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Church as Hostel
The early medieval Church had two styles of church clash in Britain in the 7th century. The Celtic Church was decentralized and often very inclusive of "pagan" elements of the larger culture and was predominant on the British Isles until 597 CE. That was the year the Roman Catholic Church, with its strong central control and rigid orthodoxy, launched a mission to extend the reach of the Roman Church across the Isles.
In some ways, it was a battle for the future of the Church - and largely Rome won the battle before it even began... such is the power of strong central governments and the lure of orthodoxy. That story is for a church history class... but what I want to borrow from it is this: when that battle was won, the Cathedral replaced the hostel as the model of the church, and that was a HUGE loss for those who follow in the way of Jesus. Celtic churches were more like a hiker's bed and breakfast than our modern understanding. They were waystations of hospitality along the journey, offering respite to those on the road.
You see... they were an eye in the hurricane!
Cathedrals are monuments. They inspire awe. They force reverence. But they also can become like a walled fortress - a MIGHTY fortress - and become about who is in and out (the game of orthodoxy) rather than incarnate a ministry of healing and care. I love the return of a model to a more organic and permeable community as the model of the church. The challenge? We are a place that exists for everyone, but not everyone helps support our existence. We try very hard to keep the doors unlocked and open for all here every day. Anyone can charge devices, drink our coffee, use our climate-controlled comfort. And we do not - rightly, to my mind - ask anything of those folks. But who then maintains the hostel? We do. You do. And in this day and age where everything is expensive, where we like to encounter only people who think and act like ourselves, and where we like to think of everything as a contractual relationship with the exchange of goods and services... the church is different. The Church is CALLED to be different. We are called to provide space, service, and hospitality for everyone.
And I'm poignantly aware that the only way we can do that? The only way we can live into this calling to be a place and people of respite for all who wish to enter here. Is through your generosity. Through our generosity. Generosity of spirit. Of energy. Of resources.
So call this my thank you... that your generosity has allowed us to be one place that is reclaiming the ancient way of an open door, a free roof, and warm meal.
That is what we steward as we seek to be an "Eye in the Hurricane."
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