After the service today, we had a delicious lunch of stew 'done right' with pickled red cabbage and pickled beetroot.   It prompted some interesting sharing of other local customs such as 'ham with parsley sauce' (West Midlands) a 'ham tea' (in a former mining town - a throw back to a time when meat was expensive and having ham with your bread and butter was a treat).

About 30 people sat down to share food, including a visitor from Belarus, who was passing through with an over-night stay.

This morning we didn't have a sermon at all, instead we listened to a very large chunk of scripture (Hebrews 11 into 12) and began our collage by adding the names we heard mentioned, before widening it out to include other people - named and unnamed - from the scriptures whose stories encourage and inspire us. (The white rectangles)

Next, I invited people to think of people from history they wanted to add on - this was more tricky and mostly we got the names I had 'prepared earlier' (green rectangles).

Lastly, having handed out slips of blue paper, people were invited to add names of people who had encouraged or inspired them - and what a lovely selection we got!

'Since we are surrounded by such a great crowd/cloud of witnesses...' the saints we can imagine sitting in the balcony of the church, looking down and urging us onward...

I have done similar exercises in other churches, in other places, and it always encourages me, as we locate ourselves in a much bigger and more wonderful story, alongside the great and the good.