mayBe began in 2004 as part of the Church of England's Fresh Expressions project. Led by founder and "abbot" Ian Adams and just a handful of others, it set off to do something new (see the spirit of maybe in our back story, below).
In 2004 we were mostly adults with one baby. Ten years on and there's almost more kids than adults and when the funding dried up several years ago we lost our abbot. We are used to adapting and over the years we have been a lot of things to a lot of different people. Happily we've made a lot of friends in the process. Everyone who joins us changes us; we are who we are and we try to be honest about this with little pretense.
We have always met in borrowed and public spaces, parks, cafés and pubs. We say the outdoors is our cathedral. We love the Greenbelt festival and have been contributors there for many years.
We've continued to keep links with (and to challenge) the Anglican church but are members are broader/more ecumenical than one tradition. Everyone is welcome.
why is the community called mayBe?
When questioned on names being used about him, Jesus once replied "Who do you say I am?". It's fair to say that there are as many responses to this as there are members of the community. Rather than attempt a single word perfect description, here's what various community members said:
"I think to me the name mayBe means being open to possibilities it's not cut and dried with everything set in stone, but a space to explore and discover, to journey in openness and then having my eyes opened in a deeper way to what this (Christian) life might be about." - Andrea
"Indecision about what is right and true but a commitment to exploring. Also space to be" - Tom
"Maybe god's a woman. Maybe god's a man. Maybe god's a girl, maybe a boy. Maybe god was born a million years ago. Maybe god was born yesterday" - Annabelle
"mayBe God is like an infinite flower and each of us is a petal? - and instead of having my flower trampled and holes picked, the community embraces my idea and encourages my spiritual life to grow" - Jim
"It's about hopeful possibility, about what may be. It's about accepting each other; we each may be, just for who we are, each loved by God just the same. It's about looking for the kingdom coming that maybe out there and maybe being missed." - Rich
"?" - You?
and now?
Have a look at the what we do page for more of an intro to how we do our thing, what's going on, what we've done recently. We'd love to meet you, so please do get in touch (contact details on homepage).