I’m writing on the island of Iona. On the ferry from Oban to Mull was the mobile bank. On
\nthe way across Mull, I passed the mobile Dental Clinic. To provide services and sustain
\ncommunity in rural areas is important \u2013 but it is challenging and expensive. When I
\nreached Iona, I became part of an area of our church where worship and caring ministry
\nare sustained by a small number of clergy and by the commitment of lay members. It isn’t
\neasy for us either.<\/p>\n
This week sees the Royal Highland Show \u2013 that great festival of rural community life.
\nRecently the Scottish Episcopal Church received a Report from its Rural Commission.
\nAnd of course the recent Assembly of the Church of Scotland continued to debate the
\nissue of territoriality \u2013 the question of whether the church is going to be able to sustain
\nparish life in every part of Scotland.<\/p>\n
Traditionally of course, the countryside suits church life. Church communities work well in
\nsettled communities. We are probably more influenced than we might care to admit by
\nJane Austen and John Betjeman pictures of the English village with duck pond, village
\ngreen and parish church. But if you look closer, you’ll find that today’s idyllic parish church
\nsouth of the border is grouped with five others and that the vicar lives miles away.<\/p>\n
The reality is that churches tend to drift towards the suburbs. Concentration of population
\nmakes it easier to sustain church life \u2013 after all churches are entirely financed by voluntary
\ngiving. That’s why there has been a focus on ministry in Urban Priority Areas. That’s why
\nthere is now a focus on sustaining the life of the church in rural areas \u2013 lest the church like
\nthe school, the Post Office, the doctor, the rural bus services should join the retreat from
\nthe rural community.<\/p>\n
But things are not as difficult as they seem. The Scottish Episcopal Church’s Rural
\nCommission reported that during the past decade it is the population in rural areas which
\nhas been increasing most rapidly \u2013 over 10% in accessible rural areas and over 5% in
\nremote rural areas. Of course there are problems. Age profile is high, the public sector is
\nthe largest employer and transport is a big issue. Issues which arise from climate change
\nwill bear most heavily on the rural community.<\/p>\n
So rather than dealing with rural depopulation, we are beginning to see possibilities of
\ngrowth in church life in rural areas. Those who come to live in the countryside will do so
\nby choice \u2013 often because of ‘quality of life’ choices. They will be a diverse group \u2013 more
\nlikely to be involved in volunteering and community life than others.<\/p>\n
No one should imagine that we can recreate a rural idyll of church life in the countryside.
\nAs in the city, so in the country our clergy and people are going to have to engage fully in
\ncommunity issues. That means taking a full part in work on tourism, farming, efforts to
\nsustain local schools, medical services and transport links. If we want to see viable rural
\nchurch communities, we must work for viable rural communities.<\/p>\n
The Scottish Churches tent at the Royal Highland Show has been well visited in past years
\nand gives us an opportunity to learn how people are dealing with living in rural
\ncommunities. It may be a showcase for all that is best about rural life, but the Royal
\nHighland Show also allows us all to look at ways of working together to deal with the
\nissues and challenges of sustaining rural communities in the future. I believe that
\nChurches and other faith communities must together be part of that story.<\/p>\n
\n Rt. Revd. David Chillingworth, Primus and Bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rt. Revd. David Chillingworth, Primus and Bishop of St. Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane, gives an insight into what the church brings to rural life.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71919,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71901\/revisions\/71919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hillside.work\/sec\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}