Stockport's Wycliffe

Wycliffe Congregational Church in Stockport is something of a rare jewel; like ourselves, its members did not elect to join the exciting, new union with the English Presbyterians back in 1972, better known as the United Reformed Church. Unlike most nineteenth-century dissenting chapels, it is named after a saint rather than a Biblical place like our Salem. If a saint had to be part of a chapel's name, John Wycliffe would certainly be high up my list. Although not a Congregationalist, living a couple of centuries before that expression of church was first recorded (outside of the New Testament), his proto-Protestantism belies the claim that it all began with Luther.

Wycliffe Congregational Church’s website is surprisingly helpful and warmly written, though it shares a rather curious explanation about church membership. It asks:

Who can become a Church Member?

All people who put their trust in Jesus Christ and are resolved, by God’s help to walk in His footsteps. Or, more simply, are in earnest about trying to lead a better life.

We do not ask you to accept a certain theological creed.

If you have heard Christ’s “Follow Me” and if your desire to follow Him has grown into a decision, then no other qualification is needed to become a member, for none other is needed to become a disciple of Christ.

These answers are certainly open to question, and could lead to difficulties farther down the line. Expecting little or no theological assent is certainly not in keeping with the Congregational traditions, which spilt from, and expelled, Unitarians who claimed to be following Christ yet denied basic Christian doctrines. One might ask if the last section should really apply to baptism rather than church membership, while also wondering about the place given to repentance when one has a ‘desire’ to follow Christ and make a ‘decision’. I know a number of Muslims who would claim to be the true followers of Jesus (unlike me, their Christian contact, who has sadly lapsed into idolatry by worshipping Him); perhaps they would qualify for membership at Wycliffe? It would certainly be a quicker method of acquiring new mosque premises than waiting for them to close and come on to the open market.

May we all be careful regarding who we admit to church membership. While we must not become a tiny, holy huddle of the elect, the other extreme of throwing the doors wide open can be just -or even more- dangerous.

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 1 Corinthians 1:10