Last night we had a great time. It was the end of year BBQ for the team where we said our goodbyes. We said goodbye to 5 members of the team, but oddly we are welcoming back Rachel, Emily and Chris next term. The team also said goodbye to me and surprised me with a gift of an espresso maker which was incredibly kind of them. It worlks well and I had a great Capuccino this morning. A great present … thanks guys.

After we ate the BBQ food; yes you guessed it, out came the incense accompanied for the first time in Ryan ritual by the beautiful drone of the didgeridoo. I think it has confirmed to the neighbours that Rob is definitely weird.

It always amazes me the difference in participation between children and adults. My 3 children kept putting incense on the burning embers wheras some of the adults were a bit more cautious! I think I have said, I like to end the BBQ by giving guests the opportunity to pray using incense. It’s an idea I nicked from Jonny Baker which my children love. After a while I was going to ask my children to stop but as I approached them I could see they were praying and had been for about 5 mins. It was great to see and made me realise (again) how helpful symbolism and ritual can be to us as we try to connect with God. Sometimes adults can be wary or hold back, and children just wade in because they want to experience God in as many different ways as possible. What is it about us adults that causes us to hold back? I ask because when I go out I am exactly the same, I hold back too; sometimes out of embarrasment and sometimes for reasons I can’t even work out!

In our churches we seem to have lost a lot of the beauty of symbolism and ritual in evangelical circles. I even remember a few years back that someone from the church visited me in my office and got very concerned when he saw the box of incense I bought from Prinknash on my desk. I wonder whether re-discovering symbolism would help us in our personal discipleship and in our connecting with God. Certainly, the old testament is full of symbolism and ritual and it seems God created us in a marvellous way that allows us to experience him in a variety of ways and by using our senses other than hearing. 

My great diappointment with the evangelical world more and more seems to be that it is so scared of doing something ‘dodgy’ that it throws everything out the window that it does not like or understand. Actually, I think it is worse than that. It seems to be more of – oh the catholics or liberals do that, so, of course, we can’t! When are we going to undestand that unity, completeness, wholeness are all part of the plan? Thats really what was good about the GYFC team BBQ. People from different worlds able to agree, disagree, laugh … all of it in love. Our own little community in many ways which has had to seperte for a little while.

Anyway, I digress … where was I …At one stage Beth put on too much incense (her mothers daughter!) and the BBQ erupted into flames again. I remember saying to John, my vicar, that that seemed quite symbolic. The prayers of the children igniting flames and causing fires … I liked the imagery anyway! Isn’t that what we want to do as we pray – cause things to happen?

The evening really was excellent and I am going to miss the team. It was great sitting in the garden, candles drinking, hearing Chris play the guitar, others singing, everyone laughing and the attempts of others to get a sound out of the didg. Could that have been a little insight into Heaven I wonder? I like to think it will happen again sometime in the not too distant future.