Reflection on last night's Blesséd

The Church was transformed last night. Tony & Dave  (who make my flights of fancy a reality on all sorts of levels) constructed a womb for us  last night. Using bits from our scaffolding tower, and material from the local craft bank (why do I not use them more, I ask myself!) we created a small enclosed area. Using the youth clubs’s beanbags we lolled around, projected on three sides, used a small, low altar lit underneath by blue LED Christmas lights, amid scattered stones and twinkly fairy lights (thanks to Rachel and Emma, who read our Gospel  also).

So, on one level it worked beautifully: Liam was again a technical wizard and dealt admirably with the problems we had with audio. I think we need a new mixer/desk but I simply can’t afford a new one. Does anyone have one they can give us or donate towards the ministry of blessed to buy this now much needed bit of kit?

The space was quite small, and I expected it to be cosy. It was. I was praying for 50 people to come. 30 did. Fifty would have been quite unrealistic in that space, but I was still disappointed. A few new people, though; the vast majority from personal contact or previous work. Advertising is clearly not working, so I need to work on word-of-mouth as a means of getting people to engage. That should save some money. It’s not about the numbers, but somehow deep in my priestly psyche, it still is. I feel I am letting down the Gospel, the parish; when, for the thirty people who did come, we shared a really sacred moment. We watched. We waited. We anticipated His coming.

High Points (thank you to Fr. North for ensuring that everything I do has to have this evaluation at the end of it):

• Eucharistic Prayer to Shine on you crazy diamond
• Love and Self-Control Ritual taken from Stations of the Spirit and spookily voiced by Nicola Soal from Aberdare. Her welsh accent just makes this meditation, and the simple power of holding stones.
• Walking into the sacred space and seeing the lovely lights. For the first time, really for Blesséd, the sacred space has been used creatively. I liked this.

Low Points

• Where is everybody? Oh shut up, Simon. Be grateful for what God is doing, for goodness sake!
• Audio – crackly and only in one channel unless the plug was precariously placed half-in; half-out. Need a new 4/8 channel mixing desk
• Forgetting up put my chasuble on at the peace. Did that invalidate the mass? Hmmm, no maniple either 🙂
• Still having a study which looks like a bomb has hit it. So much on this week, it might take some time before ‘normality’ (if only I knew what that was) looked like.

So, overall, a good one; a sacred one. Now on with the Infants Christmas Service….