I do have a confession to make (and it is not about me forgetting to start the slides for the Gathering Words). Brooke asked me about the tune being used for VU573 (Eternal Spirit of the living Christ) in the service. I repeated to him what I had written in an email earlier in the week: that I did not think the tune for VU581 (When we are living) fit well with the words of VU573. So he decided to go ahead and use the tune for VU501 (Break now the bread of life). I think it would have gone very well if it had not been for the fact that, since some of the hymn phrases did not fit on one line, I used the tune for VU624 (Give to us laughter) as the basis for the phrasing on the overhead slides. I guess unconsciously I liked VU624 better than VU501 and I assumed that Brooke would as well. Unfortunately, that meant that some of the words of the hymn in the phrasing for VU501 were on different lines which I think made singing more difficult. There definitely seemed to be some difficulty in singing the last couple of lines of each verse.

There was one change in the line-up of songs for the singsong: instead of singing VU390 (How great the mystery of faith) I ended singing VU356 (Seek ye first the kingdom of God) as requested by our minister. I had decided to sing VU390 because the tune was not known. Turns out it had been decided to use a well known tune instead of the original tune so there no longer was any need to go over it in the singsong. VU356 was requested by our minister as it really fit with the direction her reflection took.

There was a little bit of excitement during the reflection when one of the people in the pews started to feel unwell. An ambulance was called, and my wife (who is a nurse) looked after him while we were waiting for the ambulance to show up. Our minister was not phased by the events unfolding and changed her reflection and the flow of the service to ease the care of that person. Interesting that it was my wife's first visit at church in a while and it would be then that her gifts would be needed.

God Bless You!