Church Hunting in London

Today we went back to a church just about four blocks from our flat, up in Westbourne Grove. It's a small Anglican (church of England) congregation, a plant of Holy Trinity Brompton, that meets in a beautiful old stone neighborhood church building complete with stained glass windows and a pipe organ. We went there last week, but as the vicar was in Boston marrying one of the church leaders to an American fiance, we realized that we hadn't gotten the full picture of the church on our first visit. So we decided to give it another try.

The church body there is quite small. Today the vicar counted 54 adults and 21 children in attendence. It's also very diverse. People from lots of different places and age groups make up the congregation and there's something really lovely about singing old hymns between a child and an elderly African woman. I also met a young woman named "Rejoice" today. What a great name!! It reminded me of the Old Testament characters whose names matched their characters and hearts. The people we've met there are very friendly. Several people came up to introduce themselves after the service and almost everything there lives within 4 or 5 blocks of the church.

The message was solid, though Eric was able to get more out of it than I could, as I spent the sermon portion of the service wrangling a squirmy almost 11-month old (there is no nursery volunteer). The music selection was good, a nice mix of hymns from my childhood, plus some worship songs that I knew and one or two new ones for us. It definitely lacked the "polish" of worship at all the other churches I've attended, but as Eric pointed out, it would be an easy area for me to jump in and serve the church! :) Their communion seemed very community-focused, social rather than solemn, with the older woman in front of us turning around to chat with Brooks. She was enchanted with him and tried to give him cough drop "candies"...

Honestly, though, I'm a bit hesitant about plugging in there. Will it ever feel like our church family if the rest of the church is as transient as we are? (According to one member, this whole area struggles with having short-term attendees actually plug in. Sound familiar, PCC friends?!) Will we be able to find a couple friend or two to pal around with in the city or even another mom for me to connect with during the week? Will we find the fellowship of a small group or the ability to use our gifts at this church? It's so small, I really don't know.

We met the vicar and his wife and had a lovely chat with each of them during the coffee/tea hour after the service. We were warmly greeted by three woman that we spoke to at length last week, particularly welcomed by one of them who remembered all three of our names. They seemed so excited to see us returning.

I guess the decision is now ours - thankfully, I believe we have found two churches where we *could* go, now it's just a question of which one to dive into. Thoughts or advice are welcomed. And please pray with us that we'd make a good decision.