Mike's musings

Communion helps

Wasn't feeling great. Took the girls to the 1000, taking communion and having a pray helps. Hmmm.

Labels: communion

Having children ...

... tends - in our case, at least - to prevent one from over-indulging _too_ much of an evening, as you know you're likely to be up far too early in the morning, and, what's more, that you'll have to deal with them when they get up. Well, we all got up before 0700, as Ruth and James had to get away, but at least there were no loud children around.

Later on in the day, James very kindly walked me through the deacon's role at Holy Communion in Halstead, which is different to what I've done before. He's quite high church, and takes these things pretty seriously, so was a good teacher.

Forgot to post on yesterday's blog that both Ruth and James are planning to try out SecondLife. James has already popped in and has an av: Ruth not yet.

Labels: children, communion

Serving

(backposting) Today was my first church engagement since ordination: a Area Team Meeting, held in Halstead. I went to a service of Holy Communion in the church first, with just me, James (the other curate, presiding) and one of the people going to the meeting. So, "when two or three are gathered in my name", indeed. A lovely, intimate service: it made me think about how I'll be taking communion services in a year's time.

The meeting went on till 2115, and then I drove up to Loughborough. This is service. My mother-in-law's ADSL router had died, and she really needs to have Internet access for some work she does. Moo and I looked at possible dates to go up, but decided that just doing it might make most sense. So, I left the Halstead around 2130, and got to East Leake around 2345: a good, fast trip. Said the evening office, had a glass and a half of wine, and went to bed.

Labels: church, communion, diaconate, family, service

Communion - twice

(backposting) I went to communion at the 0800 service in Great Yeldham this morning, as I wanted to take the girls to the Palm Sunday benefice service at Toppesfield at 1100. Quiet service, got home, made waffles, got ready, and then went out again.

Having to the girls out of the car, I put Miri in the pushchair and walked with Jo along the street to where we were starting the procession with Pebbles the donkey (which is why I thought I'd take them along). After 10 minutes, about 40 of us, including a (robed) choir (with their coats over their robes) walked the 250 metres to the church, singing in the driving rain. I couldn't stop smiling: it was so English, and so Christian. I kept being reminded of what St Paul had to say about the foolishness of the world. It turned out to be another Communion service - if I'd known, I wouldn't have gone to the 0800 as well - but I decided to receive Communion again, as I didn't want to confuse Jo, who would have been expecting me to take it.

A really boring service for the girls, but they were brilliant, and in the afternoon we went swimming, partly as a reward for Jo. We'd bought her some swimming goggles yesterday at Freeport, and it really helped her. She was putting her face completely underwater, doing some actual swimming, and even managing to float on her back unaided by the end. The lessons are paying off.

Labels: communion, Jo, swimming

ERMC day 3 - "And we shall be changed. We _shall_ be changed"

We had one session yesterday on ministry in schools by on of the people on the course, who's an expert in this field, and we had two more today. Managed to stay awake: they were very interesting, and I know that I'm going to be doing at least one in the next month or two, so paying attention was a good plan.

A good service, in the charismatic tradition - the quote (which, in that form, is from Handel's Messiah) was my response to the weekend. Some good songs/choruses (I'm learning not to refer to them as "hymns"), and I was administering one of the chalices today. This was fantastic: it can be good administering the chalice anyway, but it was such a privilege today, when I know those receiving well, and know that they are staff or ordinands like me. It was just very special.

Labels: communion, ERMC, theology

Infant Communion

I've never felt even vaguely happy about infant communion. Although I realise that there's an argument to say that it's good to involve children early on, and not to leave them out of a particular part of the service, but I've always taken the view that you shouldn't be taking communion until you're of an age to understand the seriousness and importance of what it's about.

I was reading Jo some stories from the excellent My Very First Bible today. We'd done Jesus in the storm (twice), the hole in the roof (once), and Jo wanted another story, so I read the Passion narrative and then finished with the Resurrection. When we got to the Last Supper, I read along the lines of "Jesus shared bread and wine with his friends, and told them to do the same to remember him."

Jo said, "you have bread and wine, don't you?" I said, "yes." And then she said, "but you don't share it with me, do you? I have a biscuit, don't I?"

She knows that she can't have the bread and the wine, but if she's patient, after a service, she can have a biscuit with the coffee/tea afterwards. I've tried very hard to make it clear that the biscuits aren't an equivalent, or alternative, and I think she gets that. What was heart-breaking was the tone with which she accepted that I don't share the bread and the wine with her. She really understands sharing and how important it is. It's a really difficult thing for a toddler, but she's getting quite good at doing it with Miri and with us: sometimes she'll even offer us her food if she really likes it. And I really believe that she understood the importance of Jesus sharing the bread and the wine with his friends. She made the leap from that to the Eucharist service completely on her own, and I was astonished. And heart-broken.

I have some serious thinking to do about my theology of the Eucharist. "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings...": Matthew 21:16.

Labels: communion, Jo, theology