Sunday

Worship was a youth-led occasion with a specially-convened choir, brass quartet, and PowerPoint prayers that was filled with energy, presented with aplomb and celebrated community. Although part of me wonders how much ownership or involvement the children had in crafting the prayers that they offered, if they were handed something to rehearse or given full authorship.

Within the Assembly, some people's frustration (I might call it insecurity) with a lack of outcome or engagement with the meta-question of what ministry will be required by God of the church, resulted with additional plenary time that had me feeling resentful and bitter. The home group time which followed alleviated much of that negativity for me and we were able to broadly engage the questions that remained for us as individuals. The content of our discussion was too broad to try and capture, but I continue to marvel at the care and attentiveness we held for each other in that holy space of conversation and listening.

By the time evening session came around, I had mentally checked out. I appreciated the gift of hearing reflections from the spiritual elders in our midst, the former Moderators of the church, and will fondly remember a sprinting monologue that I will always remember as "Bruce McLeod's Wild Ride" where he offered his take on lectionary, lay ministry, leadership and the like.