We celebrated Christmas Day in another Anglican church building that, again, could have been almost anywhere in the world. There wasn't much that made this church stand out as being particularly Malaysian Anglican - and when we met the minister who had done his theological training in Australia and the preacher who was visiting from Australia we really felt like we were part of a pretty close-knit Anglican world.
While this raised some important questions of inculturation for me, they were made far less pressing by the fact that the church was completely full. Not only were all the pews in this building filled at back-to-back morning services but we were part of a more contemporary service in the church hall that was completely packed too - and there was also a Bahasa Malaysia service running somewhere else in the building at the same time. Moreover, it seems this wasn't just because of Christmas or Cathedral tourism but was in large part regular membership - check out all the services they regularly run on their website.
And we all heard the great message of Jesus' birth. It's still pulling crowds around the world! And the Anglican format clearly has traction in some significantly different settings.
Hi Tim,
ReplyDelete'the Anglican format clearly has traction in some different settings.'
I'm not sure this follows from what you witnessed. You could just as easily conclude that Jesus has traction in Malaysia and the Anglican church is the lesser of various evils. In other words, people want to go to church because they're excited about Jesus, and the Anglicans have a lot of buildings and they're established and prominent and so people find their way into Anglican churches. I don't think many people are going there because they're attracted to Anglican liturgy. In fact, you could argue that the church would be a lot bigger if they dropped the Anglican liturgy.
I went to a similar church in Africa that felt exactly like an Anglican church in Australia. I think it's quite sad. You said this 'raised some important questions of inculturation for me, they were made far less pressing by the fact that the church was completely full.' I'd question how much more full and how much more fruitful the church could be if it was better contextualized.
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It's a fair point Nat - perhaps things would be even bigger if the church wasn't Anglican.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think it's a pretty hard argument to substantiate. That is, that the Anglican Church is working well as a vehicle for the gospel in KL seems clear. We can only speculate on what may or may or may not work better. It could be - for reasons beyond our understanding - that another format of church service would completely flop in KL. We just don't know. So, as it stands, I'm very happy to thank God for the good that clearly is happening through the Anglicans.
Also - I do think people were there for the message of Jesus, not just for a Sunday hit of 'Anglicanism', but that's what this church was giving them - a word-centred, gospel-driven service, albeit wrapped in some Anglican cloth.