My favourite type of chaos again this morning. Today's family service involved pancake-making, alleluia-imprisoning, lots of Cubs, Brownies and a couple of runaway toddlers. There were also hymns, prayers and Communion. I think the church comes alive when we worship together in this service. Today we had three recently-joined Baptism families with us, and a good sprinkling of students from the nearby halls of residence.
Somehow, in the midst of the noise, distractions, and fun, God was present in a powerful way, drawing everyone present into His love.
The children gather round the altar as we celebrate Communion and the image of one three-year-old boy's face as he watched, rapt, as the President took bread and wine, blessed, broke and shared them will stay in my memory for a long time.
"Let the children come to me; do not try to stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:14-16)
That boy taught me lot about how I might better accept the Kingdom of God today.
Sounds wonderful - wish I'd been there. Like the idea of gathering the children round the table in particular.
ReplyDeleteOur new vicar has started offering grapes to all the children at Communion, as a way of including them more.
Comment worked this time!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how I feel about grapes. I think there's been a Twitter conversation about that. I would rather they just took the bread, I think. We have permission from the Bishop for that to happen but so far there are no takers - not even my own children. We'll wait and see. In any event they seem to like being round the table and I love having them there!