Abbey services

Worship at the abbey was great. It was familiar and new at the same time. I enjoyed going to service both to begin and end the day. They were casual services. No ministers dressed in fancy robes. A different staff member, volunteer or member of the community led each service. On Sunday we had full service with communion. The morning service was always a matins type of service with the same liturgy sending us out in to the day to work. The evening services all had some kind of theme. The service the evening we arrived was a Service of Welcome. It was packed and full of energy and life and good music. The Monday night service was one of Justice and Peace. This one was quite difficult. They focused on the bomb dropping on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The part I found most poignant was the large map they’d painted and had on the floor, identifying the countries that still have nuclear power. People stood on those countries and others went up to lay their hands on them and we all prayed. There was a ceilidh in town after that service. I had intended on going but then didn’t. I found in general that I needed to just be on my own after evening services. And certainly I did after this particular one. Tuesday was a Service of Healing. People had the opportunity if they wished to receive the laying on of hands for prayer. What I liked about it was that it was completely voluntary but that the whole community was involved, repeating the prayer of healing. The Interfaith service the young people at the MacLeod Centre led was impressive. They’d been studying the commonalities between their different faiths all week and incorporated that into a service of commitment. One young girl that I’d met on the first evening, who told me she was agnostic, played a significant role in leading that service. They had come up with a visual way to show their commitment to three areas, the environment, social justice, and continued study of different faiths. This young girl had explained to every one how it would work; you would pick up the symbols representing the different areas and lay them on the table. A group sang a song from the Ba’hai tradition as people were to come forward. Except no one got up, even after she got up to try to start it, make the first move. She then looked at me with this look that said, “Help! No one’s getting up. Now what?” So I got up and the awkwardness was gone.
I think my favourite one was maybe the final one. The Agape service. John, one of the leaders from our study week, did an excellent job of leading it and the meditation. We had a little ad hoc choir that I was a part of and I did a miniscule job of helping lead the kids in playing their percussion instruments at the right time. I think it was the service where it felt most like we were all part of one community. The Agape part was like the Love Feast at the Methodist Room in Bristol. We had bread and water. Agape means love, which I didn’t know before. We were in communion with each other in a completely safe way where all were welcome, especially those of different faiths who may very well have felt uncomfortable in a Eucharist service. And the beautifully candlelit medieval church just creates such a warm ambiance.