Among my more odd practices is to throw in the odd 'marmite' service, a phrase that arose from a comment made by one of my lovely Dibleyites when I said of a service 'people will love it or hate it.'  I think today was a marmitic Sunday, and I loved it!

Morning worship was my first official outing to Sunday School, leaving the adults in the very capable hands of one of my Worship Team.  The way it worked was that I led the start of the service up as far as the All Together slot and then left with the children.  I had a whale of a time (appropriate given our 'animal' theme) and I am looking forward to listening to the podcast of the adults second half, which the hints are was excellent.  One of the things we used was an 'urban' form of All Things Bright and Beautiful to which we added a verse created from ideas made by the congregation... alas the words are at church and I'm not but I do recall it had squirrels, dalmatians and dinosaurs all worshipping God.  I even discovered one of my primary teachers and my resident oncology professor are dab hands at extempore hymn-writing...  Great fun!

Here's the published urban version:

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

1  The fountains' water spouting,
The trees in city squares,
The flowers in window boxes
And shrubs by hotel doors.
Chorus

2  The ducks and swans and pigeons
The poodles and the cats;
The great beasts in their cages,
And guinea pigs in flats.
Chorus

3  The leaves that fall in autumn
In shades of red and brown,
The wind that blows them on the paths
Of parks about our town.
Chorus

4  The clouds above the rooftops,
The ever-changing light;
The sun that dries the pavements
Where rain sweeps down at night.
Chorus

Verses by Yvonne Tomes (fl. 1970) Chorus by Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895) © National Christian Education Council

Evening worship was 'a singing free act of worship' which used some recorded music, some pictures of Jesus and a variety of multi-sensory options for people to engage with (or not).  It was gently paced (I think) and I had lots of good, positive feedback.  No-one vocalised objections to not singing (they had been warned beforehand) so I think I got away with it... in any case, next week is a favourite hymn service so all singing (and no dancing!!).  I don't suppose it suited everybody who came along, but no-one walked out, so that's a good thing.

For me a good day, and now I'm 'good tired.'

I love marmite....