This evening we have a meeting with the Methodists. Not just the Meths, oh no, the world and his wife will be there as well. We have the Ecumenical Officers for the Meths, the URCs and, chairing the meeting, the Catholics as well. In addition to them we have someone from the Anglicans, presumably so they don’t feel left out. From our side we have our elders and a couple of members who have been involved so far and from their side they have their stewards. Wow, that’s quite a gathering I am sure you will agree. And what are we all going to be talking about? Well here’s the story so far and we can extrapolate from there….
Our buildings are knackered. We plan to redevelop. Realise we don’t have sufficient resources. Talk to the Anglicans, to no avail. Talk to the Methodists who are interested in a building share. Vote to go that way if we can come to an agreement on the use of the buildings. Start talking to the Meths and realise coming to an agreement isn’t going to be easy. Meanwhile plan a party at our church and realise that a) maybe we do have resources that we hadn’t considered and, b) that we have to do something about our buildings so perhaps a redevelopment isn’t beyond the realms. Meanwhile the Meths still think we are going to go there for a building share (which I think they secretly really need as they, like us, are dying on their arses through lack of numbers).
The redevelopment is really exciting. Anne and I have taken this on, we haven’t been asked to as such but as local leaders we felt it was our duty to do it. I will tell you all more of that another day when the plan firms up a bit. And so we are in the position where we will need the support of the Meths (and the rest of them I guess) in the redevelopment of the site. We will need somewhere to meet during the week and at weekends, possibly for good in some cases. We will also need their support to get the thing done, not sure how specifically at the moment but we will. However if we move now we will lose a lot of our members and one of the things we are using as part of our development story is that of continuing what we have done in the past locally in the ethos of the URC’s ecumenical poilicy. So there will be a sense of ownership of the project by the good folk of Edgeley Road without any real ownership at all, other than the shared sense that we hope the whole community will eventually feel.
And where, I hear you all ask, does BCLC fit into all of this. Well when we frist started thinking about this we always had the intention of trying to create something that wasn’t fixed into a single space at a single time. It was meant to be many faceted and occur all over the place all over the week. This fits perfectly with the redevelopment of the Edgeley Road site but struggles to fit into the building share with the Meths. Not least because a) they are very structured and BCLC is even less structured than the URC and b) because they are full of other groups using the place all week long so there is nowhere for us to go.
So I am going to the meeting needing them to buy into something that I haven’t really got planned but keeping them on hold for a building share. Maybe we are better to go for a full LEP and view the redevelopment work as part of that and take the 2 years or whatever it takes to make that happen. It can’t be any harder than trying to fit the quart that is ERURC into the pint that they are offering us now.
I will, as ever, let you know how we get on.
