Women's World Day of Prayer

Every year, Christian women around the world set aside a day to meet together and pray. Each year, the theme is set by the women of a different country and this year it is the women of Papua New Guinea who have prepared the prayer service. Their theme is Unity.

Papua New Guinea has the most diverse indigenous population in the world, with more than 800 different languages. They have a saying, "For each village another culture". But all the women of Papua New Guinea use the bilum, a traditional string bag. The bilum comes in different styles, colours, shapes and sizes according to the village, but it is used universally for carrying babies and market produce and as a cradle for small babies. So, the women of Papua New Guinea have chosen the bilum as a symbol of Christian unity for today's worldwide prayer service.

Here is their invitation to prayer:
In Papua New Guinea we are many and we are diverse. Our 800 languages represent the many cultures and traditions. Our rugged landscape can isolate us from one another but the love of God empowers us to embrace each other and to embrace you, our brothers and sisters around the world. We greet you with these words "Yum planti manmeri tasol long Kraist yumi stap wanpela bodi tasol" meaning "In Christ we are many yet one body."

You can find out more about Women's World Day of Prayer here. If you can't get to a local gathering, you could download the resources and join in at home.

Ember days

When I was a child we kept this first Wednesday after Ash Wednesday as the Lent Ember Day. Traditionally, the year is marked by four special days, one in each quarter of the year, when we thank God for the gifts that each season brings.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:
All things have their season,
and in their times all things pass under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal.
A time to destroy, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh.
A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather.
A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to get, and a time to lose.
A time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew.
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
A time of war, and a time of peace.

Keeping the Ember Days is no longer a regular practice in most churches but I think it is good to mark the changes in the year. Spring is full of signs of light and life and rebirth and so, like Autumn with its fruits and harvest, a wonderful time to make children aware of the splendours of the world we live in.

This is one of my favourite Spring poems, not perhaps for children:

Nothing is so beautiful as spring --
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. -- Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Ash Wednesday

Can you remember your New year Resolutions? I always think that Lent comes as a timely reminder that nothing much has really changed and I really must do something about it. Whether you think of Lent as a time for giving up things or of doing something positive, I hope that this blessing from Iona will inspire you to find a little silence in your days.

May you stop and see
the way light falls and rocks glow, and may God bless you with
little, big moments that make your heart dance.
Moments when you suddenly become aware of all the
overwhelming beauty and wonder and richness and love
living in the middle of where you are standing already.
Moments when you gaze around understanding:
the kingdom of God is now.