Blood relationship. That’s how my dictionary defines the word kinship. It’s not the most common word to hear on our daily conversations, but that’s probably why I liked it as a title for our next series in OiC. It makes you think about why it’s being used, and what you mean by using it. In that sense, and with this straight forward definition that is given to me by my dictionary, it can work as an anchor for one of our Vision Statements in OiC, which we have called “Church as family”.
When we were in the process of writing our vision statements, which involved the whole congregation, the word family popped up again and again. Family. It was so insistent we understood it had to be a part of how we talk about ourselves and understand ourselves. As family. But there is a risk of misinterpretation in the title of the statement: that we will read “church like family”. So in the paragraph under that title we say that “when we call each other brothers and sisters, it is more than a manner of speaking”. So it is more than being “like” family, it is indeed kinship. How? How can a Brazilian, a Norwegian and a Chinese who didn’t even know of each other’s existence before meeting in OiC, be indeed kin?
This first sunday in the series we will find out where it all begins: at the maternity ward.
Welcome to OiC’s new series: Kinship
This sunday 9 Nov: At the maternity ward