We had a beautiful meeting for
reverence this morning which was centred around two extracts from the book
"When I See the Wild God" When I See the Wild God : Ly de Angeles :
9780738705767
The chalice lighting words were an
invitation to stand together with all others everywhere who were meeting
together today in their search for truth and justice in freedom, living a life
mindful of the divine.
The readings drew to our attention the
connections we have with physical creation, through our bodies, and with both the
overarching and more local human cultures we live in, through narrative,
knowledge and experience. A new idea to
some of us was that our bodies have lived
since the beginning of time and will live after our death to this life on
Earth (as every atom in our bodies has been around since the
beginning of time). The difficulty in
reconciling the ideas of “the one” and “the many” were remembered, with particular
reference to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The
Silmarillion.
We were invited to consider the balance
that has to be struck between
being
part of the unending creation song (so
being able to relax in the knowledge that our own pain, turmoil, joy and love
do not actually stop the enduring song of creation)
and
the
duty to be authentic, each moment, each decision, to the person we believe
ourselves to be (no matter how hard that may be).
We sang some lovely little hymns,
hidden gems in the Hymns for Living
hymnbook; and were invited to spend our seven minute meditation time reflecting
on how we had contributed to the creation song in the past week, and how we
might attempt in the coming week to live authentically in line with who we
believe ourselves truly to be.
We also lit candles for the things that
concern us or which are current joys, and enjoyed a good conversation over
coffee afterwards. Our wide-ranging conversation
pivoted around the concept of long-lived relationships, in family, friendship
and – interestingly – commercial terms; and how modern day living seems to care
little for loyalty.
We wondered how the
current fashion for changing employment, leaving our family roots, and losing
touch with friends from adolescence will affect society in the future. And we concluded with the hope, if not complete
trust, that people will always find a way to grace and happiness if they want
to, regardless of the prevailing social conditions.
