Palm Sunday - the beginning of Easter Week.
There was a moment at the beginning of today's service at our church, which I watched on the livestream, when I thought the vicar had gone slightly mad. After a whole series of notices he invited us to raise our loolavs and join in with the first song.
What?
I was a bit late joining the service this morning, and so I had clearly missed something important.
I googled the word 'loolav' and discovered it is the Hebrew word for date palm, and sure enough there were quite a few palm crosses waving, held high enough to be in the video!
But to return to something more serious;
The sermon was on subject of listening, sitting in silence and hearing what God has to say to us rather than filling every moment with songs or words or actions or speaking or anything else. I will take two things the from sermon...
'some people find that when they are sitting in silence with their eyes closed, they might fall asleep. Well, isn't God our Father? And, as a parent or grandparent, or friend or relative, isn't it lovely when a child feels so relaxed and secure that they fall asleep on our lap? So don't worry about falling asleep.'
and the other was we had a time of silence after the sermon.
Usually we are invited to 'sing with the band while we reflect on what we have just heard'. Personally I find that a non-starter; Either I sing, Or I reflect. I've never managed to do both!
This time, we actually had - silence. How long? I have no idea. It could have been five minutes, but was more likely ten. I was too engrossed in the experience of - silence - to care.
A period of silence was always a part of the Taize services I used to take part in, and, of course, almost the entirety of any Quaker services I attended.
I commend the practice to you.
(Surely I have mentioned before that LISTEN is an anagram of SILENT? I used to say this to the class children often enough!)
I wish there had been a period of silence in our service. There was a lot of singing, and more singing. No time to reflect on anything really.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I was the same when I was younger, I mean in thinking that singing about being still and listening was somehow the same as actually BEING still and listening...!
DeleteOur Palm Sunday Service was a Family service, with all sorts of slightly wild activities. We had Pin The Tail On The Donkey, the opportunity to make our own lulavs to wave drawing round or hands/palms on green paper, cutting them out and glueing to a lolly stick. ...and more. We have had a quiet afternoon
ReplyDeleteAh, well, in a Family Service all the 'rules' are different! Although when I led an evening Taize service around a camp fire at church camp, the children were very quiet during the 10 minute silence in the middle
DeleteIn my current congregation, where worship is traditional in style, one minute of silence is pushing it. In my former, more alternative, congregation (same denomination, the United Church of Canada, usually a pretty "talky" church with Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational roots), we routinely had about two minutes' silence in every service - unless it was Taize, when there was more silence. I really miss it but do understand that silence can be unnerving for worshippers not used to it. I now get my silent prayer in my 20 minutes every morning. Interesting, your positive church camp experience with children and silence.
ReplyDelete