From the Rectory - Welcome to the Parish of Bishopstoke

The Parish of Bishopstoke

FROM THE RECTORY

SEPTEMBER

Dear Friends

Whenever we go on holiday (in the English-speaking world, at least!) our family attends a local church on a Sunday. But it can be a bit hard if you’re not familiar with the area, especially if you’ve only arrived the day before – and had to find the supermarket, too! You really have to go to the church sometime on the Saturday to find out the service time in advance. And now, with four children, we’re starting to get a bit more fussy. It can be great just to turn up somewhere and go along with whatever style of worship it is. But we also want our children to have something appropriate for them.

So this year we were very organized. Anne looked on the internet a few days beforehand, and worked out where the local C of E church was and what sort of service it would be that Sunday. Great! It was the monthly all-age service, without communion - and even with a trendy title. It sounded very promising.

So we turned up at the church and received a very warm welcome. But I noticed almost immediately that I’d been given a communion booklet full of words and another sheet with three Bible readings on. The monthly all-age service had evidently been cancelled in August, and the website didn’t tell us this. During the first hymn, as the choir processed around the church, we had to make a quick decision: should we stay, boxed in our pew with four children, or escape? It felt uncomfortable, but we chose to leave. As we left, though, the friendly lady at the door suggested we try the Methodist Church and explained where it was.

We thought we were probably too late to go anywhere else, so just wandered round the town for a bit, feeling a bit fed up. Anne said, ‘If only we had Clive and Helen’s phone number!’ (Clive and Helen are old friends from London who had moved to the Isle of Wight a few years ago and would have been able to tell us good places for the family to go to church. We had no idea exactly where they lived, though.)

After a while, though, we thought we’d just find the Methodist Church and see what was on perhaps for the next week. As we approached we could hear some lively music, and ended up wandering in. Almost before I was through the door Anne said, ‘It’s Helen’s church!’ Because there at the front, leading the all-age worship, was Helen – who was pretty distracted by us walking into her service 45 minutes late! We had a great time catching up afterwards.

Now that’s what I’d call a God-incidence - although I admit that for a good part of the morning I was wondering where indeed God was in all of this. Where is God when you’ve just rejected a church service?

I don’t know what you make of our experience that day, but perhaps it reminds us that not every church service is right for everyone, and God understands that.

September 26 is ‘Back to Church Sunday’ and many churches are using this to encourage people to take a fresh look at their local church. If you don’t normally come to church, I’d like to invite you to come on that day, or perhaps for Harvest the following week - or any Sunday! Perhaps you used to come, but have got out of the habit. Perhaps it didn’t seem very relevant. Perhaps you’ve just not been so much recently.

Our church may not be perfect, but we would love to welcome you. There will be no pressure for you to come again if you don’t want to. But we do want to show that Christianity is very relevant to our everyday lives. We try to make our services easy to follow and engage with. And we do have space where children can play – or Trailblazers for them to go to during the service. Come and see! And in the meantime there’s a warm welcome at Alpha too (see p.12).

With every blessing,