Part 1-The Team Gathering
As promised a brief report on last evening’s Gathering. It was amazing, with the largest turnout EVER!! I hasten to add that this was mostly due to o youth group having made it their special Saturday event, but we had 22 people!! And the best thing was nearly all of them remembered to bring snack, they all sang the songs, they all listened during the talk, they were really present in the moment, some of them even came and thanked me before they went home AND a group of people washed all the dishes. Whew!! But no more chitchat since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some photos…
Part 2-
All Ages Gathering “Not Your Ordinary Epiphany Lessons & Carols”
All Ages Gathering “Not Your Ordinary Epiphany Lessons & Carols”
After the usual number of hiccups the Gathering ran pretty smoothly and there was a good atmosphere with people engaged in the whole Service and pretty good participation.
We sang Vapor again, watched the PaperlessChristmas Clip about the Wisemen, and Nick narrated reading Matthew2:1-15 as we watched this beautiful version of the coming of the Magi.
We added the 3 Kings to our crèche, strung garlands with stars and beads and sang carols. There was a reading of T.S. Eliot’s lovely poem “The Journey of the Magi”, a prayer Litany, the Epiphany Collect and a reading of the first verses from the Gospel of John. All of this occurred in less than 1 hour and by noon we regrouped for a Special Vestry Meeting to vote on our congregation’s decision to sponsor a refugee family from Syria. As Nick pointed out it was timely to be reading about the flight into Egypt of Jesus’ family and their time as refugees and then to focus on our response to the current crisis in theMiddle East
Home on the bus in the pouring rain, it is now time to turn out again with Wil who has been waiting patiently for my belated return and is all too ready, rain or shine, for a nice long walk!!