Spirited Exchanges- a bit alternative for the north-east?

Last night Zo and I went to talk to some fellow travellers (in the spiritual sense not the literal gypsy sense) about the possibility of establishing a Spirited Exchanges group in the north-east. We left leaving happy about how things had gone and are looking forward to our first meeting proper next month. Somewhere in Newcastle: details to follow!
I had two 'moments' throughout the evening;

1. At the start of the evening we each spoke about where we were at. It was great. I could have listened all night. One woman described her relationship with the church as that which a woman has with her violent husband who she loves dearly. I suspect I'll be stealing that illustration for years to come!
2. Zo and I have been reflecting on what church is to mean for us in the north-east and it think our conclusion is that different aspects of church are going to end up coming from different directions; we worship at an alternative service in the west of town, we will hopefully have some kind of community with this Spirited Exchanges group and if we want to do some kind of mission then we need to volunteer for some local charity. Not sure if that is a good model or bad, but it's the best we can do.

Comments

[barky]

sounds interesting. looking forward to hearing how this all pans out...

[Steve]

I too felt that, as a 'work in progress', last night was very promising!

Too alternative for the North East? Not in the least! ;)

My own moment came when Zo suggested we take over the spot at Grey's monument and spoof the evangelists that meet there. She dead-panned wonderfully and suddenly I wasn't sure whether she was serious or not. I realised at this point (and earlier, during the 'church as violent husband' image you quoted) that this is real stuff - not just playing.

Real people have been really hurt by Church. Others have seen the hurt and have real anger against the institution. No wonder they won't touch religion with a barge-pole.

If Spirited Exchanges can go even part-way towards offering a solution to this horror, it is surely worth getting behind.

[Steve]

Great blog, by the way. I'll be returning to it.