One of their services was even televised by the BBC on a Sunday morning a few months back. I don't know how I came across it, but I sat there for the whole hour, fascinated (and trying to spot people I know, but there weren't any. Which is kind of weird in a city this size. The last time the BBC's Question Time was here, I recognised a third of the questioners.)
I think it was very good at selling inclusion, or at least the outward appearance of it. That's not something the C of E has done terribly well, historically. You would indeed need the help of God if you Sat In Somebody's Pew when I was growing up.
Shall we go sometime? I Have a Theory and I'd quite like to check it.
(I suspect the name is a pun on Peterborough's real Sunday worship: the Queensgate shopping centre.)
Sure we can go. But I warn you, the only way I can keep a straight face is by singing enthusiastically.
I've a sneaking, guilty fondness for traditional Anglican hymns, with their whiff of old hassocks, school assembly and Empire. But putting a son through Scouts has sent me to church often enough in the past few years to get an idea of the current hymnal. I remember once seeing a CD of them advertised while flicking past a God channel, and taking some convincing I hadn't happened on a spoof.
On the upside, it doesn't matter if you can't sing or don't know the tune, because it can't get any worse.
All together now...My God is an awesome God...
No new posts on the forums since last summer.
Are they still going, or have they been bought by Ikea?
They didn't have those at Trentham Parish, I can tell you.
OMG. It's gone happy clappy. Wonder if you can now choose where to sit without a detailed map. Or if it's any less embarrassing to whack the rood screen with a Girl Guide flag.
It's 172MB and takes half an hour to download.
But it's hard not to like a church that asks questions like 'What are we like' without irony. (Or question marks.)
