by Guy Elsmore - Originally posted on modernchurch.org.uk
The future Church
We often ask ourselves: ‘Does the church have a future?’ The trouble with that question is that it is rooted in the baggage of the existing institution and hence it is a philosophically conservative question. Perhaps the liberal paradigm might cause us to ask a far more exciting one: ‘Does the future have a church?’
KIERAN, one of our Local Missional Leaders with the Open Table ecumenical worship community for LGBTQIA+ Christians, writes:
The last two posts have told the experiences of members of the at this year's Liverpool Pride - Jen's first experience of walking with a Christian group in a Pride march, and Richard's experience of being on the Pride community stall. This post was inspired by the words of the visitors to the Open Table stall who left messages of love and thanks, wishes and prayers.
THIS IS a guest post by Richard Bibby-Brooke, a member of Open Table at St Bride's Liverpool, who writes about being on our community stall at Liverpool Pride for the first time:
When I offered to help look after the Open Table community stall at Liverpool Pride this year, I did not expect the experience to be quite so enriching and educational as it turned out to be.
THIS is a guest post by Jen Williams, a member of Open Table at St Bride's Liverpool, who writes about walking with a Christian group in a Pride march for the first time:
Basking in the sun, under a brightly coloured rainbow umbrella, donning a rainbow cape, and wearing a beautiful white t-shirt with the brand new Open Table logo, holding an image of the wonderful Paul Bayes, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool up proudly, I marched through the streets of Liverpool as a confident, gay, Christian woman at Pride last weekend.
by Guy Elsmore - Originally posted on modernchurch.org.uk
In the first article in this series, I outlined the dire attendance scenario the Church of England is facing in the coming years.
I made a pragmatic case for the liberal wing of the church to move from a general attitude of scepticism to one of constructive engagement with church growth, then offered suggestions as to some areas of strength which liberals might bring to bear to the work of growing churches.
In this second article I shall look at some recent research on church growth, what it may have to tell us about the ways in which liberal churches might approach the task of seeking growth, and reflect back as I do so on some of the liberal strengths identified in the first article.
Read MoreWake Up in Liverpool: Liverpool Festival of Spirituality 2016
A lecture at St. Bride’s, 18th April 2016, by Ray Simpson
Ray Simpson is Founding Guardian of the International Community of Aidan and Hilda and is a well known author. He lives on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, UK, where the Community has a base for resources, study and retreat.
Read Moreby Guy Elsmore - originally posted on modernchurch.org.uk
The Church is in trouble.
The Archbishops have written recently to all the clergy in the Church of England appealing for a national wave of prayer for evangelism in the week leading up to Pentecost 2016.
I recently ran into a colleague who leads a popular leadership training module which aims to support Church growth. He’s run off his feet with demand. ‘The Dioceses are desperate’, he confided.
Read MoreAfter today’s service at St Bride’s we are invited to stay after Church to join in our Extra Big Fairtrade Brunch! Today as we "Sit down for brunch, Stand up for farmers" the focus is on how smallholder farmers have an amazing potential to fight hunger in their communities if we help can help Traidcraft support them to do this.
Read MoreA Contemporary Spiritual Paraphrase by Jon Jelfs
After his baptism in the Jordan Jesus was continuously experiencing a sense of God’s Presence. He felt drawn to spend time in the desert and this turned out to be about 40 days during which time he hardly ate. This was a time of great soul searching for him; you could say he was wrestling with his demons, the deepest most instinctual urges within the human ego. These were some of his thoughts
Read MoreIt’s different
poem by Dave Bradley read on Sunday 24th Jan 2016 as part of our series on refugees
Read MoreJoint statement from leaders of Inclusive Church, Modern Church and Progressive Christianity Network
In the statement following their meeting, the Primates of the Anglican Communion have expressed their profound sorrow for the deep hurt caused within the Church towards people on the basis of their sexual orientation and they affirm that God’s love for every human being is the same regardless of their sexuality.
Read MoreThe planet is currently seeing the largest movement of people fleeing violence and persecution since the second world war. Neither the market nor politics have any answers to offer, but from the deep wells of human kindness and from the compassionate heart of faith come loving actions and generous responses which are rising to meet the challenge. This January at St Bride’s is given over to a deeper exploration of the voice of the refugee and of our faith tradition. We pray for the grace to be stirred into deep reflection and loving action through the coming month.
Read MoreOn a cold December night, a few years ago, an unemployed Scouser answered the door to a group of kids having a go at a Christmas carol.
“Sorry kids, I’ve got nothing for you. I lost my job and I’ve spent everything I’ve got left on presents for the grandkids… I haven’t even got any money left for food just now”.
The carol singers went away.
A few hours later, more singing outside the same door, it’s even more out of tune than before. Another knock at the door.
It’s the same group of carol singers.
Read MoreBlog post by Warren Hartley
In September at St Bride’s, for the third year, in a row we celebrated Inclusive Church Sunday. Not heard of it before? Don’t worry, many won’t have! St Bride’s is part of Inclusive Church, a national network which seeks to raise awareness about the ways that people feel excluded by the church. It is so much more than just a single issue organisation and is committed to working for a church that is welcoming and open to all. So each year, on the third Sunday of September, we hold a special service which celebrates our membership of this network and to recommit ourselves to making inclusion a hallmark of our community
Read MoreTHIS WEEK, the community at St Bride's church faced a huge decision – whether to commit to at least ten years of major fundraising and building work, or to walk away and start afresh somewhere else. A question this big was hard to answer – the community was divided, with strong feelings on both sides. We needed to do something to help us see past our doubts and fears and hear what (and where) God is calling us to be.
Read MoreOn Sunday 11th October The Well, our Celtic Worship community gathered to reflect on migrations. Here is a snippet from this moving service or download the full thing here.
Read MoreOur LGBT Ministry Facilitator Warren Hartley shares his experience of being invited to take part in the Church of England’s Shared Conversations on Scripture, Mission and Human Sexuality.
Read MoreFor the past three months, we have been engaged in a reflective listening process to help us develop a vision for the next seven years of the St Bride’s community.
Read MoreAs part of our series examining the idea of Sacred Space, Sara shared her thoughts on how retreats can be a sacred space on Sunday 23/8/15.
Isaiah 55 Verse 3 “Give Ear and Come to Me, that your soul may live.
Read MoreIn the Sunday morning service on 16th August we continued our reflection on sacred spaces by looking at the tradition of pilgrimage, with prayers, poems, chants and images from the St Bride’s Pilgrimage to Lindisfarne in June
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