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I came to Edinburgh as a request from the Methodist Church. I'd signed up for this scheme
called VentureFX which could have sent me anywhere in the country and it ended up being
Edinburgh, which is amazing. I came from Stockport, fresh from leading a fresh expression of church
which was all based around creative arts and running groups based on art and craft and
sewing, and things like that. And it would have been very easy to come to Edinburgh and
just start right off but there'd been lots of lessons that we learned in Stockport that
it would have been foolish not to take on board - but also Edinburgh's a completely
different place. It's got a very different feel to it, it's got very different people
in it and I just needed to take some time to learn about the city and find out what
it was like and what God was calling me to do here.
I did a range of different things. One of the things I did was just random walks around
the city and I felt God draw me to different places and point different things out to me
and different groups of people as well -- I'd go over and talk to them. I started off by
doing a number of different things; some of them were one-off events -- we did a photo
exhibition that involved people from the YMCA where I do some voluntary work, and there's
some people I got to know through camera clubs in Edinburgh and we did a fundraising evening,
all based on poetry and spoken word. I think the idea of starting something and
then building a community from it is a difficult thing and you never quite know what's the
right thing to start. So we've started lots of different things in Edinburgh and some
of them have more Christian content than others. Some of them are one-offs; some of them are
slightly more longer term; they all have the aim of bringing colour, life and justice to
the city. There has to be a range of things because some things work and some things won't
and, at this stage, it's about experimenting and trying things out.
The Gathering has been meeting for about a year and it meets in a café in Edinburgh.
It meets on a Wednesday evening, a couple of times a month and also, in between those
times, there's some social events, some pub nights and we're going walking this weekend,
it's different every time. What we're aiming to do is use people's gifts as they offer
them to God and to the community. So, sometimes we'll have live music because we've got musicians
offering their gifts and sometimes we'll have storytelling; at other times we'll have art
and craft, we'll be making visual things. Sometimes there'll be a Communion service,
a more recognisable liturgy.
The Gathering is starting to form a community but it's taking a long time and it's a bit
more messy than just, 'this is our community'; there are different people dropping in, dropping
out, coming for a few weeks, a few months and then leaving. There are people who come
to the city for a short time and are part of it and then leave.
We don't know who's going to come along from time to time but we are small and one of the
things that is able to happen each time we do meet is good conversation with one another,
catching up with one another very often. There's a very informal feel to the evening.
In the world we live in today, change is not inevitability -- it is a constant; it's happening
every single day. People experience the world, taste the world, smell the world, interact
with the world, learn in the world in so many ways and simply offering one formula doesn't
fit for all. Jesus is for everyone.
I do think traditional church can be intimidating sometimes for people that don't normally,
aren't normally in that sort of atmosphere so a gathering like this -- I think it's more
approachable.
I set up something called Edinburgh Dreams which isn't really a thing; it's just a name
under which lots of different things can happen so, under the name of Edinburgh Dreams, we
can do creative events, we can do courses, we can do fundraising, we can do theological
exploration and lots of things can happen under that umbrella and under that name.
I've always been interested in making things and I've always loved sewing and painting
and making cards, and all of those kind of things, and to discover that actually that
wasn't just something that was frivolous and a waste of time; that something that I felt
God was encouraging me in - and eventually I felt that the church was encouraging me
in - because it was something that could help my discipleship, could help other people's
discipleship, and could actually help form community around. It's been like a revelation.
Taking people on a journey with God is one of those things that you can never predict;
you're never going to be able to say it's going to work in this way, people always surprise
you and God will surprise you most of all. I think one of the things that surprised me
is how much God has challenged me about my discipleship; in fact I think I'm only really
just scratching the surface of what discipleship really is and I think I'm beginning to realise
that my course of following Jesus is a journey deeper into God and deeper into myself and
that's something that has taken me to places that no courses ever could and what I really
long to do is to be able to take other people on that journey as well.
In order for that to happen, a lot of barriers need to be broken down; a lot of hurts that
the church has perpetuated, a lot of misconceptions about God, about the church, about the way
that we worship, about the way that we pray. Those things need to be broken down within
the church as well as in the people that I meet who sometimes are very open to God, and
very open to the idea that there's more to life than we see, but can't see a way of exploring
that in the church that we know; wouldn't even think of it, it's not even on their radar.
For me, the signs of success will be when there are stories of people whose lives have
been transformed because of what the church has been visionary enough to do here.