Sue and Andy Kalbfleisch travelled to the UK in September 2009 to explore fresh expressions of church, and are liveblogging their travels here.
We attended this workshop sponsored by the Diocese of Ely presented by Rev’d Maggi Dawn and Rev’d David Male (see previous post). The workshop dealt primarily with the Eucharist and how to introduce it into a Fresh Expression environment. Generally speaking this is done after the Fresh Expression has developed relationships and community amongst its members. Depending on the frequency of meetings this could take up to three years. The Eucharist, while maintaining the shape of traditional (inherited) worship, would be explored in new and different ways that maintain the traditional meaning and story but are contextualized for the culture around which the Fresh Expression is formed.
After a period of teaching and conversation, the 40 workshop participants (50% lay – 50% clergy) broke into groups to create a service that included a three-part Confession, the Word, Intercessions, Eucharist and the Blessing/Sending out. At the end all the elements came together for a very powerful Eucharist. We used many participatory elements; flip charts and markers, individually coming to the front to sign the confession, acting out the Gospel and visual images during our intercessions. As we shared the bread and wine with one another we spoke the words “Become part of the Story”.
