If you’ve been following this blog, you will probably have guessed by now that I’m passionate about churches being open. One of the glories of Norfolk’s churches is that nearly every one of them is open daily. There are hundreds of volunteers who lock and unlock, empty wall-safes, put out literature, clear up bat droppings, and generally make these buildings accessible and welcome to all who wish to visit. They are an army of unseen and unsung heroes.
Keeping churches open isn’t just about scratching the itch of church-crawlers or (what John Betjeman called) ‘bored tourists’. I believe there’s a theological and missional imperative to keep churches – rural and urban – open as much as possible.
The church building is a physical representation of God’s presence with his people. When the church building is open, it invites people to come in. It is a sign of a God who is invitational, of the Jesus who says, ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’ When that building is closed, it implies that God is absent, or is deaf to the voices of his children. Or, worse still, it implies that God doesn’t exist. As one priest in Norfolk said to me, ‘If the church is closed, it may as well not be there.’
The church building is also an embodiment of the worshipping community, the family of faith which gathers in it. When the church building is open, it speaks of a community of faith which itself is open: open to others, and open to all. Open doors mean open hearts. When that building is closed, it speaks of a community of faith which is only interested in itself, a ‘Sunday club’, unable or unwilling to serve the wider community in which it is placed.
An open church is an opportunity for mission. One of the barriers for people coming to church for the first time is an anxiety about what to expect. Walking through the door on a Sunday morning can be a terrifying prospect! An open church gives the enquirer or the potential churchgoer a chance to familiarise themselves with the space, and to discover what the church is like. That’s why it’s important that the church should not only look welcoming, but also give the visitor a flavour of the life of the community which worships in it.
An open church is an opportunity for evangelism. While there is no substitute for telling people about Jesus, an open building can be part of that process. Most church buildings teach the Christian faith through their architecture and furnishings. They are repositories of visual aids, telling the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And churches are consecrated, which means they are made holy by God through the action of his ministers. As one of the prayers for the Dedication Festival of a church says:
And now we give you thanks that,
though the heaven of heavens cannot contain you,
and your glory is in all the world,
yet you chose to hallow places for your worship,
and in them you pour forth gifts of grace
upon your faithful people.
They are sacred and liminal places, with the potential to offer sacred and liminal experiences for those who enter their doors.
The building can have a pastoral role. Sometimes when people are distressed, worried, grieving or sad, they don't want to talk to someone, but instead need speace to be alone. An open church gives them a sacred space to do just that. The act of lighting a candle, or leaving a prayer request, can be a deeply healing one. It's an opportunity for pastoral ministry which doesn't require any human resources. I've been to redundant churches where the congregation has long gone, but felt a deep connection to the God who has been worshipped there for centuries.
It’s also really good for the image of the church. There may be people who, however wide open the doors are, remain highly unlikely ever to cross its threshold. But their attitude to the church may be softened by seeing the ‘Church Open’ sign. A building which otherwise may be perceived as a fortress of an unfathomable faith, or a place which holds deeply negative associations, will come across as a place of welcome; or even, given the risks inherent of keeping a church open, a place of vulnerability. That would speak powerfully to the person who associates the church with power or prejudice.
It's deeply Anglican. The Church of England is exactly that: not the church exclusively of or for the people who attend its churches, but the church for everyone. The open church is a church which can be used by any parishioner – defined as a people who lives in the geographical parish – regardless of their faith or lack of it. There’s an amazing inclusivity about a church being open. You haven’t got to subscribe to the Christian faith, or any faith, to come in to find rest, peace or prayer. You don’t have to prove your identity, or pay an admission fee, or give your name and contact details. This is common ground. Whoever you are, you belong here. You have as much right to enter the open church as anyone else.
The benefits of an open church are huge. My experience in my parishes has been that the church feels different. When I go to church at the end of the day for Evening Prayer, I delight in the fact that I don’t have to unlock it first. And I walk into a building which I know has been used and prayed in. Often there are visible signs that this is the case – someone is quietly kneeling in a pew, or there are candles lit. But even when there’s no one there and the votive stand hasn’t been used, there is still an atmosphere of prayer. I think this would be the case even if no one had darkened the doors all day, because there has been the opportunity for prayer. Maybe the angels have seen the doors open, and have seen fit to pray here.
What about the risks? Ecclesiastical Insurance, which insures most CofE parishes, encourages churches to be kept open ‘because of the positive effect that it can have on security’. The thinking behind this is that a potential thief is unlikely to steal from a church in which they could be interrupted by a visitor at any time. The thief who has forced open the door round the back of the church, knowing the porch is securely locked and no one is likely to bother them, has all the time in the world to ransack collection boxes and pilfer the contents of the vestry.
This has been proved in my own context. Long before we kept the church open during the week, there was a series of break-ins in churches across the borough. The perpetrator twice broke in to our church in the space of a fortnight, smashing low-level stained-glass windows. On both occasions, he stole £10-20, but caused thousands of pounds’ worth of damage in the process. Since we’ve been open during the day, someone has forced their way into the back of the votive candle stand. A similar amount of money had been stolen, but this time the damage was negligible.
My previous parish was in a part of Finsbury Park with very high rates of crime, drug use, and prostitution. I think, in all the years I was there, the only thing which was stolen was a bible. I can cope with that.
This is not to say that there aren’t risks. There absolutely are. But to be the church is to take risks. St Augustine of Canterbury, for example, took a risk when he sailed to these shores under the instructions of St Gregory in the sixth century. The biographies of all the saints are a catalogue of people who took risks to share the love of Jesus Christ. Jesus took risks when he entrusted his church to a motley group of uneducated fishermen. Indeed, Jesus is the ultimate risk, taken by God, to redeem a fallen race. It was so risky it ended in crucifixion. And yet, even this was used by God for his glory; it led to resurrection.
Open your church. I know that every church is different, and there will be some contexts where there are just too many barriers. But, if you are able to, open your church as much as you can.
The Bible is full of people having encounters with God. One of the first of these is Jacob, who comes to Bethel, and dreams of a ladder reaching up to heaven, on which the angels ascend and descend. ‘Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place – and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”’
Open churches can be the Bethels of today, where people dream of heaven, and discover the presence of the Lord.
Look out for my next blog post, in which I give Ten Tips For Open Churches.
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