The Greater Church as ‘Sacred Space, Common Ground’: A Narrative Case Study Within a Rural Diocese

ABSTRACT

The profile of ‘Greater Churches’ in the Church of England is rising, as attested by the expanding interest in the network to which many of these abbeys, minsters and significant parish churches belong. Yet, save for the report of the Church of England Church Growth Research Project (Strand 3a of which compared cathedral-like greater churches with cathedrals), empirical work on Greater Churches as a particular class is sparse. This article responds to that lacuna in the literature, presenting a narrative case study conducted within the framework of symbolic congregation studies pioneered by Hopewell. It explores the values expressed by a Greater Church working under the banner ‘sacred space, common ground’, a metaphor which has shed light hitherto on the ministry and mission of cathedrals. Through analysis of (i) the narrative of a pioneering Christmas Tree Festival in the church and (ii) the congregation’s own narrative (stimulated by a time-line exercise at a subsequent parish conference), the symbolism and potential consonance of sacred space and common ground are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Cathedrals
• sacred space, common ground
• congregation studies
• Greater Churches
• metaphor
• narrative

Acknowledgements

For assistance with this study, grateful thanks are expressed to the Reverend Stuart Cradduck, Rector of Grantham, and the Reverend Jacqueline Bell and the Reverend James Robinson, Assistant Curates, St Wulfram’s, Grantham.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Judith A. Muskett is a postdoctoral researcher and Visiting Fellow in Theology & Religious Studies, York St John University, and a long-time member of the congregation of St Wulfram’s Church, Grantham.

Notes

1. Within the field of Cathedral Studies, a prime example of a study comparing parish churches with cathedrals is that on the Southwark Diocese by Lankshear, Francis, and Ipgrave (2015).

2. For a current list of members of the Greater Churches Network, see http://greaterchurches.org/.

3. A ‘Major Parish Church’ has all or some of these characteristics: physically large (footprint over 1000m²); grade I or II* listed; significant heritage value; usually open daily to visitors; make a civic, cultural and economic contribution to their communities (Burrows, 2016). The term was adopted by the Church of England in the early twenty-first century. All churches in the Greater Churches Network fulfil the Major Parish Church criteria (p. 10).

4. By contrast, it is notable that the umbrella term ‘greater churches’ has not consistently discriminated between churches/abbeys and cathedrals: see, for example, England’s Greater Churches (Nicholson, 1937), which covers cathedrals, abbeys and the great chapels of St George at Windsor and King’s College at Cambridge.

5. Following Langford’s (2015) procedure, authorship of prayer cards by children was inferred through content and sign-off information (for example, a statement of age); attention was also paid to lack of maturity in handwriting.