Tim Abbott

A really big conversation

 On Monday night we held our annual CYO Open Evening for supporters and others. The main focus of the evening was a "really big conversation" following the World Cafe Model.

Our aim was to enable people from around Colchester to engage in a conversation about four key issues:

• Connecting the whole gospel with the whole school
• Connecting churches, young people and youth leaders
• Colchester - becoming a disciple making town
• Connecting people with the life and work of CYO

The main area of the church building we were using had been set up with small tables covered with paper, each surrounded by six chairs. As people arrived they were greeted and served tea / coffee and nice cakey things and encouraged to sit at a table. After a brief introduction and explanation of the evening from Amy and me, people went to whichever table corresponded to the issue they were interested in and started chatting. People were encouraged to write ideas or draw diagrams and sketches on the paper. After about ten minutes we did a short interview with someone who had been impacted by our work and then got people to move around and get into a second conversation.

After another interview and another round of conversations we gave everyone ten minutes to mill around and take in what had been discussed over another coffee before inviting people to feedback any key thoughts. Everyone was then encouraged to write a few summary ideas in response to four questions.

Between 70 and 80 people came and joined in and it was wonderful to experience the passion and enthusiasm of so many - the breadth and creativity of their contributions was inspiring. The evening was not intended to provide a list of the top three things CYO should be doing, but was about mission to young people being at the heart of the church in Colchester. All of the ideas, questions and suggestions will therefore be published and made available to the whole town.

The evening concluded with prayer for the young people and the schools of Colchester and with a time of worship, committing ourselves to God's plans for our town.

The evening exceeded our hopes for the level of engagement of the people who came and for the obvious committment to mission from such a wide representation of churches. This is the first time we've done the World Cafe thing, but I highly recommend it as a way of really involving supporters in the quetions that shape our ministries.

Colchester Street Pastors on BBC East

Colchester Street Pastors were featured recently on a BBC East feature about the impact of recession. It includes a snippet of an interview with Alison Finch, who is Colchester Town Centre Chaplain and part of the local Street Pastors group.
I managed to avoid the camera, except for a walk on part at the beginning outside the now closed Woolworths and Zavvi stores!

Sanctum in the Sixth Form College

Since we got back from the Christmas holidays life in CYO-land has been dominated by preparations for another week of Sanctum, our prayer room for students, this time in Colchester Sixth Form College.

The college are really enthusiastic about it and have given us a wonderful drama studio/classroom to use. Planning for a week in a sixth form college has given us the welcome opportunity to develop new material for this older age group and we're still in the process of writing, designing, recording and producing as well as buying stuff. It feels a bit like doing it all for the first time again, which has to be a good thing. As before, I'll blog about the week as it unfolds.

Saint Helena, and a wedding anniversary

Today is the feast day of Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, who, on becoming Emperor, declared Rome a Christian city. Saint Helena is the patron saint of Colchester, so we marked the day with a morning communion service at the site of what is believed to be the earliest church building in Britain (320AD). After 1600 years, the church site is now bordered by a new police station and a roundabout.
Leaders from over 30 churches gathered in the morning sunshine, and we worshipped, prayed and shared bread and wine against a background of traffic noise and the siren of a police car weaving through rush hour traffic.
I'm glad to be a part of these things, but I sometimes wonder what they say to the watching world, especially in such a public place with people walking past on their way into town, police coming and going and drivers and passengers catching a glance on their way past.
Later I learned that when staff came to collect a man from the cells to take him to court they found him in tears. The sound of worship songs being sung outside had profoundly moved him and brought back past memories.

Diana and I were there partly because it seemed like an appropriately odd way to start the day of our 25th wedding anniversary! We spent the evening at a fabulous restaurant with friends and one of our sons, Dan, who paid the great sacrifice of missing the Man U / Chelsea Champions League match, though at the end of the meal he and a couple of friends popped into a local pub to watch the end of the match in extra time - he's a Man U supporter, so a good result.

Easter - Good Friday

It's been an amazing day!

Mid-day was the annual Good Friday outdoor service in Colchester town centre. By helpful co-incidence, River Island is having a refit which meant there was a big plywood backdrop to which was nailed two banners - one of the crucifixion, one of the resurrection. As part of the service people were encouraged to pin prayers to the board. There was a moment of unplanned significance as a new nail was hammered in to restrain one of the banners during the singing of "When I survey the wondrous cross". Suddenly the words, "See from his head, his hands, his feet; sorrow and love flow mingled down" seemed remarkably real.

Later in the evening I was at the Highwoods Youth Cafe where about 20 young people spent some time taking in a prayer room themed around the passion of Christ. The church there had been running a prayer room open to the community during the day and the regular Friday youth cafe gave us another opportunity to share the experience of prayer with them.

Finally, it was Street Pastors tonight. Although it was rather wet and windy and very cold the streets were busy and so were we. We prayed that people would feel welcomed, and almost immediately met a woman who said she'd just moved to the town and was amazed how welcomed she felt - and even more so after meeting us. We prayed with a couple that the taxi they'd booked over an hour ago would turn up, and it did the moment we finished praying. We chatted with a lady who wanted to give up smoking, and prayed for her too. And we helped a man with a cut hand who had been assaulted by someone with a Stanley (box cutter) knife. All in all a useful night and it's good to know the church is welcomed so warmly on the streets. Bed by 4am.

Arthur Blessitt in Colchester

    Arthur Blessitt in Colchester, originally uploaded by timabbott.

               

Since 1969 Arthur Blessitt has carried a 12' cross into every nation on earth. As you can imagine, he's got some remarkable stories to tell.

He was in Colchester over the weekend courtesy of Kingsland Church and spoke at the Charter Hall twice on Sunday. An amazing man, bold for Christ and gentle with people. Stories that speak of the activity of God more than the achievements of the man. He's not showing any signs of slowing down!

More on Arthur here

More photos on Flickr

Fairtrade fashion show

    Fairtrade fashion show, originally uploaded by timabbott.

             

  On Saturday I was at the 2nd annual Colchester Fair Trade Fashion Show. Among the many models were the members of Collective who absolutely loved showing off the wedding dresses - no surprise there!

Wedding dresses by Izzi Izaiah

More photos on Flickr

Saturday 9th

On Saturday Tom, Amy and I were at Kingsland church with about 200 others for Facing the unthinkable, a 4 hour child protection training seminar for Churches run by the Churches Child Protection Advisory Service. CYO is registered with CCPAS to keep us up to date with child protection policy and to do our CRB checks.
David and Pauline Pearson bring over 30 years experience of child protection, and it shows. What was essentially a four hour lecture on child protection could so easily have been tedious; I've heard a few people speaking on the subject who seem to have had some kind of interest bypass op. But David and Pauline are great communicators, blending essential child protection information with practical worked examples taken from real situations that they have had to face or advise upon.

In the evening Diana and I went to the Colchester Boiler Room Community feast, a meal and prayer event as part of the 24-7 Prayer tour.

Each table had a 'host' representing some aspect of prayer or ministry within the town and between each course people were encouraged to move to a different table to meet others and hear about that particular ministry focus. Some of the things that members of the local Boiler Room Community are doing include a couple currently visiting Uganda and a group going out to a Mediterranean country soon to set up the first prayer room in that country. Phil from 24-7 spoke, bringing us back to the timeless principle that effective mission flows from prayer, illustrating this with examples from around the world. A helpful reminder to us about how we fulfil the calling the mission that God has placed on our hearts.

Happy New Year

Part of my experience of the Christmas season has included a break from the internet, due partly to being away from any useful connection and partly because, well, it's nice just to break a habit every now and then. Hence no posts since 13th December, which is ages ago.
Not that there hasn't been lots going on.

We launched Street Pastors here in Colchester. I visited Innervation Trust in Manchester for a prayer day. Then spent a long weekend with my mum in Wales before returning just in time to do a Street Pastor stint on Christmas eve.

And so to the new year which I celebrated on the streets as a Street Pastor. With five evenings covered so far we've become a regular part of the nightlife of Colchester and have been warmly welcomed by the public, Police, club owners and door staff. On Monday night we were able to divert a few people away from starting fights, help a number of people who were very drunk and calm a few arguing couples. We also got to chat to loads of people, many of whom approached us, and we were able to pray with quite a few as well. I saw in the chimes of the new year on the street with another Street Pastor and a bloke from Watford with a drug problem who needed a bit of reassurance and help.

Finished about 4:30am, home by 5. The most enjoyable and satisfying new year celebration for a long time.

Street Pastors launch

On Saturday about 50 people gathered at Colchester Town Hall for the launch of Street Pastors. The 20 Street Pastors were joined by friends, prayer partners, The Mayor and senior representatives of the Police, the Borough Council and local churches.

Street Pastors is a national scheme now running in over 50 towns, cities and boroughs across the UK. The aim is simply to offer help care and a listening ear to people out on the town on a Friday night. Where it's already running there have been measurable reductions in street crime. But it's also a great way for the church to be visible in a practical and caring way to a whole bunch of people who would probably never think of going near a church. I'm looking forward to the day when our town recognises that "God is good for Colchester".

After the formal bit of the evening we persuaded the Mayor to let us have a photo on his balcony, overlooking the High Street. I'm taking the photo, balancing on a balustrade with a 30' drop behind me. Perhaps that's why some people look worried and everyone else is smiling!