“Good healthcare is incredibly important to me. It goes hand in hand with my Christian faith, inspired by Jesus’ call for us to love and care deeply for one another.”
Sarah makes an important point here – that those who seek to follow the example of Jesus as their Lord are called to serve others as he has served us (John 13.15). Christian proclamation of the good news of Jesus, to repent and believe, has always gone hand in hand with practical caring action.
And holistic care is key to clinical recovery; we are body-soul unities (as Scripture consistently teaches), and our bodies can only heal well in the context of communal care and even spiritual restoration. In fact, attending church is good for you!
And so she cites the ministry of a church in Hackney:
“Here, people from all over the world, from many different backgrounds, experience a warm welcome, a health check-up if they need it – and importantly, the love of Jesus Christ, who showed us how to wash the feet of others.”
They regard social engagement and explicit evangelism as sitting side by side in what they do – so you can find out about their Lighthouse work with the vulnerable or join an Alpha course to explore the Christian faith. Contrary to much negative comment in the C of E, this is typical of many evangelical churches.
Wanting to see people come to faith is not a contradiction to wanting to serve them – and in fact a shrinking church will be able to serve fewer people. We need to say both these things – though some of our leaders appear to baulk from the first, in case it sounds unpopular.
Sarah then extends the metaphor of healing to wider society:
“The role of the Church should be a healing presence in our nation, bringing people together at times of often intense division, caring deeply for those who need our help.”
This is surely vitally true – but it raises four essential issues.
First, the idea that we need less division and more ‘coming together’ in our society is hardly controversial. But does it actually mean anything? The danger here is that we state these truisms not for their content, but for their effect – making the Church sound positive and inoffensive. Jesus warned of the dangers of this (‘Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you…’ Luke 6.26) and thus offers a specific challenge to the established Church: how can we both be part of the structures of the country on the one hand, but say what is unpopular on the other? Unless we do so, we are not being true to him.
Second, as every nurse or doctor knows, an essential part of bringing healing is presenting people with the bad news of their diagnosis. Unless sick people are told their diagnosis and are willing to listen to it and act on it, healing can never happen.
This is precisely the metaphor Jesus uses for his ministry (Luke 5.32). He does not ‘find the truth on the margins’ (as some advocate) or ‘affirm people where they are’, but goes to the margins, tells people they are spiritually sick, and calls them to repent and believe in him. Are we willing to do the same? If not, can we really bring healing?
Third, healing division must surely mean being ready to speak the truth in difficult situations, rather than ‘agreeing to disagree’. Sarah has a good track record on this in her contributions to the assisted dying debate. But will we do the same on other controversial issues—the Church’s own stated opposition to abortion, its belief that marriage is between one man and one woman, ‘according to the teaching of our Lord’, on contested issues around sex identity—and so on?
Finally, I don’t see how the Church of England can claim to be an agent of healing of divisions while its own divisions continue to be unresolved open wounds. On sexuality and marriage, on questions of racial justice, on historic slavery reparations, on a narrow approach to climate change, and even on what the local church is for, and how it might be best resourced, we seem to be deeply divided still.
So I welcome Sarah’s comments for the new year and a new term as Archbishop of Canterbury. And I hope and pray we will face into the necessary issues that need resolving if we are to fulfil this vocation.
Revd Dr Ian Paul, member of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC)
