Worship at the Manor
The Feast of Pentecost is one of the three great festivals of Christianity, along with Christmas and Easter. That's what we stubbornly claim in the United Church, although it would be interesting to hear how many of our members would respond if asked to name the three. And over the years cottage.camp season expanded from July and August to early May through Thanksgiving so Pentecost worship was often something of a remnant congregation when it landed on this, the Victoria Day weekend.
The story of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is powerful and unconventional and deserves our attention as the birth of the church of Jesus Christ. But what can we say in a year when most congregations in this province and much of the country will choose to observe the law and keep their doors closed because of the pandemic?
I liked a lengthy story I just read in The Walrus magazine about a small congregation which meets in a seedy club in Guelph, Ontario: Welcome to the Manor: Church by Day, Strip Club by Night -- Saturday nights are for dancing, but Sunday mornings are for Jesus. Jack and Sharon, the couple who pastor the eclectic flock are loving, welcoming evangelical Christians who are non-judgmental about who shows up for worship and they are kind and communicative with those who work at the club. They've developed a mutually respectful relationship with the Jewish owner whose adjacent motel houses some of the lost and lonely of the city. That began when a Roman Catholic nun asked him about accommodation for some of her outreach clients. This ministry is dependent on support from another larger congregation and it could end at any time. Yet this is Christ's church for this place and time.
Who knows how some congregations will emerge from the pandemic and how the winds of the Holy Spirit will blow? Son Isaac, pastor at Trenton United (our congregation) commented that this Guelph faith community is reminiscent of the St. Jean congregation which he attended as a student for the ministry in Montreal. They were in a church building alongside a strip club with an outreach program run out of the basement. It too was quirky yet had it's own vitality.
What new Pentecostal moments will sweep through our conventions about being Christ's church? God only knows, but let's be open and ready.
https://thewalrus.ca/welcome-to-the-manor-church-by-day-strip-club-by-night/
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