Our February newsletter is now available. Please click here to download the PDF.
Minister’s Message
The Roost is an event I lead at the Cottenham Community Centre Coffee Shop on the third Sunday of every month, usually from 3-4:30pm. It is a mixture of arts, crafts, games, music, videos, poetry, and more, plus coffee, cake and conversation about life and faith.
During our January session, for example, we considered the melancholy or depression that people often feel during the darker, colder winter months. We listened to some of the saddest songs of all time, read and wrote poetry, looked at some Psalms of Lament, and created crafts to remind us that we are offered shelter beneath God’s wings. We also made and camped in an enormous Den which represented the refuge that can be found in family and community at their best, and that God also offers to all who seek it.
We don’t have formal prayers, hymns or a sermon, but people are given the chance to reflect on the themes of the day and respond as they see fit. There can be anywhere between 30 and 130 of us: a vibrant mix of Christians, agnostics and atheists, children and adults who understand that there aren’t any easy answers to life’s big questions but that, together, we might figure things out a little, develop community and maybe even glimpse God along the way!
Anyone who wants to make the epic journey up the B1049 to the edge of the fens on a Sunday afternoon is of course very welcome to join us—the next session is February 18th.
But more than that I want us to continue pondering how we might explore some slightly different ways of worshipping here at Histon Methodist. I’m not suggesting we attempt to replicate The Roost, nor that we discard hymns or sermons. But it might be that from time to time we can experiment with something like ‘Café Worship’ which offers a more informal take on a traditional service. As well as offering fresh perspectives for regulars, this style of worship can offer church newcomers a more relaxed way to begin to explore faith as part of our community.
We dabbled with this during Advent when we incorporated coffee and conversation about faith into the end of one of our services. People seemed to respond positively to this, and some really interesting conversations were had.
There’s a small group of us who would like to move forwards with planning and praying about this over the coming months, so please do talk to me if that’s something you would like to be a part of, or have any creative ideas about how we might develop our worship here at Histon.