Fifty Acts 48. Doing Things Right.

Today saw me driving into the big city to visit yet another church that I've walked past on a number of occasions but never actually crossed the door.  So today I visited Augustine United Church which is off George IV Bridge.  It's location means that, like so many buildings in Edinburgh, there are a number of levels below that which you would actually consider to be the street level.  How many I didn't, but there's at least two that I know of, although in the middle of Edinburgh, people have been known to find basements they didn't know existed.

So like a number of my visits this year, people have said that the minister is really good, and I really have to visit.  And like all those other occasions, the minister was away that weekend.  Still, this morning's minister was very good.  The act of Communion had little details that made it all the more inclusive.  The bread was circulated on a tray with a separate dish for gluten free bread, and the elders and minister did not take until all had been served.  One of the elders left the sanctuary, and I believe this was to include the Sunday School leaders in Communion.  We were all served with wine, and then all drank together.  And the wine, like so many churches was alcohol free.  It tasted like plain grape juice, which was pleasant.  I have had an experience with commercial non-alcoholic communion wine, which was grape juice with a lot of sugar added.  Even to my sweet tooth it tasted vile, and tasted sweeter than the concentrated grape juice used for home winemaking. 

Unlike some of the churches I have visited this year, this church makes it very clear that LGBT Christians are very welcome, and very much a part of the community.  Having seen the efforts that some "christians" have went to to declare LGBT folk as unclean, I'm surprised they would want anything to do with church.  In addition, the church has facilities for the mentally ill,has good links with other churches in the area of many denominations, and is very outward looking, involved in a number of campaigns.

So far, this seems to be the church that ticks most of my boxes.  I'm aware that as an OLM, I may not have much of a choice where I'm placed and for how long, but I'd like to use this church as an example of how a church can work as a community and also with the world around it..  

In other news, the seagulls have returned from the golf course and seem quite content in the garden.