Held in Common

Christ Church Barn Dance 08

Go on! Have a look at our recent church Barn Dance photos on Flickr.

We stripped the chairs out of the church and had a good time of it! Click each photo in turn and you'll see them at optimum size!

Sing to the Lord...

Tricia Coleman and Tim Drummond gave this talk as part of "Everyday Church" at a recent service at Christ Church...

At choir practice, Esther [our Director of Music] helps us to make the most of our voices with vocal exercises and practice, and the younger members use the Royal School of Church Music Voice for Life workbooks to work on their musical knowledge. Recently, we all looked at the sessions designed to enable singers to develop their understanding of their choir’s role, its background and the motivation of its members; and to encourage singers to reflect upon their own experience as members of a choir...

Neighbours with Faith

We held a rather special event on Friday 28 March 2008 in Epsom, at St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. With financial support via the Diocese of Guildford and the government's Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund, we were able to hold an event called Neighbours with Faith.

You can find a collection of photos of the event here.

The evening was planned and delivered jointly by the Epsom Anglican Group Ministry and the Epsom and Ewell Islamic Society.

We gathered together about 140 local Christians and Muslims (and a Rabbi!) and held a meal (Western and Eastern food) together. People naturally mingled, across gender and faith commitment. Our MP, Chris Grayling was present and spoke supportively, as did our Mayor, Cllr Jean Steer. Our keynote speaker was Rabbi Danny Rich, Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism, chair of the Kingston upon Thames Interfaith Forum, chair of the Dittons Branch of the Council of Christians and Jews, and a local magistrate. Local police Community Support Officers attended.

The aim was simply to encourage local Christians and Muslims to sit down, chat, eat together and enjoy each other's company. It was a great success, and it was vastly appreciated by all.

We don't know whether anything like this has been tried before, but it was certainly a first for Epsom!

We plan to hold another local event like this, perhaps in the summer - probably a barbecue across the Muslim and Christian faith communities.

Young People at Christ Church

Phil Goldby writes...

Sitting in the Baptism and Admission to Communion service on Sunday made me feel very proud to be part of a church that actively promotes the involvement of our young people in the life of the church. It made me even happier to see that two of our regular Passion members were up there with the others, declaring their faith and trust to God. 

The Vicar wholeheartedly agreed with me when I said to him how this type of service reinforces, to us all, how big an importance our youth can and do play in the fellowship of Christ Church. 

It seems that churches often leave a gap between the Sunday school age group and the "adult" home groups. However, where other churches potentially miss the opportunity, Christ Church has plenty to offer. 

So how do we support and grow our younger members enabling them to be surrounded by like-minded individuals, to learn about God and to value what we have to offer?

Our music is one way. Since Esther Jones joined Christ Church as our musical director, the choir numbers have increased. This is mainly due to the number of children that have joined and now regularly attend church. They add to the choir with treble, alto and even tenor voices. Esther also runs Song Squad – a children’s choir supported by the church and open to the wider community. There are over 20 regular members who rehearse weekly and perform regularly in church services. Song Squad also represents Christ Church at other community events in Epsom and beyond. 

Passion is another way that we support and guide our teenagers. Every Sunday at 7.15 pm Christ Church hall becomes a hive of activity. With a tennis table and pool table set up upstairs and silly games being played, some would say that it’s an ideal environment for the teenager between the ages of 12 and 18. The aim of the evening is for the young people to have fun, to interact with their friends and others in a Christian environment (run by Christians) and to get better at pool or table tennis! There is even a tuck shop available if they get the munchies. We have also been known to go bowling, or just have a party in the hall instead of the usual meeting.

The high point of the year is when we take the group down to the Christian festival “Soul Survivor”. Here the teens can let their hair down and really discover more about the Christian faith through the worship and seminars that are packed into the 5 days over August. We camp in tents during the event and normally eat as a group to cement the fellowship that has grown throughout the year. It can be an emotional roller-coaster for all of us (even the leaders) but the unanimous result is a group that is closer to their personal faith and to their friends.

Vicki and I also offer a bible study (CYFA) on a Wednesday evening. This is held at our home where we regularly get around 7 young people eager to discuss a vast range of topics from “burning issues of a teenager” through to “does heaven really exist?” The evening is about studying life in a Christian context though reference to the Bible and input from the whole group. I’m sure that the discussions we have are the reason why the teenagers come but I have a feeling that the cakes that Vicki bakes each week do have an influence! We even have a “Student Cook” evening before they go off to University so to equip them for life in more than just the spiritual way.

If there are any young people out there that want to find out more about any of the activities mentioned above then please contact me, Esther, or Andrew the Vicar, through this blog page or the church web site.

All these activities for the young people of Christ Church do not just happen. The leaders put in a lot of time and effort enabling the growth of these teenagers. It might seem like we have it all sorted and are not in need of anything. However, we are always on the lookout for more help. If you are a regular reader of the notice sheets, you will have seen that we have lost one of our Sunday night leaders, George Chetwynd, to Pakistan as she helps on a VSO project. This means that we really need another leader (preferably female for Child Protection reasons) to help out. No experience is necessary, just a willingness to come and try something new, to be challenged, to listen, and to expend a bit of energy. It’s a great opportunity to play a role at an important time in young people's lives.

Please pray for the work that is done in Christ Church for the young people and if you feel called to help in any way then please contact Phil Goldby (Passion/CYFA) or Esther Jones (Song Squad) for more information.

St Mark, the lion

You might enjoy this photo from the east wall of Christ Church, which you can also find on my Flickr site here.

Harvest Celebrations at Christ Church: photos

We had a great time today with our Harvest celebrations, and you can find more photos of the church, the 10 am service and the barbecue here.

Thanks to Sue C, Jane F and all who made it such a fun occasion!

Open Afternoon

Christ Church held its first Open Afternoon for a number of years yesterday.

A great day, and many people came!

 

Thanks to Sue and all the team for organizing it.

 

You can find more photos here.

God in structures, and their collapse...

Sue Curtis and her Local Training Group led an excellent presentation at services at Christ Church and Christ Church on the Wells today, ahead of her ordination as deacon on 1 July.

Its theme was "Everyday Church", and you can download the presentation used in church below [PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress].

We were reminded, as we have been often these last few months, that it is possible, and indeed desirable, to link up, in the worship and service of God, all parts of our lives, and to share those linkages as a resource for those around us. "Only connect", as E M Forster put it.

Sue designed a special liturgy for the service, and here is the Collect we used, written by Janet Morley:

Holy God,
Whose presence is known in the structures we build,
and also in their collapse;
establish in us a community of hope,
not to contain your mystery,
but to be led beyond security into your sacred space,
through Jesus Christ, Amen.

Wonderful! Challenging too at this time in the life of the Anglican Communion. And it reminds us that we are never to try to tame, domesticate, house or contain God, but that we need to allow ourselves to be led out by God into what Janet Morley calls God's "sacred space". The structures we put up to make God and God's life more manageable to us are always provisional, and always subject to change, to demolition, or to the earthquake of the Spirit.

Download presentation here

Andrew McAllister on Friends of the Earth

Andrew McAllister offered the following presentation in church in March this year:

"I have been asked to talk about my involvement in environmental issues.

For the past ten years I have been a member of Friends of the Earth. We have a small Epsom and District group which campaigns on local issues, as well as national and worldwide campaigns, which for the last two years has been mainly climate change. Friends of the Earth nationally was instrumental in getting 400 MPs to sign the Early Day Motion which has led to the draft Climate Change Bill being published last week...

Between work and play...

I happened to be on the church tower roof today, and in the sunny weather you could see, to the north-east, the towers of Canary Wharf and, to the north-west, the big wheel of Chessington World of Adventures.

It struck me that that's just where our church is sited - between work and play. In the suburbs, we're not in the world of work, exactly, though we're trying to relate Church and God to the workplace. But we're not in the world of play either - or at least, not as Church is usually done in our society!..

Cross

I thought you might enjoy this picture of a stonework cross embedded in the wall of Christ Church. I took it yesterday.

Getting a mention...

Our entirely excellent director of music, Esther Jones, has been featured in an article in this week's Church Times.

She's even mentioned Christ Church in it! Esther says there are a few inaccuracies in the piece; but it makes for a good read. Good one, Esther, and strength to your arm(s)!

Called (not) to be...

Here's a thought-provoking list of Ten Propositions on Being a Minister, written by Kim Fabricius on the Faith and Theology site, addressing the question "What are ministers for (and what are they not for)?". Great insights, and punchy. He could have mentioned the sacraments, I suppose. That apart, it puts things really well, and is worth a read.

Inside-out church

Now, here's a quotation to get you thinking and talking (I hope)! It comes from Barbara Brown Taylor's Leaving Church:-

“What if people were invited to come [to church] and tell what they already know of God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe? What if they were blessed for what they are doing in the world instead of chastened for not doing more at church? What if church felt more like a way station than a destination? What if the church’s job were to move people out of the door, instead of trying to keep them in, by convincing them that God needed them more in the world than in the church?... If churches saw their mission in [this] way, there is no telling what might happen.”

OK, her use of "instead" leads to a bit of an over-statement. I do actually think there's room in church to learn about God - and that's not a question of teaching people "what they are supposed to believe", but rather of helping people understand more and grow in faith. And there are always church tasks to be done, and rightly so. And a full church is an encouragement to everyone...

So, she overstates it. But her emphasis is quite right in principle, I believe. Giving space for people to tell what they know of God and to be blessed for what they are already doing 'out there' is an excellent way of making connections. Connections between people's whole lives and the (important) bits they set aside for communal worship. And she's right in saying that this is truly about mission - it's about being in the world as Christians.

We've already started doing this, by asking people to come and share, in services, something about how they pray, or how they focus in practical ways on the environments, or how they serve God in their jobs. We could do some more of this, I think.

All this serves as an antidote to suburban "church as leisure" tendencies. Those tendencies are natural: church is not, generally speaking, part of our professional lives, but part of the time we have set aside, generally at weekends, for 'me' or 'us' or 'family' things. No one's saying that's wrong. But it can be a barrier against asking how the gospel can connect up with who we are, wherever we are.

What do you think about this?