The Archbishop Flies In

The hall at the independent school not far away was full enough not to make the Archbishop's 'Big Questions' event in our deanery too awkward - but I could tell looking around that the majority of people there were already church members, not the souls on the fringes of faith that the session was originally intended for. I'd faced a quandary: should I come in clericals to demonstrate I was there to show willing, or dress in mufti to pretend to be a real person? In the end I kept my clerical collar more because there was no time to change rather than anything else. I spotted colleagues who had taken either position. The questions were just the ones you could predict people would ask, and nothing Archbishop Justin said in response was any surprise, it has to be said: the only left-field query was one which asked what the Church can do to help the people of Afghanistan and ++Justin's response was that, whatever it might be, he couldn't really tell anyone about it publicly.  The Archbishop left the platform and our Area Dean then spoke to his aides who 'gave their testimony' of coming to faith earlier in life, again quite comfortingly undramatic. It was all quite short and low-key; worthy, but hardly earthshaking.

The whole event was supposed to provide a springboard for evangelism. Churches would invite people on the edges of their worshipping communities to these sessions, and then follow up with enquirers' courses. In a moment of weakness I'd told the organising committee about the one we were planning and there it was, one of only three such courses mentioned in the Big Questions leaflet given out to the audience. I don't know whether I would have been more annoyed to be ignored than I was horrified at the prospect of actually having to do it.