From the cupboard (my church office) Shhhhhhhhh,
DON’T TELL THEM WHERE WE ARE!
I had a recent conversation
about the church building which
resulted in the person I was
speaking to saying
‘Well St Oswald’s is hidden in
plain sight isn’t it’
After raising my brow in shock, I
realised that I completely
understood what the person
meant.
The church building is in a
geographical place that isn’t
expected by passers-by; Slightly
on the corner, slightly up the hill,
bound by an iron railing, and a
has a driveway leading to no
obvious entrance. The entrance to the drive is often blocked by cars, which,
when I ask the driver to move away they respond with ‘Sorry I didn’t realise it
was an entrance’ and then ‘O’ I didn’t see the church’.
So, not only is St Oswald’s a ‘Pisky’ church; sometimes called the English
church!! (how annoying is that?), we are it seems under a cloak of invisibility
- Well the description fits with my ‘Harry Potter’ like church office – the
cupboard under the stairs.
How did the invisibility happen? Why did it happen? Was it something to do
with the people out with the building or the people inside; Has it been an
intentional hideaway, or a slow erasing of our profile from the surrounding
area? I am slowly beginning to uncover our history and trying to find some
answers. Finding out about our history links in with our 86th anniversary of
dedication this year. The building displays the date on the end wall, 1931
built before the war but during extremely hard times. These were times when
God often gave the only comfort in life, times when people were open to
prayer and discipleship. Also, times when the sectarian nature of the west of
Scotland was still strongly in control.
There was hardly ever any mission plan with other denominations, each
church kept its own ways and woe betide any priest who stepped into
another’s territory.
Thank goodness it isn’t like that these days. ALL the churches welcome an
open and joint approach to mission, we priest/ministers realise that God has
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