UNDER SECTION 121(2) OF THE CHARITIES ACT 2011

WE, the Trustees of Westminster College Cambridge (registered charity no 311449), HEREBY GIVE NOTICE of our intention to dispose of the charity land and property situated at Westminster College, Madingley Rd, Cambridge CB3 0AA as described below:

1. Properties known as the ground floor rooms numbered 3, 4 and 5 in the East Wing of Westminster College Madingley Rd Cambridge CB3 0AA by way of a lease of 25 years to The Henry Martyn Trust

WE invite any representations about these proposals to be sent in writing to:

The Bursar
Westminster College
Madingley Rd
Cambridge, CB3 0AA

to be received no later than 18 September 2026.

Any representations received after that date shall not be considered.

For and on behalf of the Trustees of Westminster College Cambridge
Stephen Forber Bursar
18 August 2026

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Lord, do you choke as the smoke turns the sky dark and smothers the sun? Do you feel the heat that rises in waves from soil baked hard as rock? Do you see the leaves igniting? Do you hear seeds popping and explode as generations yet to be die? Does the fierce wind blow at your command in judgement and disgust at our carelessness? Do you hate what we are making of Eden?

Dear God, you have given us over to the havoc of a world that burns. The horrors and losses hem us in. We are caught and fearful like the badgers sensing a glowing disaster they cannot outrun. The horizon is red. Clouds rise in a wall ascending.

Creator, are you also destroyer?

So much lost; centuries undone in days. Such precious cargo…

Woodland and Heathland and Dartford Warblers and Night Jars and Red Deer and Ant Lions and Meadow Pipits and Red-Footed Falcons and Skylarks and Stonechats and Whitethroats and Grayling Butterflies and Norfolk Hawker Dragonflies and Rabbits and Beauty and Work and Treasure and Hope and…

We sit in the silence after the storm; walk amidst the ruins of so many lives, smell the smoke that still rises from a blistered ground, see ash floating like snow, know that death has visited. We can record the loss. Can we ever calculate the cost?

Do not close your eyes and ears, Lord.

In your mercy, help us.

Teach us of more.

Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed. Your compassion never fails. New each morning is your love. Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return. Renew our days.

* Towards the end of July and on into the start of August, wild fires raged ����ɫ��ҹ more than 350 acres of Dunwich Heath on the Suffolk coast, destroying one of the only remaining areas of such habitat in the UK, the only place in which some rare species have flourished.

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Much resonated: smaller and aging congregations of deep faithfulness increasingly stretched by demands of compliance; worries about too few ministers; an ending for a beloved institution (Fulneck School in West Yorkshire, opened in 1753); seeking financial stability; re-imaging structures and staffing; renewing commitments to outreach. We have so much in common. There was a deep desire to journey together with ecumenical partners, like us, wrestling with such comparable agendas. The ����ɫ��ҹ shares in four local congregations with Moravians.

I was a little stunned to be welcomed as coming from a big Church; a new experience! As of 2025 there were 28 British Moravian congregations, with a total of 919 members. Each congregation was represented at the Synod, which meets every two years. We all had our names at our places and a seating plan showing who everyone was. This felt to be a very real family gathering, with everyone addressed as “Sister” or “Brother,” including their two bishops.

But that Fulnek date tells a story. The Moravians are the oldest in the Protestant family. John Hus, professor in Prague, challenged Roman Catholicism. He was burned for heresy on 6 July, 1415. His followers regrouped and, by 1457, established the Unitas Fratrum (the Unity of the Brethren): the Moravian Church. That’s 60 years before Martin Luther’s first public acts of reform! By 1517 they numbered 200,000 with over 400 parishes ����ɫ��ҹ Bohemia and Moravia.

Brutal persecutions followed. In 1722 many found sanctuary on the lands of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf in Saxony. Moravians created the community of Herrnhut and, from here, established settlements ����ɫ��ҹ the world. It was while worshipping at the Moravian church in Fetter Lane, London, that John Wesley felt his heart “strangely warmed” and thus began the journey that would give rise to Methodism. Today, there are over one million Moravians, mostly in eastern Africa, the Caribbean, Honduras, Nicaragua and South Africa.

Fulneck was established as a Moravian settlement after Zinzendorf visited the area in 1743; deep roots indeed.

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On 31 January 2026 I took part in a service which was long expected but still seemed to rush up in the final week. The closing service of the church in which I was member, Elder and Church Secretary – Trinity ����ɫ��ҹ in Lincoln.

In some ways it was not a sad event – we were able celebrate the years of the life and work of our church with 130 members, friends and family of the church; to reminisce, to catch up with people who had travelled to be with us. It was though, the end of a chapter. A chapter that left questions and “what ifs”. When I heard people talking about the thriving clubs there used to be, how important it had been to get to the Christmas Eve service early if you wanted a seat, how they used to come to junior church when they were young it led to the question of why had things changed? Each church that closes has its own story. For us, it was partly younger generations moving away and all the members living at a distance from a city centre church whose only close housing is a gated community. We remained a friendly, welcoming church and older people who came to us would stay and become members, but we recognised some time ago that we had the problem that in the commercial world is known as succession planning. A capable and engaged membership and eldership were growing older and weary, not able to give as much energy to the church, not able to pick up tasks that others had done before them, feeling guilty about it and longing to come to church simply for worship.

The Elders started carrying out risk assessments during Covid and included financial and age-related matters. Those were the areas that continued to stay in red on our assessment. We gave much prayerful consideration to our future, took matters to the Church Meeting which also considered our future prayerfully and had the help and guidance of our Synod Transitional Minister. We reluctantly came to the conclusion that an orderly closure now, while we still had the resources and capability of doing so was the best course.

A great fear that our members had was the loss of contact with each other. While a good many of us are joining the Local Ecumenical Partnership in Lincoln – St Columba’s – a United Reformed, Methodist and Anglican partnership who are well known to us, and good friends, others will worship in the churches in the villages where they live. We will no longer have the weekly, or more, time to catch up with each other and that connection cannot and should not be lost. We still feel a pastoral responsibility for each other no matter where we worship. Monthly meetings have been arranged, and people will be able to meet each other with fresh news of their new churches and of the new chapters in their worship journey. As Trinity has come to an end the seeds have been scattered around Lincoln, and Lincolnshire, and we will still have much to offer the in service of the Lord.

Catriona Wheeler

Catriona is the current ����ɫ��ҹ General Assembly Moderator (2025-2026). Read more on the General Assembly Moderator’s Blog.

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A difficult question – I had only recently purchased a new bible and had spent some time choosing a translation I liked in a format which I felt would be easiest for reading during services. The bible I chose then was a New International Version, which has the bonus of beautiful illustrations by Hannah Dunnett.

As part of the Stepwise course I had prepared an Excel sheet with various pages setting out my resources. One of the tabs listed quite a number of translations. Should I choose yet another so I could better compare texts, or should I request another commentary?

Bible journalling

I drifted round the internet looking for inspiration and discovered the world of bible journalling. I have heard of journalling before – for those who have not come ����ɫ��ҹ it, it is more than merely keeping a diary. Many of those who journal illustrate their notes, or create beautiful books in which to keep a record. Some will write or keep copies of poems or words of inspiration. I had not however come ����ɫ��ҹ bible journalling. I discovered that this is used as a way of studying and reflecting on bible passages or themes. Those who are artistic may add illustrations in the margins – they may be abstract, pictures or swirls expressing their emotions. Coloured highlighters and pens can be used for notes drawing on reflections on the passage, cross referencing to other passages. Each journaller will mark up their bible as best suits them.

I would admit that I am terrible at keeping a diary. As a teenager I probably had good intentions every January. By the time I reached my twenties I had long given up the thought of being so disciplined. My only real attempts at a diary in past years has been as part of the Stepwise Faith Filled Worship course. If I had not been told to keep a journal for that course I would have been unlikely to have done so. I did find it a useful way of reflecting on what I had learnt during the course and a time for directed spiritual thought.

Savour the year

The idea of a journalling bible appealed. When I became Moderator Elect, one message from a previous Moderator was to savour the year. I look forward to it as a way of meeting more people in the wider church, but I also look forward to it as a way of seeing God at work in the ����ɫ��ҹ and beyond. I decided that a journalling bible might be a way of focussing my reflections during the course of the year and requested one as the bible to be given me at General Assembly. It is designed for writing in – wide margins and a good quality paper. I have armed myself with a multitude of coloured fine nibbed pens, pastel highlighters and sticky tabs. I am definitely not of an artistic persuasion, so I do not expect my bible to become a thing of beauty with delicate illustrations and bold calligraphy highlighting my notes. What I have done so far is highlight the passages used in the services at the end of General Assembly, at my more recent commissioning service as a Synod Recognised Worship Leader and from a recent set of lectionary readings. I have made notes of what was said with cross references to the other passages and some of my own thoughts. I expect to use this as one of my tools when preparing for services during the course of this year. I hope to look back in a year’s time and see a bible thick with notes (which I trust will still make sense to me) that will become a resource for the future and a reminder of the year’s encounters.

I will be interested as I meet people from around the ����ɫ��ҹ to learn how many others do bible journalling and how they go about it.

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Gwen, a maths teacher, was the first woman to serve as Chairman of the Council of the CCEW and went on to serve as the first Chairman of the ����ɫ��ҹ’s Church Life Committee. She later served on the ����ɫ��ҹ’s Vocations Committee, Assessment Panel, Treasurership Committee, the ����ɫ��ҹ Trust, as a Governor of the Milton Mount Foundation and the on Congregational Memorial Hall Trust.

Gwen was married to Richard (aka Dick) who was Moderator of the ����ɫ��ҹ General Assembly from 1976-1977. Richard also served as a Moderator for 13 years, first in the London Province of CCEW and then in the Thames North Province of ����ɫ��ҹ (Provinces are now called Synods by the ����ɫ��ҹ). He died in 1990.

The Revd Dr John P Bradbury, General Secretary if the ����ɫ��ҹ, said: “Gwen Hall was a pioneering lay leader in the United Reformed Church (����ɫ��ҹ) and a passionate advocate for women’s equality in church life.

“Gwen played a central role in the formation of the ����ɫ��ҹ and was instrumental in naming the ����ɫ��ҹ. She was widely respected for her clarity, warmth, and ability to lead with grace and strength. She was committed to equality, challenging traditional roles for women in the church and championing educational and governance roles for laypeople.

“Her legacy is one of courageous leadership, inclusiveness, and deep service to church and community.”

The Revd Prof Stephen Orchard, former Principal at Westminster College Cambridge and Moderator of the ����ɫ��ҹ General Assembly, said: “I first knew Gwen when I was a student in Cambridge. She was relatively newly married to Dick Hall, minister at Emmanuel Church, who had been widowed with a young daughter, Sylvia.

“She was trained at ����ɫ��ҹrton, where Dick was a governor. Gwen was also a teacher. She was very hospitable to students and I remember the pleasure of having Sunday lunch with the Halls. They also entertained my parents when Linda and I were married in Cambridge by Dick, who was on the point of going to be Moderator of the London Province of the Congregational Church.

“The Congregational Church decided to elect a President for each year, rather than a Chairman, and to appoint a Chairman for a three-year term.

“The first holder was Sir Harold Banwell, a distinguished local government figure, so it was a pleasant surprise to we younger people when Gwen was appointed to succeed him. She had all the necessary firmness to chair meetings without being bossy.

“Her long life meant that when I was Moderator of the General Assembly, she was leading the procession of dignitaries, protesting that she was not intending to do it for ever!

“I recall travelling back from a meeting at Windermere and sitting in a foursome on the train with Gwen, Rosalind Goodfellow and Betty Onions. As the conversation went on I realised what a powerful trio they were in terms of their connections and their ambitions for the Church.

“They had a particular take on feminism, which meant embracing terms like ‘chairman’ for themselves, rather than looking for alternatives. Language, while important, was a secondary consideration to giving women the same organisational power as men.

“Giving an address at an event at Westminster, long before I became Principal, I recall making the point that the Church would not be the better for ordaining everything that moved, a pardonable exaggeration of the then agenda. Gwen made a point of agreeing with me afterwards. She was a lay woman who felt no need for further recognition in her service for the Church.

“I will remember Gwen as a woman with great clarity of mind. and drive combined with personal warmth.”

The Revd Michael Hodgson, Minister of St Andrew’s ����ɫ��ҹ, Walton, and Weybridge, said: “I met Gwen a few times, but she is also someone I know from her reputation.

“Gwen was Chair of the CCEW at the time of the union to form the ����ɫ��ҹ with the PCE. Perhaps one of the significant points is that she was a woman in a key role in a major denomination in the late 60’s/early 70’s.

“Gwen is another person in the story of the recognition of women as being able to do more than, in her words, arrange flowers and bake cakes for church teas!

“I was nearly 13 when the ����ɫ��ҹ came into being and although I remember some of the discussions, I was at public school with compulsory chapel at school every Sunday.

“There were heated debates in Congregational meetings about the union, with people like Elsie Chamberlain (the Congregational minister and radio broadcaster, 1910-1991), and Margaret Benn, Viscountess Stansgate, (mother of Labour politician Tony Benn), being robustly and vociferously against the union and subsequently being key forces in the establishment of the Congregational Federation.

“I suspect that Gwen, as Chairman had some extremely difficult discussions to chair if plans were to be kept on track. Those discussions were sometimes very heated and bitter.

“I know that people like Roger Tomes, Michael Hubbard, Charles Haigh and Stanley Russell always spoke well of Gwen and respected her contribution to the formation of the ����ɫ��ҹ.

“My congregation’s memories were of Gwen and her late husband Dick at Surrey Congregational Youth Council weekend conferences.”

In 2022, Gwen spoke to Steve Tomkins, Editor of Reform magazine, to mark the ����ɫ��ҹ’s 50th anniversary.

My husband Richard was the Minister of Emmanuel Congregational Church, Cambridge, in 1969, and I’d been doing things with the women and students in the church. There had been pressure within Congregationalism to make women realise that they were equal members of the Church, that women’s meetings were responsible for more than making the tea and doing the flowers.

We set up some educational meetings that involved getting around a bit. Then when Mrs Rider Smith, the woman member of the union committee, retired, John Huxtable asked me if I would be willing to take her place. It was, of course, a great honour to be involved in that.

A lot of the work of the committee was about clarification. The Presbyterians didn’t understand church meetings and Congregationalists didn’t understand eldership. But a good deal of the hard work of ironing out misunderstandings had gone on before I joined.

One of the big things we did while I was on the committee was decide on the name for the new Church. That took a bit of time, but we chose it because of the close link with the Reformation and because of its being the first union between two British Churches since the Reformation. In 1972, parliament had to be involved. We arrived at 10 o’clock at night, in the gallery, with a whole host of people from local churches.

There was a feeling of excitement when we held the two annual assemblies on the same day in May to take the final decision, Presbyterian in Newcastle and Congregational in Westminster Chapel, where I was in the chair. (I believe I was the first and last female Chair of the Congregational Church.)

“The telephone message eventually came from Newcastle to say that Presbyterians were in favour”. As it was, we got our result first, so John Huxtable and I retreated to the hotel for a rest. The telephone message eventually came from Newcastle to say that Presbyterians were in favour, as we had been, so delegates were recalled. It was quite a moment of delight.

I remember the day of the union in October 1972 very, very vividly, but the details are a bit dim. Most of my colleagues are now no longer with us. But certainly Methodist Central Hall was packed to the roof with people for what I suppose was the first joint meeting. It was a real occasion. We had the service of thanksgiving in the afternoon at Westminster Abbey where they rang their bells, which was very nice.

Afterwards, I returned to my previous job of teaching mathematics. Two United Reformed Church provinces in the north of England asked me if I’d be willing to be nominated as the Moderator of General Assembly, but it was very hard to get back into the profession once you left at that time, so I went back to teaching. My husband became Moderator in 1976.

Now I’m, 95, which I never expected to be, and I’m sorry that I can’t get to church, but I do have many very happy memories.

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“I will, and all these things I profess and promise in the power of the Holy Spirit.”

With this induction affirmation, followed by promises by members of the General Assembly and prayers, Catriona Wheeler was inducted as the Moderator of the General Assembly 2025-2026, during an act of worship at the close of the 2025 General Assembly. The service was led by the new Moderator’s Chaplain, the Revd Jane Wade, Minister of Abington Avenue ����ɫ��ҹ and the Northampton Area Churches Partnership. Jane also serves as Deputy Moderator of the East Midlands Synod.

The Revd Geoffrey Clarke, Moderator of the East Midlands Synod, gave the charge during the Induction of Catriona.

Called beyond comfort

The sermon reminded the Assembly of its dissenting roots, the weight of empty nets and the grace that calls us beyond comfort.

The members of your East Midlands Synod family are delighted in your appointment and will seek to pray for you and encourage you in this important role, Geoffrey began. He used a trio of striking biblical images: a furnace, a fishing boat, and a charcoal fire.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, standing before the threat of death, chose the costly act of dissent. Their refusal to kneel evoked the DNA of a church born from dissent: ministers ejected in 1662, voices raised in assemblies, Synods and church meetings throughout history. God’s presence was not outside the furnace, but within it. “Even in the furnace,” Geoffrey said, “God is with us.”

To the Sea of Tiberias, where disciples returned from a night of fishing with nothing to show. Nets once full are now empty. Or congregations once bustling now flicker with fragility. Yet on that same shore, the call comes to cast the net anew. “We need to be humble enough to discern the voice of the One who urges us to throw our nets in another direction.” He invited a different courage.

At the charcoal fire, Peter meets the risen Christ. Here is the mercy that follows denial, the confidence that follows collapse.

A member’s words at a Church Meeting stood as a parable: “If we call this minister the church will change, and it will not be as I’d prefer it to be. That is precisely why I will be voting for the call.” Someone yielding to God’s disruptive call.

The charge concluded with what is reported to be Francis Drake’s invocation to be disturbed: “When our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little; disturb us, Lord.” It was an appeal not for reassurance but for disruption.

God is with us

To the Moderator, and to the whole Assembly, the message is simple and searching. God is with us, in defiant faith that refuses to bow. God is with us, when the nets are empty, calling us in new directions. God is with us, offering forgiveness and commissioning us anew.

The whole Church is invited to a faith that resists, reorients, and follows, even, and especially, when the way is unknown.

As part of the service, the Assembly read the Statement concerning the Nature, Faith and Order of the ����ɫ��ҹ.

Inducting Catriona, the outgoing Moderator, the Revd Tim Meadows, declared: “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and representing the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church I declare Catriona to be inducted as Moderator of General Assembly. May you continue to walk in the way of Christ, following in his footsteps.”

Catriona signed the Bible of the General Assembly and was welcomed by the Assembly with warm applause.

About Catriona

Catriona Wheeler was elected as Moderator at the 2023 meeting of the General Assembly and will chair its November 2025 and July 2026 meetings.

Catriona was educated at Teesdale School, Barnard Castle, and read law at Birmingham University. An Elder and Church Secretary of Trinity United Reformed Church, Lincoln, Catriona has been the Legal Advisor to the East Midlands Synod of the ����ɫ��ҹ since 1997, works as solicitor practising in the areas of commercial property, corporate law and charity law, and is a Notary Public.

Her late grandfather and late mother were both ����ɫ��ҹ Elders, as are both of her brothers.

Catriona conducts acts of worship and is authorised to preside at the Sacraments and is a Stepwise student. Catriona has held membership in churches ����ɫ��ҹ three synods, Northern, Yorkshire and East Midlands and serves as a director of East Midlands Synod Trust and Chair of the United Reformed Church Trust.

Her hobbies include gentle cycling, with the objective of seeing places, choral singing with the Lincoln Choral society; K-dramas (Korean dramas), BTS (a South Korean band), knitting and crochet.

In its nomination, East Midlands Synod said that it was delighted to make this nomination, “having benefitted from Catriona’s wisdom and clarity of thought in meetings and discussions on many occasions and in different situations. Her ability to crystalise the thinking of the room and her pastoral sensitivity to all aspects of an issue are among her great strengths.”

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The day after our arrival we popped over the wall for a daytrip to East Berlin. For those of you not as old as me, essentially this meant that we had arrived in East Germany just in time to catch the aftershocks caused by the massacre at Tiananmen Square.

This trip had a profound effect on me – it was a real culture shock. So many images, and feelings are indelibly etched on my psyche. So much so that as I’m talking to you about it today, 35 years later, I can still see it like a movie in my mind. Some things were odd. The plain brick walls, buildings with no adverts on them at all, making red brick feel grey. Some things were funny. The Lada cars so scarce that there was a running gag that, before you put your newborn’s name down to register them for school, you registered them for a car. It’d take that long for one to arrive for them. And some things were unsettling. At a time before camera phones and selfie sticks, there were the cameras on every roof, at every junction – we’ve let privacy go without much thought with the advent of mobiles – still, then, it felt like a particularly ominous intrusion.

But I’m getting carried away…this isn’t a reflection about that trip. There are many things I could talk about if that was the topic. But it isn’t. This is a reflection about space. Real and imagined, ancient and new, temporary tabernacles and permanent buildings. Safe space. Welcoming space. God’s space. Church.

I wonder what comes to your mind when you look at this image?

Given the reading from Amos, you may be thinking ‘tabernacle or booth of David’.

Or, given our context, this year’s theme of Resurrection for Tim’s tenure as Moderator, your mind may be drawn to ‘tent revival’.

Or you may, like me, have just glanced at this picture with nothing particular in your head and just thought – ‘circus’.

There are some key elements to be found in all of those possibilities. There are performances, and participants observe and play roles. Most importantly, all involve the creation of a clearly demarcated area, that exists in the material world and is designated by the physical boundaries of canvas and pole, but that is actually designed to enable those enclosed within its embrace to access something transcendent.

Having a discrete area where you can go to connect with God in some way is the origin of church. For the Israelites their skene was an earthly place for interacting with God. Highly portable, it consisted of a fenced off area that contained an altar for sacrifices and, of course, the Holy of Holies, the secluded area housing the Ark of the Covenant, separated from the general congregation by a veil, and only entered by the High Priest, once a year. From here we can trace a throughline from tabernacle to Temple to synagogue to church.

Like churches, theatres can also trace their origins back to tabernacles – both are connected to the Greek word for tent or tabernacle – skene.
This meeting of religion and performance is nothing new – they’ve walked through the ages, holding hands, like mardy siblings, coming together at key moments in history and then periodically squabbling over which one is the most useful, the prettiest, the most welcoming…

As you will all know, theatre’s origin story in the UK derives directly from the Catholic church’s desire to communicate Biblical stories to congregations only able to access the Latin mass in church. Conversely, Shakespeare’s Richard III, one of our best theatrical villains, has his origins in portrayals of Herod in Medieval Mystery Cycles. And today? Well, like churches, many theatres are now under existential threat.

The booth of David is in ruins…

As Rupert Shortt suggests in his recent book, The Eclipse of Christianity, in this country at least – we are living through a recession of a profoundly Christian nature.

Elsewhere, where Christians are being heard the loudest, they represent a very different form of the faith than our own. Substituting dogmatism for dogma, they present an image of Christianity armoured in certainty; its boundaries asserted loudly, angrily, intolerantly. The Christian of popular culture is viewed as, at best, irrelevant, and at worst, as an Evolution-denying, human rights oppressing bigot, whose hierarchical worldview remains grounded in Bronze Age fantasy stories. Like Paul and Barnabas in Iconium, truly it could be said that we live in unkind times, where short form video content and online echo chambers have led us to a place where our tolerance levels for uncertainty have never been lower.

And that leads us to tighten ourselves culturally and religiously. To become more dogmatic, more authoritarian, expressing views with unfounded confidence and certainty, loudly and quickly, before anyone spots the enormous, fearful elephant in the room…

And so, it is this authoritarian cultural turn that leads me back to East Berlin. 5th June 1989, just a few short months before the Berlin Wall is pulled down. The East German state is in its death throes and its enforcers, the Stasi, are much more dangerous as a consequence.

And there, in the midst of all of this, is a space. It exists in the real world and in the imagined. Kirche. Church.

During our initial meeting with the church community in East Berlin, one of the ministers apologised because he had to leave us. He had to go to his church to speak to some people who were gathering there to protest against the events that had occurred in Tiananmen Square. The minister had to warn them that the police were intending to use water cannon on them, should they take to the streets. But, he told us, they would be safe in church.

Talking to the church’s youth group afterwards, they talked of church as a place where they could be themselves, where they could dissent and express themselves freely. Because of that, they had chosen church freely, refusing to sign up to the Communist Party as required, a decision they were told would be to their own detriment.

They were proud of their church as a space that could offer the consolation that came from the acknowledgement of the difficulties of their lives as they experienced it. They could trust the church because it was a place of safety. They felt it offered hope in spite of those difficulties – or maybe because of them. Church for them offered a space for reflection to everyone and anyone in that complicated, authoritarian, angry, scary world.

And what’s that got to do with circuses, I hear you cry?

Students of Greek will amongst you will know that the word that speaks to both theatre and church origins is skene – tent.

Reading Amos and Acts, I was reflecting on how we can go about creating a social sacred space, for today’s Iconium? What should our newly raised booth look like?

And this led me to the reflect on the idea of a Circus of Faith…

Less a building, more a metaphor, I wonder if we should join the circus…

A circus consists of a diverse company of performers – jugglers, trapeze artists, clowns, magicians, hoopers, trained animals. Each offering themselves, their ‘act’ as they are. Each act gets its own space and is celebrated for its difference.

The Circus Tent is a space that contains a multivocal, multitalented collection of people, in safety and enjoyment, seeking transcendence.

What could be more church-like than that?

Links to information about Kirchentag:

The with details of this year’s Kirchentag in Hannover

(don’t worry if you don’t speak German, you’ll be offered a translation into English as you access the site)

The

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The idea behind the game is that you get into twos, you propose an idea, it can be something simple: ‘Let’s ski down the Alps…’ and your partner yes ‘Yes and then we can…’ and then says the first thing that comes into their head. No planning, no filter. It can be anything as long as it is the first thing that has come into their head. Each time an action is described: ‘Let’s ski down the Alps’ the two partners also act out the action physically with full commitment. The longer you play the game, the weirder and more wonderfully outrageous the ideas become. If you do this with the group, the room gets loud and very busy very quickly.

When you run this exercise with a new group, what usually happens is they try to think their way through the exercise. To intellectualise themselves out of the problem to save face. They make every effort to come up with the cleverest idea. They plan in the minutest detail…

If ever there was a sentence that signals the death knell of an improvisation in Drama it’s, “I know, you say [this] and I’ll say [that] – it’ll be great!” It’s never great. It’s stilted, usually a bit banal and ultimately the absolute antithesis of creativity and originality. Crucially it demonstrates that the participant hasn’t understood the point of the game.

The point of “Yes And…” isn’t to consciously create a brilliant idea. It’s not to be funny or clever. It’s not to be the coolest person in the room. It’s not to avoid embarrassment or humiliation. The point of “ Yes And…” is to learn how to accept the offer given to you and to use that offer to launch yourself into… well… the unknown… To learn to trust that the idea will come, despite the interference of the intellect. And in doing so, to create a brilliant idea.

One of the most misunderstood elements of the creative process is its beginning. It’s assumed that artists sit around their studio – or walk, or pace moodily – planning and generating ideas, thinking their way through. And that there’s a trick to it that you can learn and improve so that, once you’ve been an artist for a long time, you can go in and CREATE. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Sure, if you want to paint an orange, well, have at it. The orange is there, away you go, but really that’s a technical exercise. Your orange may be wonderfully different from everyone else’s but still life isn’t a new idea. Nor is painting the still life of an orange. It’s a reinterpretation of an old one. No problem with that – it’s just not what I’m talking about here.

“Yes And…” for an actor, then, is the equivalent of a blank page for a writer. Terrifying! As soon as you introduce this exercise to a group not familiar with it, the levels of anxiety go through the roof. How will I know what to say? What will everyone think of me? What if my idea is rubbish? What if I die? For clarification, dying onstage is to do something embarrassingly badly – we don’t actually sacrifice them. It’s that tumbleweed moment that sees the performer left vulnerable and exposed in front of an audience. It’s the theatrical equivalent of the nightmare where you dream you’ve woken up on a platform, not knowing why you’re there, then realising you’re in charge of leading worship and you’ve forgotten your trousers…who says actors are dramatic!

So, how do you avoid this death by humiliation?

The solution is easy, actually. You commit to the physical action utterly and completely in the moment, trusting that the answer will come. And it does. Every time. Bigger, better, weirder, more original than it could ever have been if you’d planned it. It forces you to think outside your usual patterns. It forces you to come up with something completely new and never previously imagined. It forces you to create…

Because that’s the thing often misunderstood about creativity. It’s finger-nail chewing, anxiety-inducing, scream at a noise in the dark in a haunted house at Halloween terrifying! So you do plan. But when you plan, you don’t plan for the inspiration, the artefact, the concept for the painting, the idea for the play script, the sculpture, rather you try to create the perfect environment then you open yourself up, and wait. And in doing so, you are trusting that something, as yet unknowable, will appear.

If it doesn’t…well, now you know why we’re all so darn temperamental!

So an experienced artist is not so much practised at consciously coming up with ideas. Instead they are well-practised at living with ambiguity, uncertainty, with not knowing. With experience, they learn to control their response to anxiety. They don’t lose the fear, but they learn to manage it so that it doesn’t interfere with their process. They learn to walk off the cliff trusting that something, anything, will catch them on the way down. And, if it doesn’t, then everything gets smashed and destroyed when it hits the ground. And they rise and start again. From scratch. From somewhere new.

So, my question for you to ponder this fine morning is: do you believe in resurrection? Do you trust the process?

I could talk about our scripture reading this morning in terms of this being Christ’s first miracle. We could debate whether we believe it happened as described here. I could talk about it as being the moment Jesus reveals himself to his disciples or it representing the fulfilment of the passage from Amos we heard on Monday…

But I think it’s simpler than that. Mundane even. This story is about a son having a good time with his mates at a wedding until his Mum comes in and tells him its time for him to get to work. Jesus replies: “My hour has not yet come!” Jesus knows that taking this step – performing this miracle – will force him to step off the cliff, to begin a process he can’t come back from…

You can almost picture Mary rolling her eyes as, ignoring him, she turns to the servants and instructs them to do what Jesus tells them to do. She knows Jesus is comfortable, enjoying the company of his friends, doing the busy-work, maybe, but not quite fully committing to the process. Yet. So she gives him a nudge.

And when God gives us a nudge, the “Yes and…” well that’s our job. Because, when we’re nudged, our task is to jump into the playing area with both feet, fully committed, with an open heart and a sense of joy, secure in the knowledge that we are loved and cared for, that God has a plan and that the time is right because he says it is.

Anything after “Yes and…” well that’s God’s bit and it’s bound to be better than anything we could come up with!

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The next webinar, An Evening with Trey Hall, is at 7pm on Wednesday 7 May.

Trey is the Director of Evangelism and Growth at the Methodist Church and will be helping us to grapple with the question: Faith Talk and Church Growth: How does prayer make a difference? Come and join us for a relaxed conversation praying and talking about our faith with others.

Please email mission@urc.org.uk for the link.

Save the date for the next webinar, on Tuesday 23 September at 7pm.

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