Pope Francis wrote the following: "Cooperatives challenge everything, even mathematics, because in a cooperative one plus one makes three. And in a cooperative, a failure is half a failure. This is the beauty of cooperatives!"

The Pope was addressing the Italian co-operative movement back in 2015 and complementing the value co-ops bring to the Italian economy. Given his knowledge of the boldness of co-operatiing thinking, we imagine Pope Francis wouldn't be at all surprised that co-operatives also challenged the Church itself at Greenbelt in 2018. We asked the audiences whether the ubiquitous Church could reimagine itself as a co-op, and if so, what might it look like? Most at the Greenbelt music festival hadn't thought about it. It could be argued, however, that Peter, the apostles, the early Christian church, Jesus and God, had thought about it very seriously indeed more than 2,000 years before. More about that later.

What would a Co-op Church look like?

Anyone who’s started a co-operative will know that its strengths are unique to each co-op whatever its structure. Deliberately embedding agreed co-operative principles and values in your organisation - and making a point of living and working by them even when you don’t want to - can have a profound effect on the success of your co-op. The loyaly of the workers, the sustainability or your co-op, getting out of economic difficulties... all these key decisions are governed first by the seven principles that co-ops take on board. It's what makes co-ops some of the most ethical orgniations in the world. You could say it's the co-op prinicples that are the secret weapons to a co-op's success. Not only are they're written down, and not easily changed, they become the 'go-to' place for all decisions. The principles are tried and tested over hundreds of years of co-operation and still are as valid today, if slightly updated to reflect the cashless, digital age.

Some early co-operators (EV Neale and other Christian Socialists) believe the principles come from ancient and even divine beginnings. Other early co-operators would keep religion out of co-operation all together. George Holyoake was a declared athetist and credited for inventing the term 'secularism'. Despite the many differences and approaches to co-operatives even today there are still more fields being ploughed, seeds sown, harvests reaped, cows milked etc. through co-oepraitive endeavours than in any orgnisational structures. Democratically-controlled organisations have won the way for our food production and distrubutions systems. So it's only natural to ask whether the ‘Can the Church be a Co-op?’ was put to around 2,000 people at Greenbelt. We questioned church leaders, retirees and volunteers for whom church seemed an ever-increasing series of activities, try-outs and community projects. Most were serving churches they loved though many had something of a ‘Martha’ syndrome and were exhausted. It didn’t appear to be a minority view.

To develop the discussion we first had to get past any notion of churches as co-op retail shops! A Co-op is not a brand but a movement, a philosophy or a discipline… call it what you will - it is not a brand. Any organisation can implement co-operative values and be a 'Co-operative' as long as it embeds, and lives by, its declared values. In addition, a more democratic Church was not really the crux of the discussion either. Since Peter and the apostles had ‘cast lots’ to elect a replacement for Judas, as in the book of Acts, a level of democracy seems to have survived as an integral part of the Church today.

The Bigger Discussion - Church Ownership

It was Ananias and his wife who first broke the early community rules, according to Luke-Acts, by initially selling their property to support the growing Christian Church but later holding back those profits for their own purposes. The apostle Peter condemned their actions knowing God would deal harshly with Ananias and Sapphira. Were these crucial communuty rules a type of 'manifesto' for the first century church an the actual ‘rock’ of the first century church Peter wanted to build upon? A manifesto that the wealthy Barnabus was able to stick to even though Ananias couldn't. God struck down Ananais and his wife dead on the spot for flouting their own community church rules so it would seem a manifesto of some kind - one to prevent a misue of profits - was that important.

The Co-operative Movement has no such power over Church controversies today thankfully. However, it does have pioneering and strong values about the use of profits or surplus in organisations, about wages and fair conditions. In the 1840s, Co-operative’s values provided the ground for ‘purer’ goods, fair pay and even a stake in business ownership for staff or customer alike. By accident co-operatives first led the market for quality, unadulterated food and better working conditions. By accident this took the Victorian rogue merchants by surprise who found they could only rescue their established businesses by not paying themselves as much as they were were used to. Instead they were forced to use the profits to improve their produce, pay and conditions too. An accidental stroke of genius by the Co-operative Movement.

Many of these values are still embedded in the hundreds of thousands of co-operatives today. It comes down to the overall mandate of a co-operative which is to build up and not tear down. A co-operative can nestle among any organisation, even its perceived competition, and still be open, frank and collaborative – as if by accident – because it is the collaboration that builds up everyone and not just the few. For this reason the Co-operative Movement may be the only requisite ground from which even the Pope can be invited to discuss Church structure, management and ownership.

Without prejudice we ask all churches, and all its people, whether the high or low churches, or any church, can be owned by its people. Do churches even like the begging bowl mentality of charity? Could a commitment to mandates, values and manifestos in your church be likened to the ‘rock’ upon which Jesus wanted Peter to build his Church? Is Jesus the ultimate Co-operator? Can the principles of Co-operation, the giving up of ownership help build the Church up and not tear it down? And is a lovingly prepared Church body, that is owned by the many not just the few, the unblemised (or unadulterated) Bride that Christ is waiting for?