Spirituality 3 - Chill Out

My thoughts about needing to do something to start making contact with those who are seeking but not looking at church came to an action point about two weeks ago.

On the Wednesday before the village fete a woman phoned asking to have a stall for her tarot readings. This suddenly triggered a passion in me: we, the church, must have a presence too. Remarkably, I had three clear days ahead of me with little other work to do; the opportunity seemed heaven-sent. I decided to have a "St Andrew's Chill Out Tent", not as an evangelistic opportunity but simply as a marker; an attempt to say that we know something about spirituality, too.

I managed to get hold of a tent, about 18' by 12', and designed four areas or stations to go in it:

• A prayer station, with a bowl with floating candles, a prayer leaflet which I put together with some prayers (mainly Celtic) for different occasions, a prayer box into which people could put prayer requests, a couple of books on prayer and a brief introduction to prayer which I wrote.
• A meditation station, with incense, some books, a handout and an introduction.
• A Jesus station with an introduction, some books, night lights in the shape of a cross, pictures of Jesus from "The Christ We Share" and a few copies of 'footprints'.
• A forgiveness station with pictures, an introduction, some books and an art nouveau lamp.

The tent was decorated with a series of bible texts on suitable images and music played in the background - Arvo Part, Gregorian Chant, and so on.

I wish I could say it was a huge success but it poured with rain all afternoon and very few people went to the fete. But it had some effect - a few visitors entered and lingered and at least one church member was put off because she thought it was a new age thing! One man hovered outside the tent for about two or three minutes before deciding not to enter.

I learned quite a lot from this. Perhaps I'll write a bit about this tomorrow.