Last updated 16:22, Friday, 13 June 2008

A bus with stained glass windows trundling over fells and through leafy county lanes, or a housing estate semi with a spire? Both could be the new venues for singing hymns and saying prayers instead of that chilly echoing building at the end of the street.

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Canon Dr Tim Herbert: ’It is about asking big questions of what is it like to be a Christian in the 21st Century and how do we go about that?’

Such ideas spring from a groundbreaking new course at the University of Cumbria.

Its aim is to help people identify and develop new types of church to appeal more to modern society.

The one year, part-time course is being offered through the Lancashire and Cumbria Theological Partnership.

Canon Tim Herbert, based at the diocesan offices of Church House in Carlisle’s West Walls, is principal of the LCTP.

He sees the ‘Mission shaped ministry’ course as the logical next step in the 20 or so years of religious education and training that the church has provided.

So what exactly is the aim of the programme?

For Tim, the answer is simple: “It is about asking big questions of what is it like to be a Christian in the 21st Century and how do we go about that?”

The course is part of the Fresh Expressions initiative that was developed four years ago by the Church of England, Methodist Church and United Reform Church.

It is now operating in 20 centres across the country and aims to have 1,000 students by the end of this year.

Reverend Paul Dunston, Methodist Minister for Appleby is director of the course which is based at Newton Rigg, near Penrith and Lancaster.

He said the 44 students that enrolled in the pilot course in January are mostly made up of clergy but also include office workers and unskilled workers with ages ranging from a woman in her 70s, to those in their 20s.

“Some people have come to us with schemes they already have underway and now need more help and training.

“There are churches meeting in cafes and pubs, sometimes in the workplace, some are thinking of starting churches in their homes.”

Tim admits that the term ‘Fresh Expressions’ is like a new brand for the church and is similar to a makeover.

“Many times the church has had to go back and rediscover itself.

“There are two sorts of makeover projects on TV – ones that try and change you entirely where the end product is someone who is not quite who they are,

“And there are other ones where people get to look at themselves and like themselves, instead of undergoing drastic change and that has positive implications for them, their friends and their family.

“This is more like that.”

Alistair Smeaton, the United Reform Church minister for Harrington, Cockermouth and Workington, has no regrets about joining the course in January and can see it creating some big changes to the way Christianity is viewed in Cumbria.

“I have invested a lot of time and my congregation has invested a lot of money in the course and it is time and money well spent,” said the 38-year-old.

“I enrolled with an open mind and because our Workington church is to merge with our Methodist neighbour in October.

“Also because I’m interested in other ways of people gathering to be a Christian community that are really quite different to what we have been used to in past generations.

“I have been in the ministry nine years and the world has changed a lot in that time alone.

“I’m hoping for ideas and inspiration about ways of being the Church for our era.

“I have met some interesting people from around the county.

“We have come up with some very early ideas of what we might do in west Cumbria but it is still too early to say.

“I can see the course making a real difference to Cumbria.”

Fellow student, the Rev Heather Carter from Saint Michael’s in Dalston, added: “The course seemed to be the ideal way to get ideas of stopping the Church from being so deadly dull.”

Ordained in Uruguay, she worked among deaf people there and is trying to re-establish a deaf church in Cumbria.

Traditionally, there has only been an annual harvest festival service specially for the deaf but Heather, who signs, is holding a special memorial service at the end of this month and has plans for a computer-aided service.

“I joined the course because I thought it would help me to think through how to bring a fresh approach to the church.

“It has been really stimulating in the way it has guided us through reading and ways of thinking and hearing other people’s ideas and using it as a spring board.”

Tim dismissed any thoughts that the course had been suggested by the University to underline its Christian credentials and insisted that the LCTP had suggested the programme and that the course had undergone a rigorous validation process.

The University has a religious heritage inherited through St Martin’s College.

St Martin’s was founded by the Church of England as a teacher training college, and the Church had control over its ruling body.

There was unease in some quarters about the new University referring to “Christian values” in its mission statement.

The course encourages students to be creative as well as providing advice on establishing and sustaining a project.

It is open to anyone, though most students enrol through their churches.

Already courses across the country have been the launch pad for churches to be established on housing estates, one specifically for pensioners and even a mobile church on a bus.

John Libby, vicar of St James, Denton Holme, has tried to take the Bible into the bars of Botchergate.

He said: “We wanted a chaplain to clubland and took it as far as advertising for the post.

“We received several applications but did not find the right person we were looking for.

“It might be that from this course we find the person with the right ideas to take this further.”

Now he is investigating ways of making charity and opportunity shops on estates more open to those who might want to pray or explore the Christian faith but who don’t particularly want to go to church.

“They would also be open in the evening so people could meet and discuss Christian faith,” he added.

“They would be access points away from the parish church and would also provide a range of community support activities.

“People are judging Christianity as something which is more ‘Churchianity’ than Christianity.

“The Church should be open to the committed and to the curious.

“Rightly or wrongly, most of our parish churches have got the label that they are there for the committed, which is not and should not be true.”

Tim added: “There will always be a place for the Cathedral and traditional church, it is not about saying ‘you can’t be traditional, you must be modern’.

“It is about having a mixed economy, some people would like to be part of a church if it was not so formal and such a turn-off to them.”

Paul can see the new course, which will be accredited by the University in September, making a major difference to the way we look at religion in Cumbria.

“We could see small churches starting to meet in villages and hamlets in Cumbria.

“Six or eight people meeting in someone’s home or a village hall.

“As travel gets more expensive, there are practical reasons why that will happen.”

Of course, the idea of a bus with stained glass windows and a semi-detached house with a spire are taking the course ideas a step too far – but Canon Tim says (almost) anything could be considered.

“There are lots of possibilities and there is that opportunity to be creative.

“What the course is saying that the building at the end of the road is one way of being a church but not the only way.”