Good piece in the Times at the weekend on Fresh Expressions, surveying some of the things that are going on around the country:
A trendy internet café for surfers in north Cornwall, a skate park in Essex, a tower block in Portsmouth, a gathering of Goths in Cambridge, a Wetherspoon’s pub in Bridlington and a fishing boat in the North Sea. Is this your idea of church? Possibly not, but each is a valid “fresh expression of church” that has sprung up in the past five years.
I like this one, particularly after last weeks discussions of singing in church:
In Portsmouth, the Rev Mark Rodel, city centre pioneer minister and associate priest at St Luke’s Somerstown, has set up “The Sunday Sanctuary” in a room on the ground floor of a 19-storey high-rise in a deprived area. Styled as a “family drop-in with hospitality and storytelling”, it is far from most people’s concept of church — as he says, “we very rarely sing a song”. Since it was set up in November it has grown from a handful of people to about 40, mostly young families, who share breakfast, sit and talk together and share a story, normally bibilical in character. It is not a church as such “but has the potential to become one”.
A mysterious Bishop Clay is quoted, must be a new chap. Or could it be....?
More on this at Maggi Dawns blog.
Just for a moment I thought you were announcing the news that a certain Clayboy had been elevated to the episcopate!
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