Lament

We were a week ahead of the Prime Minister's National Day of Mourning for the victims of Black Saturday. It was a difficult and draining service for all of us.

The worship space was very simple. I draped black cloth over the communion table which was in front of the dais, closer to the people. On this I placed 2 large, glass bowls. One held salty water and other fresh water. Fresh flower petals were scattered around the second bowl. On the dais, instead of the usual bright flowers, I placed a black vase on a low pedestal which stodd in front of a taller pedestal - both were draped with black. I found various smokey things (incense sticks and mosquito coils broken up) and lit them before the service so that, by the time we started, there was a visible wisp of smoke rising out of the vase.

We used poems and prayers written by Victorians including the following as an opening statement before the Call to Worship...


What is left (Kinglake Feb 08,2009) by Jellz Fisher
Grey ash lingers,
blanketing,
shrouding life.
Smoldering heat.
Eerie silence emanates.
As morning breaks,
invasive scent of
burnt eucalyptus.
Blackened trees stay erect,
random spent joss sticks,
punctuating flat, lifeless land.
Smoke hangs lower than
heads of defeated fighters,
while chimneys still stand
defiant and ironic.
Sorrow, profound,
infects everything.
Change has swept all before it.
Lives ignited in gratitude,
joined in community
of salvation, desolate
for loss.
Bleary focus, tear‐filled insecurity.
Flashbacks of survival,
overcoming
and the start of new memories,
will burn in theirs…..
forever.

Later, while Graham played something in a minor key, we put up this slide show (composed of pictures from news.com.au)



and people were invited to come forward as they wanted, dip their hands in the salty water (the Bowl of Tears) and wipe them down their cheeks as an act of solidarity. Then, as an act of prayer and hope, they could take some of the flower petals and place them into the bowl of fresh water.

By the time I had to stand up to give the blessing at the end of the service, my tears were real... as were many others.