Kryachkov 2!indd

GIMME THAT ORGANISED RELIGION
Colin Sedgwick
The Guardian
We are often told that people are wide open to the idea of the spiritual — the religious, the 
numinous, call it what you like — but have no time for organised religion. And so the churches are 
emptying while they pursue their quest elsewhere. 
Well yes, organised religion can be a curse, no doubt about that. It can become a habit, a drug, 
a prison. I heard of a minister who, having conducted his last service before retirement, never 
entered the doors of a church again. His religion had been operating on auto-pilot and, when the 
plane eventually landed, he could not run away quickly enough. 
But while recognising the dangers of such barren religiosity, it is worth asking what people who 
have no time for organised religion actually want. Unorganised religion? Disorganised religion? 
I suspect that what they are, in fact, looking for is private religion — that is, religion they can prac-
tice with minimal interruption to their normal routine and without having to bother about burden-

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Д. А. Крячков
UNIT III
some responsibilities. “I want the feelgood factor, but not the cost of commitment” — that, in reality, 
is what such people are saying. Putting it bluntly, private religion is essentially selfish religion. 
It is, after all, far easier to burn incense at home in a dimly lit room, or sit meditatively in an emp-
ty church, or scan the stars on a solitary hillside walk than it is to help with the washing-up at the 
end of a service, or play table-tennis with the local yoof on a Friday night after a hard week, or turn 
out on a cold evening for a difficult church meeting. But these things, in reality, are a large part 
not only of what organised religion is about, but, more to the point, of what true religion is about. 
True religion is inescapably corporate and unashamedly down-to-earth. Yes, it starts in a personal, 
intimate encounter between the individual and God. But it never ends there. Christian baptism, for 
example, the sacrament of initiation, is initiation not only into Christ, but also into his community. 
You cannot become a Christian without becoming part of the body of Christ, the church. 
And the church is not some nebulous, mystical entity. No, it is precisely those people you have 
to learn to love, even if you do not particularly like them: that man with the maddening habit of 
talking too much, that woman who never stops grumbling. And it is responsibility: working, serv-
ing and sacrificing. 
This is not to dismiss the reality or the importance of the numinous: God forbid! But it is to 
locate it precisely where it belongs — in the sheer ordinariness of life in general, and religious 
observance in particular. 
“I want God, but I don’t want organised religion.” It sounds fine. Who, in their senses, wants to be 
like those poor saps on the parochial church council? But, sorry, you cannot have it that way; God 
is simply not available on those terms. 
Your private religion may afford you a brief satisfaction; there is, no doubt, such a thing as a 
spiritual placebo effect. But for the real thing — the true encounter with God — there is nothing 
else for it; you have to roll up your sleeves and get out your diary, not to mention shouldering that 
rather disagreeable bit of penal apparatus, the cross. 
Hard? Yes. But this is the way to enlightenment, glory and joy. There is no other.
Notes:
numinous
= mystic
incense
= a substance that creates a strong but pleasant smell when burned, often
used in religious ceremonies
yoof
 
 
= (Br., not standard humorous) young people
parochial church 
= related to a particular parish (i.e. a church district)