“They bring the agenda to the table, not me; I’m just a presence,” the Rev. Stephen Martin says. “Ninety-five per cent of the time, when conversations come about faith and faith issues, they bring it up—not me.” Photo: Contributed via Anglican Journal

[Anglican Journal] A priest in the Anglican Church of Canada is reaching out to the unchurched by giving services from the back of his SUV in the parking lots of southern Ontario.

Since June 2018, the Rev. Stephen Martin, part-time incumbent of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, Stratford, and missioner for the Diocese of Huron, has been delivering Church on the Street — a program intended to bring church to people where they are. Twice a week, Martin hits the road and visits communities across the diocese in his specially equipped Ford Explorer — a sort of mobile chapel. He pulls into roadside coffee shops and makes his presence known, talking with anyone who wants to about God — or about anything at all — and even performing services.

“I carry my communion stuff with me,” he says. “I can actually put a table into my trailer hitch so I can sit back and make it what we call ‘tailgate church.’”

He also sometimes refers to it as “St. Timothy’s of Hortons.”

Read the full article here.