JOHNNY GREEN/REUTERS HUMILITY: Rowan Williams washes the feet of the faithful

Posted Sunday, June 8, 2003; 16.45BST
Across the Continent, immigrant congregations are thriving. Europe's newest residents are among its most faithful, a trend not exclusive to Christianity. Many Muslim immigrants arrive with little more than a suitcase and their religious devotion, which often clashes with the mores and even the laws of their new homes. And when Christians from the Caribbean and Africa move to Europe, they "bring with them habits of the heart," says Joel Edwards, the Jamaica-born general director of Britain's Evangelical Alliance. He notes that African churches are some of the U.K.'s biggest and fastest-growing, and that so many immigrants have joined that more than half of London's practicing Christians are now nonwhite. "If you go to a foreign country, you are cut off from your own country. Church can be a great source of solace," says Bernadette C. Hayes, a sociologist at Queen's University Belfast. "It can be a good employment center and a place where you find solidarity among like people." Bernard-Robert Wagon, 44, agrees. After moving from Congo to France in 1990, it took a while to discover Parole de Foi. "I couldn't find what I was looking for. I went to [other] Protestant churches, but found them too cold," he says. "I want something to descend into my heart. I found that here."

GOD HAS GONE USER-FRIENDLY
If you grew up going to church, you can probably still recall the feel of the hard pews and the drone of the sermons. So when Arto Antturi, director of Finland's Thomas Community, describes traditional services as "very bureaucratic," "obsolete" and "irrelevant," you may find it hard to disagree. "People still have those memories," he says, "of the church not being with the people."

The church needs to get to know modern culture. But it's a mistake to think that we should try to attract more people by diluting our message — GODFRIED CARDINAL DANNEELS, Archbishop of Brussels, Belgium

Antturi's antidote: get the people involved. The Thomas Mass, a Lutheran-led ecumenical service celebrated by the community each Sunday in Helsinki, gives churchgoers more than hymns to sing and sermons to endure. Up to 100 volunteers participate, reading scripture, playing music, washing communion cups, brewing coffee and tea. The hands-on approach, as well as the acceptance of questioning — the service is named for the apostle Thomas, who the Bible says asked to see the resurrected Christ's wounds — have boosted the Mass's appeal. That the service now draws more than 800 people each week is "a happy accident," says Olli Valtonen, one of its creators. The founders wanted a service that would work for them. But they weren't the only ones who felt that traditional church wasn't meeting the needs of young urbanites; dozens of churches across the Nordic region have copied the model.

Timing was one issue — the Thomas Mass starts at 6:30 p.m., recognizing that people no longer feel obligated to be in a pew on Sunday morning. Other churches in Europe remember the Sabbath but also make other days holy, holding 30-minute lunchtime services or weekday breakfast Bible studies. "If they had a Thursday-night service, I would be more likely to go," says Alex Olzog, 24, a student from Munich who is an occasional churchgoer. "I want to relax on the weekends."

It's no accident that the minority of churches and movements that are growing emphasize accessibility, not only in timing but also in style. Take the Alpha course, a 15-session intro to Christianity launched in 1992 at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), an Evangelical Anglican church in London. Alpha's defining feature is curiosity. "Most people at some point in their lives say, 'Is this what it's all about? Can I start again? What happens when I die?'" says HTB vicar Sandy Millar. "They weren't getting the answers." Alpha seeks to provide them — and has spread to 38 countries in Europe and 96 others around the world; it now has 5 million alumni, and churches across the denominational spectrum use it as an outreach tool.

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