Take Your Church Outside: a how-to guide
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TAKE YOUR CHURCH OUTSIDE: A HOW-TO GUIDE
INTRODUCTION
There is no “one size fits” all to outdoor worship, no one way of approaching taking your church outside. How it looks for each worshipping community will depend on its size, its demographics, whether it is urban, rural or suburban, its church style, whether this is an occasional, recurring or permanent shift, and its tolerance for different weather conditions.
At Salal+Cedar, most of our worship is outdoors, in different places around the Lower Mainland - in an urban community garden, on a beach, by a lake, in an East Van backyard, on Burnaby Mountain, in church grounds. We have also gathered on a downtown street and in the path of the TMX pipeline. The weather can be very rainy, rarely snowy and is seldom extremely hot or cold. We are part of the Wild Church Movement, a loosely-connected community that spans continents and denominations and the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, a diocese of over 60 parishes and other faith communities across the Lower Mainland of British Columbia from the mountains of Hope and Squamish to the shores of the Salish Sea, through fertile agricultural land, forest, industrial estates, suburbs, city - the Lower Fraser Valley watershed, the homelands of Halkomelen-speaking peoples since time immemorial.
We value the opportunity that our outdoor worship gives us to be together in community in the creation, to open ourselves to awareness of God’s presence in the natural world just as we are aware of God’s presence in Scripture and Eucharist. We place ourselves in a long tradition of saints and ancestors who, in the language of the Salal+Cedar Eucharistic prayer, “spoke to cedars and listened to ravens”. We understand ourselves to be part of Creation, of the more-than-human world. And we are happy to share what we have learned with you.
REASONS TO WORSHIP OUTDOORS
Getting beyond our buildings and into the neighbourhood makes our worship more visible to the surrounding community - a sign of our openness to the world beyond our doors that can be invitational
A growing number of people live with sensitivities or neurodiversity, or caution around the return of the coronavirus, that make outdoor worship more comfortable for them
Companion animals can be included more easily than in indoor worship
ACCESSIBILITY OF OUTDOOR WORSHIP SPACE
Is it accessible for a wide range of physical abilities and ages?
Is it away from major sources of noise?
Is there room for the congregation to gather comfortably?
Is it close to a transit route and/or is there parking?
Are there washrooms for all genders?
Is there drinking water available?
Is there shade?
Is there space for children to run around, a playground?
Will you need municipal permits to meet there?
Is there shelter for rain, or will you have a plan B for being indoors if necessary?
WHAT WILL YOU NEED?
A good rule of thumb is to keep everything as simple and easy to set up as possible.
Wisdom from the Church of England (see link in Resources):
Be in the space, don't try and make it like 'normal' church. It isn't. Attentiveness to place is fundamental to outdoor worship. Worship can be shorter, more informal and more inclusive.
For the liturgy (supposing it is a Eucharist)
Altar (could be a portable table, a rock, a tree stump …)
Bread, wine, water
Simple linens, plate and cup
For the congregation
Lawn chairs, rugs to sit on
Suitable clothing, maybe sunscreen
Communications
A portable sound system if the group is large (but not so loud as to be intrusive, and being mindful of neighbours)
Bulletin/hymnbooks - if thought to be essential (especially if the group is sizeable)
Music - possibilities
Paperless music (see link in Resources)
Other a capella singing, simple accompaniment by portable instruments
It is important to choose music that won’t “get lost” in open spaces
Additional pages of this resource can be accessed in the PDF version.