Place’
Here,
in this place
to dance with seagulls
over white-tipped waves,
to sing with the curlew
the corncrake and the skylark
to swim with the seals
through forests of swaying kelp.
Freed,
at the last
from the restrictions of the earth
the vagaries of time
the restraints of the years.
One with tides and seasons
an eternal jewelled droplet
part of the endless breath of God.
And yet,
not resting at all
ever moving, changing, creating.
Finished with life.
Alive to eternity.
Loss, Love and Growth
REV. ALISON HUTCHISON
This was used in small church-group and hospital settings. It allows the acknowledging and addressing of the pain of various kinds of loss and the hope of growth through them, with God’s help.
Loss
Leader
It has been said that life begins in loss – in the very act of birth, we lose the comfort and security of our mother’s womb and are forced out to face a strange and unfamiliar world. The act of birth is inseparable from the pain of letting go. That experience of loss and new birth continues life-long.
When we think of loss, we tend to think of the aching grief of losing a loved one in death. However, loss plays a larger part in our lives. We leave places and people, and are left by them. We may lose opportunities or our dreams, our hopes. There are times we lose our identities, or the person we long to be. We may lose our health suddenly or slowly as we age. We may know the loss and grief of being separated from each other by distance or disagreement.
Let us acknowledge our losses and the grief they bring . . .
Reflective prayer
To be spoken by one or more people. Explain that silence will be used.
Voice 1
Living, loving God, we bring to you now any loss, any grief, large or small, deserved or undeserved, expected or unexpected. (pause)
Voice 2
We have lost those we loved, Lord – death, disagreement or distance separate us. Our lives have changed, for they are no longer with us. We are grateful for the loves shared, yet deeply mourn their absence. In the midst of our grief, past and present, you know and understand the confusion of our many different thoughts and feelings. We lift those thoughts and feelings to you now. (Silence – at least ten seconds)
Voice 3
We may lose our health, Lord. We feel cheated as body and mind fail us. We may face restricted lives, and the shackles of our times of ill-health are irksome and heavy. We lift our thoughts and feelings to you now. (Silence – at least ten seconds)
Voice 4
We may have lost ourselves, Lord, the people we long to be. We are unsure of who we are, how we should live, and have lost our way. We lift our thoughts and feelings to you now. (Silence – at least ten seconds)
Leader
Suffering Lord, share our pain and give us courage. Healing God, take our grief and ease its ache. May your great love, and the love of those around us, be the balm for grief past, the strength for living today and the hope for our future. Amen.
Love
Leader
Whatever we suffer in life, let us remember the love which never leaves us.
Reader
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37–9, NIV)
Growth
Leader
Only crushed wheat can be made into bread. Only trampled grapes can be made into wine. Loss may crush our lives and grief may trample our spirits, but love and courage can transform them.
We have the choice. We can remain in our hurt, or with divine and human help we can accept, adapt and grow. Even in the most devastating loss we can find the opportunity to create something new, so that the loss need not be futile. As the act of birth is inseparable from the pain of letting go, we can find new birth and growth.
The Rainbow Tree
REV. CATRIONA OGILVIE
Each year, about two Sundays before Christmas, the ‘Rainbow Tree’ starts the service as a bare branch cemented into a tub. During the service, people come forward and tie a ribbon on the tree, one for each person they wish to remember. The ribbons are of all the colours of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet – to remind all of God’s promises seen in the rainbow.
The tree stays in the church until Easter, when the ribbons are removed and sewn into something for the church.
This whole act reaches a very deep need, because bereaved people find the ‘jolly’ side of Christmas so hard. Many churches hold similar services using small candles for remembrance; but we have found the lasting nature of the ribbons, and the fact they are kept and used year by year, to be especially appreciated.
The tree itself can be viewed on Cumbernauld Old Parish Church website along with some of the things that have been made with each year’s ribbons.
Prayer
May the light of Christ shining through our tears
become the rainbow of Your promise;
shining
