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‘A Serious House on Serious Earth’: Towards an Understanding of the Church of England’s Inheritance of Buildings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2018

Benjamin Carter
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Abstract

The Church of England is blessed with an extraordinary inheritance of church buildings. However, this inheritance, particularly in rural contexts, is increasingly being viewed as a financial millstone and encumbrance to mission. This article takes issue with the largely ‘functional’ understanding of church buildings which is common place in the Church of England. It will argue that there needs to be a rediscovery of the symbolic and sacramental power of buildings. By reasserting the sacramental and symbolic power of church buildings we can come again to recognize how all church buildings – and not just those blessed with a great history or soaring architecture – exist in part to articulate the ongoing presence and activity of God in creation.

Keywords

church architectureChurch of EnglandDavid BrownDurhamheritagemissionRobin Gillrural churchsacraments
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , November 2018 , pp. 128 - 146
Copyright
© The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2018 

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References

2. William Whyte’s recently published essay ‘The Ethics of the Empty Church: Anglicanism’s Need for a Theology of Architecture’, Journal of Anglican Studies 13.2 (2015), pp. 172-88 also reflects on the challenges and opportunities presented by church buildings through a reflection on Larkin’s poem ‘Church Going’. It is a coincidence that this paper was first conceived and written as a reflection on the same poem. This coincidence is also a sign of the power and relevance of Larkin’s poem in helping the Church reflect on its inheritance of buildings. Where Whyte’s essay presents an historical response to this challenge, this essay acts as a theological reflection to this same question.

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