10th October 2020 | Vol 1 No 27 FCC CONNECTION

The official newsletter of The Fellowship of Churches of Christ

NEW LOOK IN THIS ISSUE

FCC Connection is changing to a new look with slightly different content. We are moving to an edition every two weeks instead of every week. We hope you enjoy the new look and new feel. NEW LOOK

It’s also true that the church is undergoing tremendous change. Some of that change is represented by the closure of some congregations. Without a doubt, Covid-19 will speed up the COVID19: IT'S NOT A closure of many churches that have been headed in that direction SPRINT, IT'S A for some time. But we are also witnessing the opening of many MARATHON. WAIT, NO, new churches. There are not yet as many churches being opened IT'S A TRIATHLON. as those which are closing but we can say that most of the new churches are vibrant, growing and reaching completely new people with the gospel. RENEWING THE

The creation of new churches is also being mirrored by the arrival COVENANT: CHURCHES of an amazing amount of creativity. Below you will see a song on AND THE BUILDING OF YouTube called Pilot Light. LOCAL RELATIONSHIPS

NEWS FROM THE CHURCHES: CENTRE POINT CHRISTIAN CHURCH, WEST BROMWICH

Click here or on the picture to watch

PAGE 1 It’s a song that is written and performed by someone I know well, . Andrew has recently become the new Anglican Bishop of in Wiltshire. I can’t help thinking that I would not have seen a Bishop of the writing and performing songs in this way 20 years ago. The church is changing!

Within our own network of churches (FCC) there is also an amazing amount of creativity and new life. Over the next few weeks we hope to reflect some of that astonishing diversity and life that is flowing from our congregations. On the right, you can see and hear a song on YouTube written and performed by members of Rowheath Pavilion Church in Birmingham.

Click here or on the picture to watch.

RESOURCES Mat Wilson the Senior Minister of Rowheath Pavilion Church shared the following resource with the congregation which you might find helpful.

Covid-19: It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Wait, no, it's a triathlon.

If so, we are entering the second leg, which looks to be even trickier than the first. A few Firstly, simplicity. thoughts: Do less, but do it well. During the second leg, you can do more than during the first. But you

My best guess is 3 periods of about 6 months still can't do a lot. Accept that. Do less. Keep it each. simple. Simplicity is sustainable and makes (Mar to Sep) Lockdown into unlockdown agile responsiveness easier. (now till Easter 2021) rolling restrictions (Easter till summer 2021) into postCovid Secondly, self-care. normality You are exhausted. You are mentally and But the second 'leg' (now till Easter) will be emotionally drained. Churches are complex more complex. And we enter it with our environments under Covid regulations, and you emotional resources already drained from the have been making strategic decisions almost first leg. How can we cope? How will our every week since March. churches manage?

PAGE 2 You may not be sleeping well. You are at risk of Who are we now? Who will we be afterwards? using food, drink or worse to make yourself feel Where does hope live? better. Self-care has to be your priority. Just to be standing at the end, having not lost hope, is Fifth, we are on pause. to win in times like these. Yet Christianity has seams of gold to mine for moments like this. Bring them out. Be a dealer Third, these next 6 months will be the most in hope, even as your heart is breaking. Speak to profound 'in-between' moment our society has the moment. faced since WWII. We are in-between darkness and light, despair and hope. Sixth, Simplicity of structures It's a 'liminal', threshold moment. Not a new Self-care prioritised. Speak to the moment. normal, but a new abnormal. I pray we look back on these moments with gratitude that we embraced what was really Forth, speak to the moment. happening, secure in the knowledge that, by his Call it out. We are being pruned (Jn 15), so invite Spirit, God is really here. believers and non-believers alike to reconnect with the Vine.

Continuing the Conversation

A few weeks ago, the ForMission College journal It talks about a Social Covenant (good Christian – The Journal of Missional Practice – helped host theology) instead of a Social Contract. It speaks a transatlantic conversation on a webinar. It’s a of the importance of local institutions, such as fairly high-level debate but an important one. It churches, it uses the term “parish” to describe asks the question; how do we work to renew local community life. The author is a practicing local community life and how might churches Christian, Danny Kruger, the MP for Devises. be involved in that process. Some of the Danny Kruger is a friend of Bishop Andrew concepts in this conversation have found their Rumsey (featured above). Andrew was also part way into a recent report commissioned by the of the group that created the thinking behind government into how public funds might be the webinar, as was Lord Maurice Glasman, also used to help community regeneration. The someone who knows Danny Kruger well. It is language is fascinating. well worth reading the Kruger report, even though it is a tough read.

PAGE 3 You might be interested to view the webinar. There is text that helps to access the content of the webinar which follows below:

Video 0 min – 2 min Video 2 min- 12 min Martin Robinson opened the webinar, We paused for prayer, and then Alan setting it in the context of an ongoing Roxburgh and Maurice Glasman reflected conversation between Journal of Missional on the grief of this time and the failed Practice (Martin Robinson, Alan Roxburgh stories which contribute to our sense of and Sara Jane Walker), Together for the loss and confusion. The progressive story Common Good (Jenny Sinclair) and the of globalization has been exposed as Common Good Foundation (Lord Maurice questionable, for we have discovered that Glasman). These panellists were joined by nation state, locality and labour, the two storytellers, Father William Taylor, an essential workforce, still matter to us. In Anglican priest in Hackney, London and lockdown we experienced the value and Fred Liggin, a minister of a church in the vulnerability of our neighbourhood Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. This online relationships. The only stories available to event was shared on 10th September 2020 us in our culture, a hope in science, hope and church leaders from many traditions in Government and in the market, have participated via Zoom and Facebook. The been exposed as inadequate. According to webinar interacted with a document Maurice and Alan we have become aware Renewing the Covenant: Churches and the that we are a society shaped by Building of Local Relationships just individualism, relating in ways that are published by the three host organisations. often transactional rather than relational.

PAGE 4 We quickly default to a language of outcomes This sensitivity to struggle and sorrow in our dealings with one another. For Maurice extends to recognition and encouragement and Alan these ways of relating could be for the men and women of the city characterized as contract. They wonder, in this authorities who administer care for these context, with this limitation and loss, how may we recover a sense of the sanctity of human vulnerable populations. life and relationships.

Video 12 min- 33 min Jenny Sinclair introduced Father William ...we have become Taylor and invited him to share the story of a aware that we are particular response to this sense of grief.[1] Father William described his context, a parish a society shaped by of five housing estates, public housing, individualism, surrounding central common land near his church, St Thomas Clapton in Hackney. There relating in ways are many migrants, often West African, and many Ultra-Orthodox Jews. This community that are often had worked together to create a community transactional hall on the common, and the hoardings surrounding the building work had already rather than been used to express gratitude for the project. relational. Father William described how his own grief at the loss of a significant local friend, Rabbi Pinter, led him to instead offer the hoardings as a place for communal grief. Father William, Video 41 min- 50 min in cassock and staff, has enabled a small, Maurice and Alan used these examples and weekly, socially distanced gathering where the participant interactions to explore an names of people who have died have been alternative to contract, a way of relating pasted onto the hoarding. Thus, in Father best described as covenant. They clarify William’s view, the Common became sacred that a contract is a one-off exchange for land and this diverse community had the opportunity to lament in the context of faith, a mutual advantage which takes no account refuge from exhausting anxiety and rage. of power differences. As a way of relating it has been embedded in our ways of life for Video 33 min- 41 min the last forty years. No alternative has been After sharing some liturgy to honour this sense in view. By contrast covenant is about long- of lament, Sara Jane Walker went on to term faithful relationships, introduce Fred Liggin, a pastor of Williamsburg Christian Church in Virginia.[2] This church is intergenerational, rooted in place and multi-ethnic and includes people living with trusting of land. It may include the intellectual disability and also people who are forgiveness of debts. It asks the same experiencing homelessness. For this church, commitment as Ruth to Naomi (Ruth 1:16-17) hospitality is a core organizing principle of the in the building of a common life over a long gospel and thus they seek solidarity with their suffering neighbours and to be a faithful, a time. reliable presence in the city. PAGE 5 Video 50 min to 1h 6 min Video 1h 11 min- end Alan Roxburgh asked the webinar participants In concluding remarks Father William how they might lead this kind of covenant life suggested that this work should be in the where they are. One participant was concerned context of contemplative prayer. For him about the threat from national politics. Maurice lockdown was a time of deep, silent prayer responded that there are evil powers at work through national and structural procedures, and in that he experienced something of but while we may have little influence on the abundance that is available in national politics, we can have a conception of community. Alan wondered, for all of us in the Kingdom of God where we are and build our communities, in our places, how do we defensive political relationships locally. dig into this? It is a huge ask and calling for Covenant requires investment in faithful public relationships through one-to-one meetings. us. Fred asked that we seek solidarity and These are not the same as business meetings. let ourselves be affected by the joys and Their primary goal is relationship and they hurts of others. One-to-one conversation require vulnerability. Maurice suggested are ordinary, but there is a hunger for the making a central practice of one-to-one ordinary. For Maurice too, the sublime is in conversations, sharing grief with others and the mundane. We need not get caught up in exploring together what you could do together in the place where you are. the negative dialectic of apathy and outrage or escape into a story of individual Video 1h 6 min- 1h 11 min. redemption. We will find love where we are Alan wondered how as leaders we invite as we build covenantal faithfulness. congregations to see their vocations in their neighbourhoods and create these relationships? A Webinar participant pointed [1] You can read more of the story on out that this is not the same as acting as a Father William’s Blog Hackney Preacher service provider, it is not just giving. It will ‘Still We Grieve'. necessarily involve eye to eye contact. It is a [2] Fred describes his church in more detail humble church, building companionship, in this journal in a conversation ‘Following nurturing love, seeking mutual support out of the Spirit, Finding Life, Sharing Bread', its own vulnerability. Jenny suggested that churches could simply make a shift in what Winter 2018. He compares notes about they already do in their neighbourhoods, hearing God with another pastor in the incorporating more one-to-one conversations. conversation: ‘Two Pastors Talking: So How To support this the panel offered a resource: do you Hear God?’ , Winter 2019. The One-to-One Conversation. Our civic [3] Jenny provided a contact for feedback: immune systems are weak, there is significant economic challenge and a desperate need for a [email protected] new story. Churches can offer resistance with their neighbours from the ground up. So the panel sent out a challenge: have ten one-to- one conversations in your neighbourhood, then let us know how this went.[3]

PAGE 6 NEWS FROM THE CHURCHES

David and Denise Marsh, the Ministers of Centre Point Christian Church in West Bromwich write: “We're currently operating a Brick and Click approach – that’s partly meeting and partly offering an on- line service.

The Support Centre is currently open daytime Monday, Tuesday and Thursday providing assistance with Universal Credit/welfare benefits application, housing solutions, residency, financial difficulties, etc.

We are part funded by Sandwell MBC and we are a member of the Sandwell Advice Providers Network.

Church services are largely still online with weekly prayer meetings live and online, likewise our Family Life Groups. Sunday's remain online and probably will be until the New Year.

The church received some funding and has a Covid Response Worker to enable us to meet some of the Covid Specific issues that we're dealing with.

The only thing that is not mentioned purposely on the website is our housing project, a three bedroomed house providing supported accommodation for homeless men. We don't mind it mentioned in the FCC material but we keep it off the website to avoid overwhelming numbers of applications.

We're currently working on developing an online Employability course which I will keep you informed about.

You can visit their great website at https://www.centrepointchristianchurch.com/ for more information.

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