Ordinary Time – 28/1/24

Musical Prelude: The Ash Grove – Traditional (played by Holly Redshaw and Andrew Robinson)

Opening Words: ‘This Common, Sacred Space’ Amy McKenzie Quinn

Welcome to this common, sacred space.
Common, because we are all welcome.
Sacred, because here we transform
the ordinary and attend to the profound.

We carry with us our regrets, doubts, fears, stories, laughter;
may they inspire and enrich our time of worship.
May we each meet what we need most to find,
On this day, in this common, sacred space. (pause)

Words of Welcome and Introduction:

These opening words by Amy McKenzie Quinn welcome all 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. For anyone who doesn’t know me, my name is Jane Blackall, and I’m Minister with Kensington Unitarians. I’m glad you made it here today.

This morning’s service is titled ‘Ordinary Time’ – in the more traditional churches this is a term which refers to Sundays which aren’t in one of the big church seasons – it’s not Christmas, it’s not Easter, it’s not Advent, it’s not yet Lent – it’s the ‘none of the above’ of the church year. I chose this theme for today as I wanted to acknowledge that it’s the morning after the night before – yesterday we had the big occasion of our Induction Service – and now we’re back to normality (whatever that means). So today’s service is a celebration of the ordinary – the miracle of the ordinary – and later in the service (in the bit where there would usually be a sermon) there’ll be an invitation for you to come up and share your personal reflections on the joys of the ordinary and the mundane sides of life. (And don’t worry, it’s an invitation and not an obligation, but I would love to hear your insights).

But before we go any further let’s take a moment to get settled and centred and ready to worship. It’s been a big weekend for our community, with lots of hubbub and excitement, and now we find ourselves back at Sunday morning, so we can come back to our regular rhythm once again. This is an hour in which we can catch up with ourselves. Be grounded and present. So just breathe. Be here now, with your whole self, in this beloved community, as we attend to what matters most in life.

Chalice Lighting: ‘Remembering Our Unity’ by Katie Romano Griffin (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 this gathering is part.

(light chalice)

May the flame of this chalice, the symbol of our faith,
connect us to all who have come before us,
all who are part of our community today,
and all who are yet to come into being.
May it serve as a reminder of our unity
and connection across all time and space.

Hymn 146 (green): ‘True Simplicity’

Let’s sing together now. Our first hymn is number 146 in the green hymnbooks: ‘True Simplicity’. For those joining via Zoom the words will be up on screen. Feel free to stand or sit as you prefer.

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free;
‘Tis the gift to know just where we want to be;
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To greet all as friend we shan’t be ashamed:
To turn, turn, will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning, we come round right.

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ‘tis the gift to be free;
‘Tis the gift to share our common destiny;
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,
To greet all as friend we shan’t be ashamed:
To turn, turn, will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning, we come round right.

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. Please do get up close to the microphone as that will help everyone hear (including the people at home). You can take the microphone out of the stand if it’s not at a good height and have it microphone pointing right at your mouth. And if you can’t get to the microphone give me a wave and I’ll bring it over to you. 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 Tamara Lebak

Let’s take those joys and concerns into an extended time of prayer. This prayer is based on some words by Tamara Lebak. 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. (pause)

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)

We gather this day to be reminded of the sacred in the ordinary.
The holy moments of waking yet again to a new day.
The feel of the earth beneath our feet
The sun and the breeze on our skin
The joy of being welcomed by our fellow travellers
The warmth of this gathered community.

Help us this day to be fully present in our living,
awake to each breath, attentive to the possibilities.
Remind us that Life is taking place in the in-between,
the seasons of lethargy, disappointment, and frustration,
as well as in our lofty goals and peak experiences.
Remind us that the detours and the details
craft the path, and make it our own.

Help us to remember that we did not make this day.
But that we have the pleasure to greet each moment as it unfolds;
To reach out and embrace it wholeheartedly as though it were
an honoured guest who has come a long way just to see us (pause)

In our company this morning, and every time we gather in community,
there will be those among our number who are suffering, in body, mind, and spirit;
and we know too well that there is much struggle, hardship, illness and injustice the world over.
Let us spend a moment directing prayers of loving-kindness for those who suffer this day. (pause)

In our company this morning, and every time we gather in community,
there will be those among our number whose hearts are full and overflowing;
uplifted by family and friends, inspired by nature and culture, engaged in meaningful work.
Let us spend a moment directing prayers of gratitude for all that is good in our lives. (pause)

In our company this morning, and every time we gather in community,
there will be those among our number who are just getting by as best they can:
stumbling through life’s endless ups and downs and seeking to discern the next step forward.
Let us spend a quiet moment asking for what we need to face all that life brings our way. (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 249 (green): ‘Life’s Great Gifts’

Let’s sing together again now. Our next hymn is number 249 in the green book, ‘Life’s Great Gifts’. The words will be up on screen.

Life is the greatest gift of all
The riches on this earth;
Life and its creatures, great and small,
Of high and lowly birth:
So treasure it and measure it
With deeds of shining worth.

We are of life, its shining gift,
The measure of all things;
Up from the dust our temples lift,
Our vision soars on wings;
For seed and root, for flower and fruit,
Our grateful spirit sings.

Mind is the brightest gift of all,
Its thought no barrier mars;
Seeking creation’s hidden plan,
Its quest surmounts all bars;
It reins the wind, it chains the storm,
It weighs the outmost stars.

Love is the highest gift of life,
Our glory and our good;
Kindred and friend, husband and wife,
It flows in golden flood;
So, hand in hand, from land to land,
Spread sister-brotherhood.

Reading: ‘Being Boring’ by Wendy Cope (Hannah)

This poem, by Wendy Cope, is titled ‘Being Boring’, and it begins with the ‘Chinese curse’ – ‘May you live in interesting times.’

If you ask me ‘What’s new?’, I have nothing to say
Except that the garden is growing.
I had a slight cold but it’s better today.
I’m content with the way things are going.
Yes, he is the same as he usually is,
Still eating and sleeping and snoring.
I get on with my work. He gets on with his.
I know this is all very boring.

There was drama enough in my turbulent past:
Tears and passion – I’ve used up a tankful.
No news is good news, and long may it last.
If nothing much happens, I’m thankful.
A happier cabbage you never did see,
My vegetable spirits are soaring.
If you’re after excitement, steer well clear of me.
I want to go on being boring.

I don’t go to parties. Well, what are they for,
If you don’t need to find a new lover?
You drink and you listen and drink a bit more
And you take the next day to recover.
Someone to stay home with was all my desire
And, now that I’ve found a safe mooring,
I’ve just one ambition in life: I aspire
To go on and on being boring.

Reading: ‘A Quiet Life’ by Baron Wormser (Brian)

What a person desires in life
is a properly boiled egg.
This isn’t as easy as it seems.
There must be gas and a stove,
the gas requires pipelines, mastodon drills,
banks that dispense the lozenge of capital.
There must be a pot, the product of mines
and furnaces and factories,
of dim early mornings and night-owl shifts,
of women in kerchiefs and men with
sweat-soaked hair.
Then water, the stuff of clouds and skies
and God knows what causes it to happen.
There seems always too much or too little
of it and more pipelines, meters, pumping
stations, towers, tanks.
And salt-a miracle of the first order,
the ace in any argument for God.
Only God could have imagined from
nothingness the pang of salt.
Political peace too. It should be quiet
when one eats an egg. No political hoodlums
knocking down doors, no lieutenants who are
ticked off at their scheming girlfriends and
take it out on you, no dictators
posing as tribunes.
It should be quiet, so quiet you can hear
the chicken, a creature usually mocked as a type
of fool, a cluck chained to the chore of her body.
Listen, she is there, pecking at a bit of grain
that came from nowhere.

Reading: ‘Any Morning’ by William Stafford (???)

Just lying on the couch and being happy.
Only humming a little, the quiet sound in the head.
Trouble is busy elsewhere at the moment, it has
so much to do in the world.

People who might judge are mostly asleep; they can’t
monitor you all the time, and sometimes they forget.
When dawn flows over the hedge you can
get up and act busy.

Little corners like this, pieces of Heaven
left lying around, can be picked up and saved.
People won’t even see that you have them,
they are so light and easy to hide.

Later in the day you can act like the others.
You can shake your head. You can frown.

Meditation: ‘Content with an Ordinary Life’ by Lao Tzu

Thanks ??, Brian, and Hannah. We’re moving into a time of meditation now. I’m going to share just a very short quote from the Tao Te Ching for you to ponder. The quotes will take us into 3 minutes of silence which will end with the sound of a bell. Then we’ll hear some meditative music from Holly and Andrew. So let’s each do what we need to do to get comfortable – adjust your position if you need to – put your feet flat on the floor to ground yourself – close your eyes. As we always say, the words are an offering, feel free to use this time to meditate in your own way. Lao Tzu wrote:

The simplest pattern is the clearest.
Content with an ordinary life,
you can show all people the way
back to their own true nature.

(pause, then repeat)

Let’s take those words from the Tao Te Ching into a time of shared stillness now.

Period of Silence and Stillness (~3 minutes) – end with a bell

Interlude: Cradle Song – Frank Bridge (played by Holly Redshaw and Andrew Robinson)

Reading: ‘Ordinary Time’ by Rev. Heather Rion Starr (adapted) – read by Julia

It has been a long, full, amazing, intense year of celebrations and events in our lives, this past year. We got married, went on our honeymoon, left our jobs, had a baby, moved across the country, started a new job, unpacked, celebrated winter holidays, and my partner Cathy got ordained. Whew. We are thrilled to now be entering what we like to call “The Year of Uneventfulness.”

I also like to think of these days we’re settling into as “Ordinary Time,” and I love the term. I’ve been mulling it over for the past week. A friend asked me the other day about Life With Baby, she asked “Does it feel like it’s flying by?” My first response was still to recall the first four months, during which I sometimes had days that felt interminable – far from “flying by.” I remember clearly the days when Robin would only fall asleep during the daytime in my lap, and so I’d just sit in the blue cushioned rocker by the window for hours. And hours. I tried not to count the hours because I do believe that “a watched pot never boils” and counting the hours until Cathy would get home from work only made the day seem longer. Anyway those days did not fly by.

But now that Robin is seven-and-a-half months? Yes, it’s starting to fly by. And I appreciate the question, because it made me realize that yes, I’d be quite happy to “freeze-frame” for a while what our lives are like, right now. It feels, dare I say, like we sort of know what we’re doing, the three of us, like we all recognize each other and sort of know how to handle each other. Robin is consistently sitting happily (and stably) by herself and now regularly enjoys playing by herself with something simple like a string or a single toy – sometimes for as long as 15 or 20 minutes, studying it, mouthing it, passing it from hand-to-hand, and so on. I call that “working on her project.” Who knows what she’s already picked up from her Mamas – we like to work on our projects too.

And we certainly have no shortage of projects (does anyone, these days?). But there is something so absolutely calming about realizing that these are all just the ordinary projects of life. We have lots to do – laundry, dishes, cleaning up, cooking, prep work for upcoming events and trips, appointments and errands, forms and bills, taxes and still more unpacking and sorting. But finally it is Ordinary Time. These are the tasks of living. We are so lucky to have all that we have, the components of our lives that we could so easily take for granted – each other, our lively kid, two cantankerous cats, an home we like in a neighbourhood we love, our health, meaningful work, supportive families, our eclectic and ever-growing communities of friends. Ordinary Time means appreciating What Is, appreciating all this ordinary extraordinaryness.

Our tax returns are due soon. Lent is nearly upon us. Spring is on the way. These are all significant dates on the calendar – your own calendar may have lots of other important dates on it. And, at the same time, what I wish for all of us are more uneventful, ordinary days. Days that end with a deep breath of gratitude. Days that end with a sense of simple satisfaction. Life is an ongoing list of things to do, for sure, but as the saying goes, “Life is what happens to us while we’re busy making other plans.” May we all savour the life that happens on our ordinary days.

Sharing our Reflections on ‘Ordinary Time’

Thanks Julia. So we have eight to ten minutes now to share our own brief reflections and experiences on ‘ordinary time’. I invite anyone who wants to join in to come up to the mic in turn, and we’ll do it like our joys and concerns, except we are going to try and mix and mingle in-person and online, people online can chip in as you’d like, unmute and speak up when you’re ready.

As always there’s a balance to be struck; I’m not sure how many people will want to join in, and I don’t want to inhibit anyone’s sharing, but do bear in mind how long you’re speaking for so that everyone who wants to join in can get a chance to do so. Just to let you know this will be default stay in the service recording; if you want to be edited out let me know straight after the service as I’ll edit the video later this afternoon. And as with everything else it’s an invitation not an obligation.

(people come up and speak out )

If everyone who wants to speak has spoken – thank you for your contributions – and to wrap up our sharing I would just like to offer just one last note of encouragement from the writer Alan Epstein:

‘Celebrate the ordinary. See the specialness in the little things that would normally go by unnoticed. There are an infinite number of moments like this everyday. The only difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary is your perception. If you find yourself constantly disappointed by life, in a perpetual state of irritation and frustration, if people and situations don’t measure up to your standards, start looking at life one moment at a time. See the value, the beauty, and the love that exist whenever you stop what you are doing and tell yourself that each moment is a kind of hologram — that all you ever need to know about love, all the love that exists and will ever exist, is present right here and right now.’ Wise words. Amen.

Hymn (on sheet): ‘All of Life is Filled with Wonder’

Time for our last hymn, it’s on your hymn sheet, ‘All of Life is Filled with Wonder’, I think the words are new to us but they’ll be sung to a very familiar tune. Let’s sing up in celebration of the ordinary!

All of life is filled with wonder,
so we thank you, God of love —
For the crash of evening thunder,
clearing clouds, then stars above;
For the night that turns to glowing
as we feel the morning mist,
God, we praise and thank you, knowing
every day we’re truly blessed.

For the joy of daily waking,
for the gift of each new day,
For the smell of fresh bread baking,
for the sound of children’s play,
For the ways we seek to serve you
as we work and volunteer,
God we humbly praise and thank you
for your presence with us here.

For the ways we’re blessed with plenty —
love and laughter, neighbours, friends,
Nature’s wonders, seasons’ bounty,
life in you that never ends,
For the ones who’ve gone before us,
giving witness to your way —
We rejoice in all you give us
every moment, every day.

For your love in times of trouble,
for your peace when things are tough,
For your help when hardships double,
for your grace that is enough,
For a stranger’s gentle kindness,
for a doctor’s healing skill —
God, we thank you that you bless us,
and you bless your world as well.

For your presence in our neighbours,
for your love that claims and frees.
For our talents and our labours,
for our faith communities.
For your daily great surprises —
poor ones lifted, lost ones found —
God, we thank you! Hope still rises,
as your gifts of grace abound.

Sharing of News, Announcements, Introductions

Thanks to Ramona for tech-hosting. Thanks to Shari for co-hosting and welcoming everyone online. Thanks to Hannah, Brian, ????, and Julia, for reading and to everyone else who contributed to the sharing. Thanks to Holly and Andrew for playing for us today. Thanks to Liz for doing coffee and Julia for greeting. For those of you who are in-person – please do stay for a cuppa and cake after the service – we have got plenty of leftover cake from yesterday’s festivities – served in the hall next door. If you’re joining on zoom please do hang on after for a chat with Shari.

We have various small group activities during the week. Tonight we have the first session of our Better World Book Club online, looking at ‘A Hidden Wholeness’ by Parker J. Palmer, it’s probably a bit late to read that now if you haven’t already, but if you want to know more about the group or the choices for the coming months you can pick up a flyer about that.

Sonya is back with her Nia dance classes on Friday lunchtime from 12.30pm. Heart and Soul, our contemplative spiritual gathering, is happening on Friday night at 7pm, online. It’s a great way to get to know people more deeply. This week’s theme is ‘Repetition’. Sign up with me!

Next Sunday we have ‘Many Voices’ meeting here after the service on Sunday 4th February – that’s a long-running LGBTQIA+ singing group – allies are very welcome – and congregation members can now go for free. That’s led by Gaynor and Tati, Gaynor is a regular at the Friday night Heart and Soul and an all-round good egg, it’d be great if we could support that. And the following Wednesday the poetry group will be back – have a chat with Brian to find out more.

Next Sunday we’ll be back here at 11am and as yet I have no idea what our theme will be! I’ve not had a chance to think that far ahead…

Details of all our various activities are printed on the back of the order of service, for you to take away, and also in the Friday email. Please do sign up for the mailing list if you haven’t already. 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 Cliff Reed

In the words, music, and quietness of this hour’s worship
we have found connection with each other,
with the Source of Hope at our own being’s core,
and with the Great Mystery from which all being flows.

So, in the week to come, as we return to our daily lives,
may we remember this precious sense of connectedness,
and know that we leave this sacred place with an inner light;
a light to bless and guide us through whatever the coming week may bring,
and through all the unknown gifts and challenges of the days to come. Go in peace. Amen.

Closing Music: Shepherd’s Hey – Percy Grainger (played by Holly Redshaw and Andrew Robinson)

Rev. Dr. Jane Blackall

28th January 2024