Lauren Bercovitch launched a weekly, noncommittal, non-religious meetup for her buddies called “Church of Friends.” Photo Lauren Bercovitch
Imagine a Sunday morning social situation where you can drop in to some random place and see all your pals. You won’t have to stand in line for 45 minutes for a brunch table, or kneel and take communion. This is a place where you might show up or you might not. There’s no pressure or commitment. Drop in every week or once every couple of months, no big deal, whatever works for you… and it’s not church or brunch. It’s Church of Friends.
Lauren Bercovitch is an entrepreneur, content producer, blogger and mom. She is always very busy, but at the same time, very community-minded. Lauren is well aware of the social malaise that plagues Vancouverites, such as “the B.C. Bail” (when you make plans, but know in the back of your mind you might not actually go through with them and cancel last minute) or “the Vancouver Intention” (when you say to your friends, “We should totally get together for drinks!” and you never do, but the intent was there, and that is often good enough for a lot of Vancouverites these days, right?)
Lauren decided to do something about our social sinning and launched something new for her friends called “Church of Friends.” (Lauren is Jewish and her husband Chris is Catholic, but neither attend an actual church or temple on a regular basis.)
“Basically, after having a kid, I realized that one of the benefits of, you know, a real church is that you have a standing date with your friends and people you have lots in common with, every single Sunday,” Lauren patiently explained to me.
“You don’t have to organize anything, or let anyone know if you can’t make it to regular church… You either show up or you don’t. It’s a weekly check-in, with no hassle. It’s community in real life, and I realized that I needed that in my life, but not necessarily the Judeo-Christian organized religion part of it.”
An organizer at heart, Lauren sent out an email to her social circle (my family included), laying out the commandments of her new “Church of Friends” social congregations.
Every Friday night, Lauren sends out an email letting everyone know where “Church” will be held on Sunday morning. Church of Friends is always in a different hang-out location around the city. Since many of Lauren’s friends are parents, the meetup could be at a play gym, Science World, a farmer’s market, or the beach. Lauren was quick to point out her non-parent friends are welcome at Church of Friends, too. So are pets.
“The most important part about Church of Friends,” Lauren says, “is that you do not have to RSVP to Church of Friends. That’s the key.”
In a direct strike against the B.C. Bail, Lauren preaches that with Church of Friends, there is no obligation and, unlike what often comes hand in hand with both the B.C. Bail and church, there’s no guilt.
“I might bail,” admitted Lauren. “There could be 50 friends or zero any given Sunday. It’s the possibility of connection and enlightenment every week that is the key… just like, in theory, actual church.”
She hopes the gospel of her new non-religious social practice will spread to other groups of friends around the city. “It could be a really cool thing. It already is for us.”
Lauren lives in the Mount Pleasant area and pledged in her initial email that Church of Friends will not have a Main Street bias. There have been four Church of Friends so far, and all have been in the Main Street area. “OK, I lied about that part”, Lauren confessed. “But next week is at the Hastings Farmer’s Market, I swear to God!”
That’s in my neighbourhood! Hallelujah!
grant.lawrence@cbc.ca
