Readings
Lost
Think of a time when you were lost,
A time, as a child, when you wandered away from your parents,
When you took the wrong turn and your surroundings were no longer familiar,
Or when you were in a wilderness without a well-worn path,
Or in a deep dense fog without a horizon or landmark.
The sacred in the everyday
This space is sacred because of the faith, hopes, and dreams of those who went before us…
This time is sacred because we have set it apart for worship…
And we are sacred because we all bear the imprint of the divine.
Divine Spirit, who turns the ordinary into the sacred, be
Inner peace
Let us be quiet in our hearts as is…
The still cormorant watching from the sunlit rock,
The tranquil sea fret stealing over the water,
The gentle wave caressing the shingle,
The sea campion motionless in her gown of white.
For these are the mute harbingers of a loving God…
And the promise of
Christmas
Bethlehem is wherever a baby is born and wonder-filled parents enjoy the moment.
Bethlehem is wherever new lives are birthed and nurtured towards independent being.
Bethlehem is wherever renewed spirit and fresh perspective emerge from out the human shadows.
Bethlehem is wherever human imagination unfolds into stories and sculptures and symphonies.
Bethlehem is wherever seeds
Easter
We look, this Easter, to rise above tombs of unreasonableness:
From the tomb which confines God to supernatural orders,
Let God rise respecting nature’s universal laws.
From the tomb of literalism and exclusivism and fanaticism,
Let rise imagination and inclusiveness and co-operation.
From the tomb where we hear nothing but our own
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
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall
We see barriers erected between people of different lands.
We see sheets of steel and towers of concrete called ‘Protection’.
We see boundaries policed.
Watch men, women and children running from hunger and persecution,
looking for a gap in the wall………
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…………
We see walls of fear