I sometimes wonder, as a member of a very small congregation with a picturesque but chilly building in which to worship, what it must be like to belong to a city church. A church, say, on a busy main road at the heart of a city in the Central Belt, a city with a cosmopolitan population and a university or two. I have never belonged to such a church, my arrival as a Christian corresponding with my arrival in the sticks.On Monday evening I was invited to join the Lent study group in a church with which I do have a strong connection, St Michael and All Saints', Edinburgh. I am used to groups of between five and seven, I suppose, and we can't meet in the church as we'd be hypothermic within half an hour; we meet in the Rectory. So here was the first difference: we met in the side chapel and the church was warm. There was a faint suggestion of incense in the air. But there wasn't a huge crowd - I'd say nine, of whom two were clergy. So I felt very much at home, and enjoyed myself immensely.
So: is it the case that there will always be a small core of people in any church who will turn out to learn and to examine - to think not only about scripture but about their response to it? Or are there indeed congregations which swarm in great numbers to extracurricular activities? I'm talking Scotland here - the USA is quite another kettle of Pisces. (Pun)
Responses welcome - that is not a rhetorical question!
