I am reading (again) the biography of Rev. Alan Ecclestone by Tim Gorringe. Ecclestone's regular practice of the weekly parish meeting was seen as a revolutionary approach to parish life. It was a simple but wonderful thing that tied together the daily lives of the people of the parish with a search for a deeper understanding of faith. They would read plays together and then go and see them. International visitors would come and speak. Striking workers would come and speak. They would follow themes and dig deeply into the big issues of the day.
He saw this parish meeting as integral to the way the parish lived. It wasn't an interest group "but was the way in which the church lives". It was for all - there could be no hard and fast rule of membership as "Every baptised person is a member ..but all are in different stages of admitting it".
The parish meeting has a lot to offer the church today. Many of us are hungry for community, for a real encounter with other people and for a deeper engagement with the issues of the day and the riches of the world and its cultures. It's something I would like to develop at St Mary's West Derby.
