Last Wednesday our church hosted something new.  A community living room – or “lounge”.  This is an idea from the Greening Wingrove project, providing space for people to simply meet and talk.  These community sitting rooms are going to be held in different venues at different times, but with the same purpose. We had balloons, knitting, a guitar (just the one and out of tune), a laptop (with internet), coffee, fruit, samosas, music and a whole array of other stuff for people to use while they chatted.

We didn’t have many takers – but it’s early days – and those who came enjoyed just sitting and talking about anything that came to mind.  Subjects ranged from world problems to knitting patterns – it was fun and stimulating and I really hope it takes off.

Building community isn’t easy, we chatted about this while we were knitting squares for who knows what – trying to find some kind of “focus”, even a temporary one, that might bring people together – not necessarily always agreeing with each other, but at least facing in the same direction.  We all went away with a resolve to meet again soon (this Saturday at the bike garden) and hopefully come up with some more ideas.  Well done to Johurun, Abi and Alice from Greening Wingrove, who put so much effort into everything they do!