April 2002

Comments and insights

I initially came to Britain under the recruitment programme of the United Reformed Church in the UK, run in partnership with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). I put my name in for this program because I had experienced what I felt were the great needs of a declining European church.

In 1979 I had come to Britain for the first time, as a tourist, with the proceeds of a book I had written for McCormick Theological Seminary (then seminary president Jack Stotts suggested the trip, so we can blame him for this career path!). Every Sunday I sought out a local United Reformed Church for worship, and the experience was, to be honest, dismal. Marieke and I married in 1982, and trips to her home in the Netherlands, and experience of the declining fortunes of the Reformed churches there contributed to my understanding of the plight of our tradition in Europe as well. In the meantime, I was engaged in congregational re-development, inspired by Tom Diettrich who was working in this area on the national staff at that time. It became increasingly clear to me that the greater challenge for my ministry would be to serve here in Europe, where the church is in free-fall decline. When I saw the opportunity to do this through our Worldwide Mission Program, I jumped for it, explaining to the URC that I was seeking to serve where there was greatest need and risk.

In the council estate of Ely, Cardiff, I certainly found that "greatest need"! Coupled with the general scene in Britain where perhaps 3% or less of the population is church-going, the situation here was one of great deprivation and raw human need of every sort. Stretched thin serving three churches, I managed to build up the membership of young families in one church, re-build another that had been torched just prior to my arrival, and in the other increase the number of local community organisations using the church facilities. I was called on to conduct usually more than one funeral every week, and many weddings and baptisms along with giving pastoral care to a large community that was otherwise totally uninterested in "church". It was exhausting work, but very, very fulfilling.

Following the four-year appointment in Ely, I requested a continuing appointment with the URC, as I saw more need for my ministry here, and was subsequently called to Weoley Hill URC in Birmingham, situated among the Selly Oak Colleges, well know for mission training. Here was a very different scene from what I found in Ely, middle class and well educated, but still marginalized as churches are in this country. The church was known in the neighborhood and the colleges as the church you didn’t want to go to. That changed in the years I was there. We became a very multi-ethnic church, with African, Afro-Caribbean and Asian families travelling across Birmingham to come to us, and Birmingham’s Centre for Black and White Christian Partnership recommended our church’s worship to be broadcast on national television. So many Koreans began attending that they eventually started their own Korean-language service on Sunday afternoons. A lively music program was developed, with a choir and orchestra and a steady diet of international music, along with Iona and Taizé and other contemporary material as well. Pews were re-arranged "in-the-round" and the church made accessible with ramps, wheelchair lifts, an inductive loop and Braille worship materials. Weoley Hill became an exciting place to be, but after nine years I thought it was time to move on, and answered a call to another church in need of re-development, back in Cardiff.

Before this transition, however, on Pentecost Sunday 1997 I had a stroke which left me only partially sighted, unable to drive and unable to read very well. The church here, along with local social services and church friends back in the States responded with wonderful support that has enabled me to stay in ministry. Funds were put in place that enabled me to have a reader and a support worker to help with office work, and the church office was upgraded with equipment that allowed me to work centrally and not have to run all over Robin Hood’s barn to get things photocopied, etc. The support has been marvellous. I don’t think I would have been able to continue in ministry without it.

When I was asked to consider City Church, Cardiff, I was nevertheless astounded that a church like this would be willing to take me on, as their membership is spread out all over the city and beyond. But here I have a reader, administrative support and a driver, all supported by a government access-to-work program, and the church itself, highly committed to an inclusive ministry, didn’t let a minister who has to carry a white stick dampen their enthusiasm. It is too early to see how things will go here. It is a very different situation from what I have experienced before. Financially the church is fairly strong, but a bit in disarray institutionally. There are obvious factors that have led to the church’s massive decline in membership over the years. What makes me enthusiastic about possibilities is their mold-breaking openness to re-imagining their future. Good things are already happening. We have the largest church youth-group in Wales for starters, and an excellent music program. I have worked on a Thursday lunchtime service that seems to be growing every week, and we are developing a number of innovative mission projects in partnership with the British Deaf Association, Depression Alliance Wales, The Cardiff Interfaith Centre, the local school system and a variety of other networks. It still looks dismal. The public is not only indifferent towards religion here, but often hostile. I think we will begin to see the results of some of this spadework in about two or three more years. It’s hard going. Some well-placed friends of mine say there will not even BE a United Reformed Church in ten years time. That’s the way "realistic" thinking goes. But I did not take on this kind of work to succumb to realism, right?

Geography and culture

Cardiff, on the south coast of Wales, is the capital city of Wales. Coming back to the city after nine years away we found it full of vibrant energy, with a new National Assembly and massive investment in re-developing the docks area into a residential and leisure community, giving the city two focal points, the docks and the city center, where the church is. North of Cardiff, in the (former) mining valleys, the situation is much different, with high unemployment and loss of community facilities. One church after another is closing down. In one valley the last United Reformed Church in the area has just closed, leaving only an Anglican church of six members left. As far as actual church-going goes, the situation is not all that different here in the city, though masked by the high level of distractions in shopping and entertainment and so on. From the point of view of people’s spiritual lives, the situation is pretty bleak. Drinking and drug use are extraordinarily high, in the vacuum. On a weekend night the clubs and pubs in the area around our church are host to a night community of 60,000 young adults who for the most part come down from these desperate valleys. One of the first things I did when I came to Cardiff was to begin advocating for a night street chaplaincy similar to the one that operated on the near north side of Chicago when I was there. I have just heard that the local Anglican bishop is going to support that financially, and that the chaplaincy personnel will come from the Anglican "church army" diaconal workers. Great!

While the sociological landscape is what I find more interesting, it has to be said that the mountains and valleys of rural Wales and the rugged coastline are breathtakingly beautiful. And there is a rich and proud heritage of being Welsh (often up against the British) that brings a wonderful zest to the cultural scene here. For St David’s day we held a traditional "Noson Lawen" (evening of fun) at which nearly everyone present contributed a song, performed an instrumental solo or in an ensemble, read a poem or told a story. The richness of the local culture is enhanced by newer communities of asylum seekers and immigrants from former British colonies. We are currently hosting an asylum-seeking family from Zimbabwe.

In short, Cardiff, and Wales as a whole, finds itself in the midst of wrenching cultural and economic change, yet conscious of deep roots and uncharted possibilities. Here in the city center it all seems to come to a head. It’s good to be here.

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 80