Living Lent in St Paul’s, Newport
This Lent, we in St Paul’s in Newport travelled, ‘meeting God in the Wilderness’.
We learned about the various aspects of God’s character which the Israelites dicovered on their journey and how that relates to us and others in the world in 2009. We looked at the Law of God, the Fire of God, the Glory of God, the Provision of God and the Protection of God.
We also tried to engage the congregations more in the intercessions during Eucharist. So, on Mothering Sunday when we looked at the Provision of God, we had all the children taking part in being ‘grumpy Israelites’, moaning to Moses and travelling through and round the church. Yes, Moses did strike the rock and produce water for them! In this case, it was a bottle of water for each child. So, satisfied, they undertook the intercessions, telling us what they wanted to be grateful for and thanking God and their mothers.
We set aside another week for our Highveld link parish of Christ the King in West Tembisa. We had received photos and their Lent programme plus a lot of facts and figures. We obtained other photos of the area, housing, schools, etc. These were all displayed on our screen in rotation. The prayers were led by a South African member of our congregation. She set up three prayer stations in church which held tea lights and one large candle already lit. Each table held something different: pencils for eduxcation needs, small crosses for church needs, red ribbon for HIV/Aids needs. After viewing pictures and being given infomration sent from Nomvuyo, our link person, we were asked to light a candle and take an object home for further prayer. We then all joined in a prayer to finish.
This really seemed to have engaged with people. Several asked after the service what they could do to help and we shall address this quite soon when we fix our eyes on ‘mission giving’.
One person said this link enthused him for the first time - enough to say, “I want to go”!
We at St Paul’s hope this will enthuse other parishes to seek to have a link with the Highveld, or maybe just try another way of doing things for a change.
Dare to do it differently.
Mary Kinchin