Disclosing Church: An Ecclesiology Learned from Conversations in Practice
Disclosing church: attending to people, attending to the SpiritChurch concrete, church mystical: the classic tension in contemporary keyThe response of practical theology: a new set of questionsThe question of church today: a first responseA postscript: on the structure of this book and its significanceNotesI The project: ‘Action Research – Church and Society’ (ARCS)The ARCS project: reflections on a research community and its practicesThe story of the ARCS projectA collaboration between research centresA collaboration between researchersFrom collaborative research to ‘intellectual friendship’A collaboration with practitionersAn on-going storyHonouring the theological action research experiencesNotesTheological action researchProcesses and characteristics: a summaryThe significance of action research as an interdisciplinary partnerFrom ‘action research’ to ‘theological action research’NotesTheology in four voicesThe four voices: origins and questionsThe place of the four voices in theological action researchThe problematic context of ‘practical theology’The reception of the four voices - and questions arisingRenewing the approach: reflections and clarificationsThe interpenetration of the voicesThe problem of the operant as ‘voice’The asymmetry of authorities and the question of normativityA practical fundamental theology?NotesII Contextual themesAccount of practice A: London Jesuit VolunteersIntroductory narrativeSix disclosuresEffecting church as a lay-led agencyLiving received traditionsCity life, spirituality and expressions of communityEncountering injustice: guilt, conscientisation and advocacyEncountering Christ at the marginsFaith formation in and for ecclesial ad extraConcluding reflectionsNotesThe geographical context: London, the global cityHospitality: gifts and limitationsCivility and inclusivity: resonance and dissonance between faith and contextInequality and injustice: helping, helplessness and hopeConclusion: building community in the postsecular cityNotesAccount of practice B: Westminster Agency for EvangelisationIntroductory narrativeFive disclosuresThe ad intra? agency: between the Bishop and the parish priest?The ad intra agency: whose espoused theology?Clericalisation: power, the parish priest and the work of the agencyArticulating purpose and practice: evangelisation or catechesis?Faith formation, pedagogy and handing onConcluding reflectionsNotesThe organisational contexts: dioceses, parishes and faith-based agenciesThe FBA: deepening espousalThe parish priest: the power of the gatekeeperEcclesial structures and embodied normativitiesConclusionNotesIII Ecclesiological themesAccount of practice C: St Mary’s Parish, Battersea, Alpha courseIntroductory narrativeFive disclosuresHospitality, inclusivity and the journey to commitmentAlpha and building belonging: authenticity to a church contextThe struggle to name JesusHospitality without conditionsParish in the late modern global cityConcluding reflectionsNotesChurch in mission: learning ecclesial ek-centricityThe ad intra pullHard lessons in efe-centric churchConclusions: discerning the missio DeiNotesAccount of practice D: Messy Church, CroydonIntroductory narrativeFive disclosuresDiscipleship: a long and complex journey‘Jesus-less community’, ‘Church of the unknown God’ and Church-lite’‘Ecclesio logical overflow’ - church beyond churchSuburban isolation and the attraction of belongingChoosing churchConcluding reflectionsNotesIdentifying church: edginess and edgeless-nessChurch, world and overflow: church on the edgesCommunity, communion and edgelessnessConclusion: edgy, edgeless and still church?NotesAccount of practice E: Housing JusticeIntroductory narrativeFive disclosuresNaming faith - or not?The transformative potential of ad extra workHospitality and SacramentalityDifferent normativities and their potentialAn agency working ecumenicallyConcluding reflectionsNotesSacrament and sacramentality: celebrating the peri-liturgical sacramentalThe problem of sacrament for church in missionBefore and after liturgy: the peri-liturgical sacramentalConclusions: exploring the peri-liturgical sacramental and its implicationsNotesAccount of practice F: Roman Catholic Diocese of PortsmouthIntroductory narrativeFive disclosuresEffecting renewal: diocesan plans and processesThe changing role of the parish priestLaity and the ad intra pullWhose theology? ‘Outsourcing’ and participationEucharistic communities: promise and riskConcluding reflectionsNotesOrders and ordering: life together in the power of the SpiritThe reality and complexity of power in the life of the churchIn the power of the Spirit: glimpses of empowermentConclusionsNotesAccount of practice G: The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)Introductory narrativeFour disclosuresCatholic Social Teaching: front fig leaf to bay leafCAFOD staff and the research as formativeQuestions of agency, north and southThe ecclesial nature of CAFODConcluding reflectionsNotesTradition: normativity, creativity and faithful treacheryThe normativity of ‘tradition’: responses in practice to that which has been handed onPractising traditio: faith-full practices of translation and transmissionConclusionNotesWhat account of church? Edgelessness, fragility and discernmentThree key ingredients of disclosed ecclesiology: edgelessness, fragility and the call to discernmentEdgelessnessFragilityDiscernmentConclusions: outlines for a disclosed ecclesiologyNotesWhat account of theology? Practical fundamental theologyPractical fundamental theology: towards a whole-theologyRemembering the impossibility of theologyTheology as fundamentally practice-engagedCan such a whole-theology be done?Learning from the composing of this book: the necessary incompleteness of whole-theologyThe call to conversation as fundamental theological practiceConcluding reflectionsNotesEcclesiology by epiphanies. A prospectAppendix: An outline of a (typical) cycle of theological action researchExploring the opportunities for collaborationPlannin the researchGathering the dataDiscerning the dataNaming the learning for actionNoteBibliography
