Café Church Celebrates their 1st Birthday

Lockdown gave a us all an opportunity to think differently about how we do church. Moving into Alert Level 2 presented even more challenges for our larger congregations about how we meet in person with the limitations that came with it. Café Church is one of the responses to that challenge, and they have just turned 1! 

With the maximum of 100 people allowed in one place, the Cathedral needed to provide spaces to fit the congregation into. It was also noted that people really enjoyed talking to each other on the lockdown Cathedral Zoom services and they didn’t want to lose that. Families also provided feedback that a more informal space would be appreciated. 

Rebecca and Richard Apperley also felt the call to serve their community in new ways focusing on being an intergenerational community, being proactive in faith formation through conversation and intentional discipleship and offering a more relaxed form of worship where the Sunday service is the place to celebrate where we have seen God at work in the week, rather than being the primary focus. 

So, the decision was made to meet in the Loaves and Fishes Hall next to the nave and hold a worship service over shared food (and Common Good coffee!). Some of the most beautiful moments in the past year have occurred when younger children have been talking with older people about where they have seen God at work, reflecting on the sermon or praying together. 

Café Church’s first birthday was celebrated with cake, and they hosted the entire Cathedral congregation afterwards for shared morning tea. As it was Ascension Sunday, they had a ‘Café Church Art Gallery’ and explored what God might be saying to us through various depictions of the Ascension in art history and learnt about the spiritual practice of ‘visio divina’. The pictures you can see are from our button prayers which Amilie Paynter led using her grandmother’s beautiful button collection.