Each Wednesday we have a couple of hours when we have a Parish Church open with some gentle music playing and some warm glow lights bringing a nice feel to the evening. People are free to come in and spend time in prayer in whatever form that takes for them. “So why isn’t the church open all the time like many churches are” I hear you asking… Well we have kitchen areas where we have knives and things, so we chose to lock the church. This was to the detriment of the church as it turns out!
We still do have it locked much of the time, but we are now using it more for community things, having prayer time when it is open and are planning to have more time for opening as well. Since we installed CCTV we have been shown just how many people do want to come in during the day. Yes, PCCs work very slowly and we are working towards more open times, writing risk assessments, testing CCTV, putting locks on kitchen doors etc etc.
This all means a lot to me. I am able to sit here with the church open and invite people just to come in like they want. And they do.
** Just had my phone trying to shout at me about my blood glucose levels for a short while – but with it on silent it was shouting in a vacuum **
We were overjoyed when people came to help us tidy up the church garden, help with a community BBQ & teddy bear’s picnic. This building, which used to be an air-force base chapel, is now coming alive as more people begin to see just how valuable a Parish Church can be! You’d almost think God is getting us ready for something…
Well, we will continue listening to him, and like Simon we will throw the net back in again after we have been unsuccessfully fishing for years!