The Advent Prayer course in 2006 started off a few days early (Wed 29th November), as Ruth Souter led us on a journey round the church, and a spiritual journey towards Christmas. The early start was to get four Wednesdays in before Christmas and, as one church member said, “It set me up for Advent this year.”
Ruth’s original idea was to set up a labyrinth in church and leave it up for the week, so that our young people and other visitors could use it. But the practical problems led to a simpler journey: we were invited to move round a sequence of 10 positions in the church, doing different activities at each. The earlier activities (eg letting go of “excess baggage” and making a gift for the infant Jesus) led towards the central stopping place – spending time in silence in a darkened chancel, keeping company with the infant Jesus.
With Jesus in the Chancel
The later activities were more outward-looking, as we prayed for refugees from all over the world who have recently come to Braunstone, and looked for fresh inspiration to live as God’s people in the present day.
The series continues on the 6th December, when Chris Burch leads on “Finding the Way”. Then on Dec 13th Chris Florance will help us meditate on “Refuelling”, and Roz Burch ends the series on Dec 20th with “Journey’s End”. All at 7.30pm in church.