calling all Anglicans

[ionesmum]

What do you make of the statement today re the gay issue?

Also, what do you make of the CofE in general?

I'm struggling to stay with the church at the moment, and could really do with some fresh perspectives on things.

I know that our church is definitely growing every way you might want to measure it, and we expect it to continue to grow. Churches like ours are also growing.

We are obviously stealing members from adjacent parishes and from different denominations, but we are also getting in brand new people as well.

We have a huge outreach programme and we work hard to reach individuals. We get 2 or 3 new families a year joining via our Mother & Toddler group; boys on our football team come along to our youth club, and end up bringing their families to services; ditto the uniform groups. We have so many more initiatives in the pipeline for youth.

It's not important to be part of a large denomination to have these initiatives - each church can decide for itself what it wants to do, and put its energy on outreach instead of worrying about gay priests. I'm much more interested in giving disaffected teenagers some meaning in their lives rather than the sexuality issue that plagues the newspaper headlines.

Ameriscot your church sounds fab - very similar in fact to what happens here (on a smaller scale)in our village Baptist church.

geordie, that must have been so hard for you . Our former pp said that he has found the attitude to women priests hardening. I must read Mother Julian's writings, I know the more famous but have never read her in-depth. I'd love to talk to you more about how you manage your ministry. When I saw the DDO it was to offer myself as an NSM as my priest advised that woudl give me more freedom in developing my own ministry. I'd also like to talk more about how you see God as female - I usually get blank looks when I try to talk about this with people I know! Did you get my CAT okay?

mp, I think on balance you are right, you can only change things from within. It's so hard though, isn't it?

Bloss - one of our churches has just spent £2000 on a light fitting.

MP, I don't like 'church-shopping' either, if I were on my own I'd not be so worried, But now I've got our dds I have to think about what they will be learning when they go to church.

I hated "church shopping" when we were in the US. With a family of six, it was hard to sneak in anywhere. Some pastors had a habit of asking visitors to stand up and introduce themselves

For all I hated ECUSA, it felt more normal than anything else.

Oh no! "Well I'm xxx and I'm basically church shopping..."

I got ur CAT Ionesmum! Will email later when ds is sleeping!

We're in a big church where people meet in smaller groups (30-60) most Sundays. The church buildings are a set of electrical engineering works buildings - painted magnolia and carpeted cheaply. Some of the groups use some of the church's buildings, others use homes, schools, restaurants, community halls, or anywhere else they can get into really. In the past I've worshipped in a university lecture hall, an exam hall, an old nightclub, a sports centre, theatre, town hall. And who cares? God is in all of those places, waiting to meet us in worship.

that sounds so cool, purpleturtle . Wish others shared your view!

Look forward to it, geordie!

OUR NEW PRIEST IS A WOMAN!!!!!

hehehehehe! That'll ruffle some feathers.... Hope it means some positive changes!

I can't believe it, I'm so happy. I do feel for some who will find this hard, but it's the best thing that could happen for us. And she's a mum of four!!!!!!!

So jealous of you!

Took the dds for a walk around the village this afternoon and the rumour mill was already in force. I think our new priest will have to be incredibly tough. Hopefully there are enough of us who think this is brilliant to support her and stop those who would make her life a misery from doing so.