Don’t get LEPpy

Bit of poetic license with the title today. I am referring to the formation of a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) with our brethren in the Methodists (always makes me think of communists) and the Anglicans. Well at the moment we are only talking to the Meths and not about a full-blown LEP merely a building share, and, to be honest, this isn’t going completely to plan, shall we say.

So why am I talking about an LEP with 3 denominations? Well if you are going to do this you might as well go for it I reckon. It isn’t going to be easy with one on one between us and the Meths so lets throw the Anglicans in the mix, it couldn’t make it any harder, in my opinion.

The meeting last week was odd. We threw the cat in amongst the pigeons when one of our number blabbed that some people were not only getting cold feet they had never had warm ones. Indeed it would seem that a few people at ER still think that there’s nothing a good lick ‘o’ paint wouldn’t sort out. These people are sadly delusional but for the district representative to get all shirty about it because we had told district one thing and, heaven forbid, might have changed our minds. Well I am sorry if we don’t fit nicely into the districts neat little plan anymore (than we ever have done) but some things are just more important. I am not saying we have changed our minds but if we want to we will. So there.

And whilst I am ranting a little, we were told that there is no blueprint for forming an LEP, they are all different and what we are trying to do is fulfilling God’s purpose for the churches on earth etc. and there are LEPs where you wouldn’t know who had come from what tradition prior to their current arrangement and others where they still describe themselves as URC or Baptist or whatever. Well of course they do, like dur, they have to because in the eyes of their church hierarchies they still are URC or Baptist or whatever! The day I hear about the formation of an NEP (that’s a National Ecumenical Partnership) between the leaders of the churches then I will be more convinced by the ecumenical rhetoric we hear trotted out. Oh yeah the future is ecumenical so that’s what you lot have to do whilst we retain our identity (and offices and jobs etc.) oh and you have to report back to us in the same way as you always have done.

That’s the day they can get upset if a church has the temerity to change its mind about whether they close down or not.

Until then shut up and get over it.

what (a) weekend

I am knackered. I have spent a good portion of this weekend working and I don't like doing that. I also went to a beer festival so I can't complain too much I suppose.

Church yesterday was all age worship. Instead of have Anne as we usually would we were treated to an hour with Barbara. Credit where credit is due she tried something a little different, we had a sort of education on Christian Aid with power point and everything. Well just power point actually and you all know how I feel about that don't you. The highlight was at the beginning when she explained that she was projecting to the screen and if anyone wanted to move forward to see it better then now was the time to do so. So tom and his mates, who were sitting on the second row back, all got up and moved forward a row. Priceless, that lucky lad is blessed with both my looks and my quick wit and ready repartee….

After the service I was spoken to by Freda who, like me, was not happy about the methodists meeting. In fact she isn;t happy about a lot of other stuff as well, I know because she told me all of it. And she's not the only one, there are other people who aren't happy as well but they won't tell anyone, or rather anyone that can do something about it. 

So no one is happy. Will we move in with the meths? We have to really. Is that the end of the story? I most certainly hope not. Will the baptists buy our place? Over Freda's dead body and before you ask, no we don't have a graveyard. Exciting times, looks like another big clear the air church meeting in June.

Buildings, Methodists, Baptists and me

Doesn't sound the most intriguing title does it. Stick with it I will try to keep it brief and entertaining for a change.

We had a meeting with the Meths last night as part of our impending building share arrangement, scheduled for September this year. For those newcomers out there a quick recap….. some years ago we realised we needed to spend a fortune to make our buildings habitable and legal for everyone, we were going to redevelop the site but because of numbers (people) we don't think thats feasible so we talked to the Anglicans about doing something together but they didn;t want to so now we are talking about sharing the meths building up the road. We have now had 2 meetings to discuss the details. for some inexplicable reason I am involved. It's not really my bag. To say the least.

My biggest problem is that the meths talk about wanting to go full on Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) and then act like we are the poor relations having to use their buildings because we are on hard times. They get priority in all situations where there is a conflict over building use we get the early slot for our worship. I am not comfortable at all.

Then there is the issue of what we do with our buildings. We can sell them to the Baptists. They want to buy them lock stock and barrel however they have already stated that they won;t let anyone else use them once they do. This causes me no end of probelms on virtually every level. It is a total waste of resources for them to pay us half a million quid and then be wasting energy using that old building week in week out. Then there is the issue of taking something out of the public domain when groups like brownies, rainbows even local youths, have nowhere else to go. We can;t sell it to them can we?

So we sell them to a developer and get some space for a community hall out of them. This is very much like plan 'a' and will be greeted suspiciously by our people. Why are we moving if we are just going to redvelop the site like we were planning to originally? Well a lot has changed and we would have to find an alternative site to worship in whilst the redevelopment went ahead anyway. We will also forge much closer ecumenical links with the meths by osmosis if nothing else if we move in with them. We may also be able to use their resources to help us redevelop our site.

As you can see my head is a bit all over with this one. I think I know what we can do and what we need to do. I just don't want to be involved in working out where our cupboards go. Is that really bad of me?