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Editorial:
Faith in the Future? From
the director: Finding ourselves in the City Traveller,
the road is made by walking it The
Word made Flesh: A Sign and Foretaste in Limerick Comment:
The Architecture of Faith The
Word made Flesh: Down and Out in Dublin The
Word made Flesh: Cork Methodist Church, Ardfallen The
Word made Flesh: Reflections from the Maiden City Cathedral
Quarters: Interviews with Rev Dr Houston McKelvey and Very Rev Hugh
Kennedy Review:
Journey Towards Holiness Economics
and the economy: what are they for? Bible
Study: Beyond Silver Coins Reflection:
The 'F' word Review:
Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living Difficult
Conversations: Looking for God in the City... |
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IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES, the congregation of Wesley Chapel Methodist Church began to think about itself and to reflect upon its mission. Although the church was located in the city centre it did not really have a city centre mission and ministry. Rather, it provided a place of worship for people who commuted from all parts of the greater city area. As such, it was becoming increasingly difficult to operate due to problems of parking and Sunday shopping. So in 1986 the church and the hall in an adjoining street were sold and a large house and gardens at Ardfallen, two miles from the city centre, was purchased. The house was immediately refurbished and work began on a new church sanctuary, large hall and various other smaller rooms. Two years later, a further vision of the church was fulfilled and Ardfallen Grove, a sheltered housing complex for elderly people, was opened. So now if you visit Cork Methodist Church at Ardfallen you will find a bright, modern sanctuary and a well-used complex of halls and rooms. The building is used by various church groups and also acts as a de facto community centre with ballet classes, bowling clubs, parent and toddler groups, Naoinra (Irish speaking pre-school), etc. Also, the top floor of the old house forms an apartment for the warden of the sheltered housing. Furthermore, our church acts as the venue for many Christian events and concerts which are held in the Cork area. A major reason for this is easy access and parking. However, one disadvantage of all this is that our church is much harder to find than it used to be! Visitors to the city are unlikely simply to notice the church as they pass by because it is no longer on the main street in the city centre. We rely on our website, notice boards and word of mouth to let people know that we are here and that they are welcome. In recent years, we have been thinking about “what is our mission field?” In reality we cannot reach the whole of Cork city but we have concluded that our key mission field is twofold. Firstly, our main point of influence is among the work colleagues, schoolmates and neighbours of all the people who belong to our church living all over the city and beyond. The second aspect of our mission field is the immediate area around the church building. We are located in a leafy suburb with thousands of houses within a 1km radius. As already mentioned, our building is open much of the time and in most weeks hundreds of people pass through. However, how do we really engage with the people living around with a view to offering Christ? Two years ago, we heard the challenge of the growing 24-7 prayer movement and set up a prayer room during Holy Week. This was a great success and the prayer room has now become a permanent fixture in our church premises. More recently, we have established a Scripture garden. This is a garden which contains many plants with a Bible link and for which explanatory notes are provided. In effect it provides an outdoor prayer room. Initially, both of these were created to facilitate increased prayer amongst our own congregation but we have begun to notice that people from the surrounding area are beginning to use both the prayer room and the Scripture garden. We are currently seeking to further publicise these things as a resource for the community. This has been a timely reminder to us that, in our supposedly secular society, there are in fact a lot of people looking for spiritual meaning and reality. In recent months, we have been beginning to sense God calling us to further develop this vision. Currently, we are looking into possibilities of developing a coffee-shop and a reading room/Christian library in addition to the prayer room and the Scripture garden, while also looking into ways to enable someone to be there each day who would be trained and willing to provide a listening ear. We sense that God is calling us to offer a haven of peace in a busy suburb of Cork city and to offer a place where hurts can be expressed, pains listened to and God’s presence felt. Such a place seems to us to be a real need in the community around us. We are in a wealthy area so there is no need for a soup kitchen or outreach to homeless people etc. but people still meet with crisis in their lives. People still are searching for peace and people still need God. Up until a very short time ago, our area of Cork would have been almost exclusively people belonging to one church. However, those traditional ties are breaking down and more and more people around us have little or no connection to any faith grouping. However, it would appear that most of those who no longer attend any kind of church do not have a particular anger toward church. Rather, they simply feel that it has no relevance to their lives. People who are searching for spiritual reality never think that the church might be the place where they would find it. Yet the fact that people are searching, and also the fact that everybody will hit a crisis some time, gives us opportunities to be there with an open door and hopefully offer Christ. We are delighted that in the last five years or so there has been approximately a 50% growth in the Sunday morning congregation. Some of this growth is due to people who have come to Ireland from other countries. Currently there are about 17 nations represented in our congregation. However, there are also increasing numbers of Irish people who were not raised as Methodists. The old strict denominational boundaries of Ireland are breaking down. A couple of years ago we had three baptisms on the one Sunday morning and it so happened that the baptismal record book got its last entries that day. The first baptism in this old book was in 1926 and I reflected that the minister then would have been incredulous to discover that the last three baptisms in the book which he started were of two children from a Nigerian family and a third with a very traditional Irish name, which certainly would not have been associated with Methodism in the past! However, while we rejoice in this growth of the Sunday morning congregation, our struggle now is to increase the commitment of those people during the week. It is our conviction that the Sunday morning service is not sufficient to foster proper spiritual growth and development. Yet commitment midweek is increasingly difficult in these days. Another sad feature of our congregation is the struggle to hold on to our teenagers and young adults. We are seeing a number of young families return to the church and there are increasing numbers of children, but it is common for teenagers and young adults to almost completely lose their church involvement. In general they have no great issue with the church and no anger towards it, they just do not see it as part of their lives. We think that part of the reason for them getting out of the church attendance initially is the fact that most sports take place on Sunday in this part of Ireland. Please pray for us as we continue to join with many others churches in seeking to offer Christ to the people of Cork. LAURENCE GRAHAM is the Superintendent Minister of the Cork South and Kerry Circuit of the Methodist Church and pastors the Methodist Church at Ardfallen in Cork city. Previously he ministered in Cavan and Longford and in a former life was an Agricultural Missionary in Haiti and Antigua. He is married to Karen and they have had three children - Samuel (who only lived for nine weeks), Hope, and Paul. |
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