sustain:if:able kiwi

emerging church postcards : England3

For words about the image : birth : values : music: mission

Words about the image; Updated (from here): The image was taken during a summer walk by the edge of the Severn estuary (English side). The bridges I think reflect something of what we’re doing – they’re straddling a border.

How were you as an emerging community birthed?; We grew out of the weekly little service which was once part of Resonance, Bristol. In Easter 04, the church did a big alternative service for the Vigil, which went well. Another one happened in September 04 and the decision was made to recommence big services quarterly. We found the numbers at the weekly littleservice grew through 05. We began to meet together to do things beyond plan big services, like going for walks, celebrating birthdays.

What do you as an emerging community value?; Taking things one step at a time, and finding our way, discovering much and having a lot of fun doing this.

What music track sums up your year?; A track we wrote in the summer called “Breathe” – we’ve only go the backing track at the moment, but we should really record the lyrics at some point.

What was your best mission moment in 05?; “Best” is probably the wrong word, and we weren’t going out to do “mission”. But our most significant memory was in September this year. One of our number, Kathy Allen, died very suddenly after a summer working in Uganda. Our littleservice was transformed, at the last minute, into a huge gathering of Kathy’s friends, mostly in their 20s and 30s, many without any “categorizable” faith, to grieve and come to terms with the suddenness of her death just days before. We didn’t do anything clever, just lots of candles, gentle music, some Taize chants and simple prayers. But many people said they found it helped.

Want to see a postcard from your emerging church group?

Want to see the whole set of postcards?