You can also enjoy a Zoom version of this service at 11am on Sunday 19th April. If you wish to access the serivce the code is as follows: Meeting ID: 841 9082 8195
This is a recurring meeting so it will be the same code each week and for all future groups.
This is a recurring meeting so it will be the same code each week and for all future groups.
“Rainbows”
I invite us to still ourselves together in silence, united
in heart, mind, spirit and soul, despite our physical separation. Let us invite
a loving presence to be here amongst us and to awaken from deep within us.
Chalice
Lighting
Come together into this time of possibility
Come as you are exactly as you are
Know that you are welcome here as you are in this time and
space...
Join together in this moment, a part of eternity
Come and connect with us, with yourselves and with all that
is and has ever been...
Know that you are never alone, that you are a part of
everything
Hold this in your soul
Let the spirit of the eternal flow through you this hour
Let that spirit speak in the words you hear, the songs you
sing and the silence you share...
Come and make a bridge to the eternal...come let us worship
together...
PAUSE
Hymn 24
Purple Hymn Book
“Come
Sing a Song With Me” A Rose in the Winter Time” by Carolyn McDade, Tune “A Rose
in the Winter Time” Carolyn McDade
Come, sing a song with me,
come, sing a song with me,
come, sing a song with me,
that I might know your mind.
come, sing a song with me,
come, sing a song with me,
that I might know your mind.
(Chorus)
And I’ll bring you hope
when hope is hard to find,
and I’ll bring a song of love
and a rose in the wintertime.
And I’ll bring you hope
when hope is hard to find,
and I’ll bring a song of love
and a rose in the wintertime.
Come, dream a
dream with me,
come, dream a dream with me,
come, dream a dream with me,
that I might know your mind.
come, dream a dream with me,
come, dream a dream with me,
that I might know your mind.
(Chorus)
Come, walk in
rain with me,
come, walk in rain with me,
come, walk in rain with me,
that I might know your mind.
come, walk in rain with me,
come, walk in rain with me,
that I might know your mind.
(Chorus)
Come, share a
rose with me,
come, share a rose with me,
come, share a rose with me,
that I might know your mind.
come, share a rose with me,
come, share a rose with me,
that I might know your mind.
(Chorus)
Prayer
(followed by Lord’s prayer)
I invite you now to join together in a time of prayer.
These words of prayer will be followed by the Lord’s prayer which I invite you
to sing together this morning...
Let us pray...
Oh Great Mystery we ask you to be present with us this
day...
For this prayer is our bridge not only to you but to one
another and to all life, past, present and future...
For this prayer is our cry of connection to all that is,
all that has been and all that is yet to be...
We ask that we hear the voice of the eternal in the sounds
of worship and the silence too...
Open the doors to our hearts...
Clear the windows to our souls...
Help us to feel more passionately and to see more clearly..
We know that at times we become blocked from one another,
from all life and from the love that is divine...
Reveal to us what we need to let go of...
Help us to build bridges, even in this time of physical separation,
between what keeps us in spiritual isolation...
Free us from the suffocating grip of apathy...Help us to
care more...
Lead us in the way of love dear God...
The love of ourselves, the love of others and the love of
life...
We ask this in the name of all that have shown us your way
...The way of love
May we honour their lives...may we honour all life...may we
honour our own lives...May we honour you
Be with us here this day oh God...
Be with us always...
Help us to know the love that is eternal...
Help us to know that we are a part of the love that is
eternal..
Amen
(Lord’s Prayer)
Story
From “Native American Stories
of the Sacred: Annotated & Explained” By Evan T.
Pritchard
A creation story that shows how to let children
blossom according to their own nature.
"In the very beginning, Moon, Sun, Wind,
Rainbow, Thunder, Fire, and Water once met a very old man. This wise old man
turned out to be Chief of the Sky Spirits. Thunder asked him, 'Can you make the
people of the world my children?'
" 'No, no, no!' Wise Old Man replied. 'They
cannot be your children but they can be your grandchildren.'
"Sun asked Old Man, 'Can you make the people
of the world my children?'
" 'No, they cannot be your children,' answered
Old Man. 'But they can be your friends and grandchildren. Your main purpose is
to give plenty of light.'
"Moon asked, 'Can you make the people of the
world my children?'
" 'No, no, I cannot do that,' Old Man replied.
'The people of the world can be your nephews and friends.'
"Fire asked that the people of the world be
made his children. Wise Old Man replied, 'No, I cannot give them to you to be
your children, but the people of the world can be your grandchildren. You can
be their warmth and give them fire to cook their food.'
"Wind asked the same question as the others.
Wise Old Man told Wind, 'No, no, the people of the world cannot be your
children, but they can be your grandchildren. You can remove the bad air and
all kinds of diseases from the people, and keep them healthy.'
"Rainbow wanted the people to be his children.
'No, they cannot be your children,' Wise Old Man explained. 'You will always be
busy preventing too much rain and floods upon the earth.'
"Water asked that human beings be made his
children, but Wise Old Man answered, 'No, the people of the world can never be
your children. When they get dirty, you must always be available to wash them
clean. You shall give them long life.'
"Wise Old Man continued, 'I have now told all
of you the best ways to guide yourselves and what you can do to help the people
of the world. You must always remember that these children of the human race
are my children!'
"In this story, Old Man's teaching is for
parents. All of us as adults have a special area that we excel in, whether it
is making fire, making friends, healing people, cooking, providing warmth and
shelter, or shedding light on ancient mysteries. The sun, moon, fire, rainbow,
and rainwater all represent our different talents as adults. As we raise our
children, we have a tendency to want to create them in our own image, because
after all they are our children. We think they belong to us, and that we have
the right to control them. In fact, sometimes we think we are their Creator and
start to step into Old Man's shoes. We can see that those who try to force
their children to live a certain way are often disappointed. Their efforts are
met with rebellion and scorn, or complete indifference and ingratitude.
"In Native American culture, with some tribal
groups more than others, we are to let children find their own path in life, to
become as Creator intended them to be. Children learn to make their own
decisions wisely if they get practice, early and often. As people of every
culture have noticed, grandparents have the best time with children. Because
they don't have parental responsibilities, they can just play and try to
discover who that child really is — a rainbow, a star, a thundercloud — and
then let them blossom according to their nature.
"This story tells us that is not such a bad
way to raise a child, because they are not our children anyway. We are all
children of Father Sky and Mother Earth (a few tribes say Father Earth and
Mother Sky, or Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon, which is fine for our
purposes); we are the holy infant that completes the sacred trinity when we are
in a sacred space. We are supposed to maintain an innocent, childlike attitude of
trust toward our divine 'parents' even when we have children of our own. This
path in Algonkian tongues is called tchichankweewee (tchi-chan-kwee-wee),
which means 'Great Spirit watch over me.' This is the path of the heart in
Algonquin traditions, very much in the spirit of the devotional or Bhakti path
of yoga of India, and all other devotional paths from around the world."
Hymn 151 “Be Thou My Vision”
Green hymn book Tune Slane
Be Thou My Vision, Oh God Of My Heart;
Naught Be All Else To Me, Save That Thou Art
Thou My Best Thought, By Day Or By Night,
Waking Or Sleeping, Thy Presence My Light.
Naught Be All Else To Me, Save That Thou Art
Thou My Best Thought, By Day Or By Night,
Waking Or Sleeping, Thy Presence My Light.
Be Thou My Wisdom, And Thou My True Word;
I Ever With Thee And Thou With Me, God;
Thou My Soul;s shelter, thou my high tower,
Raise Thou Me Heavenward, Oh Power Of My Power.
I Ever With Thee And Thou With Me, God;
Thou My Soul;s shelter, thou my high tower,
Raise Thou Me Heavenward, Oh Power Of My Power.
Riches I Heed Not, Nor world’s Empty Praise,
Thou Mine Inheritance, Now And Always:
Thou And Thou Only, First In My Heart,
Sovereign Of Heaven, My Treasure Thou Art.
Thou Mine Inheritance, Now And Always:
Thou And Thou Only, First In My Heart,
Sovereign Of Heaven, My Treasure Thou Art.
Sovereign Of Heaven, My Victory Won,
May I Reach Heaven’s Joys, Oh Bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart Of My Own Heart, Whatever Befall,
Still Be My Vision, Oh Ruler Of All.
May I Reach Heaven’s Joys, Oh Bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart Of My Own Heart, Whatever Befall,
Still Be My Vision, Oh Ruler Of All.
Reading
“How
the Rainbow Works” by Al Young
(for Jean Cook, on
learning
of her mother's death)
of her mother's death)
Mostly we occupy ocular
zones, clinging
only to what we think we can see.
We can't see wind or waves of thought,
electrical fields or atoms dancing;
only what they do or make us believe.
only to what we think we can see.
We can't see wind or waves of thought,
electrical fields or atoms dancing;
only what they do or make us believe.
Look on all of life as
color -
vibratile movement, heart-centered,
from invisibility to the merely visible.
Never mind what happens when one of us dies.
Where were you before you even get born?
Where am I and all the unseeable souls
we love at this moment, or loathed
before birth? Where are we right now?
vibratile movement, heart-centered,
from invisibility to the merely visible.
Never mind what happens when one of us dies.
Where were you before you even get born?
Where am I and all the unseeable souls
we love at this moment, or loathed
before birth? Where are we right now?
Everything that ever
happened either
never did or always will with variations.
Let's put it another way: Nothing ever
happened that wasn't dreamed, that wasn't
sketched from the start with artful surprises.
Think of the dreamer as God, a painter,
a ham, to be sure, but a divine old master
whose medium is light and who sidesteps
tedium by leaving room both inside and outside
this picture for subjects and scenery to wing it.
never did or always will with variations.
Let's put it another way: Nothing ever
happened that wasn't dreamed, that wasn't
sketched from the start with artful surprises.
Think of the dreamer as God, a painter,
a ham, to be sure, but a divine old master
whose medium is light and who sidesteps
tedium by leaving room both inside and outside
this picture for subjects and scenery to wing it.
Look on death as living
color too: the dyeing
of fabric, submersion into a temporary sea,
a spectruming beyond the reach of sensual
range which, like time, is chained to change;
the strange notion that everything we've
ever done or been up until now is past
history, is gone away, is bleached, bereft,
perfect, leaving the scene clean to freshen
with pigment and space and leftover light.
of fabric, submersion into a temporary sea,
a spectruming beyond the reach of sensual
range which, like time, is chained to change;
the strange notion that everything we've
ever done or been up until now is past
history, is gone away, is bleached, bereft,
perfect, leaving the scene clean to freshen
with pigment and space and leftover light.
~ Al Young ~
Reading
“O
Mystery, Alive in Me” by Frederic Brussat taken from a “Blogpost” on the website
“Spiritual Literacy” posted on 5th January 2017
The French writer Francis Rene de Chauterbriand had
it right when he said: "There is nothing beautiful, sweet or great in life
that is not mysterious."
I savor the manifold mysteries of a rainbow from
horizon to horizon, the feelings of happiness in a place I find to be sacred,
the voice of an ancestor in my ears, or the unconditional love of my cats.
There is beauty in being awash in the mystery of being. Can you feel it too?
Here are three of my favorite practices for
attending to the mysteries of life.
A prayer from Joyce Rupp's The Cup of
Our Life:
"Breathing in: O Mystery…
Breathing out: Alive in me."
Breathing out: Alive in me."
A practice from Terry Bookman's The Busy Soul:
"Lean back with your eyes closed, your arms open
wide. Be there with all life's mysteries. Welcome them into your life."
A practice from Estelle Frankel's Sacred
Therapy:
"Take a moment to relax by simply paying
attention to your breath. As you settle into a steady rhythm of breathing,
notice that you may feel more centered and still inside. Take a few moments
to just be in this relaxed state—fully present.
"Now imagine, if you can, what you might look
like if you were to see yourself through God's eyes — through eyes that are
filled with wisdom and loving-kindness, eyes that see with compassion and do
not judge. Try to see yourself as the amazing mystery and pure being that you
are."
Invitation
to light candles etc
Meditation
I invite us to join together in a
time of quiet reflection. I would suggest lighting a personal candle here and
settle into silence. Be led into silence with these words of prayer. Still
our minds, quieten our thoughts. Connect to our bodies, to our breathing, the
our breath, to that breath that connects all life.
Let us pray
You, the one
From whom on different paths
All of us have come.
From whom on different paths
All of us have come.
To whom on different paths
All of us are going.
Make strong in our hearts what unites us;
All of us are going.
Make strong in our hearts what unites us;
Build bridges across all that divides us;
United make us rejoice in our diversity.
United make us rejoice in our diversity.
At one in our witness to your peace,
A rainbow of your glory.
Amen.
A rainbow of your glory.
Amen.
5
minutes of silence
Followed
some music of your own choice
Hymn 3 “We sing the joy of living”
Green hymn book (Deane Starr) Tune St Theodulph 76 76 D
“Joy of Living” (Tune: ‘St. Theodulph’, 76.76D)
We sing the joy of living,
We sing the mystery,
Of knowledge, lore and science,
Of truth that is to be;
Of searching, doubting, testing,
Of deeper insights gained,
Of freedom claimed and honoured,
Of minds that are unchained.
We sing the joy of living,
We sing the mystery,
Of knowledge, lore and science,
Of truth that is to be;
Of searching, doubting, testing,
Of deeper insights gained,
Of freedom claimed and honoured,
Of minds that are unchained.
We
sing the joy of living,
We sing of harmony,
Of textures, sounds and colours,
To touch, to hear, to see;
Of order, rhythm, meaning,
Of chaos and of strife,
Of richness of sensation,
Of the creating life.
We sing of harmony,
Of textures, sounds and colours,
To touch, to hear, to see;
Of order, rhythm, meaning,
Of chaos and of strife,
Of richness of sensation,
Of the creating life.
We
sing the joy of living,
We sing of ecstasy,
Of warmth, of love, of passion,
Of flights of fantasy.
We sing of joy of living,
The dear, the known, the strange,
The moving, pulsing, throbbing —
A universe of change. (Deane Starr, 1923 —)
We sing of ecstasy,
Of warmth, of love, of passion,
Of flights of fantasy.
We sing of joy of living,
The dear, the known, the strange,
The moving, pulsing, throbbing —
A universe of change. (Deane Starr, 1923 —)
Address
Every morning I take my daily exercise by
running. I do not enjoy running, but know I need to get my daily cardio
exercise and at the moment there really isn’t another option. Now while I say I
hate running, there are some lovely aspects to this daily practice. One is seeing
the signs of nature coming back to life. I saw my first duckling of Spring on
Monday morning, while running by the canal. Seeing this new life was so needed
that Easter Monday, especially in all this death and suffering. Like most folk
I now know people who have died of the Corona Virus. As I was running I thought
how much I needed to see this symbol of life and hope. It helped me find the
courage to keep on going and I don’t just mean keep on running, although I did.
I was thinking of the courage that we all need at this time to keep on turning
toward to life, to live in hope. As I was running I remembered the old adage, that
the prayer for courage is the one prayer that is always answered. I have found
this to be true, but that it is my task to walk in faith and courage with a
full heart, encouraging others to do the same. I know how I must be in the world,
I know my role, but need to find courage to sometimes be it. This is the prayer,
“God please remove my fear and direct my attention to what you would have me
be.”
My heart is full today; Courage is heart,
from the French for heart, coeur . When my heart is full then my mind is clear
and I can be useful in this life.
As I run I see lots of other encouraging
sites too, especially as I turn back, round and away from the canal. As I run
through the streets I see site after site of hope in the windows of people’s
homes. I see symbols of Hope placed there by the children. These are those
beautiful rainbows that the children have created for we who pass by. These
symbols of hope certainly help to keep me going. That day as I ran down the Washway
Road, with wind blowing in my face I thought to myself how many signs and
symbols of hope there are, that keep us going, in these challenging times for
us all.
When I got home I posted about this and a
dear old friend replied saying “My Dad used to
say...keep the sun on your back and that way you can see the rainbow🌈 Sending love xxx” and another friend posted about
ducklings “I saw some when I went a few days ago. It was so joyous to see and
lifted my spirits.” Other friends have shared about seeing them since. It was
strange that I saw only one, with an adult duck that day, maybe they were
following social distancing guidelines, who knows. I have since seen whole
families together paddling along in those lovely lines.
It got me thinking
about the things I and others see, in our ordinary lives when we lift up our
eyes, our vision, when we live in hope, not expectation or optimism, but hope.
As I did I remembered a lovely poem in “We Pledge Our
Hearts: A Treasury of Poems, Quotations and Readings to Celebrate Love and
Marriage” by Edward Searl. The poem is “Vision” by May Thielgaard Watts
Vision
by May Thielgaard Watts
by May Thielgaard Watts
To-day there have been lovely things
I never saw before;
Sunlight through a jar of marmalade;
A blue gate;
A rainbow
In soapsuds on dishwater;
Candlelight on butter;
The crinkled smile of a little girl
Who had new shoes with tassels;
A chickadee on a thorn-apple;
Empurpled mud under a willow,
Where white geese slept;
White ruffled curtains sifting moonlight
On the scrubbed kitchen floor;
The under side of a white-oak leaf;
Ruts in the road at sunset;
An egg yolk in a blue bowl.
My love kissed my eyes last night.
I never saw before;
Sunlight through a jar of marmalade;
A blue gate;
A rainbow
In soapsuds on dishwater;
Candlelight on butter;
The crinkled smile of a little girl
Who had new shoes with tassels;
A chickadee on a thorn-apple;
Empurpled mud under a willow,
Where white geese slept;
White ruffled curtains sifting moonlight
On the scrubbed kitchen floor;
The under side of a white-oak leaf;
Ruts in the road at sunset;
An egg yolk in a blue bowl.
My love kissed my eyes last night.
A lovely piece don’t you think.
When we live in heart, in courage, in love, we can
see these signs of hope, even in our own homes, if we are confined within them.
It comes in the little things, thus sayeth the Lord.
We all need to keep our senses open, in order to
see these things. Just because we are in physical lockdown it does not mean
that we have to be in sensory shutdown. I wonder what symbols of hope I will
see these next few days. I wonder if I will see any rainbows, please let me
know if you do.
The rainbow is considered a symbol of hope, or at
least it has been in human history. It is central to many of the great
religious traditions. In Greek and Roman mythology they were considered a path
between Heaven and Earth. There was a similar understanding in ancient Norse
Mythology, where they were known as the Bifrost Bridge which connects the homes
of the God’s and humans. In Hinduism and other ancient traditions they were considered
the bow of various deities.
In the
Epic of Gigamesh the rainbow symbolises the jewelled necklace of the Great
Mother Ishtar that she lifts into the sky as a promise that she “will never
forget these days of the great flood” that destroyed her beloved children. This
myth is almost identical to the story of Noah’s Ark found in Genesis (Ch 9 vv
13-17) and the great flood. Here the rainbow appeared as a resealing of God’s
covenant with his people.
PAUSE
Many people see the
rainbow as a symbol of hope for the future, but it is not merely that, or at
least hope as we often think of it, the idea that things will turn out as we
would wish, as Dorothy sang in the Wizard of Oz, some place over there,
somewhere over the rainbow. Hope in the rainbow is more about the condition of our
hearts, Hope is created in our hearts, right here right now. The hope must be
created in our own fragile human being.
The rainbow is also a
symbol of connection, but not merely to some time and place in the future, some
Oz, some other place, but all time, particularly now. This message of
connection is found in those ancient traditions. It seems to be a bridge to the
eternal a link between past, present and future. When I look at a rainbow I feel
connected and it is this that sustains me no matter what is going on around me.
It’s carried me through many a storm. My physical connections are not what they
were, but emotional and spiritual ones seem much deeper. My roots feel deep and
connected.
By the way it is not
just the spiritually inclined that are inspired by rainbows, it seems even
great physicists are too. Richard Feynman being a wonderful example. In his
book on Feynman Leonard Mlodinow recalls an encounter when he spotted him gazing
at a rainbow. Noting that Descartes was the first scientist to explain
rainbows, Feynman asked Mlodinow, "And what do you think was the salient
feature of the rainbow that inspired Descartes' mathematical analysis?"
Mlodinow responded in scientific language, but Feynman was looking for something else. "You're overlooking a key feature of the phenomenon," he explained. "I would say that his inspiration was that he thought rainbows were beautiful."
Mlodinow responded in scientific language, but Feynman was looking for something else. "You're overlooking a key feature of the phenomenon," he explained. "I would say that his inspiration was that he thought rainbows were beautiful."
Mlodinow
had gone to
Feynman with questions about physics and perhaps advice on how he might build
his career, but he came away with something far more valuable -- insights into
how a person builds a life. So instead of following the great academic into
research he saw through Feynman "another possibility..., satisfaction in
discovery... even if what you discover was already known by others." His
path to discovery lay not in research but in writing, and he followed it to
write a critically acclaimed history of geometry, Euclid's
Window,
and numerous scripts for television programs, including Star
Trek: The Next Generation.
Mlodinow wrote that he
left academia with something perhaps more important, he left with hope "that
maybe someday I'd write something that Feynman would admire... no, even
better,... that I would admire." Feynman reminded him that like a rainbow,
no two people see exactly the same light so everyone discovers what is
beautiful to them from an individual perspective -- and that's something anyone
can admire!
Rainbows though offer
more than different perspectives; they also have the potential to increase our connections
in time and space. Earlier we heard the beautiful poem “How the Rainbow Works”
by Al Young. He says that he wrote it for Jean Cook a woman he worked alongside
who was struggling with grief following the death of her mother; now her grief
was not just about the physical loss but also about the fact that she and her
mother had never really got on. Young further explains that the poem is not only
about our connection to those who have died but all that has existed and all
that will exist past, present and future. It links every moment to eternity;
the rainbow therefore is the bridge between now and eternity. It points to the
eternity of all life what happens before we are born, what happens now and what
happens beyond. The rainbow is therefore a symbol of eternity.
I’d just like to repeat
the first two verses for you now
Mostly we occupy ocular
zones, clinging
only to what we think we can see.
We can't see wind or waves of thought,
electrical fields or atoms dancing;
only what they do or make us believe.
only to what we think we can see.
We can't see wind or waves of thought,
electrical fields or atoms dancing;
only what they do or make us believe.
Look on all of life as
color -
vibratile movement, heart-centered,
from invisibility to the merely visible.
Never mind what happens when one of us dies.
Where were you before you even get born?
Where am I and all the unseeable souls
we love at this moment, or loathed
before birth? Where are we right now?
vibratile movement, heart-centered,
from invisibility to the merely visible.
Never mind what happens when one of us dies.
Where were you before you even get born?
Where am I and all the unseeable souls
we love at this moment, or loathed
before birth? Where are we right now?
Where are we right now
is a very good question indeed?
The more I grow and
understand the more I see that everything is connected in ways we will probably
never fully know or understand. To me this understanding is so central to the
religious life. Everything is connected to everything, there is no separation.
I’m not just talking about the human family but all life and that that is
beyond life. We are not even separated by death. I’ve been thinking of this a
lot these last few weeks, how deep this connection is. Everything I’ve been
experiencing has been connecting me with these thoughts and feelings as I moved
through all that I have experienced and witnessed and heard and said.
Everything is a part of everything, it is not limited by time and space; life
is not the beginning and neither is death the end.
Now of course you may well
think differently to me, I have thought very differently in the past. I may
change my mind in the future, but right now my whole senses seem filled with
this truth.
When I look out of the
windows of my soul through these eyes even when I see storm clouds I know if I
keep the sun on my back I might just catch a glimpse of those beautiful rainbows,
those messengers of hope that will link me to all that is and all that will
ever be. By doing so I stop worrying and can once again focus on what I can do
instead of what makes me afraid to live the life I have been given.
I’d just like to end
with something I recently heard from an anonymous friend.
“There is a rope that
connects everyone to God. Sometimes these ropes break. When a broken rope gets retied,
however, the distance between us and God becomes shorter.”
So lets keep on, with the sun behind our backs, awakening our sense with
loved filled hope, looking out for the beautiful in the ordinary, and finding the
courage to keep on connecting, even in these times of physical separation.
Amen
Final Hymn 133
“How Can I Keep From Singing”
Benediction
May the blessings of the eternal be upon us all
May it go with us as we leave this place
May we know that we are never alone
May we know that we are connected through all
time to all things and to all places.
When we look out and on to the mountains may we
witness those bridges
And may we be builders of those bridges in all
that we feel and all that we think and all that we say and all that we do.
Amen
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