The Sanctuary

I found a community called The Sanctuary that meets in the Methodist Central Hall -- right across the road from Westminster Abbey, actually -- on Thursdays, which was our good fortune. The Methodist Central Hall is this massive domed structure, built in 1912, quite obviously to demonstrate to the Church of England that they weren't the only show in town.


The Sanctuary, though, is a group of mostly 20s and 30s that meet in the chapel of this building.

When we go there, we were welcomed by a young lady called Matilda and a young man called James. There was tea, coffee and light snacks. Jonathan Green, the pastor, wasn't there tonight because his wife Felicity was going into labour with their first child. But James filled us in on the origins of The Sanctuary.

Jonathan came to work with the congregation that meets at the Central Hall, with responsibility for youth and young adults. He started The Sanctuary a few years ago with, I'm told, Felicity and one other person. Today, there's a community of over 100 young adults who come and go, with an average of 30 showing up each week for worship. This night I counted 25 including us.

The worship was not what you'd call experimental. We sang some standard worship songs -- Blessed Be Your Name, As the Deer -- with a grand piano and flute accompaniment. Jonathan didn't know till the last minute that he wasn't going to be there, so a member of the community read his sermon, which was part of a series on rest and recreation. It was really thoughtful, starting with a reference to Abraham Joshua Heschel's work on the Sabbath. The point was that as Christians we need to develop the spiritual discipline of rest and leisure, and learn to see our "holidays" as "holy days."

There was some good discussion afterwards about the challenge of living a balanced life of work, rest and prayer in our culture. Many young people come to The Sanctuary directly from work where they are immersed in the frantic pace of central London.

As I said, there was absolutely nothing glitzy or gimmicky about the gathering, but we came away with a feeling of authentic community.

One interesting feature of The Sanctuary is that there are about 25 people who participate in leadership -- music, setting up, hospitality, Power Point, praying, preaching. Every time someone does something, they are given points. Ordinarily, you would think this was some kind of competition to see who could accumulate the most. In fact, it's just the opposite. When you get to 6 points, you have to take a break from leading for at least a week.

This was quite a contrast to evensong at Westminster Abbey, but another fascinating expression of church in the heart of the city.