Today was a hard gathering for ThirdSpace. Our dear friend Chris Greening died on Thursday after the most courageous battle with cancer. We stood beside the bandstand in the sunlight and heard the words from Psalm 100 (The Message)

Know this: God is God, and God, GOD.

He made us; we didn’t make him.

We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.

We used the following words  – adapted from something we had found and used two years ago when Tony died – apologies for not knowing now the original website that gave us our starting point then…

Today we stand in the tension of sadness and hope

We come to you Lord Jesus

We come to protest against all the horror of death and bereavement

We set our hope in you

We protest against the suffering Chris had to bear

We thank you that she is, at last, made whole

We protest against the distress that Pete and Jo and Susie and Chris’s family and closest friends have been going through for so long

We ask for your comfort, healing and hope

We affirm that we cannot and will not pretend that death is anything less than an affront to you, Bringer of life

We stand firm in the hope that you promise to make all things new

We give you thanks that you brought Chris to us – as a friend and as a friend of ThirdSpace

We ask that all who loved her will know your provision and peace

We thank you for her faith and courage that have inspired us

We ask that her faith will lead others to faith in their time of loss

We give you thanks for Chris and all that she meant to each of us

We look forward to being reunited with her in the renewed earth

Let us hold firmly to hope within us

The One who promised is faithful.

We concluded with the sharing of bread and wine, using our Companions liturgy – mindful of past times we had done this with Chris and connected with her as another of our resurrected saints…