Fresh Worship event at Cheadle Hulme - 19th July 2006

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Sue and I went to this event, which attracted about 30 people from the Methodist District. The focus was "Fresh Expressions of Worship" hosted by Dave martin and Irene Cooper, and consisted of sets showing different alternative worship approaches. Cris Asher had a video of Nexus showing, while Debbie and Richard had a slide show of The Welcome. There was a room showing various prayer station (touchy feely) and the sanctuary was given over to technical demos of video making. Irene Cooper had also set up a stand of statues, candles, stones and stuff...

While these things were interesting, I felt the overall event was a little sad. The people there were earnestly looking for ways to draw in new congregations using creative arts, but against the back-drop of declining churches. A get-together half way through the meeting allowed Judy Povey of Alderly Edge to present the development of their Little Fishes project, and this was the most encouraging thing. The discussion that followed gravitated mostly to the "touchy feely" prayer room stuff which Sue related to more than I.

Being good Methodists, Sue and I had tea in the Pub next door beforehand. At 6pm it was still 32degrees, so we needed some (non-alcoholic) liquid intake.