Sometimes I wonder if I know my folk here at all - they can whinge and moan that we don't sing any golden oldies one minute and be choosing new things themselves the next.  Today we had our largest turnout for ages and people actually said they enjoyed the service, which ran to 90 minutes and was the most creative thing we've done for a very long time.

To start we sang the dreaded 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' (see Songs and Self-understanding post) with only pictures as clues to the verses; the orang utan and butterfly slide for one of the choruses raised a few titters.  Most people wrote a short thank you prayer on a heart shaped piece of paper and when we got to the intercessions it was quite surprising who did pray aloud in the small groups - my little group praying widely and wisely. 

Getting people to try to recall and share the history of our church - in milestones events only - was fascinating and revealing.  For all that people go on about how important it is to know "the 'istory" most had not got a clue of any dates, names or events beyond a certain 19th century writer of awful music whose name I will not mention!  Many seemed quite surprised to learn what little I pointed them to - gleaned from the material I was given when I arrived three years ago.

The 'everyday object' to symbolise the various church-related groups made me smile, not least as two groups had not brought anything and had to scrat around for something.  Two Bible study groups used cups (one pinched off the refreshment table!) because a cuppa is a big part of their meetings, the third offered two - a key, because their newest member (who has only been with us months) is finding the meetings are unlocking new knowledge for her, and a 'share pack' of chocolates because sharing is an important aspect of their meetings.  The women's meeting brought a leaflet on their latest charitable cause, the children's group a bean bag (pinched from the PE store!) and the lunch club a toy bus representing how we transport our folk around.  Some of the explanations were over long, and the main cause of the service over running, but it was good for people to have the opportunity to feel good about their groups and to be feted in church.

Communion round small tables worked amazingly well - a couple of people even commented that they'd really enjoyed it.  The fact that 'ordinary' folk broke the bread or offered the thanksgiving prayer was, in my view, a great expression of our profressed understanding of church.

We ended up with Paul's imperative to leave the past behind and to press on towards the future and sang 'Lord for the Years' before sharing tea and cakes in friendly atmosphere.  Quite a few even undertook the final task of committing to three things they would do as a result of having explored the five core values.

Next week we are back to 'normal' and one of my lay people is taking the service, so it will be interesting to see the church from the back row.