It's prob'ly worth saying...

I'm crook this week... might've overdone the whole Easter thing.
I DON'T RECOMMEND IT!

Had a sore throat Sunday... by Monday evening my neck glands looked like golf balls and I won't even begin to describe the state of my tongue and throat. Today I sound like this:

Thank God for Alex Fleming's poor housekeeping and thus... penicillin!

[BTW - the video is the end bit of this one from YouTube.]

Easter Sunday

Thankfully, Roger and Yvonne helped de-garden the church on Saturday and set up the chairs etc. for Sunday.

The long white cloth that had been covering the cross on Thursday evening was left crumpled on the floor below and then there were butterflies... (These are from my mobile phone and Val's BIG butterfly that hung over the cross isn't here yet but you get the idea.)

Maundy Thursday

This was an Alt Worship experience rather than a traditional, structured service of worship. Here's a bit of an outline and some pictures.

People gathered in the Hall where I'd set up a long table (3 tressels) covered with layers of white tablecloths. In the centre, a sliver Menorah with 7 purple candles. There was a selection of flat-bread, dips, antipasto, grapes and there would have been dates but I couldn't find them quickly. This is an "after" photo:

People were invited to consider various stories they knew about Jesus and those he encountered and to choose a character from one of these stories. Then, for about half an hour, they were invited to adopt this character and talk to other people at the gathering. Some questions to get them going were "How do you know Jesus", "Why do you think you've been invited to this party?", "What do you think is going to happen next?"

Everyone got right into it! One person told me he had thought half an hour was too long but found that it went by really quickly.

At the end of the 30 minutes, we did a sort of an Oprah style thing and invited people to give some of their thoughts and reactions to the whole group. The diversity in character choice was amazing and it was good when a few characters appeared more than once because they had different perspectives. Overall, it seemed to work well and created a vastly different experience from the usual... at least... that was the feedback on Friday morning and Sunday.

Sean Gilbert (the Minister from Christ Church, with whom we share the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services) was "dumped" into the Jesus role. He was not thrilled - but did it anyway - and closed that part of the evening by holding up his glass and saying "drink this all of you... I shall not drink with you again until God's kingdom is revealed" or words to that effect.

With that, people were invited to move up a dimly-lit path into the church which had become "the garden of gethsemane."


5 metre lengths of plastic tablecloth with an image of the Olive Grove in East Terrace* rear-projected and various branches, garden bits and candles set up in front. Loreena McKennitt 'An Ancient Muse' playing in the background.

People were invited to spend as much or as little time as they wanted in the garden - reflecting on their party experience and the Holy Week journey... then to leave in silence.

* If you want to try this and need some olive grove photos, you'll find a few on my Flickr page.

Palm Sunday Bits

This was the Call to Worship for Palm Sunday (today)



Using bits from 'Jesus of Nazareth' the 1977 Franco Zeffirelli movie and (incongruously) a Jean Joseph Mouret fanfare - From Premiere Suite D'orchestre (Masterpiece) performed by Ars Aureum Brass on their Angels and Kings CD.

Then this for 2 voices... with some similar elements as at the beginning of Lent.

How shall we worship our God?
The end is beginning.
Jesus knew what the week would hold
We, too, know the story
The beginning of the end.

But they did not know,
The people -
laying out a red carpet
of cloaks and palm branches
The people -
shouting loud hosannas
celebrating the coming of their king.

Shall we join them?
Waving branches and flags in celebration?
Shouting a welcome?

Or shall we turn our faces toward tomorrow
and set a steady pace,
resolutely following Jesus the Christ
into the city,
out to the garden,
onward still,
even to death
and the hoped for resurrection?

How shall we worship our God?

Let us put on the sturdy shoes of faith,
let us hold the promise of the rainbow in our hearts
and let us begin this journey in hope.

Come... let us worship our God.

And here, a few photos of the space. The red bottle was the symbol for the anointing at Bethany which was the only other story used... Just the beginning of the end - not the whole Passion Story as is often read on Palm/Passion Sunday.

Palms for Sunday

"More than 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year from Central American rain forests for the U.S. market--many for Palm Sunday, when Christians commemorate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem five days before his Crucifixion."
I didn't know that! That's shocking! This story is from 2006 and it does have a happy ending... well... as far as I know.
You can read the rest HERE.