“On Earth as it is in Heaven” – The 2019 HeartEdge Conference - Report from Day 2

Cormac Russell addresses the HeartEdge Conference, speaking about Asset Based Community Development

In his introduction to the delegates pack for the 2019 HeartEdge Conference, Sam Wells wrote: “HeartEdge believes the Spirit is alive and working both within and beyond the church, and is especially concerned to focus on the beyond.”

Day Two of the conference sought to continue that trajectory; the first “beyond” of concern to us today being the world of finance and commerce. During Day One, I felt awash with wisdom flowing from those ‘in’ the church. Today, I felt there were times when the tide could turn the other way - when the conference might have usefully heard more from those outside. Such as the 5.5 million “micro enterprises” which make up over 96% of businesses registered in the UK today. Even if each is owned and run by just one person (people like me), that accounts for 8% of the population. Winnie Varghese said at the opening of the conference, that we “do theology with our lives.” If that is so, I think we have a lot to learn from their lives - which happen to be greater in number than those who attend church on a Sunday.

Colin Sinclair explained to the conference on Day 1 how the church must be conscious of the ambiguity of language when seeking to make connections with the world beyond its walls. My feeling, despite glimmers of hope at the conference, is that we have some way to go before ‘the church’ has found an appropriate language with which to speak about commerce and finance - beyond its current lexicon which, I feel, can often be loaded with imagery of fat cats, zero-hours contracts and big bonuses - when for most of those 5.5 million people, nothing could be further from the truth.

Whilst we are no longer a nation of shopkeepers, we are a nation of micro-enterprises whose success relies on recognising, developing and deploying talent, who every day seek to maximise limited resources and juggle conflicting priorities; enterprises which are cash flow dependent and operate on minimal working capital and so, like the salaried employees of large corporations, are often themselves no more than two pay cheques away from the equivalent of being homeless.

My feeling is that there are great depths to be plumbed from the vulnerability, flexibility, innovation and faithfulness of those who own and run the majority of businesses in the UK, which could have a transformative effect on both the way the church talks about its relationship with its own assets and how it uses them - and also the relationship between those within and without the walls of the church.That’s the end of my sermon (for the moment!) On to the conference report! 

Sally Hitchiner chairs a panel discussion on church and commerce

Day Two began with a panel discussion led by Sally Hitchiner, who joined the clergy team of St Martin in the Fields this year. The panel was formed of Jonny Kinross, Chief Executive of the Grassmarket Community Project, James Hughesdon, Vicar of St Paul’s Old Ford in East London, Fiona Smith, Minister of Ness Bank Church Inverness[PD1] , Scott Rennie, Minister of Queens Cross Church Aberdeen and Rosie Addis, Associate Rector of St John’s Edinburgh, our hosts for the final day of the conference.

Each speaker gave an account of the various projects they are involved in which bridge congregation, commerce, culture and compassion (the four C’s of HeartEdge). This included social enterprises such as cafe’s, furniture making projects such as Grassmarket, a disability gym and a community choir, to name but a few.

What seemed apparent from the way most speakers described the various initiatives was that the majority were accounted for separately (perhaps a result of the patrician methods of financing that Winnie Varghese touched on during her address on Day 1 of the conference). The consequence of this is that even if these initiatives are embedded within a church context (or even a church building) in most cases there is still, at a fundamental level, a sense of otherness about them - still an arms length relationship between church and commerce. I wondered if perhaps there is something to be gained from being more ‘estuarine’ in our thinking (to borrow imagery from Sam Wells on Day 1) - to become more comfortable with mixing the two - not only in our use of language but in our doing - by changing our processes, governance and reporting? Perhaps in offering models for such practice there is an opportunity for HeartEdge here. This ability to be flexible, to incorporate multiple streams of talent and channel it to flow in a particular direction, is a skill found in successful micro enterprises - many of whom collaborate with other similar businesses to realise success. The church can learn from this, if it is open to doing so.

I was pleased that the panel described their social enterprises briefly (there is a reason why God gave us Google) as by far the more interesting insights, I felt, came when the speakers began to consider the relationship between “church” and “commerce” in the context of their own experience.

Fiona Smith spoke about the vulnerability that comes from having just four and a half months cash in the bank when you have a historic building and a number of successful initiatives to maintain.

Scott Rennie spoke of the value of the connections made between those involved in social enterprise projects.

James Hughesdon suggested that the arduous process - the setbacks and failures but ultimately in his case the success - in securing funding to get projects off the ground, has given the St Paul’s community a new understanding of faithfulness - of their own faithfulness in God and God’s faithfulness in them.

I wondered if the institution of the church needs - to use a metaphor introduced by Sara Parvis on Day 1 - a shake up or “shipwreck” - in order to confront such vulnerability in itself. A vulnerability shared not just by the poor and the disenfranchised that the church seeks to serve, but by all of us - including those who own and run businesses. (As Winnie Varghese reminded us - “God isn’t just a chaplain to the isolated - he spoke the whole world into being.”)

Perhaps, to draw on James Hughesdon’s point, we might then expand our understanding of what it means to be faithful. To have faith in God but also in others as well as ourselves - to see their talents and gifts. A colleague of mine used to talk of the resourcing decisions we made as being like putting together a jazz band - each player is given a chance to shine at some point in the performance but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is only possible by knowing and trusting in others - having faith in their gifts as they lead us in new unexpected and wonderful directions through improvisation. Perhaps a Jazz Band is the musical equivalent of the estuary that Sam Wells spoke of? There was a lot to think - and talk - about during the break before our keynote address. 

Delegates deep in discussion!

Listening is vital for successful businesses - who need to navigate the various and sometimes competing needs and perceptions of those who have an influence on or who are influenced by their success or failure. In his keynote address, Cormac Russell, a specialist in “Asset Based Community Development” had some pretty harsh words for the church - asking how (and if) we truly listen to those we seek to serve.

He used the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty as a counterpoint to Sam Wells’ Good Samaritan thesis, explored in “A Nazareth Manifesto.” Just as Sam Wells challenges us to see ourselves not as the Good Samaritan but from the perspective of the victim lying in the roadside, Cormac Russell asked us to imagine ourselves on the other side of the wall - not alongside the institutional forces of the Kings Men. 

Cormac Russell addressing the 2019 HeartEdge Conference

Cormac called on us to resist the prevailing assumption that responding to those in need means charging in with more projects and more initiatives – a trend, he suggested, which is leading us to become a society of “salaried strangers” – where we have outsourced responsibility for loving our neighbours to professionals who exist in a charitable culture in which they are in control; where our “near neighbours” have become “service users.” He explained that he is not anti-expert – medical, legal and other forms of professional advice are vital – and added that volunteers are at just as much risk of becoming ‘salaried’ (or unsalaried?) strangers as professionals – but was resolute that we need to change the balance of power in favour of the lives of those in need - because they don’t want help at the expense of a life of their own.

Most churches, he suggested, still see Humpty as the sum of his problems - a fragile creature perilously close to complete destruction - rather than the sum of his gifts. A gift, he explained, is only a gift when it is given and received - we need to allow gifts - the talents of all - to flow. Preventing this flow leads to a destructive stagnation. The hydraulic relationship between individuals, communities and society needs to be rebalanced in order to facilitate this.

Authority, Cormac said, never gets transferred or relocated accidentally – we must intentionally give it away – and called on us to do likewise. He explained that one of the most effective ways authority can be intentionally transferred is by asking questions. A simple, but counter-cultural statement in a world where many, particularly those in the church and the third sector more widely, often rush in to doing something without thinking to engage with those we think we are doing it for. The question - he suggested - is not what I can do for Humpty but what does Humpty expect of me? Not what the church can do to help but what the community alternative is and how the church can resource this; “the Kings horses and Kings men charging in is now a bankrupt idea.”

For Cormac Russell, plumbing the depths of the institution of the church, as Winnie Varghese encouraged us to do - must not mean decentralisation in the sense of creating more, smaller institutions occupying the centre ground - it must mean something far more radical - an emptying or kenosis of the institution itself; real decentralisation – so that the institution serves while stepping backwards, allowing the church as the gathering of people - their gifts and their love - to flood in. Then we might be getting close to “on earth as it is in heaven.”

You always know that someone who starts their speech by saying “I’m no theologian..” is going to say the most profound theological things! Cormac proved us right.

Jonathan Evens chairing a panel discussion on Art in Church

After lunch we heard from Jonathan Evens, I.D. Campbell, Tania Kovats, Deborah Lewer and Adrian Wiszniewski on 'art in church' - through which we were given real-life examples and experiences of the four 'visions for church and culture' explored by Sam Wells in the Chalmers Lecture on Day 1; the church as a work of art in itself, the church as parable, art and church existing together in an estuary, feeding from each other; and the church as culture free from anxiety, where something even deeper than beauty is sought.

Sam Wells with Cormac Russell and Winnie Varghese wrap up the conference

The conference concluded with Sam Wells in conversation with the conference’s two keynote speakers - Winnie Varghese and Cormac Russell, drawing together the themes from the past two days. In doing so they explored aspects of the theology which has characterised the writing of Sam Wells and underpins the values of HeartEdge. In our “elsewhere” era epitomised by the i-phone and the credit card, he explained "the most counter-cultural thing the church does today is gather people together." "The doctrine of the incarnation has never been more pertinent or relevant" he said. The conventional (deficit model of) theology - that there is something wrong with the world and God eventually sent Jesus to sort it out - implies Jesus is an instrument of our own need and desire. But if you believe that God always desired to be with us, then all of creation was made to be with Him. Let us always start by recognising the joy of that relationship which we have, so generously, been given. To give thanks for these assets - our gifts and this love - and to help them to flow through our lives and between each other. That is "the Spirit is alive and working both within and beyond the church” which is so central to what HeartEdge is all about.
I heard a lot of words during my first visit to Edinburgh. Some of the many that will stay with me include a quote from the Scottish poet Edwin Muir, which Peter Sutton, Minister of St Cuthbert’s Church read to me after I attended an excellent ‘Soul Space’ service there; words which perhaps serve as a warning about forgetting The Word;

“The Word made flesh here is made word again

A word made word in flourish and arrogant crook.”

October 2nd & 3rd was an excellent, stretching, affirming and challenging two days. Thank you to all involved in organising the 2019 HeartEdge Conference.

Links

My report on Day 1 of the conference can be read here.

---

 [PD1]