Carrying the sky

This morning I carried the sky down to church and this afternoon I have been creating the stars. o I've not got ideas above my station! I've been getting ready for our scratch nativity. We've invited ALL the congregation to come along dressed up for the nativity if they want to (I know there are some who DO want to and equally those who REALLY don't!). I'm going to be a shepherd. I've got a sheep and everything! Wel actually I'm still working on my crook - having not plucked up the courage to ask the bishop if he had a spare one!!

The stars are for part of our intercessions. We're asking people to write their prayers on the back of a star and then we're going to hang them in front of the blue background as a sign of our faith, as St Paul describes it, "shining as stars in the darkness of this world."

I may manage a picture of it for you tomorrow!

If I don't get back on here though...

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Common-ion

We had the story of the feeding of the 5,000 in church at the Eucharist today and it made me revisit some thoughts I had a while back but never blogged.

I was thinking how good it was that the focus for community in the Christian church is the common meal and that the meal Jesus asked us to particularly remember him at was one involving the simple things in life - bread and wine (mixed with water).

Holy Communion commemorates Jesus' supper with his friends and it is a meal that welcomes all.

Jesus shared meals with people on many occasions (I know there are people who've studied this in much greater depth) but it is the simple meal that we commemorate and recreate. It is a meal we can all participate in.

It's not Jesus' first meal; where he turned water into wine. Jesus did not call people to recreate that miracle each time they gathered which makes life a lot easier. Nor did Jesus ask us to remember him by taking five loaves and two fish and sharing them between five thousand people sat in groups of 50 and 100; I'm not sure which bit would be more of a challenge let alone how we'd approach the issue of welcoming vegetarians or people with fish allergies to the common meal.

No, instead of all these, Jesus chose instead the simple answer (and yet deep in meaning) as was so often the case. It was after sharing bread and wine that Jesus told us to "do this in remembrance of me" and many of us can and do across the world everyday.