Be Prepared – 27/11/22
Musical Prelude: ‘Humoresque’ by Dvorak – played by Abby Lorimier and Peter Crockford
Opening Words for Advent: ‘A Candle of Hope’ by Megan Visser (adapted)
This morning marks the beginning of the Season of Advent.
In the Christian tradition, Advent is the beginning of the church year,
recognizing the transforming power of God in the world;
looking forward toward the birth of Jesus;
and celebrating spiritual light in all its forms;
we know that many traditions have their own festivals of light
in these darkening months as the days get ever shorter.
Each week until Christmas, we will light a new candle on the Advent wreath,
a circle of evergreens, along with each of the preceding candles.
The flame of each new candle reminds us that something is happening now,
but something more is still to come. The light of Advent grows brighter
and brighter guiding us toward personal peace, shared joy, and more love.
So this morning we light the first candle in our Advent wreath.
We light this candle as a symbol of hope and expectation.
May we dare to open the shadowy places in our lives
and memories to the healing light of community.
With the creative power of hope, we express our longing
for peace and prepare our hearts to be transformed.
(light the first advent candle)
Words of Welcome and Introduction:
With the lighting of our first advent candle, with words from Megan Visser, we welcome all those who have gathered this morning for our Sunday service. Welcome to those of you who have gathered in-person at Essex Church and also to all who are joining us via Zoom from far and wide. Whoever you are, wherever you are, however you are – whether it’s your first time with us today or you’ve been coming here faithfully for decades now – we are very glad to see you. For anyone who doesn’t know me, my name is Jane Blackall, I’m ministry coordinator with Kensington Unitarians. I hope you find something of what you most need – a little comfort, or inspiration – here this morning.
Today’s service is titled ‘Be Prepared’ – a topic chosen specially for this first Sunday in Advent, which is traditionally meant to be a season of preparation – and I’m not especially thinking about the material preparations that we might be embroiled in over the next few weeks in order to get ready for the Christmas festivities. It’s supposed to be a time of spiritual preparation. But what might that mean? Well, I was rather taken with this description of Advent, by Christian writer Mark Burrows who said: ‘Advent is a season of rebirth. Advent is not simply a backward-looking celebration of ancient history, but rather a period of spiritual preparation when we ready ourselves for Christ’s birth in us. This season proclaims the coming of God in our lives, here and now. Advent celebrates… a ‘new beginning’, not simply in a manger long ago and far away, but in the realities of our daily lives. God longs to be born among us in our world – and in your life.’
Now even if the Christian language doesn’t quite resonate with you I hope we can take inspiration from that notion of being ready to discover ‘that of God’ in the world around us and in ourselves too. So in the coming hour we’ll reflect on the inner, spiritual, preparation we might do in order to detect God’s presence – however we understand that – breaking through in the run of our everyday lives. How might we make time and space for life’s unexpected mysteries and gifts in this Advent season?
Well, we might begin by consciously taking a moment to settle ourselves in, so we can be here now. Let’s take a conscious breath or two. We make this hour sacred with our presence and intention.
Chalice Lighting: ‘We Prepare for the Future’ by Robin F. Gray (adapted)
Let’s light our chalice flame now, as we do each week. This simple ritual connects us in solidarity with Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists the world over, and reminds us of the proud and historic progressive religious tradition of which we are a part.
(light chalice)
By the light of this chalice
we prepare for the future.
We prepare ourselves
for the times of triumph
and times of trial that might come.
We prepare ourselves to be present
to one another with loving hearts
even in the most difficult of times.
We prepare ourselves
to make the connections
that will lift us out of isolation
and prepare the path of justice, equality, and peace.
Hymn (on sheet): ‘People Look East’
Let’s sing together now. Our first hymn is a traditional Advent hymn, ‘People Look East’. It’s on your hymn sheet and for those joining via Zoom the words will be up on your screen to sing along at home. Please feel free to stand or sit as you prefer as we sing: ‘People Look East’.
People look east! the time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east, and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way.
Furrows be glad! Though earth is bare,
One more seed is planted there:
Give up your strength the seed to nourish,
That, in course, the flower may flourish.
People look east, and sing today:
Love, the rose, is on the way.
Stars, keep the watch! when night is dim,
One more light the bowl shall brim,
Shining beyond the frosty weather,
Bright as sun and moon together.
People, look east, and sing today:
Love, the star, is on the way.
Candles of Joy and Concern:
Each week when we gather together, we share a simple ritual of candles of joy and concern, an opportunity to light a candle and share something that is in our heart with the community. So we’ve an opportunity now, for anyone who would like to do so, to light a candle and say a few words about what it represents. This time we’re going to go to the people in the building first, and take all of those in one go, and then I’ll call on the people on Zoom to come forward.
So I invite some of you here in person to come and light a candle and then if you wish to tell us briefly who or what you light your candle for. We’re asking people to keep their masks on for this candle lighting – please keep your masks on – if you use the hand-held microphone, get it really close to your mask, and SPEAK UP, people should be able to hear what you’re saying. I really want to emphasise this – the people at home really want to hear what you’re saying – and if you don’t hold the microphone really close they simply can’t hear you. So point it directly at your face and keep it right up against your mask and that should do the trick. Thank you.
(in person candles)
And if that’s everyone in the room we’ll go over to the people on Zoom next – you might like to switch to gallery view at this stage – just unmute yourselves when you are ready and speak out – and we should be able to hear you and see you up on the big screen here in the church.
(zoom candles)
And I’m going to light one more candle, as we often do, to represent all those joys and concerns that we hold in our hearts this day, but which we don’t feel able to speak out loud. (light candle)
Time of Prayer & Reflection: based on words by Victoria Weinstein
And let’s take those joys and concerns into an extended time of prayer now. This prayer is based on some words by Victoria Weinstein.
You might first want to adjust your position for comfort, close your eyes, or soften your gaze. There might be a posture that helps you feel more prayerful. Whatever works for you. Do whatever you need to do to get into the right state of body and mind for us to pray together – to be fully present here and now, in this sacred time and space – with ourselves, with each other, and with that which is both within us and beyond us.
Spirit of Life, God of All Love, in whom we live and move and have our being,
we turn our full attention to you, the light within and without,
as we tune in to the depths of this life, and the greater wisdom
to which – and through which – we are all intimately connected.
Be with us now as we allow ourselves to drop into the
silence and stillness at the very centre of our being. (pause)
This Advent, as we prepare for the Holy to show up in our lives, let us affirm:
Divinity is our birthright. God nods to God from behind each of us.
But let us remember, divinity is behind our failures and follies also.
So this morning, let us pray, that we may
notice and accept the Divinity of tiny things;
the Divine of ordinary miracles
and even in the awkward mistakes.
In frivolous conversation with friends;
in wordless companionship with a loved one;
in the work that seems futile one day
but resonates with meaning the next.
In the shared meal, and the shopping list.
In the peaceful sleep, in the simple procession of the days.
We pray this moment to keep tender vigil over our precious, imperfect lives.
To know each one as a vessel, however cracked or broken, of the Holy.
So may we strive to recognize the indwelling presence of God
in all people, in all living things, and even in ourselves. (pause)
And in that spirit let us take some time now to pray inwardly the prayers of our own hearts;
calling to mind all those souls we know to be suffering this day, whether close to home,
or in sites around the world where violence, injustice, and hardship are causing harm.
Let us pray for transformation as we hold all these sacred beings in the light of love. (pause)
Let us also pray for ourselves and our own private needs; we too are sacred beings who face our own daily struggles and opportunities, as we each muddle through life’s many ups and downs.
So let us take a few moments to reflect on our own lives, and inwardly ask for what we most need this day – comfort, courage, or guidance, perhaps – to help us face the week to come. (pause)
And let us take just a little longer to remember the good things in life and give thanks for them. Those moments in the past week where we’ve encountered kindness, beauty, pleasure, or fun.
Let us cultivate a spirit of gratitude as we recall all those moments that lifted our spirits. (pause)
Spirit of Life – God of all Love – as this time of prayer comes to a close, we offer up
our joys and concerns, our hopes and fears, our beauty and brokenness,
and we call on you for insight, healing, and renewal.
As we look forward now to the coming week,
help us to live well each day and be our best selves;
using our unique gifts in the service of love, justice and peace. Amen
Hymn 30 (SYF): ‘Each Seeking Faith is Seeking Light’
Let’s sing together now. Our next hymn is one we don’t sing that often but let’s give it a go. ‘Each Seeking Faith is Seeking Light’ is number 30 in the purple and for those joining via Zoom the words will be up on your screen to sing along at home. I’ve asked Peter to play it through once in full before we sing. Please feel free to stand or sit, as you prefer, as we sing: ‘Each Seeking Faith is Seeking Light’.
Each seeking faith is seeking light,
and light dawns on our seeking,
when clashing tongues combine
to pray that light will shine,
and guide and gather all on earth
in peaceful greeting.
Each seeking faith is seeking truth,
for truth is lived by seeking,
and though our faiths conflict,
no dogma can restrict
the power of truth set free on earth
in honest meeting.
Each loving faith is seeking peace,
and peace is made by seeking
to spin the strands of trust
in patterns free and just,
till every family on earth
is in safe keeping.
Each living faith is seeking life,
and life flows through our seeking
to treasure, feel and show
the heart of what we know.
In every faith the Light, the Life,
is shining, speaking.
Reading: ‘The Chalice of our Being’ by Richard S. Gilbert (read by Chloë)
This meditation by Unitarian Universalist minister Richard S. Gilbert is prefaced with a quote from Dag Hammarskjöld, former Secretary-General of the United Nations: ‘Each morning we must hold out the chalice of our being, to receive, to carry, and give back’.
Each morning we hold out our chalice of being
to be filled with the graces of life that abound –
Air to breathe, food to eat, companions to love,
Beauty to behold, art to cherish, causes to serve.
They come in ritual procession, these gifts of life.
Whether we deserve them we cannot know or say,
For they are poured out for us.
Our task is to hold steady the chalice of our being.
We carry the chalice with us as we go,
Either meandering aimlessly,
Or with destination in our eye.
We share its abundance if we have any sense,
Reminding others as we remind ourselves
Of the contents of the chalice we don’t deserve.
Water from living streams fills it
If only we hold it out faithfully.
We give back, if we can, something of ourselves –
Some love, some beauty, some grace, some gift.
We give back in gratitude if we can
Something like what is poured into our chalice of being –
for those who abide with us and will follow.
Each morning we hold out the chalice of our being,
to receive, to carry, to give back.
Meditation: ‘Making the House Ready for the Lord’ by Mary Oliver
Thanks Chloë. We’re moving into a time of meditation now. I seem to be making a habit of this but I’ve found another delightful poem by Mary Oliver which is just a perfect fit for our theme today – it’s called ‘Making the House Ready for the Lord’ – though as you might expect from Mary Oliver the title kind-of ‘tells it slant’. Perhaps it will inspire you to remember some of the ways in which beauty and mystery have shown up in your life, whether you were ready or not. The poem will take us into a few minutes of shared silence which will end with the sound of a bell. And then we’ll hear some relaxing music from Abby and Peter. So let’s each do what we need to do to get comfortable – adjust your position if you need to – perhaps put your feet flat on the floor to ground and steady yourself – maybe close your eyes. As we always say, the words and music are just an offering, feel free to use this time to meditate in your own way.
‘Making the House Ready for the Lord’ by Mary Oliver
Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed but
still nothing is as shining as it should be
for you. Under the sink, for example, is an
uproar of mice — it is the season of their
many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves
and through the walls the squirrels
have gnawed their ragged entrances — but it is the season
when they need shelter, so what shall I do? And
the raccoon limps into the kitchen and opens the cupboard
while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;
what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling
in the yard and the fox who is staring boldly
up the path, to the door. And still I believe you will
come, Lord: you will, when I speak to the fox,
the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering sea-goose, know
that really I am speaking to you whenever I say,
as I do all morning and afternoon: Come in, Come in.
Period of Silence and Stillness – end with a bell
Musical Interlude: ‘Wachet Auf Ruft uns die Stimme’ by Bach played by Abby Lorimier and Peter Crockford
Reading: ‘Open to Joy’ by Elea Kemler (adapted) (read by Hannah)
This reading by Elea Kemler opens with an excerpt from Jan Richardson’s Advent poem ‘For Joy’.
You can prepare
but still
it will come to you
by surprise
crossing through your doorway
calling your name in greeting…
it will astonish you
how wide your heart
will open
in welcome
for the joy
that finds you
so ready
and still so
unprepared.
Elea Kemler continues: Years ago, at just this time of year, my mother got lost in the North Shore Shopping Centre. The department store where she got lost had gorgeous, vaulted ceilings with huge skylights. My mother said the night sky was so beautiful she kept looking up instead of in the direction her two friends had gone. This was before the time of mobile phones so her friends, unable to find her, and worried she had passed out or been abducted, had security put a call out for her over the tannoy. She was rescued by security guards and all was well. My younger brother was mortified, but I loved this story and I still do. I love that the winter sky, seen through the ceiling of a department store, was so full of beauty and wonder to my mother that she got lost in it.
In the church that I serve, we light the Advent wreath candles to help us remember we are in a time of waiting — waiting for hope, peace, joy, and love to get itself born into this world. By the time we light the third candle, for joy, it often feels like bad timing. Stress levels have usually risen by the time we get that close to Christmas, along with that particular ache many of us feel at this season: a mixture of longing and loneliness, kind of like homesickness, but for a place we have never been.
The old stories we retell at this time of year tell us something important about the nature of joy —that joy can break through like starlight or candlelight in the darkness — but that it is surrounded by the hard stuff of everyday life. Maybe that makes it all the more precious. The stories remind us there is still and always joy in this world, and it is for everyone. But it usually comes right alongside the struggle.
Mary and Joseph make a long, tired journey to Bethlehem, before the joy of the baby’s birth. The Winter Solstice arrives in the midst of the deepest darkness. The joy comes alongside the waiting; it comes alongside the pain and fear and uncertainty, and has nothing to do with ideal circumstances.
Maybe all we can do is issue joy an open invitation and then start paying attention to how and where it shows up. We can be prepared for joy, expect it, and attune ourselves for its arrival. We may just discover that joy is already happening, smaller and quieter and braver than we realized. We may find joy is in the view of the night sky, the smell of coffee, the taste of an orange, the sound of the cello.
This is a difficult season in a difficult year. But let us open ourselves to joy, even so. In this time of Advent, prepare your heart, and let joy find you, however and wherever you are.
Reflection: ‘Be Prepared’ by Jane Blackall
I wonder what comes to mind, for you, when you hear the phrase ‘Be Prepared’? Personally, it makes me think firstly of the boy scouts (and the girl scouts). Baden-Powell, the founder of the scouts, wrote over a hundred years ago that to Be Prepared means ‘you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your duty.’ And more recent versions of the scouting handbook unpack this for the modern day by saying the idea was that ‘Scouts should prepare themselves to become productive citizens and strong leaders and to bring joy to other people. He wanted each Scout to be ready in mind and body and to meet with a strong heart whatever challenges await him.’
That’s a pretty noble aspiration, isn’t it? To be ready in mind and body to ‘meet with a strong heart’ whatever might await us? And many of the writings you find about this Advent season will feature the phrase ‘prepare your heart’ – while doing my homework this service I found dozens of Advent devotionals with that phrase in the title – But what does it really mean to ‘prepare your heart’? What exactly are we meant to be preparing for at this time of year? And how might we go about it?
Well, it’s not the preparation of, say, the ‘doomsday preppers’ and survivalists, those people who are fanatically preparing for (or perhaps precipitating) the imminent collapse of society by stockpiling weapons, ammunition, and jars of preserved vegetables and tinned meat in their outhouses and under their beds. Though I’m not really in a position to judge on the latter point because I panic-bought a lot of tins of corned beef in late 2019 when a no-deal Brexit looked like it was on the cards (it took a while to eat our way through the stockpile).
This sort of behaviour is preparing for the worst – and of course it has its place – if you’re of an anxious disposition one way to soothe your fears about the future can be to put certain mitigations in place. An example: for my whole life people have commented on, and occasionally rolled their eyes at, the heavy rucksack I won’t leave the house without (mum was the same; her handbag was humungous). But if you’re ever in need of a plaster, a painkiller, a needle and thread, a charger, a lighter, or a snack, the odds are pretty good that a rummage in my rucksack (or mum’s giant handbag) will turn one up. We can, at least occasionally, anticipate some of what life might throw at us, and make contingency plans. Being prepared in this sense – being ready for emergencies, large and small, by thinking through various possible eventualities – that is perfectly prudent. I’m the last person who’s going to knock it.
But. The sort of preparation we are called to do in this Advent season is, in a way, the polar opposite of this. Instead of preparing for the worst, at this time of year, we are called prepare for the best.
This next point might sound like a bit of a random tangent but bear with me. It’ll all join up in the end… I suspect many of you are familiar with the (now famous) psychology experiment which has come to be known as ‘The Invisible Gorilla’. Participants in this study were asked to watch a video in which two basketball teams, one wearing white and one wearing black, passed the ball to each other. The participants are told to count how many times the players in white shirts pass the ball (so they’ve been primed to have a narrow focus on this in particular). Mid-way through the video, a gorilla walks through the game, stands in the middle, pounds his chest, then exits. He’s on screen for ten full seconds. And afterwards the participants are asked “did you see the gorilla?” More than half of the participants never saw the gorilla at all. The experiment is meant to show “inattentional blindness”. We don’t see what we’re not looking for (even when it’s a massive gorilla staring us in the face).
In the season of Advent, when we are encouraged to ‘prepare our heart’, what might that mean? Well, I reckon (at least in part), it’s about consciously redirecting our attention towards the most important things in life, be ready, so they don’t just pass us by (you know, like an invisible gorilla). When times are tough, as they undoubtedly are right now for so many people the world over, we can find ourselves grimly fixated on life’s challenges and disappointments, and simply unable to notice the good that’s still present in our everyday lives, alongside all the hardship and struggle. But what would the world look like if we were to ‘prepare our hearts’ to attune to life’s goodness?
Think of our first hymn today ‘People, Look East’, with its imagery of looking to the horizon in a hopeful spirit for what’s coming – love, light, beauty – and making a place ready for its arrival. Or Richard S. Gilbert ‘holding out the chalice of our being to be filled with the graces of life that abound’. Or Mary Oliver’s image of ‘making the house ready for the Lord’ (only, as she hints, the Lord comes to her in the form of mice and squirrels, dogs and cats, sparrows and foxes, and she welcomes them all). These are all metaphors of receptivity and openness – to love, light, and beauty – ‘come in, come in’. In this sense, to ‘be prepared’ is to anticipate, expect, get ready, and ‘look east’ to the horizon – for whatever unexpected arrivals might visit your life next – with a hopeful and receptive heart.
There are some words from Daphne Rose Kingma printed on the front of the order of service which speak to this (the full service text is also on the website). She said: ‘To be available to the mystery means you are open, expectant, waiting — continually poised on tiptoe, prepared to be illumined.’
Or to return to the more conventionally Christian framing of the season that I shared at the start of the service, in the words of Mark Burrows (which I realise might be a bit challenging for some of us), this is a time when ‘we ready ourselves for Christ’s birth in us… the coming of God in our lives, here and now… in the realities of our daily lives. God longs to be born among us in our world – and in your life.’ Even if you find that language a bit tricky, I encourage you to do a bit of inner translation work, and make your own meaning of it. God – or love, light, goodness, beauty, truth, if you prefer – God (in all God’s forms) is already present and at work in our lives. During Advent we are called to see it and be it. To notice where God is emerging in our everyday lives and be ready to join in with all this Godding too.
As the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart says, in the other quote on the front of the order of service (again, it’s all online too): ‘Above all else, then; be prepared at all times for the gifts of God and be ready always for new ones. For God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive.’
It’s not a metaphor that Eckhart would have recognised but you might even think of yourself as a radio antenna or satellite dish tuned in to God – or love, light, goodness, beauty, truth – in the everyday. And in that spirit I want to issue a little challenge – an Advent project for you to join in with, if you fancy – I’m calling it an ‘Advent Treasure Hunt’. Those of you who are present in-person can find a little yellow slip in your order of service and I’m happy to email it out to anyone who’s watching at home but essentially it’s just a little list of dates from now until Christmas. Every day this Advent (starting today!) I encourage you to look out (‘look east’!) for moments when God is breaking through in your life – what I’ve written on here is ‘moments of love, kindness, beauty, truth, peace, insight, mystery’ but feel free to adapt it to suit the particulars of your own theology – and each day make a note on this page, or in a journal, or on your phone. If you want to take this further, maybe take a photo or even a video to represent your daily treasures or ‘God-moments’ throughout the month. And if a bunch of us keep it up perhaps we can share some of our reflections and photos with a follow-up congregational service early in the New Year. Sharing all the treasures we’ve noticed. If you do give this a go please don’t let it become burdensome – if you miss a day or two you can always return to it without any guilt – nobody’s going to tell you off. Let us know how you get on.
And to close, I invite you to join in setting an intention for the Advent season with some prayerful words from Victoria Weinstein, an echo of the prayer we prayed together earlier in the service:
Let us pray that we may notice and accept the Divinity of tiny things;
the Divine of ordinary miracles and even in the awkward mistakes.
We pray this moment to keep tender vigil over our precious, imperfect lives.
To know each one as a vessel, however cracked or broken, of the Holy.
So may we strive to recognize the indwelling presence of God
in all people, in all living things, and even in ourselves.
May it be, so for the greater good of all. Amen.
Hymn 165 (SYF): ‘The Spirit Lives to Set Us Free’
Time for our last hymn. It’s a cheery one to end with: ‘The Spirit Lives to Set Us Free’ (also known as ‘Walk in the Light’). It’s number 165 in your hymn books, and the words will also be up on screen, so once again feel free to sit our stand as you prefer as we sing.
The Spirit lives to set us free,
walk, walk in the light.
It binds us all in unity,
walk, walk in the light.
Walk in the light, (3 times) walk in the light of love.
The light that shines is in us all,
walk, walk in the light.
We each must follow our own call,
walk, walk in the light.
Walk in the light, (3 times) walk in the light of love.
Peace begins inside your heart,
walk, walk in the light.
We’ve got to live it from the start,
walk, walk in the light.
Walk in the light, (3 times) walk in the light of love.
Seek the truth in what you see,
walk, walk in the light.
Then hold it firmly as can be,
walk, walk in the light.
Walk in the light, (3 times) walk in the light of love.
The Spirit lives in you and me,
walk, walk in the light.
Its light will shine for all to see,
walk, walk in the light
Walk in the light, (3 times) walk in the light of love.
Sharing of News, Announcements, Introductions
Thanks to Jeannene for tech-hosting and Maria for co-hosting. Thanks to Chloë and Hannah for reading. Thanks to Peter and Abby for playing for us. For those of you who are at church in-person, Marianne will be serving coffee, tea and biscuits after the service, if you want to stay for refreshments – thanks Marianne – and thanks Liz for greeting. Please speak to Liz or Marianne if you can help out in future weeks. There will be virtual coffee time on Zoom too so do hang around for a chat.
We have various small group activities for you to meet up. Coffee morning is online at 10.30am Wednesday. There are still spaces left for our Heart and Soul gatherings (online Sunday/Friday at 7pm) and this week’s theme is ‘Books’. Our service next Sunday will be hybrid once again and there will be a special free gift for those who turn up (in-person or online). And save the date for the next in-person poetry group which will be on Wednesday 7th December (not this week, the week after). You can have a word with Brian if you want to know more about the poetry group. Details of these activities and all our other events are on the back of the order of service and also in the Friday email.
Looking further ahead – our main Christmas carol service will be on Sunday 18th December – and we’ll have a quartet of singers on that day – so do feel free to bring friends who’d like a singalong. There’ll also be our traditional candlelit service at 5pm on Christmas Eve – and Heidi has kindly offered to organise dinner at the Mall Tavern, the pub across the road, after that service for anyone who’d like to join her – so please do get in touch with ASAP so she can book up. The West London Green Spirit group are going to have a Winter Solstice gathering on Wednesday 21st December – I think this is an afternoon gathering but details TBC – get in touch with Sarah to let her know if you plan to be there. Looking even further ahead I’m planning to offer a workshop on New Year’s Eve – an online mini-retreat from 2-5pm – where we can reflect on the turning of the year. Get it in your diaries and I’ll let you know how to sign up nearer the time. All are welcome so tell your friends.
The congregation very much has a life beyond Sunday mornings; we encourage you to keep in touch, look out for each other, and do what you can to nurture supportive connections.
I think that’s everything. Just time for our closing words and closing music now.
Benediction: based on words by Andy Pakula
As you prepare to leave this sacred space
Pack away a piece of this church in your heart.
Wrap it carefully like a precious gem.
Carry it with you through the joys and sorrows of your days –
Let its gentle glow strengthen you, warm you, remind you of all that is good and true
Until we gather here again in this home of love. Amen.
Closing Music: ‘Joyeuse’ by Squire played by Abby Lorimier and Peter Crockford
Rev. Dr. Jane Blackall
Sunday 27th November 2022
