So why would you want to remove the pews from the Cathedral? Well – you begin to see the point when you gather around the Cross in the very middle of the Cathedral on Good Friday. We explored the symbols – hands, water for Pilate to wash his hands, crown of thorns, thirty pieces of silver. It’s the kind of worship that you wouldn’t have to be a churchgoer to get something out of – and surely that’s the point for a mission-facing church.
For something completely different, if you want to see what I said to the Diocesan Synod last week, it’s here
Yes – the website should help us with this. And I encouraged the clergy in the Cathedral to think that we might make the material they were using available for others on the website next year. Most clergy – if they are like me – are delighted to be handed something which they can use almost without alteration.
Often wonder why advance notice of special services in all the Episcopal places of worship in the diocese is not listed and circulated to all the churches. No intention of diminishing any congregation, but thoughts of the opportunity of new experiences to take back to one’s ‘home’ church. Additionally, some congregations might occasionally temporarily be increased when what is ‘offered’ in one’s own church for a special day is not what one is looking for. Just a thought!
I think more church services should be like this: active exploration involving the whole senses, not just parking your bum on a pew and listening to a sermon. And I think that we miss a trick on Good Friday: if the schools are out (as I believe they are) then we should be making at least part of the Good Friday service accessible to them. Unless we believe that children should be protected from the idea of death?