CapeConversation

We are an experimental community. We are in process, constantly becoming. We explore a storyspace rather than adhere to a storyline. We are a “doughnut shaped” communal space – a space without a centre, without overt leadership, structure, or agenda.

While this frees us, it can also cause anxiety. Many have visited and left feeling insecure, wary of our anarchy, needful of a more assertive structure.

We do not consciously want to engender such feelings. While we accept the “prophetic” calling to create and stir, to deconstruct and remold, this is not all we are. There is also present within us a pastoral heart, a heart of hospitality where we want to come alongside those on a journey, to offer solace, healing, advice, and companionship.

And furthermore, there is amidst our chaos a heart to worship God. This pilgrim’s heart has meant that many aspects of our activities have come across as rambling, careening, or even lost. But we seek a new way, and we accept the anxiety that this calling creates.

This is not about novelty for its own sake; it is rather about apprehending what the Spirit might be doing with us, with looking for new skins for the new wine that is already flowing between us.

One thing that has become a part of our emerging spirituality is that we do not present worship as a product, but a process. As such, our worship is constantly in workshop mode. Others might put on services of worship, with slick bands, excellent choirs, or polished preaching, in order to attract a loyal consumer base with their market offerings. But as we are, we simply curate a space in which to explore, try new things, reject things, and discover a way of worshipping that will eventually become ours.

While we’d love to be able to present a more polished program, and to be a player in that marketplace, our focus at present is on becoming part of the priesthood of all believers, which was the aim of the protestant reformation nearly 500 years ago. We want an authentic set of practices to start forming that we can call our own.

And so I invite you to workshop worship. This starts now, and if you have anything to say, no matter how trivial you might think it is, you can comment on this blog. In fact, I dare you to say anything you like, right now. There are no wrong comments.

Starting on Sunday 28th at 1 Malton Rd, 10am we will continue to explore these things. Theresa will lead us in a time of prayer in movement and writing, which she entitles “Into Us”.

Consider yourself invited.

Nic