First: Rowan Williams himself has been one of the biggest supporters of "Fresh Expressions" in the U.K., which describes itself this way: "Fresh Expressions encourages and resources new ways of being church, working with Christians from a broad range of denominations and traditions. The movement has resulted in thousands of new congregations being formed alongside more traditional churches."

Here's a quote from RW on the FX website itself:

"I think the two things I look back on with greatest satisfaction are that we've managed in the Church of England to launch this very new mission outreach programme Fresh Expressions, and get the Church of England to recognise the possibility of new styles of congregational life and new styles of training for ministers to go with it. I think that's really begun to build itself in to the life of the Church."

Second: I haven't noticed any "new thing happening on the streets, in coffee houses, in local faith communities, and in movements of justice and social change" in the area of "spiritual renewal." Nor is any example of any such "new thing" provided.

Third: I read just today on Jesse Zink's blog (linked to one post downstream) that while the "Decade of Evangelism" was a bust in the Episcopal Church, Jesse writes that "an archdeacon in Nigeria last summer told me, 'The Decade of Evangelism saved the Church in Nigeria.'" So apparently the Institutional Church actually is accomplishing something.

In relation to this piece, IOW: color me skeptical, all the way through.

I agree with Barbara whole-heartedly - and I found Diana Butler-Bass's piece an odd mashup.

Rowan Williams has been a tireless supporter of Fresh Expressions, a mission effort that is substantial and engaged in culture outside & inside church.

Butler-Bass's poit about top-down seem spot-on with the experience of so many of us who have worked in churches - and many who have left it.

It seems to me that the article is spot-on, although it fails to provide support for its assertion about emerging trends in the church. Certainly, recent studies suggest that top reasons for leaving organized religion are perceived failures in pastoral care and dislike for church politics.

Apropos Fresh Expressions (Fx), +++ Williams initiative underscores the contradictions inherent in his approach. On the one hand Fx celebrates innovation and local initiatives. On the other hand, +++Williams can hardly be said to have been supportive of change in the American and Canadian provinces. (Search Fx for things like “female clergy”; the results are illustrative indeed.

It seems to me that Butler Bass touches on a good point, which is that +++Williams’ effort to control change from the top was doomed from the start.

I’ve often wondered, too, to what extent +++Williams’ efforts might have succeeded in a day and age when information traveled more slowly, and one could more easily cut backroom deals at Synod and other venues. Perhaps +++Williams failed to apprehend the extent to which his actions would receive almost real-time scrutiny.

Eric Bonetti

I'm not sure why "female clergy" would be any sort of issue at Fresh Expressions, since there are already many women priests in the Church of England. The first woman was ordained there over 20 years ago, I believe.

Here's a page at FX with a video story narrated by a woman priest. She seems enthusiastic about what she's doing and about FX - and I don't know why this wouldn't be true for others doing this kind of ministry.

Right on this site, in fact, several people have advocated for starting a Fresh Expressions-style ministry in TEC.

To respond to Jim's question above - keeping in mind that I don't really agree that there's any "new pattern of faith" out there, except the famous "none of the above" we've been hearing so much about lately, nor do I agree with much of anything else in the piece - I keep wondering why TEC parishes don't take advantage of "Rite III" in our Prayer Book, and write liturgies of their own and hold services at times other than "the principal Sunday service."

I mean, the major thing I've seen advocated for on this site, for instance, is "we've got to change the Prayer Book" - but there is already great freedom in the Prayer Book in which to experiment. And since "new kinds of faith" don't necessarily have to occur on Sunday mornings - well, what's stopping anybody from creating their own "Fresh Expressions" if they want to?

I mean, you'll find A.A. and other 12-Step meetings happening at all times of the day and night (and often right in the basement or Parish Hall of the church itself!); what stops the church from doing this? A.A. is a perfect example of "spiritual but not religious" (although it does have its own disciplines - and rather rigorous ones, too!), and it really does change lives.

I am at a loss why these conversations always seem to have a happen "in coffee houses". Why can't they happen at halftime of a high-school football game, or in a service garage, or in the corner convenience store?

Sometimes I wonder about how "populist" we Episcopalians really are.

The thing about the coffee houses is quite funny, Andrew....

;-)

It seems like DBB decided to substitute jargony buzzwords for anything serious.

Can anyone tell me what this sentence means?

"This has changed as regular people confidently assert that spirituality is a grassroots adventure of seeking God, a journey of insight and inspiration involving authenticity and purpose that might or might not happen in a church, synagogue or mosque."

Look at the buzzwords: grassroots, seeking, insight, inspiration, authenticity, purpose.

Also, I think her history is wrong. There's lots of work on how medieval (and earlier) Christianities were all about the people and not about the clergy. It's just that since we have records of the clergy, we remember them best.

-Jesse

Hi Barbara. On the issue of women clergy and fresh expressions, my hope would be that one innovation would be strategies to increase ordination of women, who as of 2007 still represent only 18.3% of ordinations. Meeting in new and different locations is great, but gender equality is an issue to which I attach greater important. Similarly, search for the word "gay" on the Fx site and see what you get.

That said, Fx could well be of value here in the US. But I hope that innovative approaches don't become a substitute for meaningful results.

Eric Bonetti

I think that's already happening, Eric; more women were ordained, for instance, in the CofE than men in 2010, according to this article. I'm fairly sure that it takes this kind of time to get to what we have now, after 40 years: women are about 40% of TEC clergy.

I did search on "gay," and found one article that cites "areas of mission [that] include a theatre company, alcoholics, drug addicts, sex workers, vulnerable adults in a particular street and young gay people."

That seems - at least on the surface - good to me, too. Are you thinking there should be more of this? I would agree, and hope things like this will continue to happen. (Don't forget, though, that - for instance - civil partnerships have existed nationwide in every country in the UK since 2004 - something very unlike what we have here, which is a few states with marriage, but most without even civil unions (and many that forbid even civil unions, by law) - so there isn't much reason to talk about that particular issue.)

Or are you thinking that Fresh Expressions should be more of an advocacy organization? If so, I think that's a whole other conversation; my point above was to address Butler Bass' claim that Rowan Williams wasn't doing anything in the area of "changing patterns of worship."

However, I'd agree that Fresh Expressions at the moment seems to be far more Evangelical in character than it is liberal. But then, so is the CofE at this point, I think. It's actually too bad, because if liberals don't get involved in the church, and in things like Fresh Expressions, they will lose whatever influence they might have had.

As far as I know, Fresh Expressions is open to anybody who wants to take advantage of it. I don't think it's Rowan Williams' fault that liberals aren't doing this. Fortunately, AffCath in the UK is starting to talk about it, too.

Hi Barbara. Thanks very much for your insightful comments.

Not sure I'd espouse Fx as an advocacy initiative. But I would like to see more time and attention spent on diversity and inclusion, and on strategies for making those happen, including as they touch on our worship. I am grateful, for example, when I become aware of clergy using gender-neutral language, or language that is open and affirming of all persons, and would welcome a vibrant exchange of ideas in those spaces. So I guess I'd sum up by saying I hope that any Fx-type initiative also includes a social justice component.

Eric Bonetti