Hi folks, I trust you are into the New Year with a swing in your step… or you may just be about hanging on… however you feel right now, be gentle with yourselves.
We are looking to rethink some aspects of the work we do through Beachcomber and Sunday@the pub, we haven’t mixed things up for a while now and we feel that now is the time to make some slight changes.
We already have something that we call ‘Worship Brunch’ that meets on a Saturday late morning and it does what it says on the tin, the leadership for this is passed around and so that mixes up how and what that looks like. We usually use some of the liturgies we have created to facilitate these gatherings. These are now regularly in our pattern and they are usually really relaxed and informal gatherings. If you would like to come and be a part of this then please do have a conversation with me.
Also some members of BFX have met to pray together and again we are putting this into our regular program now, these are fortnightly gatherings. This is a small space to connect with God/divine and bring some of our concerns into that space. Again if you want to know more or be involved then have a conversation with Pauline or myself.
We have also decided not to meet every Sunday evening, particularly when we have some of our other events during the weekend, this is to make sure that what we do has more impact and widens the way in which Beachcomber can develop. We are committed to a few venues already and we will continue to do that, but may add in others as we go.
We are also being more upfront with what we are doing and when we are doing it, and so we will be publishing a diary for you to see what we are up to. We also have an online calendar that you can add into your own calendar to give you the dates.
We will have a few new ways of connecting on sunday nights over this next year. The first we are calling ‘Q’ which will be more about connection with each other. We will ask creative Questions to try and dig a bit deeper as to who we are and what we are. These again will be relaxed and I promise there will be fun questions in there! We will also be having meals and ‘pudding and pint’ evenings added into the mix.
Our theme for 2025 is linked to something the Christian faith celebrates and talks about when she gathers on a Sunday and yet our interaction with it is minimal. I am talking about creation, nature…
We have hymns and songs that celebrate it ‘All things bright and beautiful’, ‘Great is thy faithfulness’, ‘He’s got the whole world in his hands’, ‘How great thou art’, ‘King of Kings, Majesty’, ‘What a beautiful name’, ‘God of Wonders’, to name but a few. In more traditional settings we will also find prayers of praise, adoration and thanksgiving which lean into celebrating creation. And as we move through the year, in more traditional churches they will celebrate harvest. Some churches also have environmental Sundays. We also have Christian charities like Christian Aid and Tear Fund that tackle such issues around the climate. Then we have A Rocha, which encourages conservation and nature care, and connected to them we have Ecco Church which aims to encourage churches to be more eco aware and bring down the church buildings carbon footprint.
While many churches ‘talk’ about it, how many of them actually get out of their building and get into nature itself… for nature itself is the world’s best Cathedral! It has been encouraging in recent years to see the growth of Forest Churches. It seems that in general we may be good at thanking the author of creation for all that we have and experience, and yet the church does little to engage with it and to see it as a collective church experience.
It is true that Beachcomber has had nature as one of its main ways of connection with the divine/other/God, we have done this through our Wanders and our days and weekends away and other events, and yet it has not been part of our rhythm.
Nature already gives us a framework through our seasons that invites us to engage with them and so this will become a feature of what we do. We are also going to be doing some of this alongside Ian Stimpson through Sea Soul, a project focussed around engagement with sea swimmers and those that hang out on the beach. Over the last few months we have already begun to develop this and we now have ideas that we will work with over the year. We will have four Wanders around the same route over the year to take in the seasons over the year, to note the changes and to interact with them.
There will be a program put out over the next week outlining where, when and what we are doing, so please look out for it. And if you would like to know more then please do talk to me. If you would like to invite anyone to come along then they would be very welcome.
This Sunday we will not be meeting as we have worship brunch on Saturday. If you want more info, then please do contact me.
Peace, Rob
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.
