In DC we visited another street church like the one in Boston, this one simply called "Street Church." It was a great experience--made me a little nervous when we were asked to hannd out fliers inviting people to the service, but I go t over it! None of the other street churches we've visited handed out fliers, but I rather liked this church's reason for doing so; they were trying to invite everybody who's usually in that park at that hour, homeless and far-from-homeless. The park was downtown, and people who work around it often take their lunch breaks their around the time they hold the service; a few of them have actually started attending--with the homeless! I like that very much; breaking down walls.
I also liked their way of doing communion. They had, I think, a good balance. Some people make the mistake of assuming homeless people are automatically not Christians, and that they need to be preached to primarily, and encouraged to make a profession of faith; for those people, serving communion at a street church wouldn't come to mind at all. Some go to the opposite extreme and offer communion to all, with an inadequate explanation of what it is, and sometimes a manner that assumes everyone will take it (leading people to take it even if they're not really sure what it means.) I think it's tremendously important to be open to the spiritual lives that the homeless already have; I also think communion is a tremendously important thing and people, for their own sake, should only take it if they understand and believe in what it is and means. So I liked the way they had--in the little half-sheet order of service they handed round--an explanation of what communion is and what it means. I also liked--since the explanation was given only in writing and wasn't spoken--the fact that people had to come up to the front if they wanted to receive it. I think the method I would like best (for us to use in retreats, for instance) would be to say a few gentle and serious words about what communion is and how taking it is a sign of accepting Jesus' presence in your life--and how if you are not ready for that, you really do not need to take it--and then hand the bread and wine around in a circle, skipping whoever wants to be skipped.
2 comments:
I'm still not sure what a street church is. But I like your assessment of communion. I think I agree with you. Here, you're not allowed to take communion unless you're a registered member of the church, and that just stinks!
Sorry--I know, I didn't answer your email yet! Yeah, I realized when you pointed it out that I never wrote about the Boston street church. It's exactly what it sounds like, a church in the street--or in a park, like you said. The idea is to have a church service in a public place to which homeless people are invited--esp. for the sake of those who wouldn't feel comfortable coming inside a building, or would be afraid of losing possessions if they left them outside (like their shopping cart or something.) Taking church to the people, basically. A little different from street preaching in that it's more than just preaching--the three street church services we've attended so far basically went through the whole Anglican liturgy out there, including communion. Which is really cool, but there are issues involved, like I was talking about.
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