Sometimes small changes make a big difference... and sometimes the Holy Spirit blesses us with beautiful surprises.

This week I made some pretty small changes to the cafe style service... all the colouring and puzzles were put out on the tables before the service, with only the quiz and the questions being handed out during it.  I allowed a little longer for the quiz which seemed to be appreciated.  But what really blew me away, after the 'reflection' time  was the engagement with the questions and the quality of what people chose to share in the plenary bit... everything from someone asking why the New Testament was written in Greek, to the significance of Ruth as a foreigner being one of Jesus' foremothers, to the sense of welcome they had experienced in the UK/Railway Town/This church by people who had arrived as migrants, to the fact that we don't have to look back too many generations to find migrants in our own stories... wow!

For our prayers we threw an inflatable globe to invite people to find their lands of birth, or places in the news, or places where people they know and love live for which they wished to pray... prayers for the integrity in public office, for people who are homeless, for elections, for the those most impacted by climate chaos... it was profound and beautiful.

All this inspired by the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman who lived in ancient times...

Next week it's Daniel, and some ideas emerging for thoughts around exile, about church and state, about civil disobedience and peaceful protest, and maybe more besides.  A reminder that Sunday School favourites can be thought-provoking if we dare to engage with them as grown-ups. 

In case it's of interest, here are the questions...

You don’t need to work through these in order, or to cover them all, just pick out a few that interest you.  Try not to settle for simplistic ‘Sunday School answers! – we are grown-ups and need to wrestle with complexity and contradiction.

• What comes to mind when you think about the story of Ruth:
  • What do you think she was like as a person?
  • What do you think it was like when she married a foreign man (Mahlon or Kilion)? How might her family and friends have reacted then… or when he died?
  • Why do you think that Orpah and Ruth planned to go with Naomi? Why do you think Naomi tried to discourage them?
  • Did Orpah make a good choice to stay in a place she knew?
  • The story of Ruth and Boaz is often portrayed as romantic love story, do you think that’s correct? How else might you understand it – perhaps thinking of the risks taken by Ruth at various points in the story?
    
    
• Thinking about migrants more generally:
  • Can you imagine how it might feel to leave home for a new land to give your family a better life?
  • How do you feel about the arrival in the UK of either economic migrants, (or refugees and asylum seekers)? Does it make a difference why or how they came here?
  • Since Windrush the UK has relied on people willing to leave their homelands to fulfil essential roles, whether that is bus drivers, care assistants, cleaners, plumbers, builders, or nurses, doctors and teachers. How do you feel about this and why?
    
    
• Thinking about those on the margins
  • In the story of Ruth and Naomi, widows were totally dependent on the good will of others to take care of them. What care is available in our country (state benefits and otherwise) for widows or people with no family networks?
  • Who might slip through the net in our country? e.g. homeless single men are often the lowest priority for social housing.
    
    
• Thinking about churches
  • How many different nationalities are represented in our church?
  • What practical things can churches do to ‘welcome the stranger’?
  • How alert are we to our own privilege and bias, especially if we are white, British born and have/had good jobs?
  • We have registered our Coffee Morning as a Warm Hub for 2025/26, how can we make that a place where the ‘Ruths and Naomis’ feel safe and welcome?
    
    
• Personally (mainly for private pondering)
  • In my own story, have there been times when I have left home to seek a better life? How did that work out?
  • How many work colleagues or friends do I have who are very different from me, e.g. nationality, religion, interests, etc.?
    
    
• What do you like or dislike about the story of Ruth, and why?