by candlelight...

It is a profoundly simple ritual:  Once a year (around All Saints or All Souls Day) we bring the purpose-made tray out of the basement and place it on the communion table in the sanctuary, fill the tray with sand, set out about 500 small white candles in baskets, and begin worship.  After I talk with the children about "lifetimes" (death), the congregation is invited to come forward and light candles for loved ones who have died (and companion animals, and dreams - because they can die, too).  In an instant this diverse congregation (diverse in age, gender identity, political views, theology, sexual orientation, and a zillion other identifiers) all stand on common ground:

We are people who love, risk, experience loss, and heal through love.  Seeing others suffer as they touch that place of pain and loss causes compassion to arise within us.  Compassion brings down walls, and helps us to heal (individually and as a group).

I began this ritual sixteen years ago as I way to teach a deeply troubled church that what they share is greater than what divides them.  It took some time (and a few additional rituals), but they gained a deep appreciation of this truth - and gave up war.  There is such healing power in shared rituals...

...create sacred space, enter it together, be vulnerable and open, and watch Spirit work.  I am awed each and every time it happens.

Last week I completely completed year one of my DASD/DMin.  All my paperwork is in (the Presbys have a gift for creating paperwork - positively amazing), and the books for year 2 are looking at me  (some excellent and very challenging topics, to be sure - I'll try to remember to put the reading list in the blog). People have been asking me what I will be writing about in my big project at the end of my DMin.  The answer has been surprisingly quick in coming.  In 2013 I will celebrate 30 years in ministry (20 of them in ordained ministry), and almost all of them working with highly conflicted churches.  Both my physical and spiritual heart have suggested that, perhaps, my days riding in that particular rodeo are over.  As a way of drawing that phase of my ministry to a close, I want to further research and describe what I've learned about liturgy and healing - about the amazing ways congregations can heal and grow when they enter that sacred space together, risk being vulnerable and open, and allow Spirit to work.

Many a wounded congregations found the way to healing and wholeness by candlelight...

Resting in the Mystery,
Kim