The man in the car in front of me had a rosary dangling from his mirror.  Rosary beads are used by many Christians as a way of praying by saying particular prayers as they hold each bead in turn and meditating on specific events in the life of Jesus whilst they pray. There is always a cross on rosary beads, often with the figure of the crucified Christ on it. I was thinking how lovely it was to see such a public sign of the man’s faith and wondering if he used the beads for praying when he was stuck in traffic, for example. Then I noticed another thing. The man was smoking in his car. He would be blowing cigarette smoke onto Jesus! This just struck a nerve with me and seemed all manner of wrong!

I always find it unnerving and slightly amusing to find out where my own sticking points are about what is sacred or holy, what is ‘appropriate’ behaviour around places or items that we endow with a religious meaning. At home, we have a table. In church we have an altar. The table and the altar might be identical as items of furniture, but they have a different significance because of the building that they are in and the purpose for which they are used. Sometimes, in a congregation like ours, we find that we have very different ideas about what is holy, special or sacred, depending on our previous traditions. Jesus was very aware of how the religious leaders of his day had got caught up in ‘preserving’ the sacred at the cost of actually allowing the people to experience God through love and kindness. He railed against this, time and time again, for example, healing people on the Sabbath, when no work is meant to be done.

In our Commitment Service on Sunday, we used our Bedrock Beliefs as a basis for our commitment promises. Our Bedrock Beliefs describe the main tenets of our faith as Northern Lights MCC – God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, faith, the Bible, worship and what it means to be church. As individuals, we may believe more about any of these, but our Bedrock Beliefs were developed in a process where we could agree the basics, the bedrock of what we hold sacred as a faith community. It was powerful to hear these statements again and our responses to them as promises for this coming year. The Bedrock Beliefs give room for all of us to go deeper with God, to find more in the meaning of each statement and to incorporate what we hold personally sacred too. This week I invite you to give thanks for those things, places and people that draw you deeper into God’s presence.

God bless

Cecilia

How do you use your body to pray or to worship God?  We all do it. Even if we are sitting very still, we are using our body to create stillness in our mind and in our spirit. Depending on what tradition you were brought up, may depend on how you use your body to pray. Some of us have also taken on ways of praying with our bodies from other Christian traditions or even other faiths. Do you kneel to pray? Do you raise up your hands in praise for certain songs? Do you bow your head for certain words or bow to the altar in the church? Do you genuflect? – this means bending down on one knee? Do you dance around and use the ribbons that we have in church on a Sunday? Are your eyes open or shut when you pray? Do you have your hands upturned or are your palms pressed together and your fingers pointing upwards?

 ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’ writes the author of the first letter from John. (1 John 1:14). God was embodied in Jesus, yet the Christian Church historically has found the body to be quite a problematic thing. This is especially true around sex and sexuality “Sex is dirty and nasty, so save yourself and only do it with someone you love” is the mixed message that many of us received. Yet we use our body to express ourselves; our faces show emotion, our bodies move – in NLMCC we “rise as we are able” for songs and sit for prayers. We might clap our hands, tap our feet or click our fingers to the rhythm of the music. We take in God’s creation through our senses – we have bodily responses to the world around us. One writer described God’s presence as the ‘fragrance of God’. He suggests that once you have scented God’s presence, you are always alert to catching even the smallest whiff of Divine perfume in the everyday stuff of life.  We experience God through our body – we ‘feel’ God’s presence.

Our bodies are part of who we are, they are not separate from our emotions or our spirits. Using our bodies in different ways for prayer may add a new dimension to our prayer lives. We may even experience God in a whole new way. How might it be to try out some different ways of praying with the body? Perhaps it is something that you used to do, like kneeling by your bed as a child to say your prayers. Perhaps it is something that you have seen others do, like raising their hands, or bowing their heads when they say the name ‘Jesus’. You don’t need to try it in church, just in your own space. This week, I invite you to try something new, something different, perhaps even something that feels outside your comfort zone. Use your body in a new way to worship God and see if it makes a difference. Be bold and embodied!

God bless

 
Cecilia

It feels as though God has always been tugging at my sleeve. When I was at school, I seriously considered entering the convent, and read a very inspiring book about the Benedictine Rule. This is a document written by St. Benedict in the sixth century which set out how monasteries should be run. It became the foundation for organising religious life in community and much of it is still relevant today. I still remember a quote from the book, describing convents and monasteries “powerhouses of prayer”. I have always loved that image and it came back to me again on my recent retreat. I spent four days at the Friary of St. Francis at Alnmouth and was reminded of what a life steeped in prayer looks like. I had already decided that, as part of my retreat, I would follow the worship practices of the Franciscans brothers, who live and work at the Friary. Life revolves around prayer and worship. A bell rings ten minutes before each activity, including meals. Morning prayer is at 7am, midday prayer is followed by Mass, evening prayer is at 5pm, and Compline or night prayer at 9pm leads the community into silence, which remains in place until after breakfast the following day. It was an interesting experience to live life by the bell. I was on retreat, so my time between chapel sessions was my own to use and it was spent mainly in reading and reflecting on the Jesus that we meet in the gospels. I kept wondering how it would be to be trying to do the tasks of everyday life and keep having to stop to go to chapel and worship. Would I get cross that God was ‘interrupting my day’ or would I just get into the daily rhythm and become accustomed to managing my time accordingly?

In every prayer time, we remembered people in prayer – those in the local parish and in leadership in the Anglican communion, members of the Franciscan community all over the world and those in our own personal prayers. Many of these people were mentioned by name. It was lovely to hear one of my city centre clergy colleagues in Newcastle being prayed for on the first day I was there. There were two other aspects of this prayer-centred life which appealed to me. In my room was a note about what to do on the day of departure from the Friary. I was asked to strip and re-make the bed, and also say a prayer for the person who would next stay in the room. What a hospitable and welcoming thing to do! After lunch, before we left the dining room, we said the Lord’s prayer, on behalf of “those who will not pray today and those who do not pray.” On the days we are consumed by life and do not think of God, our brothers at the Friary are holding us up in prayer and praying on our behalf. A powerhouse of prayer indeed.

God bless

Cecilia

A slightly belated but heartfelt Happy New Year to you! Before starting to write this posting, I looked back at what I had written in previous years. It was actually a bit of a surprise to open RN 8th January 2014, mainly because the newsletter looked so different. In January 2014, we were in the midst of our visioning process and were still called MCC Newcastle. I could not have imagined that, 12 months on, we would have such a wonderful logo which reflected the name and vision that emerged from that process – we have become Northern Lights MCC, offering hope and light in N.E. England and beyond. There was a really good example of that on Christmas Eve. Although I love the Carol Service, there is something about the quiet, understated tone of the Crib service on Christmas Eve which makes it my favourite Christmas service. It brings back memories of attending Midnight Mass as a teenager and stepping out into the Christmas night, feeling as though I was part of the Nativity, being out in the night, gazing at the stars, along with the shepherds. When I leave church on Christmas Eve, it feels as though Christmas has begun.

It is always hard to predict how many people will come to the Crib service. There is no public transport and many folk in the congregation are already away. This year I printed off 10 orders of service, plus some large print copies and started to get the church ready. The first person to arrive was a woman who had decided to spend Christmas in Newcastle. She lives in London and is involved in several different churches there. Each year, she chooses a different city to spend Christmas in. This year she chose Newcastle. She saw that the church door was open and came in. Next came a young Danish man and his mother, then a student on his own. After the service started, two more students came in, from India they told me later. Folk from Northern Lights MCC arrived, some with visiting family. By the time the service ended, there were 17 of us, over half of whom were not part of our regular congregation.  It was as though we had become the welcoming stable for those drawn towards the Light of the World. 

It just seemed wonderful to me that folk wanted to be in church on Christmas Eve and risked going somewhere they didn’t know. I was so glad that we had opened our doors and shone our light into the street to let people know that they were welcome. My prayer for 2015 is that we continue to do this – that we continue to shine our light and welcome people in – the alone, the lonely, those who need a place to worship God on a cold dark night or who are just curious. What a great way to spend a year!

God bless

Cecilia