We’re a small church, gathering in various ways every Sunday and throughout the week. As a church we try to practice a diverse and generous orthodoxy, making space for everyone to show up as themselves, with their own questions, ideas, revelation, and doubts-this is of course how Jesus meets and loves us all, just as we are-that’s how his transforming, resurrection power works. As a community we try to have a holistic practice of engagement with the world, and particularly our little corner of it, Luton. Over many years it has meant commitment to and having an impact on this locality: being involved in teaching, politics, starting charities, community bodies, settling down, having families, loving neighbours. All with a heart to see justice and prosperity, God’s shalom, come to the town. And we have found ourselves always trying to resist stamping our name, a brand, on the many things we do.
In 2006 six friends moved from Cambridge to Luton to start a church. Others joined, some staying, some passing through, all bringing the gift of themselves to this growing community. When we arrived, we were bursting with youthful enthusiasm, eager to see the hand of God everywhere. We believed passionately in the possibilities of Jesus’ love bringing redemption in the here and now. Since then, we have suffered more together, knowing loss, broken relationships, lives of loved ones cut short without the kind of healing we hoped for. By God’s mercy, this deepening sense of the injustice in the world has brought with it a greater appreciation for the awe and wonder that God is, that God loves us, that God is good. Over the years we have found the spiritual life of our church deeply enriched by the Ignatian tradition of contemplative prayer through our friendship with members of the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church. There are many other wonderful influences on our theology and practice, and even more out there just waiting for us to find God in them.
