The Church Of The Holy Rood -- Wool, Dorset, U.K.
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The Church Of The Holy Rood -- Wool, Dorset, U.K.
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What can the Church learn from football?
Even people like me can’t fail to have noticed that there seems to be an important football tournament in progress. At the time of writing, England have only played one match, but no doubt as time goes on the excitement of the fans will increase with fervour. The following article from the Times in 2002 was headed ‘God Squad. The Church can learn from the beautiful game.’ And lo it was decided that, on the second day of the sixth month, the eleven would go into the field and the hopes of the multitude would be upon them. But this day was also the Sabbath and the people petitioned the Pharisees saying, ‘Master what are you going to do about the clashes of these fixtures? For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for an England supporter to get himself to church during the World Cup’. And so it came to pass that the Archbishop gave the people his blessing to move their prayers. And the angel of the Lord came down and said, ‘That’s a relief it’s not as if any of us would have been listening.’ And lo, pizza was ordered and beers were downed all over the land. At last it’s official: football is bigger than God, or, at least, God has to give way to the beautiful game when He realises that He’s drawn an unwinnable fixture. Football stars have become icons throughout the world; and they along with their wives have become trendsetters of fashion. And many fans followed with eager anticipation the intimate details of Rooney’s metatarsal injury, and couldn’t wait to hear the result of his scan and whether he would be fit to play.
The article goes on to liken the popularity of Church in the United States to that of a football match, and then compares it to the Church of England: There is an element of competition that results in crowded aisles whereas our own established Church is more akin to a fossilised nationalised industry. Badly run, with an underpaid staff and with a monopolistic (exclusive control), monotheistic (belief in one God) complacency about appealing to segments of the community of any universal service provider, the Church of England needs to wake up to the challenge posed by football: handbooks instead of prayerbooks, halftime entertainment and clergy ratings. The Church will be all the fitter for the competition. I’m not sure that I would agree with all of the article, but at a time when we are reliably told that Church numbers are declining, and we know from our own experience that we have few worshippers under the age of forty it’s important that as a Church we look carefully at where we are now and where we see the Church in the future. Sundays are no longer sacrosanct; the Church isn’t just in competition with football and other sporting activities. With people leading ever busier lives, shopping, DIY, gardening, catching up on the household chores etc. have replaced the time when families came to church together on a Sunday morning. I’m not suggesting we put on our own football match, although that may not be such a bad idea, but we do need to prayerfully consider what we mean by Church in today’s society if we want God’s word to be relevant and have priority in people’s lives.
God bless Rev Judy Hill
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