When I was in Sweden one of the priests there described the church as being like a much loved pampered cat... In need of some tough love and a rediscovery of what it means to be a cat. To learn to hunt again, to learn the freedom and fear of life outside the cosy home.
This weekend in Scarborough a different picture is emerging for me of the church in this country, not a wild cat but a ferral cat, that once had a home but is now finding that life on the streets is hard, but it is also exciting.
Churches like those in Scarborough just get on with the business of being church. Like those I saw in America, there are things to do and they do it. Alley cats, they know the streets.
If they are so good at what they do, do they need renaissance and regeneration? I am still not sure but one thing I am still sure of is that if regeneration is about transforming communities, we need them.
There's a Disney film called Lady and the Tramp... in it a house dog called lady meets and falls in love with the tramp, a street dog. Learning from each other they each become the better until they produce a very large family combining the best of both. Maybe as with all Disneys it has something to say to us.
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