We’d like to invite you to think a bit harder this Christmas.

It seems to me that there’s a part of the story of Jesus’ birth that we seldom dwell on, and we’d like to help your community enter into it.

If you’re willing.

A few weeks ago I participated in a conversation that gave rise to the thought that when Herod ordered the mass killing of the boy’s under two Mary, Joseph and Jesus wouldn’t have been the only family who tried to escape the genocide. They couldn’t have been the only ones who got word and tried to get out of town as fast as they could, parents, mothers, fathers and children, many of them would have grabbed what they could and have tried to make it as far out of the reach of Herod as they could.  The thought that there’d be this kind of event without such a response is ludicrous, what would you have done?

The image of a sea of donkeys, all carrying mothers with children came to mind, all of them escaping to Egypt or beyond… anywhere they could to escape this evil act.  And I wondered how the leaders of Egypt would have reacted to such a surge of refugees, all seeking to escape an evil leader who was killing their children in a jealous fit of rage.

Would they have responded in a similar way to our political leaders who seem to have a unnatural fear of boats carrying asylum seekers onto our shore (remember this?)?

Or, would they have responded differently and opened their arms?

And if they responded similarly what would their political catch phrase be?

What about “Stop The Donkeys”?

And another question to throw into the mix, who are we in the story? Are we parents fleeing for the life of our children, are we the children, are we the soldiers following orders, are we community members who help sneak the children out of town and hide them from the evil that is seeking them out, or are we people of Egypt? And if we’re people in Egypt are we welcoming or refusing the acceptance of these families seeking our hospitality?

What we’ve created is a list of resources that we hope will grow over the coming weeks to help your congregations enter out of Advent and into Epiphany and to delve into this question.  You’ll find that there is definitely a political lean here, but one that comes to us out of a biblical narrative that is at the heart of who we are as people of faith which tells us that after Jesus was born Herod ordered the killing of all the male children under two and that Mary and Joseph were warned to get out with the baby and escape to egypt where they lived for many years.

This idea is here for you to poach, steal, use, borrow…

And we’d love to invite you to add to the resources if you’re able, just shoot me an email.

Images:

Here are a few images that you can use over advent, have them pop up around the space and build some anticipation around the community, buy some stickers and put them on cars, capture people’s imagination.  One worship idea is to create a sea of donkeys with messages of hospitality to those who seek our generosity and love, or perhaps your community would like to create a sea of donkeys outside your church and invite your community to write letters to our government? Imagine your local member’s face when they receive 100 donkeys in the post…

Let us know what you choose to do with the images…

• No Donkeys Allowed: jpg file or purchase stickers or shirts at RedBubble.com
• Stop The Donkeys 01: jpg file or purchase stickers or shirts at RedBubble.com
• Stop The Donkeys 02: jpg file or purchase stickers or shirts at RedBubble.com
• Age at MorePraxis has created his own image and sticker: jpg file or purchase stickers or shirts at RedBubble.com
• Flight to Egypt by He Qi: Flight to Egypt

Narratives / Reflections:

Here are a couple of reflections to help you enter into the story of the flight to Egypt, once again feel free to use, rewrite, bounce off of or add to these if you’d like.

• RefuJesus, the babe that sought safety from a king that wanted him dead. (download as pdf file)
• What If? (download as pdf)

Liturgical Resources:

• Poem: Mary’s Question by Alan Stanford
• Poem: Somebody Stole My Christmas (pdf file)
• Liturgy: God Became Human (pdf file)
• Liturgy: The Down Side of Christmas (pdf file)
• Call To Worship: Christmas Letter 2002 (pdf file)
• Poem The Flight To Egypt by Godfrey Rust (pdf file)
• Poem “Herod’s Last Request” by Godfrey Rust
• Prayer And the Government Shall Be Upon His Shoulder (by Roddy Hamilton)

Commentary:

• Commentary: Let Them All Come by FirstDog
• Commentary: Leunig – If I Were a Refugee
• Commentary: Border worship has produced an inhumane people trade by Elenie Poulos 

Resources Exploring Refugee Issues:

• NCCA Resource – Me As A Refugee (this is a great resource for helping people to put themselves in the shoes of refugees)
• The Heart of a Stranger – Ben Thurley (pdf file, thanks to Ben Thurley and TEAR Australia for allowing us to use this)
• NCCA What is a Refugee?
• Refugee Council Advocacy Kit
• Australian Catholic Migrant & Refugee Centre Refugee Kits

A number of people have asked for a copy of the final service at the National Youth Worker’s Inservice this year (2005) that I decided that I’d have to spend some time writing up the “liturgy” for the service. I was even surprised to see that the service was mentioned on the front page of the Victorian Synod’s “newspaper” including space for a brief review of the training event.

It probably needs to be said that this was a contextual service, ie it was set up as the closing service for a conference of youth workers that had been discussing the theme of “Mobile Theology,” we used a bible reading that had become a central piece to the conference and as such it wouldn’t really work elsewhere, however I think we created a new way of closing conferences in worship that was rather powerful.

I’d only really been asked to pick the service up in the week leading up to the conference, so prior to the gig hadn’t really thought about it much before we gathered, it’s my belief that we close in worship to reflect, praise, thank god and be sent out into the world, so if reflection’s a primary role writing the service prior to the gig would be an almost useless exercise. During the week Adrian Greenwood and I had had a number of conversations of liturgies including texting people directions around the campsite, conducting blessings at the swimming pool, prayers down by the creek and communion on the road outside the conference centre. Most of these ideas were disregarded after 4 days of torrential rainfall looked like it would become 5 days and we decided that we’d been wet enough already during the gig.

In hindsight this was a good thing, because it made me sit down and think about how we could say goodbye to one another and thank God for the space and the words that God had shared with us over the week together.

I decided to continue reflecting on the reading that Kenda Creasy Dean used in a few of her lectures with us, 1 King 19 and to type it onto our phones and sms it to people to read out during the service. In hindsight typing the entire chapter into my mobile phone was probably not the most time-conservative way of doing a reading, but it managed to fill in a good hour or so on the final night. I’d chatted to some people and made sure that they’d be ok with 2 lines each, I’d type the lines in and then sms it to them the night before, and during the service I’d sms them with “you’re up” to let them know when to continue the reading. This is probably a saner, (yet more expensive) way to do this as the owner of the phone would have time to read the text first, while giving the illusion of the bible verse being texted live. The abbreviations and txt language I used reading could have become a problem without practice.

One of the more amusing things was that a number of mates of mine had decided that throughout the service they would continue the beeping by continually smsing each other, and myself and anyone else they had the numbers of in the room. This created a continual “liturgical sound/rhythm” that sounded God’s presence in the space, for in each beep people had become used to expecting something, a reading, a prayer… something, a space for God to speak to us.

The mobile phone had become a sacred item, could the act of sending an sms be sacramental?

Liturgy for closing a conference on “mobile theology”:

Call to Worship: The service started with a proclamation, an invitation for people to re-claim their mobile phones as sacred items, to turn them on rather than turn them off. In an act of sacramental solidarity everyone turned on their phones and were greeted by an amusing musical arrangement of beeps and ring tones. I’d like to think that the musical arrangement of beeps was God-given, this was our call to worship, a mix of beeps and vibrations echoing through the worship space.

Visual Reflection: We hit play on the dvd of “One Perfect Day” where the main characters share a phone conversation. The male phones his girlfriend and as she answers he plays the piano for her, their tune, their melody that he’d written for her a while ago and she would one day write the lyrics to sit alongside the music. A conversation happens over the phone, from the UK to Australia he asks to hear her simple melody, she hesitates and then holds the phone to her heart, we hear the heart beating, he sighs and after a while she hangs the phone up. This is probably one of my favorite films of all time, little known but some scenes that just add years to your life.

Bible Reading 1: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Bible Reading 2: About half the way through the reading I smsed someone else with “you’re up” and when the verse had finished they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Reflection – Remembering each other: We invited people to pack up the chairs that we were sitting on, and in the process to think of those people that they have sat next to, in meal or in lecture or in play. People were to remember their new friends and brothers in Christ. We then proceeded to stand and stack all of our chairs away, like one would when we were cleaning.

We were now sitting on the floor.

Bible Reading 3: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Bible Reading 4: About half the way through the reading I smsed someone else with “you’re up” and when the verse had finished they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Reflection – Remebering Images: We now invited people to remember, to reflect on the things that they had seen, the powerpoints, the movies, the presentations, the rain… And as we reflected we packed up the data projectors, the screens, the cables and put them each away in their space.

Bible Reading 5: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Bible Reading 6: About half the way through the reading I smsed someone else with “you’re up” and when the verse had finished they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Reflection – Remembering the Words: We then invited people to pack up the sound system, the speakers, the cables, the microphones and stands, the pulpit. As they were being packed away we reflected in silence of those things that we’d heard over the space of the week together, the lectures, the words of kindness and encouragement, the readings…

Bible Reading 7: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read a couple of verses.

Reflection – What Do We Take With Us? By now we were sitting in a fairly baron space, fairly empty, no chairs to sit on, no data projector to play with, no music streaming from the speakers. We were leaving the space soon, we can’t take a data projector with us, they need power cables, we could only take what’s in our pockets. We invited people to empty their pockets and to reflect on what they were taking with them into the mission field, back home and to work.

Bible Reading 8: I texted someone with “you’re up” the phones beeped, everyone looked about, they stood up and read the final verses of the chapter.

Reflection – Sustenance: So, what sustains us now that we’re leaving? Now that we’ve packed everything away, now that our pockets are emptied and chairs are packed what do we take to sustain us on the journey? In the middle of the space the only item that was left was a table with the elements of bread and wine on it.

Communion: We entered into communion by passing the peace with each other, by getting people’s mobile numbers that we hadn’t got yet and promising to contact them after the gig to see how they were going.

Rev Niall McKay from Bathurst presided over the communion liturgy.

After communion we were sent out and blessed (from memory I think Niall sent us out and then someone else decided to bless us again… I think I’ll refrain from saying more about that)

So yeah, that’s the service from the Inservice, in hindsight I’d have liked to include Duncan’s idea of using our mobile phones as an act of intercessory prayer, but it was still a good way for us to reflect on the journey, pray, be sustained and encouraged and be sent out into the world from the conference.

And to this day when I hear a mobile phone beep I wonder what God has to say, I still expect something to happen. For me, the mobile phone has become a sacred item, it’s beeps a liturgical rhythm, it’s ring tones hymns, it’s pxt’s icons.

Marcus has also written his own liturgy over at His Blog

Sunday - An Alternative Worship Experience

BlackStump 2007 saw the Sacred Space team create a worship experience based around our experiences of church, the installations focused on a different action, icon, sacrament, story, place of our church experiences.  From confession to the offering and intercession each station allows the participants to reflect on God, Christ, their experiences of church and what it means to be church to them.

I’ve been able to update the package and make it so that I could put it together as a neat and easy to access package for non-stump people. I’ve made some basic changes; re-titled the service from “Cathedral” to “Sunday” (after Dean Tregenza and I had a conversation about using the Nooma DVD “Sunday” in one of the stations), made some aesthetic changes, added an equipment list for co-ordinators/curators, added some images, spell checked the package and included a few alternative ideas for a few of the stations.

I’m pleased to offer the stations for the first time together in a package for people to download and use as they wish. I’ve uploaded the package as .zip files, files are in two formats. One format is in Pages for those Mac people out there who want to use and alter the files. The second .zip file is in pdf format for those of you not mac savvy (you poor poor people).

Please feel free to use them and link to this page (please do not direct link to the files as we’ll probably move the files to another server).

If you do use the stations, or if you add to them or alter them please let me know as I’d love to hear your stories, see your images, hear your alterations, steal your new ideas…

Downloads:

Download the alternative worship package “Sunday” as a .zip file for Pages: sunday_pages.zip (8.3mb file)

Download the alternative worship package “Sunday” as a .zip file for Adobe Acrobat: sunday_pdf.zip (6.8mb file)

Somebody save me
Let your waters break right through
Somebody save me
I don’t care how you do it
Just save, save
Come on
I’ve been waiting for you

So sings Remy Zero in the opening scenes of the television series “Smallville” the story of a young Clarke Kent as he learns what it means to be an alien in a strange land, how to use his powers, how to form friendships and how to live in a world that he’s known for all his life, yet because his home was destroyed years before he knows that he really doesn’t belong.

Superhero’s have once again started to reign on the big screen, The Incredibles showed us how a family of Supers might live, Spiderman’s reappeared and should be showing his webbed ways to us again in 2007, the X-Men 3 will be in the cinemas in 2006, Batman Begins blew our minds this year as we got to know the darker side of Bruce Wayne’s story, the Fantastic 4 with the Thing is on DVD release now and somewhere in the outback of Australia the new Superman movie has been filmed for a release in 2006.

There’s something about the myth of a person, or being that can come to the world and save it from evil that tugs at my heart, it would be nice wouldn’t it? It’d be nice if this were true, if it was someone else’s job to save the world, to bring justice to those who need it, to bring down the bad guys and to bring peace to the world… And if this person was born in super-natural ways it’d make the dream oh so much better, because there’s no way that a normal human being could save anyone, let alone the entire world. We need a superhero to take charge, to bash up the bad people, to save the weak, to take charge. We need someone that’s not human, not normal, not weak, not frail, not of this world, not like me.

And what does God send us?

A baby.

That’s right, a tiny, new born, crying, fragile, milk drinking, mother dependant, nappy wearing, pink, soft baby. There’s no miraculous spaceship accident that brings this child to the earth, no nuclear spider, no planet in distress, no mutant genes, no nuclear waste accident instead the baby is born of a young woman, through labor pains, through sweat, tears, screaming, pain… and in a stable of all places.

And what’s more this baby doesn’t grow up to find that it has any special powers, no web shooting, no turning things into ice, no super strength, no heat vision, can’t fly or run faster than a speeding bullet, he can’t stretch like rubber, nor can he become invisible, see in the dark, drive a cool car, he can’t move things with his mind and there aren’t any cool metal blades that shoot out of his knuckles when a fight comes his way. Instead, he’s a carpenter’s son, he works with wood. And what’s more he’s not impervious to damage, bullets don’t bounce off of him, instead as a baby he’s fragile, as an adult nails pierce his skin, and as an adult he dies.

Sometimes we, like the singer of the song above cry out “somebody save me” and, like the singer of the song expect some kind of superhero to come our way, to fix everything, to do it for us, to kick the bad people into gear, to take control, to fly into our lives and, like Superman do the work for us. Yet, that’s not what the world got, and that’s not what we hold to as Christians, instead during Christmas we are reminded of a tiny, fragile baby wanting to be held by it’s mother, crying, sleeping with the animals, supposedly unwanted, unprivileged, uneducated, unclean… and marked for death.

Later in the baby’s life he will teach people about his father’s love for us all, he will walk with friends, eat with enemies, feed the hungry, argue with the political and religious leaders, walk from town to town, fish for food, share wine and bread with his friends and he will die. His call wasn’t that he would do it all for us, he taught his followers how to live, he encouraged people to turn a new leaf, he called the religion of the time to be just, he caused political unrest and encouraged his followers to do the same, he sent his followers out into the world to proclaim the new kingdom.

He was no Superhero, he suffered with the people, he ate with the people, he taught and inspired the people to work towards a better world, towards the kingdom of his father where the first would be last and the weak will be strong, the poor rich. He was a servant, not a superhero.

And that’s who we’re called to emulate, we’re called to follow a baby, not a superhero, a refugee, not one of the privileged, a servant, not a king, a revolutionary, but one without a gun. We’re called to join in on the action, because unlike Superhero’s he doesn’t work alone, infact he can’t work alone, he needs community, people to eat with, to suffer alongside, to feed and encourage, friends and family to walk with, to act alongside, to pray with and to live with.

All because we follow a baby, not a Superhero.

So this year I’m not going to try and be a Superhero, I’m going to be a human, and as such I’m going to try to do human things, I’m going to offer hospitality to those who need it, I’m going to write letters regularly to my political leaders, I’m going to try to protest and encourage unrest, I’m going to try to feed the hungry, comfort the weary, challenge my leaders, love my neighbors, work for peace…

Because God’s shown us how to bring forth God’s kingdom, in the baby that we celebrate on Christmas day. God’s heard us, and our ancestors before me cry out “somebody save me” and didn’t send a Superhero, but instead sent a baby to show us the way.

May you be able to hold the baby Jesus in your arms this year.

Merry Christmas..

Title: The Nativity Story
Author: Geraldine McCaughrean

Illustrator: Sophy Williams

ISBN: 0745960928

Publisher: 2007 Lion Hudson

 
Themes: Christmas, Advent, Baby Jesus, Bible Stories
 

Geraldine McCaughrean’s breathtakingly evocative prose brings new life to the familiar stories. This sumptuous take on the classic Nativity story, with enduring prose and opulent, stylish illustrations, is a wonderful family keepsake and a delight to read alone or aloud in homes, schools and churches.

Geraldine McCaughrean teams up with the illustrator Sophy Williams to bring us another children’s book, this one explores the Christmas story in a number of stages. Telling the stories in stages we hear the story of Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth as well as the Wise Men and others. Beautifully illustrated the team bring the real Christmas story to life in a way that makes this a perfect Christmas book for Advent as the community remembers the story of God breaking through and becoming one of us.

“Maybe the stars pulsed overhead, and the planets spun like Catherine wheels, and the moon grinned hugely, and the constellations turned handsprings around the sky. Or maybe that is how it always feels when a baby is born”

Visit Geraldine Mccaughrean’s website: Link

Purchase the book: The Nativity Story by Geraldine McCaughrean and Sophy Williams

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Title: The Nativity
Author: Julie Vivas

Illustrator: Julie Vivas

Published: Scholastic

ISBN: 1862910529
 
Themes: Jesus, Christmas, Advent, Mary and Joseph, Angels, Nativity…
 

This beautiful book, illustrated by Julie Vivas tells the story of Jesus’ birth. The story begins with the Angel appearing to Mary, telling her that she will give birth to Jesus and ends with the new family setting off for home.

You buy this book for the illustrations, the beautiful way that Julie uses the water colours, the extraordinary imagery, the beauty at which you see Mary getting bigger, the innocence that the baby Jesus shows and the fascinating way that the angels are portrayed. The angel that appears to Mary is wearing Doc Martin boots, the colourful wings and the playful nature that Julie portrays the angels is well worth the purchase price for this book.




I particularly loved the way that the angels came to the shepherds and played with the sheep.

This book is full of Joy…

Some people may be shocked to find the language to be based on the old KJV text, it’s true and I do think that the book could have been better off if it used as much creative license in telling the story as Julie had used in painting the story, or perhaps by not including any text at all and just allowing the beautiful water paintings to do the talking.

But, that being said I still love to pull this book out over Advent and muse over the images of angels celebrating the birth of a remarkable baby, climbing on sheep and a very pregnant and beautiful mother to be staring at her pregnant body.

It really is a joyful book.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Title: Wombat Divine
Author: Mem Fox

Illustrator: Kerry Argent

Publisher: Voyager Books

ISBN: 0152020969
 
Themes: Advent, Christmas, Drama, Participation, Anticipation, Nativity, Jesus’ Birth, Celebration, Participation, Fitting In.
 

“Wombat loved Christmas. He loved the carols and the candles, the presents and the pudding, but most of all he loved the bush Nativity play. For as long as he could remember Wombat had wanted to be in the Nativity. Now at last he was old enough to take part . . . “

This book should appeal to most readers, it’s the “typical Aussie Christmas story” that Mem Fox says was a real sweat to write.

Wombat always dreamed about being a part of the Advent Play, but he was always too young to participate (does this sound familiar?) so, he’s sat on the edge of the play for a number of years watching and dreaming of having a prestigious part in the drama.

This year Wombat is able to participate, and so he searches for the perfect role for him to play, should he be an angel? Perhaps he’s too heavy to be an angel that’s lifted above everyone else, so how about Mary? Perhaps he’s too heavy for the characters playing the donkey to carry, what about a King? Perhaps he’s too short to wear the king’s costumes…

“Don’t lose heart, why not try for another part.”

Surely there HAS to be a part for Wombat to play, and as all hope is almost lost the Bilby thinks of an idea that provides wombat the perfect role, that of the baby Jesus.

Join the entire outback crowd as they celebrate the birth of Jesus in the play to end all plays where everyone has a part to play… even Wombat.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Title: The Fourth King
Author: Ted Sieger

Illustrator: Ted Sieger

Publisher: Walker Books

ISBN: 9780744570090
 
Themes: Advent, Christmas, Wise Men, Journey, Call, Birth of Jesus, Adventure, Nativity
 

As three kings set out across the desert to follow a star to a little town called Bethlehem, a fourth king is racing to catch up with them. A thrilling but dangerous adventure awaits him; an adventure that will demand courage, strength, hope and a trust camel! Will brave King Mazzel make it to the stable in time… or will his journey have been in vain?

This book by Ted Sieger is based on an animation made a number of years ago which told the story of King Mazzel, the fourth King that se off to follow the star to the new born baby Jesus. King Mazzel sees the star in the sky calling for him to follow it. On his journey he fails to meet up with the other three Kings because he keeps on running into people needing help, a plant needing water, slaves needing to be set free, lost merchants needing a map.

As his journey continues he experiences what seem to be continual setbacks, will he make it to see the baby Jesus? Read it and find out!

Read a Review of the book by Magda Healey

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Title: Father and Son
Author: Geraldine McCaughrean
Illustrator: Fabian Negrin
ISBN-10: 0-34088-209-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-340882-09-2
Publisher: HODDER & STOUGHTON
Themes: Advent, Christmas, Jesus, Baby Jesus, Fatherhood, Joseph, Creation, Wonder

One night after the birth of Jesus, Joseph is awake in the Bethlehem stable. Watching the baby, he wonders how he can help him, knowing that Jesus is no ordinary boy. He muses “How can I teach you to plane a door, knowing that it was you who planed the plains, who carved the valleys and hewed the hills . . . .”

This is one of the most beautiful Christmas stories that I’ve ever come across. Geraldine McCaughrean’s written a book from the perspective of Joseph, the father of the new born Jesus. As he sits by the manger and looks over the baby boy Joseph he asks himself how he, a mere man can father the one who created all of the world, the one who set the sun in the sky, filled the oceans with fish and who set the world rotating.

Geraldine’s story along with the stunning images of Fabian Negrin will bring a tear in the eye for some and a huge grin for others.

If you’re into Christmas stories then you should keep an eye out for a number of Geraldine’s books, she has a way with words and is prolific when it comes to good, substantial and well thought through stories.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Last week I participated in the NSW Synod Lay Preachers / Lay Pastors / Lay Ministry / Youth Workers / Children Ministry Workers Inservice, a week with people contemplating ministry, recovering from busy lives, learning from each other, sharing stories…

I also finally met Steve Taylor, someone who I was beginning to think was a figment of other people’s imaginations as we’d failed to meet over the last 4 years even though we have both been in the same country and towns we’d managed to miss each other by one or two days…

Unfortunately during the weekend my Grandma, Olive passed away and, as I packed my car on the final day I realised that my guitar, brought down for worship had been stolen.

On the whole not a great week for me.

I’d been asked to prepare a service for one of the mornings, for it to be 15 minutes long and, if possible for it to be based on one of the lectionary readings in the coming 5 weeks. While the morning worship would be 15 minutes approximately (and depending on how early people woke up from their slumber) I was also asked to prepare an hour long service and pass on my ideas to people at the gathering.

I came to the event with a couple of ideas, but as the week started I thought that I really needed to do something slightly different.

So, as is normal for me I started from scratch and put something else together instead.

What I came up with was a fairly wordy (I don’t like words that much) station-based liturgy in two voices based on the lectionary reading for June 13 Luke 7:36-8:3

I didn’t take any photos though, so I don’t really have much to offer in the way of the how I ran the space, but I thought I’d post the liturgy here. there’s a lot that I’d like to do with it to make it more accessible to other churches/communities, for this gathering was for people employed (mostly) in their local congregation and I had them in my mind when I was writing it.

Anyhow, here’s the liturgy for you in a variety of formats, feel free to use, steal, borrow, rewrite…

As for the setting:

• Think two different colours, orange and blue,
• Think two doors, one blue, the other orange, at each entrance is a copy of the colour’s instruction / welcome sheet
• Think two lots of instructions at each station, (orange or blue) but you only use the one that matches your colour,
• Think also that I painted something for each station a tear (tears), a clay jar (perfume), a pair of lips (kiss) and a painting of lines of hair (hair)
• And one last touch, a candle in the centre with the blessing sheet (also on blue or orange) where we gathered before finishing.

The music I used for the space included:

• Meet Me In The Middle of The Air – Paul Kelly
• Morning Drops – All India Radio
• So Beautiful – Urban Myth Club
• Always – Eat The Menu

Download (you’ll need to download a copy of both blue and orange as they are both used in the space):

• Beautiful Interruptions / Unwanted Distractions – Orange (.pdf)
• Beautiful Interruptions / Unwanted Distractions – Orange (.pages)
• Beautiful Interruptions / Unwanted Distractions – Orange (.doc)
• Beautiful Interruptions / Unwanted Distractions – Blue (.pdf)
• Beautiful Interruptions / Unwanted Distractions – Blue (.pages)
• Beautiful Interruptions / Unwanted Distractions – Blue (.doc)

And here’s a little something for making it all the way through to the end of this post: