Here are some ideas I threw out at the meeting that we could possible do for our "Celebration of the Faithful" next week, Sun. Aug. 31. Please offer your comments, ideas and suggestions.
- Visit a "prayer labyrinth" - see wikipedia article for more info - This website lists several in the Columbus area. Adam and Kara mentioned the OSU arboreteum, which looks to have beautiful gardens and a very nice outdoor labyrinth. We could either do the meal aspect of the gathering at someone's house, or we could try a picnic.
- Do some sort of prayer stations. I think at the last "Celebration of the Faithful" Nick and Jane facilitated something very similar (but I wasn't able to make it). Prayer stations are based upon the ancient practice of the Stations of the Cross, which is essentially using visual cues to direct prayer. "Stations" (or a spot to stand and look at a picture) are set up around the room and people move from station to station, being led in prayer. It would be tough for one person to set up many prayer stations, so perhaps different people could design and bring a prayer station, and then we could set them up as one experience. The stations could be interactive in some way, for example having a place to write, a picture to color in or draw, an image to look at, a physical element to touch, something to take away - this would be an opportunity to be very creative. The prayer stations wouldn't necessarily have to have any set theme, although we could agree on a theme, perhaps something general like "Peace" or more specific like praying for those suffering from natural disasters.
OK - as Nick said, "Blog it out"
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from the weather report that I saw this morning it looked like it was supposed to be clear by Sunday (and it the 80's- so it should be nice). Just throwing that out there to say that the labyrinth option is still on the table.
This is another site w/ some more explanation of what a labyrinth is - I'm thinking of checking out the osu arboretum one tomorrow -
http://www.mathewsumc.org/html/growth/labyrinth.htm
So I visited at the labyrinth at the arboretum this morning. It was really beautiful - very peaceful and an interesting experience.
If the weather is good, I think it'd be something cool to do as a group, and then have a time afterward to share with each other where we feel we are at on our spiritual journey.
I say let's plan on the labyrinth thing with a meal at someone's house before or after. We should pick a time soon.
Why don't we do dinner at our house at 5:30 and plan on going to the arboretum at about 6:30. How does that sound? Please post and let us Know what you are going to bring so we can plan accordingly. Are we planning on doing communion at the labyrinth?
I say all systems go. I'll post it. Kara - you might want to send out a food related email. I think where we do communion is your call (unless someone has input).
I think doing communion at the labyrinth would be just fine. Or, another idea would be to incorporate communion into the entire meal portion of the night. I think this is a practice some churches are experimenting with, and the idea is connecting to the early church description of "breaking bread" every day together, not so much as a ritual communion, but as literally eating food together as a recognition of Jesus' life-giving sacrifice and his daily provision for us. I think it would just mean at some point in the middle of the meal, sort of breaking, remember Jesus' action, and saying a few words. I've never actually seen anyone do it that way before though, so I'm not sure.
Otherwise, at the labyrinth would be cool too -
Jesse, I like the idea of having communion as a part of the meal. One church that I attended did this, and I always looked forward to these communion experiences. I also liked the freedom and experimental nature of the communion time at this church - you could always count on someone breaking spontaneously into a favorite hymn. For some reason having communion during the meal made it more spontaneous, which made it more meaninful for me.
Boo hoo! I can't make it! Sounds like an amazing experience though!
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