Easter Week In

I had Easter week off work, which was nice. It's always nice to have a bit of a rest. So, what did I do?

Well, I also had Good Friday off (which is actually Holy Week, I know), and that was an interesting day with two main things that happened. The first was a meditative service, in which I had the opportunity to display a poem I wrote about Easter. I actually submitted two, but the other wasn't about Easter, so it was turned down - but if you want to read both, they can be found here. Anyway, the service itself was interesting, though different than it has been in the past few years. At least it felt different; it felt more like a 'normal' Sunday service, though that may just be my impression of it.
It was based around the seven last words from the cross, with various prayer stations around the church with different actions that could be done, and you could could go to as many or as few as you wished. I went to two: one which was about forgiveness, and one which was about giving God painful circumstances - the two were connected. Then we all came back together for a dance piece, and a short talk (yes, short) based around the last two words. What I got from it was that Jesus' surrender led to God's victory; so, if we surrender to Him, we can share in that victory. After that, they asked people to come up to the front if they wanted more of God's grace, so I went. Someone came and prayed with me, and I gave him the bare bones of the situation; at the end, he said it was important to remember that I am one of the good guys.

And then Saturday was pretty much a normal day, in that the shop was open as normal. And an abnormal day, in that we were really busy. We have been particularly quiet recently, so I can only put it down to the fact that we were closed on the Friday. Anyway, the day was pretty good, and I got a proper break. Which was nice. And then afterwards, I had to go look for Easter eggs; which was more difficult than you'd think because I was looking for fairly traded ones. Normally I would have done it before, but I was particularly busy this week, with the little matter of a wedding. And then I went to my mum's. I got there just in time to meet them on the way to church, and rescue Phoebe, who didn't really want to go to that service (well, she had been to every other one that week). And a nice evening was had by us playing games on our phones and tablet. Honestly, it was a nice evening.
And the next day was Easter!! To celebrate I went to church in the morning with them. Well, not with them exactly, as they got there early and I got there late; but I was there. It was a really nice service, and it had a happy feel; which was definitely appropriate. And I saw quite a few people who recognised me who hadn't seen me for a few years. We had a bit of a rushed lunch, as Phoebe had to go, and then I had a quick nap - apparently a genius idea. I got dropped back home shortly before church, and put up a post containing the poems I had offered, and then went to church for the second time that day. And again I arrived late.

And then began my week off - and mainly in. To start off with, on Monday I got ill, and was feeling pretty rough. I did go out that evening, as it was a friend's birthday, and I hadn't seen her for a while. I almost didn't make it out, as I didn't think I could do it; but God forced me, and it was definitely worth it. However, the next day and a half weren't at all good. I didn't sleep Monday night until about 6ish, so most of Tuesday was basically written off too.
Which meant I got up pretty late Wednesday, as well. So I didn't do that much, just a lot of reading. Until the evening, when I went out to a friend's to help her move house. And then we all went to a pub to join the rest of cluster in a social time. Which was nice.
Thursday was the first day I really spent a fair amount of time out of the house. I went to the library - what with all the reading, there was a fair few books to go back - and then to Starbucks, which I haven't been to for ages. Last year sometime, I think. I saw another friend I hadn't seen for ages there, so that was good. And then in the evening, I went to Hungry. I prayed for peace, as I definitely needed it. And I saw the friend whose birthday it was, and we had a good chat afterwards. Which was nice.
I didn't really do much Friday, but on asking if anyone was free at the weekend, I discovered a vegan fair at Gloucester Guildhall that a friend was going to be at. I hadn't seen her for pretty much a year, so that was a good chance to meet up with her - and meet her daughter. I figured that even a short time seeing her would be worth it, and in the end, we spent a good few hours chatting and just generally relaxing. Which was very nice.

So, all in all, the week off started off pretty badly, but there were some definite highlights in it. And I was feeling a lot more positive about things in general, even though I do have to go back to work in a couple of days.

Travelling Through Holy Week

So, this week just gone was characterised by several things; creativity, prayer, emotions, and tears. If that makes it sound quite depressing, I should say at once that it wasn't-the range of emotions was all over the place. On Monday, I went to a meeting to do with Trinity Arts, which is pretty self explanatory-my church is called Holy Trinity and we are hoping/aiming to develop art and creativity in the church. We have been going a while, and have put on several events and workshops, and we have a meeting every so often. Usually, I find these meetings fun, but am left feeling slightly disappointed; but this time, something just seemed to click for me, and I felt that we were getting somewhere for the first time (that is, I felt it for the first time, not the first time it's happened). We spoke and prayed about several things, including the event by Springs Dance Company on Thursday. Anyway, there was a good time and spirit about the whole meeting, and I look forward to see what will come of it.
Tuesday was the last ALPHA evening, which was a bit sad. The Taskforce arranged to have a get together next week, which was good. And then we realised we couldn't go down the pub afterwards as usual, as they were having new floors put in. So Luke bought a couple of bottles of wine and entertained us all with his impressions of Little Britain. And a good time again was had by all. And I suggested getting together to go for a walk Easter Monday.
I don't think anything out of the ordinary happened Wednesday, except I was in work all day on my own. So I relaxed in the evening.
Thursday was the evening of the Springs event 'Bread of Life'; which I really can't describe. This may be because I'm not that good at description (you decide), or just that dance is more on an emotional level than intellectual. I can tell you that everyone I spoke to enjoyed it, and I had tears in my eyes at a couple of points.
And then Friday. Good Friday. Where we had a meditative type service, with paintings along the walls. I was stewarding this, which also meant I helped with the Communion-something I've never done before. I've always wondered about doing that; and when it finally happened, it felt like just serving in any other capacity. Which was interesting in itself. On the one hand, it kind of feels that it should be 'different' in some way, and on the other hand, I was just there because they needed help and I was going to the service anyway. The main centrepoint of the service was a cross in the centre, and people were invited to put a hand in paint and put it on the cross as a visual reminder that sin went from us onto Him at the cross-and, I guess that sin is messy. And after the service I went to look around the place I am now going to move into at the end of this month-and then told my landlord I am moving. All I have to do now is give him the written notice, which he should have picked up yesterday. Something to pray about, maybe?

So, that was my week-and following that came EASTER!. More on that to come...

Leading Into Holy Week

With an unusual start to the weekend, I discovered I am probably old. Well, not the start exactly, because that was work as normal, but Saturday evening I went to a Taize service. And I was almost the youngest one there. So, therefore, I must be old. Probably.
Anyway, for those of you who have never been to a service inspired by Taize, which is a community in France visited by people of all denominations (and ages), what you need to know really is that it is quiet. They build silence into their liturgies, which are quite simple to start with-the idea being that anyone can join in if they wish. Because anyone can worship. The service was lovely, quite relaxing for me. Though that may have been partly because I was quite tired anyway. I kind of dozed a bit, but I didn't sleep, as I joined in with most of the responses. I was aware of Taize services before, and discovered I actually knew several bits of the liturgy they were using. The whole thing was very peaceful, and I will definitely go again. If anyone is interested, it's at st Mary's church every couple of months-the next one should be around May 18th-it will be a saturday, anyway.
And then, afterwards, chatting with a few folk, I discovered that Folk On were playing a bit later at St Matthews-pretty much just across the road. So I had to decide whether or not I would go-and I went for 'yes'. I went into town and grabbed something to eat, then headed straight over. I met up with a couple of friends, and got a seat near the front. Which was good, as the place was pretty packed. Now, if you haven't seen Folk On before, they're a folk trio who either attend the Salvation Army church locally, or come from the small cotswold village of Little Dribblepatch (so small you won't find it on any map. Or google earth-apparently the day the satellite came over they hid the village in the bushes). Needless to say, they're not entirely serious. Or not at all. Which is all to the good. Needless to say, if you like music or comedy, then you'll probably like them-and if you like both, then you absolutely will. I enjoyed myself muchly, and even caught up with a couple of friends who I wasn't expecting to see, one from Bristol. Where they're playing soon, if you fancy it.
So that was Saturday evening. Sunday was much more relaxed, starting with getting up later for a start. I read a bit, and then I wrote a poem inspired by the evening. And then I went to church. God told me to got to St Matthews that evening, which was interesting, as I wasn't expecting my Saturday to be mostly there as well. But it was also interesting because they did a completely different service to what I think went on at my church. The start was probably similar, and then it was quite different-they had what was basically a small passion play, going through the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. And then there was a cross, in which we were invited to hammer nails in, before taking a palm cross. I was reminded once again what the point of the crucifixion is all about, and the fact that Jesus did that for me. Definitely something that will stay with me for some time to come.