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Meera Atkinson A decade ago, ten people dared to dream of revitalising their local church. Their mission was to explore new ways of being the church in Melbourne’s inner suburbs, for the purpose of engaging with the community and reaching those who had little or no previous experience of the church.
They were not motivated by an evangelical calling to convert non-believers. They simply wanted to recognise and honour the faith and spirituality of the un-churched community and to allow their meetings with members of the community to reveal the nature of God. Now the Chalice Community of Faith at Northcote Uniting Church is a renaissance congregation, and a testament the spirit of change and openness both within the Uniting Church and within the community of which the church is a part. Though the former Northcote/Thornbury Parish ran a coffee shop, op shop and some markets, the Coptic Orthodox Church had been the primary occupant of the buildings for nearly 20 years. With the support of the Presbytery of Yarra Valley and funding from the Board of Mission and Resourcing, this small team of dedicated church members set out to realise their vision, with the intention to establish a worship experience outside the established, traditional mould. Rev Daryl Colless explains their philosophy. “We have a great opportunity to live the Gospel in a way that makes it accessible to many who have rejected, are suspicious of, or have no connection with the church. The church is not here to look after itself. The shift is we’re not here to be a club for people who already believe. We’re here to be an outward-looking community of faith that is constantly finding ways of relating with the wider community around it.” Northcote Chalice draws on what they call a relational model, meaning that the use of the church’s valuable facilities is based on conversations with the minister and interested people about achieving their goals and how the Chalice’s support of proposed projects fits in with its mission and vision of being church. That has meant letting go of some of the traditional aspects of church life in order to open the gates to creative partnership with the community. “One of my key images of the change in the nature of church,” says Daryl, “is that this church was built with choir stalls at the front that could seat a 100-voice choir. We’ve taken all of those out. We’ve kept the beautiful façade but we’ve pushed it right back and we’ve opened up a big area at the front of the church. So instead of having a 100-voice choir sitting up there in pews we can now put together a 100-voice choir based on all the community choirs that now consider the church to be their home.” So what exactly does go on at Chalice? An exciting, inventive, and almost exhausting array of activities with a heavy arts focus. There’s ARTiculate, a four-week art and healing festival focused on issues of Indigenous mental health; Darebin Music Feast which involves 35 concerts with 11 community choirs, eight workshops, and various local performers held over four weeks; and the Music for the Soul monthly event integrating traditional liturgical elements with concerts by various community and professional performers. There’s the labyrinth meditation walk, the Sensational Soup Soiree, and Earthsongs concerts. There’s the Rhythm of Life contemplative services which focus on eastern meditation music, Chi Guong, and one-off events such as the Pyjama Party for Peace, a 24-hour music-based fundraiser to support the work of a doctor working with remote communities in East Timor. The Chalice hosts six community choirs and a faith community every Wednesday evening for people who, having discovered the Chalice through one of the above activities, want to explore their spirituality. When people think of church, they don’t tend to think of change. They think of tradition, of Christians stuck in their ways. If anything they think of resistance to change. For Daryl and the members of Chalice, that’s exactly what they’re trying to counter. As a result of their openness to change and their efforts to create vibrant relationships, this dynamic congregation experiences an enormous sense of life and energy. It is also held in high esteem by the community it serves. As Daryl points out, though their work and relationships may be diverse, they are grounded in and inspired by a singular example. “It’s very Jesus,” says Daryl. “I look at the ministry of Jesus and it was so much about relationship with whoever the person was that he was with and his willingness to listen to their story and share with them and commune with them and eat with them and sit with them and out of that came responses of faith, transformation, and new life.”
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