This weekend is one of the contributions the Gathering Place makes to the Glasgow West End Festival - a lovely, gentle, choral communion service for Midsummer.  Always carefully crafted, it gives space for people to realx and be refreshed on the longest Sunday of the year.

It is also a weekend that has personal significance stretching back for my entire ordained ministry, something I wrote about five years ago here the day after a phone call to let me know that I'd been called northwards to begin a new phase of ministry.  Today I tracked down that post and reminded myself of my own story, and the apparent meaningfulness of this solstice time in my story.

It's just as well that when I went to Dibley I had no way of knowing what lay ahead of us, as it was also just as well I had no idea what the future held as I moved north.  But looking back, five years, ten years on it is also good to see how strands of the 'tapestry' weave together to create something precious.

To preside at the Lord's Table is always a privilege, to do so at a time rich in personal symbolism the more so.  I am looking forward to participating in a service created by others as a gift to the weary and worn of our city on the longest, maybe even the hottest, day of the year.

This morning PAYG was using Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 48: 1 - 11 (that's from the middle bit that's not in most proddy Bibles):

Then Elijah arose, a prophet like fire,
   and his word burned like a torch.
 He brought a famine upon them,
   and by his zeal he made them few in number.
 By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens,
   and also three times brought down fire.
 How glorious you were, Elijah, in your wondrous deeds!
   Whose glory is equal to yours?
 You raised a corpse from death
   and from Hades, by the word of the Most High.
 You sent kings down to destruction,
   and famous men, from their sickbeds.
 You heard rebuke at Sinai
   and judgements of vengeance at Horeb.
 You anointed kings to inflict retribution,
   and prophets to succeed you.
 You were taken up by a whirlwind of fire,
   in a chariot with horses of fire.
 At the appointed time, it is written, you are destined
   to calm the wrath of God before it breaks out in fury,
to turn the hearts of parents to their children,
   and to restore the tribes of Jacob.
 Happy are those who saw you
   and were adorned with your love!
   For we also shall surely live.

(NRSV from Oremus Bible browser online)

An interiguing summary of the long and complex story of a very human and fallible man.  I found encouraging rather than troubling (as PAYG suggested it to be), reminding me that for all my preoccupation with my stumbles and bumbles, mess ups and 'if only' moments, for all the times I get irritable or stressed and wish I didn't, there is a much bigger story that is part of God's story and it's one that is ultimately good news.

As I sit at my desk this morning working my way through a substantial To Do list (making good progress and enjoying ticking things off the list!) there are council workers making speed bumps (which should surely be called slow bumps) outside in the street.  Given the very short stretch of road with 'give way' lines at either end, it's troubling that someone thinks we need speed bumps... and they are nicely located just a few feet from our side entrance, hey ho.

I can't help feeling there is some kind of metaphor there that I ought to be taking note of... the labour of creating things to ensure that others slow down a bit.  I am always struck by the idea that churches slow down for summer (on the grounds that midweek activities take a break) and the contrast that ministers can find themsleves with an increased workload (which was part of the logic last year for taking my sababtical leave during the summer months)

I am enthusiastic and excited about the things planned for this summer which I really hope will prove a good experience for all involved.  But there do need to be some metaphorical speed bumps, I suspect, to prevent me hurtling along without due care and attention.

Thankfully I can't think of a way to work speed bumps into my services, for which everyone will be hugely grateful!!