I was recently struck by a Facebook comment in a thread beneath an article on the Church of England’s response to the Unite the Kingdom march. A poster had expressed anti-immigration sentiment, and the response she received was: “The Gospel is unconditional love for everyone, including the stranger — or didn’t you get the memo?” Quite apart from the substance of the argument, the language itself is revealing. It envisions Christianity not as revelation, mystery or prophecy, but as an updated policy brief from a moral HR department.

But perhaps that is merely one person’s unfortunate style of communication? Reading the Church Times article above the thread, I became less sure. It quotes from something called “The Church of England Bishops’ Working Group for Promoting Unity in our Nation”, which had shared a prayer giving thanks for those who “build up our common life”, asking God to help us “love all who call these islands their home”, and protect the nation from “the perils of division and hatred.” Even the Almighty Himself might struggle to tell whether this was the Church speaking, an NGO, or a Labour Party spokesperson.

The language is telling, but so too are the structures that produce it. Having survived twenty years inside academia, I recognise the instinct to form “working groups”. They exist to address operational or reputational problems within large institutions. They feel odd within Christ’s church. Surely the Church exists to remind us of biblical approaches to living problems, rather than simply mirroring the practices of institutional life?

The article goes on to discuss safe spaces, listening stations, and polling data. All of this feels considerably closer to the language of managerial and therapeutic governance than to that of discipleship.

Looking at the Church’s responses to many of the popular issues of the age, one increasingly encounters the lingo of administrators, facilitators and communications departments. We experience the Church less as a voice crying in the wilderness than as a purveyor of messages from the comms team.

Read it all at The Critic