Mark, Carolyn and I joined Will and Katie at Church of the Sojourners (a Christian community) for their Sunday worship service. Will gave the sermon, and had us sing Child of Grace as part of it. It was a lovely sermon in the midst of a lovely service, and I hope he'll post the text, or at least excerpts. Katie was an exceptionally gracious host and clued us in on the proceedings.
I was touched by how warmly we were welcomed as visitors, but I was even more moved by how lovingly the members treated each other, particularly the children. The children were present for a few songs, communion bread, dinner and scripture reading. Then there was a time for them to tell an adult about something good that showed that God was working in their lives, and the adult shared it with the group. Then the adults were asked to give affirmations to the kids. How great for children to have that many adults looking for what they're doing right! The kids went off for their own activities while we continued with more scripture, Will's sermon, singing, prayers and affirmations for the adults, and communion wine.
There is an old Quaker query that meetings use to examine the state of their community: How have love and unity fared among you? At the Church of the Sojourner, love and unity are faithfully tended.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
More Singing
We got to welcome Natalia back on Friday with a potluck, viewing Awake My Soul, and a bit of singing. Natalia mistakenly thought we loved her baking more than her company, and arrived very late with still-not-quite-cooked pumpkin pie. She finished them off in Carolyn's oven, and they were delicious. Next time, though, I hope she will give up the culinary fight and grace us with her presence.
Monday brought the joys of our regular weekly singing. While I agree with Betty that we should be proud of ourselves for the previous week, being merely regular people, I was thrilled to have our front benches back in order. And we got to meet Kevin who was here on business, lucky us. In addition to being one of my favorite bloggers AND an awesome photographer, he's an outstanding tenor, and therefore my favorite person of the evening!
Monday brought the joys of our regular weekly singing. While I agree with Betty that we should be proud of ourselves for the previous week, being merely regular people, I was thrilled to have our front benches back in order. And we got to meet Kevin who was here on business, lucky us. In addition to being one of my favorite bloggers AND an awesome photographer, he's an outstanding tenor, and therefore my favorite person of the evening!
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Fettered and Chained Up in Clay
I was at a retreat at Quaker Center a couple of weeks ago on "Nurturing Vocal Ministry." It was sort of a strange place to find myself, as vocal ministry hasn't been a priority for me. I went because a friend asked me to go, and was surprised to find the workshop to be personally useful.
Over the course of the weekend, I found myself coming back yet again to a message in meeting for worship from a few months ago. A person spoke about a conversation she'd had with her daughter. The children had been discussing ministry in first day school. The children were learning that unprogrammed Quakers don't have designated ministers, because we are all ministers, and speak in meeting when prompted by the spirit. This friend's daughter said that it was more than just speaking in meeting, that "a person's whole life is their ministry."
That ministry has become one of those touchstone messages, one that I return to again and again to keep myself on track. One of the recurrent themes that message touched on was the idea of stewardship. I've been thinking, in my typical scattered and circular manner, about stewardship of many kinds of resources: environmental, financial, and personal resources of time, health, talent, and energy. I've been especially pondering the spiritual underpinnings of the choices I make with regards to those resources. And I've been finding it nearly impossible to write about any of it, or speak about much of it.
One reason for my inarticulateness is that whatever changes I've made in my life are so small and not really established as routine. I worry about seeming self-righteous, hypocritical, and/or just plain silly if I talk or especially write about any of it. To deem any of what is working in me now as ministry seems the height of hubris. And yet I don't know what I think, where I'm being led, if I can't put it into words somehow.
So where is Spirit leading me right now? To the best of my ability to discern, it seems that I am being led to question assumption after assumption about how I live my life. I'm going to attempt to address this in an on-going series of posts.
Over the course of the weekend, I found myself coming back yet again to a message in meeting for worship from a few months ago. A person spoke about a conversation she'd had with her daughter. The children had been discussing ministry in first day school. The children were learning that unprogrammed Quakers don't have designated ministers, because we are all ministers, and speak in meeting when prompted by the spirit. This friend's daughter said that it was more than just speaking in meeting, that "a person's whole life is their ministry."
That ministry has become one of those touchstone messages, one that I return to again and again to keep myself on track. One of the recurrent themes that message touched on was the idea of stewardship. I've been thinking, in my typical scattered and circular manner, about stewardship of many kinds of resources: environmental, financial, and personal resources of time, health, talent, and energy. I've been especially pondering the spiritual underpinnings of the choices I make with regards to those resources. And I've been finding it nearly impossible to write about any of it, or speak about much of it.
One reason for my inarticulateness is that whatever changes I've made in my life are so small and not really established as routine. I worry about seeming self-righteous, hypocritical, and/or just plain silly if I talk or especially write about any of it. To deem any of what is working in me now as ministry seems the height of hubris. And yet I don't know what I think, where I'm being led, if I can't put it into words somehow.
So where is Spirit leading me right now? To the best of my ability to discern, it seems that I am being led to question assumption after assumption about how I live my life. I'm going to attempt to address this in an on-going series of posts.
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