Worship at St Mary's Bramall Lane and Whirlow

Sunday 6th April - St Mary's Bramall Lane and Reflective Worship at Whirlow

It was lovely to be at St Mary's! I found myself amongst a varied congregation of over sixty people and sat next to a young man in splendid African dress. The service had a very relaxed, welcoming and had a good inclusive feel, thanks in no small part to the vicar Julian's delightful style. At first a number of people were getting things ready. The number of people present grew steadily - quite a few arriving after the official start of the service.

Our singing was lead by just two people, one with a guitar and the other who sang. This worked well, but I did think how blessed we are with so many musicians and singers at St Paul's. We sang a number of songs using the overhead projector - which always gives the challenge of getting the right verses visible at the right time, but that didn't matter as we were singing songs from the sixties and seventies which people knew well.

Michael Jarratt, a retired vicar, preached a lovely sermon, short, direct and with a very personal feel. He was saying that after Jesus rose from the dead his appearances where specific to people needs who he met, and how we too can meet Jesus in our times of need.

There were lots of children at St Mary's! They stayed with us for the first few songs, and then went out to their classes, returning for a blessing at communion.

The notice sheet was attractive and informative - spread over two sides of an A4 sheet.

The words of the service were in a custom made booklet (like ours) and were used very sparingly, creatively and with a lot of opportunity for us, the congregation, to join in.

The church has chairs arranged like ours and the altar was brought near us for communion. I was impressed that Julian was not at the front on the dais all the time, but moved around us in the service leading from different places. (I wondered if I get a bit tied to my chair at the front.)

It was a really encouraging way to begin my worship away from home!


There is reflective worship in the chapel at Whirlow on the first Sunday of each month at 7.00 pm. There were not that many of us - ten of fifteen, but it had been snowing quite heavily in the previous few hours!

The worship last about forty five minutes and we were given ideas to reflect on, music to listen to and things to do in response, but most of the time we were together in silence meeting with God in our own ways.

The main theme was God call to simplicity and the way our lives become to tanged with different things. We each had a ball of wool to reflect on, and there was an arrangemnt different wool and candles in the centre for us to focus on. I felt that God was saying that during may sabbatical he wanted to unravel the threads of my life, so that some flaws in the pattern could be restored. I wanted this to happen, so I unraveled my ball of wool for a while, and then bound it up tidily at the end - in fervent hope...!!!

I came away partly thinking 'well that wasn't much of a service' and partly realizing that in the silence far more profound things had taken place inside me than would usually happen in a service of worship.


More reflections soon - I have been reading about 'The dark night of the soul', but I need a bit more time to think before I write about it! And I will try to remember my camera next time for a photo of the church I visit!