I was invited to lead a workshop at Holy City in Glasgow last night. I mentioned before that I was delighted to be asked but now terrified…
Well, it wasn’t that scary! In fact, I liked it a lot.
I’ve known about Holy City for ages and it’s been on my ‘I’d quite like to go to that’ list but I’ve never got round to going. I’m so glad I did, even if it took an invite to get me there (perhaps a lesson in that?).
People gather from 7pm for a chat and around 7.20pm new songs are taught for the worship later in the evening and the workshops are plugged. Then at 7.30pm people choose their workshop and go there for an hour.
There was a great variety of workshops last night, all around the idea of ‘telling’.
Mine was called ‘Telling Signs?’ and I tried to encourage people to talk about what signs of new life they were seeing outside the church and to ask what the church’s response to those should be. I think it was a good discussion but in many ways the ‘Emerging Church’ is so nebulous that it’s difficult for people to grasp which part we are talking about… or to want to categorise these communities at all.
Worship was the most subversive act I’ve seen in a church for a long time. We thought about telling… and those who because of a decission by the General Assembly are not allowed to tell and the issue they are not allowed to tell of… sexuality.
Deep words, beautiful music, conversation and actions in an amazing space with great people.
I’ll be back… next term. And if you find yourself in Glasgow on the last Sunday of the month then you could do much worse than spend some time at Holy City.
I totally agree with you on Holy City. I loved going along and also needed an invitation to finally get there. I found the eclectic mixture of people and backgrounds very helpful and the worship tremendously thoughtful and inspiring. Sorry to have missed your discussion.
I’m intrigued by your comments about’telling’ in worship… need more info!
The worship was intorduced by a short statement telling of the ban imposed by the general assembly and how that jarred with it being Pentecost…
We sang then heard a ‘news report’ on the issue we can’t talk about… so instead we read from the Bible. Song of Songs, an account of David’s love for Jonathan, John’s letter and another passage I can’t remember now. We told our neighbours about which one struck us most and why.
There were four ‘stations’, low tables set in a cross. Our care for the environment where we could plant a seed and reflect on how we love the world. Our hospitality to others with pictures of very different kinds of people and the request to give our smallest coin in a ‘widow’s mite’ type moment. Our respecting the silenced was a table covered with pink cards face down. We were asked to pick some up and on each was a short statement or bio of someone from the LGBT community who have made a contribution to society. Our willingness to listen to God in others was a set of silent headphones plugged into a cross where we could listen in silence.
It felt like worship should. Moving and uncomfortable and subversive and communal.