Confession Time....

Sunday morning was lovely, bright and sunny with a generous gusty wind - perfect weather for drying washing, so I duly loaded the machine.  My husband had departed early, as he had service cards to print, computer to set up, and in the absence of a tame trumpeter or bugler for The Last Post, a clarinet to warm up.

The KHT was also ready to go from 9:10...
"Yes you can go now, but it is a bit early." Only to repeat the same conversation 10 minutes later.
I remembered to hang the washing out and left it fluttering gently in the sunlit breeze.

On arriving at church I set up a craft activity for any 5-13's who would be in the service. Although there is a creche today, the usual children's groups were not running. The freshly coated church hall floor was still drying, or setting, or doing whatever newly coated hall floors do.  As dear husband was playing, I had the task of sitting behind the sound desk and trying to remember to mute and unmute at vaguely appropriate times. As I 'muted' the Reverend gentleman for a hymn, I remembered the prayers I had written the previous evening, and more importantly remembered that I had not got round to printing them... AAAAAAAArgh!!!!

The Evidence...

"Oh God, our help in ages past..." sang the congregation, as I crept around the sound desk, scurried over to the craft table and filched a pencil. Taking a scrap of paper from my bag, I hurriedly scribbled down some headings from what I could quickly recall from the prayers written the previous evening. (I rescued my note from the recycling bin in the study, just to take this photo. Strange, but true!)
For those unable to read my panic-stricken scribble I have provided a translation below.

• Those who gave so much
• Those who waited
• Those who still wait
• Mentally ill
• Leaders of the nations
• Bereaved
• Those who are ill

When you go forward to lead the intercessions, it is important to have a piece of paper in your hand, to give both the service leader and the congregation confidence that you are prepared.  You do not need to read what is on the paper, just take it with you. It is your passport to leading prayers.

Fortunately, on a day such as this, it is perfectly acceptable to leave small spaces within the prayers, to allow people the opportunity to reflect.  This also serves the purpose of ensuring that your tongue is in sync with your brain, not racing ahead....
The intercessions concluded with The Lord's prayer.  So preoccupied was I with kicking myself for not having brought that which I had prepared, I forgot to take my service sheet with me when I went forward.
I have 2 choices, bluff it or confess.
The confession was earlier in the service, so I step out in faith...
"Our Father...."
If I leave a millisecond gap, the wonderful lady in the front row will feed me the start of the next line.
Phew!
The only place I come unstuck is when we are near the end, and I boldly proclaim
"For yours is the kingdom the power and the glory, while the congregation declare
"For the Kingdom, the power and the glory are yours..." Fortunately, the congregation are in full flow by this point, so with a bit of luck, they will not have noticed...

We do not normally ring on the 2nd Sunday evening, so later afternoon we rang a Quarter Peal on the bells at the Parish church, half-muffled for Remembrance Sunday.  We do not have many ringers who can ring for 45 minutes, nonstop. As we were one short we rang the front five, which are in a minor key, which with muffles on sounded delightful. We chose a method which we could ring well, and after a couple of initial stutters, we rattled through the changes with some very good striking.

Home for a coffee,

and off to a Taize style service.

It was lovely to sit in the candlelight and sing along to the chants. Very peaceful and relaxing.










I remembered the washing, fetched it in
and came back to this....

The countdown begins....

Thank you, KHT!