It seems the more talks I give to Church groups about Cranbrook the more they urge me to not build a church; this has been brought to the fore by a thread, on the Facebook group I set up in Cranbrook, (with nearly 1200 people!) about this very subject. So here are some of my musings on the matter.
One
of the most interesting ideas I have discovered over the years is the
idea of ‘liminal space’: a place, a time, or an occasion that allows you
to sense something beyond yourself. The feeling you get when you look
at the mass of stars on a clear night, the wonder of the first smile of a
new born, the transient sense of well-being that descends and soon
departs. A moment in time and space of wholeness and understanding. A realisation and peace that
things are bigger than yourself, yet things are also okay. Despite
the fractured chaos of reality that there is a glimpse of 'everything in
its right place'. You might term it as wonder or awe or even 'holy' – something that
lifts us above ourselves for a moment, almost as if there is a tiny tear
in reality and we glimpse something behind, and then it goes,
breath-like, into the ether.
For
some this is in occasion or relationship, for some it is in rest and
reflection, for others it comes in action and endeavour, for others it
is in architecture or nature or spiralling galaxies or snow peaked
mountains or flakes of snow or the first or last glimmer of life. For
some it is church buildings or football stadia, or local pubs or opera
houses – something about place and occasion that moves us outside and
beyond our ‘usual/mundane/ordinariness’ to a glimpse of some beyond,
transcendent, special.
We
already have a church in Cranbrook and we are a motley crue! A
gathering of people who find some meaning in the story of a man called
Jesus who decided church should be without walls, that grace was better
than law and forgiveness poured freely like flowing vintage wine on a wedding
day. All things have their place, but I prefer a place that is liminal,
in between, unfixed – a place for doubters as well as believers, a place
for the weak and the strong, for those who are certain and those who
feel entirely lost.
I
hope that the ‘place of worship land’ that has been set aside in Cranbrook will be a
useful place by Easter 2015, a place with seating and covering and flowers
and vegetables. Not a place with walls and ceilings to keep ‘God’ in and
people out, not for a holy huddle or a self-selecting few but for all –
creed, colour, orientation, gender, ability, belief. For all who want to sit and reflect
or celebrate or weep in despair, or rant or dance or be thankful, for a
moment, a liminal space.
