Maude Royden and Missional Theology: The Guildhouse as a Feminist “Fresh Expression”

In 2004, the Church of England published Mission-shaped Church: Church Planting and Fresh Expressions of Church in a Changing Context. This report both summarized and influenced the growth of innovative or “fresh” expressions of worship based on missional theology. These expressions and their theology were presaged by the Guildhouse, an experimental religious community co-led by Maude Royden in London in the 1920s and 30s. Like the millennial Fresh Expressions movement, the Guildhouse conceived of mission not as the imperialist saving of souls but as cooperating with others in God’s on-going restoration of the world through justice and peace: “mission at home.” These others included Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer, who both lectured and preached at the Guildhouse. The Guildhouse also anticipated Fresh Expressions in its experimental liturgies and cell groups. This paper explores the Guildhouse’s liturgical and spiritual practices as expressions of Royden’s missional theology and a feminist church renewal.