this months pub theo contained its normal rich mix of great people and wandering discussions. We started by looking, essentially, at the celebration of Hallowe’en and how many of us, including myself, had been brought up in evangelical churches and how that influenced us, even now, as adults.

Certainly, I still have a difficulty of celebrating evil, but is what will happen tonight in parties in many homes a celebrations of evil, or is it simply an opportunity for friends and family to get together and have a party? That is a genuine question not a hidden statement, as I don’t know … my house ‘does not do Hallowe’en’. I think, though, it’s vlid to ask ‘Is any opportunity to connect with others in this disconnected world (borrowing language from my Brenee Brown post last week) always something that should be welcomed?’

The discussion then moved on to other stuff which was pretty far ranging. The thing I noticed must about this pub theo event, though, is that community is growing. People who used to know each other have reconnected, people who never knew each other have become friends and people were talking about stuff outside of the pub theo event. I think pub theo has shown over the last three years that if you bring a group of people together regularly for something that is meaningful to them then community starts to grow.

I find that pretty exciting and it causes me to wonder what is it that I need to be thinking about in the Gillingham high Street area that will bring people together and that will enable community to grow … that’s not such an easy question … watch this space …