North London Interfaith Events

Our aim is to break through barriers of ignorance and prejudice so that harmonious living in a multifaith society becomes a reality.

The idea of community

When Hampstead Garden Suburb was built, there were two church plus one Quaker meeting house, to serve the needs of the population. There was the established, C of E church and the Nonconformist church which was meant to serve the needs of the various Protestant sects.

Ian Tutton is a Baptist and a Christian Socialist. Several Baptist ministers are not accredited because they work outside a church congregation, and instead work in the world of business and industry; this was the case for him when he worked as an industrial chaplain in South Wales. Yet these ministers have an important part to play. For a minister’s chief job is to facilitate community; to enable people to function as a part of the communities to which they already belong, eg family, work place, etc. rather than establish another community.

Ian Tutton argued that once a church becomes institutionalised it ceases to meet the needs of individuals or communities. It becomes an entity, an authority, in itself, an institution which you join. Another example is the NHS, which is institutionalised, so that if you ask someone who they work for, they will say, the NHS, but surely it is the patient for whom they work, not the NHS. Ideally the workplace should facilitate and maintain the communities to which the worker already belongs, rather than add yet another community.

A community should look first to the needs of the people within it; not to the institution. if you think only about conforming to the requirements of the workplace, you soon cease to care about people’s personal circumstances and in so doing you lose all sense of community. Nowadays we see that in political parties, individuals work for the party, not for the community. They reify the party rather than seek to develop a sense of community which will help the individuals who belong to the party. Priority should be attached to the personal. It is through social action that institutions are transformed into community.

The aim should be to have a community, a society, where “all things are held in common”. There must be a distinction between the public and the private. It you join an organisation, you should not be moulded by it; it should mould to you. A community should provide mutual support for its members. It must also accept the need to change. God appears in the act of helping others, in loving one’s neighbour.

Summary of a talk given by Rev. Dr. Ian Tutton, Minister at Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church to Hampstead Interfaith Group (North London Interfaith) on 23rd January 2007.