Commemorating life events

So ... I was at a funeral the other day (this is not a joke) and it was an interesting experience. Two thoughts occurred to me:

1. The funeral was for a stillborn baby, so very sad – but it was beautifully done by the parents, who chose several contemporary songs for everyone to listen to, interspersed with some lovely readings/poems. They also had a large photograph of the hands of the parents and brother intertwined with the tiny baby’s hand, as a focal point for the service standing behind the tiny coffin.

The ceremony seemed to be a great example of the non-religious (or non-churchy), but deeply spiritual age in which we live. I was actually experiencing first hand something of what we’ve been learning about over the last year on my course, and it highlighted the importance of contemporary music (with no singing, Steve), prose and art in achieving spirituality.

But .. was it spiritual? The minister included a Bible reading, but the main ‘spirituality’ came from the music. Interestingly, Heaven was mentioned in one of the songs. But was this a form of ‘church’ (as defined by Rowan Williams in the Mission-shaped Church foreword)? Was the possibility of resurrection life through Christ celebrated?

2. The other thought was ... how on earth could I expect to achieve in a ‘geocaching church’ the commemoration of one of life’s certain events in quite such a tasteful but fully Christian way? Will people always expect to gather together in a church building, or would they just gather anywhere to celebrate or commemorate life’s major events with (or perhaps as) the body of Christ, the church?

Comments on a postcard, please ….

(And, yes, leaving co-ordinates for a final resting place did briefly cross my mind!!!)

The search continues …

I’ve been on holiday recently and had opportunity to introduce 3 more sets of friends to geocaching. Unfortunately, as usual, these are all friends who don’t live near me, so the possibilities for a geocaching emerging church are again extremely limited – more like a virtual circle of keen geocachers!

On all occasions when we were out, the walking between caches provided an opportunity for us to talk about church where we are; we’ve passed information about how mutual friends from my old church are doing, and also talked about how the church I serve is doing. The walking is a good space for that.

We’ve also taken the opportunity to admire God’s creation, seeing wildlife and nature up close, and often involving dead animals. If I’d been with people new to faith, I would have taken those opportunities to talk about how life always includes death and a fight for survival (some might say a bit too much Darwinianism here (?), but it is a bicentennial year!) – my doctrine teacher in College always used to talk about nature being ‘red in tooth and claw’ (a quote from Alfred Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam A. H. H., 1850 apparently). I’d have also talked about the fact that God never said becoming a follower or disciple was an easy road.

Although I’m disappointed about the lack of friends or new contacts I’m making locally, I’ve again take comfort in the fact that the people I’ve introduced to geocaching have all said ‘This might be a good activity for the whole church to do’ or ‘I’d like to do this with some of my non-Christian friends – it could be a useful communal activity that would allow us time together to chat about all sorts of things’.

Clearly geocaching is a good activity, which interests some people, but it does require a good friendship base, which I don’t have. Still, there’s still another year to go …. or is there?!

Techno-caching

I’ve ventured into the realm of Facebook, but have not managed to tame the social networking scenario for my purposes, mainly due to indecision. I only have one idea of how to ‘tame the beast’, which is to open a group specifically for geocachers in my area. But how do I get people to join it? Is it just good fortune (I suppose I should say providence) when people join?

Or should I just come out of the closet and call the group ‘Geocaching church’, like Messy Church? I read the first Messy Church book recently and was interested to note that the author had given alternatives to Messy Church, such as ‘Green church’ or ‘Eco-church’. Or should I go for ‘Natural theology church’ – a catchy name that trips off the tongue, right into the land of nod… zzzzz

To be or not to be …. ‘up front and centre’ or ‘closet and amorphous’ …. now that is the question!

PS. Can’t wait for Splinterheads to come out. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vSWSXaAyP4