Be still

We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.

T.S.Eliot from East Coker, Four Quartets


After a busy day, involving a drive to Wales, time spent with 2 baptism families, a Eucharist and Stations of the Cross, HS and I decamped to Gloucester where Michael and his friends from feig (I’m calling it that until you decide a name, Michael) had created a lovely alt. Worship event in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral.
The combination of ancient stones, soaked in prayer and holiness with gently reflective stations was just exactly what I needed.
Actually, something of the sort should be compulsory for parish clergy at the start of Holy Week - the mountains to be scaled have resumed their proper proportions here at least.

Michael’s emerging church is less than a year old, about to outgrow its home in their living room and extends well beyond your run-of-the-mill cathedral congregation…It was so good to be part of them claiming that space, opening it to people who wouldn’t arrive their naturally but who certainly seemed to be valuing the experience of letting God work with them "where prayer has been valid".
I'm hoping M will post some pictures at his place later - it was very beautiful (not least the candle lit path that led from the door up the side aisle all the way to the Lady Chapel - a really effective declaration of hospitality)