CPW Virtual Summer Week in Review | Day 3 - A Report on Derek Reeve’s Talk
Report on Derek Reeve’s Talk on the Future of the Church
By Bill Phillips
Derek Reeve spoke on ‘The Future of the Church’. This is a summary of his talk and thoughts on this topic.
Derek started by stating that Vatican II did not work because the Bishops, full of enthusiasm, left it to the Vatican Curia who had no incentive to implement the changes.
Derek offered three areas in which he believes change is vital:
A. Implementation of Vatican II’s vision of a Synodal Church. This means consulting everyone and relying on the Sensus Fidelium. A radical conversion of the clergy outlook is required for this. At parish level, it should mean effective parish councils and finance committees. A re-examination of what the Church is about means seeing it as the sign and sacrament of the Kingdom of God and not an end in-itself. It should consist of small groups supporting each other, praying together, studying scripture and breaking bread but most importantly being outward looking. We must forget that we are the only church and work with others even if we do not believe the same things
B. The idea of Vocation: The priest’s vocation comes from the church wanting and needing not from a personal desire to be a priest. Local communities should be able to put forward the name of someone they want as a priest and ask the Bishop to lay hands on them. If they cannot preach then choose someone else who can for that ministry. There is no reason why priests should not be married, they have been for half the life of the church and in some areas still are. Nor is there any theological reason why women should not be priests except that Derek felt it would be unwise to ordain them into the present structure.
C. Sexuality: Derek feels that the church is out of touch. Sexuality should be seen aa a joyful gift not a problem. In 37 years, he had only seen one couple not living together at the time of marriage preparation. He likened it to the idea of the period of assessment in a religious order before final commitment. He felt that the view of same sex relationships as ‘disordered,’ was not helpful or just, and felt that gender change needed to be considered at greater length that was possible in this talk.
The Future: Derek referred to Dairmuid’s points about small groups reiterating the points made in section A, but emphasising that the focus would be outwards in such areas as refugees, food banks and ecological concerns. He also made the point that at no point did Jesus say that there had to be an ordained priest to preside over the breaking of bread.
His final point was to urge us to hang on to Hope as Jesus promised to be with us (not necessarily with the church) and would send His Spirit.
In addition to Hope should come Praise and Thanksgiving.