Beauty, surprises and the generous liturgy of friendship and prayer ...

It had not been easy to find a date to go out for a drink together, and I was quite surprised that I was expected at the ecumenical centre reception for 17.00, I even got an sms reminder. Wow we must be having some serious fun ahead of us starting this early. In honour of a night on the town I even put on some mascara - with hindsight this was perhaps not a good idea!
I met with Maike and she took me not out to the bar but into the chapel - that place of course for the real gluttons and wine bibbers! In the side chapel were quite a number of my colleagues gathered very quietly and Maike explained that they simply wanted to say thank you by organising Holden Evening Prayer in such a way that all I had to do was to be there.
I was very moved - hence the problems with the recently applied mascara and the depserate search for a hankie in my bag (I've learnt from facebook they had even discussed this eventuality before my arriving - this of course is what friends are for).
A group of my friends had been preparing for a long time, rehearsing the piano and flute and solo parts since August, tonight was the first time they sang and played together. It was a very beautiful moment, and the liturgy should be beautiful but not perfect. I thought back to Stephen and Sara Padre, Itonde Kakoma, Luke Smetters, Colin Williams, Annie Osbourne, Michael Wallace and many others who have introduced and sung Holden with us since 2004. It is so good to know that the singing will go on, especially as more musicians know the parts. It reminded me of all of those times when I have come to the end of very busy days in the office and felt that perhaps the most important thing I had done was pray with others.
Tonight was truly "leitourgia" - the work and praise of the people, many were involved in reading the wonderful selection of Bible verses chosen by Ruthann, in the music, in the preparation. I know how much coordination that takes so I felt very blessed.
The liturgy is the space that frames our grief, joy, distress and doubt. This was the space where I could finally allow some tears to fall in public as I grieve at leaving a job I love, recognising my failures, seeing too some achievements and simply accepting that moving on is painful at this time. Tonight my tears were for the first time about leaving these wonderful people and this wonderful space, rather than tears about that which is broken in the present and the past. No more struggling is needed. Singing and praying to God held all of us in that moment together in love.
This was the second time this year I have received a sign of pure grace. It is quite hard to receive such creative, simple generosity. But I realised that grace has that capacity to transform and heal. The thirty minutes of tonight's service was a special gift to me, nourishing me with joy despite the tears.
Thank you all very, very much.
And so to Paris where I hope to occasionally say the Beatitudes with others at midday according to the tradition of les veilleurs.
But for now simply gratitude.

Tears - we shall not hang our harps on the willows

The opening worship for the IEPC included a prayer of lament, during the words of the prayer we hummed the tune to from the rivers of Babylon and then in the silence in between one of the young people from Jamaica bent down to a bowl of water and rose, wringing out tears of injustice and suffering. It was moving and powerful. As we moved from the lament further into the liturgy, our humming became singing - "By the rivers of babylon, where we sat down, and we wept when we remembered ..."
As we reflect on and work for just peace there is enormous pain but there is also hope. We will not hang our harps on the willows, we will continue to hum and sing the song, both of pain and of hope.

The story of water deprivation is linked to so many other oppressions

At worship this morning Maike Gorsboth and Christine Housel preached a powerful and moving dialogue sermon, as we marked the international day for the elimination of racial discrimination and world water day.

As we ponder the present day and biblical stories, we cry out with the prophets for justice, and for mercy. The earth and the people are violated. Communities and nations are in conflict. Commerce and power dominate. We seek repentance. We honour the prophets among us. We seek to be and are a part of the solution. We open ourselves to the ways of peace, and we ask God to lead us to become ever-better peacemakers and prophets.

The liturgy also had both poignant and moving moments. Before the prayer of confession a series of people stood up from their places and said phrases like these:

In the country with the world's highest incidence of rape, statistics indicate that a girl born today has only a one in three chance of finishing school, and a one in two chance of being raped.

Those defending justice and human rights often become victims of death threats, assaults, criminalization and murder.

Every year, millions die from poverty – from malnutrition, from the lack of safe water and sanitation, from the lack of medical treatment and health care.

We also fed our prayers on cards in different languages on blue coloured cards through the congregation like a bucket chain to the reader at the front. This way of praying was inspired by one of the arpilleras in our stitching peace exhibition showing a bucket chain. At the end of the service we shared the peace and in the lobby afterwards all shared a drink of water rather than the more traditional post service coffee.

An excellent start to the week.

You can read more about the Ecumenical Water Network's Seven Weeks for Water here. And abotu the World Student Christian Federation's Water Justice campaign here.

And don't forget to read the sermon and the liturgy - where you can also see a picutre of the arpillera.

Women at the table ...

I have just returned from the installation of Rev. Martin Junge as general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. It was a lovely service, with glorious music led by Rev. Terry Macarthur, who is so full of enthusiasm and creativitiy.
One lovely moment I particularly liked was towards the beginning of the service when we sang Tenemos Esperanza. Martin left his place on the front row and came and joined us in the choir, accompanying us on his guitar and leading the singing of the tango rhythym and words in Spanish. It was good moment of the leader being one of the people, it symbolised something but it was also very authentic.
The other moment that moved me was having two women celebrating communion. There were so many women clergy and women bishops processing in alongside male colleagues. It was a colourful and heart-warming sight.
Having two women at the altar was also a real choice. On the United Nations Day for the Elimination of violence against women I was proud of Protestant churches who know that sometimes it is important to set up signs. This was one for me at least. So many photos of church events only have men on them, this said to me gently but surely, we are willing to share power, to give up power to try to begin being more fully a community of women and men together.
Earlier in the week I had listened to what I consider to be complete nonsense on the radio from some male clergy in the Church of England who were putting forward the argument that having women bishops or women clergy discouraged men from going to church. Oh dear they obviously haven't realised how much their own leadership seems for several hundred years to have discouraged men from coming to church - or maybe they haven't noticed.
Anyway this ought to be about celebration. A good, tuneful and colourful service to which some serious thought about signs and inclusiveness had been given. I felt nourished and blessed... and I so enjoyed singing such great music.
Martin also preached a great sermon which you can read here.
Oh yes and I tweeted the whole thing at http://twitter.com/oikoumene
Sorry about my dreadful typing!

Chichester Psalms for Haiti

Last night we attended the wonderful Psalms for Haiti event at the cathedral in Geneva. It was very moving - beginning with an extraordinary noise for 35 seconds representing the noise of the earthquake.
A superlative choir and wonderful readers sang and spoke the Psalms in many forms.
Canon Ogé Beavoir, Dean of the Episcopal Theological Seminary, Port-au-Prince spoke movingly of the Haitian people's spirit and also of their need. the event was a fund raiser for rebuilding the Anglican Cathedral and its related social and educational facilities which were extensive before the quake.

The event opened my ears to Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, which I've never heard before. Last night's choir and organ gave at least as good a rendition as the full orchestra youtube version I've posted here. I also really enjoyed Arvo Pärt's de Profundis and all of the rest of the music and readings - especially the readings in creole. Thanks folks, it was WONDERFUL!
I've posted the full order in French and English here.

A day of blessings and presents

Today was my first day back at work after three weeks away. It was great to meet up with colleagues again and to start the week back in the chapel. As always though after a long holiday there is the slight feeling of re-entry, so I was extraordinarily blessed to return to my office after lunch and discover a card, a huge purple flowering orchid and a great new handbag. To then discover that these presents were from female colleagues at the World YWCA was like an added blessing of sisterly solidarity.

In just over a month the World YWCA and YMCA will holday their annual week of prayer

This year’s YWCA/YMCA Week of Prayer will be held from the November 14 to 20, 2010 . The theme is ‘Women Creating a Safe World,’ which is also the theme of the World YWCA Council and International Women’s Summit to be held in Zurich, Switzerland, in July 2011. The International Women’s Summit will explore the intersection between violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights and the spread of HIV. The theme celebrates women as leaders and co-creators of life everyday. In the company of many faith traditions, Christianity explores and affirms the role of women in creation, nurturing life and reaching out to the other.

I was asked to write six daily meditations for the week which you can find by scrolling down and clicking on the week of prayer booklet link here. And here are the themes for the six days:

Day one: Blessed are those who risk, for they shall be offered safety
Day two: Blessed are those who refuse to violate women, for they
have chosen life
Day three: Blessed are those who recognise and value the unique
talents of others, for they shall succeed
Day four: Blessed are those who raise their voices for health justice,
they shall be heard
Day Five: Blessed are those who build community, for they will be
blessed with belonging 13
Day Six: Blessed are those who dare to change, for they shall be
blessed with the future

Here is the meditation from day two, you'll have to go to the booklet for the questions and prayer. And thanks once more to my wonderful colleagues at the World YWCA for their generosity, support, creativity and leadership. This week they mark their week without violence.

Blessed are those who refuse to violate women, for they have chosen life
But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. (Judges 19:25)
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19)

The Bible text in Judges 19:22-30 tells a terrible story of gang rape. Do the men inside the house listen to the woman's screams as they last through the night or do they sleep? Do they pray for her or for themselves? Do they fear that she may not make it through the night and that the gang will come back to use them in the same way? If the gang comes knocking again, should they offer the virgin daughter of the host in order to protect their male honour?

Well, she was only a concubine. Not a real wife. And she's only a woman…

As terrible as the shrieks and violence during rape may be, terrifying too is the silence often imposed on women - by others or by themselvesafterwards.
Dare we speak and name what has happened?

There is a thumping sound next door, muffled shouts and cries. My neighbour is hitting his oldest daughter. He has been drinking. She is pregnant. How will his sons learn that this is not the way to treat the women in their lives?

And it's called "domestic violence" as if it were something tame. It is not.

The word "home" sounds so safe yet it can be a place of terror for many women.
To "choose life" is to campaign against everything that treats women as objects rather than as equal human beings. Choosing life is about longterm work with individuals, families and societies which examines the root causes of violence in sexism and the feelings of disempowerment.

Across generations, class, race and nations it is time to clearly say that violence in the private sphere is also unacceptable. We have the right to be safe in our homes. We choose life.

Tears before bedtime or actually just after waking ...

My friend, colleague and fellow editor of the Ecumenical Review Theodore Gill has been leading morning prayers this week. As ever the 15-20 minutes he invites us to start the morning with are spiritually uplifting and intellectually stimulating. I try to help as I can with leading any singing that might be needed - though as ever early in the morning this rather depends on whether my voice agrees to behave and whether I know what has been chosen!

On Wednesday morning we had some wry smiles as we listened to the passage from Proverbs 31 on the character of the noble woman! You can find our order of service here.

As we moved into the prayers of intercession I found that tears were splashing down my face. For once I was in the chapel without my bag and so no access to a hanky - it's not really the done thing to wipe your face with the hem of your skirt - certainly not when you have legs like mine! The prayers of reconciliation from Eastern Europe moved me, I can't say too much here about why but they did - it felt to me as if they had been written with my concerns in mind and I felt very much not cut out to live up to such an ideal of forgiveness and newness of life.
I wish I could say that the tears refreshed me but they didn't really. However my early morning chapel tears which sprang from a doubtless deep source of guilt and incompleteness within me were quickly over. For that I am greatful. I have wept too often in recent weeks, indulging in a daydreaming of grief, losing myself in pointless (though it seemed to me very real) pain and sensing no way out or forwards. So perhaps sudden and brief tears are some kind of progress ... I hope so. Not exactly refreshment but getting there.

Daydreaming - Simone Weil

I believe that the root of evil, in everybody perhaps,

but certainly in those whom affliction has touched, is daydreaming.

It is the sole consolation, the unique resource of the afflicted;

the one solace that helps them bear the fearful burden of time;

and a very innocent one, besides being indispensable.

So how could it be possible to renounce it?

It has only one disadvantaage, which is that it is unreal.

To renounce it for the love of truth is really to abandon all one's possessions in a mad excess of love and to follow Him who is the personification of Truth.

And it is really to bear the cross;

because time is the cross.

In all its forms, without exception,

daydreaming is falsehood.

It excludes love. Love is real.

Someone's crying Lord, Kumbaya ...

This week in chapel we have been singing "kumbaya" as a response during prayers of intercession. Dr Manoj Kurian put together a liturgy reflecting on the heaviness or lightness of the yoke we carry ...
He wrote these prayers ...

Song: Someone’s crying Lord Kumbaya

Someone’s crying Lord!
Crying, in Pakistan and China
Crying, hungry, homeless and dispossessed
Crying, oppressed and exploited
Crying of shame and exclusion
Crying in the streets, homes, fields and factories
Crying, abused and violated
Hear their cries Lord
Help us to hear their cries too and share the pain
Help us to respond and accompany our sisters and brothers
Someone’s crying Lord, Kumbaya!

Song: Someone’s dying Lord, Kumbaya

Someone’s dying Lord!
Dying because of neglect and callousness
Dying because of greed and selfishness
Dying because girls and women are taken for granted
Dying of preventable diseases
Dying of unhealthy lifestyles
Dying as lives are cut short by natural and man made disasters
Lord, save humanity from untimely death
Lord, help us to save lives
Someone’s dying Lord, Kumbaya!

Song: Someone’s walking Lord, Kumbaya

Someone’s walking Lord!
Walking the talk of justice and equity
Walking to uphold dignity and respect
Walking the path your Son chose
Walking with and living the joy of people
Walking with and sharing the burdens of communities
Walking the path to unity, in faith hope and love
Help us to walk this journey Lord!
Walk with us Lord!
Someone’s walking Lord, Kumbaya!

Song: Someone’s praying Lord, Kumbaya

Someone's praying Lord!
Praying in tears and anger
Praying in frustration and weakness
Praying for strength and endurance
Praying for wisdom and discernment
Praying for good health and peace of mind
Praying for churches and the people of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
Praying to heal the divisions among people and to ease the burden of history
Praying for the recovery of livelihoods, resurgence of hope and peace in communities
Lord we pray , guide each step we take today
Someone’s praying Lord, Kumbaya! Manoj Kurian

God of Kiwis and Kangaroos and the Dolphin Christ

At morning prayers this morning Lucy D'Aeth wrote us some wonderful prayers - including a great blessing which had the phrase "God of kiwis and kangaroos". Her prayers of intercession were good too. Full liturgy here. Jill Hawkey led prayers and Peter Prove preached a great sermon, about which more in a later post.

We also sang two wonderful hymns I've never sung before. Singing of them made me think once more of Erik Routley's wonderful phrase "hymns are the folk tunes of the church militant". The first was called Where Mountains rise to open skies by Shirley Erena Murray. Here's an extract:

From broken word, from conflict stirred,
from lack of vision, set us free
to see the line of your design,
to feel creation’s energy.

The second new hymn to me is by Colin Gibson and called Where the road runs out
It spoke to me deeply today as we sang it but it also made me smile, I love the line "be the dolphin Christ"

Where the road runs out and the signposts end,
where we come to the edge of today,
be the God of Abraham for us;
send us out upon our way.
...
When the coast is left and we journey on
to the rim of the sky and the sea,
be the sailor’s friend, be the dolphin Christ;
lead us on to eternity.

You can find more details of New Zealand hymns here.
Hymns are the poetry of the church so often today they are replaced with songs. It was good to sing hymns this morning and be enlivened by words and music.

If Mercy, Truth, Justice and Peace were people what would they say to each other?

It's holiday time and to say that there were not many of us in chapel this morning would be an understantement!
We focused in the service on praying for peace as we prayed for the churches in the Caribbean who will next year host the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation.
I decided not to preach a sermon but to "steal" one in the form of a brilliant meditation by John Paul Lederach on an imagined meeting and conversation between Justice, Mercy, Truth and Mercy.

His starting point were the verses from the Psalms:
Truth and Mercy have met together
Justice and Peace have kissed.

The idea that these are not just values but people who can converse, relate to one another and ultimately even dance together is quite brilliant. It is also one Lederach has used to good effect in his work on conflict mediation to transform deep seated antagonism in societies. An act of creative imagination which allows people to speak to one another, to discover their own prejudices and to find a path towards reconciliation.

You can read Lederach's powerful text which I used extracts from this morning here. (scroll down to the part entitled The Meeting) Here's how it begins:

so I brought Truth, Mercy, Justice and Peace into room and sat them down in front of the contentious crowd. I addressed the four. "We want to know what concerns you each have in the midst of conflict. Would it be possible to hear your views?"

Truth stood and spoke first. "I am Truth," she said. "I am like light cast so that all may see. At times of conflict I am concerned with bringing forward, out into the open, what really happened. Not with the watered down version. Not with a partial recounting. My handmaidens are transparency, honesty, and clarity. I am set apart from my three colleagues here," Truth gestured toward Mercy, Justice and Peace, "because they need me first and foremost. Without me they cannot go forward. When I am found, I set people free."

"Sister Truth," I interjected hesitantly, not wanting to question her integrity, "You know I have been around a lot of conflict in my life and there is one thing that I am always curious about. When I talk to one side, like these people over here, they say that you are with them. When I talk to the others, like our friends over there, they claim you are on their side. Yet in the middle of all this pain, you seem to come and go. Is there only one Truth?"

"There is only one Truth, but I can be experienced in many different ways. I reside within each person yet nobody owns me."

"If discovering you is so crucial," I asked Sister Truth, "why are you so hard to find?"

She thought for a while, then said. "I can only appear where the search is genuine and authentic. I come forward only when each person shares with others what they know of me and each respects the others voice. Where I am strutted before others, like a hand puppet on a child's stage, I am abused, shattered and disappear."

"Of these three friends," I pointed to the three colleagues seated around her, "Whom do you fear the most?"

Without hesitation she pointed to Mercy. "I fear him," she said quietly. "In his haste to heal he covers my light and clouds my clarity. He forgets," she concluded, "that forgiveness is our child, not his."

"That all mäy be one"

For morning prayer we often follow the readings also used by the Communauté de Grandchamp. On Thursday and Friday last week, the final days of Eastertide and the days directly preceding Pentecost the goepl readings for morning prayer were from John 17.
We often hear the verse "that all may be one" in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre and use it alot in our work on ecumenism - it is woven in Greek into the tapestry of Christ ascended in glory which covers one wall of our main hall. What was good on Thursday and Friday was listening to the passage in its entirety and realising how the call to be one is repeated throughout.
You can find the order for prayers which my colleague Theodore Gill drew up here. It includes a moving litany for the unity of the church.

The Bible is our pastor

On Friday morning Catherine Christ-Taha and Jean-Nicolas Bazin led prayers as our staff planning days drew to a close. We sang and prayed offering silence and words as we remembered the peoples and churches in Eritrea and Ethiopia as well as friends, family and colleagues in particular need.
We also listened to the whole of chapter 12 of the letter to the Romans. For all sorts of reasons these extremely powerful words resonated deeply with me and seemed like a personal sermon. Perhaps the effect was similar for others. I like the idea that the Bible was ministering to each of us, was our pastor as we listened to and read the same words.
I first remember hearing this passage at my German grandfather's funeral and the final verse was part of the announcement of his death: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Rm. 12:21)
Yesterday morning almost every verse that was read seemed to speak to a different part of my experience and current situation. I felt challenged, questioned, judged and encouraged. If I was writing this in German I would say "Es hat mich bewegt" which seems to say rather more than "I was moved by it". I felt a long way away from the demands of holy and faithful living. I'm a judgemental and feisty person - generous both with insights and criticism, hearing this call to humble and sacrificial living was uncomfortable.
The Bible is there to make us feel uncomfortable as well as to comfort us. Pastors are called to both comfort and challenge in their ministry. The uncomfortable comforting word of God moved me to tears and to joy.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Laughter on hearing the gospel

There is an ancient Easter tradition of laughter - Das Osterlachen in German. I thought about that this morning as we gathered in the chapel for prayers led by Faautu Talapusi and listened to Matthew 6:25-34 read superbly as ever by Theodore Gill. He read the passage in a quite ironic and humourous tone ending:
"So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today"
Perfect for staff planning days!
The gospel made us smile and even laugh out loud, was our laughter "knowing", were our smiles foretastes of the resurrection or just rueful accecptance of the post-modern gap between the gospel call and the day that lay ahead?
Even as I smiled my eyes were full of tears, unaccompanied we had just sung "Here I am Lord" one of our friend Suzanne's favourite songs, but she is no longer there to play for us. I had problems getting through verse three, my voice breaking with emotion.
That morning time play between laughter and tears helped me accept my emotions as both important and as unimportant. The trouble of today may be enough to make me weep but I should not worry about weeping tomorrow.
Laughter speaks so much of something opening up and being released within us and tears are in many ways similar. Perhaps both can be harbingers of resurrection.

The day the peace came - a story of resurrection

Our service this morning focused on peace, the promise and hope of peace. The WCC's general secretary, Olav Fykse Tveit opened and closed the service and also preached a very personal and pastoral sermon on what real peace can mean.
His text was from John's gospel 20.19-23 Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." and he told a story his mother had told the family time and again, the day the peace came to Norway, to Oslo.

One story my mother told again and again with a never ceasing joy in her eyes was the story of when the peace came. It was almost as if peace was a person: with a real presence, coming, being, breathing, staying.

Tveit went on to talk about how the rumour of the peace spread and then could be seen by three concrete proofs: people talking freely with one another on the streets, the Norwegian flag being flown even though it had been banned and the burning of the paper blackout curtains on the streets.

The feeling of what the coming of peace means, can only really be experienced by those who have been living with the fear of war, the burden of injustice, the tension of waiting for the day of peace and new life to come.
The more I see the realities of life for many people in this world, in different kinds of conflicts and injustice, the more the story of when the peace came becomes a story of hope and solidarity: listening to the longing for justice and peace; longing that something wonderful will happen, that it must happen …

At the end of the service just before the final blessing we shared the peace, having just sung "la paz del señor" we moved around sharing the peace with one another. It worked well and was quite moving. In an ecumenical setting we cannot share the eucharist but we can share the peace, it's another way of affirming communion and fellowship.
As the service ended I reflected on how it is narratives of meaning, stories of hope that tell us as much about the resurrection as simply retelling the gospel story. The stories of hope, peace and resurrection that we tell can go on being told after we ourselves are dead and no longer here to tell them. The narrative of hope continues, the story does not end. It's particularly true of stories our parents and grandparents tell us.

Resurrection - Easter, Emmaus and Ecumenism in a sermon by Theo Gill

My own resurrection moment was to be sitting in Cafe Einstein eating my fresh fruit muesli this morning and thinking about colleagues gathering in the chapel and not having to worry about any of it! I do admit that I was a bit sad not to be able to sing one of my favourite hymns "Now the Green Blade Riseth" but it is wodnerful to be on holiday. Yvette Milosevic prepared the service and Theodore Gill preached on the Emmaus text and on Psalm 118: "A Song of Ascents". I wasn't there to experience him preaching but judging by the very approving text messages I got it obviously all went well. [Yes, the stranzblog has spies everywhere! ;0)]
More to the point Theo just sent me the text of his sermon and it was a very enjoyable read and had me chuckling. It makes some very good points about whether we really will all be able to recognise Christ together in the breaking of the bread if our ecumenical fellowship remains incomplete at Christ's table. Easter, ecumenism and Emmaus - are we on the way to full eucharistic fellowship, do we even want to be on that way?
Full text of Theo's sermon can be found here, but here are a couple of extracts:

those two travelers on the road to Emmaus were not the last would-be followers of Jesus to go wandering off on their own, in the wrong direction…
(my wife and I spent Easter weekend in Avignon – a majestic medieval city, but also something of a hiccup in the history of western Christianity… a bridge too far…)
No, they would not be the last to head the wrong way, only to be pulled up abruptly, to be forced to turn around and start over again on the ascent to community.
Nor were these the last disciples to be found standing, sad and dejected, so absorbed in a sense of confusion, doubt and abandonment that they momentarily lost the plot of the gospel narrative. Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, wondered just this past weekend: “Why does the church seem more prone to self-pity than self-reflection?” I believe the answer to that question is that disciples are only human – and we disciples require regular doses of revelation to rekindle our hearts and minds.
...
Sometimes disciples go astray. For more than sixty years, the constitution of the World Council of Churches has held out as a chief goal of our movement the establishment of one, common eucharistic fellowship, so that we together may join in sharing the one bread and together may recognize Christ in our midst. We feature this vision of “one eucharistic fellowship” in our WCC promotional brochures, but…
What have we done about that goal, lately? Have we made six decades’ worth of progress in this area? Or four-and-a-half decades’ worth, since Vatican II?
My wife and I have known one another for forty years. She comes from one tradition of Christianity, and I come from another. Whenever we have taken communion together in the same service of worship, the action has been considered illicit by someone or another. Will we ever share the same bread, licitly? Perhaps at the feast in the kingdom of heaven…? Again, I wonder: What are we honestly doing to hasten the day of a common eucharist, in this life?

'God must be in the detail, not the devil!' - a guest blog

Dr. B writes, "Happiness writes white. It does not show up on the page" - this quotation from Henri de Montherlant opens a book that arrived today from an order earlier this month from Amazon: Notes on Book Design by Derek Birdsall.People of my generation, even if they have not heard of Derek Birdsall, will probably have come across his work, as he designed covers for Penguin Books from 1960 to 1972. It was splendid to leaf through his notes on designing books, with examples of his works over the past five decades or so. One of the most interesting sections, however, is his illustrated account of designing "Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England", the new liturgy book introduced at a service at Westminster Abbey in November 2000. Birdsall was commissioned only in October 1999, so he was working on a tight schedule, and he relates a fascinating account of the decisions he made on typeface, margins and layout.

As a clear distinction was required between the words spoken by the priest, the congregation, and the instructions, the ideal typeface would have equally clear distinction between the roman, the bold and the italic. Early research showed Gill Sans to be by far the clearest ...

He also explains how "Common Worship" came to be the size it is - it had to be long enough for the Nicene Creed to fit on one page (as below), but the most important thing, a priest said during informal "market" research by Birdsall's collaborator John Morgan in a local church, "was to be able to hold the book in one hand and a baby in the other".

(Morgan has posted a PDF about the design process of "Common Worship" here, which shows the care that went into the process - the proofs were sent out to 14 proof-readers - and there was wide consultation for which one response was, "God must be in the detail, not the devil. This is surely true of typography, as much as theology or anything else.")

Almost at the last minute, Birdsall was inspired to form a cross from the book's title, and he also insisted on the use of the word "All" (which the selection panel was ready to drop) before the words in bold for the congregation: "Setting 'All' out in the margin and in red further clarifies the structure, is comforting to those people not familiar with Church services, and adds sparkle to the page."
Birdsall's notes on design also contain reflections on the craft of the designer, for which the last words (on the back cover) are from Logan Pearsall Smith: "The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves."

Betrayal ...

It's a week for thoughts on passionate elemental themes. Manoj Kurian led prayers in the ecumenical centre this morning and encouraged us to think about betrayal.
I realised that the end of Christ's betrayal begins with a kiss, Judas delivers Jesus to the authorities using a kiss of greeting. Does betrayal matter? It is certainly a powerful word and emotion, a feeling most of us will encounter in some way in our lives.
I got lost in thought this morning about the pettiness of much that we think of as betrayal, yet also the deep personal pain that is caused by lying, adultery and simply not bothering to stand up for others when they are under fire.
Then I got to wondering who and what I have betrayed in my life ... of course I cannot think particularly of anyone or anything as I write this. I am clear minded enought to realise this doesn't at all mean that I am a person of exemplary integrity, quite the reverse. I am aware I am not even a person who always tries to do the right thing. My betrayals often begin not with a kiss but with good intentions of some kind - or intentions I like to think of as good ... I want to believe that I am driven by the idea of what is right ... is that what it was like for Judas?

Widowhood ... pain, laughter, sharing - from the story of Tamar to our stories and our mother's and grandmother's stories

Fulata Mbano Moyo led prayers this moring on the theme of widowhood - returning to the theme of her sermon on Monday but with a rather different emphasis. Today we had the rather extraordinary experience of reading the whole of the story of Tamar from Genesis 38. Fulata just shared out the reading paragraph by paragraph with those who happened to be sitting in the row nearest to her- It was strong stuff listening to us in our various accents struggling with lots of strange names and pretty embarrassing subject matter. The story details how the men of one family marry, don't marry but have sex with Tamar, how she has to prostitute herself with great resourcefulness to the most powerful remaining man in her story and how she humbles Judah into saying "She is more in the right than I" once she finally falls pregnant. Her intelligent reading of and acting in the situation finally saves her. However the act of this widow is neverthelss one of desperation, selling her body to her deceased husband's father under the cloak of anonymity.
Fulata once again shared some of her own story of being a widow - how her sons had tried to push her to find them a new father. She encouraged all of us to think about and share stories about widows we knew, to think about who are widows in our societies today ...
During the few moments of our prayers this morning I thought about my extraordianry mother in law who brought up two children on her own; aloud I wondered about the women abandonned by men, left with children - are they in a similar state to biblical widows?
After prayers were over I shared the story of my own mother's widowhood with Fulata, making her laugh. At the end of the day I wrote it down in and shared it via email with those who had been at prayers:

To those of you at morning prayer today, this is the story of a widow I only shared with Fulata at the end - one of the reasons we were laughing - the widow I know best is my mother.

40 days after my father's death she arrived home in the bright red convertible sports car she had just bought ... they had been looking at it together before his death and decided his wheelchair would not have fitted into it ... waiting for her at home when she came back with the car was a package from the undertakers containing my father's ashes.

She decided "he should enjoy the new car too" and placed his ashes in the boot ... and drove with him for quite a while ...

I'm not sure this is a liturgical practice I would recommend (ecumenically or confessionally) but it seemed to help her!

Two other colleagues also shared stories of widowed mothers and grandmothers who had shouldered large family responsibilities alone and done so with great resilience and dignity. Symbols of the strength of widows. Despite desperation the story encourages us to resourcefulness and not to be victims.

Pray for Haiti - Prions pour Haiti

You can find the prayer service here and the sermon here.

Advent liturgies, prayers and songs on the theme of peace

"Telling peace"some new resources for Advent on the theme of peace have just been posted to WCC website. This year the material was prepared in Asia. There is music to listen to and learn all available under creative commons license.
Included are liturgies for the four Sundays of Advent and worship outlines, prayers and ideas. The music is available in MP3 and pdf format.
You can also access last year's Imagine Peace material which was prepared in Latin America.