Forest Church 1 - 10 November 2019
We had a wonderful Forest Church session today, making the most of the beautiful crisp Autumn afternoon.
We met in the church car park and then were lead by Kate Beck, a Local Preacher, down to Buck Wood. Pausing at the gate into the wood, Kate reminded us that we were entering our place of worship - our church - and then shared the story of The Lost Sheep. We spent an hour or so enjoying the woods, reflecting and sharing with each other about how it feels to be lost and found and being reminded that, like the shepherd in the Bible story, God remembers every one of us and searches us out - we even had a game of hide and seek to illustrate the point!
Next, Kate read us a Psalm, reminding how God is in and through all his creation and even knows each of the stars by name. We then crafted our own stars from twigs and wool, hanging them on a little sapling near the disabled access gate on to Ainsbury Avenue - if you spot them add a photo in the comments.
We rounded off our worship with prayers thanking God for his care of us and for the inspiration we had found in the woods, before singing a verse of the hymn Amazing Grace. Finally, we all went back to church for hot chocolate with marshmallows, tea, coffee and lots of biscuits!
Forest Church 2 - 15 December 2019
Thanks to Kate for an inspiring Advent forest church this afternoon. We considered the binding tenacity of the ivy and the protection of the holly. We prayed for all those who are alone and unprotected at this time.