bless.

Lisieux and La Source

A mid sized Norman town of 23,000 or so inhabitants, Lisieux comes alive each summer as hundreds of thousands flock to one of the country’s greatest pilgrimage sites, the tomb and cathedral of ‘Saint Thérèse de Lisieux’. Second only to Lourdes in its importance the 20^th century cathedral is seated high above the otherwise quiet town and is a huge summer draw for pilgrims and tourists alike.

It is in this highly catholicised environment that we meet ‘La Source’, a new church planted out of Paris by husband and wife team Francis and Diane Dognon in September 2005. First meeting in their kitchen the church soon outgrew that space and a short 5 months later moved on to regular meetings in a local hotel. Since then the church has grown again and at the moment holds afternoon Sunday services, prayer meetings, kids’ clubs, Alpha courses and a café all from a renovated wine cellar found only 5 minutes from the centre of Lisieux.

One of the main thrusts of Francis and thus the church is towards unity and ecumenicalism between the different churches and denominations of Lisieux. This call for unity is brought even closer to home when considering the unique English and French mix which can be found running through all the church events and peoples. Ecumenical unity however is generally fleshed out in regular shared meetings and community works between La Source, the local reformed church and the large catholic base around Lisieux. As well as this the church focuses outward with conferences such as ‘Normandy: Everything is Possible’, the Alpha course and ‘Streams of Life’ and also has strong links to organisations such as ‘Nexus’ and of course ‘Bless’.

A normal Sunday service will start at around 3 in the afternoon, kicking off with a warm, bilingual welcome of teas, coffees and hot chocolate. This is followed by a lively time of worship and a Biblical message from either Francis or another senior member. The service is ran in French, but often punctuated by English and full translation is provided throughout. Children’s and young peoples’ programmes are also run on a Sunday afternoon and a new exciting youth space is ready to be opened and fully running by mid April this year, allowing young people space to come into a non-threatening church environment to hang out, join with other young people and meet God.

The future of the church is looking exceedingly bright with new opportunities to engage with people and lead them to God coming thick and fast. The new youth room is very close to opening, there are two booked conferences for March and April and a summer mission is in process of being planned to bless and aid the local community. Aside from this new people are coming each week and significant connections and partnerships continue to develop with local schools and organisations.