Welcome

The Meeting House: Church as Contested Space – Wednesdays at 5pm on Zoom

The Meeting House – Starting on Wednesday at 5pm we are beginning a weekly session exploring Christian Feast Days  – with half an eye on the present context. Come along, join in or just listen and pray.  We’ll begin with a brief talk and then open it up for some discussion/sharing and end with a prayer.  To join the meeting click here:

THE MEETING HOUSE

“I will not leave you orphaned”
John 14.18

In the early weeks of the Lockdown in the UK many churches were unsure what to do when their buildings were closed.  For some it was just a crisis, for others an opportunity.
In the 19^th century ‘Meeting Houses’ in America were often the first public building built in new villages acting as both community buildings and religious meeting places.  In Britain the term has been taken on by Non-Conformists and especially the Quakers as a reaction to the Established Church of England.  But rather than rehearsing the old arguments about church buildings, I wanted to explore how we can continue to live, to experience, to pray and to share the big (and small) feast days of the Christian Community in this changed environment.  What do devotion and commitment look like when we can’t meet together in Church or House?  What does it mean to hold onto a Christian Calendar and the flow of the Christian seasons in a dynamic period of change?
Structure:
A short talk on feast days being marked at this time followed by an informal conversation about celebrating the Christian calendar during the pandemic.  Each session I want to ask:

• How can we celebrate this special day and ‘be together’?

(walking with Christ, prayer, scripture, recalling, recollecting, reorienting)

• What can this day tell us about Christian community in a time of adversity?

(Discipleship, Body of Christ, struggle, diversity, networks of people, trust, generosity, simplicity, kindness, sacrifice)

May 20^th – The Ascension of the Lord
(Acts1.1-11, Luke 24.44-end)

May 27^th – Pentecost
(Acts 2.1-21, John 20.19-23)

June 3^rd – Trinity Sunday on the 7^th
(Matthew 28.16-20, 2 Corinthians 13.11-end)

June 10^th – Corpus Christi on the 11^th
(John 6.51-58, 1 Corinthians 11.23-26)

June 17^th – St Alban – learning from the Saints on the 22^nd
(John 12.24-26, 2 Timothy 2.3-13)

June 24^th – The Birth of John the Baptist
(Luke 1.57-66, 80)

July 1^st – Petertide on the 29^th June
(Matthew 16.13-19)

July 8^th – St Benedict – learning from those in the Religious Life on the 11^th
(Luke 18.18-22, 1 Corinthians 3.10-11)