Often I do not do well in crowds that bustle and elbow and well... so tonight we headed down for 5pm to Otago farmer's Market at the old railway station - a special one tonight before Christmas. (Usually it runs Saturdays) Boy was it busy, squeezed along the platform and wonderful smells of sausage and onion.... not good when you are hungry. Met some folks we knew, bumped into others we didn't. Was struck by the lack of grumpiness in most. Long lines for Waimate Strawberries, flowers and veggies galore, kid's playing carols on recorder, northumbrian pipes also and there were even drummers and 2 belly dancers!(representative of the magi from the east?) and lots more. A fun atmosphere and BUSY for Dunedin.
My wife was amazed as we headed home when I said that I really enjoyed the fun of the crowd and stalls... it made a change from trying to negotiate Union Street in Aberdeen, Scotland and worse Mark's & Spencer's! I did hear a Scottish accent say that this reminder her of Scotland. As a Scot I knew what she meant, but then again it really wasn't !( Billy Connolly was right!!) This crowded space of the marketplace. So often the church has used that phrase for being in the world where people are. I wonder more and more about that image and it's relevance for some cities, however, being where people are is also where we live our daily lives too and so we need to challenge the distinctions that creep into our terms of reference and language of 'mission'. Our dislocation perhaps lends itself to such. This was a contrast to the "waiting space provided last week, but I personally feel that therein is the key, that our waiting space for quiet and still reflection was to be catalytic in our service among the crowded places of our daily living.
One challeneg for us on Highgate is not to set in place a 'come to us' approach, rather to find ways to be good neighbours in the crowded places... even perhaps to see if we can get a stall at the market perhaps?
