New Dean for Melbourne

[wei-han kuan]

St Paul's Cathedral is on the search for a new Dean.  If you have a good suggestion (and reasons) you can write by 11 April to:

The Revd Canon Barbara Darling
Chair
Dean Search Committee
7 Wilson Street
Dandenong 3175

But while we're at it, here's part of the letter I wrote.  I'd be interested in your feedback on what you think we need in a new Dean.  

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The Cathedral’s place as the chief centre of worship of the Diocese, and the strategic ministry that it should have to the city and to the agencies and schools of the Diocese, would be best served, in my opinion, by a person with the following qualities:

A proven ability to preach and teach the Scriptures faithfully and in an engaging and relevant way to the broadest possible range of ages; from children, youth, young adults, adults to seniors.  The person would ideally also have some experience of life and work in a city context.  

A proven ability to conduct services across the main range of styles used in the Cathedral and the Diocese.  

A proven ability to lead and manage a large and complex local church ministry team; and some experience of the central machinery of Diocesan management.  

A proven ability to minister in a cross-cultural context with an emphasis on evangelism, growth by conversion, empowering own-culture ministers who in turn will be able to grow others also.

A proven ability to engage constructively across the varieties of churchmanship in the Diocese.  

I am sure I am not alone in longing for the day when St Paul’s experiences the kind of thriving, vibrant, outreach ministry last seen when the Revd Dr Stuart Barton Babbage was Dean.  My prayer is that the Lord would give you and the Committee great wisdom and insight in selecting a new Dean to fulfill His commission to go and make disciples through the work of the Cathedral.  

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[Matt Williams]

Hey Wei-Han,

I like your priorities, definitely. Although I am also keen to have a Dean who, you know, exists. Can you think of anyone who fits that description?

Cathedrals, it seems to me, are among the most difficult ministry contexts. They find it hard to build loyal congregations of any size, yet are constantly asked to give expensive ministry to thousands of people 'passing through'. Also, many of those who are attracted to Cathedral worship are refugees who were hurt badly in their local parish, so need considerable pastoral work or are unwilling to get very involved. The parish doesn't come from a contained geographical area, so pastoral work is difficult. And they need to spend a lot of time in administration and engaging ceremonial occassions etc.

But while those things offer countless distractions to keep a Dean more than busy, we really do need someone with a vision to take advantage of all the mission opportunities presented by being right in the heart of the city. We can be thankful that David Richardson has so competently overseen the nightmare of renovations and fundraising for the same (something that excessively preoccupies many a Dean) and now the coast is clear for the next Dean to focus on mission.

As a result, I wonder if it would be helpful for the Cathedral to consider a demarcation of responsibilities - a visionary Dean who is primarily responsible for mission and development of the Cathedral outreach to the community, who is freed to think about that by an Archdeacon or Canon (or whatever you call them) who oversees all the administrative and pastoral work of the cathedral congregations themselves. A kind of External Dean/Internal Dean arrangement.

It's just an idea and, I must confess, offered in considerable ignorance of how the Cathedral is presently structured, so I probably should shut up now.

M

[Jereth]

Who was "the Revd Dr Stuart Barton Babbage" and when did he have that job?

[Tim Patrick]

Instead of 'internal dean' and 'external dean' you could rebadge the idea in other language. How about just 'dean' and 'assistant dean', with one being responsible for the services and running of the Cathedral and the other being essentially a city evangelist? (I guess the assistant dean would need to be known as The Extra Reverend... )

[Matt Williams]

Sure - Very, extra, super-dooper reverend, I don't mind what they call them, if the mission actually happens!

Incidentally, only 50% of the people who actually live in the city are Australian born, and the largest overseas-born demographics are Indonesian (9%); UK (7%) and Malaysian (6%).

Yet surprisingly Islam does not feature in the top 5 religions (Buddhism, though, is at 10%, while 16% are at least nominally Anglican).

47% are aged 20-39; and 31% are doing some sort of tertiary or non-school based education. All that suggests international students are a key demographic for the city.

But I'm in two minds about the Cathedral as the place for international student ministry, though certainly I wouldn't object if they wanted to try! Part of me thinks that is better able to be done by the other churches around the city perimeter who already have links to the international student ministries (primarily St Judes at the moment, although the Old Cathedral could be well located to help ).

What do people think? Should the Cathedral hook up with international student ministries, or focus most of its energy on weekday 'worker' outreach?

M

[wei-han kuan]

SBB was half time Dean for about 10 years up to the late 50s.  He regularly packed out the Cathedral with his lunchtime talks; yes, as in pretty much filled the place!

He also started Deano's Crypt - a youth ministry in the basement of the Cathedral that drew in significant numbers of young people.  

And all this while keeping his other half time job: principal of Ridley College.  The next thing you'll be asking me is, 'Who was Alfred Stanway?'

[Tim Patrick]

Matt Williams wrote:

What do people think? Should the Cathedral hook up with international student ministries, or focus most of its energy on weekday 'worker' outreach?

I think this is a good question - although at one level I agree with your general sentiments and would just be happy to see the Cathedral attempt any kind of focussed outreach. (Sadly, in the last couple of years we've seen the attention placed on calling for the city to save the Cathedral (there was actually a big banner hanging from the spire that asked for this) rather than on the Cathedral's role in bringing salvation to the city. I understand that the building needed work but surely we want to send the message that the church infrastructure is there to serve unbelievers, not the other way around... Sorry, I digress... )

We can't overlook the need for good international student work right now. Not only are there tens of thousands of international students in the city's educational precinct, they also seem far more receptive to the gospel than Aussie-borns at present. (Jude's Cross Cultures Easter camp was over 50% interested unbelievers.) So I think there's always going to be room for more good internationals work. It's a complicated ministry though - after three (four?) years, our team is still working out exactly how it can be most effective.

On the other hand, who is putting a concerted effort into weekday worker outreach in the CBD? Again, there's some of this coming out of Jude's and I'm sure other places are involved too but I think this is an area where we must grow. The Cathedral is ideally placed for this ministry. If we could get an urban missiologist in there who could preach biblical truth in relevant ways, it could be very exciting. As Wei-Han reminds us, Barton-Babbage used to pack the joint out with his lunchtime talks. Should we work and pray towards that again? Clearly we'd need a gun preacher in there and this would require a change in current Cathedral thinking. (I'm sorry, but I worry that a dean who sees his role as 'freeing the building to speak' may be abrogating his responsibility to exercise a clear, healthy and effective preaching ministry. Surely that's a key part of what we ordain clergy for... Sorry, I digress again... )

Again - good question. I hope the Chapter is kicking these ideas around.

TP

[Matt Williams]

Yes, I wasn't exactly encouraged by the current TMA quotes from Dean Richardson either. Although I also worry that if the Cathedral building is freed to speak too much, for many people it might suggest a God who has more money than taste, is a little gloomy, and marginally grotesque. (In addition to needing an expensive rescue every few decades.)

Now the architecture of the Old Cathedral, on the other hand...

[Tim Patrick]

Matt Williams wrote:

Yes, I wasn't exactly encouraged by the current TMA quotes from Dean Richardson either. Although I also worry that if the Cathedral building is freed to speak too much, for many people it might suggest a God who has more money than taste, is a little gloomy, and marginally grotesque. (In addition to needing an expensive rescue every few decades.)

I think the main things I hear the building saying are 'outdated' and 'irrelevant'. Perhaps sometimes it might say 'kinda interesting old place to stick your head in for five minutes if you're passing by - bit like a museum but without the exhibits'. The reality is that the Cathedral building and ossified styles of worship services are so incredibly alien to most Melbournians that we're kidding ourselves if we think they're going to have any lasting, healthy impact on most people's spirituality. I don't say that as an evangelical, I say it as a realist and a pragmatist! If it so happened that the building itself spoke such an unambiguous gospel that it was regularly bringing people to faith in Christ then I would be the first to say let's build another cathedral. But the fact is that in 2008, it doesn't.

Relevance is one of the keys to effective ministry. We have a great head start as the message of the Bible is incredibly relevant for every person in Melbourne. Now we just need a dean who can use the Cathedral to demonstrate that relevance to our city.

We should join the Chapter in praying.

[Jereth]

Yes, relevance is exactly the issue. We attended a recent ordination service at the Cathedral, and a number of non-Anglican Christians had been invited to see a friend ordained. Afterwards, they told us that it felt like a freak show. Even several of the Anglicans who were there told me that they found it an incredibly alienating experience. One memorable remark was that it felt like we had stepped into Harry Potter land -- what with all the bearded wizards in their robes and with their big staffs.

I endured a lot of high-church services at my Anglican high school, so personally I tolerated the Cathedral service quite well. But it was quite alarming to hear so many other young friends and colleagues say these sorts of things. If even Christians... even Anglicans (!!) are scared off by the Cathedral, then it makes you wonder how the building could possibly be doing an effective outreach for Christ. Then again, we shouldn't forget that there may be an older generation for whom that style or worship remains meaningful -- how can we cater for their needs while striving to be relevant to the modern Aussie culture?

[Jenny George-2]

wei-han kuan wrote:

The next thing you'll be asking me is, 'Who was Alfred Stanway?'

OK - you're on...

[wei-han kuan]

Well, actually, Harry Potter's Hogwarts is filmed in a Church of England cathedral.... but then the goblin bank is the Australia House, London, so I'm not sure what all that says

An interesting thing in the Mission Shaped Church stuff is the observation that in England cathedral worship is actually increasing in health/ numbers.  There are people who enjoy the a. anonymity (come in, sit down, have a service, get out without chatting to anyone), b. the vibe of a familiar historic style, and/ or c. the simple fact that the cathedral service represents a break from the speed, pressures, and slickness of contemporary life.  

My mantra is that 'Pentecostalism is the new Catholicism', by which I mean that signs, symbols, spaces, musicality - the physicality of worship - is something that the Reformation and many conservative evangelicals have stripped too completely out of their spirituality to their loss.  To the extent that cathedrals and Hillsongs have replaced that, they are merely filling a vacuum.  

To answer your question succinctly then: MSC says, 'Go for a mixed economy', where we have a diversity of styles to cater for different preferences.  Or to quote someone else, 'Be all things to all people so that  we might win some for Christ'.  The key, it seems to me, is to be certain of the common purpose and theological core: the Gospel of Christ.  How we define that is a different thread....

[Cat Patrick]

I know that as an unbeliever, I often used to wander into the Melbourne Cathedral and look around - and even took my friends in there, too. It was a quiet place of calm and it felt 'spiritual' - although I had no idea what that meant. Once I was in there when someone started playing the organs, and it was pretty amazing the way the sound filled the place.

Looking back, though, it gave me no understanding whatsoever about Jesus, and it wasn't until I met a group of Christians who showed great love for me and for God that I wanted to know more about Jesus. The cathedral was a space where I could feel spiritual. I think I even stopped to pray there once, but there was nothing to draw me into a relationship or deeper knowledge of God, or even to help me realise that we have a God who is personal in any way.

Bath Abbey, in the UK, where I lived for a year, had a fantastic ministry to tourists. From memory, I think they had a couple of handouts which pointed out important features in the architecture and explained their significance... so explaining what the pictures in the stained glass windows meant, etc. It was a great way to take people's vague interest in spirituality and draw them closer towards an understanding of Christ and the stories of the Bible. Every hour, an unintrusive voice came over the loud speaker explaining that they pray each hour for a few minutes, and inviting visitors to join in... a great way to practically demonstrate prayer and God's concern for the world. And in one section they had a few boards up with pictures and quotes from the congregation's kids and youth, showing that they were a vibrant community. It was a great spiritual haven, but one which invited people to explore the beauty of Christian faith, deepened their knowledge and drew on the rich heritage of the Anglican church. It would be fantastic to see that kind of thing happening in our Cathedral.

[Tim Patrick]

Cat Patrick wrote:

From memory, I think they had a couple of handouts which pointed out important features in the architecture and explained their significance... so explaining what the pictures in the stained glass windows meant, etc.

In Christchurch Cathedral in NZ, they have a swastika pattern in the tile work. Given the potential to misinterpret this, they also have a notice board explaining the pre-Nazi origins and significance of the symbol and how it came to be used in Christian patterning.

In St Paul's in Melbourne, we have several large pentagrams in the tilework around the chancel (seriously - look up next time you're there) - but no board explaining their pre-occult (or pre-Da Vinci Code) origins and significance. When I asked the precentor about them several years ago I was informed that they were a great attraction for the Melbourne's 'goth' community.

Now, I believe that God would rather have the goth community in church than anywhere else but I'm pretty sure he would want them there to hear about Jesus, not to feed any confused spirituality they might have by allowing them to marry Christian beliefs with the occult.

I agree with Wei-Han's point that evangelicals have often too-quickly abandoned symbolism altogether (crazy, given how much symbolism there is in the Bible), but I want to balance that with a warning that uninterpreted symbols often lead to either meaningless ambiguity - as was Cat's pre-Christian experience - or else to a very dangerous blurring of false and true spirituality - my fear regarding our gothic visitors.

Of course, I think the point we all agree on is that at present our Cathedral is too far down the overplayed-ambiguous-symbolism end of the spectrum and needs to take steps towards the clear-explanation-of-the-gospel-in-language-that-normal-people-understand end, without necessarily abandoning all the cherished Christian symbolism in the process. Good challenges for our new dean...

[Tim Patrick]

wei-han kuan wrote:

An interesting thing in the Mission Shaped Church stuff is the observation that in England cathedral worship is actually increasing in health/ numbers.  There are people who enjoy the a. anonymity (come in, sit down, have a service, get out without chatting to anyone), b. the vibe of a familiar historic style, and/ or c. the simple fact that the cathedral service represents a break from the speed, pressures, and slickness of contemporary life.  

I was talking with one of the canons of Canterbury Cathedral a couple of years ago who mentioned the increasing growth in cathedral attendance. However, it became clear quite in our conversation that what he was seeing was mostly tourist traffic, not a growing, maturing, regular congregation. There could indeed be many hundreds of people in the Cathedral on a Sunday but none of them knew each other as they were largely just passing through town and looking for that little taste of quaint English history.

Now, I'm very happy to have a large number of visitors in our churches - praise God - but if that's who we have then we'd better be making sure we see our Cathedral's Sunday services as key evangelistic opportunities and not just a chance to offer people Anglican warm fuzzies. Surely it's not God's intention that people come to church for a cultural experience, but to hear the message of salvation. Sadly, I'm not 100% convinced that this canon understood the importance of differentiating between those things.