wonderfulexchange

worship: preparing

10 February, 200710 February, 2007 wonderfulexchange13 Comments

If you were to close your eyes and imagine the perfect ‘experience’ of worship, what would it be like? Where would it begin? With the first hymn? … as you walk into the building?… as you kneel to pray?

I have learned over the years that there are lots of moments that lead me into worship and help me engage fully. Everything from walking through the door (platonic ideal: summer in the States, pushing a large wooden door open and crossing from brightness and heat to the cool soft light of the church), to the almost imperceptible pause as I move into the centre aisle and look at the altar (breath in, walk forward…), to taking off my glasses as I settle to pray. These accidental rituals have become part of the pattern of worship that helps me to focus on God.

The patterns depend on location, of course. In a familiar church, there are ritual greetings with the person you meet outside, the woman who hands you the hymnal, the child running towards you up the aisle. Meeting them is part of preparing to worship too. But there is a fine balancing point — we gather together for worship; yet we can’t let the business of gathering get in the way of the worship.

We have to make space for stillness and recollection. Space for God. And we make that space not only for ourselves, but for other people. Continue reading “worship: preparing” →

chester

8 February, 200714 February, 2007 wonderfulexchangeLeave a comment

River Dee

Have just returned from three days in Chester — or rather, one day in Chester, and two days on the M6. The highlight, bizarrely, was said evening prayer at the Cathedral. They kept apologising for the cancellation of the visiting choir. I was simply glad not to be saying it on my own. Normal life (and proper posts) resume tomorrow. Tonight, I have a well fed, but slightly grumpy cat to console.

worth reading

5 February, 200730 July, 2007 wonderfulexchange2 Comments

There are two posts worth reading carefully at Thinking Anglicans.

The first is about the Primates’ Meeting later this month — more specifically, about attempts to prevent the primate of the Episcopal Church of the United States from taking part.

The second is about a Private Members Motion at Synod in the Church of England. The initial motion proposed (among other things) that every parish should ‘ensure a climate of sufficient acceptance and safety to enable the experience of lesbian and gay people to be heard…’ The bishops have proposed an amendment that omits this, and suggests instead that nothing must be done that could be seen as rocking the boat. This seems to be ‘the silencing process’ rather than ‘the listening process’.

I truly wonder what what the words ‘Anglican Communion’ will mean in a few weeks time.

distracted?

3 February, 20074 February, 2007 wonderfulexchange1 Comment

I came across the following last night. It seems to fit in with some of the conversations I’ve had this week about the difficulties of staying focused in prayer.

Ken Kaisch, Finding God:

Look closely at the kinds of distractions that pull us off course. We are likely to find various lists of things to do, things forgotten, memories of past encounters where something was left unresolved. Let’s look at this carefully. Why do we make lists? If we look closely, we will probably find that we are trying to remember to do things so that we can get approval, either from someone else or from the critical part within ourselves. The underlying message is, “You are not good enough unless you do everything right.” How different this is from God’s message to us: “You are my beloved children [with you I am well pleased]”