I was recently sent an invite to join a Facebook group called 'Anglican Bloggers'.  On clicking on the group, I was struck by the logo the group uses, and wrote this piece on the discussion board:


A friend sent me an invite to this group, and I was struck by the logo. I am, by upbringing, an Anglican - my father was an Anglican clergyman until he died in 1982. However, having lived in S. Wales for much of the past 20+ years, and in a village where the Anglican church is little better than a social club with a spirituual gloss, we actually attend a Baptist church in a local town which is outward-looking, mission-minded and child-friendly - 3 things that the local Church in Wales church wasn't and still isn't.

I wonder whether the logo - with everyone looking inward - is too stereotypical of Christian churches generally in the West? I used to attend an Anglican Church in Cheltenham where we had a logo that was neither totally inwardly- nor totally outwardly-looking; the 'same' group of people as in this group's logo had every second person facing outwards, yet still linking arms with the group as a whole. After all, loving each other doesn't necessarily require us all to look at each other; just knowing that a group is supporting one in one's involvement and dealings with the non-Christian world is often quite sufficient to know that one is loved.

Could this be part of the problem that faces the church as a whole here in the West? Perhaps this group could address this issue as part of the larger whole that it is.