At Glen , house group is split into two sessions immediately before and after lunch , totalling 2 and a half hours . The fellowship study group meets in a single hour and a half long session , on a Monday evening . The religious experiences and everyday concerns of 16 year olds can be very different from older people . Questions such as “ Is it difficult being a Christian at school ?” are not , at face-value , ones you pose to grown adults who left education several years ago . Are adults , unlike teenagers , much happier to exist “ out of this world ”?
And yet , the more I tried to re-work the materials , the more I realised how much does not change as you grow older .
Our life as Christians will always give us time to pause and reflect , and as we leave the crib and begin to journey through the liturgy towards the cross , the themes of being in the world , and out of the world take on sharper meanings . Jesus is both fully human and part of our earthly world , and also fully God , who made the entirety of heaven and the earth which we inhabit .
The questions I asked 17-year-old delegates in August 2016 have proven just as relevant to our older attendees to fellowship study group . While it may indeed be difficult to be a Christian at school , where it is decidedly uncool , it ’ s can prove just as difficult to be Christian in the workplace , where it can be seen as “ irrational ” or , heaven-forbid , old-fashioned .
And so , realising that the questions need not change , I realised that the format need to change either . The study materials we are working our way through are designed to let us pause , reflect , and pray in a variety of ways , on what it means to be in the world , and also out of the world . Being out of our comfort zone is very much a part of being a Christian , and so I ’ ve included things I would use at Glen – creative prayer through art , silent meditation on a candle-flame , short Bible passages of single verses to break apart and explore .
These are not familiar ways of working to some in our fellowship study group , but they are yielding rich fruit , and I pray they will continue to do so .
If you would like to use the study materials , please ask me for a copy . Although much of it is designed for group use , they can be easily adapted for your own individual study , and feel free to share your thoughts or questions with me on Sundays .
If you can , you are very welcome to join us .
We currently are meeting at St Aiden ’ s at 7 pm on Monday evenings .
Emily Alldritt
StOM Page 14