One of the challenges of the last year or so has been staying connected with our church community. During that time, community got much more local. For me, in lockdown 1.0, it mainly consisted of the four people living under our roof – one of whom was visiting from overseas and ended up staying for three months instead of three weeks. We lived, ate, worshipped and relaxed together within our household, sticking to the belief that our own resources are a table set for more than one. We also grew closer to our immediate neighbours.
What about church? I belong to a relatively young church that meets on a new estate on the other side of town. It is young in terms of age of those who go along, and young in that it’s only been going for 7 years. We don’t have a building, and meet regularly in the local school or community centre. However, since March 2020 we haven’t been able to meet very much in person at all, and services have been online, or hybrid.
The church grew out of regular Messy church gatherings, and the focus on families and children is woven into its DNA. There is a celebratory, creative and hospitable character to church gatherings. Although my husband and I are slightly older and without young children or grandchildren, we have found a home there. The relatively small size of the church community means that everyone knows each other and everyone’s contribution is needed and valued. The spirit is very much ‘have a go’ and we adapt to changing times.
When we went into lockdown, we moved quickly to Zoom, and held combined services with the nearby village church that our vicar is also responsible for. As a result, our Sunday services became more traditional, though retaining elements of our church culture, such as more informal worship style and children showing their artwork – much looked forward to by all each week.
One of the treasures of Anglican tradition is the well-established structure of services. This means that every week we hear the bible read and taught, we pray together, there is sung worship and words that we say together to express and affirm our faith. We share communion most weeks. As we meet together, these core elements help to bring us back to what is important. At the same time, there is flexibility in how they are interpreted and we are currently looking at how we develop our services for the future to be more “us.”
Being present in the community and showing hospitality has been more challenging over the last year. I’ve realised that hospitality can be about giving time as well as sharing food. Although we are small in number, we’ve looked for ways to connect and reach out. We have supported wider community events such as our town’s virtual lights turn-on, by contributing song videos created by musicians and singers from our church. We have also donated to the food bank run by our local Leighton-Linslade Helpers organisation. We have prayed for those who have requested it, for example, via our social media channels.
My role is often to remind people of our commitment to the wider world, and to simply suggest we go outside. In a gap between lockdowns a small group of us went carol singing on the estate.
Ian Adams comments that “In turbulent times we feel weak. The church feels weak” (Adams, p. 215). This is true – we are small in number, and can’t solve all the many problems we see around us. However, we can embody and communicate the presence of Jesus. Our small community has held together and become tighter throughout the pandemic. We aim to point the way to the light of the world, who stepped down into darkness. We want to share the hope that we have.
Reference
Adams, Ian (2018) Epilogue: a mission spirituality for turbulent times. In: Missional conversations, edited by Cathy Ross and Colin Smith. London: SCM Press.
On the journey 