Doing Theology No. 17, February 2007

A bi-monthly theological reflection from the School of Ministry
of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina

'The True Function of a Parish'

At last years’ wardens’ retreat someone came up to me and handed me a copy of a sermon by John Heuss, then rector of Trinity Parish in Wall Street, called ‘The True Function of a Parish.’ Fr. Heuss gave that sermon back in 1953. I admired the warden for remembering it, and knowing where to find it after remembering it! And, for sharing it, for it is well worth a read a half-century later.

In his sermon Fr. Heuss suggested that the fellowship that emerged immediately after Pentecost was really the ‘first parish,’ and since, he argued, ‘a parish is nothing other than a fellowship of people,’ he wanted to know what distinguished the first one. He found five features: 

• ‘It was a fellowship which had had a soul-shaking personal experience with Jesus Christ….’
• 'There was a ‘genuineness of its trust in God through Christ.’
• ‘It knew itself to be a Spirit-filled community.’
• 'It possessed a ‘glad awareness of the forgiveness of sin.’
• 'Lastly, it was a fellowship that placed very little value on any organization or activity which did not contribute directly to three important things: What organization it boasted was for worship, for teaching, and for the collection of alms for the needy….’
  

He went on: ‘Being a member of the fellowship did not mean committee work. It meant a changed relationship to God. It meant a new quality of life between believing Christians.’ And, he concluded, the five marks cited above ‘have so largely disappeared from our parishes.’

This critique of the church may be sobering to us, whether as commentary on a half-century ago, or as valid for now. For those of us whose energy is directed toward the Millennium Development Goals or environmental stewardship or human sexuality or schism, Fr. Heuss’ five ‘functions’ of a parish may seem a statement about fundamentals potentially diverting us from the witness of the church in the world back into an emotional personal faith. Worse still, the five may be reminiscent of the five marks that defined fundamentalism – not as rigid as those from Niagara in 1895, but a real ‘back-to-basics’ feeling nevertheless.

Maybe. But I’m left admiring those five characteristics that Fr. Heuss named. They represent a conviction that whatever our ministry, we are not just another non-profit organization seeking to do something ‘good.’ Rather God is at work in us. If we were a ‘Spirit-filled community,’ it wouldn’t hurt for us to say more often than we do that Jesus Christ is why we are in this fellowship, and why we have passion for our particular callings Every one of us.