Theme “Life”
The ongoing quest
We gather this morning to share a particular kind of community – a community of faith in which each of us is free to quest for our own ways of being spiritual and religious.
We gather this morning to think about how we have done this until now, and how we might do this from now.
We
An alphabet of life and living
A is accepting that there are other points of view to be considered.
B is recognising what is beautiful in ourselves as well as in others.
C is nurturing curiosity in all and everything around us,
D is daring to be brave and speaking out against injustice, not easy to do.
E is enjoying what
The pearl
I stand here before the ancestors,
Empty and hollow
And open to the waves.
I am a shell awaiting the bright
Sunlight to warm me,
The black sea to fill me.
Deep within, a grain of sand so sharp
And fine comes to rest,
While each day, on this shore,
The sun kindles the
Meetings
Spirit of love and life,
Be with us in these moments, as we gather to do the business of the day.
May we remember to listen well, and speak clearly.
May we be present to one another, here in this time, as we are in our worship.
And gathering to do the business of the
Golden threads
We gather the golden threads of life and weave from them a rich tapestry:
The golden thread of common, everyday human life, speckled with small, unidentifiable little decencies;
The golden thread of human pain, and human pleasure, from which together each human biography is writ;
The golden thread of vision, and example set by known
A humble haiku
Dear Poet of Life,
We offer up this simple haiku
as a prayer for difficult days,
when mistakes big and small get the better of us
and we regret our naughty ways,
when we struggle to find peace
and shake our heads at thoughts gone astray.
A candle burns bright
welcoming each one alike,
both
Worship is a patchwork quilt
Worship is a patchwork quilt of people of different shapes, different characters, different sizes, different prejudices, different colours, different enthusiasms, different ages, different moods: all arranged, sometimes higgledy-piggledy, sometimes in arranged groups, sometimes half-higgledy and half-arranged, sometimes crazy.
Worship is a patchwork quilt of patchwork people, joined sometimes by one sewer, sometimes by a
Chalice lighting
We light this chalice as a symbol of the spark of life which abides within us and around us.
May it be as a light in a dark night, a light in a window that welcomes the weary traveller home.
May it be as a light in the hand of a trusted friend, that guides us along