement of 6,677 people, whose housing is semi-
detached and at the lower end of the market there
is a non-white British ethnic population of only
0.3%. There are no Caribbean, African, Pakistani or
Bangladeshi people. Local people tell the tragic
story of a family of ‘boat people’ who tried to settle
in Calverton a few years ago, but who were
hounded out of the village, and of two deaf and
learning-challenged people whose life was made so
unbearable they also had to leave. It is not without

97
significance that only two local business
establishments have steel shutters over their shop
windows: The Health Centre – to prevent drugs
being stolen, and a General Store owned by an
Indian family.

The Team States The Problem

At this stage the Team’s task was to move towards
a statement of the whole problem confronting the
parish church and its ministry.
It would need to be a statement that was true to the
whole situation, including both the church as a sign
of the Kingdom of God and the parish as a whole,
complex community – what a Calverton
Churchwarden of thirty years standing, and an Old
Calvertonian, calls ‘The Calverton Metropolis.’
From the Biblical Reflection the Team agreed that
the problem it was seeking to state lay in the area
of ‘Barriers’ and ‘Bridges’. Barriers were perceived
as negative and bridges as positive, but we very
soon agreed that barriers could be protective and
bridges could carry negative traffic.

98
Biblical antecedents were found in the Exodus, the
Exile, and Settlement, the Early Church Diaspora, in
a number of
Specific tales of individuals and also in theological
reflections on the New Testament, especially those
of the evangelists John and Paul. There was a
wealth of material throughout the Biblical literature,
which the Team found was empathetic to its
struggle in clarifying the problem and which offered
insights into deeper understanding.
We began looking for ‘hidden links’ and arrived at
the following parable, which pointed the way for a
possible role for the Parish Church: -
“The Team sees the potential role of the
Church in broad socio-religious terms,
specifically in participating in the creation of a
society with the Christian Gospel as the pebble
at various centres. The ripples (links) will both
disturb latent altruisms and pray direct
spiritual gifts into service of the people who
live here. The looked-for response from the
population will be the worship of God and the

99
 building-up of the church. This response is to
be expected in both church and non-church
people. The specific new role of St.Wilfrid’s is
seen as being one of these ‘pebble-throwers’
whereas in the past it has tended to be a
respondent to altruisms and a victim of
emotional diktat.”
My own style of ministry has never been that of
‘victim’, and attendance figures since my taking up
the incumbency are as follows: -
1985 Holy Communion over 9 weeks total
attendance
= 263
1991 Communion over same 9 weeks total
attendance
= 718
A 300% increase in attendances.
I take this as an example supporting the Site
Team’s research and intuition that a ‘victim
congregation’ is a congregation that does not
initiate, and a need for ‘pebble-throwers’ to bring a
community to life.

100
The Problem Stated
We agreed that the Problem could be stated thus: -
“A traditional rural Anglican Church
accustomed to having been the centre of the
community is now losing power and
struggling to find a new role in a changing
community.”
The decision of the Site Team was to proceed with
the Problem thus stated from within the heart of the
attending congregation. The object would be to
seek with the agreement of attenders a resolution
of the new role for the parish church.
The question of ‘power’ occurring in the stated
Problem was to be addressed in the following way: -
The ‘power’ requires was best described as
χαρ ι τ α σ , ‘Grace’, for which the church would
need to pray, and the hoped-for grace would be
expressed in influence and credibility for the Gospel
in the hearts, homes, and institutions of the
settlement of Calverton.

101
The question of finance briefly referred to
previously was an ongoing and unavoidable Key
Issue of survival, but will be raised in more detail at
a later stage of this document. Suffice to say that
at this stage I had agreed with the Team to include
this within any structure or plan for the Project.

Resourcing the Human Components of The

Team
On 05.05.93 I invited seven more people – added to
the congregation during the past year – to become
involved with the Site Team in the upcoming Project
Proposal, and to consider becoming actively
involved with us in formulating and implementing
action on the preceding material.

102
“…community temple symbols.”

103
 Chapter Three
Strategies for Discovery

Plan of Action in Response to The Problem

SAINT WILFRID’S, CALVERTON, A

TRADITIONAL RURAL ANGLICAN CHURCH
ACCUSTOMED TO HAVING BEEN THE CENTRE
OF THE COMMUNITY IS NOW LOSING POWER
AND IS STRUGGLING TO FIND A NEW ROLE IN
A CHANGING SETTLEMENT

In response the church congregation will seek

to develop awareness of how barriers within
the church and the settlement facilitate or
impede its worship and witness.

104
 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Saint Wilfrid Calverton, a traditional rural Anglican

Church accustomed to having been the centre of the

community is now losing power and is struggling to

find a new role in a changing settlement

Having defined the Problem, the following was our

Response Statement, and this is how we went about
realising it.

105
 First, we agreed the following:

CHANGE GOAL ONE

To sensitise the congregation of St. Wilfrid’s to

the different spiritual traditions and resources

within its life, and to recognise both positive and

negative aspects of these differences.

106
This would be administered by the following
instruments: -

ADMINISTRATIVE GOAL ONE

By bringing into dialogue

representatives of the three major
spiritual energies at St. Wilfrid’s
Church to investigate what roles they
want the parish church to fulfil.

ADMINISTRATIVE GOAL TWO

By devising a format for addressing

the requirements of the three sections
with regard to the parish church.

107
We then agreed the following Strategies for helping
us to accomplish Administrative Goal One: -

Advertise an historical presentation

Invite attenders to bring a friend

Provide warm & comfortable venue

Choose culturally neutral venue

Fit into Church Calendar

Community worker to publicise the event

108
…and the following Strategies- for a accomplishing
Administrative Goal Two - not that all of these are
directed towards a single meeting.

Use same meeting as for Admin Goal One

Identify 3 people who will be representatives

Farmer. Pit Worker. Commuter

Agree timescale with reps for preparation

Visit reps and persuade them to speak

109
Since Change Goal One is a consciousness-changing
goal, its aim being to sensitise a group of people –
the Church Congregation, success would be claimed
by there being a detectable alteration in the
backhome setting. We agreed this could be
measured in various ways.

The Project Proposal recognised that there would be

barriers within the situation. The extent to which
the Project would be successful would depend upon
being able to gains the support of necessary allies.
We felt that it would be reasonable to hope that at
least the beginnings of change might be expected
in the form of study-groups, recommendations in
the minutes of the Parochial Church Council’s
meetings and sub-group meeting minutes, and an
observable rise in enthusiasm among the general
attending church membership.
We might also hope to be able to witness a growing
membership from all three of the identified social
categories. The best outcome, we thought would
be for the team to have at least one ‘Trophy’ in

110
terms of barriers overcome with supporting
documentary and personal testimony. If it be true
that things change only slowly in the countryside,
that itself might be, we felt, a barrier that might
need addressing. Our determination was that the
Project would show what change it could in the time
available, and that we would seek to make
projections from the foundation of these infant
structures.
In order to establish a common ground between all
participants we felt that the material from the
Situation Analysis should be up for consideration
and challenge, since some may present a different
perspective that the one already offered. Those
present at the meeting would need to be given the
opportunity to speak and be heard in a non-
threatening atmosphere, having been reassured of
their security and status. There would need to be
opportunity both to listen and learn and to
contribute and teach. Speakers would need time to
prepare presentations and in order to gain as wide a
contribution as possible there would need to be

111
opportunity for anonymous contributions. The
stories would need to be heard. We recognised that
there would no doubt be direct conflicts which
would not be amenable to resolution, and that it
may therefore be the role of the Candidate to
occasionally adopt a mediatory rather than a
propagandistic role.
We recognised that there were certain necessary
conditions in existence, which would facilitate the
achievement of Change Goal One. There was for
example an interest in local history among church
members and others. A general feeling of
dissatisfaction about the way things worked in the
area, and a specific dissatisfaction about the parish
church’s current role in the area among church
members and a readiness to confess that the parish
church’s role is unfulfilled and un-realised.
Recognised areas of conflict and a feeling among
Site Team Members that there were other areas of
conflict which had not yet surfaced. All of these, we
thought, provided a medium in which change
promised to be achievable.

112
We felt also that conditions existed which
threatened goal achievement. One or other
interest-group may threaten to hijack the goal
agenda and divert it into a ghetto interest whereas
the agenda needed to be kept open and available to
all. Or, the agenda itself might provide divisions,
splitting-off, partial interests – e.g., farmers verses
villagers on the Abattoir issue. The danger of
Anglican imperialism was also considered, in which
the role of other churches would be undervalued – a
danger of parochial narrow-mindedness. There may
be a personality conflict between the Candidate and
others, and we felt that there was a danger of the
Candidate’s own increased parochial responsibilities
threatening to limit time and commitment available
for the achievement of Goals. All of these, we felt
provided areas of potential conflict against goal-
achievement. Participant themselves would need to
be enlisted in the effort to achieve the goals. They
would need to be people who had an interest and
investment in the goals being achieved, and would
be encouraged to enlist by personal invitation, as a

113
result of the Candidate and Site Team Members
discussing the Goals and Processes with them, and
by their being given a timescale and clear,
achievable objectives which coincided with their
own interests, enthusiasms and perspectives and
offer a payoff in terms of satisfaction. The
Candidate agreed to encourage enlistment through
personal contacts.
This completed our Plan for the realisation of
Change Goal One.
We then formulated a Second Change Goal.

114
 CHANGE GOAL TWO

To sensitise the congregation of St.

Wilfrid’s to the multi-faceted nature of

the parish in order to prepare itself for a

new role.

ADMINISTRATIVE GOAL ONE

By providing occasion for local

people to express their
ADMINISTRATIVE GOALmindTWO
about
the pros and cons of barriers.
By engaging in a study of barriers,
which impede or enable open
identification with or commitment to 115

the church.
 ADMINISTRATIVE GOAL THREE

By establishing a programme for

ADMINISTRATIVE GOAL FOUR
exploring the plusses and minuses of
barriers. By providing an occasion for the
celebration of barriers within the
parish.

116
We then agreed the following Strategies for
helping us to achieve the four Administrative
Goals: -

Strategies for achieving Administrative Goal

One: -

Ask people

Invite anonymous contributions

Questionnaire

Tick-list in local library

Strategies for achieving Administrative Goal

Two: -

117
In-church service with discussion

Contemporaneous notes & discussion

Topic for Lent Course

Series of sermons & discussion

Provide database with input from vicar & people

118
Strategies for achieving Administrative Goal
Three: -

Reflection by Project Group on consultation

Provide venue

Feedback by group into project

Strategies for achieving Administrative Goal

Four: -

Provide safe environment to confront prejudice

Identify consultant

119
 Enlist consultant

Brief consultant

Make contemporaneous notes

It was clear to us that a sizeable number of people

who were feeling that barriers exist would need to
be involved in this process. The feeling was that
because people did not generally define themselves
as spiritual beings or their problems as spiritual
problems, without deep reflection of spiritual
direction, it would be necessary to start with the
physical – economic, social, cultural barriers and
only on that basis to proceed to an investigation
that may lead to an understanding of their spiritual
dimension. Our hunch was that once the spiritual
nature of the physical barriers was perceived, a
more effective challenge could be made against

120
them. It was possible that the battleground for
change would be shifted from selfish sectional
interests in removing certain obstacles for personal
and private gain to a more profound consideration
of the relationship of the individual to the
community, and how these barriers have the
possibility of dividing or uniting people.
We felt that there might be a low level of interest in
the process among non-churchgoers. While the
political controversy attending the siting of an
abattoir attracts people in dozens to a public
meeting, it was not realistic to expect a similar
interest in the meetings proposed in these Change
Goals. If one’s housing value is under threat
because of the rumour of a slaughterhouse being
sited nearby, one might fight. The issue is obvious
to all. But if one’s soul is in mortal danger because
one’s commitment to bricks and mortar is greater
than one’s commitment to Christ, one may not even
know! In other words is the Secretary of State for
the Environment one’s ultimate arbiter, or Christ?

121
Part of the Change Goals’ aim was to bring some
balance to this state of affairs.
Both Change Goals were, we agreed,
‘consciousness-changing’ goals. The aim of the
Second Change Goal was to develop awareness in
the community. Again, any change in the
backhome setting would be a measure of the
achievement of this Goal’s aim. Because the two
Change Goals were so closely related
(consciousness-raising) the necessary conditions for
their achievement would coincide almost exactly, as
would the conditions, which may work against their
achievement.
We felt that what may be added to the conditions
for the achievement of Change Goal Two would be a
willingness on the part of the congregation to look
beyond its worshipping life and friends within the
fellowship to the parish outside. There would need
to be a willingness to adapt to different ways, adopt
alien forms and make room for new demands both
on themselves as Christians in the wider parish and

122
on their traditional provisions within the church
building.
Conditions, which would impede the achievement of
this goal, were, first, on the level of non-church
cultures beginning to come in to the building for
worship, the very traditions and habits of the church
themselves, the version of the Bible commonly in
use, the use of the Prayer Book, the kind of hymns
being sung, the instruments being played, the
internal décor and the forms of liturgy. Secondly,
the inclination and ability of the congregation to
relate their faith in the terms of the host cultures. If
success were achieved at these levels, we felt that
Change Goal Two would have measurably achieved
its aim. Achievement would be measurable by the
same means as for Change Goal One.
We were sure that in pursuing all of the preceding
Goals there would be demands not only on the
Team and others, but particularly on the Candidate.
We therefore entered into an agreed contract to
assess the Competencies of both Team and
Candidate.

123
 The Ministerial Competency Assessment:
Stage One.
The first stage of this process was for the Candidate
to keep a detailed contemporaneous record of tasks
and time devoted to them over a period of two
weeks
The following was the result: -
Record of work-tasks by Candidate taken at 15-
minute intervals during a period of two
consecutive weeks.

FIRST WEEK SECOND WEEK

DATE HOURS DATE HOURS
WORKED WORKED
07/04/92 11 hrs 30 14/04/9 14 hrs
08 mins 2 10 hrs 30 mins
09 12 hrs 30 15 14 hrs 10 mins
10 mins 16 9 hrs 30 mins
11 15 hrs 45 17 13 hrs 15 mins
12 mins 18 10 hrs

124
 13 11 hrs 45 19 10 hrs 45 mins
mins 20
12 hrs
12 hrs 45
mins
2 hrs
Average daily work time 11 hrs 30 mins. One day off in two weeks including 2 hrs work

125
Administration 19 hrs. 30 mins. Ecumenical
Travel 3 hrs. 15 mins. Manna Farm
Study 16 hrs. 55 mins. Meetings
In-Phones 3 hrs 50 mins. Sunday services
Out-Phones 2 hrs 10 mins. Funerals
Gardening 3 hrs 30 mins Magazine
In-Visits 2 hrs 55 mins. Community Project
Out-Visits 4 hrs Counselling
Meetings 11 hrs 15 mins M.Min.
Worship 7 hrs 15 mins Schools/socialising
Magazine 20 hrs 15 mins Vicar’s Surgery
Maintenance 1 hr 15 mins. Baptism Preparation
Training 1 hr 45 mins. Wedding Preparation
Consultation 2 hrs 30 mins.
Wedding Preparation 1 hr

Whilst proceeding with this record I classified the

tasks I was doing under what turned out to be
fifteen broad headings as follows: -
Some interesting comparisons of actual and
expected time-use were as follows: -

CANDIDATE’S TASKS TIME EXPENDED SITE TEAM’S

S.T. Expectation Actual hours

Meetings 50 Hours
11.30
Magazine 16 Hours 20.15
Hours Worked 134 Hours 160
Because Team members and Candidate developed
the categories separately, many of the work-tasks
do not appear in the Team’s categories. What this

126
shows is the disparity between the Team’s
perception of the Candidate’s occupations and his
actual work. There are other areas in which the
actual tasks are hidden in the Team’s categories,
such as ‘counselling’ (S.T.) is in the Candidate’s OUT
/ IN VISITS and WEDDING PREP (Candidate does not
see this as ‘counselling’, which is something else,
done by trained people). ‘Schools’ (S.T.) is in
Candidate’s OUT/IN VISITS & MEETING/TRAINING.
There were no specific ‘Socialising’ work-occasions
in the two weeks under analysis. Site Team’s
estimate of actual working hours a week was short
13 hours, and its estimate of ‘Meeting’ hours over-
estimated by twenty hours a week, estimating that
this work occupied three times longer a week than
in actual fact. An average meeting-time per week is
about 12 hours according to the Candidate’s annual
diary estimate.

127
 Competency Assessment
Stage Two.

The Second Stage of the contract to assess

ministerial Competency had two parts concurring
simultaneously. One was the Candidate’s own self-
assessment (a), and the other the Site Team’s (b).
This was followed by a further part (c), a process of
consultation between the Candidate and Site Team
using various assessment tools, with the objective
of arriving at an agreed Ministerial Competency
Assessment..
So:
The Candidate’s Agreed Tasks and Character
Traits were listed and scored from ‘A’ [little or no
room for development] to ‘F’ [so poor as to be not
worth trying to develop].

Key: -
2 = Discrepancy of two categories
3 = Discrepancy of three categories
4 = Discrepancy of four categories
5 = Discrepancy of five categories

128
A = Excellent
B = Very Good
C = Good
D = AVERAGE
E = Below Average
F = Poor

Column ‘A’ has One (1) to Fifty-six (56)

Task Categories.
Column ‘B’ has One (1) to Forty-two (42)
Character Trait Categories.
For cross reference for example if a discrepancy
occurred in the category, ‘fabric’ the reference
would be ‘23A’. If the discrepancy were of, say,
three categories, the reference would be ‘23A3’.

129
The results of parts (A) and (B) are as follows:
-

THINGS TO DO C T C T CHARACTER TRAITS

1 Funerals B C C D 1 Clarity in speaking
2 (follow-up/prep E D D C 2 writing
classes) C C B D 3 Awareness of
3 Weddings E D A B limitations
4 (follow-up/prep C C A C 4 Honesty
classes) C D B D 5 Sense of humour
5 Baptisms D -- A D 6 Openness
6 (follow-up/prep D D B E 7 Fairness
classes) C B B B 8 Ability to learn
7 Confirmations C E B D 9 love
8 (follow-up/prep D D C C 10 forgive
classes) D D B C 11 think
9 Sunday Services C D E D 12
10 Mid-week Services C D C D communicate
11 Visiting: B C A C 13 change
Bereavement D D E C mind
12 Home D D C B 14 Musical awareness
13 Sick E F C ? 15 Physical fitness
14 Church Council E E D F 16 Not showing
Meetings E D F F favouritism
15 Meetings C C F D 17 Not easily
(attend/facilitate) D C C A manipulated
16 Council of Churches D D A A 18 Impartial
17 Ecumenical A B D D 19 Even tempered
Services C B B D 20 Not paranoid
18 House Groups B D D D 21 Firm
19 Bible Studies D D D B 22 Compassionate
20 Lent Courses D D E E 23 Hard worker

130
21 Sunday School B A B C 24 Cheerfulness
22Social events B A F E 25 Get on with people
(church/com) B A D F 26 Caring for own
23 Fabric (buildings) B D F E people
24 Community D E C F 27 Caring for own family
Projects C D F F 28 Able to relax
25Networking (Oasis, F D E E 29 Able to socialise
Forum) D D D C 30 Clear relationship
26 Finger on village C A B D with God
pulse E E C D 31 Not to show boredom
27 Involve by F F B B 32 Give clear messages
encouragement F D B D 33 Good memory
28 Preaching C D A C 34 Diplomacy
29 Up to date: Church F D D D 35 Lead village
affairs B D assertively
30 Local C C 36 Thick skin
affairs B C 37 Humility
31 World B E 38 ‘Know thyself’
affairs C C 39 Intimacy with God
32 Be reflective F F 40 Receive clear
33 Suitably clothed C F messages
34 Teaching A B 41 ‘Divine madness’
35 Praying B D 42 Imperfections
36 School B D
37 Delegation D F
38 Administration D D
39 Finance B C
40 Liaison B B
Churchwardens
41 Deanery
42 Diocese
43 Workers/Villagers
44 Available

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45 Hospitality
46 To Listen
47 Say ‘Thank You’ (4
church)
48 Organise Retreats
49 Mediate
50 Communicate by
Magazine
51 Management
52 Prayer for Healing
53 Discipleship
Training
54 Discerning Church’s
Gifts
55 Developing Team
Ministry
56 Identifying and
Supporting the Poor

132
As a result of this exercise the following
Discrepancies
were found: -
Candidate Team Discrepa
Score
Score ncy
5b Sense of humour
A C 2
6b Openness B D 2
7b Fairness A D 3*
8b Ability to learn B E 3*
10a Midweek services C E 2
10b Ability to forgive B D 2
15b Physical fitness A C 2
16b Favouritism E C 2
21b Firmness F D 2
25b Get on with people B D 2
26a What’s on in village B D 2
27b Care for church family D B 2
31b Showing boredom D F 2
33b Good memory C F 3*
35a Praying F D 2
37a Delegation C A 2
38b ‘Know Thyself’ B D 2
40a Churchwarden liaison F D 2
40b Receive clear messages B D 2
41b ‘Divine madness’ A C 2
42a Diocese F D 2
43a Workers/village B D 2

133
46a To listen B E 3*
53a Discipleship training D F 2

134
The Site Team wanted to record some specific comments on
the above Competency scoring: -
On 1a and 10a the Candidate gives himself totally to all services.
On 11a and 13a these refer to life crisis situations when he is
really needed and is very good.
On 14a, he tends to get very frustrated at Church Council
Meetings.
22a, social events, he joins in and helps in a variety of ways.
24a examples of his excellence in this area are OASIS Community
Project and the Manna Farm Addiction Rehabilitation Unit, both of
which he manages.
On 25a, networking, he has many contacts.
On 33a, one occasion at which he dresses suitably is at the
Women’s Fellowship.
On 37a to 39a he delegates almost everything in these areas.
On 41a and 42a he actively participates in deanery and diocese.
46a He tends to be preoccupied and therefore forgetful.
56a he is good at this, for example OASIS & Manna Farm, and the
Jane Pepper Charity.
23b An area of excellence.
‘A’ and ‘B’ scoring areas were 4b, 24a, 29a, 30a, 50a – all were
areas of Communication and Community Involvement, whish was
where his major interests lay.
There were plenty of agreed areas where his performance was
‘average’ and which could be hones, smoothed, developed, and
some which he ought to avoid in which his performance was so
weak that it would be unrealistic to look for development – these
were areas where both Candidate and Site Team scored ‘F’.

135
In terms of personal idiosyncrasies which inhibited competency, he
had a tendency to paranoia, an inability to relax, a lack of overt
relationship with God, a failure to give clear messages, a lack of
diplomacy and of assertiveness in leading the village.
Arising from this, we agreed the
Areas for Competency Development to be included in the
Project. These would be: -

1. The Candidate’s Personal Witness in the Community.

Hints for development were to bear in mind the phrase, ‘Let your
light shine…’ which is derived from Matthew’s Gospel 5:14-16.
Concluding with the command from Jesus regarding personal
witness in the community…
“ Let your light so shine (among the people) that they
may see your good work and give glory to your father in
heaven.”
This raised question of the danger of personal style and false
humility in alienating people. It may be that dress and how it
attracts would be something for Candidate to consider, particularly
as the settlement had the expectation of its Vicar having a ‘BBC
accent’, being well-educated and well-groomed a shepherd of the
people who develops and sustains personal and collective
relationships in an assertive leadership of their parish.
The second area for development to be included in the Project
would be in the area of: -
2. Education and Christian Discipleship/Life Teaching.
Hints for development in this area were to note that at the moment
there was none of this on a formal level, and no way therefore of

136
 assessing the Candidate’s current ability. What did occur of this
was of a diffuse and implicatory nature and so, difficult to comment
upon. What was required was some kind of programme and
particularly with regard to frustrated young people, many of whose
futures appeared to hold little hope.
A third area of development to be included in the Project would be
to tackle the discipline of
3. Listening.
In particular, effectively facilitating people through listening to
them. Hints for development were sampling peoples’ views and
counselling, keeping accurate records of providing clear messages
as a result of hearing issues clearly.

Measurable Criteria for Indicating Growth in Personal

Witness were: -
Increasing numbers of personal and professional relationships.,
greater effectiveness in village affairs, street evangelism, feedback
on positive and affirming local gossip.
Instruments to Indicate Growth would be: -
Diary data, interviews, group session summations, self-
assessment, establishing a youth work, being politically involved
for youth and possibly also a questionnaire.
Measurable Criteria for Indicating Growth in Education /
Life-Teaching would be: -
The initiation of a house groups / Bible study groups and local and
diocesan study groups.
Instruments to Indicate Growth would be: -

137
A trained observer, objective commentator, a record of
education teaching materials used, and attendances
recorded over a period of time. A report from the Mission
and Outreach Committee would also provide an objective
growth-indicating instrument.
Measurable Criteria for Indicating Growth in
Listening would be: -
Currently uninvolved individuals to become involved in the
life and work of the parish church as a result of having
been heard, and for those already involved to achieve a
greater commitment.
Instruments for Indicating Growth in Effective
Listening would be: -
The assessment of a trained listener and a
contemporaneous record in listening situations including
feedback from parishioners (bereaved families after the
funeral oration?). In considering how this whole Project
might be evaluated, Site Team and Candidate devised the
following plan: -
The achievement of Change Goal One would be
evaluated first by recording what the participants
themselves said about how the Goal has modified the life
and base settings. This would be a concrete indicator
showing actual change. Secondly, the participants would
be sounded-out as to what ideas they had gained about

138
the role of the church and congregation through
participation in the Goal. This would indicate changes in
attitude, a sensing of achievement and any desire to move
further forward. Thirdly, participants would be asked to
indicate the ways in which they have been personally
challenged. This may be done in one or two cases by the
keeping of a personal journal. The Candidate agreed that
he would keep one himself. This would provide insights
into group and personal growth.
Goal achievement would be sensed by the Site Team
concretely in terms of the following signs becoming
perceptible among the congregation and in the church’s
agenda: -
1. The parish church seriously considering the multi-
faceted cultural issue and the question of modifying
its approach and role;
2. Altering structures and procedures to accommodate
new insights.
3. Addressing the possibility that there were other
reasons than, say, atheism or apathy why
parishioners stay away from church.
4. Coming to realise that non-church-attendance does
not necessarily imply a lack of interest in the church
and its role.

139
 5. Congregation deepening in awareness of itself as not
only a religious but also an important socio-cultural
institution, figuring in the pagan as well as the
Christian part of the tapestry of Calverton life.
6. Emergence of new ideas, especially coming from new
and non-members, increased enthusiasm between
the Site Team.
7. A renewed interest in Biblical material.
8. Multi-faceted local cultural issues becoming part of
the worshipping life in the church building.
9. The instruments of personal witness, statistical
information, minutes of meetings, records of
educational material and financial and numerical
growth and any change in sales of the Church
Bookstall and Magazine indicating a shift of interest
would be employed in assessing the measure of
achievement of Change Goal One.
The execution of Administrative Goal One would be a
simple matter of recording whether the representatives of
the three spiritual energies met in dialogue, and providing
a contemporaneous written record of what they said and
how they perceived the role of the parish church. The
presentation of a format for assessing the requirements of
these energies with regard to the parish church would
demonstrate achievement of Administrative Goal Two.

140
How well the programme plans were executed, would in
both cases be judged by witnesses to its operation.

The achievement of Change Goal Two.

…would be evaluated first by recording what the
participants will have said about barriers they feel they
have encountered in the process, and what testimony they
will have offered about the quality and nature of those
barriers. We would expect to hear for example were they
barriers that were insurmountable, requiring the useless
dissipation of energies in attempting to remove or breach
them, or were they merely stumbling-blocks or accidental
barriers, easy to remove or negotiate? It would be
necessary for the Site Team to say whether this produced
hope for change, or despair and powerlessness in the face
of insurmountable difficulties. They would need to be
clear about where the barriers were – in the church or in
the settlement? Secondly, participants would say how this
reflective activity had altered their lives. Specific
examples would need top be provided. Thirdly we would
hope to see specific instances of growth in one or two of
the Site Team members who would have implemented
their own plans for confronting issues of barriers on a
personal level, and of group growth in achieving a
common mind regarding some of the barriers, and

141
reaching consensus on their character. With regard to the
congregation, we would expect to see what the
participants have learned being reflected in the minutes of
Church Council meetings and would hope to see strategies
being developed in the sub-groups to address these issues
and the implementation of activities based on the insights
of the participants.
The execution of Administrative Goal One would take
place first at the public meeting of the three
representatives. A contemporaneous written record would
be kept. Second, Site Team members would make
personal enquiries in their communities of friends, and
thirdly a local survey would be made.
The Site Team would achieve Administrative Goal Two
by reflecting Biblically on what they had perceived
regarding barriers, and a record would be produced. An
attempt would be made to draw-out general Biblical
principles on the issues of commitment and identification.
Administrative Goal Three would be achieved under
Administrative Goal Two at the same meeting(s), and also
by attempting an experimental removal or negotiation of a
specific agreed barrier in church or settlement.
Administrative Goal Four would be achieved by
providing a barbecue in the vicarage garden, part of which
would be to present, discuss and get feedback in the form

142
of personal testimony and possibly some concrete
memorial to celebrate the positive and affirming
differences barriers sometimes signify.
In the concrete, the achievement of this Change Goal
would mean that the parish church would revise its self-
image from Custodian, Curator, traditionalist Culture
Representative, and begin to see itself as one specific and
locally unique social culture among many in a complex
settlement: that it would see itself as needed by the
settlement in new ways: that it would be clearer regarding
specific and measurable barriers confronting its mission
and worship in the parish, and that not all of these barriers
were of a doctrinal, religious or spiritual nature, but were
sometimes cultural and challenge-able: that other local
cultures would have become aware that the church is
interested in them and willing to give them a hearing, and
finally that the Site Team and other participants and the
church Council would have a new sense of purpose,
direction, and empowerment.
Concrete sensing of achievement among the Site Team
would be new ideas for tackling the barriers; enthusiasm
to work on the new information; a feeling of empowerment
based in new objectives, and expressed in new plans for
mission, renewed interest in Biblical material and a desire
to share these discoveries with others.

143
Resources.
Having formulated Change and Administrative Goals and
strategies to achieve them, we looked for resource-points
that we felt would be necessary in the pursuit and
completion of the project.
In all, there were twenty-two books containing specifically
theological input to our thinking that we felt we would
need to consider, among various socio-theological, A.N.E,
historical and social history works, works on specific
aspects of politics, including the publications of various
national and local pressure groups, local history and
contemporary planning proposals, liturgy, psychology,
management, reports and minutes of meetings and
various fringe works in theology, apologetics that we knew
about or were directed to consider. We were of course
aware that in implementing our thinking we would no
doubt be confronted with more. A comprehensive list of
texts referred to in the whole project is found in the
Bibliography.
There were plans for the Candidate to visit other projects
in the British Isles where work of a similar kind was being
processed such as in Wednesbury, Smethwick, Beeston in
Nottingham, and in Northampton. There were also
expectations of accurate and detailed consultation and

144
reporting from other locations, in particular from Sheffield,
Leeds, Doncaster, Blackburn, Bellshill in Scotland and from
a church in Mirfield. All of these were locations where
work was being contemporaneously undertaken through
the good offices of the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield.
Calverton parish church was also one of these.
Other experts and consultants whom we felt would have a
contribution to make in relation to our concerns would be
Rev’d Canon M. R. Austin, the Director of Ministerial
training in the diocese of Southwell, a church Community
Worker in Lenton, Nottingham, Ms. Ruth Shelton the
Director of the Southwell Board for Social Responsibility –
especially with regard to the situation concerning pit
closures and related poverty and political issues. Having
only recently concluded a ten-year close involvement with
the Nottingham Homeless Trust, the Macedon Trust, as
one of its managers, the Candidate felt that he could
resource on many levels from that point, not least through
personal input from management and clientele and also
from the current Director, Ms. Christine Russell. There
would also be a number of middle and senior management
individuals from the various agencies who would be
pleased to have some input, especially Mr. Howard
Lockwood, Chief Probation Officer for North East London,
whom we felt would have some input on modifying

145
structures to facilitate client service input. There would
also be Ms. Carol frost, Senior Probation Officer in
Nottingham who would input on the issues of empathetic
service delivery from a client and professional point of
view, and Mr. Rod Beadles, Managing Director of the
Potter’s House, a long-standing and successful Christian
Coffee Bar in Nottingham City Centre would have valuable
input on holding different cultures together in a single
provision of plant and resources, also Ms. Pat Pennington,
formerly a practising clinical psychologist and currently
Area Manager of Adullam Homes, a Christian housing
association, would have inoput on a number of
professional and consultative levels, Mr. Bob Andrews,
formerly working with a youth project in Liverpool,
currently Manager of Manna farm, a drug rehabilitation
project in the parish, for contributions towards the youth
aspects of the project. Again, there would no doubt be
others who would arise in the course of the project. We
were aware that the Archbishop’s Rural Officer, Jeremy
Martineau and the National Agricultural Centre at
Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire were a major resource
that we might use.

Timing and Strategy Development.

146
It was clear to the Candidate and to the Site team that in
St.Wilfrid’s church there were different spiritual traditions
and that there was a tendency either for them to be
compartmentalised from one another of for them to
become conflictual. We felt that this was undesirable and
that to help the situation we would seek to provide
opportunity for sharing across the divides, in the hope of
enabling understanding and sensitivity to different ways.
One of the barriers that we had detected was that the
three major spiritual energies tended to find themselves
apart in both their secular and religious existences. Work
needed to be done if they were to be gathered together
onto a single platform to express how they saw the parish
church, and to say what their own expectations of the
church were. We felt that all strategies for achieving
Administrative Goals One and Two under Change Goal One
needed directing at that one single objective.
We agreed the following group of strategies for getting
three representatives of different traditions on the same
platform: -
We would advertise an historical presentation event.
People would be invited personally and asked to bring a
friend. A culturally open venue would be provided. The
event would be fitted into the normal Church Social
calendar. The Community Worker would advertise it. This

147
we felt should work because it was presented as a normal
part of the Church’s calendar included among other social
events.
The next group of strategies were directed at getting three
representatives from three different religious and cultural
groups to make representations at the event, which we
decided would be a public meeting in the church building.
W felt that the church was the most appropriate place,
since no local venues are culturally neutral and the
speakers would be addressing the issue of the role of the
parish church and their expectations of it. We did briefly
think of inviting people to an out-of-settlement location,
but this would inhibit those who, for whatever reason could
not travel.
The groups we had identified were farmers/Old
Calvertonians, Pit Workers, and Commuters.
Under ‘farmers’ we included ‘Old Calvertonians’ believing
that they had a natural investment in the history and
preservation of the character of the settlement, which was
likely to be generally absent from the other two groups
(even though it had not been unknown for farmers to sell
fields for housing, or rent fields out for car boot sales).
There was only one Farmer who used the church regularly,
the Pit-Worker element was almost invisible in all churches
including the parish church (except for using the building

148
for weddings and funerals (see pie & bar charts giving
details of marriages in the parish church by socio-
economic status and geographical location), and
Commuters by the very nature of their lifestyle, being
absent from the settlement most of the time would be
difficult to enlist. We agreed to combine strategies from
both Administrative Goals to be subsumed under the
single public meeting, identifying three individuals who
would see themselves as representatives of their culture
and be able to speak with authority. The Candidate
agreed to seek advice about whom to approach and then
to visit members of the groups until he had enlisted the
three and persuaded them to speak for fifteen minutes
each at the meeting. He agreed to do this before
arranging the time and date of the event.
There were Four Administrative Goals under Change Goal
Two, the object of which was to sensitise the congregation
in preparation for a new role having heard the content of
the public meeting addresses. The Team believed that not
all the congregation, if any, would be present at the public
meeting and so we agreed to feed in to the meeting itself,
having previously canvassed the views of the
congregation, to produce a study-course to look at
Barriers, to provide a forum to reflect on the public
meeting material and to arrange a celebratory event to

149
affirm barriers. All of this was in order to disseminate the
content of what was said at the public meeting. Further
input to the meeting would be sought by personal contact,
anonymous input, a questionnaire and a tick-list in the
local library. The Study Course in Administrative Goal Two
would take-up feed from the public meeting and the
subsequent discussion. It was hoped that a formal and/or
ongoing debate between vicar and people would result.
Administrative Goal Three would be addressed by
reflection by the Project Group who would feed back into
the project, and Administrative Goal Four would be
pursued through a process of consultation through an
identified consultant in a safe environment for
confrontation and dealing with prejudices.
Contemporaneous notes would be kept which would
provide a basis of material that the church could work with
in formulating its new role.

Marriages in the Parish Church: 1975 – 1992

All parties living in the parish

72.8% Top and Bottom estates.

27.2% All other parts of the parish.
150
 Marriages in the Parish Church: 1975 – 1992 A

45.6% Both parties resident in the parish

54.4% All other marriages in the parish church.

Marriages in the Parish Church: 1975 – 1992 B

33.2%. Both parties resident on top/bottom Estate

66.8% All other marriages in parish church

151
 Marriages in the Parish Church: 1975 – 1992 C

33.2%. Both parties resident in parish elsewhere

than top/bottom Estates
87.6% Both parties resident on top/bottom
estates

152
Note the high numbers of professional people who asked
for baptism for their children and the low numbers of pit
workers and labourers who asked for Marriage.

153
This indicates that whereas marriage is a key event in the
lives of pit workers and labourers, it is less so in
professional families, but that on the other hand the pit
workers and labourers do not count baptism for their
children as such a key event, professional families do.
These charts relate to the cultural significance of marriage
or baptism as the most key ecclesiastical event in the life
of the family. Why is marriage the key event for
professionals? May it be that marriage is seen as the
beginning of something by pit workers and labourers, and
that marriage is not so much the starting point for
professionals, whereas the birth of a child into the family
is, for them such a beginning?

154
Composition of Church Membership January 1993

155
156
Community Temple monuments

157
 Chapter Four

Temple and
Section One

Temple and Settlement

We have a cosmopolitan community of sectarian groups,

one village thrown together by various circumstances but
with specific, separate and clearly-defined social mores,
each having its own agenda and rules of procedure,
relating to other groups only incidentally or in cases of
absolute necessity.
The insights of R. Frankenberg8 are useful here,
particularly in his category of communities as
cosmopolitan or local. Calverton is like his ‘Banbury’. (I
substitute ‘Calverton’ for Banbury in the following): -
Calverton peoples’ lives are,
“On the one hand Calverton-centred. On the other they
also look for reference-groups and foci of interest
elsewhere” and,
8
Ronald Frankenberg. Communities In Britain. Pelican, p.154ff

158
“ The social life of anyone in the community may
approximate to one or other of these or lie between them.
Like most towns in Britain, Calverton is the meeting-point
of more than two cultures – local and national and that,
“ This distinction cuts across that of in-mover and
Calvertonian.”
He concludes: -
“Insofar as Calverton has in the past and continues to
generate its own style of life it is a community. Insofar as
it provides merely a residence for those whose interests
are derived from other systems, it is not.”
But there are also those, and they are a significant number
in Calverton, whose work-life is firmly in one system and
whose social and home life is largely in another. That is, in
Calverton. One-third of the total population commute out
of the settlement to work every weekday. There is, in
other words a functional division in the life of a significant
number of Calverton’s people. This is not recognised in
Frankenberg’s analysis and subsequent application of the
term, ‘community’ to Banbury because this phenomenon
was not the case in Banbury.
Also in Calverton there is a category whom Watson
9
describes as ‘Blocked Spirallists’ who have reached the
limit of social and geographical mobility they are likely to
9
Watson.W. ‘Social Mobility and Social Class in Industrial Communities.’ In ‘closed Systems and Open
Minds’. Oliver & Boyd. Edinburgh. 1964.

159
attain and who hence find themselves deposited in a
certain place. It is from this category that many formal
leaders, Watson and Frankenberg agree are selected. This
is also the case in Calverton.
But there are significant exceptions. ‘Blocked spirallist’
leadership is not the case exclusively, either in or outside
the church. There is a large minority of leaders who fall
into three particular categories. First, there are a number
of females who, having raised their children to
comprehensive school age and whose husbands are
‘blocked spirallists’ are moving on in their own further
education. Second,, females who are estranged or
divorced from their husbands and are now receiving higher
education with specific career goals in mind, and third,
with the modern penchant among employers to engage
workers in fixed-term contracts, some of these employees,
male and female, have also become local leaders and will
remain so until the expiry of their work contracts and they
leave the settlement.
Ronald Frankenberg10 opts for Merton’s terms, ‘local’ for
Calverton-centered individuals, institutions and groups,
and ‘cosmopolitan’ for the rest. I do not choose the
description, ‘community’ for Calverton, but ‘settlement’.
This is because of a number of equally powerful and

10
Op cit p.154-173

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separate cultural factors including that Calverton has such
a strong historical base, resulting in a contemporary
culture which reflects this in its institutions and social
organisation so powerfully that it is impossible to live here
for long without coming under the influence of its history.
And that this can also be said of the imported alternative
but now component Geordie culture. The complexity of
overlapping ties between them (required in M. Stacey’s
11
definition of ‘community’ ) argues against applying the
term ‘community’ to Calverton. Even in Frankenberg’s
definition of ‘community’, although there are common
economic interests which are complementary amongst the
people of Calverton they also have economic interests
which are conflictual, and idealised perceptions of the
settlement which also conflict, and although the
population may be said to work, pray and play together,
this only occurs to a limited extent. Second, I accept the
observations regarding blocked spirallists with the above
reservation. Third, whilst the terms ‘local’ and
‘cosmopolitan’ are useful, their use is limited in Calverton
because, I believe, for very few people is Calverton merely
a ‘place of residence’. It is, for a third of the daytime
population ‘merely a workplace’, but this is discussed
elsewhere.

11
op cit p. 154-173.

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A Parish Church Wrestling with Identity.
Whereas a black church or an underclass congregation in
an English Urban Priority Area may justifiably and
profitably perceive itself as in exile in Babylon or as being
on the move out of Egypt to a promised land, drawing
creative parallels from that situation to their own, this
cannot be the case for a church such as St.Wilfrid’s. We
have tried to do it, and it doesn’t work.

It does not work because St.Wilfrid’s church has

been here since Saxon times. The parish church in
Calverton is neither in Babylon nor on a journey
towards its own land. To many who live here,
Calverton is the Land of Promise.
This alternative imaginative identification results in
the congregation seeing their community as a
contemporary Jerusalem, and the parish church as
their present Temple.

The Temple thus becomes on the one hand the depository

or museum of the village’s history – a living museum
because it is the locus of the emblems, which divide and
define the cultures and histories, thus acting as a
palliative, disarming what might otherwise show itself in

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the settlement as a ‘tension’ - and on the other hand it is
the only place where ungoverned (that is, outside the
restraint of the group) experimentation is to be found.
That is, a place where the histories and cultures meet and
mix because whilst in the building their own histories and
cultures are placed secondary to the pre-eminent histories
and cultures of the parish church.
Disparate ‘Gentile’ groups come to this Jerusalem to hang
their memorials on the temple walls and affirm the
fundamentals of their lives. They draw power and comfort
from its presence.

If the parish church, then, is the Temple, how does it

reveal itself in its life and structures?
The ordinary secular population bring their banners and
memorials to festoon the walls of this holy place. Nor do
they need necessarily to be here themselves; it is enough
for most colliers to know that the National Union of
Mineworkers’ marching banner is on the south wall: for the
Scout and Guide Association that the Scout and Guide
Association Banner is on the South wall: enough for the
Longue Jumelles Twinning Association visitors and
members group to know that the Twinning Association
Plaque is embedded in its cement in the South wall – even
though the Association as a body has ot in the past eight

163
years worshipped as a body in the building. The list could
go on, and the same would be true of most memorials and
most blessings and most re-dedications. Thankful in the
provision of a regular and growing congregation, this could
not be said of all who come to make sacrifices, for some
who come to remember remain to become members.
This building is the natural place to identify as the Temple.
After all, this piece of land has been holy since before
records began to be made. This site and the building upon
it are consecrated not only by the bishops and appointed
legal officials, who do have their place in the scheme of
things, but by the historical process itself. Things may
change – cultures may invade or be blotted out; building
may be burned down or bulldozed into the ground, and
other might take their place. The Miners’ Welfare may be
here yesterday and gone today, and expensive housing
erected in its place, but the one thing that is most
resistant to change is boundaries, and still today, along
with the lines of field-scarring strip farming that can be
seen from the hill or the air, it is the boundary of this holy
place, from before records began.
What the Temple cannot do is move its people into tents –
tearing the heart out of the building in order to diffuse it
elsewhere. For an inalienable characteristic of its essential
being is that it is where it is.

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Members may feel, and some do, that the heart of this
place is the Memorial of Communion. Other members feel
that the heart os the public reading of Scripture or simply
the meeting together of a body of Christians. But in
village terms our role could not be more clear: we are to
sustain the function of this place; this place of peace
(communal health and wholeness in a soul sense); this
place into which even the gentiles come, from all of
Calverton’s classes, traditions, cultures and occupations.
We have to make a response, or a number of responses to
this situation. For example, we may flee from them – we
may reject these Gentile groups – or we may become a
‘light to the Gentiles’.
The result of a questionnaire asking,
‘What is the role of the vicar in Calverton?’
was overwhelmingly,
‘The vicar is the custodian of our heritage…’
… the curator of a museum which is the locus of a
tradition.
A result of the same questionnaire regarding the prospect
of the loss of the parish church was again overwhelmingly,
‘A feeling of devastation and rootlessness.’
The same questionnaire produced a strongly felt
conviction regarding the role of the vicar in the settlement
as,

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‘The leader of the village.’
The role of the vicar then is to sustain the Temple’s
function.
Insights into what form this can take are available from a
study of the role of the medieval parish church. The tower
- a place of refuge and warning. The bells - a call to
worship and a warning. The nave – a community centre.
The chancel – a city of refuge from the secular power and
the part of the building owned and maintained by the laity
and not the ecclesiastical authority – a symbol of
independence.
Occasionally the parish church fictions as a temple and
sometimes not. It constantly faces this dilemma.
It is a parable of its own ambiguity.
Contrast the exclusivist attitude of Nehemiah and Ezekiel
to the Gentiles with that of Isaiah, who sees the Servant of
the Lord as the light to the nations.

Calverton church has this same problem. It has alienated

the British legion because the Legion’s theology was not
reformed in one respect, namely that it wanted the vicar
to pray for the ‘rest’ of the souls of the dead. But this was
a reformed theological response to a Gentile ‘feeling’,
which was not mainly theological but socio-religious. The

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parish church has responded rejectionally - if they are not
for us, they are against us.
Contrast this with the way the parish church has welcomed
the Preservation Society with its stained glass window and
socio-religion; its uncritical affirmation of industrialisation
and the genius of human invention. These have been
affirmed, but upon what terms? On the terms that the
Society are a friendly bunch who don’t overtly work
against the interests of the parish church. We have
responded with acceptance on the terms that, if they are
not against us, they are for us.
With regard to its ambiguity, sometimes the temple is
exclusive, other times inclusive. But in every case,
because it is the parish church with the cure of souls in the
whole parish – the boundaries again – it is central to the
life of the whole community.
Until now the parish church has functioned as a temple in
these kinds of ways but been unconscious of how or why.
It had not stressed the socio-theological nature of its role
as a rural parish church. This was why the Site Team felt
that the congregation – including themselves – needed,
‘Sensitising to the different spiritual traditions and
resources within its life, and to recognise both
positive and negative aspects of these differences.”
(Change Goal One).

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This has a great deal to say regarding the place of the Old
Calvertonians, for the ancestors of these were those who
helped set some of the boundaries and their descendants
are those who maintained the temple and its institutions
and employed the priests. They set the agenda for the
worship and formulated the decision-making processes
since before memory up until very recently, when newly
centralised ecclesiastical laws and a new vicar altered the
committee structures.
The idea of ‘change’ is never very far from the idea of
‘threat’. This is especially the case regarding long
established groups. One immediate response is to flee
from change. Honour is due to the Old Calvertonians as
the matriarchs and patriarchs. But was not change also
needed from them insofar as they had missed the coming
of the Messiah in the way the temple was organised? In
other words, a willingness to re-shape and renew in order
to include the gentile groups – the incomers, the
commuters, the secular, in a new dispensation of grace in
which Gentiles are included in the saving plan of God and
in which the new commandment of universal love is
propagated by the Messiah in summing-up the law of the
old dispensation? There may be a desire to flee from this,
and it may be said in reply to this that the temple was
already organised to facilitate the dispensation of grace. It

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has a communion table surrounded by a fence to form a
sanctuary to keep God at a distance, a lecturn containing
the Old and New Testaments placed in a high position, a
pulpit, raised six feet from the floor from which the Gospel
of grace may be expounded, and a baptismal font,
significantly imposing at the entrance to the building.
But is,
‘Bringing together into dialogue three
representatives of the three major spiritual
energies at St. Wilfrid’s Church to investigate what
role(s) they want the parish church to fulfil.’
(C.G.1, Admin Goal 1)…
… we discovered that the reading of Scripture and so forth
were not the main issues that concerned people with
regard to their reasons for using or not using the building.
Though these were respected as having meaning in
signifying what some people believed, they had little
impact on daily living.
Many peoples’ urgent reasons for coming to church were
centered not on wanting to hear the Bible expounded or
on a felt need to make a public profession of their
Christian faith in the promises of the Baptism liturgy, but
on making an offering.
This was done in three ways: -
First, by making a gift to God.

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This took the form of a straight transaction of thanksgiving
or memorial to be made within the building. The might be
a gift of money, a newly born child, a plaque, a banner,
plate or vessel.
Second, wanting to enter into communion with God.
This took the form of expressing a preparedness to submit
to God’s demands and to formulate an intention to alter
their ways, or ask for a transformation, again, within the
building.
Third, as wanting to release life.
This took the form of a humble petition for life to be
released into themselves or into their favoured individuals
or communities or projects. This latter was achieved
through saying prayers, again within the walls of the
building. These things done at home were not the same
as them being done in the parish church.

In these cases the building itself was being perceived as

having a temple function – the location where God is to be
found, the ‘House of God’, as having itself a priestly
function. Interestingly, although all this activity must take
place within the building, it was not always thought
necessary to visit regularly. What was of key importance
was that the building was there, not that one should
always be within its walls or even often within its confined.

170
It was sufficient, in other words, to be a resident of
Jerusalem – the land of promise – to be within the claimed
and gifted area of historical tradition and clerical mandate
for the cure of souls.
We have to look to the book of revelation and the vision of
the difficult and reflective spirit of John to find a New
Jerusalem is which there is no temple! (Rev.22: 21).
Some feel that it is quite novel to find, in a document that
follows the traditional images and leitmotifs so closely, the
idea of a Jerusalem with no temple. It has been taken to
mean that in John’s thought the whole city of the temple.
But that is not what John says. He says that God and the
Lamb is the temple. In a progression of stages leading to
a dénouement, he says first that the temple in heaven is
opened and laid bare for human eyes to see (11: 19), and
then he says (21: 3) that the divine dwelling may be none
other than God Himself.
Finally he states that the temple is none other than God
and the Lamb. One after another the barriers and
boundaries separating God from humanity are removed
until there is nothing remaining to hide God from His
people. ‘His servants shall see His face’ (22: 3. cf
Isaiah 25: 6ff). Thus John projects Paul’s earthly temple
into the heavenly realm, and it is a process of overcoming

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or breaking down barriers.12 It seems to me most unlikely
that a people with no Biblical learning and little instruction
in the Judeo-Christian tradition could arrive at a vision of a
temple-free Jerusalem such as that of John without a
means or a route other than Old and New testaments and
Christian tradition. This is precisely what they have not
done. What they have done is arrive at a transitional
understanding of their parish church simply through being
members of the local community. But the church (temple)
remains in their thinking the place where God is to be
found and with the need for a temple staff (priests). They
are not capable of achieving Ezekiel’s vision,13 but need a
place, a system, and a priest/mediator.

In the Second Administrative Goal we had determined to

formulate a shape for addressing the requirements of the
three major spiritual groups with regard to the parish
church (C.G.1, Admin G 2). The formulation we arrived at
was a Public Meeting in a culturally neutral place to which
all would be invited. The subject would be an historical
12
J.R.Mackelvy. Bible Dictionary. IVP p.1522-1532
13
Walther Eichrodt. ‘Ezekiel’. SCM1970 p.563.
Ezekiel 44: 4-31 ‘To Ezekiel, the temple which he is shown is a miraculous creation of Yahweh’s, done
without the cooperation of human hand, and thus a manifestation of a new aeon. It is quite out of the
question for the old features of Solomon’s temple to be transferred to it. The picture shown to him earlier in
Chs 34-37 presented a people inwardly and outwardly transformed. For them, the ideas of reverently
keeping their distance under external restraint from a holy God now dwelling among them no longer apply,
since the God of their salvation has become a reality to them through a fellowship no longer disturbed by
any guilt… (but) only a retrogression from this to a cultic community can render intelligible the juridical
system presented in the passages which follow… Instead of the sight of the divine miracle which is still
continuing in Chs.40-43, the temple vision becomes the means of re-instituting a constitution in which the
priestly ideals of purity and holiness are reflected in every detail.’

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presentation. One of the things that was of interest from
this event was precisely this conflict. Namely, that
although there was a parish church one did not need to
attend it, for God could be found in a garden and prayers
could be said in a bathroom. Yet there was a deep
conviction that one did need to attend the church regularly
because it was ‘the house of God’ even though the exact
nature of God’s presence was not determined in a similar
way that the exact nature of God’s presence in the temple
was shrouded by the veil. That the parish church, in other
words, was felt intuitively to be a transition or staging-post
between the New Jerusalem where there was no temple
and earth where the parish church was the temple.
It was at this same public meeting (as agreed in Admin
Goal 2, Strategy 1 of Change Goal 2,) that the multi-
faceted nature of the parish was first addressed with the
aim of sensitising the congregation to the social mix of its
parochial constituency and that this process be started by
inviting a Farmer / Old Calvertonian, a Commuter, and a
Pit Worker to address the meeting for fifteen minutes each
on ‘The Role of the Parish Church’, followed by questions
from the floor.
The issue of ‘barriers’ and ‘bridges’ was never far from the
surface in these three addresses, although neither the
speakers not questioners made a connection between

173
barriers/bridges and the barriers and bridges clearly
defined in the physical layout of Solomon’s Temple,
designed to facilitate a safe approach to Almighty God.
This was an understanding that was to come much later.
Barriers are not merely negative. They also have a
positive function. The very design of Solomon’s Temple is
aimed at achieving the effective erection of barriers
between women and men, Jews and Gentiles, priest and
people, the people and God, and even between the High
Priest and God. There are many reasons for the barriers to
be in place, some religious and others socio-political. Their
ideal achievement is to provide an earthly place in which
the people can worship God safely and credibly. Nor are
bridges only positive constructions. They may carry
destructive as well as constructive traffic. As bridges into
the presence of God the High Priests were also ultimately
only fallible human beings, as the ministry of Jesus clearly
demonstrated to His contemporaries.
We wanted to challenge the popular idea that the church
ought not to be involved in politics. The temple was
always a political as well as a religious centre. Solomon’s
Temple was not only an expression of a monotheistic faith.
It was a way of consolidating a nation in the wake of
David’s military conquests, for is not war politics by
another means? It was a means of providing a national

174
focus of loyalty and commitment as well as a means of
glorifying God. Herod’s Temple was weighted towards a
political motivation, attempting to reconcile the Jews
(19BC) to their Idumaean king. Can it not be said that
although when cleansing the temple Jesus did not hope to
reform it politically, nevertheless the fact that He was
rejecting it as a place of importance in His post-
resurrection ministry meant that He was laying down a
foundation for a rejection of the temple and its politics as
well as that He was expressing respect for it as the House
of God? His rejection and death more-or-less coincided
with the destruction of the temple in 70AD. Indeed, it was
this very prophecy that led directly to His death.
Ironically, it is said that he was not involving Himself in
politics! In other words, if a prominent religious leader
declared Westminster redundant in the life of the
established church and many people followed, it would
have political implications that would be in direct
proportion to the number of people he or she took with
them.
The ramifications of tjhis were probably not clear to the
infant church, except perhaps to the Essene Covenanters,
and in Acts we find the Apostles continuing to worship in
the temple of Jerusalem (which says much for the temple’s
cultural flexibility). The first martyr, Stephen was killed

175
because his speech was a tangential attack on the temple,
that belief in Jesus meant the abrogation of the order
symbolised by the Jerusalem Temple (Acts 6: 11ff). It is
not clear whether Stephen’s defence, which was seen as
an attack on the temple, foresaw the new temple made
without hands. It is clear in the Qumran texts that the
Covenanters of Qumran did have a concept of a spiritual
temple, from which it may not be too fanciful to say that
the writers of the Epistles may have gained some clues.
All of this no doubt provides danger signs to any
contemporary clergy wishing to pull their parish church
down and set up house groups in its place. Indeed, very
few do, and those who do, do so out of necessity. The
building is where the parish clergy are found with, and that
is what they must manage if and until the predictions of
the Historic Churches Trust (that when Parish Church
Councils have to find the stipend of their own vicar they
will, almost without exception have virtually no money to
maintain their church buildings) come true.14
Sometimes, as in Calverton the parish church is the local
temple in the earthly land of promise, with all its
psychological, sociological and anthropological elements.
This cannot really be escaped from. This may seem a

14
Capt. Roger Hepinstall. Secretary HCPT, ‘Letter to Supporters’. 1993. The average repair bill faced by a
parish in 1993 was £55,517, and the average deficit was £16,006. The average grant made by the Trust
was £2,674, leaving a shortfall of £13,332. The stipend of a full-time vicar in 1993 is £13.000 p.a.

176
barrier to some forms of ministry, but there is no reason
why it should not provide an opportunity in contemporary
society, as the temple in Jerusalem did in its day, for the
divine worship of God, whether or not other aspects of the
church’s mission find themselves based elsewhere than in
the parish church, and whether or not much of what takes
place in the temple is of necessity far removed from
worshipping God.
As I have already flagged-up, the motives underlying the
desire to make a sacrifice are complex, but three are
easily discernable although it is not always easy to decide
which is uppermost in the mind of the worshipper.
Sacrifices are made either publicly on behalf of the
community or privately on behalf of the individual. The
three main motivations as I have said are first, as a gift to
God, second as a means of entering into communion with
God and thirdly as a means of releasing life, whether for
the benefit of God Himself, or of the worshipper. In the
case of the third motive, it must be remembered that in
the Old Testament sacrifice was never made of a dead
animal, but to release the potent life of a living creature.
This ‘life’ was concieved to be resident in the blood, which
was dashed against the altar (Lev.1: 5. 17: 11. see also
Exodus 12: 7).

177
It is a short leap to make the parallel between then and
now. Although living animals are no longer offered in the
(church) temple, what is offered is objects or declarations
of confession or plea, which carry more significance than
merely their face value. They inevitably carry meaning
with them, and it is this meaning, which is offered at the
altar. In other words, the ‘life’.
This has theological ramifications regarding our
sacramental understanding. Reformed theology
instinctively reacts against any intrusion of actual sacrifice
at the Eucharist. It would appear from this that there is an
equally strong reaction against it in the secular religion,
untutored in the hair-splitting metaphysics of mainstream
sacramental theology. In other words, the settlement
arrives at the same understanding of sacrifice as the
reformed theology of the parish church but by a different,
secular route. But this understanding is equally a
‘mystery’ as is the nature of the consecration of the
elements. It also arrives at the same understanding (or
intuition) as for example Daniel (6: 10), who prays towards
Jerusalem where the temple is, in the same way that the
people of Calverton see the parish church as the centre of
the settlement.15

15
Norman Porteous. ‘Old Testament Library’ SCM. P.90.

178
One may look to anthropologists to explain why all of this
is the case, and in the current climate this means looking
to the insights of Cultural Materialism as expounded by
such as Marvin Harris. He has criticised Mary Douglas’s
structural-symbolic ‘idealised’ account16 of why the pig
was prohibited in Israel, for example, saying that it was not
because unlike other cloven-hooved animals the pig alone
did not eat grass and therefore did not fit into an idealised
structural universe, but simply because the pig ate grain,
which was not easy to grow in ancient Israel, and this
made it a competitor with humans for a scarce resource.
On this understanding, why is it that the people of
Calverton revere the parish church as a temple (a place of
sacrifice)? I can only guess, but it may be that in a society
in which few are secure and many feel themselves to be at
the mercy of whimsical political, economic and moral
forces there is a felt need for appeasement of, or
atonement with these forces, which transcends the
physical powers. It is a society in which to get
employment is to deprive someone else of employment, or
to grin a grant for some good work in one community is to
deprive another community, or to eat a meal is to d so in
the face of the starvation of millions. A response, in other
words for moral and spiritual as well as physical survival.
16
Mary Douglas ‘Purity and Danger’. 1967. Discussed in the Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation.
Ed.Coggin & Houlden. P.26-7. SCM.

179
On the other hand, the idealised account of Douglas, in
which the pig simply doesn’t fit the categories and is
therefore rejected may more easily sit with a community
whose need for a temple is an expression of its felt
schizoid situation. Here we have a psychological and not
an economic analysis.
In considering the two examples given above, the latter
seems to parallel with the reality as I experience it in the
streets of this Jerusalem. This is not to reject the insights
of Cultural Materialism, since the recent closure of
Calverton Colliery in a settlement with little other industry
does increase the likelihood of competition for scarce
resources.

The Temple and Social Conflict.

It was clear fro the Statement Of The Problem worked out
by the Site team that St. Wilfrid’s Church was aware of a
disparity between its current role and a sought-for more
appropriate role in its contemporary situation.
There was a need for change which would reflect the
changing face of the host community, There was, in other
words, a social conflict between how it saw itself currently
and how it might see itself in a different role.

180
In his study of social conflict, Lewis Coser17 observed the
following: -
One of the first meetings (1907) of the newly organised
American Sociological Society had social conflict as its
main topic of discussion. The central paper was read by
the Social Darwinist Thomas N Carver. He said,
“ There may be many cases where there is complete
harmony of interests, but these give rise to no
problems and therefore we do not need to concern
ourselves with them.”
Carver felt that only where disharmony and antagonism
prevailed could one speak at all of a moral and of a
scientific problem.
It is significant that in the discussion which followed in
which most leading sociologists of the time – Giddings,
Ross, ward, Hayes, among others – participated, almost
no-one questioned the importance Carver had assigned to
the study of social conflict. The only objections concerned
his rigid economic interpretation.
At the twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the American
Sociological Society in 1930, Social Conflict was again the
main topic of discussion. By then, Howard W. Odum
stated in his presidential address, quoting another
sociologist,

17
Lewis Coser. ‘The Functions of Social Conflict’ Macmillan 1964. Preface.

181
 “ Social conflict is sociologically an unexplored field…
the sociology of conflict has yet to be written.”
However, the proceedings that followed did little to fill the
gap, and the proceedings gave the impression that the
members of the Society no longer considered the study of
social conflict a central concern.
Coser goes on to show that the study of social conflict
continued to be similarly disregarded in his own
generation. In an attempt to encourage further study of
the subject he produced his book with a specific concern
to encourage research into the positive aspects of conflict.
He offered the working definition: -
“ Social conflict… is a struggle over values and
claims to scarce status, power and resources in
which the aims of the opponents are to neutralise,
injure, or eliminate their rivals.”
His chapter heads and sub-heads are a library of
propositions, which throw light on the further study of the
subject, and these are particularly interesting in respect of
our investigation of St. Wilfrid’s Parish Church as the
temple, i.e. in its role as a focus/manager of conflict.
It was clear in the Statement Of The Problem worked out
by the Site Team that St. Wilfrid’s Church was aware of a
disparity between its current role and a sought-for more
appropriate role in its contemporary situation. It was also

182
aware of a need for change in line with the changing face
of the host community. There was in other words a
tension between how it perceives itself now and how it
might see itself in a different role. If the church as temple
provides a new perception of the centrality of the parish
church, in what temple-consistent ways are tensions
manageable now and in the future? It seemed to us that
the first step must be Change Goal One,
“ Sensitising the congregation to the different
spiritual traditions within its life, and recognising
positive and negative aspects of these differences.”
The Biblical material abounds in examples of the
management of social conflict and cooing with different
spiritual resources and traditions by the use of a central
locus mechanism18 - from its beginnings around the
sanctuaries, sacred waters, trees and heights, then around
the ‘high places’. These were largely resolved in the
temple. Although its archaic language abounds in angels,
visitations of divine beings and theophanies, it also speaks
of covenants made and broken, judgements being passed
down and separations being established; of adultery, theft,
manslaughter and perjury; it speaks of purity and
refinement and the processes of refinement, of justice to
the workers, support to the estranged female and

18
Op cit footnote 6 above.

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destitute stranger, release of the slave and compassionate
service to the alien.
All of these were issues whose management was
addressed in the temple then and were needing to be
addressed in Calverton parish church now.

Resolution Of Social Conflict By The Temple.

Ethnic Conflict.
Solomon hired foreigners in the provision of goods for the
building. He entered into a contract with Hiram, King of
Tyre, for the timbers to be brought from Lebanon (I. Kings
5: 15-28), and although the labourers were Israelites (I.
Kings 5: 20), the skilled workmen were Phoenician (I. Kings
5: 20, 32). Hiram, who cast the two pillars and the other
bronzes in the Jordan Valley, was also a Phoenician
although his mother was an Israelite (I. Kings 7: 13-47).

Architectural Conflict.
The inner part of the temple was divided into two sections,
the Hekal and the Debir, the Debir standing higher than
the Hekal. This reflected the usage of the Egyptian
temples, whose design was the same. Again, the two
bronze pillars standing before the vestibule were not
supports for the vestibule lintel; on the contrary, they

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stood in front of it, on each side of the entrance. It is
thought that they were traditional steeles of Masseboth,
which had always had their place in the old Canaanite
sanctuaries. There is no lack of Phoenician analogies and
one may compare also the two pillars of Heoliopolis
mentioned by Herodotus ii 44, and the two pillars which
decorate a relief from the neighbourhood of Tyre; for a
period nearer to that of Solomon’s Temple, one can point
to a model, in baked clay, of a sanctuary (from Idalion in
Cyprus), and to two others recently discovered in
Transjordan and at Tell el-Farah near Nablus. The
threefold division into Ulam, Hekal and Debir, found in
Solomon’s Temple is very common.19

Political / State Conflict.

The positioning of the temple walls were in common with
other Semitic sanctuaries. The temple stood in the middle
of a courtyard called the Inner Court (I. Kings 6: 36), by
contrast with the Great Court (I. Kings 7: 12), the northern
wall of which was common to the inner court of the
temple. One passed straight from the King’s domain into
the domain of God, and this close proximity, which in one
set of circumstances expressed the special relationship

19
R.DeVaux. ‘Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions’ Ch.3. DLT, 1973.

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between the King dna Yahweh, which was good, in another
situation around the indignation of Ezekiel, for example: -
“ The house of Israel, they and their kings, shall no
longer defile my sanctuary by building a wall
common to them and to me, says the Lord.” Ezek.
43: 7-8.
Like the parish church, Solomon’s temple provided the
location into which these traditions and resources could be
brought into conflict and dealt with, reflected upon and
added to the canon of received practice. Indeed, this was
the vision of David whose desire to house the Ark in his
Capital (II Sam. 7: 1-7) was eventually given realisation by
his son Solomon. David was a military leader whose
profession was dealing with the conflicts of was and it is
reasonable to say that he had seen the importance of
establishing a religious centre of Israel which would deal
equally well with the internal conflicts of a settled nation,
although according to the Chronicler David did not build
the temple because he was a man of war and had shed
blood, whereas his son was predestined for this task by his
name, which means ‘peaceful king’ (I Chron. 22: 8-10 &
28: 3). He was however responsible for the plan of the
temple and the inventory of furnishings; he collected the
materials for the building and the gold ingots for the
sacred objects; he assembled teams of workmen, and

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fixed the classes and functions of the clergy (I Chron. 22:
8). David first thought of building a temple although it was
Solomon who actually built it.
It is impossible to make a reconstruction of the temple.
Despite there being a contemporary description I Kings 6-
7) of which 2 Chronicles 4-4 is a summary, it is very hard
to interpret. This may be evidence that the texts
themselves witness to the small theological importance
placed upon the overall architecture, or it may simply
reflect the fact that the editor had the interests of an
historian and not an architect or archaeologist in mind,
and has omitted details that would be of any use for the
temple’s reconstruction. The text is full of technical terms,
and has been disfigured by scribes who understood it no
better that we do, and it has been loaded with glosses
meant to enhance the splendour of the building. But this
is inevitably what occurs when stories are retold. But with
what we have been given, it is easy to detect these points
of conflict and to perceive an underlying process of conflict
management by temple staff, and sometimes sparked off
by prophets.

The Temple in the ‘Plan of God’

The Chronicler presents David as the great founder of the
temple and its worship (I Chron. 22 – 29). While Solomon

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builds it, David passes on the plan and encourages all the
people to make contributions (I Chron. 28: 11. 29: 1-9).
This is strongly reminiscent of the Priestly writer’s account
of Moses’s part in the construction of the tabernacle.
Moses also received a plan from God (Ex. 25: 9), and
encouraged the people to offer gifts for its building (Ex.
36: 3).
The Chronicler appears to be suggesting that David was a
‘second Moses’, and that the temple era which he
inaugurated was like a new exodus stage in God’s dealings
with His people, much as the author of Isaiah 50-55 saw
the return from exile as a second exodus eclipsing the first
in splendour (e.g. Isaiah 43: 16-21).
What I am saying is, that this suggests that the parish
church as the ‘temple’ in Calverton also represents an
ongoing purpose of God for his people, and the
contemporary era is one of the ‘New temple’ eclipsing the
first in the efficacy of its sacrifice. It is the result of a
‘plan’ from God and of the contributions of all the people.
Other parallels can be drawn. For an example an accurate
reconstruction of St. Wilfrid’s Church through the years is
impossible, although approximations have been
constructed (in model form), as it is with the temple.
Although there has been a Christian site where the present
building stands since 665 AD, it is not known how many

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churches have stood here or in what form they were
constructed.20 It is clear that both church and temple were
there for worship and that they were essential to that
activity.
The building both signified and facilitated something. It
signified the worship of God and facilitated the
management of social conflict – both of which are inner
and intra-conflictual processes, in which the concept of
barriers is fundamental.
What happens when the working definition of social
conflict given by Coser is applied to the temple in
Jerusalem?
… “A struggle over values and claims to scarce
resources, power and status in which the aims of the
opponents are to neutralise, injure or eliminate their
rivals.”
… and how does that then work through into a
contemporary rural parish church in Calverton?
There is an ontological barrier between Yahweh and Israel.
This is an ideally creative conflict. When it become
divisive is when Israel seeks to change the ontological
power-relationship. In order for that not to happen,
Yahweh produced two alternative group-binding
mechanisms – theophanies and the prophets. Often Israel

20
See Plate: St.Wilfrid’s Church Construction. Revd. Thomas o. Hoyle

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forgets and prophets are attacked. Nevertheless Yahweh’s
historical project for Israel is fulfilled. In a creatively
functioning relationship the conflict is group-binding,
group-preserving, and productive. Safety valve
institutions such as the temple are created. It is not
surprising that Israel and their God were so often in
conflict since, according to Coser, the closer the
relationship the more intense the conflict. But the mere
fact that the relationship spans so many years and
generations is a testimony to its internal cohesion. Wars
with neighbours served to increase that cohesion, and
confirm Israel’s self image as a special and distinct people,
and the internal conflict with other groups within Israel
served to define the structures of the groups and to
provide greater understanding of how to manage internal
conflict. The anointing of David as king was the result of
such a group conflict, and his reign was an example of
consequent conflict management.
The temple, as I have said was David’s attempt to provide
for the continuing cohesion of the nation after his death –
an instrument that would not depend – as his own
administration had, upon the vagaries of charismatic
leadership.

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Implicit in this administrative structure, and this lay behind
the objection to kingship in Israel, was the need for scribes
and administrators in place of theophanies and prophets.

The Temple as Incarnation

I am now wanting to say that formulating structures for
the church to fulfil its temple role is of equal historical
importance as one-to-one pastoral work. In other words,
grasping the fact that jesus is ‘God and Lord of all’ is of
prior pastoral and theological importance that any
subsequent exercise of faith (which is the moment in
which we recognise that we are already God’s children and
respond with gratitude and joy), or than any subsequent
baptism (which is the sacramental act in which, on behalf
of particular individuals, the church celebrates and
acknowledges a prior adoption by God, and incorporates
them into the community of faith). It is important to say
this strongly because administration is not usually seen by
clergy or laity as being a ‘spiritual’ task or ‘remarkable
gift’.
It is a Cinderella job, which has been a burden rather than
a joy to generations of clergy. It is also important to be
able to present the case for the perception of the church
building and what it signifies and facilitates as a Sign that

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God’s Kingdom is being sought in the life of this
settlement, since this is how it is perceived locally.
The key to this perception may lie in the incarnation.
More specifically: -
First,
By entering the human race in Jesus of Nazareth, God
became kith and kin to every human soul, past present
and future. The incarnation means that every human
being is from the first moment of his or her existence a
child of God and brother or sister of His Son. Is this one
explanation of why St. Wilfrid’s church is full to overflowing
at Christmas? Because many people sense this
relationship they bear to God’s Son although do not (yet?)
understand why. One can minimise this and call it
sentimentality or assign it a profound social and
theological significance.
Second,
The incarnation shows that if even God can hide His
essential self in human form, then this implies that human
moral character, goodness and spirituality is capable of
vast possibilities. But are these not confined only to those
who have exercised Christian faith? This also implies that if
God was truly Himself within the limitations of human
personality then the heart of what communicates to
human beings about God is not such things as immortality,

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omnipotence and omnipresence or cosmic power. It must
be something that human beings can share; and that has
to be love; the love which surrenders self, and accepts
limitation and suffering for the good of others. This shifts
the interpretation of ‘do-gooding’ into an entirely different
realm, and points the way to an as yet uncharted
‘Theology of Goodness’.
Third,
The particular historical circumstances of the Incarnation
show that God’s concern is not with some limited realm of
anthropology called ‘Religion’, but with the whole life of
the world. “ God was in Christ reconciling the world…”
That was why God prepared a nation that had nothing
corresponding to a church – that is, a saved community
separated from the nation, i.e., by ‘faith’. Israel believed
that God’s law was for every aspect of human living and
that community sprang from living all life in covenant with
Him. It is interesting to reflect upon the City of St. John’s
revelation in which there is no temple or church but only a
life lived in covenant with God.

SECTION TWO
Managing The Temple

193
Whilst it was all very well to say that with regard to the
church-as-temple from an anthropological perspective
there were issues of power that could be resolved by
informed management, this could not be the whole story
when considering issues of power from an eschatological
or ecclesiological perspective. For one thing, the church is
composed of volunteers; they have no job description
except what they intimately take on board from their
private conversations with God, and even then they do not
necessarily understand or, if they do, obey. They are not
salaried and so questions of ecclesiastical discipline and
are quite different issues than they would be in a
professional management structure in a secular
organisation.
The same has to be said of the temple as the building. It
relies on voluntary contributions. All of this is good,
because it demonstrates that the power and presence of
God, whether it be expressed in the building or the people,
is not ultimately manageable. This was a lesson taught as
far back as Ezekiel who combated the idea that the
presence of God could be experienced only in the temple
by recounting his experience of the glory of God in
Babylon(!). God had removed with His people.
This is of contemporary relevance, because a similar
controversy is taking place today with regard to home-

194
based worship movements. Whatever the particular
shades of belief regarding the presence of God however,
there was then and there is now a general agreement that
wherever God’s dwelling might be, He could be found on
earth and living among humanity. In terms of the
management of the temple we agreed ours was in the
style of ‘encouraging’. In Acts 17: 23-24 Paul is recorded
as having said to some of the people in Athens,
“ I see that in every way you Athenians are very
religious. For as I walked through your city and
looked at the places where you worship I found an
altar on which is written ‘To An Unknown God’. That
which you worship then, thought you do not know it,
is what I now proclaim to you. God, who made the
world and everything in it, is lord of heaven and
earth and does not live in man-made temples.”
R. Dale has defined this kind of management as
empathetic.21 Production is secondary to relating.
Member stress and congregational conflict will be
resolved. The evaluation bears this out.

The Priest as Scribe

It is true that in St. Wilfrid’s church, both as a parish
church and as part of a larger denomination largely

21
Robert D. Dale. ‘Pastoral Leadership’

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centrally driven, most of the local leaders and vicar’s time
is spent in what F.D.Bruner22 uncontroversially calls ‘Non-
remarkable Gifts’ such as administration, networking etc,
rather than in what he terms the ‘Remarkable Gifts’ which
Ecke23 summarises as ‘messages from God in the mother
tongue’ (prophecy) and ‘messages from God in foreign
tongue’ (glossolalia), these being seen by many as the
domain of the Pentecostals in Calverton.
Closer investigation by Brunner shows that what is in fact
occurring is only messages in Tongues and their
interpretation, as Gee24 notes in his complaint with regard
to Pentecostal churches generally. The arguments of such
as Brumkack and Gee that “The gifts may reverently be
called God’s method of divine advertising.”25 The same
argument can be made for the existence of the parish
church and for the existence of the temple! The only
difference being that the latter find their source within the
art, culture and reflective creative genius of human beings
rather than in some metaphysical realm which defies
precise definition. An attempt at a definition of what
Tongues achieves by Mr. Bob Andrews, a professional
manager and a member of St.Wilfrid’s congregation is
interesting, considering that what it does is to draw a
22
F.D.Bruner. ‘A Theology of the Holy Spirit’ p.139 Hodder 1970
23
K.Ecke. Der Derchbruch des Urchristentums infolge Luthers Reformation (quoted by F.D.Bruner.
‘Theology of the Holy Spirit’ p.139.
24
Donald Gee. ‘Spiritual Gifts in the Work of Ministry Today’.
25
Op cit p.13

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parallel between the function of the church as temple and
the exercise of Tongues: -
“ Speaking in tongues is a way of bridging the
communication gap between man and God.”
Precisely what the church-as-temple seeks to do.

Priest as Temple-based Community Worker

There are two forms of community work. Social Planning
and Community Action. These represent on the one hand
the agenda of the establishment of the church and on the
other the agenda of the users of the church (including the
community in which it is placed). These may be broadly
said to reflect the different interests of (1) the Temple
Staff and King, and (2) the aspirations of the various users
of the temple, or in other words the prophetic voice.
When the parish church abandons the pursuit of local
aspirations on a social planning philosophy there is no
base of strength from which the users can negotiate for
more than the purse-holders want to give, and control of
the process is lost. A diminution of power results, such as
is noted in the Statement Of The problem. The cry of
Ezekiel (43: 7 – 8 quoted above) may re-echo as a
contemporary plea for disestablishment.
A community worker priest as a representative of the
establishment is unlikely to be allowed to develop

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mechanisms which fundamentally change the distribution
of power or the structural – or even functional –
relationships between the policy-makers on the one hand
and the community they relate to on the other. So it is
with the vicar of a parish who does not find a way to sit
loose to the establishment function and release the
opportunity for prophecy.
If temple-users want to alter the distribution of resources
or structural relationships between fund holders
/policymakers and themselves, the role of the vicar who
acts in accordance with a Social Action philosophy will be
to support ad hoc groups, encouraging them to formulate
their own structures, hold their own purse and determine
their own aims and aspirations.
This will conflict with the needs of the diocese occasionally
and the establishment will need to be sufficiently confident
that local practice will lead in the long term to support of
both local and establishment aspirations. The priest-as-
temple-community-worker needs the confidence and trust
of the establishment in order to fulfil what is essentially a
prophetic role. The bridge with the establishment,
symbolised by the episcopal communion is part of the
structure of the Anglican Church. It is also enshrined in
law.26
26
G.H.Newsome, QC., ‘Faculty Jurisdiction Of The C of E’ 1988. The author is Chancellor of London, Bath
and Wells and St Albans dioceses. Consecration as a church or churchyard brings lands, buildings and

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 SECTION THREE
The Church As Temple Today

Whatever else it may be the church-as-temple is an

eschatological community and it needs to be addressed as
such.
Jesus lived in the First century and shared First Century
thinking. He lived as a member of an oppressed minority
nation and culture. It is not unreasonable to suppose that
he shared that culture’s frustrations and hopes. Certainly
it is less unreasonable than to suppose he shared the
frustrations and hopes of the 20th Century American
Dream. He proclaimed the coming of a kingdom to which
His own career was closely linked, and that its fulfilment
was imminent, and that it would come in power.

1. Facilitating Worship.
Today in our own local ε κ κ λ ε σ ι α , the focus of this
concept is ‘power’. And it lies in the human beings who
make up the the church in the context of their human and
heavenly society which compose the temple-as-the-
redeemed-people-of-God, the eschatological community,
the ε κ κ λ ε σ ι α .
chattels within the faculty jurisdiction of the consistory courts of one of the forty-three dioceses of England
and Wales.

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This ‘power’ is shared with God and exercised in the new
covenant community. Its source is acknowledged among
us as God’s Spirit and first among the contexts in which it
finds itself being refuelled is diving worship, although this
also occurs in the Study Groups and in Private Prayer and
Bible Study and occasionally whilst exercising some
pastoral gift in ministry. The effect of this power is
twofold: -
First, the gaining or refuelling of inner conviction or faith.
Second, the feeling of unity and the power of the
congregation as a group to change things.
It may be said, first that although it is impossible to know
how this transference of power occurs in divine service, it
does, and second that it occurs purposively; -
The results of the operation of this power are that
individuals understanding themselves to be temples of the
Holy Spirit experience within the,selves, as a process of
worship in the church, similar phenomena as the Old
Testament describes as occurring within the temple of
Solomon, and for the express spiritual purpose that the
temple was built…
The Shekinah of God: They say that they experience
God’s empowering presence in awe-inspiring glory and
that the purpose and result of this is to empower them for
the service of God in their daily lives. II Chronicles 7: 2.

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The Ark of the Covenant: They say that the Communion
vessels and their contents convey God’s empowering
presence in he New Covenant and that the purpose and
result of this is to assure them of God’s forgiveness. This
is inevitably an intimate and personal experience. II
Chronicles 5: 2-14, 6:10-11.
Fire From Heaven: They say that they experience an
empowering enthusiasm through the liturgy, hymns, Bible
readings, sermon etc, the purpose and achievement of
which is to elicit from them an equivalent and mutual
response. II Chron. 7: 1, 3.

The most common response to the question,

“ What is the purpose of divine worship in church?” was,
“ To build up the body of Christ.”27
This is significant because common to all six or seven
Biblical temples is the belief that the immanent presence
of the transcendent God was immediately available to
them in such a way as it was not available elsewhere. And
also that this availability was not exclusive of any class or
culture, race, gender or rank of person, but to all who
presented themselves within the locus of the building.
Taken alone this verges on idolatry, since it would
preclude the discovery of these phenomena in individuals
27
This is material gathered from worshippers during and immediately after divine worship in the parish
church during the course of this study.

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(for example the prophets) and especially in Jesus of
Nazareth. This may be something parish churches need to
learn, for there is a strong element in Anglican
congregations, and in the organisation of Anglican
structures, which covertly encourages people to see the
church building and what occurs within it as the only
source of spiritual empowerment and means of meeting
with God. The temple is the place where heaven and
earth meet. This same experience is witnessed to with
regard to the parish church. It is a fact that of the Biblical
temples only three were actual buildings with a physical
locus. The remaining three or four being in one expression
or another the redeemed people of God. All of the temples
serve the purpose of strengthening, building up the
worshippers.
The buildings, sited in Jerusalem, were Solomon’s Temple,
the Second temple (post-Exilic, 516BC), and Herod’s
temple ( the place where the post-resurrection Christian
believers in the Acts of the Apostles worshipped). The
other three or four are Ezekiel’s Envisioned Temple, Paul’s
Image of the Redeemed as a Temple, the writer to the
Hebrews’ Image of the Church Triumphant as the Temple
of which the earthly sanctuary is a shadow, copy or
pattern, and the book of Revelation’s Dual (co-existent)
Temple –one in heaven and one on earth, corresponding to

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the Churches Militant and Triumphant. The Temple in
heaven is not a temple insofar as God and the Lamb is the
temple, and the earthly temple is more specifically the
Sanctuary.
Common to them all, as I have said, is the belief that the
immediate presence of God is available in the temple(s) in
a way that is not possible elsewhere.
The temples which were buildings, including the
envisioned temple of Ezekiel (which was intended to be a
building), were architectural constructs of stone, wood,
and other materials. But the temples of Hebrews, Paul and
John are made of people who have hope placed in God.
This includes pre-Christian Semites especially of the
Intertestamental period, when the hope of the temple in
Jerusalem becoming the metropolis of the world faded
during the political exigencies of the time, and also as
early as Ezekiel.
The Temple Parallels.
a. The building of stone and
The human construct.
b. The function of the stone building, and
The function of the human construct.
This advanced understanding informing these concepts of
particular humanity forming a temple was drawn from
many sources, often conflicting culturally, theologically,

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sociologically and psychologically. The architectural
constructs had forms and patterns, which were in turn
informed by the interaction of Yahweh and His people
through the prophets and by contemporary non-Hebrew
conventions. Many of the ‘holy places’ had Canaanite
origins and Phoenician workers constructed much of
Solomon’s Temple on Egyptian and Canaanite patterns. It
might be said that Ezekiel’s vision was a reactionary one,
and that the non-material temples of the other Biblical
writers all proceeded from particular perceptions and
interpretations of God’s people in the pattern of God’s
purposes at particular times. In the same way, passing
fashion, price and availability of workers and materials and
local artistic and current theological and churchmanship
preferences inform Calverton’s temple. It also comes
under the same order of criticism from contemporary
commentators for having a juridical, regulatory priestly
system as do most of the Biblical temples28, and from
contemporary prophets29 for tending towards worship of
the building rather than towards encouraging a profound
interior attitude among worshippers.30

28
W. Eichrodt. Op cit.
29
G.Gutierrez. ‘A Theology of Liberation’. SCM p.191ff.
30
Op cit. “ To this effect, in proclaiming the New Covenant, Yahweh says, ‘I will take the heart of stone from
your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit into you and make you conform to my statute,
keep my laws and live by them’ (Ezekiel 36: 26-27. cf Jer, 1: 33). God will be present in the very heart of
every person. In this, the temple itself, with all its systems, is envisioned as becoming transformed into an
organic, interior, spiritual aspect of the human person’s being.

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Whilst it is useful and valid for a congregation of a parish
church to make these and other parallels between its
church building and its human components and the
Biblical temple constructs, based upon the experience and
belief of a particular presence of God, it is essential for
that congregation to make the parallels between itself and
the human constructs or images – the parish church
congregation as the temple of God – the presence of God
in the individual and the group.
Much of this has already been done by the New testament
writers, and the fruit of their work can be found in the
material itself in the commentaries upon their work. But
the ongoing work that needs to be done is in the daily
lives, witness and worship of the congregation itself.

The Church As Temple: A Live Issue

In December 1993, a long way into the course of the
Master of Ministry studies, a commentary on the Sunday
Readings from the A.S.B31 for the Anglican Holy
Communion service appeared in the Church Times.32 The
readings were Isaiah 60: 106 & Revelation 21: 22-22:5,
and Matthew 2:1-12 & 18-23.
The significance of this commentary is its intended
audience. Clergy and laypeople of the reformed Churches
31
Alternative Services Book 1980 Christmas 2
32
Joy Tetley. Church Times. December 31st 1993

205
in the British Isles and others. It is centred on a concept of
the Temple as the empowering presence of God. It speaks
of a sovereign power, a renewed Jerusalem, the focus of
God’s presence, the drawing-in of the nations, the
excitement of worship, the dispelling of darkness,
freedom, security and access, all leading up to a
dénouement of a God who dwells with us – the immanence
of the transcendent God.
These are many of the issues this study has addressed,
and to find them published for a general and ordinary
readership audience in the ordinary course of the
lectionary has been quite exciting. It demonstrates that
reflection upon the local congregation as the temple of
God in a spiritual sense is a live issue among the church
leadership today, and also that the nub of the issue lies in
a search for empowerment (the presence of God) of
Christians, which has been the starting-point of our own
search in our own project. Tetley’s article continues: -
“ The readings are concerned with the nature and
expression of sovereign power … Isaiah … the
promise of a renewed Jerusalem. After Babylon it will
become the focus of God’s presence. Nations shall
be drawn to the light of God’s glory … the New
Jerusalem of Revelation … the domain of God … (in
which) the servants of God reign eternally. This

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 sovereignty dispels darkness. It excites worship and
allegiance from all earth’s people and leaders. It
brings freedom and security of access. The
acknowledgement of God’s superior authority over
earthly rulers is demonstrated as a future hope in
Matthew … it is those who search who find the star of
God’s presence. The star is perceived by the Magi –
practitioners of esoteric wisdom – neither the people
of God nor the earthly rulers – mysterious in their
identity. Their perception, perseverance and
devotion put rulers to shame … they lead to a God
prepared to dwell with us in humble obscurity. With
such a God lies power, power that can save the
world.”

What Future is There for Church As Temple in

Calverton?
As for the future of the church as temple in Calverton, the
use of temple imagery to describe the local parish church
is consistent with the Old Testament’s and Paul’s use of
the image to describe the terrestrial church, which is
complementary to that of the author of Revelation who
projects it into the heavenly realm and the world to come.
It is going to be a fruitful and productive process, but it will
have limitations.

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Powerful forces are at work in the world of trade, politics
and economics, which were not at work on such a scale in
the past. These have already begun to impinge on
Calverton and its church. In 1993 the local pit closed
down, just before Christmas, and in early 1994, a Training
and Enterprise initiative began, funded by the Home Office
and using European money to ‘offset the effects of the pit
closure’.
This has vast implications for the put culture in Calverton.
We do not yet know what the impact will be on families in
terms of unemployment, the impact upon local dependant
and servicing industries and amenities and their families,
of on the whole social structure of the settlement as a
result of this sudden, crushing blow. Nor do we know how
this will affect the workers or the rest of the population
psychologically, socially or in terms of their perceptional
alterations with regard to the parish church. To date there
have been two things that I have picked up on this level.
First, ex-miners have said to me that they are appreciative
of the way the church supported their cries of anguish at
the prospect of the closure. Second, no miner or
representative group has yet offered a plaque or
commemorative plate for the wall of the church.
Similarly vast implications also apply to the Old
Calvertonian / Farmer cultures. The Rural Development

208
Commission (the government organisation charged with
sustaining the economic and social structure of the English
countryside) recently announced the results of its first 10-
year Review.
Its predictions included that Gatt, CAP reforms and rising
productivity among farmers will cut another 100,000 jobs
among farmers this decade from a national workforce that
is already down to 450,000. The Rural Development
Commission response to this has been to encourage local
crafts. But the success of this kind of entrepreneurism
depends largely upon the prettiness of the village setting.
But much of our landscape is managed. What will happen
if farmers – who do the managing – go out of business? In
France, the movement has been towards the cities and out
of the countryside. But in England it has been the other
way round. Populations such as Calverton have a high
proportion of elderly – in Calverton 17% and rising – who
need a daily bus service nd whose medical needs
represent half of the 8,000 annual calls on the local GP
practice.
Already one-third of the population commute to work and
there is little industry in the settlement offering jobs for
the young or those made redundant by the closure,
whatever the T.E.C may achieve in attracting jobs to
Calverton.

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The future of the church as temple in the settlement,
looking at all of this, may be a growing desire and
encouragement to ‘rustic-ise’ the building. It may be that
the Human Temple will need to learn more of Calverton’s
folk-religion origins and to find ways of interpreting the
Faith in those terms to the people who live here.

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 Chapter Five

Culture and
Community

Change Goal One

“ To sensitise the congregation of St.Wilfrid’s church

to the different spiritual resources and traditions
within its life, and to recognise both positive and
negative aspects of these differences.”

To achieve this goal the team agreed two administrative

goals. The first of these was to bring into dialogue
representatives of the three major spiritual energies of the
parish church as we had perceived them to investigate
what role(s) they wanted the parish church to fulfil. This
was achieved by the use of a public meeting advertised in
key places around the parish, avoiding any other major
meetings in the settlement that night.

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The notice stated that the meeting would take place at the
parish church, and the subject of the evening would be,
“ What should the parish church be like in
Calverton?”
The following local issues were current at the time were
flagged-up as sub-headings: -
The Parish Church.
The Pit Closure.
The New Abattoir.
Farming.
The Commuters.
New Housing.
A New Community Centre.
Unemployed Youth.
The Old Village.
The names of the three speakers were displayed on the
notice in large lettering, underlined. They were:
Mrs. Audrey Stocks, a Farmer.
Mr. Ian MacLiesh, a Commuter.
Mr. Jim Tatters, an ex-Miner.
The date of the meeting was Wednesday 10th February
1993.
Copies of the notice were also handed to attendees of the
parish church services during January 1993, and various
individuals were invited by Site team Members.

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How the public meeting came about.
On 25th January I combed the church membership list for
three individuals, each to speak for fifteen minutes to the
question,
“ What role does my community want the parish
church to fulfil?”
The following list emerged.
Farming / Village Community.
Three membership couples came under this classification.
A family of agricultural importers; a family who own and
run a farm in the settlement; a family known to the church
through a recent baptism who run a private kennels in the
settlement. All of these families live and work in the
settlement.
Commuter Community.
Thirteen individuals/ families came under this
classification. Two teachers, four secretarial /
administrative workers, a personal assistant to a managing
director, a prison warder, a production manager,
policeman, dental receptionist, driving instructor, and a
senior librarian.
The Pit Community.
One man only,33 and he retired from the pit ten years
before.

33
Brian Jenner. ‘Coal Strike’. New City. Ch.3.p27ff for a further explanation of this opting out from church

213
The first individual I approached from the faming
community was pleased to speak at the public meeting
and I looked no further.
Finding someone from the pit community to speak was a
saga which, although lengthy in re-telling, is necessary to
include because it reveals so much about the Pit Culture in
Calverton, and has important implications for
understanding the settlement.
The one individual we had found in the church
membership list was unwilling to speak himself, but
suggested another whom he felt would be pleased to do it
and would do it better. He mentioned that there had been
many from this culture who had fallen out with me over
the Remembrance Service, but that although the man he
suggested (Dennis) had officiated at the 1992
Remembrance Service in the Geordie Club (since he was a
good speaker), he was sure he would consider my request
‘civilly’. This meant that I would have to go outside the
church membership to find a speaker for this slot.
I telephoned Dennis, who was very friendly, but too busy
working against the Council on the Poll Tax issue. He
recommended his brother Jack.
Jack was surprised when I phoned, since his brother was a
far better speaker – the only speaker in the family in fact,

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and because he himself had never before spoken in public,
except once, and that was about the Calverton Brass
Band. He was a Methodist, very friendly, but unable to
recommend another.
At a loss where else to look, on the following day
(28.01.93)I had a funeral in church and mentioned my
difficulties to the organist, Ken Godfrey, a Baptist who had
recently retired from the pit. He knew of a man whose
name he could not remember who might fill the spot. This
man still worked at the pit. On First February I phoned
Ken, who still couldn’t recall the name.
I went back to my original non-church contact Dennis, who
gave me the name of a man he thought Ken might be
referring to. I checked with Ken, but this was not the man.
“ Definitely not!” he said, “He used to be on the Parish
Council!” I had had some disagreements with the Parish
Council and local people felt that the Council and the
Church didn’t get on well together. By this time however
Ken had obtained the name he had been searching for
from a neighbour.
I telephoned the man – Tom. His wife answered. She was,
again, very friendly, and invited me to the house. I was
unable to go because of a heavy cold. She said Tom would
ring me back. He didn’t, so I phoned the following
evening. He produced the following list of non-sequiturs: -

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“ The problem is, I work seven days a week. I got
home today at 4.00 and have to be back at work at
12.00 midnight until 6.00am, and the same again
tomorrow. I’m a grandfather and have a wife. She
goes to church every Sunday, plus church meetings;
so do the grandchildren. I go too, when I can. I have
already given my talk twice – once to the television.
I reckon Heseltine should go. Businessmen and
churchmen agree. The Tories will never get in again,
although I can’t tell people where to put their cross.
I was in the Argyle And Sutherland Highlanders until
November 7th 1951, and came to work at Calverton
Pit, where I have worked ever since. I couldn’t
manage on the dole. Everything the Tories touch,
they destroy. I think churchmen, businessmen and
politicians should get together and form a coalition
government. The present government are a load of
Muppets. Edwina Curry made a mess of eggs.
Gillian Sheppard is the same, and the Prime Minister
– they’re all wrong. It doesn’t matter what unions
you’ve got, the government has its own way. I tell
you this; Calverton Pit won’t close while I’ve got
breath in my body. It made ten million profit last
year.”

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Tom then apologised for not being able to speak at the
meeting, but offered to write something down. He also
offered his wife to attend, and suggested the name of
another, recently pin-injured local man who might do it,
but by this time I had realised it was a futile exercise
trying to get a local individual from this culture who had
the will and confidence to speak and could tell it like it
was. I telephoned a man whom I knew had worked at the
pit for thirty years and whose wife delivered the Church
magazine. He had been a surface worker, and felt that he
couldn’t speak for the underground workers. He
suggested Jim Tatters who had worked at the face for
many years, was now retired and was a magistrate. I
telephoned him and he agreed.
Reflections on the pit speaker saga: -
What on earth was this all about? There was no doubt that
there was an element of reaction as a result of my conflict
with the Royal British Legion Calverton Branch, but there
were other, more important elements.
The fact that the mining community in a population of
6,700 only had one member of the parish church. Was
this a reflection of the way in which miners locally see the
church as being of a different culture than themselves,
with different interests and issues? The language of Tom,
a list of unconnected phrases covering Calverton and ‘the

217
world’, but expressing a sympathy for the church and
business and for politicians but a rejection of ‘the
government’. His willingness to offer his wife as an
attendee at the meeting, and his self-justifying attitude
towards his own rare church attendance. Overall, there
was a reluctance to engage in the exercise and a
reluctance to speak ‘on behalf’ of other pit workers,
suggesting an invisible hierarchy among the men with
regard t their functions at the pit.
Pit culture alienation from the church is a well-documented
phenomenon but so also is their feeling that the church is
‘on their side’ in opposition to diktats from central
government. Even the Methodists, who have been
instrumental in bringing about the union movement (which
local pit workers are well aware of), have this problem. It
may well be that in seeking help and understanding
miners fall back upon the unions for their support. They
certainly do not see the churches as having either the
interest, commitment or resources to come to their aid in
any work-related way.
One might say that perhaps more interest should be
shown. But on first coming to Calverton I lobbied pit
deputies and the Union of Democratic Mineworkers, and
British Coal to show me down the pit, but was met with the
same attitude of reluctance, and never managed to obtain

218
an actual visit to the pit, even though various people in all
three areas had given permission.
What ‘resources’ could the church offer? It needed the
miners themselves to set the agenda, but if miners were
not represented in the church membership how could
they? The only alternative would have been for the church
to set the agenda, which is not the way I work.
Perhaps there is an issue here for an industrial chaplaincy
with a specific brief to relate with mining in the whole
diocesan area.
On 27th January I had asked Ian MacLiesh, a member of the
Site Team ti speak at the public meeting from the
Commuter point of view. He agreed, but needed 24 hours
to think about it before making a commitment. The
following day he phoned and agreed.
On 28th January 1993, I delivered an invitation containing
the following printed information on posh card to all
eighteen members of the Church Electoral Roll who had
never attended the parish church: -

“ Dear (Church Electoral Roll Member) Name,

A public meeting will take place in St. Wilfrid’s
Church on Wed.10th February at 8.00pm to address
the issue: -

219
 ‘The Parish Church: What Should Be Its Role In
Calverton?’
Three Speakers will address the issue from the
following standpoints: -
Local Farmer.
Calverton Commuter.
Pit Worker.
Each speaker will have fifteen minutes to address the
question. The Vicar will open and close the
proceedings and there will be opportunity for
questions from the floor.
You are cordially invited to attend.
Yours sincerely,
Rev’d Roy catchpole.
Vicar.”
Copies of the same invitation were given to all 40
Members who attended divine service on 31st January,
leaving 14 to be delivered. The posters were made up and
displayed in the Library, Church Porch, Church Community
facility, Comprehensive School, Notice Board, Leisure
Centre and Vicarage Notice Boards.
In line with the agreed strategies, likely individuals were
personally asked to bring a friend, the church made
comfortable and the heating put on ‘full’ the day before.

220
The interior was made visually stimulating with posters, a
display of banners, and a special Banner proclaiming,
“ The Role of the Parish Church?”
was made and displayed above the lectern at which the
three Speakers would stand. The church was chosen as a
sufficiently multi-cultural venue, as the strategy required,
since no culturally neutral place could be found. It was felt
that at least in its aims and ideals the church was eclectic.
In a live church with many meetings normally taking place
this meeting clashed inevitably with some, particularly the
‘Signs of the Kingdom’ Course, which would prevent only
six members of the Roll from attending. The church’s
community facility Co-ordinator agreed to publish the
event by personal recommendation to local people.

The Public Meeting 10th February 1993

The First Address:
The Farming Community. Audrey Stocks.
My husband is a farmer / agricultural contractor. My
father-in-law started the business. I myself am from a
farming family in Kent. I can’t say how my faith affects my
life. I know that I work hectically from day to day. But
there is a sense in which farming is closer, not ‘to God’ – I
know some Hindus who are equally religious – closer to
‘faith’ because of what it is.

221
I am reminded of the Parable of the Sower. It’s relevant
and like it is. We sow the seed, but we also have to
nurture the land, which is a complex procedure. For
example, there are only eight days in the year when it is
suitable for spraying, and a bad harvest is the result, not
of some ‘god’ but of bad planning, bad practice. The faith
of the farming community is very basic – fatalistic, in a
way. A Norfolk farmer recently tried to set up a scheme
whereby each farmer would donate a ton of corn to Africa.
What the farming community thought he was trying to do
was polish his halo!
Modern Methods: Since I’ve had my family I’ve become
more aware of having double standards in relation to
animals and human beings, for example embryo research
and transplantation, testing for disability and determining
gender. It feels different for human beings than for
animals. My father is a Christian farmer and he says of the
90% success rate in determining gender in animals he
would be the one who got the 10% failures. On the other
hand BST was manmade because of individuals’ greed.
But AIDS? I don’t know. I sometimes wonder whether
there is such a thing as homosexuality in the animal
community. We once had a boar we had to get rid of
because he wouldn’t go near any sow. There remains an

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area of wonder in indeterminability, which is perhaps
where God is.
Sunday Working: I am a regular church attender (sic)
and my husband attends occasionally. I don’t think that
even a thunderbolt would get hi to go regularly. He is
much more interested in getting on with the work than
services in church. My mother in law is worried when we
work on Sundays, but I say “Better the day, better the
work.” For example, the stock had to be fed and cared for.
I have a basic faith and concern, but don’t know how to
express those feelings. Life is full of miracles. We’re not
just ‘chance’ but something else. I have Methodist farmer
friends who don’t work on Sunday. Sunday work could be
a source of the conflict, but I think this kind of guilt is
stronger on the free-church spirit than on Anglicans,
although I know some Anglicans who rest on Sundays.
The Role of the Church: The church is a place to come
and say ‘Thank You’. It is somewhere for the children to
come should they need it in their lives in the future. I’ve
had times of need and have come to the parish church. I
experience ecstasy at Holy Communion. This is important
to me. It is something physical. Sharing with Christ.
Knowing that Christ offers you something that you have
done. I feel that I have actually produced the bread that is
being offered in this mutual sharing experience. A general

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discussion followed on subsidies for oil seed rape and
linseed oil, and the administrative complexities of claiming
subsidies.

The Second Address:

The Commuting Community. Ian MacLiesh.
A Commuter is anyone who works away from the place he
lives. It usually implies a lengthy absence (eg a whole
working day). The majority of Calvertonians are
commuters. I have been a commuter in this village for
twenty years. It’s an odd life. Life is away from the
village. Home is where you sleep. I know the day-place
better than I know the night-place, and so it is terrifyingly
easy to become excluded and without anyone being to
blame. One is in constant danger of becoming
marginalized, of surviving on fifth-hand information and
opting out. It takes a real effort to become involved in
things and an even greater effort to play a part in them.
And the time you can give is restricted – usually seasonally
restricted. All ‘daily life living’ has to be done at the
weekends, gardening and so on.
The Role of the Church:
This applies to anyone, anywhere, not specifically to me or
to Calverton parish church: - the church provides a place
of reassurance. When I need it, it’s there for my family and

224
me on demand. On the other hand, when I need it it’s
there for my family and me on demand. It’s a source of
stability; a fixed point of reference. On the other hand
when I do need it, I’m not there, because I am somewhere
else. I am a commuter. The church provides the role of
laying down the rules of living. It demonstrated and
teaches awareness of the needs of others. It is a carer,
both demanding and giving care. With this, networks are
made available – it enables us to form our own networks
and it works because the ethical/moral framework was laid
down from long ago. Its keynote is reciprocity.
What can I give to the church? Money is easy. But time
and commitment are hard to give. What is needed is a
change of circumstances or habit, which is not often
possible. Priorities. If my situation changes, so will my
priorities to the church. The church is capable of being
infinitely flexible, variable and responsive. But peoples’
perceptions of the church must also change – instead of it
being a largely ‘religious’ perception which contains
elements of eternal judgement and so on, a more informal
organisation is required – perhaps a laid-back ‘helping
hand’ image will prove to be the answer.

The Third Address:

The Pit Community. Jim Tatters.

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I was christened in Durham. At school the Catholics and
Protestants were sworn enemies and often fought in the
playground. If you can imagine the pit pre-nationalisation
and children of fourteen years old who thought they were
now men. You would have thought there was no God. But
in those days the first half hour of every school day was
religious education and we all went to Sunday School until
we were fourteen years old. Then we became working
men, but we knew church was there all the time if we
needed it. In January 1939, a coal mine was a terrible
place to be.
I was a magistrate for twenty-one years and had a year to
go. But I left the bench frustrated at the way law and
order and discipline have gone. Youngsters leering at you
from the dock knowing you can’t do anything with them
and that you are powerless. There are lots of churches in
Calverton. I remember the Whit Sunday March in 1953. It
used to happen every year. Marvellous. It united the
village. At that time the village was in the process of
filling-up from everywhere; Scots, Australians, people from
South Wales and Durham. We had to learn how to live
together. We had never met people from other tribes at
school, and the villagers all thought we were savages.
They even built our houses away from the village! The
new sewage system that’s now going in – the reason for

226
this is, they’re planning to make the village even bigger.
Personally, I wouldn’t like to see any more development
unless it was to the east.
The houses. By moving all the miners at the same time,
they were all about the same age, between twenty and
thirty-five years old. But now, we’ve aged and live in
houses too big for us to live in. Young families need them.
Four bedrooms and large gardens. But we can’t sell them.
We’d need to get enough to buy a small bungalow, but
we’re trapped. Like the hundreds of other ex-miners.
If the pit closed it would have no effect whatsoever on
Calverton. The workers come in cars from West
Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire etc etc. If you drive up the
M1 from here to the edge of the county you’ll see
multitudes of 1950’s and 1960’s miners communities left
behind and rotting.
In 1956, I paid £15.00 to have an N.U.M. Banner I’d
designed and painted made-up by a local firm. We
brought it to the parish church for a Service of Dedication.
It was to be a big occasion; I organised the Calverton band
and invited all the local top brass from the council to
come. But I think the vicar, the Reverend Womack, was
frightened of me because that Sunday he got someone
else to do the service for him… then in 1960 some of the
lads marched around the village with the Banner, but it

227
rained in a deluge. They left the banner and ran for
shelter. After the rain, he rolled it up and left it in the pit-
head baths. It was virtually ruined; never the same again.
The new banner, made in 1978, cost £1,300. Once again,
the dedication was another occasion when the parish
church was full of miners.
One shocking thing is youngsters who haven’t been
christened. I used to think it was compulsory! I remember
the Reverend Hoyle who usedto visit the Cherry Tree pub.
The Calverton Mine arrived like the Flying Scotsman, flew
through the station of Calverton and rushed past. What
we see now is the last few carriages passing out of sight.
One thing I am grateful for is the way the church leaders
are fighting for indigenous fuel and not ridding it for ever.

Candidate’s Comments and Reflections ion the

Public Meeting and Three Addresses.

Seven people attended the meeting, including the three

speakers and the Candidate. The effect of the
personalised invitations, poster publicity and personal
contacts achieved a response of only three interested
individuals. One of these was the President of the
Preservation Society, another was the spouse of a speaker
and the remaining one was a local representative of the

228
Southwell Diocesan Social Responsibility Group. My
feeling was that although few attended the speakers did
prepare a script and were able to speak for fifteen minutes
each to the subject in hand. The question of the role of
the parish church in Calverton was, in other words, a live
issue. The above is a contemporaneous record. This
constitutes the core of authoritative, new, indigenous
information not previously recorded. What is particularly
exciting is the account of the farmer, who found the
church to be a locus of ‘personal ecstasy’ in an otherwise
humdrum and demanding life. It is doubly exciting. First,
for her, and secondly because it is not the kind of
expectation one might have of a well administered,
ordinary, busy establishment church. The realisation the
ecstasy can occur – the last thing I expected – within the
building, and regularly does for at least one individual
must be a sign of hope – and of the Kingdom of God.
Again, in terms of establishing links and bridges between
people and agencies with the intention of resourcing the
settlement from personal through communal levels, it was
exciting to hear from the commuter – who above all need
links because they lack them more than anything else in
the settlement – that the parish church provides such links
and networks. These cost nothing to establish

229
and are therefore achievable even by a poor congregation
if the will is there. It was not surprising to be told that the
church provides a focus for social events within the
settlement. But it was interesting to hear how the church
is itself a social event. It is one of the re-creative activities
available in Calverton. Also that the building and staff
perform the function of focussing significant events in the
lives of groups of people who live here. Its function at
these times seems to be to place a ‘seal’ upon an activity
or to solemnify an act of commitment and solidarity which
is not directly Christian – seeming to effect in the religious
realm what in another circumstance the swearing of an
oath might effect in the legal realm. It had occurred to me
when organising the three speakers to give the Pit speaker
a specific agenda in view of the difficulty I had
experienced in eliciting a response from this group – such
as a condensed history of the Miners’ Strike (March8th
1994 – March 3rd 1995), but I decided against it since it
would have been an act of vandalism by the parish church
against the expression of local perception. In the event
the Strike wasn’t even mentioned. I felt that this reflected
the ‘back-to-work’ movement (July 1994) in the
Nottinghamshire coalfields led by Mr. Chris Butcher (the
‘Silver Birch’), whose own village, Ollerton, (only ten miles
from Calverton), became the scene of some of the most

230
violent clashes between pickets and police, and the feeling
locally that the whole event is best forgotten.

The Second Administrative Goal under Change Goal One

was
To devise a format for addressing the requirements of the
three cultures with regard to the parish church.
It was agreed by the Site Team that the strategy would be
to use the public meeting to achieve this.
As a result of preparing for this meeting in consultation
with the three speakers and on the basis of the Situation
Analysis material a questionnaire was devised and tailored
to the three identified culture-groups. Four copies of this
were given to the Farming and Mining speakers. None
were given to the Commuter speaker because by the
nature of their experience, alienation from others within
the home community was the major factor. In the event,
only one questionnaire was returned, and so was rejected
as a source of information. The strategy was then altered
to achieve a similar end by Candidate and Site Team
seeking personal responses, and conducting informal
interviews with friends / contacts.
The Site Team met subsequently and produced. The
following comments on the Public Meeting in relation to

231
Change Goal One and made use of these insights to seek
personal responses and conduct informal interviews: -
The Expectations of the Role of the Parish Church
are That it Should Be: -

1. A venue for thanking God

2. A place of refuge for parents to direct children in need
3. A locus of ecstatic / mystical communion
4. A source / guardian of moral / ethical rules
5. W well of reassurance
6. A refuge of socio-cultural security
7. A centre for giving and receiving caring
8. A root of an altruistic network
9. A provider of religious education for children
10. A point of parish unity
11. A locus of dedication (of making holy)
12. A valid representation of concerns of the settlement.

Unspoken Assumptions About What the Church Is,

Were: -
1. A place
2. People, not actively including myself
3. The Church has resources to fulfil the expectations
4. The Church will always be available
5. The Vicar is the leader of the Church bandwagon

232
Armed with this material the Site Team informally
questioned and discussed it with friends and neighbours in
the community before meeting again two months later to
pool their findings and reflections, producing the following
result: -

The Farming Culture

There was an unavoidably pantheistic element to their
religion. For example, the land was ‘like the mind of God’
in the sense that the land is a given out of which things
proceed, such as a flower, tree, an animal. What the
farmer produces therefore is a kind of ‘incarnation’, and
the processes of production are the processes of
incarnating. In that sense the farmer is a co-worker with
the land, and the land demands sensitivity, caring, giving
worth (worship). The ultimate achievement of this process
is the life and wealth of the rest of the community.
Sharing in the finished product is sharing in the life and
spirit of the land. In the case of the speaker, coming from
this physical environment, this pantheistic element was
enlightened and informed by Judeo-Christian monotheism
through the teaching of the parish church. The lack of
teaching, it was felt, would confirm farmers in a
pantheistic environment in which there was no means of

233
addressing the need for salvation from moral guilt or
redemption from slavery to sin. For the speaker this took
place in the mysterious ecstatic experience of Holy
Communion.
“ I offer what my hands have made, and God returns
it to me transformed.”
Absence from church by the farming community denies
them access to a major resource of Christian teaching.
Advances in genetic science and experimentation among
the animal population in animal husbandry increasingly
confirm farmers as sovereign over nature, but there is not
an equivalent input to enable them to make a real
distinction between plants, animals and human beings,
which results in a ‘disgust’ for humanity, resulting in
questions such as, “Why should humans have any prior
rights to existence than, say, cows?” Intellect, manual
dexterity and a powerful will to survive and multiply are
the driving forces, but they lack a moral aspect. The moral
aspect is one of the elements the Parish Church is
expected to supply, but takers are few, and whilst there is
every reason for the church to take the view that the
farmer’s work is itself an offering of praise to God, the lack
of Christian educational input and commentary upon the
farmer’s work remains a barrier to her / his full
participation in the life and worship of the parish church.

234
The Mining Culture.
There was a somewhat romantic view of miners as
Nietzsche-type supermen, disciplined and perfected in
physical and mental strength, pursuing survival at the pit-
face. But there was a weakening aspect of moral scruple
and conscience, which deprived them of this high ideal.
They found themselves in the company of others like
themselves in the workplace, but had become politically
individualised so that co-workers were both brothers and
rivals. The values of humility, kindness and weakness
derived from Christianity were practically abolished or
ignored, since they weaken otherwise strong men, and
these men need to be strong. God is in this sense not
found at the coal-face. The irony is Faustian. The pursuit
of material well-being through physical and mental
strength deprives the miner of life itself since he does not
have time to enjoy it. A further irony is how this reality
conflicts with any sentimental perception of miners by the
media that ‘heaven’ is found in the pit, for it is
underground – among the blood, sweat and tears – that
loyalty, living and dying together in a common cause,
community-based interdependence and so forth are
located. Some miners fall for this sentimentality, and how

235
much of it spills over into the their marching-with-banners
and their other parades has not been addressed.
Miners are perceived by most, including the churches, as
an embattled group of heroes fighting bravely against
cynical and unstoppable forces of materialism whereas
they are in fact often victim collaborators in the process.34

The Commuter Culture35

Hallmarks of this culture are insecurity, dic-location,
planning and anxiety. Prolonged absence from an
indigenous community and family often leads to neurosis.
The experience is of living in one community during the
day – one whose demands are work-oriented - and another
at night – whose demands are family and locality oriented;
living in one place during the day and sleeping in another
at night, spending the intervening time travelling in the
(dis-locating) private environment of a motor vehicle, and
of having two families – one biological at home and
another non-biological at work.
The kind of fundamental question being addressed by the
Commuter culture is, “What is a family?” Is it work
colleagues and customers, clients, or is it children,
parents, spouse? Clearly it is not only biological. “What is
a friend?” Is it someone selected by the Personnel
34
See contemporary newspaper articles on the Calverton Pit closure procedure.
35
See ‘The Commuter World’ Appendix A.

236
Manager, or someone chosen by me? Clearly within the
limited time available for formulating choice-friendships,
many friends are by accident of job description, person
specification, qualification and aptitude for the tasks of
work colleagues. These decisions are made by people who
employ commuters, and not by commuters themselves.
These are fundamental questions about roots, anchorages,
choice and emotional belonging, and it is felt that the
parish church can supply these needs, especially since it
propounds a concept of ‘choice’ which is founded in
repentance.
For many commuters, whether they attend or not, the
church building is a symbol of an ‘anchorage’ in a
turbulent sea. Many believe that they would ‘tie up’ at the
church if their lives were differently circumstanced. The
feeling of ‘emotional belonging’ is that they belong to the
settlement, but the daily reality is that they belong to the
workplace36
There was unanimous agreement in the Team that the
Public Meeting Document and subsequent reflection
accurately described the life-situations of the three groups
with the exception that commuters were not necessarily
neurotic. This exercise in its entirety fulfilled the
requirements of Change Goal One.

36
See Illustration. Appendix 1.

237
Please note that the Administrative Goals a) & b) satisfied
also the requirement of Administrative Goal c).
Further to this exercise, material from the situational
analysis had been presented on numerous occasions in the
following forms throughout the whole process of the
M.Min, since the material began to be collected in early
1992; -
1. Sermons and Addresses.
2. Small groups such as Bible Studies, sub-groups of
the Church Council and the Church in Full Council
etc.

3. Specifically at the Southwell Deanery Congress

(February 1994) as part of the 1993/4 Episcopal
visitation. This was to groups of delegates from the
21 parishes in the Southwell deanery and to the
Bishop and his staff.37 This was followed a week
later by the same display in the parish church,
which remained on public show for two weeks.
4. In the Calverton Community Forum – specifically at
a presentation in May 1993 to a mixed group of
Calverton churchgoers of various denominations
and a group of agency workers and service
providers with briefs to work in the Calverton area

37
See photographs

238
 such as police, teachers, social workers, medical
staff, nursing managers etc.

5. By presentation on the Year One Chart, maps and

photographs in the form of a display in church and
church Hall.38

The opportunity for comment, question, challenge and

other input has been offered throughout the process, and
there are on file various responses that have come in.
Most notably I have been given an academic thesis
completed twenty-five years ago by a local miner which
fascinatingly struggles towards similar questions regarding
the settlement that the present analysis is addressing
although there are naturally differences in historical
perspective and there is no attempt at a theological
understanding of the author’s situation.39

Change Goal Two

By the nature of the case there was bound to be a

significant amount of overlap between the aims of Change
38
See photographs.
39
K. Godfrey ‘Stockings For A Queen: Black Diamonds for Her Subjects’ 1968. (unpublished). See
Appendix A for a summary of the thesis’ view of Old Calvertonians and their history, the (then new) Pit
culture, a personal view of the village churches and a comment from the Candidate from a contemporary
standpoint reflecting upon all of this.

239
Goals One and Two. The emphasis of the two is different
however, in that whereas Change Goal One sought to
sensitise the congregation to the different spiritual
traditions within the church’s life, that or Change Goal Two
seeks to sensitise the same group to the multi-faceted
nature of the parish preparatory to formulating a new role
for the church: -
“ To sensitise the congregation of St. Wilfrid’s to the multi-
faceted nature of the parish in order to prepare itself for a
new role.”
A level of achievement of this Goal can be detected in the
following areas: -
In the Site Team.
The close cooperative proximity of the Site Team to the
working practises of the Candidate.
As a result of this sharing activity members have become
much more aware of the possibilities and constraints in
which the Candidate conducts his business. This has been
a mutual experience however, and the Candidate has
become more aware of the freedoms and constraints on
the Team. An example of constraint on the Site Team has
been that the two commuters did not have time to give to
the parish. This has been a real constraint upon the
practicality of the vision of forming a ‘family feeling’
among them in the church. Simply, if people are not

240
there, how can they be worked with? And yet they have a
deep desire to belong. These work against one another
and present a real issue which the church must address if
it is to pursue its vision of an inclusive family.
In the Church Council and Sub-Groups.
The church has addressed some thorny issues in recent
years. The version of the Bible used in church has been
changed from the King James to the New International
Version (100 of which have been placed in the pews).
Hymns are now taken from a modern hymn book, ‘Mission
Praise’ instead of from ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’, and
the Book of Common prayer has been retained for one
weekly service whilst the Alternative Services Book is used
on most other occasions. The pipe organ is regularly used,
but guitars and occasionally tambourines and other
percussion instruments and a digital keyboard have also
been introduced. There has also been an increasing take-
up of occasional services tailored to sectional interest
groups such as the schools, bringing-in the cultures of
those who would not normally enter the building. As a
result of a growing sensitivity towards the histories and
backgrounds of the parishioners the candidate now acts as
secretary and recorder – scribe as well as pastor – to
bereaved families by interviewing families in their own
home regarding the life and times of the deceased person,

241
and then repeating this information as a funeral oration at
the funeral service.40 This has been greatly appreciated
and families express their gratitude warmly both at the
service and in the ‘announcements of deaths’ columns of
the local papers.
On one occasion the Candidate conducted a Marriage
Ceremony in the parish church in which the bridegroom
was Sicilian and knew no English. The candidate knew no
Italian. The problem was solved by the owner of an Italian
restaurant who transliterated the Marriage Vows into
phonetic Italian for the Candidate to read at the ceremony.
The half-Sicilian congregation greeted this with a round of
applause. The deeper significance of this was that at an
important moment in the life of the family the church was
reaching out (like a clown perhaps) in an inclusive act.
Also, in order to make young families welcome in the
building the church has set in motion the implementation
of plans to build a crèche in the tower with glass doors,
soundproofing and a one-way speaker system so that
those with the care of children can participate in divine
service without the distraction of small, noisy, bored
breast-hungry children.41 A childminder has been
appointed to supervise children whose carers wish to
remain in the congregation for the service. There is a list
40
Dr. Tony Walker. ‘Funerals and How to Improve Them’, p.115C. S. Lewis Centre. 1993
41
See Plate St.Wilfrid’s crèche plans.

242
of similarly culturally sensitive projects currently on the
sub-groups agendas. Most recently the Candidate has
been co-opted onto the Nottingham training and
Enterprise Council, currently overseeing a new project in
the settlement, the purpose of which is to create training
opportunities leading to employment for local people
thrown out of work by the pit closure. As a ‘leader in the
community’ he has successfully lobbied for other local
people to be similarly invited to join so that their views can
be expressed and their perceptions taken account of. He
has also been approached by the Nottingham North East
Sector Mental Health Team to help identify and create
community links between the service providers and users,
and has to date attended the first Community Health Team
meeting. There are unemployed and there are mentally ill
people in the settlement. The God who called the nation
Israel into being still calls with the same inclusive voice.
By inviting comment on the Situation Analysis
Material, which is still being added to.
This has been a diffuse activity involving many people
from many different backgrounds. Simply, the contents of
this body of knowledge have been spread around the
parish and deanery by the church magazine, the Calverton
Echo, a local newspaper, word of mouth, sermons and
addresses, newspaper articles, interviews on radio and

243
television and presentations of various kinds. Comment
has been equally multi-faceted, but it has been possible to
detect the information coming back to the vicarage having
completed the ‘grapevine circuit’ around the settlement.
By directing enthusiasms among the worshipping
community Into suggesting and implementing initiatives in
the church building which would reflect their desire for a
new role for the church in its provision. An example of
laying these foundations was that a concern for the
partially sighted contributed towards the provision of new
lighting for the church interior, and a concern for the hard
of hearing led to the provision of a public address system.
A small music group formed in order to lighten the ‘feel’ of
the family Service worship, making the liturgy less
intimidating to an occasional-church-attending
congregation and people who had come to divine worship
for the first time.
In doing these kinds of things there has been a care not to
jettison the past, and in keeping with this a stained glass
window commemorating the 400th anniversary of the birth
of William Lee of Calverton, the inventor of the stocking
frame knitting machine has been commissioned and
placed in the west window of the church. Again, on 20th
June 1993 a plaque commemorating the ministry of the
Reverend Thomas Oldland Hoyle, the previous incumbent,

244
whose ministry saw the majority of the pit’s tenure in
Calverton (30 years), was dedicated and placed on the
wall in the chancel. A moveable font, carved from the bole
of a yew by the residents of the Manna Farm Drug
Rehabilitation Project in Calverton was also dedicated and
placed in the chancel of the parish church as a further sign
of the universal inclusiveness of the temple’s function.
This was done in the context of a special Family Service
with ‘Unity’ as a theme.42
All of these reflected enthusiasms and spiritual energies
among the people who use and / or value the church, and
contributed in a concrete way to the provision the church
was able to offer.
The work required by Administrative Goal Two was
achieved thoroughly in the gathering and analysis of
Situation Analysis material and in the Biblical reflection
phases of the project. It was simply a matter of lifting this
material off the page and feeding it into the decision
making process. Results of this procedure can be seen in
the kinds of initiative mentioned above.
It was agreed by the Music and Worship sub-committee to
use the Lenten Course, ‘Have Another Look’, planned
ecumenically by the Council of Churches for Britain and
Ireland (especially as they are the major funders of our

42
See trinity Sunday 1993 Service Sheet with Sermon.

245
Community project, the Calverton Community Oasis), as
the Lenten Study Group in 1994 saw as a way of
addressing the plusses and minuses of barriers. Because
the course was not planned locally, it would provide the
advantage of not being threatening, but would open-up
possibilities for participants to address local issues if they
felt inclined within the safe environment of a planned and
programmed Lenten Group.43
It was felt neither appropriate nor economical to employ a
consultant for the last Administrative Goal, since both
Candidate and Team were equipped for reflection on the
process and the church could not afford the fee. It was
felt, however that some concrete memorial to the project
ought to be erected – as the Temple was erected as a
symbolic focus for events that had been and were taking
place in the life of the community – and to celebrate the
differences within the settlement. On 27th June 1993 a
Barbecue was held on the vicarage lawn to celebrate the
differences in Calverton. Maps and charts displaying some
of the many groups and associations in the settlement,
some of the history of Calverton and up-to-date census
figures were on display, and a recently bereaved man from
the ‘Top Estate’ – a builder by trade, who had since
become a member of the Church electoral roll, - offered to
43
‘Have Another Look.’ Council of Churches for Britain & Ireland (CCBI). Inter-Church House, London
1994.

246
build a barbecue in the vicarage garden as a Memorial of
the M.Min Project and all that it was hoped it would
achieve. The two pillars of the barbecue would be
inscribed, ‘Boaz’ (The Lord is my strength), and ‘Jachin’
(The Lord is my foundation), for the two pillars at the
entrance to Solomon’s Temple, since for many of
Calverton’s people the Church’s social life is their first step
into full communion with the Messiah.
The barbecue, used for social functions at which non-
church and occasional church attendees would always be
present in good numbers, would symbolise the reaching-
out of St. Wilfrid’s congregation to the wider settlement on
the one hand and the willingness of those in the
settlement who did not attend, or rarely attended the
church building nevertheless be willing to relate with the
church. A symbol of outreach and infilling.

New Elements That Emerged:

The parish church as ‘temple’
The competency of the Minister in certain areas.
‘Inclusive potential of the parish church’ – the complexity
and diversity of
a) Social groups in the settlement
b) Commitment of church members.

247
The parallels between the Temple and the parish church
had not occurred to the Site Team or Candidate until two
years into the M.Min process. In retrospect, this was
amazing. The reason for this had been our parochialism,
and that for various reasons we had been seeing ourselves
and our settlement as victims.
There were many historical examples of this:
The conflagration at the textile factory deprived the
settlement’s economy of 60 t- 70 part-time female jobs;
the burning down of the Miners’ Welfare Community
Centre resulted in the loss of a major community facility.
Neither of these was replaced, and their sites have now
been built on. An old peoples’ home has been built, where
the factory used to be and private housing running
currently at £100,000 to £150,000 where the Welfare used
to be, reflecting a new economy, replacing the older, dying
economies of female shift-work in factory production and
the closed Pit. Further examples were the way in which in
olden times, according to local legend, the genius of
William Lee had been exploited by the Crown, and resulted
in William ending his life in penury and dying in obscurity.
The powerfully remembered loss of young men is the wars
– from the Great War to the Falklands and in Northern
Ireland at the diktat of government, not to mention the
most recent disaster of the closure of Calverton Colliery

248
despite its productiveness and the historically moderate
un-politicised behaviour of the Nottinghamshire pits and
men.
The church had also been focussing on the negative
aspects of its life – fighting for financial and cultural
survival against an implacably fatalistic future especially in
the wake of bad investments by central office in the
1980’s, falling national membership, a loss of enthusiasm
for new things, and a fear of change.
In light of this was it any wonder that we saw ourselves in
Biblical terms as an exiled people, and a diasporate
congregation?
The sudden inspiration and a new understanding that
resulted from a consultation with Dr. Robin Pagan
transformed our perception of ourselves as a church and
our settlement as a society. This was what we had been
searching for. Suddenly all the disparate elements that
had jarred upon us, such as the secular banners and
plaques in the church building and the perception by
people in the street (and their policymakers) of the Vicar
as the leader of the village and their expectation of the
leader to be ‘master of ceremonies’ at their weddings,
feasts and occasions began to make sense. The church is
like the temple and the settlement is like Jerusalem. This
new understanding will be followed up in the years to

249
come, and our feeling as a Site Team is one of hope and
enthusiasm for the future.
We are not a church-on-the-run, but an intrinsic part of the
settlement with a clear and credible role.
Physical Oppression and the Human Spirit:
Another element which emerged was our deepening
understanding of the relationship between self-image and
functional disability. During the course of our project a
number of the congregation began to become desperately
mentally and physically ill. Some remain so to this day.
The mental, emotional and physical strain of this inevitably
had its effects on some of the Site Team members, both in
terms of demanding their caring commitment and also the
way they perceived themselves. Now that they were no
longer victims, but were part of a family with a clear and
credible role, how were we tio understand this new spate
of afflictions that had come upon our family?
One of our Team members shared some more of her life
story and spiritual journey…
She had suffered from cervical spondulosis for several
years. On visiting the doctor recently she was told that
her condition was not surprising since she had been
oppressed in a bad relationship with her spouse for several
years, which had resulted in her walking as an oppressed
person with her head down and back bent, always under

250
threat. The physical condition had arisen from a spiritual
response to mental and physical oppression…
Could this not also be the case for a church and for a
community? We felt that it could, and so our new
understanding of our place and role – no longer victims but
an integral and necessary part of the settlement – might
issue in time in an ‘upright’ church, no longer trudging
wearily to the next oppression, and an ‘accepted’
community, no longer the oppressor who makes
impossible demands.
Ministerial Competency:
More on this in Chapter Six. For the moment, a new
element that emerged out of the Competency Assessment,
one of the categories which both Team and Candidate
scored at ‘F’, and which therefore should have been
disregarded as not amenable to development, was
‘Financial Competency’.
Although the Candidate did not aspire to become an
accountant as a result of seeking to develop this area, one
of the parish church’s fundamental difficulties lay in the
area of finance – not having even half enough of it.
But he discovered a number of quite unrelated skills and
resources by the use of which he had been able to
increase the projected annual income of the church on a
regular basis so that even the parish church Council had

251
acknowledged it. This was an element quite new to the
parish church Council, the Site Team, the Candidate, and
his wife.
Community Groups and Member Commitment:
(Inclusive potential of the parish church).
Another new element arising our of the Situation Analysis
Phase of the project was the complexity and diversity of
social groups in the settlement, the high-level commitment
of the majority of church members and how this connected
with our new perception of the inclusiveness of the church-
as-temple. We expected that we would find a core of very
committed people who did most of the work in the church,
and that there would be some social groups in the
settlement that would relate to one another on personal
levels.
In fact, although there was a core-worker matrix in the
church, most other members have at least one church-
related work task, and the diversity and complexity of the
settlement’s groups turned out to be very wide indeed. In
the same way that the different workers were coming from
many different theological and ecclesiastical traditions, so
the different community groups were coming from various
levels of sympathy towards the parish church. We did not
have time or resources to do the kind of in-depth study of
the origins and affiliations of these community groupings

252
 44
as was admirably done in Frankenberg’s study although
we felt that a similar pattern would show through in
Calverton and its rural hinterland as in Glossop and
Banbury.
Universalism and Inclusivity:
Once we had made the parallel between church and
temple it was inevitable that we would find ourselves
confronting questions of this order. Theological reflection
arises spontaneously and inevitably in the believer. It is,
as G. Gutierrez reminds us intrinsic to a life of faith
seeking to be authentic and complete. There is present an
attempt to understand the faith, something like a pre-
understanding which is manifested in life, action, and
concrete attitude which is the soil into which theological
reflection sinks its roots and from which it derives its
strength. Theophanies may occur to individuals in a
private sense.
“ …but the self-revelation of God in the Biblical
witness is not of a direct type in this sense, but it is
indirect and brought about by the historical acts of
God.”45

44
R. Frankenberg. ‘Communities In Britain’. Pelican Ch.6, 166ff.
45
Wolfhart Pannenberg. ‘Revelation As History’ ed. W. Pannenberg. Trans. David Granskou. New York:
Macmillan 1968 p125.

253
The Holy of Holies was an empty space. God dwells
everywhere, and this proclamation became completely
fulfilled in the Incarnation of the Son of God.
“ The word became flesh and dwelt (pitched His tent)
among us.” Jn.1: 14.
Christ not only presents Himself as the Temple of God ‘
Destroy this temple…and in three days I will raise it again.’
John also specifies that
“ The temple He was speaking of was His body.”
Jn.2: 19-20.
In addition, Paul tells us,
“ It is in Christ that the complete being of the
Godhead dwells embodies.” Col. 2: 9. Cf Eph.2: 20-
22. I Pet. 2: 4-8.
Not only is Christ the temple of God, but Christians too,
“ Surely you know that you are God’s temple, where
the Spirit of God dwells…” I Cor. 3: 16-17.
But not only are Christ and Christian believers the temple
of God, but every person. The episode with Cornelius
demonstrates that the Jews
“ Were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit
should have been poured out even on the gentiles.”
Peter drew the conclusion,

254
 “ Is anyone prepared to withhold water for baptism
from these persons who have received the Holy Spirit
just as we did ourselves?”
What we became aware of was a twofold process. On the
one hand there is an universalisation of the presence of
God: from being localised and being linked to a particular
people and a particular building. It gradually extends to all
church buildings and to all the peoples of the earth. On
the other hand there is an internalisation, an integration of
this presence. From dwelling-places of worship this
presence is transferred to the heart of human history. It is
a presence, which embraces the whole person, and Christ
is the point of convergence of both processes.
“ Since God has become man, humanity, every man,
history, is the living temple of God. The ‘pro-fane’,
that which is located outside the temple, no longer
exists.”46
The purpose of the proclamation of the Gospel is
theological in the sense that reflection upon the gift of the
word of God deepens and enlightens that spirit which God
has given to every human person. The purpose of worship
in the parish church is to give voice to the divine response,
which finds its source in the heart and mind of every
human person.

46
G. Gutierrez Op cit. p.193

255
Funeral addresses illustrate this dynamic well. As I have
mentioned, the procedure has been for the bereaved
family to identify someone to do the funeral service. They
have chosen the local vicar. He then visits the family. He
has decided to act as Scribe and Recorder, noting down
the family’s recollections of the deceased person’s life and
times. There is no attempt at evangelism, and no
comment made upon eternal life, or ‘gone to a better
place’ unless the family initiates it. He conforms as closely
as he can to the roles of scribe and recorder. At the
funeral service, after checking the script with the family,
the recorded life and times is read from the pulpit as an
address. Comment upon eternal life, sin, forgiveness,
redemption, is left to the words of the funeral liturgy. In
this way, the whole complex of building, staff, community,
past and present and future hope is utilised at the disposal
of human remains through the re-telling of the family’s
story, as members of this specific, contemporary
Jerusalem. It is an universal experience in other words,
with everything focussed on God, in which the vicar plays
the role of ‘scribe’ or bureaucrat. Some days later
acknowledgements appear in the local papers, and the
vicar is thanked along with everyone else.
The Funeral service would not have ‘worked’ had the vicar
been merely the ‘recorder’.

256
There was something about his person and his context
that made him one of the few individuals in the settlement
that could have performed tat service for them. He was
both an employee of the temple authorities, and attached
inevitably to the settlement.
All of the above are New Elements, which it is hoped the
Church will be addressing in the years to come.

257
 Chapter Six

Images and
The parish church was looking for a new role. Accustomed
to having been traditionally regarded as the centre of a
village community, it was aware that this had changed
over the years and it now no longer seemed to apply.
Instead of there being a general call on its services, which
would witness to a general perception of the church as
‘there for all’, it had been witnessing an increasing number
of specialist, or sectional-interest demands. This gave the
impression that the parish church was being increasingly
perceived by the settlement as ‘not there for all’ but only
there for some, the fact that only 0.5% of the population
regularly attended any of the settlement’s churches
seeming to confirm this. What was of concern was that
the congregation was not effectively challenging this
mentality.
Along with this there was a feeling that the church in
general in the nation was increasingly being seen as a
sectional-interest organisation – an institution whose
purpose was to serve the ‘religious’ needs of people and
which ought not to become involved in politics, whose

258
concerns were perceived as the ‘real’ needs of people in a
value-for-money society. Nor did the national church as a
body appear to be challenging this situation.
We sought a role; one which would retain our usefulness to
the whole community and would prevent the parish church
from falling into the trap of being there for anything less
than the whole settlement.

Change Goal One

“ To sensitise the congregation of St. Wilfrid’s Church
to the different spiritual resources and traditions
within its life and to recognise both positive and
negative aspects of these differences.”

The theological claim confronting the church in Calverton

is the incarnation of Christ in history and how this may be
paralleled in the present incarnation of Christ through the
church. Our hermeneutics how to interpret the incarnation
into a new praxis which remains faithful to the Biblical and
historical record and is practical and workable in St.
Wilfrid’s Parish Church.

259
We are saying that the church is like the temple, and that
the key to the temple is the presence (δ ο ξ α ) of God.
We are also saying that in His Incarnation the Son of God
took flesh and humbled Himself even to death in order to
achieve God’s project in the world, and that the project’s
aim was achieved.
Throughout the New Testament Christ is presented as the
glory of God on earth to those with eyes to see it, though it
is in the Fourth Gospel that this concept is most strongly
stressed:
“ We beheld |His glory, glory as of the only-begotten
of the Father.” Jn. 1: 14.
The miracles of Christ manifested His glory (2: 20). His
glory is not the glory of human beings but of God (5: 41.
17: 5, 22), and the great high priestly prayer of Jesus (Jn.
17), in dominated by the idea of δ ο ξ α (glory).
The entire passion is presented to us as Jesus’s
glorification (17: 1). Jesus goes to the cross not as the
helpless martyr to his agony, but as the victorious king to
his coronation. In the passion and resurrection of Christ
the utter glory of God is revealed.
It was at this point that experiences such as Laurie Green’s
in Birmingham encouraged us in our search for an
understanding of ‘empowerment’.47
47
L. Green ‘Power To The Powerless’ p.91ff. Marshall & Pickering. Margaret’s timely reminder of the
cross, which could not keep Christ captive in death – and a poster, dropped through the vicarage door in

260
The temple was inclusive of all races and classes. The
people of Calverton think of the parish church also as
inclusive. They attend its worship, or come only for the
occasional service, or visit merely to see the plaques and
banners. They are touching base with some un-expressed
spiritual reality of their own. It is unlikely that they are
experiencing the Christian God through the mediating
work of Christ on the cross, which is taught through the
Bible, but they ‘feel at home’ in the building. I think this is
a living parable of the power of the people of the parish
church.
Christ came in humility as the vulnerable child of a mother
who was herself merely a child. As the incarnate God (a
Biblical image of the temple), He was open to all, good and
bad. In the same way the people of St. Wilfrid’s
congregation, because of their willingness to be open top
all thereby run the risk of losing the things they hold most
dear. They are exhibiting exactly the same kind of
incarnation-power they desired to gain in the Statement Of
The Problem. This humble inclusivity was itself, in other
words a demonstration of the δ ο ξ α of God.
We came to see that the church was, in other words
already nascently empowered in the sense that it was
structured as an inclusive institution. What had seemed at
Calverton during Lent 1994 with the caption, “In this world you will have trouble, but be brave. I have
conquered the world.” John 16: 33.

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first to be burdens to us – the fabric of the building, the
committee structures, the professional ministry, and the
diocesan structures with their complex and interminable
legalities in fact provided us with an enforced inclusivity
that would enable us to confront the questions of faith
which in Calverton were about the social alienation of
commuters, the secularism of the pit culture and the
increasing alienation of the farmers – the ‘people of the
land’ – from their land.
These issues really do affect the people who live in
Calverton and either regularly or rarely attend the parish
church – they are not ‘out there’ or matters of only
academic interest.
It was necessary for us to confront these issues with the
claims of faith, but this would have to be done from within
the structures since we did not wish to escape from them.
Indeed, as I have said, we found them to be empowering.
They not only constrained the leadership to have respect
for their inclusivity, they were themselves expressions of
the traditional faith and practice of the people. We
recognised the negative aspects of this also. At what point
does a tradition become an unhelpful imposition? We
needed to question whether and to what extent current
practice actually included everybody. Our response to this
would not be to jettison what we had, but to increase its

262
potential. For this, we needed to work and study as a
church, to see how this could be achieved. If there were
elements that needed to be removed, we needed to be
sure that we were not throwing the baby out with the
bathwater.
As Madeleine said from her position of faith; -
“ I find it extremely difficult to believe that we can
overcome evil. It seems to me that evil is getting
stronger. I cannot see good winning. If you do try to
take power yourself in order to beat evil, it seems so
to infect you that you don’t end up beating evil but
become part of it yourself. It’s like a cancer.”48
It seemed to us also that there was no reason for an
uncritical belief that change and evolution were inherently
good things. There was much Biblical material to support
the view that things would get worse before they got
better. That ‘better’ could be equivalent to the ‘coming of
the Kingdom’ with all its accompanying trials and
challenges that we find on the lips of Jesus.
In the midst of this, the church, like Jesus himself, may
sometimes be destined to obscure and humble suffering
within a given tradition.
This general area was common ground for all of the
traditions represented in the life of St. Wilfrid’s. In terms

48
Op cit. p.111

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of its being a single unit, signified in its common worship
( even though this took place in three definable groups
representing three clear traditions and experiences, it did
take place at the same locus), there were resources of the
spirit in all of the traditions which fed in to the common
project of confronting the parochial mission-field with the
claims of faith.
In evaluating to what extent this was working, the Site
Team had agreed that we could expect to see evidence of
structures starting to arise in the form of study groups,
recommendations in the minutes of the Church Council
and a rise in enthusiasm among the attending
congregations. This had already begun to happen. To
date, we have two new study groups, a number of Church
Council recommendations, some of which have already
been implemented, and a rise in enthusiasm among
members: -
One of the Study Groups focuses on Bible Study (reflecting
one of the church’s spiritual energies or cultures), and the
other addresses issues of contemporary society (reflecting
another of the church’s spiritual energies). Both take
place in members’ homes, and both have a regular
membership of ten to twelve.
In terms of enthusiasm, about half of the people who
attend these groups are ling-term church members and

264
half are new members. Most members come from the
10.45 Sunday congregation, although there is one who
attends the 8.30 traditional Common Prayer Book
Communion. Well over half the attending congregation
have become volunteers for the Manna farm Project and/or
the Calverton Community Oasis.
Church Council recommendations since the start of the
project include a proposal to build a crèche in the church
building to provide young families who wish to worship
with us. This was a new recognition that children and
young parents need catering for within the actual context
of living worship – the recognition of a specific cultural
need; a proposal to localise the management of the
Church’s community project – an acknowledgement that
local people should take power over their own
community’s destiny, and an agreement to develop a
‘community corner’, displaying examples of the life,
culture and history of Calverton, in the main body of the
church building – a recognition of the pride of Calverton as
a place of significance and uniqueness.
In terms of the employment of the Administrative Goals
and their strategies, the clearest example of a Statement
of policy arising our of these is the document presented to
the Manna farm management Committee, and adopted by
the Adullam Homes Housing Association as defining the

265
‘Christian Ethos of the Manna Farm Project’. The contents
of this document are generally agreed by the Stie Team as
reflecting (in particular for Manna farm in this case, but in
general in the parish church in Calverton also) the current
state of sensitivity towards the different spiritual resources
and traditions within its life as a direct result of our M.Min.
studies as follows: -

“ The fundamental principle of Manna farm is

demonstrated in the quality of service we provide for
residents. We do not seek to convert residents to
any particular religious philosophy or faith-package.
Thos of the staff who are Christians have an even
greater reason for delivering quality service since
they believe (independently of any rules or
regulations that demand the same) that to provide
the best service is no less that their Master requires.
The Christian ethos: At Manna farm we take the
injunction of Jesus of Nazareth, to love one another
and to love God, very seriously. By his life and death
Jesus exemplified a selfless and non-judgemental
attitude towards his contemporaries. By which we
mean that he did not spare himself in his service to
others and that he announced forgiveness to all who

266
recognised that they had come short of God’s perfect
standards.
The Christian context: At Manna farm we take as
a first principle that incoming residents are entering
a unit, which is governed by Christian principles, and
in which God is already present in Jesus Christ. We
also take as a first principle that God has already
been at work among incoming residents in their
previous life. Those who come, in other words, do
not come from a place where God is not present to
Manna Farm, where he is. Manna farm is God’s gift
(χ η α ρ ι σ ) for their whole life, not a place they
need to come to in order to ‘get converted’.
The content of the Christian teaching / the
therapeutic programme: In any programme it is
necessary to have knowledge of what that
programme contains. This is necessary so that those
who have responsibility for working with residents on
the programme can be clear about what they are
doing and where they are going within the
programme. What we do not have within the
programme is ‘wild cards’ – that is, unscripted
material. This is because the programme is tailored
and specific to each resident’s requirements.
Adullam Homes is directly answerable for this

267
material and its consequences. Unscripted material
can throw the whole programme off-beam and leave
staff open and vulnerable to criticism if its use results
in inhibiting the therapeutic programme or creating
conflicts within the therapeutic setting of the project.
Unscripted material of a religious nature should not
be used in the name of Manna farm either on or off-
site.
Christian Pilgrimage in the life of residents:
Manna Farm has been given various individual
residents who have come here from their own
Christian contexts. Some have been Christian
evangelists; others have been brought up in
Christian homes, and yet others have accepted Jesus
into their hearts and have been filled with the Holy
Spirit … and yet they have become victims of
addiction despite all this input from God, the church,
and well-meaning people. At Manna Farm we affirm
this experience – we do not deny it or strip the
experience of its irony. In other words, we do not
require residents to regress back into this religious
dependency (which is what it is). Instead, we seek to
move them on, if they are wanting to be moved on,
without denying their experience as human beings
and as Christian people. Manna farm believes that it

268
is a staging-post in the lives of residents. It is
inappropriate to divert residents from their primary
purpose, which is the therapeutic programme.
Christian Ethos and secular Agencies: God is
present in Christ in the whole of life, and this
includes the secular agencies. Often, these agencies
as institutions and the individuals working within
them understand themselves as also being within the
will and purposes of God – and often they are. It is
part of their experience. But also part of their
experience is working with the demands of their own
agencies – which do not include any reference to
God. Manna farm holds these people in deep
respect. As a Christian organisation Adullam Homes
also has its oen professional arena in which
reference to God is inappropriate. Where this is the
case, it acts professionally- as do all other agencies
that are working professionally.
Of Life in Christ and the Resources of the Holy
Spirit: It is common for Christians to find
themselves at a stage in their Christian life when
they are subject to forces that are not under the
control of the Master. At these times, God carries
them because once claimed and saved, no one is
lost. It is part of this ‘carrying’ that we at Manna

269
 farm are engaged in. Cooperation with the
sustaining and life-giving activity of the incarnate
God for people. To deny the original claiming and
saving is to place the individual into a regressed
state, and they are likely to remake the same
journey again, having learned nothing from it. What
we aim to do is to take residents from where they are
to where they want to be. What we do not want to
do is to simply place them at the start again so that
they re-start the cyclical process. Part of achieving
this is not to require a New Start in Christian terms,
but to help them access those forces which are
under the control of the Master.”

This Document represents an important sea change in the

parish Church’s understanding of itself as a church within
the community. ‘Resident’ in the above document refers
equally to ‘resident’ in community terms (anyone living in
Calverton). ‘Manna Farm’ refers equally to ‘Parish Church’
as a locus in Calverton. ‘On-site’ and ‘Off-site’ refers
equally to being ‘in or out of Calverton’, the ‘programme’
refers equally to mission strategies, pastoral practice,
ministry and contents of the parish church’s minutes in the
parish as to the particular programme of the Manna farm
therapeutic programme, since what the parish church is

270
engaged in is the ‘Therapeutic Programme’ of God through
Christ to the whole community. The ‘Manna farm Ethos
Document’ is therefore a paradigm of the present state of
Calverton Parish Church’s developing sensitivity towards
valuing and providing places for the different spiritual
energies and traditions within its current life. The Manna
farm Document provides the ‘format’ required in
Administrative Goal Two of this Change Goal for
addressing the requirements of the three main cultural
sections of the parish church. Together, these reflect
enthusiasms and energies that were already resident in
the congregation and have now been given recognised,
and given the opportunity of expression.

Change Goal Two

“ To sensitise the congregation of Saint Wilfrid’s

Church to the multi-faceted nature of the parish in
order to prepare itself for a new role.”
The task we set ourselves of providing occasion for local
people to express their mind about the pros and cons of
barriers (Administrative Goal One) was too big for the Site
team and too expensive to achieve out of the small funds

271
of the parish church. In the event, the Nottinghamshire
Rural Development Commission has agreed to undertake a
Village Appraisal in Calverton and to make the result
available to local people. This is due to begin in a months’
time, but too late for inclusion in this essay. One of the
questions in this document will relate to the Second
Administrative Goal (barriers to church commitment).
When this information becomes available, we shall be
better able to address Administrative Goal Three –
establishing a programme for exploring the plusses and
minuses of barriers. This part of the process took a long
time, and is unfinished. What did come out of our studies
was the need to address the question.
With regard to the Fourth Administrative Goal – to provide
an occasion for the celebration of barriers within the
parish, we had a party on the vicarage lawn. The barriers
addressed were however, those we had seen reflected in
the Gospel / temple images. Perhaps another occasion is
needed – after the Village Appraisal – when the whole of
the parish will celebrate its differences.
We did address the issues of barriers to some extent
however. It seemed to us that in the world there was
always conflict, and that this was also true of the church.
Certainly in our small realm of Calverton there were
always battles going on, both outside and within the walls

272
of the church. In considering some of the sociology of
conflict, we were reminded that there were both positive
and negative aspects and also that conflict was an
essential part of living. We considered the definition of
social conflict offered by Coser,
“ Social conflict … is a struggle over values and
claims to scarce resources, power and status in
which the aims of the opponents are to neutralise,
injure, eliminate their rivals.”
Resulted in a description of power, which is gained through
the violent overthrow of a rival.
But the fact that our settlement was culturally and socially
multi-faceted did not seem to us necessarily to imply the
need for the violent overthrow of rivals, and we discovered
some radical insights when we considered the nature of
the power taken and exercised by the human Jesus. It was
instructive to consider the reflection given on the human
nature of Jesus by Warren Dicharry, C.M.,
“ It seems, especially according to the Gospel of
mark and the Council of Chalcedon that (1) Jesus, in
his human nature, possessed neither beatific vision
nor all infused knowledge during his earthly life; (2)
he was conscious of being the expected Messiah and
the Unique Son of God, a conviction derived from
faith, mystical experience, and God’s own personal

273
 revelation; and (3) that as human he was limited not
only in knowledge, but also in power, although in
both (it appears) he far exceeded other human
beings because of his lifelong growth in ‘wisdom, age
and grace’. Lk. 2: 52.”
He goes on to investigate the nature of the hypostatic
union, saying that as a divine person Jesus was absolutely
impeccable, but in his human mind he was aware of this
only by faith.49 The church shares in this mystery in
relation to power. As the expression of the temple (or
‘body’) it is absolutely impeccable, sharing in the divine
power of Christ himself, but in its temporal, militant and
ecclesiastical expression it is aware of this only by faith
(the church is not a school of philosophers). As a result of
this, when it is behaving at its best, it does not impose
itself as a unit of force upon its surroundings, taking every
opportunity to neutralise, injure or eliminate its rivals, but
occasionally – and against both nature and social conflict
theory – offers itself as a sacrifice for the good of others.
The words and actions of Jesus stand in contrast to the
words of the sociologists,
“ Greater love has no one than this – that to lay down
one’s life for another…” may be alternatively re-worded to
read, “ Greater power is exercised by no one than this…”

49
Op cit p.44.

274
The status of servant; the power of sacrifice and the
resource of faith. This is supported by passages such as Jn.
1: 16, “Of his fullness have we all received, grace upon
grace.” He who was himself full of grace has imparted
grace to others, and, Colossians 1: 19, “ It was the good
pleasure of the Father than in (Christ) should all the
fullness dwell’ & 2: 9, “In him dwells all the fullness of
Godhead embodied.” Taken by themselves these
statements might be theological statements about the
essential nature of Christ of the same order as John 1: 14,
“The word was made flesh…” but in both places in
Colossians Paul goes on to speak of what God has done for
the Church through Christ: “… and through him to
reconcile all things to himself.” 1: 20, “… and in him you
are made full” 2: 10.
Paul is thinking chiefly of the fullness of the divine grace,
which is in Christ, and by him made available to the
church. The value of, and claims to status, power, and
resources are turned upside down in this divine
dispensation and the nature of Christian discipleship
becomes such that it seeks to imitate and follow Jesus, the
suffering servant, and of his people, the suffering servant –
that the valuable goal of the reconciliation of all things in
him is achieved.

275
This results in the church in Calverton re-discovering its
role – whish it has always fulfilled when it has been
behaving at its best – as a servant to one another and to
the host settlement.
The exercise, early on in the Site team’s work, of
discovering as much as possible about the settlement in
the Situation Analysis, provided a common task which
produced a bonding within the Team and resulted in the
amassing of a body of material which continues to be of
great use to the parish church in formulating goals and
strategies in its committees. It is to be recommended. In
a sense, this cannot be too greatly stressed. It provides
the church with a focus for its planning and activities, and
requires it to sit down and think about how its enthusiasms
can be effectively directed so that it knows when
something had begun and ended rather than be taken
over by them, resulting in a sense of failure and
irrelevancy when they eventually fizzle out through a lack
of energy to sustain them. This process of ‘listening’ to
the settlement, ‘feeling’ where its people and institutions
are at – was honouring to the people who live here
because it gave them value as a specific and distinct
group. Calverton was not ‘just another country town’ like
all others, but it was this town, this village, unique and
unrepeatable. And the church, not just the Site team,

276
values this. In pastoral terms it means that when the
Gospel is proclaimed, it is proclaimed to Calverton, and the
challenges of the Gospel are accurately directed and
accurately interpreted for this specific community, so that
when the factory burns down, it is presented as a disaster
of major proportions even though it registers ‘zero’ on the
news media Richter Scale.
Our evaluation of the Second Goal has been that it has
provided the parish church with a database of both ‘hard’
and ‘soft’ information specific to Calverton. This has
become part of the decision-making process of the church
Council, its sub-committees, and of the thinking of each
member of the congregation. The database is being
continually added to as a result of this good practice,
which the church has acknowledged.

Ministerial Competencies
The three areas chosen by the Site Team for
development of ministerial competencies were
Candidate’s personal witness in the
community, education and Christian
discipleship / life teaching, facilitating through
listening.

277
 Candidate’s Personal Witness in
the Community.
An essential part of the Candidate’s personality is that he
is confident in his expression of views and opinions.
This is generally valued by the community at large, and
this is witnessed to by the fact that he is a published
author and established newspaper columnist – in which
areas he carries his same style of expression into the
public arena. This confidence however is occasionally
understood as insensitivity, crudeness, or a lack of culture
or vocabulary. In relation to his work as a vicar, this
impression is heightened because ‘You do not expect a
vicar to talk in this way…’
To some extent this is an adopted style. One of the
principles of good communication which he has adopted in
his writing and speech, and to some extent in his dress
has been that of the ‘common denominator’ – what some
may call ‘dumbing down’ or appealing to the lowest ability
and therefore including all. This clearly does not always
work, because there are those who are unreachable by
this method, namely those who may object to being
included as being among the ‘lowest ability’. But
alongside this, he feels, there are many more vicars who
seek to communicate only on the remaining levels, thus

278
excluding these people. He feels that his choice went
some way to balancing this.
The question being asked by the Site team was, whether
this speech and dress approach or ‘style’ alienated people
from seeing the Candidate as a ‘Man of God’. Whilst Jesus
was a man of his time, and the New testament was written
in κ ο ι ν ε (common) Greek, he nevertheless took the
point and agreed to develop this area in the following
ways: -
In visiting bereaved families he would always wear a dog
collar and suit.
In visiting families with a view to them joining the Financial
Covenanting Scheme he would wear a suit and dog collar.
He would wear a suit more often when walking through the
parish, and when attending Church Council and sub-
committee meetings, and at meetings with other agencies.
He would seek to modify his choice of language in
conversations at the above occasions.
The overall evaluation of development in this area relies
upon judgements regarding the effectiveness of funeral
and funding visits, and attendances at meetings of various
kinds.
Feedback has been on a personal level as follows: -
Positive comments from bereaved families to the
Candidate himself and in notices in the local newspapers.

279
The sight of a vicar in a suit on the doorstep in the wake of
a death is reassuring and comforting because it is
traditional and because parishioners feel it is honouring
both to them and to the memory of the deceased. Dress,
the Candidate noticed, effects authority, confirms an
assertive personal approach and offers bereaved families
who are confused and vulnerable an ‘anchor of security’
upon which they feel they can rely. Long interviews with
families interested in joining the Covenanting Scheme,
resulting in an excellent response and a good increase in
the parish church’s income. To what extent this is due to
the wearing of a ‘uniform’ is difficult to evaluate, but the
fact of a rising income may witness indirectly to dress and
choice of language. Certainly, one effect has been to give
the impression to potential Covenanters that the vicar is a
professional and knows what he is doing. At least, he
looks and talks like a vicar!
To what extent does the wearing of a suit during a church
Council meeting, having styled hair, using less than
common language and wearing a pleasant perfume
develop effectiveness? But it was requested for
development, and the Candidate adopted it, and people
appeared to appreciate it. One effect it does have in
meetings is to lower the personal profile of the candidate
and allow others to contribute to the discussion.

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 Education and Christian
Discipleship / Life teaching

As was noted in the Ministerial Competency Assessment,

there was no formal Christian Discipleship or Life teaching
programmed into the church’s life at that time, and so no
way of the Site Team assessing competency. But it was
felt that this was an essential area of any church’s life and
needed to be introduced. The candidate was happy to do
this since he felt the same.
A programme of Christian Discipleship / Life Teaching was
therefore introduced by the Candidate.50 This took the
form of approaching the issue on a number of levels.
The candidate undertook to teach a series on ‘The Signs of
the Kingdom’ for the Southewell Diocesan Education
department in their 1992-3 programme entitled ‘Food For
Thought – Diocesan Adult Education and Lay training
Opportunities.’ This attracted fifteen mature Christians
from across the Diocese who completed a series of
fourteen sessions over two terms. These teaching
sessions were shared with two other clergy from the

50
See p.19f (above)

281
Southwell deanery, and a follow-up course is being
planned. Reports from those who attended were that the
course was very helpful and that they wanted a further
course to be organised.
On another level the Candidate organised a ‘Christian
Basics Course’ in 1992, which produced a good attendance
of about twn individuals. This was parish based, and
taught by the Candidate and five members of the
congregation on one evening per week. There was a
regular attendance of about ten and the course lasted six
weeks. This was repeated in 1993 and the same
programme was used. The overall result has been an
increase in members attending courses of Christian
education and receiving Christian and Biblical life skills
education and training. The intention is to continue the
same course in 1994. Responses to the courses have
been very positive and the courses have resulted in about
ten members of the congregation gaining skills and
experience in sharing their faith in an educational /
training environment. The candidate counts this initiative
as a major development in ministry and competency over
the past two years.
To date there has been no movement regarding the actual
take-up of the Junior Schools Religious Education package
by the Church School in Calverton, but negotiations are

282
currently being joined with the Finance Committee and the
Church Junior School of a neighbouring villager who are
using the package. There has been an increase in interest
from other schools in Calverton in resourcing the church
for education, and particularly from Manor park Junior
School for the Candidate to teach a series of lessons on
the place of the church in Calverton, which he is currently
engaged in teaching. Comments from teachers and the
Head Teacher thus far have been appreciative. The
candidate counts this as testimony to good development
in this area over the past two years.

Facilitating Through Listening

There were two major areas of pastoral practice in which
the candidate focussed this attempt at development.
The first was with regard to funerals. Combining his own
pastoral experience with advice from Dr. Tony Walter,51
whose advice is drawn from a background in social
sciences and his own personal experience, he decided to
adopt the practice of recording and noting-down what the
family had to say about the deceased and her / his life
and times, and any reflections the family might have.
Although this would eventually result in a funeral oration,
the actual process of listening was psychologically
51
Dr. T. Walter. ‘Funerals and How to Improve Them.’ C. S. Lewis Centre. 1990 p.142-144.

283
important for the family because it empowered them in
taking control of their situation and to involve themselves
in the detailed and necessary process of mourning: -
“ The psychological value of participation in the
funeral by family and friends is that it helps to make
the funeral, and hence the death, real. Cutting
flowers, procuring a death certificate, kissing the
corpse, carrying the coffin (retelling the story – my
insert), even just touching the coffin, are all actions,
which make sense only if someone has died, only if
the box contains a corpse. Sooner or later my beliefs
catch-up with my actions, and I perform actions that
imply someone has died, my heart will pretty soon
come to accept the fact … but it is possible for
mourners to come away from a funeral with hearts
that still do not believe someone has died … the
priests and psychiatrists are wise if they allow family
and friends to carry out minor acts of participation.”
The Candidate has adopted this practice for the past two
years and has had words and letters of appreciation from
families, friends, and the Church verger and from Funeral
Directors. In his estimation, this is working.
The second area of pastoral practice in which the
Candidate has sought to develop listening skills has been

284
in his relationships with the multitudes of church
committees. This has been done on a number of levels.
First, by taking the job of Secretary to one of the
committees, which has meant hearing and recording
accurately what has been said.
Second, by taking the role of chair of a committee. This
has used a different form of listening, which has required
the Candidate to know what is on the agenda and to
ensure that everyone present has their say, and that
nothing on the agenda is missed.
Third, by being a member of a committee in the role of
ensuring that the implications of what another member
has said are brought to light, aired, and resolved, and that
in difficult situations where what a member has said has
been ignored, or inadequately addressed is addressed to
the satisfaction of the unheard member. There can be
many dynamics in a committee meeting which are not
stated but which members are privately aware of but
which are not addressed. This results in a feeling of
frustration and occasionally member resignation results.
A result of this exercise has been that previously
uninvolved individuals have become involved in the
committees especially people who had been intimidated
by the idea of joining. They feel that they are valued by
the other members and that what they have to say is not

285
‘silly’, ‘over the top’ or ‘ignorant’. This has been a
particularly valuable exercise in the context of what we
are trying to achieve as a church, which is a ‘family
feeling’. All members of our family ought to have a say,
since it is the family’s business and we all have a stake in
it.

The Situation: How Has It Been

Changed?

At the beginning of the project the church saw itself as a

disempowered, traditional rural church, which had lost its
key role as the centre of the village. What it did have
however was a desire for change.
There was a sense in which change was not possible. The
buildings were a ‘given’ and needed to be attended to
financially and in terms of care and local image.
But there was a real sense in which change could be
achieved without doing damage to local images of the
church and without violence to the thinking of those who
saw themselves as ‘traditionalists’.

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The Church has revised its image in the community.
In the past three years the church has transformed its self-
image by settling alongside the traditional images an
image of itself as again a centre of the settlement. But
this centrality is not, as it was, the place where the squire
and vicar and local top brass had their religious club for
the benefit of the poor of Calverton and to further their
own social, political and cultural aims. This kind of
centrality has moved to other places such as the Golf Club,
the political parties, the health centre etc. This new
centrality has been described as like that of the temple in
Jerusalem, the temple in Heaven and the temple of the
Holy Spirit. It is a place where the glory of God dwells.
Whether at any given moment or in any given situation
that temple is an individual Christian or the fabric of the
parish church doesn’t alter the basic fact. The parish
church in Calverton is central to the settlement because
that is the place where the glory of God is, whether it be a
heart of flesh or a building of stone. Either are applicable,
both are credible – both to the Christians who live in the
settlement and to those who are not Christian and who live
here.
The Church has revised its self-image.
Because of the setting-up of the Study groups, the building
of the Crèche, the establishing of a specific ‘community

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corner’ and the various multi-level education programmes
the congregation feel themselves to be part of an ongoing
and developing process. The influx of new members
provides an opportunity for continuing self-appraisal and
critical examination of the church’s aims and objectives.
The recent financial troubles of the Church Commissioners,
well publicised in the national media, has become as much
a subject for discussion in the public houses as the latest
peccadilloes of government ministers or soap opera stars.
This provides a constant grass-roots rapport with non
church members and encourages individual members to
take a stand and have a view in the community.
The Church has gained a new confidence.
There is a feeling in the membership that they understand
the host community better than they did a few years ago.
And because so much has changed in the settlement,
those who have engaged in our recent discussions are
those who know the most about contemporary Calverton.
The idea that the church has something very specific to
offer in terms of its being a locus of the glory of God, along
with its traditionalist and generalist contribution to the life
of the settlement, has focussed members’ thinking and
given them a foundation upon which to build whatever
particular contribution they want to make to their work,
the settlement, or family as individuals or a group.

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The Church has established itself as a provider of a
major resource.
Over the period of the M.Min studies, members of the
congregation have engaged themselves in the support and
development of the Manna farm Addiction Rehabilitation
Project in Calverton. Some members are on the Project
Management, others have become volunteers, some are
consultants to the Project and others have undertaken to
hold the Project and its staff and residents in their prayers.
This involvement has occurred alongside support and
development of the Oasis Community Project in the
settlement. Members have had to allow their prejudices to
be confronted and to become informed about drug use,
AIDS/HIV, issues of poverty and psycho/sexual abuse. But
at the same time they have witnessed at firsthand how a
small local congregation can have a partnership with
statutory national bodies and be an essential and
necessary component in the provision of a major
community health resource.
The Church has revised its religious ethos.
Because of the constraints of the secular funders to both
the above resources on the communication of religious
beliefs, those who are involved have had to revise the way
in which they provide Christian input. The policy for this,
which has been developed nationally and locally, is that at

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both farm and Oasis the Christian faith of the organisation
is demonstrated in the quality of care and provision, not in
the promulgation of Christian dogma.
In other words, just lie the church-as-temple, we have to
trust that the glory of God in both institution and individual
will have its own drawing-power and its own self-witness.

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291
 Chapter Seven

Some Messages

The people of our town expect their parish church to be

certain things. We have looked in this study at what some
of those things are. We have called one of the main
groups of these expectations, ‘The Parish Church as the
Temple’.
From this, we have realised that a large number of people
who live here see their town in such a way that can be
called ‘Jerusalem’. That is, the place where they find
peace, that is, God, roots, their social and spiritual home,
wholeness and freedom from dis-ease. This is their
Shalom, and it is largely a secular condition of being.
What we are not saying is that the whole population – or
even a large minority of them – actively seek God in their
local temple. We are saying that a significant number of
them do, however, and that what the project was partly
about was looking doe Signs of God’s Kingdom or rule in

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Calverton and to link in to that as a source of
empowerment. We are saying that we did identify this as
a sign of the presence of that Kingdom.
We understood that a church growing in power needed to
strive to have a mature attitude to its host community in
which it has its own space.
The way we began doing this was by considering the
parish church as an institution in the context of other
institutions with which it found itself to be involved. This
may seem to be obvious enough, but the fact is curiously
neglected in most discussions of the relations between
churches and society. A great deal of attention had been
paid to what the attitude of the churches ought to be to
other institutions, and of what the attitude of others ought
to be to churches, but it has generally been with regard to
safeguarding the institutional freedom, and sometimes the
privileges, of churches, or else to ensure that their
interests are adequately safeguarded in the arrangements
made by other bodies over matters where churches
consider themselves to be very directly concerned, such
as the education of children or laws dealing with family life
and sexual morality. There is a vast literature produced
from a Christian standpoint about the state, the economic
order, education, international affairs, race relations and a
whole range of maters of public discussion. Yet is all this it

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has not been common for theologians in particular to see
the church as one institution, or a group of institutions
among others in the general life of the community, itself a
vital factor in the give and take of social and civic
relationships. This interdependence of institutions is
particularly a characteristic of the traditional English
society in which the major institutions are at least thought
of as being essentially interdependent. This is very much
the case among local people. It is important that the
parish church should think about itself in this way in
Calverton, first, because this is the way in which
Calvertonians think about it, and if the roots of this plant
are to develop and produce local fruit they need to be
planted in the local soil. It is important, secondly, because
it is a sign that the church is approaching its
empowerment in the settlement with the concreteness
that both Old and New testaments require. To continue
the horticultural analogy, there has been a plant here
since the very early days of the Christian mission. Over
the years it has undergone numerous life-cycles – each
time, we feel, when the plant has grown old and fruitless, a
new seed has been planted. We have seen this cycle even
in the short space of three years in relation to the
Calverton Pentecostal Church and our Baptist Church and
most recently our Roman Catholic Church. We have

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experienced it also in our own Community Facility, which
in five years has been planted, grown, died and cleared
and planted again. The seed has developed and grown
and produced its fruit for that season. My understanding
is, that within the parish church we have recently
witnessed the clearing of one patch of these fruitless
plants, or they have died, and the bare patch now contains
some adolescent plants (this does not mean that individual
Christians are adolescent in their faith. It means that as
an institution parts of the parish church are at that stage).
In his analysis of the Pauline notion of the church as the
body of Christ Ernst Käsemann52 brought out how, very
specifically, almost literally, the complementary metaphor
of ‘the body of Christ’ was meant, and this was, for him
also, a process of secularisation. If we take the term
‘secularisation’ in a neutral, descriptive sense to denote
the church’s attempt to express in terms of the conditions
of life in the present world insights which derive from a
reality which comes from beyond this world, we can regard
the church itself, as the primary form of the secularisation
of the Gospel – the body-ing forth of Christ’s Spirit in the
world. In other words the putting on of the mantle of the
power of God in pursuit of Christ’s mission in the world,
which is the working for His Kingdom.

52
Ernst Käsemann. ‘Perspectives On Paul.’ SCM Press. 1971.

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The analogies of the Temple (in all of its analogous Biblical
forms), I believe, not only allow this process but require it.
And it has the added benefit of providing a ready local
metaphor as a vehicle for the otherworldly insights of the
Gospel message. I now teach the 7-year olds of the local
state school that the parish church is God’s House – that
this is the place where God is especially present; that the
crosses that are about the building are like God’s
photographs of His Son (they remind God’s guests of
Jesus), and that God lives in people, too, and sometimes
God’s people, like God’s building, wear crosses. This, I
feel, employs some of the Temple Insights and links-in with
an indigenous metaphor.

This Model for the Churches.

Theological colleges are in a process of decline but there is
an increasing desire among the laity in Southwell Deanery
for more involvement in the church’s mission. The failed
property investments of the Church Commissioners have
no doubt been a spur to this. Certainly in Calverton there
has been a genuine desire to offer lay gifts for the church
in the deanery to utilise. The theological insights arising
from seeing the Church-as-Temple may offer one
structural model for addressing the use and deployment of
these gifts.

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This Model for the Secular State.
As I have said, there are different forms of secularisation.
The secularisation of the church is one thing. The
secularisation of the powers-that-be is another. The
secular authorities welcomed the presence of the built
temples among them. The temples became part of the life
and self-definition of the host communities. They also
welcome the embodied temples – Christians as temples of
the Holy Spirit – today. Of all the volunteers, fore
example, who serve in secular capacities in Calverton, the
majority have some contact with the churches or find
some source of inspiration in Jesus of Nazareth. These are
the ‘embodied temples’ of contemporary Calverton. God’s
project is in the world. It is not of the world, but it is
certainly in it. This means that the Christian mission will
not find itself without allies in its body-ing forth in the
world. There will be receptors already in place for the
Gospel to link with.
Is this metaphor only applicable in Calverton’s particular
situation? There arte thirty pit of post-pit settlements in
Nottinghamshire which have parish churches. All of these
communities would reflect very closely what we have
found in Calverton. Some would be ‘1960s Key Villages’,
like Calverton. There could be a direct application of this

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work to them and also to the villages who look to them for
public and commercial services. There would also,
probably, be the same direct link in the remaining pit and
post-pit in the rest of the country. Further, there are
thousands of parish churches who are not pit-related but
whose populations are largely commuter / long term local
people. Much of what we have learned could be applied
there also.

For Ministry and Mission.

The parish church as community centre is an area of
practical ministry that may develop from aspects of this
study. Certainly it is being talked about in the church and
community. Such a development would naturally flow
from what we have learned. In ten years time in Calverton
the parish church will be a community oasis in an urban
area. The conurbation is steadily approaching, and the
recent death of the landowner of a tract of land between
the present conurbation and settlement has raised local
fears about how his estate will be administered. There is a
feeling of inevitability about this, and the parish church
ought to be planning a realistic role for its future presence
in the settlement. There are national factors (atheism, a
state educational policy that prohibits evangelism and the
technological development and internationalisation of

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farming), which will hasten the secularisation of the parish
church. Alongside this, and as a corollary of it, the
church’s history of service to the community will provide a
rich soil in which church-as-community-centre will easily
grow.
The temple imagery, although in a sense exclusive (the
temple is the temple of Calverton only) has imparted a
new missionary confidence to the people of the temple.
Of the total membership of St.Wilfrid’s church about a
quarter have been seeking and finding theological and
Christian pastoral education from the Southwell Deanery
structures. They are wanting to serve God and the church
with informed minds, and under authority from deanery
and diocesan tutors. This is a sign that although they see
the image of their parish church as temple and their
habitat as Jerusalem, this is not a confining of exclusivising
model. Although their settlement and their local church in
some sense ‘own’ them, it does not own them as a
possessive parent or spouse, but as one which offers
freedom to experiment and investigate further afield, and
to offer the gifts of the temple to others. There is a sense
in which the Deanery is overlaid on the parish, and the
diocese is laid over that, and the secular city over that.
Just as the temple reflected all levels of society so these
components of the deanery and city are not dispersed into

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geographical compartments, but levels of the whole. They
can and do work together and of course these people live
and work in the secular city. It is their ‘situation in life’.
The achievement of the temple imagery (on all levels)is
not merely that it does not lift them out of their context,
but that it places them firmly within it and empowers them
to engage in their mission and ministry even more
effectively with it.

For the Nation.

H. W. Richardson53 gives an insight into what the parish
church might be like in time to come when he says that
there are fundamental defects in the traditional western
interpretation of the Christian faith … it places a
disproportionate emphasis on the New testament, and fails
to give an adequate place to Old testament teaching … it
has neglected the work of the Holy Spirit and the
communal life of the church as God’s present Kingdom. It
lacks a theocratic emphasis and proceeds under the
banner of sin and crucifixion rather than in terms of
worship and incarnation …
The image of the temple, which we have adopted, will lead
into an understanding that God’s end in creation is the
sanctification of the world. So that when a nation seeks a

53
H. W. Richardson. ‘Theology For a New World’. SCM. 1968. Ch.V.

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‘way’, it is not offered a set of morals based on the sinless
character of the Crucified One which no one can emulate
which represses the moral failures of those who hold
power and wield influence, but an all-pervasive, ever-
present, all-inclusive matrix of faith and community, in
which to have faith is not to be a member of an
indoctrinated minority but simply a normal person. The
church is the temple and the temple is in Jerusalem, and
Jerusalem is the homeland of us all.
For the Day of rest.
The ultimate activity and the one towards which all other
temple activities are directed is the worship of God in the
gathered faith-community. The Sabbath having been
already established and part of the administrative
structure of the way the temple is managed is the
occasion on which this activity especially takes place. It is
for all. It is in this context that the following address from
Ralph Waldo Emerson to his senior class at the Harvard
Divinity School in 1838 is quoted: -
“ Two inestimable advantages Christianity has given
us; first, the Sabbath, the Jubilee of the whole world;
whose light dawns welcome alike into the closet of
the philosopher, and into the prison cells, and
everywhere suggests, even to the vile, the dignity of
the spiritual being. Let it stand for evermore, a

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 temple, which new love, new faith, new sight shall
restore to more than its first splendour to mankind
…”54
What the church-as-temple provides above all else in the
society in which it is placed is this watershed, this break,
this barrier, and this link into and out of the mundane
course of everyday living. Whether it be an ordinance for
a particular people at a particular time or an essential
element for the health of the human race (man for the
Sabbath or Sabbath for the man), it is nevertheless there,
and its provision and continuing availability is a form of
mission and ministry to the world which only the church
can or will ensure.

For the Nature of Christianity.

The temple imagery is shot through with the implication
that each member has a role and a gift to exercise. It
does not imply this only for the membership, but for the
whole of the population, and for all the resources of that
population. In Calverton we have seen the increasing
identification and implementation of every-member and
every-belonging-person ministry. This must be further
encouraged. Whilst it is necessary to lock the gates of the
parish church to discourage vandalism, arson and robbery,
54
‘The Divinity School Address: Three Prophets of Religious Liberalism.’ C. C. Wright, ed. Boston 1961,
p.111f

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yet still these gates, like those of the temple, must remain
open to all.
Sunday tenuously remains a ‘given’, as does the parish
church. But both are under attack from lack of interest
and commitment among the general population, and a
lack of understanding of their real spiritual role among the
churches. If what we have said in our study that the
parish church is perceived as the temple in Jerusalem,
then this is a profound observation about the national
psychology. Where else is there a local leader (that is
someone to whom the role of leadership is generally and
acceptably applied by the majority of the population) who
is seen as being even-handed, uncommitted to a political
or social party-line, available to all on every level and free
at the point of delivery of service and whose main aim is to
energise local voluntary activity for the good of all?
Only the parish church.
This is a great gift to any settlement, however failing,
incomplete and fallible any particular individual finding
himself or herself in this role may be.

The Main Contribution of This Work.

The main thing you would find from this work is that the
administrative role of the parish priest is a gift from God.
It is a charis, whose purpose is to sustain the work of

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ministry. It is through this gift that all other exercise of
gifts in the local church are enabled. Without the gift of
administration, parish churches throughout the land would
be struggling for survival.
Our own experience of the lack of exercise of the gift of
Administration in both secular and religious institutions in
the past decade in Calverton has resulted in the loss of at
least two churches and one major community facility.
We understand that it is fair to say that the so-called
‘Remarkable gifts’, especially the gift of tongues, have
traditionally not received sufficient emphasis in the
Anglican parish churches, and therefore some over-
emphasise them in their churches now, this lack of
emphasis may lead into disabling church members from
exercising their gifts in the church. But the lack of
exercise of the gift of administration results not only in a
pertly disabled congregation, but the break-up and
dispersal of whole congregations.
On the other hand this study also directs churches to
consider what this teaches. That we have discovered
(along with other parts of the charismatic movement) a
cardinal Biblical truth: the truth that religion is a life to be
lived in fellowship; a conflict, which can be carried on only
in groups. This religion finds expression through a church
in which every person from the vicar across the whole

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membership ‘according to the grace that is given to us’ is
called to exercise a gift, effectually working for the good of
all.
The fact that some of these gifts are ‘secular’ ought not of
itself prevent the church from employing them, nor should
it prevent some who have these gifts but are not regular
attendees or even members from the right of exercising
their gift to the good of all through the administrative
structures of the parish church.

What I Want to Say to the Whole Church Now.

It has not been easy to engage a whole population in a
debate about itself. On the other hand, the most often-
used word in the English language is the first person
singular. The extent to which this exercise has achieved
its aim is of course the extent to which the settlement has
voiced its feelings on this matter and to what extent it has
been heard. We feel that we have heard it in some
degree. What we have done is taken the trouble to listen.
This was not easy. We began by trying to impose our own
understanding on the settlement. But we were guided into
listening more carefully, and this essay offers the fruits of
that listening exercise.
Any future project of this kind should begin with both a
commitment to listening and willingness to hear what is

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being said. It will sometimes not be easy. Hard things
happen and lessons that are difficult for pride to learn.
There is a need to divest oneself in the Incarnational
sense, to see where people are really coming from. It will
need also the humility to begin by administering what is
already ‘given’ in the situation rather than trying to add
bits on or by riding hobbyhorses.
In one sense the problem has moved further away as a
result of our exercise. We have been able to report a
consistent numerical, spiritual and financial growth in the
congregation over the period of the project. This creates a
temptation to become self-satisfied and to abandon
further mission. But in another sense we still have an
unchurched population of about 6,000 people in the
parish. This needs to be held onto as providing the
ongoing urgency for our missionary activity.
Given a role, tasks and responsibilities, people will
generally speaking respond positively. But there needs
also to be a centre of authority from which these tasks and
roles proceed. Not only that, it must be a source which is
consistent, even-handed and equal for all. This is not the
role of the lead minister (vicar), but of the administrative
structure. The lead minister will be a fallible person with
personal tastes in theology persons, traditions. The

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structures must be capable of including the vicar in their
scope.
Where the administrative structure has all of these
qualities, conflicts between personalities are less likely to
happen, and when they do, are more amenable to being
resolved by the suitably gifted.

Creation, Independence and Stewardship.

Biblical references:
Genesis 1: 9-13, 20-25, 26-28.
Leviticus 25: 23, 46 & 53.
Ezekiel 34: 4.

Old and New Testaments show the reality of a creator God

who is both author and sustainer of creation, and who
makes a commitment to sustainable environment through
humankind. The imperative ‘…and God saw that it was
good’ links together the unfolding narrative, stressing the
interdependence of all things. Dominion is not
‘domination’. Human beings are stewards, not possessors.
The Hebrew for ‘dominion’ is ‘radah’, which is ‘to keep
order in a way that is not harsh’. There is a summing-up in
the crucified and risen Lord, which affirms the role of
humankind as God’s co-creators. The watchdog of this
process in the parish is the Christian congregation, for it is

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this group above all who have a future hope, which is not
based in this world’s goods but in the rewards of the world
to come. It has an ‘otherworldly’ insight, of which the
temple is a hermeneutical metaphor.

Community / Koinonia.
Biblical references:
I Corinthians 12: 26
Galatians 3: 28
Leviticus 25: 35-36
I have avoided using the term, ‘community’ in this essay
for the reasons given above – that it has been co-opted
into such diverse meaning in so many disciplines that it
lacks a clear, specific and precise common content. The
Old Testament understanding of the nature of humankind
is essentially corporate and interdependent. We live in a
fallen world where what is good is corrupted and distorted
at both the personal and corporate level. The New
Testament inherits and develops this understanding.
Understood Biblically, ‘community’ signifies people in
relationship sharing the same realities, including material
possessions, incorporated in the being of God. This holds
together the tension between individual freedom, the
needs of the community, and doing justice to both.
Without this vision, the settlement will perish (Proverbs

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28). The parish church, or better, the local congregations
as the temple on all of its levels, is both a guardian and
mediator of the common values and order in the
providence of God. An example of this in practice in
Calverton today is the Church’s involvement in the
Training and Enterprise Council, and its aim is to both
guard and mediate whatever justice for the miners and
their families it can now in collaboration with the miners
themselves and the local authority, voluntary and
statutory organisations and government, and to have an
eye on the medium and long-term social, psychological
and spiritual needs of the area. Under the Training and
Enterptise Scheme (TEC), Calverton is getting a specific
boost in the process of reindustrialisation. With the
decentralising of industry out of Nottingham city into small
towns and rural areas, and there are tight restrictions on
how this can happen in Calverton as can be seen with
regard to the abattoir issue, there will be jobs for many of
those made redundant from the pit. There will inevitably
follow an influx of public and private services. In terms of
future hope, despite the worldwide crisis of employment
change resulting from new technology, Calverton appears
to stand in a good situation and a fair land.55 One
indigenous perception of this fair land is ‘Jerusalem’.

55
‘Faith In The Countryside’ A.C.O.R.A., Churchman Pub. Ltd. Appendix F p.375

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 Appendix 1.

‘ Stockings for a queen, Black Diamonds for her

Subjects.’
Précis of a thesis by K. Godfrey, miner of Calverton 1968.
Pages 8-10:
History of stockingers’ machinery in Calverton.
William Lee invented a ‘rough’ machine, which made a
pair of stockings, which he sent to Queen Elizabeth, who
accepted the stockings but forgot the sender. Two years
later he took his invention to London. Lord Hunson
brought him to the Queen’s notice. She visited his
workshop in London but refused a patent saying that it
would put her industrious subjects out of work. He went to
Rouens where he set up a small factory. He died soon
after. His brother established the manufacture of hosiery
in London under a monopoly granted by Charles II. Soon
eht industry spread to the provinces, becoming the staple
industry of Nottinghamshire. A few of these craftsmen
became wealthy, purchased numbers of machines, bought
raw materials in greater quantity and hired machines to
industrious cottagers. The had become merchants,
supplying raw materials and machinery to workmen,
paying them for their labour and collecting the finished

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product. These were called ‘Cock Stockingers’. This
system persisted through early 19th Century. However, it
was a domestic system, scattered over a wide
geographical area in which collection and distribution was
expensive and hazardous. Factory management soon
emerged with the machines and craftsmen under one roof.
Supervision was easier, production increased and more
profit was accrued to the owners. By mid-century the
market became saturated and unemployment ensued
among the Stockingers. Ned Ludd, a Stockinger, led fellow
workmen in a revolt against the owners, smashing
machines and burning factories. A factory of this era still
exists in Calverton, as do many of the original Stockingers’
cottages. Windles Square, now a very pleasant close was
originally a row of stockingers cottages which was then
adapted to a residential factory where the workers slept
between the frames. There is another factory on Main
Street (burned down since the writing of this thesis),
opposite Wright’s Garage. This was Dovey’s factory. John
Dovey, born in1885, still lives in the village. The last
stocking frame fell silent at Calverton in the mid-1050’s
although a good number of machines still exist.

Pages 23-26:
A personal Local View of Old Calverton.

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Many now classified as ‘Old Calvertonians’ either owned or
worked and laboured on these machines. The unique
buildings of the contemporary village are their own
production, which provide the village with its historical
character. They play or watch cricket, which was their
youthful pastime. Many have died in ripe old age though
some remain in their 70’s-90’s. Much of the stockingers
housing stock is owned and lived in by the descendants of
the stockingers.
Pages 26-30:
A personal Local View of The Pit Culture.
June 1937 saw the start of an alienating process that was
to continue to the present day. No longer would everyone
in the village know everyone else who lived there.
Strangers from Ireland and the Highlands came among
them. Links were broken and others forged that were
beyond the control of the villagers. The Bottom Estate,
newly built for the incomers, ghettoised the incomers.
Fast-talking union men soon ousted the Vicar, the Doctor,
the Colliery Manager and a Magistrate from the Parish
Council and appointed a Road-Layer, an Electrician’s
Labourer and two Haulage Men. Very soon the Old
Calvertonians found themselves ghettoised. They fought
various rearguard actions by ostracising those providing
homes for the strangers, but it was a futile effort. In an

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attempt to bridge the rift, the Village Hall Committee
provided £500.000 towards the building of the Welfare in
the centre of the village. But on completion the
management was put into the hands of strangers and no
provision was made for the hiring of rooms by the Choral
Society, St. John Ambulance Brigade, Brownies, Guides,
Boy Scouts. The Welfare soon became a glorified public
house with subsidised beer for the incomers with a narrow
range of entertainment from single vocal acts to Sunday-at
Noon striptease attracting males from all over Nottingham.
Lacking management, personnel and accounting skills and
with a restricted breadth of provision, the committee were
unable to make the facility pay. (The Welfare burned
down in 1991 and the land now contains expensive
housing).
Pages 31-33:
A personal Local View of The Churches.
The strength of the churches seems to lie in adversity in a
community absolutely indifferent to their existence.
Mutual support and survival among the members saps
their entire strength. The Durham miners brought little
with them to Calverton save whippets, pigeons, leeks and
six of the seven deadly sins, lacking the energy for the
seventh. The impact of the incomers on Calverton is hard
to imagine and impossible to reconcile. The vague air of

313
uncertainty one still feels in the new village is however
countered by the stolid tower of St. Wilfrid’s parish Church.
This has stood – or parts of it – since Saxon days, and
personifies the feeling of solidarity and indestructibility of
the old.
Candidate’s Comment:
The sympathies of the writer clearly lie with the Old
Calvertonians although he was himself a medical officer in
Calverton Colliery. The document is endued with a longing
for a gentler, more intimate lifestyle than he then found in
1968, and is overwhelmingly nostalgic. The writer does not
believe in some ‘Golden Age’ however. He is clear about
the deprivations of the frame-workers and their
apprentices, and about the hubris of monarchs, nobility
and power-holders. The confrontation of his longing for a
simpler life and the reality of living in Calverton is placed
into the hands of a spiritual God, totemised by the parish
Church. No reconciliation is expected from this side of the
grave. There is a great gulf fixed between the older
members of the two cultures, but a new, less
confrontational culture is in process of forming among
second-and-third generation Calvertonians.
Ken Godfrey has functioned as a church organist for many
years and has most recently been occasionally available
as organist for Funeral Services for local people.

314
 Appendix B
The Church As Temple
Detail of the Display presented by the M.Min Team at Southwell
Deanery Congress.

The Church as Temple =

Calverton as Jerusalem,
Churchgoers as the Eschatological Community,
And Worship as Empowerment.
1 The Shekinah of God = power for service.
2 The Ark of the Covenant = assurance of
Forgiveness.
3 Fire from Heaven = Enthusiasm (‘in-breathing’).
The purpose of worship is to build the Temple.
The Temple is the meeting-place of Heaven and Earth.
In the bible there are 3 physical temples +
4 composed of the redeemed of God.
The transcendent God immanently available is engaged in
1 Energising the building and
2 Empowering the people.
Behind us is:
A wandering Aramaean … Wealth & Poverty in Egypt …
Faith and Faithlessness … Wilderness and kingdom … Exile
and Babylon Diaspora.
With us now is:
The Eschatological Community.

315
Before us is:
The New Jerusalem … God and the Lamb = the Temple.

316
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Master of Ministry and Theology
“The Parish Church as Temple.”

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1969.

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Boff, L. ‘Church, Charism & Power: Liberation Theology

and the Institutional Church.’ Trans. J.W. Diercksmeier
from the Portuguese Igreja: Charisma e poder. 1981 SCM
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Brierley, P. ‘‘Christian’ England: What the 1989 English

Church Census Reveals.’ Marc Europe. 1991.

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Brown, Colin. ‘New International Dictionary of New

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Buchanan, C.O. (ed) ‘Anglican Worship Today: A guide to
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Chamberlain, N., Foreshaw, E., Goldsmith, M.

‘Understanding Inequality: A Handbook for Local
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Charley, J. ‘Key Words: The Bible.’ Lutterworth Press. 1971.

Coggins, R.J., Houlden, J.L. (eds) ‘A Dictionary of Biblical

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Davies, J. D., & Vincent, J. ‘Mark At Work.’ The Bible

Reading Fellowship. 1986.

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Authors of the New Testament.’ The Liturgical Press.
Minnesota. 1990

Dodd, C.H. ‘The Parables of the Kingdom.’ Collins. Fontana

Books. 1963.

Douglas, J.D. ‘The Illustrated Bible Dictionary.’ Vols 1, 2, 3.

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Frankenberg, R. ‘Communities In Britain: Social life in town
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Gedling Borough Council. ‘Gedling Borough Local Plan

1990.’ Gedling Borough Council. 1990.

Godfrey, K. ‘Stockings For a Queen, Black Diamonds for

her Subjects.’ Unpublished paper on Calverton by a
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Green, L. ‘Power To The Powerless: Theology brought to

life.’ Marshall Pickering. 1987.

Grass, M & A. ‘Stockings For A Queen: The life of the

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Jenkins, D. ‘Christian Maturity and the Theology of
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Tillich, P. ‘The Shaking of the Foundations.’ Penguin
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 The Candidate and His Care of the Churches

Manna Farm Rehabilitation Unit

Volunteers
Chaplaincy
Board Member
Social Services
Housing Association (Adullam)
Management Committee
Community Liaison
Unit Staffing & Personnel
Policy & Programming
Tripartite Management & Policy
Funding (Gov., SS & Adullam)

Religion
Worship training
Worship Leaders
Vocations
Sermons
Vestments
Library resources
Exposition etc
Theology
Study

325
 Pastoralia
Evangelism
Missionary activity
Schools
hospitals
Funerals
Prisons / Y.O.I's (Young Offenders’ Institutions).

Sex Workers Forum

Sex Workers Rep
Police & Community Liaison
Working Group
Social workers
Detached Community Worker

Sub Committees
Finance Fabric Funding
Committee members
Covenant Recorder
Financial Visitors
Church Treasurer
Secretary
Chair
Worship
Committee Members

326
 Prayers & Readers
12 persons + Rota
Music Group
5 persons
Sidespersons
14 persons + Rota
Organist(s) / Musicians
Rota
Bells, 7 persons
Council of Churches
Ecumenical & Civic Services
Methodists Clergy
Baptists / Pentecostals
Roman Catholics
Chair
Secretary
Mission & Outreach
Committee Members
Chair
Secretary
Social & Catering
Committee members
Chair
Secretary

327
Education
Voluntary Aided School
Employment
Curriculum
Governors
Community contacts
Entry qualifications
Worship
Sunday School
Teachers
Curriculum
Services
Church Council
Wardens
Faculties
Trustees
4 Sub groups
A.G.M.
Chancel committee

Treasuries of various kinds

Bank accounts
Trusts
Alms

328
 Committees holding ring-fenced or specified target
funds

Community Project OASIS

Statutory Agencies
Police
County Council
Social Services
Voluntary Groups
Nearly New Clothing
Welfare Rights Advice
Wood Carving
Tapestry
Youth Club
After School Club
Drop-In
Community Forum
Co-ordinator
Employment Law
Management Committee Chair
Tasks / roles/ Specification
Advertising / Interviewing procedures
80 Contacts (Representatives).
O.K. Club
Trustee

329
 Finance
Play scheme
Toy Library
I. T. Training Courses
Funding Bodies / Charities

Charities
Jane Pepper Trust
Trustee
Chair + 4 others (Committee)
Missionary giving
Educational grants

Diocesan Synod
Bishop (diocesan House)
Sheffield University
Deanery Synod

St.Wilfrid's School
4 School Committees LMS
Governors (Chair)
Staff & children

Publicity
Church Magazine

330
 People
14 Deliverers
Pastoral Visitors
Proof reader(s)
Public Media
Radio Trent
Radio Nottingham
Catchpole's Column
Television
Books & Articles

Miscellaneous
Magazines/Newsletters
Pit villages & miner church links
Deanery Chapter
Bible Study Groups
Groups support
Retreats
Tutor Role
Educational courses
Cursillo
Radio & TV

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 Candidate And the Care of the Churches
(‘Mindmap’ of the above)
Page I

332
Page II

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Rev’d. Roy catchpole. September 2007

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