Charismatic renewal in mainline denominations

Ambiguity, unity, and potential

CHRISTOPHER LANDAU

Eucharisma 1, (Spring 2024), 66-72.

On Maundy Thursday, in many Anglican cathedrals, clergy and lay ministers from across a diocese gather for a ‘Chrism Eucharist’ – where holy oils are blessed and distributed for use in the year ahead, and ministerial vows are renewed. At Lichfield, on 28^th March 2024, the Bishop (Rt Revd Dr Michael Ipgrave) welcomed worshippers with these words: 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, 

As in this most holy season we celebrate the Paschal Mystery

Of our Lord’s saving death and resurrection,

We gather in joy to celebrate the gifts of his Holy Spirit;

To bless for anointing the oils of baptism, chrism, and healing;

And to renew our commitment to the ministries we exercise

Among the whole people of God. 

Lichfield is perhaps one of the least well-known early sites of Christian worship in Britain. The first church is thought to have been built in 659; St Chad became the first bishop of Lichfield in 669. The following thousand years included plenty of challenges, including the near destruction of the cathedral during the civil war. Today’s building is heavily influenced by Sir George Gilbert Scott’s Victorian restoration; it was into the building’s nave that bishops, canons, archdeacons and other clergy processed on Maundy Thursday in 2024. 

In quoting the bishop’s opening words at this year’s service—the only corporate gathering of clergy from across the diocese in the year—I wish to underline the way in which insights rediscovered by charismatic renewal since the 1960s have become embedded in what would otherwise be perceived as highly traditional Anglican liturgy. The blessing of oils, particularly for healing, speaks of a continuing faith in a God who moves and acts among his people, including in miraculous ways. For me, of particular interest was the bishop’s phrase, ‘we gather in joy to celebrate the gifts of his Holy Spirit’. Now this didn’t mean the service included speaking in tongues or the active practice of spiritual gifts; but nor are these words empty of meaning. For me, they represent what I wish to call the implicit charismatic theology which is present in many Anglican contexts, waiting (in my view) to be fully unlocked. 

There were other aspects of the service which reflect the ambiguous presence of charismatic renewal within an ordered, largely traditional, liturgical Anglican setting. While most of the music within the service was, as would ordinarily be expected in a cathedral, led from the organ and at times by a solo male cantor, there was also a three-piece worship band leading some contemporary sung worship using musicians from the diocesan renewal group. As the gospel procession moved into the centre of the nave, the congregation sang ‘O Praise the Name of the Lord our God’ (Hillsong, 2015). Among the several hundred worshippers, a generous handful of hands were raised in worship at this point. For some, this will simply have been a spontaneous act of devotion; for others, perhaps, a more deliberately political signal of charismatic enthusiasm in the context of formalised liturgical worship. Note that the freedom to be expressive was there – and was even more evident during the celebration of Holy Communion, which included the singing of ‘Way Maker, Miracle Worker’:

You are here, moving in our midst

I worship you, I worship you…

You are here, touching every heart

I worship you, I worship you…¹

“Well, that was lovely” said the retired lay minister sitting next to me as the singing of Way Maker drew to an end. Her comment seemed to reflect a sense of pleasant surprise that this song, with its unabashed celebration of God’s presence and power, should have been sung in the context of cathedral worship. But this is a perfect illustration of the ambiguity which fascinates me concerning the place of the Spirit in traditional Anglican worship. Often, Anglicans are content to sing quite emphatically charismatic hymns or songs that are unabashed about the presence and power of God – but questions hang in the air about how willing those same worshippers are actually to see that God move in their midst. 

Anglicans learn to live with such ambiguities. After the service, a queue of ministers waited at the east end of the cathedral to receive the newly consecrated holy oils. An accompanying leaflet noted, ‘Oil as a symbol reminds us of God’s boundless generosity towards us, and of his never-ending love of us. When we use it to anoint people in the Church, it is more than merely a symbol or reminder. It becomes one of the channels by which God’s power comes into the world, by which he blesses us with his Holy Spirit… by the means of the Holy Oils, he pours his healing and life-giving Spirit into the Church and upon her members.’ 

Another expression of ambiguity is worth noting in relation to this particular location within the cathedral. The oils were given out next to the new Shrine of St Chad, itself a somewhat ambiguous innovation in the cathedral’s recent history. The Thirty Nine Articles of Religion, which continue to form part of the ‘inheritance of faith’ which Anglican clergy seek to uphold at ordination, are clear in their rejection of the significance of relics. Article 22 states, ‘The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and Adoration, as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God.’ But this did not prevent an historic occasion in late 2022, when a relic of St Chad was brought from Birmingham’s Roman Catholic cathedral, and installed in the new shrine. Using language of episcopal diplomacy and understatement, at a special service the Bishop of Lichfield said:

The language of relics does not come naturally to many Anglicans, and veneration of them does not usually form part of our spiritual practice; but we do use the language and practice of memory and remembering… it is right that a part of Chad’s mortal remains should be brought back here to the place where they once were laid. It is good that today we join together not only as Anglicans and Roman Catholics but as brothers and sisters of other churches too. We all have much to learn from one another, and I have been learning much recently from the Moravian tradition in particular.²

I found it fascinating that here the bishop not only spoke of Catholic-Anglican relationships, but also cited the Moravians. Was this a nod towards wider currents of renewal within the church? The Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley, also spoke of the relic as an impetus towards unity:  

Under our shared patronage of St Chad, the bonds of faith and affection that exist between our two dioceses and their respective cathedrals are deepened and set on a new trajectory… The veneration of relics has been a cause of division in our shared history – but today is a moment that draws us together as we seek to reflect on St Chad’s life… May this relic be a symbol of our friendship and the unity in faith in Christ which we already enjoy – and may it always foster the fullness of unity for which Jesus prayed: that we might all be one.

This appeal to unity is worth noting. Even in the context of an admission about the ambiguity of Anglicans honouring relics, two historically divided churches found a way to express a deep sense of common mission and purpose. 

And I wish now to turn to another Anglican cathedral, and another landmark event—which brought together an even wider range of denominational representatives, with undoubted significance in the history of charismatic renewal’s impact on mainline denominational churches: the Fountain Trust’s “Fellowship of the Holy Spirit” conference at Guildford Cathedral, in July 1971. It is not hyperbolic to identify this conference as a key moment in charismatic renewal in the UK, particularly in relation to unity between churches and the impact of renewal on mainline denominations. 

The conference was the brainchild of Michael Harper, an Anglican clergyman who had begun the ministry of the Fountain Trust in the 1960s, seeking to foster charismatic renewal, particularly through inviting American speakers to share their experiences ‘across the pond’. Harper had left his curacy at All Souls Langham Place in London when it became clear that his charismatic enthusiasm was not to the taste of its then vicar, John Stott. In a biographical account of his life and ministry, Harper’s widow Jeanne wrote: ‘The vision of Guildford was closely related to Michael’s Baptism in the Holy Spirit in 1962: to bring the churches together so the Body of Christ could be no longer fragmented but whole, each part being in fellowship with the others, despite differences, doctrinal and cultural. Structural unity was not part of the package, for differences are to be accepted, as long as the basic essentials of the Truth were not forfeited.’³ 

The conference gathered what was, and remains, an astonishingly diverse group of Christian leaders. Jeanne Harper writes, ‘Guildford was unique in that through it God broke through the tightly held denominational allegiances for the first time, especially those of the Catholic and Protestant churches. … It was declared that despite doctrinal disagreements, the conference would demonstrate a unity made possible by the experience of the Holy Spirit.⁴ She also notes that it was because of the Conference that the Catholic Charismatic Renewal began its work in the UK. 

The Church Times reported at the time, ‘The spirit of renewal which is stirring the Church in ways at the same time old and new swept over a congregation of fourteen hundred people in Guildford Cathedral last week as, with arms upraised, they sang in the spirit, sang in tongues. It was, after all, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit…. Whatever anyone says, joy and spontaneity is the mark of the charismatic movement, so why should anyone be surprised when a Roman Catholic—Kevin Ranaghan—describing the stages of Catholic charismatic renewal as experienced in the United States, should liken the first stage to wildfire, “a foretaste of heaven, a kind of foretaste of the pleasure of the Supper of the Lamb!”’⁵

The ministry of the Fountain Trust was characterised by a unity in the Spirit which risks being forgotten in today’s fragmented church. Indeed when the Trust ceased its work in 1980, a number of denominationally-specific organisations sprang into life, of which Anglican Renewal Ministries was one (which changed its name to ReSource in 2004, adopting a more intentionally ecumenical character; I am its current director).⁶ 

But one initiative of Michael Harper’s, nurturing unity, endures to this day: an annual gathering of leaders from across charismatic and Pentecostal movements, currently led jointly by Charles Whitehead (now retired from key roles within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal) and Hugh Osgood (a former Free Churches Moderator and President of Churches Together in England).⁷ The gathering is remarkable in its holding together of a deep openness to the ministry of the Spirit with an unusual breadth of attendees, spanning both charismatic and Pentecostal churches and networks. It is through this gathering that I have connected with those leading equivalent organisations to ReSource in Catholic, Baptist, United Reformed and Methodist contexts.⁸ In the final section of this article, I wish to reflect on four common themes that impact each ministry: tensions in relating to an historic denomination; varied denominational approaches to formal recognition of charismatic renewal; challenges prompted by divisive issues within the church, notably sexuality; and questions around church tradition and worship style.

The common link for each of our organisations is that we have some kind of structural recognition as a vehicle for charismatic renewal in the denomination to which we are attached, though the terms of that recognition vary substantially. In my own Anglican context, for example, the separate ministries of New Wine and Holy Trinity Brompton (especially through the latter’s church planting work, the Revitalise Trust) are both also hugely significant, and both work with the Church of England in many and varied ways, but neither has the particular structural history of Anglican Renewal Ministries which has been inherited by ReSource. Our relationship to the Church of England is formalised as an arms-length mission partner, but largely our bonds are relational. For Catholics, by contrast, there is a clear structure within which the work of renewal now functions. The current Pope has formalised its place within official structures, commending spiritual renewal to the whole church. In an address to an international gathering of key leaders of the charismatic renewal gathered at the Vatican in 2019, he named three key priorities for the work:

“- to share baptism in the Holy Spirit with everyone in the Church. It is the grace you have received. Share it! Don’t keep it to yourselves!

– to serve the unity of the body of Christ, the Church, the community of believers in Jesus Christ. This is very important, for the Holy Spirit creates unity in the Church, but also diversity. The personality of the Holy Spirit is interesting: with the charisms he creates the greatest diversity, but then he harmonizes the charisms in unity. Saint Basil says that “the Holy Spirit is harmony”; he creates harmony: harmony in the Spirit and harmony among us.

– and to serve the poor and those in greatest need, physical or spiritual. This does not mean, as some might think, that suddenly the Renewal has become communist. No, it has become evangelical, for this is in the Gospel.”⁹

Those of us working in non-Catholic contexts may be tempted to spot patches of greener grass at the Vatican, in the sense that renewal (and specifically, baptism in the Holy Spirit) is commended to the whole church; though it is also clear that structural recognition alone does not mean every local bishop seeks to match the Pope’s enthusiasm. Indeed for some organisations, an arms-length or independent relationship to a denomination provides exactly the kind of freedom in the Spirit that charismatics customarily seek; Fresh Streams offers an example of a clearly defined and cherished relationship within the Baptist Union, but also a freedom and flexibility in independent ministry. 

The question of how charismatic organisations navigate areas of controversy within their respective denominations is a shared challenge across different contexts. Methodist Evangelicals Together is itself an organisation that brings different strands of Methodism and renewal together, and became the key group opposing the Methodist Church’s liberalising moves on same-sex marriage, raising deep questions about how the group’s ministry may in future be received across the breadth of the denomination. Within the United Reformed Church, GEAR as a renewal movement is clearly also evangelical in its sympathies; whereas ReSource, and Anglican Renewal Ministries before it, has always sought to explore the reality of renewal across the breadth of church tradition. For every renewal organisation, there is a key strategic challenge in navigating how to encourage the renewal of the whole church, while some sections of denominations turn away from traditional understandings of holiness. 

A final area of challenge shared across denominations concerns perceptions of renewal being synonymous with contemporary sung worship and other liturgical innovations (or the abandonment of liturgy), even when proponents of renewal may wish to commend a broader musical or worshipping diet than critics expect. 2024’s Holy Week has offered a case study in these tensions arising from an official Church of England social media post on X, inviting people to church. A traditional church interior is visible, with a worship band standing at the front of the building (obscuring any altar or table). The congregation includes those with arms aloft or hands visibly held in prayer; the screens show that ‘O Happy Day’ is being sung – a key point of subsequent criticism, in that some felt a ‘Holy Week’ post should not have included an Easter Day song. 

This Holy Week, we're inviting you to church. ⛪

With many services and events happening in your area, find one that's right for you at https://t.co/URe4sjqxUq.#WatchAndPray pic.twitter.com/OASqMlORXU

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) March 26, 2024

At the time of writing, the post has attracted almost five hundred thousand views, and hundreds of comments. Responding to the many criticisms, one Anglican priest wrote, “If it’s news to you that charismatic worship exists in the Church of England – welcome. We celebrate it as we celebrate all the traditions of the church.” A lay person responded, “What on earth is that nonsense! Where are the candles, the prayer books, the organs, the choir and the pews. Honestly, what a disgrace!”. Then the journalist and author Louise Perry joined in: “Lots of criticism of this from traditionalists, I might once have agreed. But I tried this style of worship and found I loved it. And a large, youthful congregation seems to love it too. HTB¹⁰ plant churches are flourishing.” In response to her, the Anglican priest and podcaster Daniel French disclosed the church depicted in the post: “Yes for the Anglican Twitter grizzly voices it’s actually the Plymouth HTB resource church and St Melittus [sic] Theological College. The college does “high mass” as well as praise style.”¹¹

It is a storm in a teacup that is, nonetheless, revealing—in the way it highlights the continuing tensions which surround the reception and adoption of charismatic renewal within mainline contexts. All the denominations I have mentioned are experiencing numerical decline overall, but are also denominations where charismatic congregations and initiatives often resist or even dramatically buck such trends. Each denomination has to navigate a recognition that the renewal is not currently surging and breaking new ground in the way it did in Guildford in 1971; but its influence and accessibility has reached a level (such as in Lichfield Cathedral in 2024) which is pregnant with opportunity, and in need of further future cherishing and growth. In some quarters, there are questions about whether renewal has become so mainstream that it has become spiritually domesticated, having lost its earlier zeal. The ambiguities are many, as are the challenges of seeking renewal within established denominational frameworks; but each organisation committed to such a ministry has examples of the sovereign Lord at work, even in unlikely or testing circumstances. 

Writing autobiographically before the Guildford conference had taken place, Michael Harper noted, ‘God never forsakes his people. He does not view them as ‘Anglicans’, ‘Baptists’, ‘Presbyterians’ or ‘Pentecostals’, but as members of Christ’s Body. The Holy Spirit has no respect for denominational frontiers. There are no boundaries to His activity, and no passports or visas are needed. But wherever His people meet, whatever larger body they belong to, He is with them.¹² He contrasts ‘the agonisingly slow death of institutional Christianity’ with ‘the new life that is surging into local churches, when they are more fully open to the Holy Spirit’s influence. The local church is still the area where the Holy Spirit can be most active, and this will always be so.’¹³ For those who may sometimes be tempted to focus on the decline and challenges—perhaps even the terminal decay—of established denominations, Michael Harper’s words offer a prophetic hope about God’s continuing action through the life of the local church.

Come, Holy Spirit. 

1. ‘Way Maker’ by Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu, © 2016 Integrity Music. ↩︎
2. https://www.lichfield-cathedral.org/news/news/post/582-the-reinstatement-of-the-shrine-of-st-chad.
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3. Jeanne Harper, Visited by God: The Story of Michael Harper’s 48 year-long Ministry (Cambridge: Aquila Books, 2013), 24. ↩︎
4. Ibid., 25. ↩︎
5. Church Times 23 July 1971, 14. ↩︎
6. https://www.resourcingrenewal.org/ ↩︎
7. https://leadersgathering.co.uk/ ↩︎
8. CHARIS England and Wales https://www.charisuk.com/; Fresh Streams https://freshstreams.net/; Group for Evangelism and Renewal within the United Reformed Church https://www.gear.org.uk/; Methodist Evangelicals Together https://www.methodistevangelicals.org.uk/. ↩︎
9. ‘Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to participants in the International Conference of Leaders of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal International Service – CHARIS’, Paul VI Audience Hall, Saturday, 8 June 2019: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2019/june/documents/papa-francesco_20190608_charis.html ↩︎
10. Holy Trinity Brompton church in London. ↩︎
11. St Mellitus College was founded by Holy Trinity Brompton, and now has several centres across England, training around one in four Anglican ordinands. It champions ‘generous orthodoxy’ and seeks to train clergy across a breadth of church traditions. ↩︎
12. Michael Harper, None Can Guess (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1970), 144. 
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13. Ibid., 145. ↩︎