Of course the life of the community is more than just its ‘official’ gatherings, nevertheless here are the ways we gather publicly. As has been the case with most churches over the past year we have been meeting on Zoom doing our best to approach these services with our unique hOME style, lots of screen sharing and music sharing with a little help from a washing line. We are now able to meet in person at St Alban’s church in East Oxford, usually at 5pm, however for our meditative service we meet at 8pm.
Sundays
We gather at 5pm on Sunday (once a cycle we have the meditative gathering at the later time of 8pm) for our services at St Alban’s. Our Sunday gatherings focus on a cycle theme – currently we are looking at the theme of ‘Joy – How do you live in this world with the thousands of ways it can break your heart and have Joy?’. Each gathering in a cycle is a little different. There’s a meditative gathering, a guest speaker, a discussion based service, an ‘open-source’ service (where people bring contributions), a creative service, and another service with a speaker from within the Home community. Each cycle ends with a fallow week where we don’t meet together. This is a way of building rest in to the rhythm of the church and let our thoughts on each cycle sit before we embark on a new one.
Expect some prayers, chants, songs (sung or listened to), readings, and other creative rituals. Communion has always been an important part of our weekly gatherings. We are pleased that we can now resume this weekly, in person and COVID-19 secure.
The Sunday gathering lasts around an hour and a quarter.
Please check our social media for up to date service information. Our community is quite small and as a result our services can be subject to change.
https://www.facebook.com/homeoxford/
https://www.instagram.com/homeoxford/
Community brunch
Community and hospitality are very important to us and now we are allowed to gather together outside we have begun our brunches again.
These have always been a good way of getting to know each other and getting more involved in the Home community. The brunches are open to any who would like to come. Ask on a Sunday or send us a message if you would like to know when are where they will be happening, but they usually happen on the morning of the meditative gathering.