Welcome. A blog on a subject not often talked about at an official level; but maybe needing serious thought. I hope this blog provides some perspective on it.
Time-keeping – the Elephant in the Room?
At the first meeting of the Brent Deanery clergy chapter that I attended after ordination in 1968 there was a discussion of the problem of West Indians turning up late, partly for services but also major occasions, especially weddings. Last month I took part in a clergy discussion where the problem of ethnic minority time keeping also came up. Yet whilst the issue is endemic I am not aware of it having received any attention in senior level discussions of race and racism in the church. At a local level it does, as I shall argue, have all sorts of repercussions, but the disjunct between central and local concerns for the church means it is too ‘ordinary’, too quotidian, to feature in reports or synodical debates; which tend to lean towards the abstract, to discussions of systemic racism or unconscious bias. Raising the ongoing irritation caused by some ethnic groups arriving late seems too banale. At the central level it truly is ‘an elephant in the room’; a topic that it is inappropriate to focus on.
It is one of those issues, in fact, where fine talk of ‘diversity’ breaks down. It is very important that churches express diversity and are intentionally inclusive over what we sing or what we eat. But diversity over punctuality leads to chaos. On the one hand, it is perfectly proper to have ‘hard’ punctuality over what time your service starts, so that the 10.30 service begins within a minute or two of the stated time, come what may. Conversely, ‘soft’ punctuality, where people start arriving from around 10.30, a few people start informal singing, and when the leader thinks a quorum has been achieved, say, at about 10.55, the service begins more formally, though with late-comers continuing to drift in. If practiced consistently both models, and intermediate stages, are possible; but if they are alternated or happen haphazardly so that no-one knows the conventions, the result can only be disorder. Quite simply, here diversity does not work.
In terms of ethnic relationships in a church unpunctuality may not be a life-threatening disease but it is a constant irritant which can have a damaging impact. Nor should it be seen as simply an ‘essentialist’ element in some cultures. At the Brent chapter meeting an industrial chaplain (remember?) pointed out that West Indians had to get to work on time, and did. More recently, I remember the late Joel Edwards (speaking, I assume of his experience in cross-cultural inter-church relationships) commenting rather acidly that ‘Africans catch planes!’ People can be punctual if they know they really need to. Rather behind the phenomena of arriving late is a largely unconscious, culturally formed understanding of the nature of the event that you are attending, and of time itself.
Behind our standards of punctuality are deeper assumptions about the nature and purpose of our coming together in worship. ‘Hard start’ churches probably also have a clear sense of what their worship is intended to achieve. It will have a shape, often beginning with praise and confession near the beginning, setting out the parameters within which we are worshipping God. Weekly repetition is not a weakness, rather it is inculcating a spirituality that proceeds by the slow layering upon layer of spiritual routine that builds an implicit understanding of the dynamics of Christian faith and growth. Whilst such worship is corporate, it also has a strong personal element allowing space for each individual to develop at their own speed. In this sense, the growing attendance at cathedral worship typifies the strength of this subdued but disciplined approach to the Christian life.
In such contexts, the orderly and disciplined worship, found in a range of denominations, finds unpunctuality a problem. The late comer disturbs both the focus of the worshipper; and also, perhaps unbeknown to themselves, deprive themselves since their late-coming means they never encounter important elements of consciously patterned weekly worship, especially confession of their sins. An Anglican theologian who was researching relationships with Pentecostal churches told me (this was one April) that he had not confessed his sins (in church!) that year. Those (like myself) who believe that confession is an integral part of an act of worship, suspect that such omissions lead to a shallow, triumphalistic, often short-lived spirituality. Arriving late to church in this context is like arriving late to the theatre – you disturb the other theatre-goers, and you yourself may well miss crucial elements of the plot.
If services begin with a much softer approach to punctuality, it is likely that the worship functions differently for the worshipper. Rather than being like going to the theatre, it is like going to a rock concert. Noise levels are such that no one else is disturbed by your arrival. Rather than the linear structure of a more formal service, the worship – like a rock concert – may be offering a sequence of unconnected ‘moments’ - whether through a worship song or from the preacher, or even from an intense time of silence. The Christian life, rather than being the slow, steady accumulation of a sense of God’s presence, is marked by more intense moments of uplift. There is a much stronger expectation that this service especially will be a vehicle of God’s blessing to me.
This approach to both time and worship often goes with a stronger relational emphasis – the greater emotional intensity serves to generate a greater sense of bonding, which is an important element in Christian growth. An Operation Mobilisation missionary who led a service for Muslim-background believers once told me that he wasn’t particularly bothered if people came late to the service, the important thing was that they stayed after the service to drink coffee. He was looking for the spiritual growth generated by the warmth of relationships found in a café culture. My experience of a wholescale rebuilding of church premises was that the much greater facility that it generated for eating together was an essential foundation for ministry to South Asian people.
It is intriguing that in the ‘theatre’ model of church-going services that last for much over an hour are often found to be tiresome. With the ‘rock concert’ model people are happy for the service to last for close to three hours. This underlines that we are dealing not just with the question of punctuality (including the moral issues it raises) but also deeper, and cultural, questions about how we experience time. This is not a simple ‘white’/’minority ethnic’ binary. It may relate to social class more than ‘race’, though with the proviso that black populations have a much higher proportion of ‘working class’ (or non-managerial) people than do whites.
Whilst the above distinctions are inevitably over-simple and admit of numerous qualifications, exceptions, and intermediate examples, nonetheless at a very broad level I they open-up explanations for the different trajectories of social groups, and often also of ethnic groups. David Goodhart’s ‘The Road to Somewhere’ or Glenn Loury’s emphasis on the significance of building up ‘social capital’ point in a similar direction.
Thus, cultures that practice ‘deferred gratification’, the relatively slow accumulation of qualifications and abilities, and a facility for abstract analysis, both generate upward social mobility, and incline people towards the ‘theatre’ experience of church going. Not only does unpunctuality unsettle their church experience, they have found that punctuality has been a positive quality in peoples’ wider journey through life. By contrast emphasis on the enjoyment of immediate experience, which is offered both by the worship of some churches and by rock concerts, provides a less substantial platform for educational achievement, career progress, financial security, or forming long-term marriages.
Clearly, then, time-keeping is not a consequence-free cultural marker. In ‘The Weirdest People in the World’, Joseph Henrich’s study of WEIRD (western, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic) societies documents the emergence of western Europe’s time-consciousness and its distinctive consequences and global reverberations (pp 361-7). He notes the ‘epidemic disease’ of town hall clocks emerging from the 13thcentury in western Europe, and which ‘appeared to have paid off’ – towns that were ‘early adopters’ grew economically more rapidly than non-adopters during the period from 1500 to 1700.’ The clocks, of course, marked something more profound: the ‘new time psychology had begun to ferment . . .from a melange of individualism, self-focus and analytic thinking’. Henrich contrasts this turn in western Europe with the attitude of Muslims, who ‘weren’t eager to submit themselves to clock time. Instead, people cared about personal relationships, family ties, and ritual time’. In its changed attitude to time (as with ‘time is money’) it was the Europeans who became the deviants. ‘If you’ve spent time in Amazonia, Africa, Oceania, or a wide range of other places, you’ve no doubt noticed the most obvious feature of WEIRD time psychology: an obsession with time thrift.’ So, in discussing the approach of Kabyle farmers in Algeria , he notes our western exceptionalism: ‘If this sounds exotic, remember, it’s you (and especially me), not everyone else.’
Two final areas to consider:
a) Time-keeping is economically powerful. It is a major factor in western economic success, so much so that the attitude has irresistibly spread throughout the world. But it is still culturally freighted – it holds sway much more in some social and ethnic groups than others. Therefore, the Church of England needs to realise that its procedures – its normative worship styles, its business-like way of running itself – is culturally, ‘Englishly’ specific, not neutral. In other words, simply by being this sort of institution – like it or not – we are institutionally racist. The Church’s ways align with those of us who have been brought up and are unconsciously part of a longstanding ‘WEIRD’ culture. By contrast, for those whose exposure to this historically and locally formed culture is more recent and less foundational, then we seem, quite simply, ‘weird’.
b) Meanwhile, back in the parish. Some suggestions:
* decide your basic approach and stick with it. You begin your service with either ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ punctuality.
* teach the value of the ‘theatre’ approach – that is your worship has shape (it took me years to realise it); for example, if you consistently arrive after the confession your worship will not have its intended spiritually maturing effect on you.
* help leaders to see that western punctuality has prevailed because, as far is doing business is concerned, it works. Disorganised churches don’t grow.
* recognise that unpunctuality is not necessarily rudeness. It reflects a once universal relaxed attitude to time that has many strengths.
* work at making your church relational in a way that the ‘theatre’ model can lack. Staying for coffee after the service is as important as the Confession.
* having emotional ‘highs’ in the service has a definite place, especially for ‘WEIRDos’.
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Add Ons.
*Last week’s ‘Calendar’ had an error. India’s Republic Day dates to 1950, not 1948. Thanks to Robin Thomson for the info.
*The Racial Justice Advocacy Forum Launch is happening at Bloomsbury Baptist Church in Central London on Wednesday 15th February, with Rev Les Isaac as the keynote speaker.
*’Racial Justice Sunday’ on 12th February will be especially themed for the 30th Anniversary of the racist killing of Stephen Lawrence (22nd April). Prepared materials for the service can be accessed via Richard Reddie, Director of Justice and Inclusion at Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI).
*Congratulations to and prayer for Bishop Claion Grandison as Administrative Bishop for the New Testament Church of God. More details in the Churches Together mailing, including his powerful poem ‘The Blood Cries Out’.