Days of Rain ?

I marvel at the synchronicity.

After several weeks of heatwave and drought, we have had a couple of days of rain. Parking outside the church in advance of the 9.30 a.m. service,  Psalm 63 was playing inside my head by way of a prayer: “My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water."

For whom did I pray?  There was no shortage suitable targets: wildfire raged in California and Greece;  I was reading, and had been deeply disturbed by Rebecca Stott's book on the Exclusive Bretheren, "In the days of Rain"; and I prayed  for my own relationship with the mystery called God.  Psalm 63 was soon replaced replaced by,  "Morning has broken, ... and I was straining out to hear Black Birds’call  in the wet churchyard.

I had come to preside at the Eucharist and to preach in a thatched 13th Century church not far from Wroxham; excited/delighted that the Gospel reading for the day was St.John's story of the Feeding of the 5,000.  Jesus gets into a boat, goes over to the other side, shares a picnic by the waterside etc.. The Broads are a sort of Galilee.

I marvelled at the synchronicity. I was going to share good news, as Jesus had done;  and stand in his place to take, bless, break and share bread.

One could not have chosen a better venue to contrast and  compare a Dibley-like, country church,  Holy Communion service with the Exclusive Bretheren's practice of Breaking of Bread.  At our service women there was no danger of women being shut up and silent!  Two  competed to read a lesson and afterwards there was a stand-off as another pair approached the lectern at the same time, each ready to lead the prayers! There had been a confusion about the rotas - who was to read and who was to pray.  What characterised the confusion, was the good nature of those competing and the congregations' amusement and happy acceptance of things the way they were. And - the scripture was read with understanding and the prayers were accompanied by an attentive still-ness.

My sermon had two main points - the reckless generosity of an insignificant child in sharing his packed lunch with 5,000 and the miracle that followed; and Jesus as the new Moses, in a  new Exodus, a journey that was still ongoing.......

Copyright jmc4 - Church Explorer

I had not chosen the hymns, but the final hymn led me to marvel at the synchronicity again! "Who would true valour see...... " . So the service ended with me and my fellow minister following the cross to the back of the church. Did I imagine, that having sung, "No goblin, nor foul fiend shall daunt his spirit", the little chap on the capital of the archway at the west end winked at me?!

After the service, we shared coffee and enjoyed each other's company. And that, I thought, was that. And today, I finished reading "In the days of Rain",  grateful to Rebecca Stott for a disturbing, eye-opening, honest and hopeful book.

And, I marvel at the synchronicity. Towards the end of the process of writing the book; wanting, perhaps, to  glimpse again the Egypt where she and so many others had been in slavery when they were members of the Bretheren, Rebecca went with her daughter, to see Exclusive Bretheren leave their meeting room one Sunday morning. Nothing had changed, the women were still subservient and all were dressed as they had been in 70s. It turns out that the  meeting room was at the opposite end of the Parish of Salhouse in which I had been breaking bread with the People of God!

What, I wonder,  do I make of that?

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