God in structures, and their collapse...

Sue Curtis and her Local Training Group led an excellent presentation at services at Christ Church and Christ Church on the Wells today, ahead of her ordination as deacon on 1 July.

Its theme was "Everyday Church", and you can download the presentation used in church below [PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress].

We were reminded, as we have been often these last few months, that it is possible, and indeed desirable, to link up, in the worship and service of God, all parts of our lives, and to share those linkages as a resource for those around us. "Only connect", as E M Forster put it.

Sue designed a special liturgy for the service, and here is the Collect we used, written by Janet Morley:

Holy God,
Whose presence is known in the structures we build,
and also in their collapse;
establish in us a community of hope,
not to contain your mystery,
but to be led beyond security into your sacred space,
through Jesus Christ, Amen.

Wonderful! Challenging too at this time in the life of the Anglican Communion. And it reminds us that we are never to try to tame, domesticate, house or contain God, but that we need to allow ourselves to be led out by God into what Janet Morley calls God's "sacred space". The structures we put up to make God and God's life more manageable to us are always provisional, and always subject to change, to demolition, or to the earthquake of the Spirit.

Download presentation here