Page 24 - C:\Users\Jim\AppData\Local\Temp\msoB132.tmp

A Surfeit of Riches at Wareham URC’s recent

Worship Services!

We LOVE variety in our Sunday worship services and usually
achieve it through our many different denominations of visiting
Ministers, but the past month has been even more special and
diverse!

It started when Maggie Larkin led a
Healing Service based on the Iona
Liturgy. Having contracted Polio as a
child, Maggie reflected on how God
heals in many different ways – she
still has a clear disability despite
having received prayers at healing
services over the years - but she told
how God’s healing has helped her to live life with real joy and
peace. We all joined in with the words and silences of the Iona
service, with Maggie praying for names we had mentioned, before
inviting people forward for an emotional laying on of hands. At the
end of the service, Maggie anointed those of us who wished, with a
simple cross of myrrh oil on our wrists. A calm, moving and hugely
spiritual experience for us all. (And the Church smelt great for days
afterwards too!)

The following week, our Member, Revd Kersten
Kirkland, led us in our first Taizé, Holy
Communion service. She explained that Taizé is
an ecumenical monastic order with a focus on
fostering peace and unity among Christians / the
wider human family through prayer, meditation
and silence. I really enjoyed the service which
had moments for quiet reflection, poems and
various Taizé chants which we sang several times. The powerful
but gentle repetition of the verses allowed my mind to “wander”
and I found myself reflecting on a different phrase or word each
time, a bit like we’ve been doing in our “Lectio Divina” Bible
Studies. Many of our congregation expressed how moving they
found the experience, some in tears.
continued over

24