|
A new Christian bookshop is born |
 |
 |
 A new Christian bookshop has opened at City United Reformed Church in Cardiff. Customers and City Church members joined church leaders across Wales in expressing their concern over the loss of a shop like SPCK, the only Christian bookshop in Wales catering to broad, mainstream ecumenical interests.
Readers of Reform might know that two years ago Britain’s oldest Christian bookseller, SPCK, turned over its chain of shops to a pair of American brothers who formed St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust to use the shops as a means of promoting the Orthodox communion here in Britain. The agenda failed to impress SPCK’s traditional customers. The religious press joined a community of bloggers in reporting staff reductions and shop closures toward the end of 2007. At the end of March SSG closed its Cardiff shop, located at City URC. In June they declared themselves bankrupt.
As City Church had originally taken in the SPCK shop fifteen years before, when they were no longer able to afford rising city centre rents, the church saw the shop as one of its mission responsibilities. The elders appointed the minister and church secretary to explore a way forward for keeping a resource like this available for the churches.
That exploration bore fruit with Churches Together Bookshop opening in late July, and on the first Saturday of September holding its “Grand Opening” celebration with a service of dedication.
Still a central mission of City Church and now more closely tied to the church than SPCK had been, the shop is nevertheless the product of the concern of church leaders across the ecumenical spectrum. In the early weeks of exploration City convened an ecumenical focus group to explore the need for such a shop and the risks involved in taking it on. The group was strongly encouraging, and it was with the endorsement of CYTÛN (Churches Together in Wales) and the enthusiasm and financial backing of the URC’s National Synod of Wales and the Church in Wales (Anglican), as well as City Church itself, that the new bookshop was born.
A spokesman from the Church in Wales described the venture as “equipping and inspiring” the churches in Wales. These words fit exactly the vision that has animated this enterprise from the very beginning. City Church certainly wasn’t interested in taking on a retail business or just opening up another bookshop. Churches Together Bookshop is a mission focused on putting new life into the churches of Wales. And with the closure of so many former SPCK shops across the country, City URC hopes other communities will catch this vision.
Tom Arthur. City URC, Cardiff
Bookshop website: www.ctbooks.org.uk
|
|
Last Updated on Wednesday, 12 November 2008 15:12 |
Latest News