Five disclosures

Hospitality, inclusivity and the journey to commitment

At the warm-up meeting, the Rector had explained that there was a felt need to increase attendance, increase giving and have greater involvement in parish activities among the majority of attenders and those who understood themselves as part of the St. Mary’s community. Interestingly, he presented this as being in tension with the inclusive ethos of the church, which wanted to accept people as they are without putting any demands on them.

He felt the parish had a relatively high turnover of membership and so there were constantly new people to be incorporated into the life of the church, presenting particular challenges for the nurturing of a committed and stable core community. In this context, the Alpha course was seen as catechising people into the basics of the Christian faith and bringing them into relationship with other parish members:

Tell me about your experience on the Alpha Course?

I think the social element for me was the most important because it was a chance to actually sit down and have a meal, which most people enjoy doing, and talk in an informal way. But to be there with a purpose. It was more than just going out for drinks with friends. That was the strength of it for me.

(Interview Six, Alpha Course Organiser)

It was the number of quotes like these from the interviews that led the ARCS team to reflect upon the importance of hospitality in the Alpha course and the way in which that developed a sense of belonging for the participants. We summarised our thinking around this in one section of the feedback document, so as to share it with the St. Mary’s leadership, and enter into deeper conversation with them around the question the interviews raised regarding this theme:

Theology of Hospitality

• • The data shows friendship/welcome/social interaction as key arising themes, and highlights the much-needed theology of such practices - for example, a theology of invitation and friendship.
• • There are strong themes of hospitality, identity, being guests and hosts. Alpha includes a journey to be made from being a guest to being a host. And this is a very strong theme. The data suggests that some may be held as ‘permanent guests’ - so not necessarily committing to the parish for example.
• • How is the journey to be made from guest to host in this inclusive and mobile (changing) community? How does this link with commitment?
• • In what ways are these hospitable practices related to what we know with Jesus ministry?

At the presentation of the feedback document to the PCC meeting,⁴ the language used in the Feedback Document of movement ‘from guest to host’ was identified as bringing a new framework for discussion within the pastoral theme. It was a language of hospitality ‘all the way through’ as it were, avoiding the sense that a person moved from being welcomed to having onerous, inhospitable demands made of them. Rather, the community as characterised by hospitality could envision deeper involvement in terms of the intensifying of participation in the celebration to which all were invited. In a follow-up meeting with the Rector, this was identified as a key moment of disclosure, and described thus:

The Guest to Host language has ‘set free’ the PCC from the deadlock tensions between commitment and inclusivity, whilst still remaining rooted in scriptures (e.g., Old Testament feasting, Eucharist, heavenly banqueting and so on). This was ‘breakthrough language’.

(Notes of Follow-up Meeting with Rector)

This sense of breakthrough language was further affirmed when, in the evaluation interview of March 2010, the curate said that the image of host had been used with new members of the ministry team and found helpful.