We meet at 9-30am for refreshments, read and reflect on scripture, using the Lectionary reading for that Sunday, and listen to or sing some songs. Sometimes we look at the Old Testament reading and wonder at how Jesus might have explained it to his disciples. This can be a challenge. Somebody will start a discussion after a short message.

We sit and pray with and for each other after this and conclude with the Lord’s prayer, Our Father…

On a Wednesday evening at 8pm we meet for a short time of quiet prayer. People are welcome to come earlier from 7pm for a brew and a bowl of soup.

Above all we try to welcome and include all who join us.

You might just decide the refreshments are enough.

That’s OK, leave when you are ready.

The chapel at Brewers End was founded in 1808 and rebuilt in 1902.The worshippers were dissenters or Non-Conformists who called themselves Independent, that is not Anglicans. As Congregationalists the chapel practised every member suffrage and independence from any church authority outside the local congregation. They were distinguished from Baptists in that they baptised babies. In Takeley they had a very social gospel building a Recreational Hall with a billiard room above the stable. The back room of the chapel was a reading room. In the gardens there were also cottages for those who needed them.

So what are we to do in 2025? We maintain the Congregational distinctive but have no minister being more a gathering of friends, imagine. This gathering is dispersed with members living outside the village. Attendance is very small with a larger community of people who rarely attend.

As an inspiration we might look to Dietrich Bonhoffer who was killed in the second World War by the Nazis, imprisoned for his opposition to the regime and involvement in a failed assassination attempt on Hitler. He wrote letters from prison and started to talk about religionless Christianity, imagine. Before that he wrote a book called Together where he said, The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. This is the drive, to love God, love one another and be active for the poor as a community. We don’t need to dream up perfect church services for this but we do need a community, imagine.

To conclude, Bonhoffer didn’t step back from the truth and in his letters from prison he wrote this thought which might be a thought for our day:

“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice…. Against stupidity we are defenceless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed – in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.”

Hopefully this is the level of conversation and engagement with Jesus we might have in these troubling times. Pop in for a brew!

Image attribution: By Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1987-074-16 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5483382