For Johnsonville Anglicans, lockdown has been a catalytic moment of change. “We realised we had to ask ourselves the question, What does God want to bring out of this experience? Because we know that church will never be the same again.” Rev. Ben Johnson-Frow says that this time has lead them into new creativity, and fresh discoveries of what is most important about being a local faith community. 

The congregation of St John’s have been learning how to be family and disciples in this new reality, making use of the Bishop’s Sunday livestream as a springboard for small group life together during the week. 

“At 10am on Sundays we all pile into the dio livestream. It’s great to feel part of something bigger at a time where life can feel very small.” Afterwards, they have tried to replicate their usual practice of having a cup of tea together after the service through a beautiful but chaotic zoom meeting. After this, they break into smaller groups of 5 or 6 to reflect on the service and checkin on each other. 

Rev. Ben Johnson-Frow says they are loving finding new layers of being church, from the big moments on Sunday to the families who are climbing into bed together each morning with their kids to do prayers. “A lot of our families are developing new ways of following Jesus together.” 

Many of the St John’s family have also joined house churches, which meet once-weekly online to do bible studies or follow the lenten devotional. Ben says it can be easy to wonder when things will go back to normal, but that he thinks this has brought about a transformation in their community which they’d never want to go back from. “We’ve loved being able to be house churches and to draw closer together in small groups and that’s something we’ll want to carry with us long after lockdown.”