Social media brought up this photo from March 2020 when I was invited to share in leading prayers for a national Baptist online event...  apart from Skype for business nearly breaking my laptop and having to do a very late switch to my mobile phone, and some other glitches meaning my face was showing when someone else was speaking, it all went fairly smoothly.

As I reflect back, it was the start of a very strange time, and it was a real privilege to be involved (people genuinely seemed to appreciate my prayers).  Those four years have flown past, and such a lot has changed.  I wonder what the historians will make of it in another century when, on balance of probability, some other pandemic may well have occurred... 

Today I've been working on my Palm Sunday service... the first of (counts carefully) six services I need to prepare and lead in the next week... and that's not counting the Churches Together 'Walk of Witness.'

It's always a challenge to try to find ways that will engage people, especially when you have to tease out just what are the traditions that must be maintained despite people telling you there aren't any.

So, we will have...

• Palm Sunday to Gethsemane in an hour... an all age, interactive service in a similar style what I've done elsewhere over twenty plus years...
• A Churches Together Lent Lunch when I've been asked to speak on the Great Commission and the sending out of the Twelve on the theme 'Shalom brings Salvation'... I have some ideas but it's not very Eastery!
• A Maundy Thursday Communion and Tennebrae... the latter part of which I think will be a first for this congregation
• A Good Friday reflective service... 'Through the Eyes of Mary' based on what I did twenty years ago on the first Good Friday I was in pastorate in Dibley
• An Easter Sunday celebration ... which needs to include daffodils and chicken wire, as well as chocolate and an egg hunt!
• A virtual Emmaus Road evening reflective prayer service for Churches Together... so long as they send me their inputs...

It's a good job there are a couple of bank holidays to follow it all!

Photo: The Gathering Place, Easter 2016 (must have liked it - I used it two posts ago too!)

This morning was my first time leading chapel at Vicar School, and I had a lot of fun!

I enjoyed setting up the space with lots of sensory 'stations', and I was chuffed that people seemed to engage in the various activities offered as we pondered how we move from 'Hosanna to Hallelujah.'

We began with ourselves, and what Easter means for each of us...

Next we pondered some of the challenges in churchy settings...

Then there was opportunity to choose a station (or more if wished) to spend some time reflecting/praying

We ended with John 19:42 from 'Jesus Christ, Superstar' and some of the many images I have collected over 25+ years.

It was a fair amount of work to set up, but it was so worth while for a few precious moments shared with some of the participants.

This week, I have my first turn of leading College Chapel.  Technically, I am subbing for someone who won't be there, but it's a sub that was agreed back in September, so I don't think it really counts as a sub.

And it's the end of term, everyone is tired and probably worn out with words.  So it'll be relatively word light (no sermon type thingy) and multi-sensory heavy.  Probably way too many ideas for one act of worship, but I am okay with that, if only because some of it can be adapted for Palm Sunday at church.

Photo is from The Gathering Place, Easter Sunday morning probably 2016, and will form part of my PowerPoint.

At our Ministers Conference, the closing Communion service used this recording of Deacon Blue's 'Dignity'... it was a sound test in Glasgow's George Square, and one of the men gritting the Square (almost certainly with salt imported from Cheshire (!)) asked if they would sing 'Dignity', which they did.  The video brought back so many memories, but especially

• the Christmas Eve of the first Covid lockdown, when I stood in George Square and recorded a video greeting for my church folk
• the days following the MEN/Ariana Grande concert tragedy when I joined others to honour the city of Manchester
• the time I joined a anti-Brexit protest
• the bin lorry tragedy, an event witnessed by some church folk
• the joy and vibrancy of the Commonwealth Games
• the multi-faith prayers of COP26

Some may recall I once used this song as the basis of an evening reflection for a small group meeting on the mezzanine of The Gathering Place.  Others may just know that it's a song I love.

What I didn't know until I chased down the video, was that it was recorded on New Year's Eve 2009, when I had been in Glasgow just a few months... the start of a fourteen year adventure.

Thank you T, you really blessed me today.