After a long gap since Cafe Church last met (our end of term Christmas celbration back at the start of December and the impromptu Happy Church after that) we were finally back together again at the start of a new term. There was lots to catch up with so plenty of time was spent simply doing that. Exams and assessments and exotic travel meant quite a few people were still not back.
The first half of the term is going to explore the theme of stories – stories we know well, stories that have shaped us and continue to make us, stories that we recall and those that we are living now.
On entering the Chapel there were 4 small boxes on the floor. Kneeling on the floor and opening the boxes each contained a short prayer/reflection about stories and their importance in our lives. Further into the chapel were another 3 boxes each with a candle infront of it. On each of the box lids was a few verses of the story of the Magi visiting Jesus. Inside each box was a picture (on the underside of the lid – not many people found these) and a folded pice of paper. Each had a different poem about the Magi – T. S Elliot’s Journey of the Magi, W.B Yeats The Magi, and Malcolm Guite’s Epiphany Sonnet. Each of these pieces offered the opportunity to enter into the story in different ways – with satisfied, or unsatisfied Magi who are like us or nothing to do with us.
Back round the tables with more coffee and cake we discussed what we’d read and reflected more on what stories the Magi might have told to their families and friends. there was also space to reflect on how God reveals himself to each of us and to consider whether we are deliberately searching, on a journey, on someone else’s journey by choice (or otherwise) or whether we have simply stumbled into an experience of God.
