Church In England Different

The Ann Arbor News, Saturday, August 17,1974
Many Chapels, Few Members
Church In England Different
By Glenn Gilbert
(News Religion Editor)
“That is the way we belong to do it.”
That’s what they say in England’s Cornwall County, where Dr. Donald B. Strobe, senior minister of First United Methodist Church here, says he found that his people “sacrifice speed and efficiency for beauty and tradition.”
But the local minister came back from a five-week pulpit exchange thinking that perhaps the church in Cornwall could learn maybe just a few things from Americans.
While in Cornwall, Dr. Strobe and his family encountered a few things that perhaps he didn’t expect. Examples:
—New distinctions between a church and a chapel.
—People can drive their automobile to town for groceries, but not to church.
—The United Methodist Church is not as united as one might hope for in Cornwall. In the Truro (Cornwall’s major city) Circuit, 31 chapels have a total of 1,300 members, less than the membership at the Ann Arbor church.
—You can die in Cornwall for less than $100.
Another surprise, said Dr. Strobe in an interview, was that he had been led to believe that the people of Cornwall would be very stiff, but he and his family found them “very loving and open. ”
For Dr.' strobe, it was the third trip to England. Three years ago, he, his wife, Kathleen, and 17-year-old son, David, visited the Strobes’ daughter, 21-year-old Carole, who was doing social work for a year in Liverpool. The other previous visit was eight years ago.
Dr. Strobe exchanged pulpits with the Rev. Peter Bolt, whose ministry here was the subject of a recent story in The News. The Rev. Mr. Bolt centers his ministry at St. Mary’s Methodist Church, the largest chapel in the circuit, but is called upon to speak throughout the circuit.
Differences between a chapel and a church?
For one thing, “a church uses candles, a chapel does not, according to the Cornish people. But for another, when Methodists built their structures they were contrasted with the elaborate Anglican structures by their simplicity.
The chapels may be a literal stone's throw from one another, however, and “this is its greatest weakness,” said Dr. Strobe, concerning the state of the church in England.
“They are killing their preachers” by maintaining so many chapels, said Dr. Strobe. For example, one of the churches has only one member! Sunday attendance may be a mere handful, but preachers must be provided to all 31 chapels each Sunday.
“The strength (of the church) is the involvement of I lay men and women,” said Dr. Strobe. He pointed out that there are only five ministers for the circuit and the
Dr.
Strobe
rest of the preachers are laymen.
“The state of the church was better than I had expected,” said Dr. Strobe. “I had heard so many gloomy tales.”
Only three percent of the population attends church in England, but this figure is eight per cent in Cornwall due to a traditional time lag between Cornwall and the rest of England, said Dr. Strobe. Cornwall prides itself as a county “that doesn’t follow fads,” he said. .
Those figures compare with 54 per cent of the population which claims church membership in the United States. Thirty five per cent of these attend church on Sunday, recent figures indicate.
Dr. Strobe said the church’s weakness in England can be
traced to the church-state relationship. “History shows that the church suffers” in these situations, he said.
Dr. Strobe said it is unlikely that the various Methodist chapels will unite in the Truro Circuit, though there is hope for a merger of three chapels in Truro itself.
People can drive “to the city for their groceries, why not for church?” he observed.
“Until our people learn to come to terms with the automobile . . . there is no hope for renewal,” the Rev. Mr. Bolt wrote in a letter to Dr. Strobe upon his return.
Dr. Strobe found church services “more like old camp meetings . . . There are no church bulletins” and when Dr. Strobe showed people pictures of the Ann Arbor
church, he said they often responded, ‘Oh, you have an altar.’
“John Wesley had a great love for Cornwall,” said Dr. Strobe and that is perhaps why there are so many chapels there. John and Charles Wesley are considered the founders of Methodism.
While the Cornish method of death might be shocking to Americans, “our way would be jarring to them,” said Dr. Strobe. Sixty-two per cent of those who die are cremated. Cost is about $100 and there are no funeral homes. Funeral directors usually have other work as well.
“The clergy do not have the respect that they do here. They are not very highly regarded,” said Dr. Strobe. Similarly, the church does not have “much stature or respect” and is often viewed as “something from the middle ages.”
Again, Dr. Strobe attributes this to the church-state relationship. “A church supported by the government cannot be the critic it ought to be. ”
Following their five weeks in Cornwall, the Strobes spent several days in Scotland. David Strobe liked it so well he stayed behind.
Carole Strobe, who studied social work last year at the University of South Wales, has one more term before receiving her degree from Michigan State University. She is eyeing graduate work in the pastoral psychology field upon graduation from MSU.
Dr. Strobe has been at the Ann Arbor church for two years. He was senior minister for eight years at the First United Methodist Church of Grand Rapids.
Dr. Strobe was graduated from Albion College magna cum laude with membership in Phi Beta Kappa in 1955. The 45-year-old minister was graduated from Garrett Theological Seminary (now Garrett-Evangelical) in Evanston, 111. in 1959 with a bachelor of divinity degree.
He was awarded the doctor of divinity degree in 1971 from Albion.