‘Space’, as well as being an archetypically Cityside-ish kind of word in its own right (we use it a lot), was named as such because it emerged from the ashes of another evening service: Spirit Space.
The idea behind Spirit Space was to have a service on the fourth Sunday evening of each month for the purpose of devotional worship, sharing, and prayer (particularly prayer for healing). The people who initiated this service had mostly come from church environments that involve more emotional expression in their worship, and that cultivate an expectation of God’s Spirit acting in ‘charismatic’ ways. Some people were finding this dimension of worship to be missing from the other services we offered at the time.
Spirit Space sought to be a service where we retained the desire to experience God, the sharing of needs, and the openness to the Spirit’s work, but without what some of us perceived as the jargon or manipulation that had accompanied those aspects of our worship in the past. An ‘alternative charismatic’ service. This ran for about eight months, after which time those organising it didn’t want to continue with the facilitation — although they all wanted to continue to attend! — and the name morphed into simply ‘Space.’ Below is a letter outlining the initial thinking behind Spirit Space.
The concept of ‘Space’ is to encourage people to use the building in an intentional way on the 4th Sunday evening of the month, to do anything they want, and to make their activity available for the participation of the church community. Some of the suggestions for ‘Space’ include: videos, board games, seminars, singing sessions, issue based discussion nights, Bible studies, or simply social gathering time.
The uptake has not been enormous, but some interesting activities have emerged. One Citysider used the time to deliver a trial run of a seminar that he was going to give later in the week at his course of study. Another person showed a video of a lecture that she had found in a theological college library, and we discussed the ideas over tea and coffee afterwards. The ‘Space’ has also been used three times for ‘Living in Clip’, where people bring along a favourite short (under 10 minutes) video clip – either a short film or an excerpt from a film. The person who brings the clip introduces it, we view it, and then we discuss it afterwards. The evening consists of maybe seven or eight different offerings drawn randomly from a box. We use a video projector to view the clips on a large screen.
We no longer advertise ‘Space’ in an explicit way, but so far, nothing has come along to replace it, and people are always free to come up with an idea for something to do on a Sunday evening and to book the building on the fourth Sunday for that purpose.
Spirit Space – stuff we talked about on Sunday 22 October 2000.
These notes are going to those who were present (Mike/Erin/Fergus/Gareth/Brenda S/Mark) and to those who had indicated they were interested (Anna/Warren M-A/Phil). Apologies if I missed anyone.
As this is my interpretation of our discussion we need to email it around a bit to make sure we end up with some agreement. So feel free to comment. ‘Reply all’ and we should keep the flow going.
It was an excellent meeting and we all left feeling quite excited about the possibilities. We plan to have a Spirit Space on November 26 and start again in February 2001.
Spirit Space: the community waiting on God and praying for one another.
*possibility of exploring an affective relationship with God without falling back on old forms.
*not wanting to repeat the style of other services.
*waiting space followed by opportunity to communicate to one another what came in the waiting.
This is communal not individual.
It is active listening, not passive.
*stations available through the service for painting, writing, journal entry etc.
*monthly on 4th Sunday. 7pm for max of 1 hour for formal part of service.
*multi sensory, e.g. incense.
*two people to organise each service: muso and curator (curates space, coordinates service flow, etc.). Want to move leadership around as much as is workable.
*safe, creative place, with a measure of predictability in its pattern.
*may invite outside speakers or contributors from time to time.
Basic Setup:
-sit in circle on floor and chairs as desire.
-Stations set up around room e.g. candles and sand tray, stones, book of prayers, pencils and paper, icon, bread and wine, request cards. Any other as determined by curator (Stations may all be in same area).
-candle lit, maybe some spots on Station/s.
Basic Running Order:
- Songs of Preparation – continuous songs with little or no intro or links. 15 minutes (Fergus offered to do this regularly).
- Liturgy of Welcome – same responsive reading used each time. Sets out what we are here for etc. (Brenda to have a go at writing this).
- Breaking of Bread and Pouring of Wine — minimal words of institution only.
(at any time through the service people may visit any of the Stations and use the materials e.g. candles, pencils, bread/wine, as part of their waiting, praying, responding…)
- Waiting Space – active listening for what God might be saying to the gathered group.
- Responses — what has God been saying?
- Transition ??
- Prayers -sit in circle.
-person desiring prayer moves forward.
-any who want to pray move around person.
-prayer need is expressed.
-prayers.
-curator leads in Prayer song to end. (O Lord Hear Our Prayer…Kyrie ??)
Cycle repeats until praying is done.
- End Bit???
- Tea/ Coffee – stay, leave, reflect.
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