we have a new group that’s meeting for the first time in a couple of weeks. it’s the initiative of a colleague who works in a management role in our community services unit, who asked me whether we could start something for people (like her) who are really interested in exploring ‘something’ christian, but won’t walk into a church (you wouldn’t believe how many times i’ve heard that comment!). i said that all we needed was to find a few likeminded people to hang out with… she came back that afternoon and said that she already had eight…

she’d emailed through her contacts, quite randomly, and invited people who she thought had some kind of ‘spiritual’ inkling. she sent them a paragraph of an article i’ve written for The Age newspaper this weekend, and said that she wanted a community to explore faith like this with, and maybe they did too. they all emailed back and said yes – though most of them also said that they had no idea why they were saying yes! this is an all female group – most of them have had negative experiences with the church, they largely work in not-for-profit organisations, and are in senior or management positions. they want to change the world. maybe they’re looking for faith that is serious about that too.

we’re meeting for the first time just before Pentecost, over dinner at the moroccan soup bar. i have no idea how this will go… though i was just thinking that we might begin the conversation with this.