Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2009/January 2010 | Page 27

INTERVIEW
their three Victorian churches can be used to

to the cross,” which is a far cry from the cutesy

embrace the whole community. St Catherine’s

image of the baby Jesus on Christmas cards.

– currently undergoing refurbishment – has a

But this just excites Graham all the more: “God

coffee shop, a book shop, a Traid Craft outlet,

makes himself so vulnerable that straightaway

and it has become a major venue for classical

we can identify with him. A young woman

music.

with nowhere to stay searches the streets of

“The danger for Anglicans, and this is my

Bethlehem,” he says. “These people we read

frustration, is that we fall into the trap of those

about in the scriptures are ordinary people like

familiar words: ‘As it was in the beginning is

you and me trying to make sense of all the

now and ever shall be, amen.’ That’s not about

God-stuff going on around them. “

vision. People without vision perish.”
So he and his team have created a ‘café-style

Just then the phone rings and while we
talk over the message being left on the

church.’ On Saturday evenings young people

answerphone Graham suddenly catches the

gather for Venue 2. “They eat doughnuts and

words ‘pub lunch’. “I think I’d better call

drink fizzy drinks and play their genre of music

back!” he says.

– it’s very loud!”
While not undermining traditional-style

Graham gets cross that he and his colleagues
sometimes get taken for granted. “The doctor

church – and Graham describes himself as

couldn’t do his job without the people that

‘middle of the road’ in terms of worship style –

clean the wards. We’d be in a total mess

such projects are opening doors to new people.

without the dustman, doing their work. As

“That’s what I love about my beloved Church

for the clergy, at times they are amongst that

of England,” he say 2