Help a bug out of the house, rather than squash it
No problem with the theory of this, but opportunity eluded me today. On Thursday, however, as I set the altar for the BCP Eucharist I became aware of a very sleepy tortoiseshell butterfly, perched with wings outstretched on the service book.
St M's has rather a tradition of church butterflies. Distressingly, they fly about during the winter months seeking warmth and light and their end is usually signalled by an unpleasant singed smell. I was determined that this butterfly at least should fare better, so at the end of the service I persuaded it onto my stole and it departed with me to the vestry.
It was a lovely spring day, and it fluttered drunkenly off the stole when I opened the door, and was last seen sunning itself on a grave stone. I fear it won't have survived for long - but it was a beautiful addition to the congregation that morning.
St M's has rather a tradition of church butterflies. Distressingly, they fly about during the winter months seeking warmth and light and their end is usually signalled by an unpleasant singed smell. I was determined that this butterfly at least should fare better, so at the end of the service I persuaded it onto my stole and it departed with me to the vestry.
It was a lovely spring day, and it fluttered drunkenly off the stole when I opened the door, and was last seen sunning itself on a grave stone. I fear it won't have survived for long - but it was a beautiful addition to the congregation that morning.
4 comments:
This reminds me of my old internship church, Church by the Creek, which had a strange tendency to have lady bugs (some call them lady bird beetles - red with black spots and black heads) in the sacristy by the end of Lent/beginning of spring every year. We were forever letting them out the sacristy door.
i do hope you're not suggesting that the mornings congregation were sunning themselves on gravestones? or is it the case that a butterfly really is the only living soul amongst a thursday mroing BCP congregation which is to be found exclusively in the graveyard?
I love the idea of using your stole for this - a new design perhaps?
Well, Caroline...given that disturbed earth in your back garden, I can see how you arrived at your speculative position!
BCP congregation is elderly but healthy on the whole...and very understanding when I couldn't shake hands at the door because I was sorting out the butterfly! They knew where priorities should lie...
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