Congregational service 15 Dec 2002

Jean - Chalice Lighting - As we kindle the chalice flame we remember the majesty of creation and rejoice in our ability to celebrate it.

Ann read The Grey Plague by Bill Darlison 'Thought for the Month' from The Unitarian March 2002. Which starts ...

"He who saves his life will lose it; he who loses his life will save it." (Luke 9:24)

According to Aldous Huxley the great plague of modern times is not the Black Death but the Grey Life. As prosperity increases so does caution.

and ends ... We need drama, precariousness, excitement, passion, with all the untidiness and uncertainty that they bring. Without them we are in danger of suffering from the contagious latter-day plague of greyness.

Hymn 127 Gather us in

Jeremy read The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918. 12.

To Christ our Lord

I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

Hymn 248 Others call it God

Shirley read

Many of us live our lives at high speed today - I sometimes feel that I'm constantly rushing about with somewhere to get to, some goal to achieve. Its easy to go through life waiting for it to start - next month I'll save more money, next week I'll start that diet , I'll make up that argument tomorrow. Equally we may go through life longing for a return to the past or the good old days which often look better and better through the rosy glasses of time.

We forget that life only exists right now in this moment. Right now is all there is and our experience in this moment, and this moment and this - is our life. To understand this and to remember to live life fully in the present is to find peace and fulfillment.

My reading is a translation of an ancient Sanskrit poem which reflects on the virtue of living in the moment. Its very special to myself and Simon and it was read by my Mother at our wedding.

Look to this day
for it is life
the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all
the realities and truths
of existence,
the joy of love,
the splendour of creation,
the glory of fulfillment.

For yesterday is
but a memory.
And tomorrow is
only a vision.
But today well lived
makes every yesterday
a memory of happiness
and every tomorrow
a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore,
to this day.
Ancient Sanskrit

Hymn 248 Now is the time

Jean read a Native American prayer

Oh Great Spirit
whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world
Hear me.
I come before you, one of your many children,
I am small and weak,
I need your strength and wisdom
Make my eyes ever behold the beauty of the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made,
my ears sharp to hear you voice.
Make me wise so that I may know the things you have taught my people.
Make me learn the lessons hidden beneath every leaf and rock.
Give me strength not to be superior to my brothers but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
May I come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.
That in the fading sunset of my life
I may come to you without shame...
Amen

Jean read a Children's Story

Hymn 36 Star Born

Linda read Missing God by Dennis O'Driscoll - The Guardian Saturday December 7, 2002
click on the link to read it and an Excerpt from Silas Marner Chapter 21

"The old place is all swep' away," Silas said to Dolly Winthrop on the night of his return -- "the little graveyard and everything. The old home's gone; I've no home but this now. I shall never know whether they got at the truth o' the robbery, nor whether Mr. Paston could ha' given me any light about the drawing o' the lots. It's dark to me, Mrs. Winthrop, that is; I doubt it'll be dark to the last."

"Well, yes, Master Marner," said Dolly, who sat with a placid listening face, now bordered by grey hairs; "I doubt it may. It's the will o' Them above as a many things should be dark to us; but there's some things as I've never felt i' the dark about, and they're mostly what comes i' the day's work. You were hard done by that once, Master Marner, and it seems as you'll never know the rights of it; but that doesn't hinder there being a rights, Master Marner, for all it's dark to you and me."

"No," said Silas, "no; that doesn't hinder. Since the time the child was sent to me and I've come to love her as myself, I've had light enough to trusten by; and now she says she'll never leave me, I think I shall trusten till I die."

Hymn 38 Wonder

Eric Read

'It's the real thing' from Bolts from the Blue by Rabbi Lionel Blue

Which begins ... "I was recently asked to choose a religious virtue like you chose a chocolate out of a box. The one I plumped for was generosity because without generosity of spirit I don't believe in any of the rest."

Hymn 117 Joyful Joyful We adore thee

Caroline read Our Deepest Fear by Marianne Williamson from A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world. ~
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Hymn 146 True Simplicity

Kate read "Now Winter Comes" from Evening Tides - Meditations by Elizabeth Tarbox

Emma's Hymn 210 Jerusalem

Jean read the following Benediction

Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the infinite peace to you.

Adapted from Gaelic Runes 683 from Singing the living tradition

 

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