This evening I had intended to watch the opening ceremony of the Paralympics.  I them remembered that I'd forgotten I was meant to be at the Glasgow Baptist Prayer Gathering.  I have to confess to groaning as I knew the right thing to do was go and pray, because I'd looked forward to watching the ceremony.

Still, off I went, and I'm glad I did.  It was nice to have a musical lead who could not only sing but direct singing, and who knew a wide variety of 'world church' stuff as well as contemporary stuff, and although I baulked at a song that required me to refer to myself as 'a sinful man' on the whole the music was good.

The organisation was such that each church was allocated a table where someone had to sit to guide the prayers being offered and after five minutes or so, the people moved on to another table.  It was quite humbling to lead prayer with people I don't know (or don't know well) and to hear them pray for our church.

In one of the groups who came to 'my' table was a man who was quite excited by what he was experiencing.  In his prayer he observed that he'd never been to such an event before but it was lovely to find out what all the churches were doing and how it was like pebbles being dropped into a pond and the ripples spreading out and overlapping in a beautiful pattern.  I liked that.  It was, for me the most profound moment of the evening.

Yummy cakes and tea afterwards, and a lift home rather than standing on a lonely train platform late at night.  Would still have liked to watch the Paralympic ceremony, but I'm glad I went to the Prayer Gathering to experience some people praying nicely together.

A long first day back at work... but a good one.