I want to unpack the monastic nature of the community – could you expand on that? Both Shelley and I attend Benedictine abbeys. Shelley goes to a convent in Leicester, I go to an abbey down in Alton. We’ve used the concept and the rule of St Benedict. The church’s name St Benedict’s here after him because we like this concept of being – and our tagline is ‘apprenticeship in community – this idea of trying to foster a community of people and help them how to learn to be community together. That’s fundamentally… that idea of stability is really key. One of the things we’ve found here in Oakley Vale is that kind of monastic flavour has helped us with our willingness to just be here and be hospitable… and be open. And for whatever happens, whether it be house groups or church, whatever group – that comes from the needs of the community, not from our desire to impose a particular desire on folk. St Benedict’s isn’t the church that I would develop if I had a blank sheet of paper and I would decide about a church I would like to go to. It’s a church that is for the folk here. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy or don’t think it’s amazing. But what would float my boat specifically is not necessarily what we do here. It would be a lot of things, but there’d be differences. But that’s really important for us, the idea that it’s contextual to the place. And that monastic concept of being, praying and discerning… and developing that sense of community is really important to us. We’re part of a few new monastic networks. To be honest, both Shelley and I are from a charismatic evangelical background and on returning to the Anglican church to me, discovering the more Anglo-‐Catholic side of things… I don’t know whether you have this, but people write books: ‘I get up at four o’clock every morning and read 17 chapters’, you know, ‘and then I’ll write several sermons… that’s just my morning routine, that’s what get’s me going with God’. And you think ‘Crikey, I could never do that!’ Or you try, don’t you, and get halfway through a chapter and fall back to sleep, or you do it for three days and die off. One of the things we’ve found by agreeing to pray together and having the liturgy set – not that we don’t have extemporary prayer – but there’s something there to focus your mind on. You can just crack on. There’s something about praying the psalms that just connects you with God that in some ways feels effortless … just going through that routine it connects you with God and I think that’s something really special. I could never be that person who has a quiet time that is totally in my head every morning. I need some structure and that’s what this Benedictine office produces for us, and that’s something wonderful. In your experience of your trial so far, what is the factor that will encourage people to pray? Are people praying the liturgy and then extemporary prayer as well? I think the opportunity to have prayer requests is very important to them, that degree of interaction. From what I can gauge, the opportunity to join something that already exists is quite nice, to feel they’re being part of something seems to be something they like. Those are the key things. The opportunity to express where they are spiritually or what’s happening with them personally, but then the opportunity to join in with
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