A tale of church and state

David Blackburn

Thursday, 27th October 2011

Last Saturday, Phillip Pullman addressed library campaigners at a convention in London and declared war on the “stupidity” of nationwide library closures. Pullman’s presence brought the Church of England to mind, merely as a counter-point to his often very public atheism. How has the established church responded to the end of community libraries and the education services they provide?

As part of a wider national picture, Anglican priests have, at the suggestion of their parishioners, offered help to campaigners in Bolton, where 5 libraries are to close, and in Brent, where 6 libraries are to close. Letters have been written on the vicarage’s headed paper; petitions have been signed; and churches have hosted publicity events. Bygone village life seems momentarily to have been resurrected among the dark satanic mills. 

This soft support of letters and gentle encouragement is the church’s work these days; vicars, rightly or wrongly, no longer lead their flocks in anything but prayer. Parish priests in Brent and Bolton have avoided direct involvement in the local campaigns, despite the fact that many share the concerns about the effects of closures on the educational opportunities of the poor, the wellbeing of the elderly and the cohesion of a community itself. Those anxieties must be repressed because the job of a vicar, as defined during training for ordination, is to steer the parish impassively. The local clergy faithfully repeat this creed: it is not their place to declare war on “stupidity”, and it is “imperative that these campaigns are not priest-led” for fear of the confessional divisions that may cause.

At the same time, some vicars in both areas suspect that their diocesan masters are directly helping the library campaigns. Their suppositions stem from the statutes of the 1991 Diocesan Board of Education Measure, as much as they do from personal religious sentiments. The church has a statutory duty to champion learning and to co-operate with secular bodies that provide education. Some parish priests in Bolton and Brent say that the withdrawal of the state from so many local libraries is an opportunity for the church to extend its services in communities; but the initiative must be taken by the church’s leadership in conjunction with residents, not by the petty clergy. 

Diocesan officials take a different view. The Manchester diocese, for instance, argues that its obligations pertain only to local primary and secondary schools; consequently, it is not currently engaged with library campaigners in Bolton or elsewhere in the region. Similarly, the London diocese has remained at arm’s length from the campaign in Brent. That is not to say the church will never assist the campaigners — either with loose organisational support and the use of church property, or with formal funding. Diocesan officials in Manchester, for instance, claim to be open to ideas. But those same officials say it is the job of a diocese to steer its clergy impassively, not to lead them. So, the church’s operational structure means that any suggested policy, even in the secular realm of education, must originate from parish clergy. The curate’s dilemma is that to mobilise the church’s resources for the common good, they must assume the mantle of leadership, which is unconscionable.

Isolation is the result of that dysfunction. For example, a community trust has been established in Bolton’s Astley Bridge, which aims to run the endangered library. The parish church, despite the vicar’s alleged views, is not represented on that trust and campaigners are looking elsewhere for more support. Indeed, the practical dislocation between the established church and the communities it serves in Bolton is such that campaigners haven’t thought of courting its further assistance.

There have been some exceptions, but, generally, if one extrapolates from these parochial pictures the church seems timid, as if it is struggling to find a more secular role in a more secular society. And society, also, seems uncertain of how to coexist and co-operate with the church. One parish priest sounded a clear note of frustration when speaking of these matters: “Whenever the church tries to do something nationally, it gets criticised. And whenever it doesn’t interfere, it gets criticised. It’s demoralising.”

Blog Tags: Education , Libraries , Politics , Religion , Society