Mike's musings

Christingle

Well, it went really well, and I really enjoyed it. We had a full church, with lots of kids and parents, and lots of people said really nice things as they left. Words like "fabulous" were in evidence, and I was really chuffed, I have to say. I was particularly pleased when, at the end of the service, one of the regulars seemed very surpised that this was the first time that I'd preached to children. She'd assumed that I'd usually preached to children, and wondered what I'd be like to adults.

I made an effort to engage the younger members of the congregation, but to try to keep the adults amused, too. Si, D and Morgan came along (in fact, Morgan [sorry - I'd said "Si"!] held my hand for the Lord's Prayer at the end), as did Moo and Jo. Jo was very keen to follow Morgan all over the place, and there was lots of noise from both of them.

Not that I minded: I'm all for lots of activity from children during services. I'd much prefer that children feel at home during church services than that they felt uncomfortable or out of place. Some of my happiest memories of services as a kid were joining my dad up at the front of the church when he was taking a service or preaching. Mainly at St Francis, Ashton Gate, in fact.

Moo heard the explosion from Hemel Hempstead this morning. When she mentioned it, I mocked her, but after speaking to a couple of the people who attended Litle Yeldham this morning (who'd also heard it), and had to agree. In fact, I'd woken up around that time, as well, but not worked out what was going on. Moo'd already been awake, so fair enough, and it appear that it had been a _seriously_ big explosion. We've got to hope that it wasn't a terrorist attack. Apparently people have been panic-buying petrol. As far as I'm concerned, if I don't have enough petrol to get work, then I'll have to stay at home. Tough. In fact, great.

Back to the service. I felt closer to the actualities of being priest today than I ever have before. I'm not a priest yet, of course, but after walking to the front of the church today, I looked at everyone there, and the fact that there were many people who wouldn't normally be there, and that the church was full, and that there were people of all ages there just came together. I've felt the responsibility of preaching on other occaisions, but just the taking of the service meant more to me than ever before. The responsibility and the privilege really came through. It's a bit weird that if you stand up in front of a congregation with robes (I wore an alb today), people assume that you're a priest. The people who invited me to Helion's Bumpstead today know that I'm still training, but I noticed that in the service pamphlet that one of them had, I was down as "VIC", which you have to assume was short for "Vicar" (people aren't very good at separating the office (priest) from the job (vicar, rector, curate, etc.)). There's an enormous responsibility there: already. I try very hard to live up to it.