FROM cradle Methodist to “professional Anglican”, I often pondered the differences in the two cultures. I was brought up in a church with regional accents; tea, potted-meat sandwiches, and Rich Tea biscuits for refreshment; and mixed leadership. Anglican power structures default to talking posh; Prosecco and canapés for celebrations; and leadership at all levels by the professional classes. Put alongside my experience of the intersectional complexity of power differentials according to gender, race and ethnicity, clergy/laity, Nonconformity, and establishment, all of which have shifted and changed, and it’s a lot to get your analytical head around.
This book tells stories of those of working-class backgrounds and their experiences of church — “feeling out of your depth”, “not fitting in” — and the confusion of middle-class and biblical values: “home ownership is better than renting; saving money is better than giving it away; the longer you stay in education the better; you should choose carefully the neighbourhood where you live. . . being organized with a diary is a sign of spiritual maturity.”
Being told, as the authors were, that “class issues . . . don’t exist any more” is a sure sign that they do. This book goes some way towards diagnosing what hurts. Missing, though, is exploration of the root causes of the systemic injustice that underpins the system. There is a working class only because there is a middle and an upper class. These divisions change with time. Inequality is essential to our neo-liberal capitalist system. It grows with every passing day, with devastating consequences. If churches are not part of moves that not only mourn, but organise, then we are complicit.
We need more theological work on social class which not only highlights the need for inclusion and diversity (for church growth), as this book does, but offers deep challenge to unjust structures, for mission.
Alison Webster is General Secretary of Modern Church and Mission Theologian for Citizens UK.
Invisible Divides: Class, culture and barriers to belonging in the Church
Natalie Williams and Paul Brown
SPCK £9.99
(978-0-281-08520-0)
Church Times Bookshop £8.99