Broad church?

'Broad' means different things to different people. In Church terms it means a range of ideas embraced around set assertions about Jesus. 'High' churches enjoy incense and solemn liturgies, and 'low' church have lots of informality and just a nod to the requirements of the Prayer Book.  TV's 'Rev' is in the same organisatioas as somebody else's incense-fogged high mass, unbelievably. Christian worship also embraces low and high Roman Catholics, and in the 'free churches' these days almost anything goes,... lots of jollity, even 'messy church' for kids, and an hour of silence with the Quakers. Brought up a Congregationalist, son of a minister, and even for 30 years a minister myself, I love its dignified, scholarly tradition, great hymns, extempore prayers and Bible-centred worship. I am now told that all this is old fashioned, but I still love it. Change - that pestilent monster - is taking place in our tradition, presided over by a General Secretary who has been in post for 12 years - far too long. He is a very capable man, and it is probably not his fault that the denomination is sliding rapidly to the theological right and inevitable centralisation. Most 'Free Churches' now are far from broad in outlook. They offer the same thought-free fundamentalist theology, sing the same trite 'choruses' and are increasingly served by Baptist and Pentecostal leaders. It would help if the General Secretary was in post for only five years, to encourage a broader, more congregational approach. We might even have a liberal, progressive candidate, waiting in the wings, but the mood among our churches now would go for an Ira Sankey think-alike. 'Broad'? I don't think so.