Basement Ministries - Everyday life, Everyday Mission For any enquiries please email: basement_ministries@yahoo.com.au  THE BASEMENT STORY Basement Ministries (Basement) is a ministry unit of the Anglican Church in the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn. In 2005 a group of seven young adults were seeking a practical and culturally relevant way to express their faith. Consequently, they felt God calling them to create a new faith community. Basement Ministries began by meeting regularly for a time of worship and teaching in a lounge room. At the end of the first 12 months we outgrew the lounge room space and the 'Shed', in Amaroo St, Reid, became our home for the following three years. After our move, we began to expand our ministry as we sought to be involved in the community beyond Sunday worship and the community lunch and cafe ministries evolved. Since January 2009 Basement Ministries has been seeking 'where to next' in regards to a home as we felt it was time to move out of the shed. As an interim measure our Sunday gathering now happens at Iceburg Cafe in Gungahlin. Basement Ministries is a team led church. Our Leadership team are licensed lay ministers for the Anglican Church; each member oversees one of the different ministry areas.   We have grown and changed as we continue to question what 'church' looks like for us in our cultural context. Rather than having one central congregation that grows in number, our missions will, and are already starting to, establish small faith communities of their own. These indigenous communities will each have a different look and feel to them, as they develop organically from within their specific mission field. As such, Basement functions as an umbrella organisation that unites, supports and empowers a network of small faith communities.     BASE - 5pm Sundays @ Iceburg cafe.   Base' is the name of our Sunday evening worship program. This gathering is an opportunity for the Basement Community to come together for a time of worship, teaching and prayer. The Base team strives to provide an environment that is conducive to worship and enables a variety of worship expressions. Base could be described as relaxed and fluid. Its primary aim is to help people to find a way of connecting with God that they can replicate in everyday life.   Iceburg Cafe is located in Burgman Anglican School, The valley way, Gungahlin. Drive and park up the side of the school and walk in towards the centre of the school and you should see the Cafe.   For further information or directions please call Emily 0402048957   FLATS COMMUNITY LUNCHES - 1230pm Last Saturday of every month.    One of the ways Basement serves the local community is through facilitating free community lunches and activities at the Currong and Allawah flats in Civic. This ministry started in May 2007 and has given us opportunities to serve and be an active example of the love of God within the community. This ministry started as a monthly free lunch and as some residents attended more regularly they have become involved in organising the lunches. In November 2008 Basement Ministries was blessed with a grant to financially support the expansion of the Flats Community Lunch. The start of 2009 saw the beginning of this expansion with an increased presence within the flats community. At present there are prayer meetings held at the Flats every Friday and a community lunch and games on the last Saturday of the each month. These activities are designed to help the people living at the flats to actively engage with their immediate community, build support networks and through service and prayer our team will begin to introduce them to Jesus.   For further information please call Emily 0402048957   ICEBURG Cafe    Since Basement started in 2005 we have felt God calling us to explore opening a café as an opportunity for mission and as a way of connecting with our wider community.  In researching what it might mean for Basement to set up a café, including looking at emerging church models, we have come across the concept of the 'third place'[1], a place that is not home (the first place) and not work or school (the second place) but somewhere where people go to unwind and relax. People tend to be more vulnerable in third places and inclined to open up to others. It is in third places that community develops and a feeling of belonging emerges. Third places usually involve some form of food and in contemporary Australian culture many people are finding our third places at cafés and pubs.   While working towards the dream of opening a coffee shop that God had given us we established two purposes for a cafe to complement Basement's mission objectives. We hope to see this coffee shop held up as an example of an ethical business and to both encourage and inform our patrons about ways we, too, can live differently and responsibly and have a positive impact in our world. The coffee shop would be established as a commercial enterprise with the long term goal of it raising money to support the ministries of Basement and allowing us to develop new ones. IceBurg Cafe has been the first step in the realisation of our dream. IceBurg is a purpose built cafe within the grounds of Burgmann Anglican School. The school wanted a place that would further develop the strong sense of community that currently exists between staff, students and parents. In November 2007 Basement Ministries' tender to run the cafe was successful and IceBurg officially opened in February 2008. The story of IceBurg has been one of God's continual provision. The cafe functions as any other cafe and is open to year 11 and 12 students, staff and parents.  The IceBurg team work very hard to make the cafe so much more than just a business or a place to eat. We appreciate the unique position we have in the school, not staff, nor student, and we now are beginning to see our visions and dreams for the Cafe unfold. For more information please call Caitlin 0415794338 [1] a term coined by Ray Oldenburg in his 1990 book, The Great Good Place