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.
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.
ReplyDeletei 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?
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of using your stole for this - a new design perhaps?
ReplyDeleteWell, Caroline...given that disturbed earth in your back garden, I can see how you arrived at your speculative position!
ReplyDeleteBCP 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...