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PLENARY and PARALLEL SESSIONS – ABSTRACTS

ABSTRACTS UTRECHT JUNE 2010

PLENARY SESSIONS

PLEN. 1 Alister McGrath

“Theology, Worship, and Ministry: The Consummation of Theology in the Life of the Church”This lecture begins from the premise, to be illustrated from the works of Augustine of Hippo, C. S. Lewis, and Stanley Hauerwas, that theology gives us a vision of reality which enables us to see things in a different way. The manner in which we see things determines how we behave. The lecture applies this insight to the life of the church, exploring how it generates a functional ecclesiology that is both theologically grounded and capable of empirical application. The importance of this approach will assessed by considering its impact on such questions as cultural engagement, a theology of place, the action of worship, our understanding of the identity and agency of the minister, and the place of academic theology in the life of the church.

PLEN. 2 Harald Hegstad "From congregational studies to congregational development. On the different modes of ecclesiology."According to Don S. Browning’s model of practice-theory-practice, theology takes place in the movement between descriptive, historical, systematic and strategic practical theology. As a cross-disciplinary theological field ecclesiology is conducted in several “modes”, such as descriptive ecclesiology (church sociology, congregational studies etc.), historical ecclesiology, systematic (dogmatic) ecclesiology and strategic practical ecclesiology (including congregational development). Understanding these disciplines as parts of a comprehensive theological enterprise raises the question of the various disciplines’ identity and how they relate and contribute to the totality. An important challenge to systematic/dogmatic ecclesiology is in what respect it contributes to the understanding of the concrete, empirical church.

PLEN. 3 Mary McClintock Fulkerson“Redemptive Disruptions and the Social Implications of Eucharistic Memory”

The church, at least in the U.S., is dominated by racial and class homogeneity. Social/institutional forces continue to reproduce inequalities and culturally embedded prejudices; however, few “strangers,” defined via markers of social marginalization, typically appear in white middle class churches. Even such practices as the Eucharist which portend to be about hospitality and welcoming the stranger are typically practiced with those “like us.” As important as change is at the social/institutional level, this paper will argue that certain “disruptions” to the comfort of homogeneity are necessary if the continued claim of Christian community to be about such hospitality has any credibility. Further, such disruptions must occur in face-to-face contexts. This paper will draw upon a public project of social memory around racial reconciliation and the resources of Eucharistic traditions to propose a model for such redemptive disruptions, arguing that face-to-face communities shaped by “traditions” of honouring the other, accountability, and space for change and transformation are crucial to addressing social sins such as racism.


PLEN. 4 Nick Healy: A (Somewhat) Chastened Ecclesiology: Ethnography, the Trinity and the Doctrine of the Church

PLEN. 5 Chris Scharen. "Ethnographic Notes Towards a Carnal Ecclesiology". It fits the themes of the conference exactly and ought to open up some new territory to explore both methodologically and epistemologically.

PLEN. 6 Helen Cameron - Theological Reflections on Third Place Church: New forms of church in deprived urban communities in EnglandThis paper reflects upon developments in a research project commissioned by the Church Urban Fund into fresh expressions of church in deprived communities in England. The aim of the research is to understand the issues encountered by practitioners and to discern their significance for policy-making in the Church of England.

The research uses action learning to help practitioners reflect upon their practice and identify issues they wish to explore further. A conference of participants has enabled further reflection upon common themes with an interim project report being published in June 2010.

This paper offers a theological reflection upon one theme. A number of groups have created places in which to encounter members of the community. These places are not church leaders’ homes, nor are they existing church buildings. Examples from the project will be described.

Sociologically they seem to fit into the category of ‘third place’ neither home nor work but a neutral space for social encounters (Oldenburg 2001). Third places can include cafes, shops, bars, garden centres – places usually associated with the mobile middle classes who need nodes in their networked lives (Ward 2002). They offer flexibility with the agenda set by those who use them rather than those who run them.

The paper discusses the sociological significance of the third place in deprived communities and the disengagement from existing church buildings. It then reflects theologically upon these places as sites of possible missional encounter with the emphasis on friendship rather than proclamation (Cameron 2010).


PARALLEL SESSIONS: SESSION 1

I. Mark Beach - The Ecclesiology of John Tiller – ideal blueprint or concrete reality.”

John Tiller’s Strategy for the Church’s Ministry was published in 1983 and immediately sidelined by the Church of England’s General Synod, indeed the opening speech in the debate by the bishop who chaired the Advisory Council for the Church’s Ministry began “This report has only the authority of its author.” Hardly a ringing endorsement! My paper, based on my Dmin research at King’s College, London will explore the background to the report, its underlying theological assumptions and seek to develop an ecclesiological framework to help understand why the report was sidelined and why many of its recommendations have found their way into the life of the local church.

My paper will begin with an analysis of the social and political environment in the late 70’s and early 80’s, exploring the period following the publication of Honest to God, the failure of the Anglican Methodist Unity conversations and the creeping process of secularisation which I suggest led to a loss of morale within the church generally. This will provide the contextual background to an exploration of the main themes of the Strategy.

In order to place Tiller’s Strategy within an ecclesiological framework, I will then explore the work of Nicholas Healy, who’s Church, World and the Christian Life proposed an ecclesiological distinction between an idealised blueprint and a concrete reality.

I will also suggest that Tiller’s use of language, his place within the hierarchy of the church and his somewhat slim theological foundations for the Strategy all conspired against the effective translation of his ideas into practice – “idealised blueprint or concrete reality”?

By way of conclusion I will address the lessons to be learnt by Tiller’s experience and develop a model for change within the church which has integrity in the light of the ecclesiological model I have proposed.

II. Robert Calvert: Ecclesial patterns among migrant churches in Rotterdam

III. Rein Brouwer: Rooted in the order of creation: koinonia theologically and empirically

IV. Henk de Roest: Surprised by God at street level. A practical theological analysis of the theological identity of Dutch street pastors.

The paper is based upon self-portraits given by five street pastors, answering questions that were presented to them. The portraits were discussed among the complete group of twenty Dutch street pastors and analyzed with regard to intentionality, receptivity, reciprocity, community formation and concepts of man and God. We see how both the pastors and the homeless people long to be surprised by God.

V Casper van Dorp - Integral youth ministry as model for post-modern congregational development.


SESSION 2

I. Silve Kvamme Bjoerndal - Church in a Secular Society-PhD paper abstractHow can the local congregation more adequately understand itstheological identity in a secular society?With this question as a starting point, I will in this paper discuss howStanley Hauerwas contributes to and challenges the understanding ofchurch, with his particular outlining of an alternative community.Hauerwas' ecclesiological key themes, such as church as a polity, as asocial-ethic, and as a "storied" community, will be examined withreference to Charles Taylor's understanding of a secular society. In orderto do this, I will first present Taylor's project with focus on how he viewsthe role of religion and religious communities in the North-Atlanticcontext.The paper's intent is to argue what key themes that may provide aconstructive contribution to the local congregation's self-understanding, inorder for it to more adequately be an authentic Christian community in asecular society.

II. Pete Ward & Doug Gay: Festivals as Ecclesial Life?: A study of Greenbelt'The paper is based on an empirical study using auto-ethnographic techniques with 10 people who attended the festival and kept journals. There will be both theological and cultural analysis in the paper. With internet access etc. we could probably do it with some clips and other things to illustrate the festival.

III. Jakob Thorsen “Have You had Your Personal Encounter with Jesus?” Methodological Reflections about a Fieldwork among Charismatic Catholics in Guatemala

Abstract: My paper is a methodological reflection on the use of an ethnographic approach (fieldwork with participant observation and interviews) to the theological study of lived faith in Christian communities.

The empirical background is a qualitative study of how Charismatic Catholics in Guatemala reinterpret and negotiate traditional Catholic dogma and practice in the Church-institutional setting of everyday parish life. The fieldwork was carried out in a parish in Guatemala City between June and December 2009.

In the paper I present three main arguments:

The ethnographic approach is necessary when studying current theological and ritual developments in new Christian traditions such as the Charismatic/Pentecostal movements. This is especially the case when the object of study is how traditional Christian practice and official dogma is negotiated and reinterpreted in a local religious practice that ‘only’ has an implicit theology. In order to engage this implicit theology in a discussion with scholarly theology and official dogma, ethnography is helpful.

The ethnographer being a theologian is both an obstacle and an opportunity: A non-Charismatic theologian conducting fieldwork within a Charismatic Christian group is both an


outsider and an insider, an apprentice and an expert. When trying to grasp and describe the emic view of the group and its members, the theologian must be extremely careful not to translate it unconsciously into a scholarly theological language just because words and expressions are familiar. On the other hand this familiarity – a brother among brethrens – does give an opportunity for the theologian and the informants to explore the meanings of central Christian concepts together, when these are shared in preaching, praying and in discussions. Or to cite Robert A. Orsi: “The challenge is to balance carefully and self-reflectively on the border between familiarity and difference, strangeness and recognizability, …” (Orsi 2004: 3).

The theologian working as an ethnographer should take the inter-subjectivity of lived faith as a starting point and involve his (or her) life in the process of reflection. His (or her) research should be a “tentative, interpersonal examination of particular religious idioms within a carefully described social field that includes both the researcher and persons he or she talks with, in which the conversations they have are both what is being studied and how it is being studied […]” (ibid.: 174). The question: “Have you had your personal encounter with Jesus?” was posed to me several times by informants during my field work. Taking that question serious, and exploring the Charismatic field – in interviews, discussions, prayer meetings, healing rallies and retreats – with that question on my mind, became a breakthrough in my understanding of what Charismatic renewal is all about.

IV Erik Borgman: But can we call it Church? How the wrong question produces aporetic answers

V Gerben van Manen: Meeting Point for IndividualsThe Local Church as Liberating Community round the WordIn this paper I will explore the soteriological value of the local church in modern western society. In line with the preaching and sharing of Gods Word, the human community which originates around the Word has a redemptive and exhortative effect on the human self. The ecclesiastical community can be observed as an important link in the salvation and conversion of individuals who are by nature curved in on themselves. Encounter with the other in the local church can be a factor in the liberation of homo incurvatus in se. In this paper the redemptive potential of the local church, as a community around the Word of God, is explored in the light of the reflection of the German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) on the double conversion of the closed self by a twofold call on the individual. This call on the self comes, according to Rosenzweig, firstly from the loving God and secondly from the neighbour who waits for love. According to Rosenzweig, the naturally egocentric individual is in the event of God’s Self-revelation to man and in redemptive moments of encounter with the other called to do acts of love. From this perspective, I will approach the local church as a place where individuals encounter God and each other. The starting point of this approach is not the church as a community, nor the Word which creates this community, but the self-centred individual, who in the community round the Word is being opened for God and other people. In the local church individuals are saved for society.


SESSION 3

I Erling Birkedal: Congregational development in folk church parishes

The context is the Church of Norway, a folk church where more than 80 percent of the population is member. Norwegian School of Theology runs a three year congregational development project, in cooperation with ten congregations in two different dioceses and in partnership with the diocesan staff. The congregations are different in many ways, but all are folk church parishes, most of them with several thousand baptised members.

The project aims are:a) to analyze theological and social scientific premises for congregational development

in folk church parishes b) develop tools for analysis of folk church parishesc) examine how a congregational analysis may function as a starting point for a

developing process in the congregation

A PhD-project has specific focus on the first aim, theological and social scientific premises. We use different tools in the working process with the congregations, such as making congregational timeline, presents relevant statistical data, make survey and doing interviews. In this work the research officer have some research assistants in each parish. During the project period we have several meetings with local steering group, separate or as clusters.

The project is both a developing project and an action-research project. We stimulate the parishes in specific developing processes in the period we describe as a common journey (about to and a half year), but will also stimulate the parish board to work ahead on the developing process. At the same time we have a research process going on where we investigate the local developing process and also the cooperating process between the parish and the external consultants.

The presentation will introduce the theoretical perspectives underlying the project, as a developing process in a folk church. I will give some glimpses of how the project is planned and going on, and our experiences so far.

II Veerle Rooze: Space for Theology, Place for InnovationDeconstructing organisational concepts and stimulating theological reflection within congregational models and practice as starting point for innovation. How can processes of renewal be traced within religious contexts that are highly transitory? The ambiguity that characterizes the Dutch religious context complicates the recognition of innovation in communities of belief, especially because traditional binaries and categorizations (e.g. old and new, local and regional, liberal and orthodox forms of church, etc.) tend to prevent the recognition of renewal instead of revealing them.

In this paper, this issue is approached by deconstructing dominant organizational concepts within prevailing models of evaluation and development in the practice and theory of congregational studies. The use of poorly reflected and pretheoretical organizational concepts within congregational studies can be reductionistic for a theological understanding of communities of belief. By presupposing transcontextual and disembodied concepts of community, theology becomes subordinated and isolated. By widening the range and variety


of concepts and approaches used within the field of organizational science, space could be found for theological reflection.

This inquiry explores possibilities for an approach in which the performative, embodied and relational character of theological reflection is explored as constitutive for communities of belief. A practice-based and cooperative inquiry will be presented, using relational and dialogical methods in a newly formed congregation in one of the large new housing areas in The Netherlands. These areas can be regarded as liminal places for belief and community development. Here, more than elsewhere, is the linkage between context and community, but also the relation between history, tradition and experience under question. By focusing on this process of meaning making within a community, reflection on the relation between concepts of organization and the space for theology can be stimulated. Next to that, possibilities can be found to acknowledge theories of practice and to stimulate new forms and processes of renewal and innovation within a religious context.

III Kees de Groot: On sociological preferences in ecclesiologyEcclesiological views on the position of the church in the world of today often contain theological translated preferences for types of organization and types of modernity. This paper specifies these types in order to promote an analytical distinction between sociological preferences and matters of faith. (Of course, in practice they cannot be separated completely).The church (in my research: the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands) is a mixed organization, i.e. an organization that combines three types of activities: mutual support, service delivery and campaigning. Each type raises its own theological issues. This organization is moving from a solid to a liquid modern context, i.e., from a context which defines religion in terms of institution, registered membership and denomination to a context which defines religion in terms of (the experience of) community, choice, and spirituality. In the Netherlands, this transition is accompanied by a decrease of religious participation. As a result, there is a dispute about the evaluation of the service to these non-practicing Catholics, and about the appreciation of religious seeking. My thesis is that the Roman Catholic Church is in fact present in liquid modernity in various ways, just like it was in solid modernity, despite anti-modern statements. However, ecclesiology should not be guided by preferences for a solid, or: liquid, type of modernity. Ecclesiological reasoning should recognize the characteristics of the church-as-it-is and the world-as-it-is, and then distinguish the spirits on the basis of Bible and Tradition.

IV Jos de Kock – Utrecht: Church being a community: implications for catechesis from an educationalist point of view

One of the possible characteristics of local church congregations is that these are communities of believers. A community implies togetherness among participants: they share more or less their time and life spheres with each other in the local context of the church, both in and in the environment of the church.

As a result of a rapidly changing religious and cultural landscape, local churches in The Netherlands are challenged in their ‘ being a community’ . This is especially true when it comes to Christian youth participating in Dutch churches. The religious identity development of Dutch youth is not merely connected to one local church community anymore and is highly fragmented nowadays.


Not only youth identity development is fragmented, also the local churches become more and more fragmented in what they offer as religious formation. Churches seem no longer to be ´learning communities´ but religious organisations offering a variety of disconnected activities in which youth can learn more on diverse religious issues. This tendency is also observed in how catechesis is organised in nowadays Dutch churches and the roles ‘teachers’ and ‘learners’ have in catechesis practices.

From an educationalist point of view, three different role divisions between teacher and learners can be distinguished. The first division reflects a behavioral model, the second one a developmental model, and the third one an apprenticeship model of learning. In this paper these three models are elaborated further and in particular their consequences for catechesis within churches are discussed. The paper shows the apprenticeship model in catechesis, with an accent on participating in practices, fitting best the church’ ambition of being a community. Next, possibilities and examples of this model in the practice of catechesis are discussed.

V Leo Koffeman: Decently and in orderThe role of church law in congregational development

As from May 1st, 2004, three Dutch churches merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PCN). The Church Order of the PCN was the result of more then ten years of intensive debate. One of its key characteristics is that it leaves much room for each congregation to develop according to what is deemed appropriate in that specific context. Many examples of that intention can be given.In 2009 an intensive and broad inquiry was organized in order to evaluate the experiences on the local level. Did the congregations experience church order regulations as giving enough room, indeed? If not, what kind of hindrances could be identified, and which solutions in terms of changing regulations could be suggested? Many congregations responded and shared their experiences. A report to the general synod (November 2009) identified nine major themes and eleven relevant trends. A process of revision of the Church Order was initiated. This paper focuses on the question how theological and practical arguments are to be related in this revision process. On the one hand, the PCN wants to maintain a strong ecclesiological profile. On the other hand, there are clear indications that practical experiences challenge traditional ecclesiological views, in terms of e.g. the role of church councils, ordained ministry and other ministries, the value of a ‘territorial’ congregation, etc. The paper will conclude with some more general observations as to the role of church law as a theological discipline.


SESSION 4

I Pat Keifert & Pat Ellison: Doing theology in, with, under, against, and for local churchesWhat means do the scholar, spiritual leader, and public have at hand to gather, examine, narrate, interpret their past and present situation in order to open themselves up to discernment of God’s calling of them into God’s mission?

We will show how history, demographic trends, and finance are theological, and how scripture, formation of Christian community, and worship form empirical reality.

Researching local churches and the various publics they serve as well as the academic institutions that serve them must involve quantitative methods meant to predict and control, qualitative interpretive methods that help us understand, and qualitative critical methods that help us to unmask systemic distortions. All three methodologies help us carry out the key moves from first naiveté to critical moment to second naiveté that can lead to emancipation and movement.

II Theo Hettema: believe in the WWW church. Ecclesiological Statements of emerging churches on the internet ‘All true believers should assemble together in local churches’, ‘We try to form a family, supporting each other’, ‘each believer needs a local church’. The web presentations of emerging churches show explicit and implicit statements on the church, laid down in self-formulated creeds and mission statements. In this paper, I examine some statements and expressions, taken from Dutch websites. I look to the question how views of the church are made explicit through the new medium of the internet. These views raise some systematic questions: How do concepts of the local church relate to the idea of a worldwide web? Is the internet only a means of expression for ecclesiological convictions, or does its mode of self presentation influence the idea of a church?

The paper connects to the conference’s interest in research on new and alternative ways of being church, and the question as to how systematic ecclesiological reflection is embodied in the local church.

III Andrew Root - Exploring a Forgotten Method of Relating Theology and the Social Sciences: Examining Bonhoeffer’s Sanctorum Communio for itsTheological Interdisciplinary Implications

An essential component of practical theology is interdisciplinarity; in the last few decades a number of interdisciplinary theories have been offered for how to associate theology and the social sciences. Yet, few of these theories have had the local congregation or the practice of ministry central in their theoretical construction. Rather, for most, the explicit or implicit addressee for their interdisciplinary theory has been the University. While this has allowed for rigorous theory, it has not helped local pastors or ministers to do ministry in their contexts – contexts where the association of multiple disciplines may be helpful.

This paper explores a method of relating theology and social sciences often forgotten by contemporary theologians, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Sanctorum Communio, which utilizes an interdisciplinary method that might address the practice of those in local communities. By entering into a dialogue with American sociologist Peter Berger’s critique of Sanctorum Communio, the author seeks to articulate Bonhoeffer’s method and to place it


within the larger ‘families’ of interdisciplinary work in practical theology. The paper concludes by sketching out a possible method for future interdisciplinary work in practical theology following Bonhoeffer that relates disciplines to one another in a de facto manner governed by the social ethical responsibility of ministry to the human other in the concrete and local.

IV Gerard Mannion. ‘Negative Subsidiarity and the Clerical Abuse Crisis: Shifting Responsibility for the Sins of the Universal Church onto the Local’This paper explores the aftermath of the release, last November 26, of the Murphy Report on how the Archdiocese of Dublin handled the clerical abuse crisis. Recent events in Germany and elsewhere mirror those in Ireland. This article offers some reflections from the standpoint of both ecclesiology and ethics alike, and particularly with regard to their interrelation. The culture of spin is concerned with preserving, protecting and promoting the ‘image’ and thus serving the interests of particular individuals in positions of privilege and power, as well as the image of the institutions whereby they gain and enjoy their positions of privilege and power. The Murphy Report in Dublin demonstrated clearly that such naked expediency in the Dublin archdiocese prevailed over the welfare, rights and integrity of victims of abuse. But we must take Dublin as a representative instance of a much wider ecclesiastical malaise. Too many commentators on the abuse crisis have fallen into the trap of allowing attention to be focused primarily on diocesan or at best national instances of the crisis. The Vatican has allowed attention to be deflected from itself towards individual dioceses and national Episcopal conferences, even though the present Pope is adamant that the latter have no official teaching mandates in and of themselves. It is strange that the Vatican accepts no responsibility for the multiple failings of church leaders that it appointed itself. It can be demonstrated that these sorry events were not motivated by matters of theology – sacramental questions, nature-grace and church-world distinctions, the doctrine of the two realms or rendering unto Caesar etc. Rather, the situation appears to have, as a norm, been always a case of sheer and naked expediency: the interests and image of the institution and its senior leaders routinely taking priority over the victims of horrendous crimes. In this paper, I explore how at national and then the universal level of the Roman Catholic church, the responsibility for the many crimes and the compounding ‘sins’ of church leaders in covering these up and enabling abusers to escape scrutiny and the judicial authorities has consistently been projected onto increasingly localised notions of the church and personnel relating to the same. But the problem runs deeper still as the response from Rome, itself, fails to acknowledge or adequately repent for the responsibility of its own Curial officials in first of all introducing and then in perpetuating the default culture of secrecy and refusal to face up to the moral realities of these sorry and tragic scandals in the church’s life across each continent. The recent papal pastoral letter to the People of Ireland, itself, can be analysed as a further example of what can be termed a ‘negative subsidiarity’, i.e., a strategy to fix the focus of the media and wider social and political world upon the local churches in order to deflect attention away from Rome. We should not allow the recent focus on Ireland, Germany or elsewhere to detract attention from the much wider malaises that continue to beset our church. This is a global problem of a global church. It requires a global solution.


SESSION 5

I Rothney Tshaka: ‘Towards a more engaging church for the changed and changing South african context’.

My paper attempts to call for a serious engagement of church and society. the current situation is such that issues relating to church and the public have been shoved to the back of many important conversations. This is I presume due to many changes which caught the church ill prepared in terms of its public calling.

II Reggie Nel: How does one develop grounded, bridge-building ecclesiologies? A reflection on using the praxis cycle of Holland and Henroit in a small local community, in Johannesburg, South Africa

We need bridge-building ecclesiologies. The question is how one develops these. How can our different theologies bridge these gaps? Frans Wijsen (2005) argues convincingly that the different ways of doing local theology developed from the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EAWOT) was in response to dissatisfaction with European theological epistemology and methodology. He surmises that the gap between the practitioners of two forms of theology, i.e. the academics and activists, has widened over the past few decades (2005:129). From a Southern African perspective, I argue that this is still the case, but that it’s not all lost. The current conversations, here, on ‘missional’ and ‘emerging church’, but also on ‘postcolonial’ church, may be signs of hope, in bridging this gap. What is however critical is an inquiry into the epistemological and methodological pre-suppositions that under-gird these reflections. For Wijsen, the gap between ‘theory-oriented’ and ‘practice-oriented’ research is a false dilemma and suggest that the ‘practical-theological spiral is not just a pastoral method aimed at problem-solving but a strategy for developing theories in the scientific sense of the word a grounded theory approach to theology’ (:130). In my doctoral research I take up this challenge and use an adapted version of this methodology to develop a grounded, [Southern] African missional ecclesiology, in dialogue with two uniting youth movements. I do this as a part-time pastor in a small, predominantly coloured community in Johannesburg; yet a community in transformation, amongst others, as a result of an influx of refugees from other African countries. The challenge now is to bridge various gaps and developing uniting missional ecclesiologies. I reflect on my usage of this methodology and make proposals on its relevance, in the wider discourse on developing missional ecclesiologies.

III Paul Collins: What masks does the local church wear?Aim: to investigate how worship, fellowship and mission of the local Church are different ‘masks’ and how these impact on its function as a hermeneutical community To begin I will argue that the Church’s function as hermeneutical community means that as the Body of Christ, the Church wears different ‘masks’. I will assess the use of ‘mask’ in philosophy in relation to metaphysics, and include an analysis of ‘prosōpon’ as ‘face’, ‘mask’ and ‘person’. I will relate this to 2 Corinthians 4.6 in order to root discourse on ‘mask’ with its Christological and ecclesiological implications. The first section of the paper will discuss the local church as wearer and interpreter of (a) the Tradition; (b) its particular church tradition; (c) its local tradition(s). This will include


discussion of the relationship between the local church and the function of the Church catholic as hermeneutical community: and how the different masks worn for different purposes coincide (or not). This discussion will be facilitated by reference to Gillian Rose’s understanding of the Broken Middle and her appeal to the ‘trinity’ of the universal, particular and singular. The second section of the paper will investigate the local church as wearer of the masks of tradition and interpretation in its activities of (a) mission; (b) witness; and (c) inculturation. This discussion will be facilitated by appeal to the work of Martin Stringer on the hermeneutical implications of acts of worship.In conclusion I will set out initial suggestions as how the different masks worn by the local church in worship, fellowship and mission facilitate our understanding of its function as hermeneutical community and bearer of meaning.

IV Theodora Hawksley - “After my husband died…”: Ecclesiological Ethnography and the Hiddenness of GodEcclesiological ethnography seeks to bring together empirical perspectives on the church with theological reflection to produce a ‘concrete’, or practically helpful, approach to ecclesiology. This immediately raises the question of representation: how does the empirical reality of the church relate to our doctrinal claims about its nature and purpose? Current ecclesiology’s emphasis on the church’s ‘concrete’ reality means that doctrinal approaches are often seen as abstract: the more doctrinal our approach to the church, the more it is unable to take account of the complexities of lived faith, and hence the more divergent from reality it becomes. This paper challenges the idea of doctrine on which concrete ecclesiology currently relies, and develops a different account of how doctrinal claims relate to ecclesial reality, based on seeing doctrines as mystery and relation, as well as grammar and proposition.

This challenge is articulated through a reflective theological reading of my ethnographic fieldwork in a Church of Scotland parish. After several months ‘in the field’, my attention was drawn to how the elderly women of the parish told stories relating their faith to their experience of life and their involvement in the church. Understanding their experiences in a doctrinal framework was a process of discernment that was ‘lived forwards, but understood backwards’. Doctrine appeared in their experience of church not as a metanarrative opposed to the complexity of their lives, but as a slow coming-to-realise the presence of God in confusion, complexity, and particularly in bereavement. Drawing on these stories of the hiddenness of God in experience, my paper draws out specific theological lessons about how we see the interrelation of doctrine and ‘reality’ in representing the concrete church.

V Daniël Nel - Being surprised by God after an epistemological conversionThis paper explores how theology and the social sciences are related when they focus upon the church in local contexts. The author deals specifically with some ontological and epistemological questions that are relevant to empirical research: What is the nature of the relationship between the research team and the object of their research? Why do theologians engage in empirical research and what do they wish to achieve? On which conditions do they claim that the outcome of their research is valid? The author aims to illustrate how issues such as these have influenced his journey in bridging the divide across theology, social sciences and spirituality. The first section summarises how three dimensions – the nature of the subject-object relationship, the aim of scientific research, and its validity – can be traced through the following contemporary models of


social science: logical positivism, phenomenology, critical theory, and a particular interpretation of critical hermeneutics. The second section illustrates how these models have moulded empirical research in missiology – even when missiologists were unaware of them. The author points out that critical hermeneutics, as interpreted by John Thompson and Charles Taylor, may lead towards a better understanding of the church’s mission in a particular context. It rejects all forms of fundamentalism (Biblical, sociological, etc.) by refuting its very base: an objectifying mode of interpretation. The latter implies that the research team and social actors (those who are “being researched”) should be partners in the research project. The epistemological implications of such a shift are also discussed.

The last section depicts how these insights have helped the author in his engagement in a local context where two congregations have become a symbol of reconciliation and unity in South Africa. It is a testimony on “being surprised by God” after he has made an epistemological shift: a theory is validated when the research team and the social actors have reached “rational consensus” that the alteration in their understanding constitutes a more effective practice.


SESSION 6

I Ian Nell: Embodied leadershipParadigms shifts in the leadership of a local URC CongregationIt stands without question that the religious sector through its leadership did and can still make a significant contribution to South Africa’s transformation agenda. This can be done by fostering bridging social capital across ethnic, cultural and socio-economic divides. Ethnographic empirical research into the leadership narratives of Vlottenburg Uniting Reformed Church (URC), Stellenbosch, shows how the leadership in this congregation moved through different leadership paradigms in a relatively short time. By making use of different theoretical frames a critical investigation is undertaken to try to understand the impact that socio-cultural changes had on the functioning of the leadership in the congregation. The research also investigates the transformative influence the leadership had on the “embodied ecclesiology” of this congregation in a low income socio-economic environment. Some suggestions are made in which bridging social capital across ethnic, cultural and socio-economic divides through leadership can contribute to South Africa’s transformation agenda.

II René Erwich - The impact of the ‘liquid church’ discourse in Dutch evangelical churches. A practical-theological analysisThe paper considers the current state of the ‘liquid church’ discourse and relates this to the impact ‘liquid-church’ thinking had in Dutch evangelical churches. The influence of Pete Ward’s book ‘Liquid Church’ has been considerable. Initially it seemed to be a reaction against the more rational and teleological concepts of church-development (e.g. Purpose Driven Church, Natural Church Development). Looking more carefully at these developments leads to a different direction in which evangelical church-structures suffer from the same erosion as in other institutional churches. The quest for newer forms of church directs itself in a deeper consideration and theological reflection on ‘shapes of liquid’. The paper looks at this development from a practical-theological point of view.

IV Theo Pleizier: Sermon-shaped church

Sermon reception research has been primarily interested in the hearer as individual. Effect researchers, for instance, study the influence of sermons on individual traits of listeners, such as the hearer's rhetorical 'settings' or his psychological make up. In a hermeneutical paradigm researchers are predominantly interested in the listener as meaning-making subject, creating his own sermon from the preached one.

In my own PhD research I discovered an important communal trait in listening behaviour. In the paper I present two conclusions. Firstly, hearers behave as parts of a larger community of faith. In opening up to listen - the first stage of listening - the receptivity of the listener is not only shaped according to his personal situation but also in a communal sense. Secondly, in hearing the sermon is experienced as a world that shapes the faith of the ongoing community of faith rather than a message that aims to influence individual minds or a piece of art that is interpreted individually.

These findings do not only challenge the way sermon reception research has been conducted until now but also enriches the field of ecclesiology with a more communal understanding of what preaching is and how preaching shapes the way believers become


part of the community of faith. A final note stresses the importance of studying local churches and how this type of research contributes to theological theory.

V Oliver Simon: ‘Ordained Local Ministry (OLM) in the Church of England’

The paper has three sections1. the notion of Local Ministry and its antecedents in the thinking of nineteenth and

early twentieth century overseas mission2. a genealogy of Ordained Local Ministry within the Church of England and an account

of some empirical research.3. some concluding reflections on its significance for Anglican ecclesiology

Roger Height’s systematisation of ecclesiology ‘from above and from below’ forms the basis of an account of Anglican ecclesiology in which operant congregational processes contend with normative representative prescriptions about the nature of Anglican orders of ministry. ‘Local Ministry’ (elsewhere called ‘Total Ministry’) is an operant rather than a normative response to changing social and economic circumstances within the Church and has its roots in an ecclesiology ‘from below’. Local Ministry gives expression to the capacity of the people of God to promote differentiated ministries such as are anticipated in the Pauline metaphor of the Body – including Ordained Local Ministry, a recovery thereby of early church practice. Empirical research suggests however that in Anglican ecclesiology such developments are not spontaneous (as suggested by Roland Allen). Rather episcope in the generalised sense of belonging to those who exercise leadership both within dioceses and within parishes is the way in which hitherto untapped charisms are being promoted.

Ordained Local Ministry is contested because it questions the professionalized (stipendiary) hierarchical account of clerical organisation which has prevailed during the twentieth century. Its significance lies in the way in which it evidences how Anglican ecclesiology is coming to privilege existentialist communities of practice (local churches or ‘parishes’) – for operant as much as for normative reasons.


SESSION 7I Tom Atfield “Empirical evidence and public theology: The Church of England’s national policy on urban regeneration and the work of local congregations.” This paper offers commentary on why national-level policy of the Church of England on urban regeneration has failed to impact the practice of local churches within the dioceses of Worcester and Birmingham. The Church’s 2006 report Faithful Cities encourages local churches to build community cohesion- ‘social capital,’ and to enter into partnerships with the government to deliver public services to their local communities. This corporate reflection of the Church has failed to become embodied in local practice. The Church of England attributes this failure to the British government becoming more reticent about funding private organisations with public money during a recession. Combining theological perspectives with empirical data, different reasons emerge. The Church’s report is questionable as a piece of public theology, as it adopts an uncritical support of the government’s paradigm of urban regeneration, which limits the ability of the Church to speak critically about it. Empirically, evidence collected from analysis of diocesan documents and from interviews suggests that Faithful Cities fails to understand local church context, as local congregations engage in their communities through individual acts of Christian charity, rather than corporately delivering services to their community. Additional evidence from public health medicine and urban regeneration studies identifies that the discourse of ‘social capital’ precludes discussion of economic inequality in society, and that inviting private organisation to deliver public services allows the agendas of private organisation to control urban regeneration. In order to impact local church practice, national-level policy of the Church of England on urban regeneration needs to root its public theology in an understanding of local church practice gained from empirical research. This may have wider significance for the discussion on how theological and empirical methods combine when studying local congregations and the wider Church.

IV Thomas Schlag: Church, youth and theology - how young people can participate theologically and surprisingly in the development of the ChurchOne of the major questions of Church development is how the young and future generation can identify themself better or at all with the important contents of christian tradition and theological "standards" of Church's community life. It is obvious that adolescents estimate classic theological themes as rather less important for their individual conduct of life. On the other hand young people have a high sensitivity for existential questions and they are longing - sometimes even desperately - for helpful answers and life orientation.So how and in which sense can the Churches offer plausible theological orientation, what kind of communication about topics like christology, eschatology is possible and what seems to work? Could it be the case that young people have higher individual potentials of an "own theology" than the adults and theologians do imagine?The paper and presentation deals with these questions from the perspective of practical theology as well as from systematic theology. The current discussion about "youth theology" in the field of practical theology and religious education theory will be presented as well as good practice of "youth theology" in different local parishes - to show that Church can be surprised not only by God but also by young people themselves.


V Hans Raun Iversen: ‘Pro me in the Age of Authenticity. The Missiological Significance of ‘Christ in us’and ‘We in Christ’.

title - communitas.co.za sup… · web viewabstracts utrecht june 2010. plenary sessions. plen. 1...

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