In search of disorganised religion

29 May 2010

Theo Hobson attends Grace, an alternative Christian service in west London, and finds it arty, irreverent, postmodern — and full of people seeking a new way to worship

This sort of thing is easily mocked, and yes it’s a bit hit-and-miss, but the truth is I actually quite enjoy it. As long as it’s carefully organised and confidently presented, as this was, I am up for it. If I’m honest, I’d really rather do this than half-sing a dirgey hymn or sit frowning at a sermon, feeling all conflicted about organised religion and establishment and church schools.

Grace itself admits it’s difficult to define. ‘In some ways who we are and what we are about is best captured in telling our stories. Grace is shaped by the people in it at any given time and as such changes and moves on in response to an interplay between the ideas of the group, the Christian tradition, what we sense God is calling us to at that time, and the shifts in the culture around us.’ OK it’s waffley, but they’re reaching for something interesting, something that makes worship part of normal life. ‘We hope the changes to the life of grace will open up other possibilities for mission — evangelism locally, engaging in justice issues, in art and the media.’

Back to the service: Johnny read Luke’s parable of teenage rebellion forgiven, and then we were invited to offer brief reflections on it, beginning with the phrase ‘I wonder…’. For example: ‘I wonder what the mother thought.’ It worked well: a way of staying with the story for a bit, without being preached at. We were led in this exercise by another man, with a slightly more vicarish air than Johnny.

Then the sofas were moved back, creating a space into which we were all invited. It was a subtly effective bit of symbolism. They had put some thought into all this. Next, a little sketch in which the brothers of the parable tried to make up over the kitchen table. It was quite amusing. Then we stood in a circle for communion, administered by the more vicarish man. Trendy music pulsed and bubbled away in the background. There was a bit of liturgy that to be honest I thought could have been improved on. There was a line about how God ‘reconfigures the world’. I’m no Cranmer fetishist, as you might have gathered, but this jarred a bit.