Welcome. I hope this post will be useful to church leaders facing deep-seated linguistic and cultural diversity in their communities. Is there anyone you know who may find it useful to have it forwarded to?
Starting Minority Language Congregations.
The Church of England has been a-buzz the last few weeks over proposals, under the auspices of Myriad, to plant 10,000 new congregations that would be lay led and not meeting in church buildings. I believe a strategy that seeks to ground the Christian faith in the ordinary lives of ordinary people needs encouragement and prayer; nor need it diminish the place of parishes, clergy, church buildings or theological education but rather, if effective, increase the scope and need for all of them.
What has not yet come into view is how this works out specifically in a multi-ethnic society, a serious omission from the more fully worked-out proposals of ‘Mission Shaped Church’ (2003). As ‘Myriad’ forms its convictions and policies and heads up implementing this ambitious vision it is important to raise the question of what place starting minority language congregations has within this strategy. According to the 2011 Census in England and Wales 863,150 people (or almost 2% of the population) reported not being able to speak English well or at all. For a much larger group of people English is not their main language -8.8% of the national population, rising to over a quarter in the London area. The Church of England needs to think how it will carry out its parochial, pastoral responsibilities to this segment of our population. Obviously, they are particularly clustered in specific areas - 42% of the population of Newham reported a non-English main language, of whom just over one fifth said they could not speak English well. The local authority with the highest proportion not speaking English well was Bolsover in Derbyshire (39%). Widely dispersed ethnic groups (such as Poles in this case) will probably pick up English quite quickly; for other groups, perhaps more encapsulated by their religion or culture, adaptation will be far slower, and the needs for mother tongue congregations more long-standing.
The seeing through of Myriad’s vision therefore provides a crucial moment to formulate a strategy and policies on how the Church of England relates to minority language groups. I want to consider Aims, Types of Congregations and Policy Issues; and then have a final section reflecting on my experience as vicar of St James, Alperton (1979-2011) where we started Urdu/Hindi and Tamil speaking congregations as part of the church.
Aims.
Minority language congregations can be started for a variety of reasons.
a) To retain people with a Christian background.
It is well known that an alarmingly large proportion of people who migrate to this country as Anglicans drop away in this country, whether (chiefly before the 80s) through direct racism, or finding church life here cold and unsatisfying and joining Pentecostal churches. I have previously referred to the description of Nigerians continuing as Anglicans in this country as ‘the remnant’. Or people find the language, music and services in this country as unfamiliar. For these reasons ethnic congregations have been formed to retain Anglicans within the ministry of word and sacrament, rather than drifting into irreligious secularity. Certainly that part of the reasons for forming an Urdu/Hindi congregation in Alperton.
b) To provide a culturally familiar home.
This is a development of the above. On the one hand there is a danger of pandering to a cultural nostalgia which obscures rather glorifies the presence of the Lord Jesus; on the other hand worshipping in one’s heart language and music can lead to a renewed and deeper personal encounter with God. No less than three members of my present congregation occasionally attend Welsh services.
c) Evangelism.
This is the most obvious and perhaps important reason for minority language congregations. In many parishes a substantial slice of the population will never hear the gospel unless they hear it in their mother tongue. It is a logical consequence of the pastoral responsibility that the Church of England gives to its parishes. It was for this reason we started a Tamil congregation in Alperton, with the encouraging albeit strange consequence that some church members and myself simply didn’t have a common language.
But what about an ‘exit strategy’? As a new generation emerges who have been educated in English then at what point does a minority language congregation become an unnecessary source of dividing worshipping communities along ethnic lines, hindering the richness of fellowship and potency of witness of a united multi-ethnic church? As time goes by, congregations need to be evaluating in what ways their continuance advances or hinders the work of God’s kingdom.
Types of congregation.
a) Growing out of the life of the English-speaking congregation.
This was true of both the congregations we began in Alperton, based on principles I will outline below. People from a particular ethnic group in a church who believe that God’s mission to their peers is best carried out by a mother-tongue congregation can be a vital missional step, of which the whole congregation should be supportive in concern and prayer.
b) Absorbing an independent fellowship.
It is excellent if a small group of minority ethnic Christians see the value of being part of a larger, diverse fellowship; both out of a concern for unity, but also very often for pragmatic reasons of buildings, training or accreditation. But such transplants can be very tricky, perhaps because significant cultural differences have not been fully recognised, or because of leaders wanting to retain a high degree of independence. I know of one Congolese congregation where the ‘grafting in’ failed to take hold.
c) New plants.
No parish church will have the resources to minister to all the very varied ethnic groups that live in their parish. Therefore initiatives are needed, sometimes from mission agencies or from a concerned group of individuals, to inaugurate new minority language congregations. If Myriad’s high aims are to be realised then there needs to be a faith-driven upsurge of new, language specific church plants; along with, as I mention below, structures to recruit, train and place such intentional missionaries.
d) Ethnic fellowships.
This is not really church planting at all, simply members of a church with a shared ethnic background meeting for fellowship and prayer. Such gatherings can be regarded with suspicion as divisive or even elitist - others don’t like to feel they don’t belong. But handled sensitively they can provide a venue where people feel that their distinctive cultural identity within the church is recognised and affirmed, and where leadership van emerge in what may have been a hitherto marginalised group. In Alperton for several years we had a Sri Lankan Fellowship, which drew together Sinhalese and Tamils, and provided an opportunity for people to pray for their mother country, as well as eventually a base foraTamil language congregation.
Issues.
a) Training.
If the Church of England is to be serious about gathering together members who are not functional in English, then how will such congregations be led? At present being comfortable in the English language is virtually a sine qua non of being trained and accredited, which is one of the limiting factors that Myriad is concerned about. It was a problem in seeking to train one leader in Alperton. However this no longer need be such a problem. Thanks to Zoom and other resources it is possible for people to access training from around the world. So, say, Hispanic speaking church leaders in this country can access training resources from South America, and so on. This may need a degree of research and networking to hook up partnerships, but the challenge deserves energetic resourcefulness. ‘Mission Shaped Church’ spoke of the need for a ’vocational pathway’ (p 147) for leaders of church plants. The need is even more pressing for leaders who are not adept in the English language.
b) Celebrating Communion.
Church leaders are rightly concerned that new congregations be eucharistic. But how? Only in rare cases will there be a celebrant who speaks the mother tongue. Various churches in the Anglican Communion have liturgies available in both the indigenous language and English that congregations here can make use of. In Alperton the leaders’ produced a Tamil language service card where whilst the celebrant used English liturgy, the congregation could follow the words in Tamil. But if the Church of England really is serious about being a culturally diverse church then it needs to train and ordain clergy with limited command of English, and do so at scale.
c) Sharing of resources and experience.
Churches or people with vision ought not to find themselves in the position of reinventing the wheel. Pioneers need somewhere to turn to for advice and direction. Several agencies now produce helpful resources such as bibles, booklets, calendars and so in various languages, which leaders can be pointed to. Beyond that there needs to be a body of experience built up from the narratives of different attempts to start minority language congregations (to which this Blog is intended as a contribution). Also the Church of England should be seeking to learn from further afield. Kensington Temple has started satellite congregations around London in a wide variety of languages. We ought to be drawing from their experience.
d) Central oversight.
Beyond the vision of particular parishes, individuals or groups whose responsibility is it to take these matters forward? There is need for a central focus for training and the sharing of resources and experiences. There also needs to be a central body responsible for mapping what is being done, and identifying gaps that need attending to, either by area or by ethnic groups. Since they are working closely with Myriad, then the Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication is well placed to intentionally head up the church’s ministry to linguistic minorities, working with the various mission agencies such as Interserve who are already involved.
What I have learned.
a) Leadership is vital.
One strength of minority language congregations growing out of an existing church is that the leaders already have a relationship of trust and respect which I believe to be vital. The weaker the link the greater the danger of division and splintering, which too often is a disfiguring mark of minority language congregations. The Church of England’s relatively strong authority structure, whilst cumbersome at times, also provides security against factionalism or mavericks.
b) Integration into structures.
At Alperton all leaders were commissioned by the bishop, and we had a shared governance structure with one church council, one budget, one electoral roll. We also sought opportunities to have many joint events, such as harvest suppers, Christmas celebrations – ensuring a variety of food and cultural contributions. With hindsight I wish I had taken more steps to make all church members aware of each other and praying for God’s blessing on the different language groups in the church. It is good that my successors have taken this forward.
c) Recognising the costs.
Forming a minority language congregation means drawing its leaders away from their primary involvement with the English-speaking congregation, and the strong possibility of reducing their relational links, whilst bringing ethnic distinctions into greater prominence. It is a new demand on time energy and resources which church leaders need to realistically consider with prayer before moving forward.
The Church is always faced with the challenge of holding together both a deep commitment to lived out unity in our worship and practice along with the diversity of the peoples and nations we are called to witness to. We can be too easily daunted or questioning about making our faith known to people of other faith backgrounds, and too lethargic in seeking to make faith in Christ accessible to those ethnic minorities who do not easily come onto our horizon. Myriad’s bold call invites us to take thoughtful, positive steps to fulfil the Church of England’s calling to make Jesus known to all the people and people groups who live in England.