Creative experiments in Wymondham’s Town Green Centre
Colouring, sequence dancing, open days, film afternoons, health & well-being events, spirituality evenings, mindfulness courses and labyrinth workshops are among the varied activities that Wymondham Methodist Church has organised in its suite of halls (known as the Town Green Centre) over the last few years.
The vision has been twofold: firstly, to build relationships, and to create community, in the Centre and, secondly, to provide opportunities for spiritual experience outside the usual church ‘box’. The former has been realised through a dedicated website (www.towngreencentre.org.uk); a regular email mailing to the Town Green Centre Network; an informative leaflet that gives details of all activities in the Centre and annual Open Days that showcase the 25+ user groups. The latter aim is being realised through occasional events, workshops and other activities that enable those who do not want to come to church to access levels of their own personal growth and spirituality. The most recent initiative (running for over a year now) has been a series of Mindfulness courses, based on the book and cd ‘Mindfulness: Finding Peace in a Frantic World’ by Danny Penman and Mark Williams. Each of the four courses so far has attracted interest from the Community and around 24 people have done the course (or dipped into it) in our ‘Green Room’ which is set up specifically for Mindfulness and Meditation. The network of relationships based on the Centre has therefore been extended, a handful of people have come to church services (an unlooked for consequence!) and we have a pool of people who can be offered a ‘Mindfulness Extra’ which will see to introduce an experience of the Christian God through the medium of Mindfulness.
Other initiatives in the Town Green Centre that have sought to provoke reflection around the Christian story have included a Display of Nativities in Advent (coinciding with the Town Christmas event has brought over 400 people through our doors), a large Easter Garden (which led one lady to say that it felt as though she really was in the first Easter garden), and open days for Harvest.
The journey has involved some hard work, but has always been rewarding, with unexpected consequences often appearing! Everything has always been committed in prayer and, as a result, arrangements and resourcing have fallen into place – often in amazing ways. We give God the glory and then ask what he wants us to try next.
Jacqui Horton
2017