Moot's Arts Cafe Church Vision – gatherings of kindness, cups of friendship
Well, at last it is looking like Moot will be launching its cafe church vision in the near future, but more of that later. People have been asking me why a cafe? and what has this to do with the arts?
I have been reading the Poetry Book ‘Flotsam‘ by Bart Wolffe, one of the talented poets that has performed in the Moot Cabarets. He is a very talented guy with an incredibly tough life as an asylum seeker. He has my greatest respect. In this book of poetry, where he explores what it is like to be homeless and with no money in London, he explores the real day to day struggle of trying to survive in the City, and brings fresh perspective to issues that we often forget about. In the middle of this he dreams about what Could be:
City of Loneliness, of loss, the scraping amidst the barony of landlords and tax collectors, rent gatherers, and supermarkets milking us of our liberty. He dreams. “The ideal world would let cafes be free for all, gatherings of kindness, cups of friendship. A church, a welcome sanctuary, a retreat, without denominations. The democracy of true meeting-places, the universities of life for exchange of thought and word in all tongues” (B Wolffe, 2009, 19).
I think Bart has richly put what we are seeking to build. A place where a church becomes public space again, with a small cafe that practices friendship and hospitality, which we hope will birth relationships, peace, kindness and facilitate expression and creativity, in the search for a common humanity and deep spirituality. We hope to start this once the detail about a place is sorted out.
So thanks Bart for putting this so well, touching the qualities we hope to shift from a dream to an actual incarnated reality, and a new home for the Moot Community. Incidentally, a way to support people like Bart is to support their work, so why not help him by buying his books here from Amazon, and here from Lulu.
Sam said:
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