abbotsford parish church@clydebank@scotland

worshipalternative
(august 4th 1999)

This is just a selection of the words and images that go together to make the worshipalternative	Labyrinth I
	This Labyrinth service takes the leader round a labyrinth built on the floor. The people sit round it and imaginatively go round it with the leader. There is alot of music in the background and various activities to do. Only some of them are here.   Introduction   Be with yourself in patience Find your soul Slowly Journey to your centre Removing all troublesome memories Let go Those frayed and worn fears Those much visited anxieties How well you have come to know them Place them in your hand Raise it to your lips And with a spirit filled breath Renew who you are: Blow them away like feathers And let them fall at you feet: Goodbye
	Call Clannad: Lore - Track 11 played in the background Take off your shoes You are standing on Holy Ground Feel the pathway Trod by many a pilgrim Searcher of light This is a holy path we follow A roadway of love's energy Listen for the rhythm of their souls Echo Whisper Breathe As we share this journey with them Take off your shoes This is the path to Holy Earth To the centre of our souls Preparing us for our walk in the world Come walk into God
	Off loading Those burdens holding you down Making the hills steeper Unbalancing you on the rocks Sinking your feet deeper into the sand It is possibly something you cannot name But if you can Name it now to yourself Quietly Honestly Calmly And then draw a symbol that represents it on the card If you cannot name it Or it hurts too much Simply take the pen You know how it makes you feel You know deep down the effort it gives you The frustration The darkness The hurt Now take the pen And draw a symbol that represents it Madonna: Ray of Light - Track 9 Don't rush it The time is God's time And there is an eternity's worth of it to have
	Meditation Take your hands and squeeze them tight So the whites of your knuckles can be seen It may be sore It may be intense You may feel your nails dig in to your palms This is what God often encounters in us Shut out Closed tight But slowly Slowly Slowly Release your fists As you think of those images and words you have drawn All that they represent and symbolise Relax your fists Those pains Those hurts And feel the blood running again The pain releasing its grip Uncurl your fingers Slowly Slowly Feel them shake Slowly Uncurl and begin to straighten So you see your palms Red Warm And now Slowly Slowly Open them fully Open them to God Open not just your hands but your hearts also Open and ready to accept what God offers Grace Forgiveness Healing Freedom Life New life
	In the centre In the centre of the Labyrinth these words are spoken with the singing of 'God to enfold you' (Common Ground) between them. God is only our name for it The closer we get to it, the less we can give it a name There is a namelessness inside the human where our divinity really is Here in the centre is our natural, unforced sacredness God to enfold you   Imagine you are in a field and you come across a large stone. You lift the stone and underneath is an ant. In fact there are thousands of ants all working away. Imagine you are part of the colony and you hear of an Einstein ant. This is a wee ant of massive brain. He works in the colony. This ant has designed half the nest, he has found cure of all the known ant diseases, he has build barriers, he educates all other ant in the finer questions about ant relativity and E=mc2 of the ant universe. One day the ant is summoned to the queen and told that he cannot do anything else for them. He can't do any more here and so he should go out into the world to share his vast ant knowledge. And so he goes out into the world. He packs his ant rucksack and leaves for other places. He pokes his head up from the main entrance and crawls from under the big stone you've replaced. The light hits him and dazzles him for a short moment. But on he scurries. In the corner of the field in your horse. Very laid back, munching on grass. But this Einstein ant cannot perceive your horse since the disproportion of the ant to the horse is too much. So it is between our reality and God's. God to enfold you   The Spirit links us with the huge presences adjacent to our lives. Inhabit the same rhythm of your soul Stay awake to breathe in who you are. God to enfold you   Here you live intimately with infinity The real mystery is that there is something rather than nothing What have you done with your wildness: that infinite thing that can't sleep within forever - the hugeness of your spirit, bigger than your name? God to enfold you

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