Bowling alone versus bowling in company, new ways of being church .......

The frost has lain heavily on the ground these past few mornings.The chickens lift their feet gingerly as they step out of the coop and the bird table is heavily oversubscribed.

But walking to Church on Sunday Morning felt very good.

The only issue that I have is dealing with the instruction which I received over fifty years ago at Theological College that before approaching the Altar I should shave and polish my shoes.

Shaving is not difficult despite the controversial Gillette advert, but as I use an electric razor for my shaven headed look, shaving is quick and easy.

But the Vicarage drive has something of an unmade road about it and in the rainy season feet will be wet, in the snow feet will be cold and, in the summer feet will be dusty.

So a complicated but essential Plan B is in preparation but not yet quite implemented but will probably involve shoe cleaning materials in the Vestry or at least a pair of clean shoes standing in readiness to slip on in order to approach the Altar.

To quote a number of recent campaigns aimed at halting the overall decline in church attendance there are now a number of new expressions, new ways of being church and church plants and it seems to me that what I have found here in Snods Edge is at the least a new way of being church.

On our very first visit to sniff out the lay of the land we were welcomed and made to feel at home, we received a welcome pack and invited for coffee after the service, so effective was this outreach and mission that we both observed that even if the 'House for Duty' didn't work out that this was a church that we would wish to be part of.

This sense was reinforced by further contacts over time when we visited the church for the Arts Festival or the Beer Festival all of which were well attended and well run by church members.

These observations have been reinforced over time.

Robert Putnam wrote a book called Bowling Alone, the book was very well reviewed and received. In the research that Putnam conducted in preparation as he wrote the book which, as he is an American sociologist, was based on the American experience however his observations were sufficiently well founded to apply to the UK as well as the USA.

Any vist to a bowling alley will be a sensory experience, the music, the hot dogs, the clatter of the bowls and the pin mechanism make it a lively place to socialise. I have played 10 pin bowls at work events with colleagues but mainly my experience has been family parties often grand children's birthdays.

Putnam reflects on the experience from an American perspective and then goes on to comment that bowling as a social activity is on the decline. In the book however bowling is the metaphor as various commentators have observed. What Putnam is analysing is the way in which American, and by implication of course especially in these post referendum/pre brexit times the UK, has lost its 'social glue' by which society cohered.

We have become a society of strangers without social bonds other than facebook and Instagram. A recent conversation with friends about the way in which social media and the hand held computer that goes everywhere with you, aka the smartphone is reducing not just social interaction but individuals interaction with the built environment, beautiful scenery whilst on holiday and the enjoyment of eating and socialising with friends as food is photographed and the photo's circulated whilst the conversation around the table is almost non-existent.

The social glue that appears to bind people in this community and in this church are the social bonds that exist between the congregation and the wider community.

Exemplified for me by the two afternoons that I have spent bowling, but not a la Putnam 'alone' but with members of both the church and wider communities.

I have occasionally over the years ministered via whist drive, youth club and British Bulldog, the local Club and the pub, but carpet bowling is a first.

But 'Bowling Alone' it is not .

It is another aspect of the 'conviviality' that binds communities together, builds relationships and effects social bonding.

I can see that not only will I need special shoes set to one side  in order to approach the Altar but I will have to dig into the back of my cupboard for my Converse Sneakers in order to keep bowling in company!

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