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.

There are more questions than answers

Was it Bill Withers who sang it? I know I am sitting here in the internet and I could check but I can’t really be arsed, if any of you readers either know or check then please let me know.

So why is that the title of today’s blog? Well we just had a big weekend at Edgeley Road URC, not a big brew in the big deal stylee that a lot of churches did, ours was much more a big weekend for us and our own. Way back in the depths of winter when we were wrestling with our church’s future I had the idea of having a big summer party to celebrate our time in this place. We would have a bbq in the garden then worship in the church and, finally, a party in the hall. In that way we would be spending time in all the significant areas of the buildings and grounds.

With months to go it seemed like we had forever to write to people that used to come and to contact people with some sort of association with the place. As the weeks went by the plans became more detailed and letters were sent out but the response was somewhat muted. To be perfectly honest with 2 weeks to go I was ready to throw in the towel and accept that no one really wanted to do this and I was deluding myself to think that we could have any such celebration.

But then in the last 10 days it started to shape up a bit. We had a working party to clean up the grounds that was really well attended, then we power washed the patio area and things started to come together. People started to commit to the venture and by the time the day of the party dawned we were expecting 60 of them to turn up.

The day itself started dull with the promise of rain later but by the time we turned up to get things going the sun came out. The grounds were looking good, we laid out the gazebo and the ‘barrow barbie’ and the chairs and the tables and it was starting to look like it might turn out to be the sort of day I had dreamt of.

Without going in to too much detail I have to tell you that the whole thing was an unmitigated success. People came that hadn’t seen the church in ages and people came who had never seen the church.

The worship section was perfect (more so than the lamb burgers) tying everything together.

So what does it mean and how has it left me feeling… well whereas I was convinced that we had to move to the Methodists to realise our vision for the redevelopment of the site I have probably come full circle and now think that we need to stay to achieve that.

There was a spirit about the place that we risk losing by moving too soon. There was a spirit about the place that I thought had gone. There IS a spirit at Edgeley Road that we would have great difficulty in finding again or replacing if it were to make the wrong move.

So what of the future, I wish I could quote another Bill Withers song here and claim that ‘I can see clearly now the rain has gone’ and that ‘it’s going to be a lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay’.

All I can say is that we did have a lovely day on Saturday and my outlook for the future has gone from changeable to bright with sunny intervals and the occasional cloud.

Sounds good but then we all know how reliable the weather forecast can be don‘t we.

Better keep my brolly handy, just in case……

 

Now where was I?..

I am trying to work out what my priorities are. I seem to have a lot of things (apart from work that is) on at the moment, big things as well:

Local Leaders - I have just finished the training and the real work begins.

Weekenders - Struggling with numbers, we are at something of a crossroads. Time to bale and let someone take it on to the next level while I move on to something new? I was going to do it for 3 years, I have done 4. 

BCLC - Doing brilliantly I think. I get so much out of this. It needs more, we need to be a) doing something as a result of all our discussion and b) looking todo other BCLC style stuff at other time places etc.

Church Redevelopment - Need to do a lot of work with the meths and, as Anne says, we should resurrect the visionary ecumenical talks we started way back when or this thing is going to seriously end in tears. For my part I want to make sure we come with something for the old site that:

a) is economically viable

b) is practially usable

c) continues the work that the people that built that church nearly 100 years ago started 

How hard can that be?

Something has to give, I can't do all those things and my day job as well. I think weekenders is the one that sticks out there, the others are complementary to one another. My remit as local leader is to do the BCLC/church redevelopment stuff.

Better ask Pete if he wants to be the boss of w/ers….

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?