This year’s ReSource weekends have been quite amazing. If you’ve never been on ReSource book in for March or keep an eye out for next year’s weekends. The concept is so simple – visit a location and hear stories from people involved in mission locally, have a bit of teaching around that and some great food and conversation to think so what? to connect it back to your own context.
We had not been to Kingston as a location before. Whilst Kingston is fairly well to do all of the stories we heard were from people working with those at the margins – a food bank, a group for single teenage Mums, the Well – a community for those connecting around the fringes of the YMCA, men and kids project, youth on estates, and spiritual seekers. It’s always the way in cities that wealth and poverty are close neighbours. One of the things I came away with was the emphasis on ‘not judging’. It was amazing how many times a couple, Wendy and Martin, who open their home for single Mums and have a small community going a bit like an extended family, said that the key is that ‘we don’t judge ’em’. The backdrop of course is that they own experience and of many others when they come to church especially if they don’t think they fit the culture is that they feel judged. The Well also embodied this environment of non judging.
On the Saturday we took part in a Spirit of Life fair in the Market House with massage, meditations and card readings – Jesus deck and Ruach cards. It was good to see this in the market place though it was bitterly cold so I suspect it will be a lot busier if it’s run in a warmer season. Andrea who is a pioneer on the CMS course hosted the weekend. There is a set of photos from the weekend here on the CMS flickr pages.