The Non-Manipulative Church...

...no evangelical trademarks, not an Alpha logo in sight, no buy a Christian slave in Sudan posters, no telltale signs of supposed liberalism , not even any fairtrade biscuits...

Carolling seems a distant memory now as we head off into a new year. Driving around Clapham Common I can't help but be reminded of one fairly nonsensical evening when we were invited to play in the middle of the common at night. The idea to accompany the carol singing from the church members on the common probable once had merit as some kind of outreach to its community but on a cold rainy day there were only cyclists and joggers there to run/cycle around the group of singers enjoying the carols. It was a bit precarious - we could hardly see our music let alone anyone see us!

Less nonsensical was the sharing of coffee and mince pies afterwards in the church. What was interesting was that the church while beautiful was nondescript, there was nothing really to work out the brand of Anglicism it represented. So we played 'who would worship in a church like this....' it was difficult, no evangelical trademarks, not an Alpha logo in sight, no buy a Christian slave in Sudan posters, no telltale signs of supposed liberalism , not even any fairtrade biscuits. We trawled the lobby for clues and made our assumptions. In the end I gave up and asked the Curate, I loved his response.

"So what kind of church are you..."

"Actually we like to think of ourselves as a non-manipulative church...."

Comments

IanH said…
I bet he got told to say that.

;-)
10:47 AM
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