In this week’s episode, Joe and I talk more about the nature of church. In particular we talk about the physical location of churches - does a church need to be visible? Does it need an identifiable location, times to meet, etc.?
Personally I think churches need a place and not only for practical reasons. Over the last few years my ideas about sacred places have changed entirely. I used to think that the church – as in the building – didn’t matter much. And I know that theoretically that’s true: you can meet as church anywhere. A lot of my work is representing persecuted Christians, and their churches can be prison cells, caves, apartments, anywhere they can gather is holy ground. But there is also the question of sacred spaces. There is something about the places where, in Eliot’s line, prayer has been made valid. 1
We also reflect more on bad behaviour in the church – but in this case on how many clergy are on the receiving end of bullying by church members. This is something which isn’t talked about enough, I think: the everyday, mundane, drip-drip of moaning by people in church themselves. If Christians aren’t basically patient and kind then it seems to me we are missing the point. So Joe and I have unilaterally declared this Sunday to be the international ‘Be Kind to Clergy’ day.
Also we discuss the crucial question: when Jesus said ‘where two are three are gathered’ does that include rabbits?
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It’s from his poem, Little Gidding. “You are here to kneel/Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more/Than an order of words, the conscious occupation/Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.” ↩︎