Sea of Faith Christchurch Group

At St Ninian’s Church, on 4 pm Sunday 22 March, the second of a new kind of event will be held. Ian Crumpton attended the first, and wrote the following report.

At 4pm, thirty or more people came from all directions to join in a “Celebration of the Cosmic Processes.”  The atmosphere was informal, warm and relaxed. Ian provided music using the keyboard with its versatility and ambience; Bill Wallace put the event together and led it, using liturgy and lyrics he had composed himself. Sheena Dickson, Minister at St Georges, selected and read passages from the Wisdom Literature. The event had a quiet and reflective character, and a structure drawn from, but moving beyond, the familiar liturgical forms of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

While moving beyond the historic institutional faiths, the event in no way negated them, but drew from their wellsprings. It was designed to connect with the religious and the irreligious – with people of any faith or of none, and in language and symbolism relevant and easily understood by people today, no matter what their background or beliefs.

We began with a slide presentation of our cosmic home, moving from Otautahi outwards: Ao-tea-roa, Earth, Solar System, Galaxy… to the the Hubble Deep Field: the most distant photograph yet taken. Galaxy upon galaxy, back through the aeons of time. The event (not really a “service” in the strict sense) then moved through several stages. Among them was  “The Letting Go”:

• We let go the illusion that we are totally separate from everything else.
• We let go the illusion that the atoms in our body came into existence at our birth: we remember that they came from the stars, and at our death will return to Earth and Sky.
• We let go the illusion that our thoughts are disconnected from the thoughts of other people and that we are insulated from their life-force:

“In the letting go, we find life
For deeper than the striving is the flowing,
Deeper than the searching is the knowing,
And deeper than the grieving is the mystery
In which darkness and light are one.”

A climax came with the time of “Symbolic Reflection and Action”using the elements of fire, rock air and water, with all present gathering at the end to drink the water:

“Rejoice in the ocean, the rivers, the lakes and the rain.
Rejoice in the waters of your mother’s womb.
Feel the water in your blood pulsing in your heart and veins.”

The final blessing:

“The earth itself is a blessing
And we are part of Earth.
Let us rejoice in our life
and share it as a blessing with other people,
with the eco-system and the Cosmos.
In giving blessing, we receive blessing,
and in that blessing we will rest.”

Tea, coffee, and a chance to chat followed.