St Patrick’s Day at the Bandstand

We met in pouring rain – glad of the shelter of the bandstand – to celebrate St Patrick yesterday, beginning with a Trinitarian prayer in honour of his Shamrock analogy:

We meet today in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

In the name of our Mother, Lover and Friend

In the name of the Lover, Beloved and Love

In the name of the Creator, Saviour and Companion

In the name of the Source of all being, the Eternal Word and Empowering presence of God

And in the presence of Saint Patrick, the saints of old and ThirdSpace saints resurrected

Thanks be to God, the Three in One, the Divine Dance and Community of love!

We heard the story of St Patrick – how he was abducted at the age of 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland and how there he came to faith and learnt to pray through the day and night whilst watching over sheep. Using The Message we read from 1 Thessalonians about the need to encourage one another and to pray

We heard the story of St Patrick – how he was abducted at the age of 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland and how there he came to faith and learnt to pray through the day and night whilst watching over sheep. Using The Message we read from 1 Thessalonians about the need to encourage one another and to pray at all times , before saying together St Patrick’s breastplate. For some time, we shared how we pray, these days and then the situations and folk we were aware of that need our prayers today. Then we used an adapted version of Patrick’s prayer to pray for them:

As we arise today, I name those who need God’s presence and answers now…

May the strength of God pilot you, the power of God uphold you,, the wisdom of God guide you  

May the eye of God look before you, the ear of God hear you, the word of God speak for you.


May the hand of God protect you, the way of God lie before you, the shield of God defend you, the host of God save you.
May Christ shield you today.

(Name again those who need Jesus close… and visualise them as you use these words:)

Christ with you, Christ before you, Christ behind you,
Christ in you, Christ beneath you, Christ above you,
Christ on your right, Christ on your left,
Christ when  you lie down, Christ when you sit, Christ when you stand,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of you,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of you,
Christ in every eye that sees you,
Christ in every ear that hears you.

Thereafter, we returned to share bread and wine, using words Steve had written:

Bread and Wine with Patrick

We follow in the footsteps of so many, in meeting in the name of the Trinity.

The Source of all Being, the Eternal Word, the Empowering Presence.

May the bread – which tells its own story of love and redemption – bless you three times.

In bringing restoration and sustenance and companionship for the journey.

May the wine – which tells its own story of love and redemption – bless you three times.

In bringing joy and inspiration and vision for the journey.

We are sent and surrounded and upheld. We bless those who have travelled this way before us and those who are to follow. May ThirdSpace be a faithful link in the chain. Amen.

We finished by reading some further verses from 1 Thessalonians as a blessing of one another:

3-24 May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it! 28 The amazing grace of Jesus Christ be with you!

Then it was off to coffee at Ostello Lounge for more chat and putting the world straight!!

Bring and share on a Sunday morning

This Sunday we met at Barbara’s – just 2 weeks after her hip replacement and not yet ready to be at the bandstand. It was a leisurely and special time when we were able to share all kinds of things and concerns for one another and for others we know and care about.

Barbara gave us each copies of the Beatitudes both from The Message and the NIV and we sat with those words and reflected on them before she shared the following version:

The Beatitudes – Brian McLaren & Rob Bell

The poor and those in solidarity with them – God is on your side.

Those who mourn and feel grief about the state of the world – God is on your side.

The non-violent, gentle and humble – God is on your side.

Those who hunger ad thirst for the common good – God is on your side.

The merciful and compassionate – God is on your side.

Those characterised by sincerity, kindness and generosity- God is on your side.

Those who work for peace and reconciliation – God is on your side.

Those who keep seeking justice – God is on your side.

Those who stand for justice and truth as the prophets did, who refuse to be quiet even when slandered, misrepresented, threatened, imprisoned or harmed – God is on your side.

It was good to talk about them and how they linked to people near and far – feeding into prayers.

We prayed using words from Lectio 365 – allowing us to hear messages of hope from Revelation 21’s vision of an end to tears and suffering and St Paul’s words about all creation straining for the day of God’s salvation… with time to hold those in need now…

And we shared bread and wine using words written by Steve on a previous occasion, focusing on how we are all interconnected:

Bread and Wine

We like to think of ourselves with Enlightenment eyes as
Individuals
Authentic choosers
Freewill warriors
Single autonomous souls

But what if we are community?
But what if I am a community?
A host of many
More multitudinous than we can imagine
Living in bewildering symbiosis
Part of a greater interdependent whole.

What if that rich bio-chemical soup makes up me? I am my microbiome.

It is integral to my selfhood, my decisions, my likes, dislikes, values and my shalom?

What if I am formed and nurtured in the crucible of generational love and struggle? That others whose names I only distantly recognise or whose names are inscribed upon my heart, have a part to play in my story.

So we might say, “Though we are many, we are one body.” Gathered today through choice around the bread and the wine with their story of sacrificial love, redemption and renewal.

So we eat the one body…
And drink the one wine…

And we are jointly and severally co-missioned as artists and prophets, as lamed vavniks and kingdom seekers. Blessings. Amen 

Third Space Ash Wednesday

We had the most special time together for the start of Lent. The following was what Sarah B put together for us:

Lent thought on pride, confession, forgiveness and purity –
Ash Wednesday represents a duality – time to confront our pride and confession of sin within
community, with the light of cleansing and forgiveness through God’s redeeming love in Jesus Christ.

We watched an ‘Ashes’ video and prayer from Work of the people and then heard this story:


Reading – Celtic Daily Prayer Book 1 – P123 (Samuel Moor Shoemaker)
The other morning some of us were together in a church where the rector was saying Morning Prayer,
and leading us in a guided silent prayer. He said “Let us pray for those whom we love”. And that was
easy. Then he said “Let us pray for those whom we we do not love”. And there rose before my mind
three men for whom I had to pray. They were men who had opposed my work. In this they may have
been wrong. But my wrong was in resentment and a feeling of letting myself be cut of from them, and
even praying for them because of it. Years ago I read a quotation from Mary Lyon that occurs to me
again and again: “Nine-tenths of our suffering is caused by others not thinking so much of us as we
think they ought”. If you want to know where pride nestles and festers in most of us, that is right
where it is; and it is not the opposition of others, but our own pride, which causes the deepest hurt. I
never read a word that penetrated more deeply into the sin of pride from which all of us suffer, bor
one which opens up more surgically our place of unforgiveness.


There was a time for silent prayer and and reflection, confession…

Sarah had made a digital meditation which we watched before we used the ashes she had brought.

Imposition of the Ashes
Pass to each the bowl of ashes and mark the person next to you with the sign of the cross saying:
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
(The phrase recalls God’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:19 before the expulsion of Adam and Eve from
the Garden of Eden)
Hand washing
Lavabo – ritual of hand washing… although fallen out of practice this was and is a very important ritual
in Christian and other faiths.. we can see the practical benefits… in biblical times, people bought all
sorts of things for offerings, live animals, birds, foods, leaves. It made sense for the priests to wash
their hands.. it became symbolic for purification from sin..
In the Catholic and Anglican high churches priests wash their hands before communion and say
quietly “Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin”
This mystical meaning was emphasized by St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century,
when he wrote: ‘This action shows that we must be free from all sin. We perform actions
with our hands; to wash our hands is the nearest thing to purifying our deeds’”
Source: https://www.eucharisticrevival.org/post/do-this-in-remembrance-of-me
Bowls – rosemary (symbol of fidelity and remembrance), Hyssop (for cleansing/purification),
chamomile (peace) – – warm water in a jug poured, hand towels
In turn slowly pour water over the hands of the person next you (hands over the bowl), take up a
towel and press around their hands. Let them dry off their hands.
Song : Marie Brennan – To the Wild Water
Blessing: Jesus said, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved
you
..And the call is to community, the impoverished power that sets the soul free, in humility to take the
vow, that day after day we will love one another as you have loved us.

I can’t yet include the links here – sorry – but if nothing else, I hope you can see how very touching and poignant it was to bless one another in these ways. We talked a long time about things that had occurred to us in it all…

The Aroma of Christ at the Bandstand

Last Sunday Jeremy led us, kicking off with a quiz to identify 10 different essential oils. Alas, we were all hopeless but for Kez who beat us all hands down (though it turned out that she owned the oils!!!)

Jeremy spoke of writing a poem beginning: “Heaven, for me, it will smell like…” and we shared our own ideas on that before walking with 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 and trying to interrogate it / see it anew.

2 Corinthians 2, 14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? 

It isn’t entirely easy as a passage. Here are some things ew were sent to mull over: This image reflects a triumphal procession – celebration of war victory and of its leader. Captives at front – sometimes to be executed. [We Christians have the unmistakeable “scent” of Christ, discernible alike to those who are being saved and to those who are heading for death. To the latter it seems like the very smell of doom.(JBPhillips) But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.(Message) ]. Really?

We are to spread an aroma – what, how?

We are this aroma to God and to people– how does God find us an aroma?

Where have you smelt that aroma this last week?

Tune in to your sense of smell as you walk – what is out there on the breeze?

Saved and perishing, bringing life, bringing death…

We returned to the bandstand to share thoughts – of which there were many – and to share bread and wine, focusing on these words:

Luke 9  23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross [b]daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 

Breaking of bread:

The cup – I deny self

The bread – I live in him

Gal 2.  20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God;

Lots to think about and to consider for the following week. Thanks Jeremy!!!

Plough Sunday and crossing thresholds

It was a crisp sunny morning at the bandstand and everything I had was from or inspired by ‘The Celtic Wheel of the Year’ by Tess Ward. We took a moment to be still and began with the words:

Blessed be you, Keeper of our past, Guider of our stories, Holder of our future.

The first Sunday after Epiphany in the Celtic year was known as Plough Sunday, when priests blessed ploughs. The next day, Plough Monday was a day of rowdy celebrations with men dressing up, performing plays and asking for donations towards a feast.  A refusal could lead to damage to property by the plough! The ploughing season began then and, just as now, people return to work after the Christmas break. Some of us were in that place of having returned to work – others of us were not – so what might this new start mean for all of us?

On the handouts we considered the following words:

January is seen as a time of journeys – of crossing over boundaries into new places. We meet in the “now and not yet” and at the crossing point of our hope and our present reality. It is a season of reflection on the past and discerning the future, of placing trust, of following our longing and taking the first footstep from the known and familiar into unchartered territory. The Epiphany story reminds us that God’s love is revealed when people cross the threshold from known places and follow a star to who knows what.

We read the story of the visiting Magi, crossing the threshold to encounter Christ and then walked with some questions and a prayer and an image of a threshold, with the invitation to write about situations and people who are facing uncertain futures on the left of the threshold and pray about the as yet unknown side.

  • What threshold may be in front of me at the start of this year?
  • What new things might await me this year that I long for or fear?
  • What would be good for me to leave behind and what new things to embrace?

Spirit Weaver go before me to be my guide

And with the gentlest fingers

Untangle the old and the unfinished

and weave their ends into the next step

As directions change

And the cloth feels new and strange.

We returned to pray – for those in Gaza, held hostage by Hamas, for the people of Yemen and Middle East in geberal, for the people of Taiwan post election and for the UK and US facing elections this year, as well as for one another and those known to us. We recognised that we cannot influence world affairs in the main but are called to be the body of Christ where we are placed…

Embodied God,

On the ladder between the home of heaven and earth’s dwelling place,

The crack between the worlds,

A baby journeyed,

Belonging to both.

Come embodied love:

To our hands that our touch might soothe;

To our ears that we might receive words of kindness;

To our bellies that we might have courage to go beyond;

To our journeys that we might be aware of a purpose;

To our feet that we might always treasure the earth that supports us;

To our hearts that we might live for more than ourselves.

Come embodied love

Walk with us in our travelling this year.

***

Steve had written words for the sharing of bread and wine:

This Epiphany, as we meet around bread and wine,

Untangle that which is old and unfinished and that which is frayed and broken,

And reconfigure our faith-threads so that we might journey across this threshold with purpose.

Bring Peace to the world and make us peace-makers.

Bring Justice to the world and make us justice-workers.

Bring light to the world and make us artists and prophets.

Bring the embodied Love of Jesus to our world day by day.

For our story concerns the refugee baby, the immigrant Jesus, the vulnerable traveller,

 Who died for us.

The Bread of the Kingdom.

The Wine of the Kingdom.

***

We finsished with this blessing:

May the God who hangs her star over unexpected places

Lure us to the place we need to be,

Where new things happen

And we have to return home by a different way.

Thanks to Tess Ward for the inspiration for everyone for joining forces to cross those thresholds together in faith and hope.

New Year at the Bandstand

This morning was our start to the new year. Julie began by sharing an Epiphany meditation:

Prayer

“Jesus, you are the light of the world. In your holiness and your earthliness, you display the truth about who God is and God’s desire to be present with us. You open our eyes, ears and hearts to the ways in which you continue to reveal yourself to us today—through word , communion,  creation, and through the relationship we have with others. By your light, may we truly see. Amen.

Meditation

Over and over in the gospels, the majesty and truth of God with us, Immanuel, is made known, mostly in small moments with everyday people.

Jesus is taken  to the temple, and Simeon and Anna proclaim his divinity.
As a child, Jesus reads the Torah and explains it to those listening
Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding in Cana.
He gathers a handful of the ordinary and the unlikely and calls them to follow him.
Jesus heals.
He feeds crowds.
Then, in front of just three of his closest friends, Jesus meets on a mountaintop with Moses and Elijah and is transfigured right before their eyes.

There are so many more moments that could be named and counted, each revealing just a little more of Jesus’ ability to meet people right where they are. No big production, just humble, real,  encounters that provide hope to all.

Activity

We believe in a living God, the revelation of Jesus is not over and done in this world but continues. . Where do you need Jesus to show up? And what do you need from him in that space? This week have a go at writing a prayer, asking to be open to new revelations God and how God is at work in our world.

These thoughts were inspired by words from a reflection on Ephiphany written but Amanda Berger

Jeremy read the following poem:

Winter Now – Samuel Longfellow

‘Tis winter now; the fallen snow
Has left the heav’ns all coldly clear.
Through leafless boughs the sharp winds blow,
And all the earth lies dead and drear;

And yet God’s love is not withdrawn:
His life within the keen air breathes;
His beauty paints the crimson dawn,
And clothes the boughs with glitt’ring wreaths.

And though abroad the sharp winds blow,
And skies are chill and frosts are keen,
Home closer draws her circle now,
And warmer glows her light within.

O God, Who gives the winter’s cold,
As well as summer’s joyous rays,
Us warmly in Thy love enfold,
And keep us through life’s wint’ry days.



And Fiona W shared this poem:

New Every Morning – Susan Coolidge

Every morn is the world made new.
You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,
Here is a beautiful hope for you,—
A hope for me and a hope for you.

All the past things are past and over;
The tasks are done and the tears are shed.
Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover;
Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled,
Are healed with the healing which night has shed.

Yesterday now is a part of forever,
Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight,
With glad days, and sad days, and bad days, which never
Shall visit us more with their bloom and their blight,
Their fulness of sunshine or sorrowful night.

Let them go, since we cannot re-live them,
Cannot undo and cannot atone;
God in his mercy receive, forgive them!
Only the new days are our own;
To-day is ours, and to-day alone.

Here are the skies all burnished brightly,
Here is the spent earth all re-born,
Here are the tired limbs springing lightly
To face the sun and to share with the morn
In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.

Every day is a fresh beginning;
Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,
And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
And puzzles forecasted and possible pain,
Take heart with the day, and begin again.

Then we walked with words from Romans 8:18-end (From The Message) as we reflected on those in relation to the year ahead. We returned to burn our luggage labels, with our prayers, that had been attached to the shepherd’s crook last year and wrote new prayers for the things most important to us in the year ahead. They will hang over a doorway at Holly House, keeping our prayers always present there till next year.

Steve B led us, then, in the sharing of bread and wine before we headed to Ostello Lounge for much needed hot drinks! Chilly at the bandstand but a good time together!

Peace on Christmas Eve

Julie and Steve led us in a very special time of being together with family members joining us. The following was in our handouts:

 “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (and women) Luke 2:14 (King James)

The story of Jesus begins and ends in peace. The angels  proclaim peace to Mary, mother of Jesus (Luke 1:28) and  to the Shepherds (Luke 2:8-14). And upon his resurrection, Jesus himself proclaims peace to his disciples after he endured great pain and death (Luke 24:36). The  peace of Christ is very different from any worldly peace.  It is not something we can create or obtain by mastering  our own lives. The peace of Christ comes from an otherworldly love and grace: a love that sends God’s son to  earth as a vulnerable baby to show the world what love  feels like.

How in our broken world and our complicated lives do we find authentic and meaningful peace as opposed to manufactured and sugar-coated peace, both  for ourselves and for others?

Image by Julie Barber – A Gaza Nativity

“There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security.  To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself.  Peace means giving oneself completely to God’s  commandment’’. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Opening prayer “Blessed are we, the fearful, though we long to be people of peace. We can’t lie: we are afraid.  Afraid there won’t be enough:enough resources, enough time, enough memories.  Blessed are we who ask you for wisdom,  show us what to turn from, what to set aside.  Come Lord, that we might  see you,  move with you,  keep pace with you.  Blessed are we who ask that this Advent  we might dwell together quietly in our homes. Come, Lord, that we might be for others  the peace they cannot find. Blessed are we who look to you and say, God, truly, we are troubled and afraid. Come govern our hearts and calm our fears.  Oh Prince of Peace, still our restless selves, calm our anxious hearts, quiet our busy minds.’

Peace for ourselves

The above prayer echos  the same wisdom of the ancients who, in  the decades after Jesus lived on earth, saw that when we  bring it all to God there is a mysterious “peace that surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). The former  Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams says that  the good life “is honest about where it lives.” From that  place of honesty, all our instinctual and reactive selves  can be brought to God whose loving gaze is the beginning of the healing we seek. Williams says that it is a  place of both prospect and refuge, “where my rhythm is  echoed, my speech is understood. My face is seen…To be  recognised and recognisable, lifts from me the burden of making myself up.”

So with the apostle Peter we can invite our worried and  anxious selves into the presence of God. This is the intimate space where peace-making within oneself begins.

  “So, humble yourselves under God’s strong hand, and in his  own good time he will lift you up. You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal  concern.”  1 Peter 5:6-7 (Phillips)

‘Peace Be With You’. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be  with you.” They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to  them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and  my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Yet for all their  joy they were still disbelieving and wondering, and he said to them, “Have you anything here to  eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence”.    LUKE 24:36-43 (NRSV) 

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  —JOHN 14:27 (NIV

What are we to make of Jesus’ words when he  says to his disciples, “Don’t be afraid.” Easy for him to say.  God is God after all. But maybe that’s actually the point.  Maybe Jesus knows that something-else-that-is-also-happening too. He understands the bigger picture and has knowledge that all will be well and all manner of things will be well. This is the meaning-making Jesus offers: His  presence at Christmas as God-in-human-flesh, God  with us. As the “Easter risen saviour” who says, “Don’t be  afraid. It’s me!” And then as the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth to be with us even into death and the end of the age. A story far bigger than our fear or anxiety.

Five minutes private reflection

  1. What are some ways you can offer the gift of peace to yourself, showing yourself love and grace? 
  2.  How can you offer others the promise and hope of peace by “passing the peace” this Advent season?  
  3. When talking about peace, Jesus said, “I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27). What do you think he meant? What is the peace of the world? What is the peace of Christ? We sometimes try to console ourselves or others by trying to make sense of our troubles. Do explanations work  for you? Always, sometimes, never? If not, what works better?  Imagine Jesus was sitting with you right now. What would you say to him? What troubling doubts or awkward  questions might arise? What comforts or consolations?

Some thoughts  

Too often peace is something we have half-heartedly prayed for because we are so limited in our ability to dream of peace in a world of pain and chaos. Peace isn’t dependent on outside circumstances and peace isn’t dependent on whether you like or enjoy someone’s presence. Peace is much deeper than  like or dislike. Peace is much broader than getting along. Peace is a promise.

Peace for others

In many Christian traditions, there is a part of the service that includes a time for the congregation to pass the  peace. We leave the comfort of our regular pew (don’t  you dare sit in my seat) to turn to our neighbours and  speak the words, “peace be with you,” and receive the  words, “and also with you.” This tradition is more than a  simple exchange or greeting. It is a covenant, a promise,  shared between believers that they are living towards  the ever-expanding peace of Christ. The act of passing  the peace is one of extending unfathomable grace and  unconditional love to our neighbours, to the stranger, to  the one standing next to us. And often that person is not  one we would necessarily choose (they might not prefer us either). No matter how broken or smelly or don’t-have-it-all-together we might be, we are invited to join in the chorus of those who come in peace, just as Christ taught us.

Sharing of the peace and sharing bread and wine

Ending Prayer

Blessed are we remembering that you hold all things together. You are the invisible scaffolding that supports us, the canopy of love that covers us in the present, the stable pillars, sunk deep into our past and the sparrow that flies confidently toward the future,  bearing for us the peace we could never have attained for ourselves.

With thanks to Kate Bowler

And huge thanks to Julie and Steve – it felt very special, led to touching exchanges in the sharing of the Peace and felt very pertinent to many.

Advent and waiting

This morning we looked at the concept of waiting for and waiting upon, influenced by a wonderful Advent read – see image below – and Lectio 365 recently.

After a moment of stilling ourselves and opening liturgy, we walked with words from Carys Walsh and R S Thomas and returned to share our responses to them. This is what we read:

Frequencies of God – Walking through Advent with R S Thomas – Carys Walsh

The qualities of waiting in Advent are different to that of Lent. We look forward to the incarnation, that has, paradoxically, already happened, as well as to Christ’s coming again, but also to God coming to us now – it is a time of hope with the possibility of joy.

Walsh suggests that it is also a time to ‘recognise those ways in which the heart’s muscle closes and atrophies in the busyness of the year, or in the familiarity of faith forged in a lifetime’s patterning but made almost invisible, through its ubiquity.’

Advent is a time of an ‘expectant waiting with hearts open, hopeful of a richer encounter with God, and uncertain of what this might mean for us. This kind of waiting… may take the whole season of Advent to arrive at a kind of waiting that is more than “waiting for”, that is also a “waiting upon”… This kind of attentive, surrendered waiting may also be the work of a lifetime. Michael Ramsey (the Archbishop of Canterbury 1961-74) is said to have declared that he prayed for two minutes – “but it takes me twenty-eight minutes to get there”.

‘Our experience of waiting may be transformed by the Advent journey, as waiting itself becomes a place of God’s action, and the apparent emptiness in which we sit hums with the presence of God upon whom we wait… This may be a time of learning the contours of waiting, and recognising that as we put ourselves in the way of God, we begin to see in the dark, and discover a presence so profound that we cannot escape it. And as we focus on God’s presence, we may notice the breath of God who breathes in and through us.’

In a country church – R S Thomas

To one kneeling down no word came,

Only the wind’s song, saddening the lips

Of the grave saints, rigid in glass;

Or the dry whisper of unseen wings,

Bats not angels, in the high roof.

Was he balked by silence? He kneeled long,

And saw love in a dark crown

Of thorns blazing, and a winter tree

Golden with the fruit of a man’s body.

After this we had a reading from the story of Hannah in 1 Samuel where Hannah returns with a thank offering after giving birth to Samuel. Two weeks ago the commentator on Lectio 365 wrote:

‘When I experience an answer to prayer, I have a head-on encounter with the reality of God in my life. No matter what other difficulties I face, these miraculous moments act as markers for me, securing my faith. They are reminders that God is powerful, that he loves me and that he will look after me’ (Lectio 365)

So we considered the questions:

What answers to prayers do I look back to that secure my faith?

Is there a thank offering I could make for an answer to prayer?

What do I need to hear from this story about waiting today?

We shared names and situations where people are waiting, in limbo, powerless, yearning and prayed for them:

For those living in fear, under attack or displaced in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, South Sudan, Yemen and so many other places

Jesus be close

For those living as refugees in foreign lands having left loved ones or all they had held dear

Jesus comfort and restore

For those harried by injustice and threat

Jesus save

For those whose marriages or home lives are the source of distress and pain

Jesus help

For those suffering grief and loss

Jesus heal

For those struggling with mental health

Jesus come to them

For those awaiting medical findings, who are afraid

Jesus en-courage

For those dependent on others to bring justice and safety

Jesus advocate

For ourselves with the mission to be salt and light and good-news-bearers

Jesus inspire

Amen Amen Amen

Then we share bread and wine, taking a time to be still, to wait upon God before closing by pointing to one another, as we often do, conferring blessing on one another with these words:

So, in our waiting and yearning and trusting and in gratitude, may the blessing of God, Mother, lover and friend, be upon you and you and you and…

Reflections on a changing season

Sarah H led us this Sunday, challenging us to take a spiritual health audit. Below are some notes from our time together:

As we enter ‘Sweater-weather’ do last year’s clothes still fit? Suit us? What is the state of our wardrobe? Do we always wear the same outfit, or do we like to mix it up? As life seasons change do our spiritual practices or disciplines suit the season we are in? Some practices are comfortable, yet others can feel awkward and just not our style. This season we are encouraging each other to slip on something new, to allow these ways to transform who we are and how God’s image in us is seen by our families and communities. 

Christian Spiritual Practices change us from the inside out. Like a good buffet, tuck in and try a little of something – Taste and See that the Lord is Good. We pray that the Holy Spirit will guide you to pick a practice or two for this season of your life.

Bible Study 

Lectio 365, Read through the Bible in a year, study themes, characters, a book or words using a plan from Bible.com, or Bible Hub. Read a different translation. Study a book using a commentary from a different church tradition.  Watch videos from www.thebibleproject.com listen to a podcast. Dig deeper by learning Learn Biblical Greek | Daily Dose of Greek or Daily Dose of Hebrew – Free Hebrew Video Lessons  

Bible Meditation 
Chew over a text, memorise it, rewrite it. Ignatian spiritual exercises, Examen.  Lectio 365 – 24-7 Prayer International, devotional readings. 

Prayer  
Silent, Breath prayers, intercession (praying for others) www.Prayercast.com, visit a prayer room, attend an online prayer meeting, liturgical prayer (Northumbria community, Anglican, Ionian Franciscan, Orthodox) the Lord’s prayer.  

Posture 
Stand, sit, kneel, dance, raise your hands, open your hands, lie face down.  

Music and the Arts 

Sung or danced liturgy, songwriting, prophetic painting, spontaneous song singing, storytelling, story writing, journalling, film making, meditation on nature, images, films. 

Pilgrimage & Retreat 

Walking to a Church or Sacred site. Stay in a monastery, nunnery, or retreat centre such as Waverley Abbey. Attend a large festival gathering. (Greenbelt) or Scargill Movement.  

Liturgical Year – Decoration of the home for Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Ordinary Time. Celebrating Saints Days, Solstices, Equinox and Biblical Jewish festivals  
Passover, Feast Unleavened Bread: April 23-29, 2024 Pentecost: June 16, 2024 Feast of Trumpets: October 3, 2024 Day of Atonement: October 12, 2024 Feast of Tabernacles: October 17-23, 2024 
The Eighth Day: October 24, 2024 

I have to say that not only was it good to be challenged to get out of our inevitable ruts but I particularly oved the reading Sarah shared from the Book of Wisdom Chapter 7:

15May God grant me to speak with judgement,

and to have thoughts worthy of what I have received;

for he is the guide even of wisdom

and the corrector of the wise.

16For both we and our words are in his hand,

as are all understanding and skill in crafts.

17For it is he who gave me unerring knowledge of what exists,

to know the structure of the world and the activity of the elements;

18the beginning and end and middle of times,

the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons,

19the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars,

20the natures of animals and the tempers of wild animals,

the powers of spirits and the thoughts of human beings,

the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots;

21I learned both what is secret and what is manifest,

22for wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.

There is in her a spirit that is intelligent, holy,

unique, manifold, subtle,

mobile, clear, unpolluted,

distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen,

irresistible, 23beneficent, humane,

steadfast, sure, free from anxiety,

all-powerful, overseeing all,

and penetrating through all spirits

that are intelligent, pure, and altogether subtle.

24For wisdom is more mobile than any motion;

because of her pureness she pervades and penetrates all things.

25For she is a breath of the power of God,

and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty;

therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.

26For she is a reflection of eternal light,

a spotless mirror of the working of God,

and an image of his goodness.

27Although she is but one, she can do all things,

and while remaining in herself, she renews all things;

in every generation she passes into holy souls

and makes them friends of God, and prophets;

28for God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom.

When I think about the theological links between Wisdom and the pre-existenet Word of God – Christ – this reading is all the more wonderful! Thanks Sarah – lots to think about!

Gene Robinson teaching us about Grace and Justice

Last night we had the privilege of watching a 15 minute address given by Bishop Gene Robinson at The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, on receiving his honorary doctorate. We knew of it as Parker was there (currently teaching there) with Kitty and both were blown away by it. Gene Robinson is an alumnus of the university. Ordinarily, alumni becoming bishops are automatically conferred with this award, but in his case it has come 20 years later. The grace with which he receives it and what he has to say is both inspiring and touching. We shared responses for the rest of the evening and also prayed for all suffering injustice and a lack of peace, using the Northumbria Community’s evening prayer. The link to hear the address is here:

https://new.sewanee.edu/news/convocation-kicks-off-family-weekend-2023/convocation-address/