7. March 2011 02:40
I hope I am not breaching any confidentiality rules but sometimes I think more people should be able to witness the circle time at the Bear evening service.
After seeing as many as 150 people eat a cooked meal prepared by a team of willing volunteers, between 15 and 30 people stay on for a service that involves sitting in a circle to share a bit of their story before a short time of worship, a talk and communion.
The circle time is a glorious clash of culture, class and means. The homeless and the homeowners, the wealthy and the poverty stricken, the well educated and the completely uneducated, the alcoholics and the teetotallers, the drug dealers and the addicts, the gamblers and the business men, the prostitutes and the celibate. Stable or unstable, they all sit as men and women, created by God, sharing their hopes and disappointments and submitting their requests for prayer.
Last night the first and second people couldn’t think of anything to pray for, the third announced that he had set a date for his wedding in Sweden, the fourth explained how his life was in danger every day, the fifth had got lost for a month (physically lost) and the sixth was grateful to have found him again, the seventh proclaimed the peace of God over us and told us how God was with him and blessing him every day. The eighth needed prayer for conflict at home, the ninth I cant remember, the tenth needed a lodger and the eleventh and twelfth I cant remember either (I must have been day dreaming) the thirteenth is training to be a minister and the fourteenth spent five minutes apologising and explaining that he couldn’t speak English, the fifteenth told us that this week she had met her daughter for the first time in 22 years – last time her daughter was six years old - she also met her two granddaughters. The sixteenth described a wonderful few days with family, the seventeenth predicted the end of the world soon, the eighteenth asked us to pray for homelessness, and the nineteenth thanked God for work.
To close the service we shared communion while one of the team prayed over all the people and requests presented in the circle. Last night some of us were even anointed with oil.
It’s a privilege to be an equal amongst this group of people.
Paul Ad