First ordination at a fresh expression of church

A café church in Leeds has played host to what is believed to be the first ordination service within a fresh expression of church.

Michelle Briggs was ordained as a priest on Sunday in the Emmanuel Centre, a base for the chaplaincy at Leeds University.

She worked as a Senior Research Fellow in the University's School of Healthcare from 2003 and began ordination training in 2005, becoming a deacon in 2008 at Ripon Cathedral.

In April last year, Ms Briggs was licensed to be an assistant chaplain at the university, a role that involved her in the leadership team of Emmanuel Café Church, which meets on Sundays from 5pm to 6.30pm during term time.

She said, "I wanted to go where I could be with people involved in workplace ministry. The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, Rt Rev John Packer, suggested how to work out my curacy within a chaplaincy framework and Café Church has been a very enriching experience. It’s a great way to do church."

Some aspects of the ordination service were familiar while others were very different. The usual order of service was replaced by a 'menu' to guide the participation of the congregation.

The service was also streamed as a live webcast with an opportunity for the virtual ‘congregation’ to join with those at the venue via live chat on Facebook.

The University’s Anglican chaplain Matt Ward said it was exciting to have such a significant event as part of their fresh expression of church.

"Deacons in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds are ordained in the cathedral but the ordination of priests takes place in the parishes where curates are serving – so in this case, it’s Café Church!

"We have thought long and hard about how to conduct what is traditionally a formal service in a way that remains true to our Café Church style. It’s important that it’s done correctly but I also wanted us to be connected to our community’s unique culture so we basically broke down the service and put it back together again.

"It has to be accessible to quite a disparate group of people because there’ll be non-Christian friends and colleagues who will want to come along."

The live stream was also a way of connecting the special occasion with university graduates who had been members of Café Church during their studies, some for years.

The service was followed by discussions around tables in the café as well as online 'tables'.

And instead of having the litany prayers, people were able to contribute what they had been working on, including someone bringing forward their laptop and offering what the online community have come up with.

Ms Briggs even had a clerical dress made for her so that she could be slightly informal while still being able to wear the collar.

She said she was "delighted" that the service had been held within the Café Church.

"I know the term café church can certainly be stretched to cover all sorts of expressions of church but, to be honest, I’m not somebody in search of a label," she said.

"The most important thing for me is never to be a stumbling block for people to come to Christ. Jesus tore the cloth of the Temple in two and we spend a lot of time in church sewing that back up again!

"If we embraced every way that Christians show Christ’s light perhaps we wouldn’t see the need to try and do that."