If you were to go round school and ask people their opinions about Christianity and religion as a whole you would be extremely fortunate to group together more than a handful of good reviews. It is, let's face it, unfashionable to believe in God or at least to admit it. However lots of people who say they do not believe in God would not deny the plausibility of something being there, but would be unwilling to express it for one reason or another. In Wolgarston there are some people who do express their faith and beliefs, and they do this through a weekly meeting of Christian Union. We have all seen the posters, letters and know who it is behind them, Mr Brickley has even been criticised for preaching and this has reflected badly on CU. I decided to go and talk to Mr Brickley to find out exactly what Christian Union is about in order to give a more accurate view.

One of the first questions that I asked Mr Brickley was whether he considered Christianity had a stigma attached to it and whether or not Christian Union was suffering from it. He discussed with me the image that the Church portrayed about religion and the possibility that the stereotyped Church services make Christianity seem boring and traditional. He said that it is perhaps because of this image

that people reject Christianity but not their beliefs. Mr Brickley also sees peer pressure as a problem when trying to encourage people to express their beliefs, as with a lot of other things it would be considered quite 'sad' to go to a CU meeting. Mr Brickley said that he would like to encourage people to be true to their innermost beliefs and not to what their friends may think. He assured me that anyone was welcome at Christian Union, whether a regular attendant at church or just curious about Christianity.

I then asked what happens at a typical CU meeting and was given the expected answer that there really is no typical kind of gathering for CU, but instead the meetings vary from listening to music, debating about life, reflecting on teachings from the bible and finding their relevance in life today amongst other things. In fact all of us that attended a concert recently, actually attended a CU meeting! As you would expect, Christian Union does pray and give thanks to God on many occasions including Christmas and Easter, but the members do not sit around candles, holding hands in deep meditation and rocking backwards and forwards (to dispel any popular beliefs). A lot of the issues that I discussed with Mr Brickley are also part of some CU meetings and anyone is welcome

to go along and participate in the discussions.

However a lot of the aspects that were discussed are too complex and perhaps controversial to include in the article, but if anyone is even slightly curious then maybe they should see Mr Brickley or attend at least one CU meeting. I did question the preaching though and was told that:

'…one man's preaching is another man's invitation to hear and share the good news of the Gospel.'

Although a lot of people may take offence at the posters and the way that CU is put right in front of their faces, Mr Brickley assured me that he was not preaching or commercialising Cu. I asked him if the image of CU would ever change to attract more people and was told no as CU is interested purely in the message and image of Jesus, something that should never be changed.

The final thing I asked Mr Brickley to do was to write something to encourage anyone to attend Christian Union. He suggested the following:

'Shop at Christian Union - our prices are lower.'

Emma Dugmore