Sunday 27th April

Today (Monday) has been rather stressful! Getting the packing finished for my trip to Dubai was one things, but having problems with my computer was quite another! However, I am still very excited about the trip. Last week, my friend Steve mailed me to say that there might be a car I can borrow while i am out there - which would mean I can drive inland to the mountains. I have been looking at them on Google Earth - they are impressive, as are the huge dunes East of Dubai.

Christ Church Stannington
I really enjoyed my visit to this church, where Philip, my spiritual director is vicar. I was amongst a congregation of around 80 people with a good range of ages. Some songs were led by a worship group - electric piano and guitars - and the rest by the organ.

At the beginning we had a lovely little liturgy which involved the children. We reflected on God's light and a child lit the candles, the bible and bible was brought forward, finally the cross and the cross was brought forward. Philip welcomed us and said that if we were worshiping with flags we had to stand away from other people - sure enough a number of people and most of the children waves large flags as we sang the first song! There about a dozen children present, who then went out to their classes.

The form of Communion service was very much like ours at St Paul's, apart from the confession prayer which came later in the service - after the prayers - and this worked really well. Philip has a delightfully relaxed manner, drawing us into a meeting with God, and getting on with what was important - I noticed that he took quite a bit of time to pray during the hymn before he preached - leaving us to do the singing!

The sermon was about the lack of love in our world today. We focus on comfort and achievement, but are losing the art of loving people - and this causes so much heart ache. The reading promised that God will love us when we love Jesus - so lets get on and do that. Philip spoke from his own experiences and told us a lovely story of God's love in action and then challenged us to find ways to loving Jesus by making his love known.

I went this week in the month as I know they had laying on of hands and prayer for healing. This worked very naturally. As we came up for Communion we went one side just for bread and wine, and the other for bread, wine and prayer! It was so easy to receive this brief but meaningful prayer and lots of people took the opportunity. Pairs of people (including Philip) did the praying for people - without asking the specific need, so you didn't have to say anything. Though you could go into the vestry for more prayer after the service if you wanted.

The church building was reordered about ten years ago and has a good sense of space and the congregation gathering for worship around the (rounded) dais. After the service we went over the road for coffee in the church hall. It was a shame it was raining, but next week I will probably be longing for shade - it is hot and sunny every day in Dubai!

The next post will be from Dubai - I hope! It depends a little on the computer working properly!!