I’m an old fashioned type of priest, you know the sort, I mostly wear black, do lots of home visits and gather my flock on a Sunday. Nothing wrong with that you might think and you’d be right and surely it is also right to leave ‘fresh expressions’ of church to my lovely colleagues? You’d recognise them as well they meet their flock in cafes wearing skinny jeans and drinking cappuccino or is it flares and a flat white?
This all seemed fine and sensible until one day whilst driving between home visits and listening to the radio I heard three men discussing their mental health. They talked of the solace they found from meeting with friends once a week in their local pub. It was there that they would share their problems and the stresses they had in common. It was in the pub that someone heard them and they could feel part of something bigger.
That conversation planted a seed, a seed that was given life the following week when I received an email from a group of men who called themselves atheists and agnostics. They wanted to talk to someone who believed in God – would I be willing to meet with them? Certainly, but I wanted to meet in our village pub!
So ‘Church in the Pub’ began, but is it really church?
We gather but we don’t sing hymns, although thinking about it, we do often talk about the hymns we used to sing as children, we recall the words and sometimes even hum the tune. There’s no formal confession although we often talk about our regrets, past and present and I remind people of the forgiveness and redemption offered by a loving God. I certainly don’t have a sermon slot, although I do often refer to texts in the bible and offer a modern day parable or two. There’s no offering of the ‘peace’ but we do shake hands and greet each other warmly. We don’t gather at the table but we do gather around a large table and Jesus is present. As we leave at the end of the evening I bless them and remind them to go in peace and I know that they will love and serve our community and the wider world.
So it seems that perhaps God can teach an old priest new tricks by breathing his life and his love into a thought which germinates into a fresh expression of church.
Helen Cook
Team Rector of Limpsfield and Tatsfield
