Round Table Church

Writing in the current issue of "Inside Out" (No. 51), the magazine of the Council for World Mission, Revd. Dr. Christopher Duraisingh reflects back on his period as General Secretary of that organisation in the late eighties and early nineties. In a little summary comment with the title Table Manners he writes: "During my term, I visited Singapore where we ate at round tables with a rotating tray on top. Each person would bring a dish, nobody knew who brought what but we would share as equals. Can CWM learn to throw away the rectangular table for the round table? It is constituted by what everybody brings to it; therefore I insist the vision of CWM is that we need to play our part in adding to this rich table. This means we also need to learn and challenge one another to value non-material resources such as cultural and social insights and personnel." The round table concept brings to mind Fred Kaan's hymn which likens the church to a table and begins with this very concept: "The church is like a table, a table that is round. It has no sides or corners, no first or last, no honours; here people are in one-ness and love together bound." The church is fundamentally non-hierarchical - and I believe that to be true even where there is apparent hierarchy which, I think, is more to do with role than place or position. Like Jesus himself, we are all called to a servant ministry. A few weeks ago, in Lent, the Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt. Revd. David Urquhart was out cleaning people's shoes. Some suggested that he should have stuck with the more symbolic act of washing feet. I don't think so. My feet do need regular washing, but someone else doing that is not going to contribute meaningfully to the cleanliness of my feet. But to have my dirty shoes cleaned .... that really would be a service. How can we really establish and be a round table church? - not one where we are all doing the same things, but one where we value all the things that all the others are doing, and including the non-material resources so aptly identified by Christopher Duraisingh!