I went to St Michael's after leaving work early this afternoon, to take part in a Family Service organised by a group of students. There are around a dozen children under ten among students there, so there's an opportunity for families to worship together and for those without children of their own to grow skills and experience in the offering of worship with children taking part.
A lot of work went into it on the part of the half a dozen adults and two children taking active parts, including a time of preparatory prayer together beforehand. The white walls of the College chapel provided a perfect back drop for a digital projector to display the words of hymns and prayers for all to join in. I usually hate the way video projectors are used in worship, because of the way the screens intrude upon the aesthetics of the place, as this for me is an important component of making an environment for prayer. Here, however it worked very well, as the display disappeared once no longer needed to for words to read.
My only contribution to the service was to give the blessing. Given it was a service of the Word in which some people said and did things to engage others and the others sat and were engaged, I devised a little form of blessing that would involved everyone in getting up and doing some movement together. Everyone joined in with a good will, and seemed to enjoy a little unexpected added fun at a moment of formal closure. How to make worship more active and participatory is always a challenge. I must think of something else to do, next time I assist in one of these services.
OK, in case you're curious, I took the actions repeated in the last verse of 'If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands' and used them as an acted out Amen for a blessing which had four brief prayer parts to it. Clap your hands, stamp your feet, turn around, say 'We are' - if you'd forgotten....
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