Lots of churches promise "A warm welcome to everyone" - but there was something special about the welcome that was offered, that was declared even, at a special service held in Otterburn on Sunday January 15th.
Some three months previously our church at Birdhopecraig had reluctantly accepted that the time had come to close. Not an easy decision for any congregation to make - and perhaps harder still when you reckon to have been one of the first, perhaps even the first, Presbyterian congregation in Northumberland. But the decision having been taken, the surviving members began to ask what they should do next.
They were assured of that warm welcome at the nearest United Reformed Church in Thropton. But Coquetdale is over the hills, and most of the Birdhopecraig people lived in and around Otterburn. So they decided that though they would transfer their church membership to Thropton, and remain members of the United Reformed Church by doing so, at the same time they would try to be more involved in the Church in their own community.
The vicar and people of St John's in Otterburn were anxious to make this as easy as possible, and asked the advice of their diocesan Ecumenical Officer, Canon Clive Price. They had already heard of Declarations of Ecumenical Welcome, which have been used in a number of places in England where a single village church has wanted to make all Christians in the community feel at home. By now the URC minister Pamela Ward and the Birdhopecraig people were in on the conversation, and rather than take some words of welcome off the shelf, they worked out together what needed to be said.
Unlike other places where declarations of welcome have been given, at Otterburn the guests as well as the hosts had something to say, as both congregations committed themselves to work together as closely as possible. And as it happens, the welcome from St John's was not given in St John's, because the church is currently undergoing refurbishment. Instead nearly fifty people gathered together in the village hall for the parish eucharist. The diocesan ecumenical officer presided, and our synod ecumenical officer preached the sermon. Each part of the congregation made their respective promises before the document was signed, and everyone shared communion as an expression of the unity that God gives to his people.
And when the service was over, everyone stayed behind to share in a magnificent lunch - measure of a truly generous hosptiality and a real warm welcome.