I went to Love Oxford this morning. It was a kind of communal event for all the different churches in Oxford, in the city centre, and was mostly very good. It's great to be able to express unity by all meeting together, singing together, praying together, reading the Bible together, etc. The sermon was pretty good, and the meeting was done very well. My subconscious heresy-spotting apparatus didn't catch anything, which was great. Lots of prayers for the city, including for the police, council, etc.
Some of my few concerns were over who didn't join in. There wasn't any sign of the RCs or Orthodox, even though there are plenty of them around. One of the main churches hadn't cancelled their 11:30 service (I really don't know why), though quite a few folk from there, including several of the staff, were at Love Oxford.
The other thing I found difficult was how loving it was to people at Balliol College, which it was right outside (or Exeter just down the road) to make a lot of noise outside their windows at 11:30 on a Sunday morning when they might be trying to revise for exams later this week. I just pray they found the whole thing interesting / encouraging / challenging...
1 comment:
John, an RC representative was quite prominently involved in the 2006 event, and there were prayers for reconciliation of the city's confessional conflicts - including the Reformation-era martyrdoms. I remember Charlie Cleverly saying subsequently at St Aldates that he had received two letters of complaint in the week that followed - one complaining that Catholics were involved and the other that they were insufficiently involved. Don't quite know why Catholics were less prominent this year.
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