aaaaaarrrgggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
and its holiday season which makes it even more difficult.
but last wednesday night, at soul space, we couldn't open the front door of the church as there was something wrong with the lock. the only way in was through the back door via a slightly treacherous track around the graveyard in the dark and light drizzly rain. i was going to call it off, as it felt completely wrong to be locked in a church without having the front door open so that anyone else could come in. but then a young mum with her baby boy came, and she was so disappointed that she couldn't have her hour of peace and space in church - i just couldn't say no to her.
and our delightful, atheist friend, lawrence was there too. he sent me an email this morning, part of which i put here:
Congratulations on last night’s Soul Space. I saw a man who had already “walked that other mile” the Man in Black sings about, and who was also abhorred at the idea of a closed church - but who managed somehow (with whatever inner feelings you had) to respond to a cry of pain and need from a mother with child.
I hope you got something yourself from the experience. I personally loved what you described as the “weird experience of being locked up in a church”. I felt we were reliving the beginning of Acts 2 which to me paints a picture of the followers being all huddled together in a (locked) building - feeling afraid, inferior and inadequate. So for me, last night was history and symbolism and reality and poetry. And I loved you for mentioning us all by name, along with yourself, at the closing prayer.
lawrence, and good people like him, help to keep inspriation smouldering in me.
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