August 4th 2006: Rhythm and prayer

For a number of years, when Malcolm Scott was the vicar at my church, he used to ring the bell at 7.00 in the morning and I liked to join him there before we both went about our work. It was beautiful, like a rhythm, and we would work though the Book of Common Prayer. He would sit on one side of the chancel, and I'd sit on the other. Through the winter months it was dark, and there was a really special feeling of being sort of enclosed and there with God. We would say the prayers, read the appointed scriptures (he'd read one verse, I'd read the next) and then we'd usually just leave... no real conversation... just being there with God was enough in itself.

I miss that rhythm a lot.

I would say that on the whole my church is much more 'evangelical' than I am - but then that's a label, isn't it? What counts is love, and I have always felt this grace and love at the fellowship here at Sunnyside.

It has been incredibly nurturing to my three children, who have grown up as part of the church, and I give thanks for the way in which God has blessed their lives.

A church is not a building - it is people and lives - and the rhythm and flow of prayer and life and love.

I kneel in the chancel. It is dark outside. Malcolm is kneeling opposite.

"O Lord, open thou our lips."

I reply: "...and our mouth shall shew forth thy praise."

Holy, holy, holy in the stillness and the quiet.