Words I had barked at me as I entered a church with the specific intention of attending said service. With this clarified, it was followed by a number of rules regarding what I can or can’t do. ‘You can’t sit there. Don’t take photos. Leave quietly if you want to leave halfway through.’ No ‘Hello’, or ‘Welcome’, or ‘How are you? It’s lovely to meet you, my name’s…, can I help with anything?’
Entering any community for the first time makes you very aware of the quality of its welcome. And I think this is especially true in churches: how we welcome people who may be walking into the church for the first time in a long time, with all sorts of baggage, doubts, and fears, is our first and potentially only opportunity to preach the gospel not necessarily through what we say, but certainly through how we say it.
Last week, I was warmly welcomed into a religious community nestled in the shadow of the Alps in northern Italy. What impressed me most about their welcome was the generosity, the kindness, the attentiveness, the warmth. This community of brothers and sisters in Christ did not see welcoming guests as an optional extra or burden but as a love-fuelled duty. It is embedded in the rule of life of the Bose Community: hospitality is not an incidental service: it is a ministry you fulfil in Christ’s name on behalf of the world.
We are the church of the ever-open door, our reputation precedes us as a home for all, where an inclusive welcome is assured. Today, I want to thank our stewards, staff, volunteers, and congregation who have followed God’s call to welcome the stranger, and by offering a warm and kind welcome to others, are preaching the gospel in the simplest and most beautiful way.
Jolley Gosnold
‘You have built the community, and you build it each day… Try to make the community a sign, keep watch over its authenticity and do not let it become a dull, colourless institution. Let one thing alone be your concern: seeking God’s Kingdom by living according to the Gospel in the community to which you have been called.’
– The Rule of the Monastic Community of Bose
