So there is a lot of discussion about smoking on the streets. Lots of people talk about quitting, or when they quit sometime earlier, or the comparison of the difficulties of quitting cigarettes to quitting other addictions. At the same time, most of the smokers carry a bag of tobacco and roll their own cigarettes. Most of our regulars don't ask us for cigarettes, but new people often do. Some of volunteers will share--I always watch, the recipient almost always breaks off the filter before lighting up.

There is a great deal of judgement against smoking; especially common is the comment "you can't smoke here! Its church!" Those who do smoke work very hard to keep their smoke to themselves, and to move outside the circle when they light up. Still, passing the peace includes switching which hand is holding the cigarette, and lots of people who volunteer to carry our things first must carefully put out a partially completed cigarette, and store it in a safe pocket before picking up the load.

You actually CAN smoke at our church. In fact, I'm not such a fan of all the criticism of smoking. Sure cigarettes will take weeks off our average life span. If you do get cancer, it will take years off your life. And the people who are coughing uncontrollably between cigarettes must be uncomfortable. I'm allergic to the smoke and have had asthma attacks from being around smokers.

But of all the addictions I see on the streets (and in my life) I'll take smoking any day. The nicotine really DOES help people concentrate. But mostly it is better than crack, and speed, and heroin, and all the other drugs I'm out of touch with, and yes, even better than an addiction to alcohol. Cigarettes may make you sick, but they don't make you angry or violent, or out of control. They don't leave you peeing on the street, or turn you to prostitution, or separate you from your family or your friends.

I told a group at our community meeting last week that I wasn't really opposed to smoking. In fact, I said, if we could get rid of all the other addictions if we would just take up smoking, then I'd take up smoking in a minute.

​There was dead silence. Then Alan lit up another cigarette and smiled. "Don't do it Liz," he said. "I don't think it'll work."

(I visited this Church in 2010.)

As I parked down the street from the Woo, on Main Street in Worcester, MA, I noticed a sign on a chair a few feet from the entrance. Walking up I checked it out.

"Please smoke here."

What an odd thing to say! Many churches no longer have a place to smoke at all, but even buildings with smoking areas normally have huge signs everywhere telling us NOT to smoke. "Please smoke here" made me grin.

I entered through the dark side door clearly marked ENTER HERE with another handwritten sign. Two women stood in front of a table covered with flyers, books, and other handouts.

"Welcome" they said. "Coffee and pastries are back there, and you are free to sit anywhere for worship".

After the little entryway the coffee and worship were both set-up in what must have once been the social hall of this large church building. The coffee was set-up in pass-through windows, and the pastries were abundant and free. I checked, no basket for "donations".

People carried coffee to their seats (folding chairs aimed at a stage of sorts), or stood in the wide aisles or in the back. The space was uncrowded--probably room for 75 to sit, and 50 people present, wide aisles in the seating and lots of room between rows, so it was easy to stand or sit, and easy to visit with one another.

It all said "relax". It all said "welcome". I thought of all the churches that describe themselves as friendly, and all the churches where I visited awkwardly and alone. I could tell quickly that this is a friendly church.

The space, the signs, the people all communicated permission giving. Permission to eat and drink, permission to sit and stand, but more than that permission to not know what was going on. Everything had signs, every sign made no assumptions about what you would understand. The coffee said "free coffee", the pastries were offered as free pastries, the welcome assured us that none of the seats were reserved. We could take coffee and pastries, flyers and bulletins, comfort and confusion with us to our seats. 


Opening the bulletin it explained when the coffee would stop being served and what to do when the the service began. It invited us to sing along, or to not, to stand and clap, or to sit and listen. At the prayers and at communion and at the offering we were told: "here is what many of us do, you can too, if you'd like".  It was always ok to take part, it was always ok to hold back.

"Please smoke here" was part of that plan. It said "yes" to whatever you wanted to do, and then told us where the limits were for where to do it. "Please smoke here" was the first message of welcome at this friendly church.