The Sunday after the Thursday before!

The women brought the jam we made to Sunday worship today. It was a rather spontaneous happening born largely, I think, out of their joy, and sense of achievement. It was as if Sunday's worship had become subsidiary to the women acting as Christians during the time of meeting to make the jam. The excitement of being active Christians overtook the routine aspect of Sunday worship, and generated spontaneous worship of God in praise of his creativity and creation as seen in the gift of creativity.

It was a 'we can DO this' moment with a felt sense of being the Body of Christ and the fruits of God's creation. The energy was palpable.

We experienced a joining together of ourselves, a moment of wholeness and healing, as we talked of the jam and the process of making it. The women laughed as they told the story to their wider Christian community.

We then completed our spontaneous task - bringing the jam physically to the centre of the worship, being intentional about our plan to share the gift we had been given. We prayed in thanks for our experience, and in dedication of ourselves and of the jam as it is given to ourselves and others.

An article from the church website

Tea and Jam for Seven!

20lb of Blackberry and Apple jam is sitting in North Lynn Methodist Church's kitchen awaiting labels. Seven women between 18 and 90 had fun together picking blackberries from the church garden and making the jam. There was lots of chatter, a couple of brews and some VERY purple hands. Amazingly only two of the women had made jam before, although others are now keen to make more!

The apples were windfalls from local trees and the jars were saved from being smashed at the bottle bank while the sugar, although not local, was fairtraded. All of this made for a creative afternoon with both an environmental impact and concern for justice.

Once the jars have been labelled the women are planning to give most of them to neighbours along with a personal invite to share in our harvest celebrations, and with this in mind gift tags with our harvest image and brief information are being made. 

North Lynn Methodist Church website can be found here.