The Rev Roddy Hamilton considers worship out with Sunday morning services.

UP until now this column has offered a few thoughts generally within the context of collective worship.

It has considered that context a traditional Sunday morning. Worship is, of course, much wider than that. We spend a great deal of time trying to shape the ‘Sunday’ worship but give less thought to the wider experiences of silent worship, or creation worship, or the spaces and places where we might encounter the holy in contexts entirely different from church buildings, either together with others or on our own.

In truth, I am less and less convinced reshaping our ‘Sunday’ experience will make one iota of a difference to the overall membership of the church. I have never known so many creative (and stressed) ministers as we are now trying to be all things to all people in the belief the next thing they try will attract a few more into the life of our congregations. It is exhausting. We could be swinging from the lights for all the difference it makes to our numbers.

Therefore, what cost to the church to invest that creativity in resources that encourage worship in other contexts? Might we invest more in leadership, materials and initiatives that offer folk spiritual direction and discernment in meeting the holy beyond the many emptying sanctuaries we have? Might we dare the Church to see itself with a far bigger responsibility in resourcing and guiding people through silence, music, art, poetry, discussion as a medium of worship, and being far from a church building?

There is a greater freedom, which might seem both frightening as well as encouraging, to be set loose from the structures of formal, gathered worship containing language that is rarely understood to those outwith that tradition. We do not need to let go what we already do. Instead of replacing what we offer, the dialogue is offering alternative resources alongside that that are able to connect those with little or, more likely, no experience of formal worship, and find a dynamic meeting place with the sacred.

What might we offer the community that keeps the integrity of the Christian faith, yet exists beyond the confines of what we do as churches in worship and outreach?

It is clear there are a lot of questions here and these will be developed here over the coming months but how might our worship grow if we learned more about reflective worship, silence, meditation, living a text in a different space, specifically listening to the world and nature, engaging with art and the practice of immersion?

“ We could be swinging from the lights for all the difference it makes to our numbers.

The bible has a number of stories of patriarchs and Saviours taking themselves off to quiet places; there are stories of prophets finding themselves in exile, beyond the centre and worshipping on the edges; Abraham and others found thin places where altars were built because they experienced God in that place; songs being sung and poetry and psalms read and practised outwith the Christian community; experiential moments like baptism, still small voices, storms and calm, all of which are moments of worship.

We almost hesitate to offer resources and guidance for such biblical examples of worship beyond the sanctuary, yet our call is to offer worship to all those in our parishes. It might refocus us in our outreach to democratise our worship in such a way.

The Rev Roddy Hamilton is minister at Bearsden: New Kilpatrick