Hands of 500: Diversity and participation in worship

By David Kitchingman in Articles

An initiative from the Explorers Group

Since 2008 the Mornington congregation has been running a couple of series of additions to the regular morning orders of service. Individual church members have been presenting their own short personal stories. The main intention is to broaden the participation in leadership of worship and to help reflect the diversity of approaches within the congregation. The contribution takes about four minutes or so, usually around the time of the Offering. The content is not expected to be tied in with the lectionary or any other theme for the day. Contributors were given a wide choice of style and content but so far most have opted for an account of their personal faith journeys. Even so, there has been plenty of variety and some additions to the spoken word, either in song or by pictorial illustration.

At this stage there is no single descriptive term for the experimental additions to the services, in keeping with the exploratory intention behind the idea. One of the phrases used, "Words of Witness", indicates that in one sense we have merely been picking up on a long established tradition of testimony within the evangelical tradition. But whereas that practice often became an expression of conformity ours is an exercise in demonstrating diversity. The latter emphasis is expressed in another phrase we have used, "Personal Offerings".

Another term we have used, "Hands of 500", requires some explanation. One of the few guidelines is that there be a limit of 500 words. But the expression was also coined because of a certain similarity to the card game of Five Hundred -
• Everyone has a different hand every time. Every Sunday we each come with a unique set of needs and aspirations. That is something to celebrate.
• Even when we have been dealt similar "hands" we have different approaches to them. We each have a different risk profile. Some are risk averse - others thrive on uncertainty. We need to understand that no two people see the life of faith in quite the same way.
• It's better when the role of "declarer" does the rounds. It's not so good if only the bold get to lead. What was that Methodist doctrine of the priesthood of all believers?
• Sometimes spades will lead. Spades may be the lowest rank suit, but there comes a time when it is necessary to call a spade a spade. Worship is worthless without honesty.
• Sometimes clubs are trumps. There are reasons why as a congregation we club together. Becoming more aware of "the tie that binds" may deepen our fellowship.
• Diamonds might also play their part. Lustrous wisdom and beauty can appear unexpectedly in the deep mine of human experience.
• Hearts come even higher. To speak from the heart is not all that common or easy, but to do so is the best that we can offer one another.

These personal offerings have been enriching the worship experience by expanding participation, adding interest, opening new windows, and promoting authentic community within the congregation.

The full text of each contribution has been made available to the congregation in the church foyer. In this section of the Parish Website the texts have been condensed to around 120 words each, in order to give an overall sense of this development in our congregational life.


Offering 1
My spiritual life has been like a river journey. From a trickle in infancy to a torrent in my teens. It has sometimes run deep, sometimes shallow. It's had tributaries, and meetings of the waters. At one point, in midlife, it changed course dramatically and left behind oxbow lakes of stagnant waters. As it nears the ocean it's now formed a delta, branching out in erratic directions. We all respond to the same overwhelming mystery, like water molecules to gravitational force, and when we reach the ocean we will be together. The stream of our God consciousness cannot be the same today as it was even last week. Each Sunday we have to plunge in and become newly wet with wonder.

Offering 2
After hip surgery, I had the most profound religious experience I've ever known. Not at all the way I'd have expected, or how I would have organised it myself! Just as well I'm not God. I've done quite a lot of thinking and reading about suffering. I've veered between quite divergent views of God. I've left behind (for the most part!) the God who keeps score. At this stage, I see God neither as interventionist nor the Divine Clockmaker who having created the universe, simply sits back watching. I'm somewhere in the middle, but most of the time confident that my faith, such as it is, helps me to live as well as I can, and motivates me to do what I can to help others.

Offering 3
My experiences in policing were enough to test anyone's belief. I find it hard to describe or define my faith. Other than it is just that - faith in God and Jesus. I can only say that for me I have a belief and I accept it as true - although it would never stand up in a court of law. I enjoy the readings each week and the sermon which relates to them. My first response to most situations is prayer. It is my dialogue with God, and the most defining element of how I operate my faith. I love the words and sentiment of the hymn, "Brother, sister, let me serve you... I will share your joy and sorrow till we've seen this journey through". Sounds good to me.

Offering 4
That which is "more than I am myself" is my experience of Church, particularly in the Holy Communion. The one who is the feast of the Church. This gives me something human and reachable: Christ the Ground of my being. It certainly carries me beyond myself. For example, once I found myself offering the chalice to someone with whom I had had considerable variance. The sudden contrast between the blood of Christ and my own petty bitterness was so great as to overturn everything. If one grumpy old man can be nudged into letting go of past grudges then the Holy Spirit of love is alive and at work, taking us beyond ourselves. We are all invited to the heavenly feast.

Offering 5
Progress on my faith journey seems to have involved a search for credibility, and so it was that the writings of Teilhard de Chardin had a particular appeal in my youth. Worship for me had been awkward - worship who? - worship what? In young adulthood, I struggled with the background theology, unable to embrace the supernatural aspects of belief, but lacking an alternative theological platform. Then things happened which related to my theological reservations. We are extraordinarily fortunate here at Mornington where both strands of a healthy church community exist - the mutually supportive society, and the range of theological thought. I must credit the initiative of the Methodist Church in "incubating" the progressive element and acknowledge the significant assistance it has been in my own growth.

Offering 6
Here at Mornington I discovered a beautiful church, and an open, non judgemental, non pushy congregation that let you get involved at your own pace and to your own level. The ministers spoke a lot of sense about everyday things, and the support I got when I had my children was overwhelming. Essentially I quietly cruise through life taking the bumps and highlights with the minimum of fuss and I've discovered that my faith is very much the same. I live it quietly and everyday. It's a way of living and treating others. The other area of my life that provides me with friendship and sanity is singing. In Horatio Spafford's words, "It is well, it is well, with my soul."


Offering 7
I don't know of a time when I didn't believe. While my understanding has changed through time, the essential awareness of God, energy, life force, spirit, within and without, indescribable, bounteous and beautiful, has always been there. The world was changing as I grew - Vietnam, nuclear bombs, silent spring, Age of Aquarius, women's lib, domestic purposes benefit, apartheid, reds under the bed, young people changing the world, peace and love. Time to re-work beliefs, break free from the things of childhood. Where is the better world? A world of justice, mercy and kindness. A world for all, expressing the new commandment from Jesus. Simple, yet so hard to achieve. Martin Luther King dreamed; Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Barak Obama seek to create it... Our challenge.

Offering 8
I grew up in a loving Evangelical Christian family. The lessons I had learned from home and church served me reasonably well in those early years. I had some real reservations about God's control when my father died when I was eleven. My questioning of God's operation seemed to grow. Maybe things just happen and God's role is not one of intervention but compassion. I am now part of this faith community. I feel at home. Do I still believe in God? Yes. But my perspective of God has changed dramatically. Has my journey ended? No. There is still the challenge to climb the next ridge to get a different perspective. And, mostly, I am aware of God's presence, not directing my path, but accompanying me on it.

Offering 9
Most of us are familiar with some part of Australia. Melbourne, or Mildura on the Murray. Kosciusko and the beginnings of the Snowy River. The Grampians... Another thing I love about Australia is their art - large scale works matching the size of their country. Autumn in the garden, one of a series of Genesis paintings by Leonard French. The garden is the Garden of Eden, and I've always interpreted it as an apple, and brown hands, and perhaps a snake. When you return home, you realise that yes, you are a New Zealander, it's not the red earth that moves us, but the green fields, maybe, our lakes, and the snowy Alps. But our countries are neighbours. We are family. Yes, Australia is special to me.

Offering 10
Mine is a simple statement of faith and prayer, and the women who have influenced me during 66 years plus. Kneeling by my bed at age five years, reciting my prayers with my mother. Sister Mildred West's Scripture Union classes. Psalm 121 and John Chapter 1. Catholic nuns while I was teaching in my 40s. A woman vicar who introduced me to teaching on prayer and communing with God naturally. I now quietly get on with life, my faith strong, uncluttered and simple, and my answer to "How do I know?" is that of a five-year-old pupil of mine who, when asked by the Maths Advisor how did she know 3 + 2 = 5, looked her in the eye and replied firmly "I just know".

Offering 11
As a child I read extensively - and one focus was the scientific need for proof. At Easter camps and at uni taking philosophy, I was hooked on how knowledge sat in relation to belief. I came to realise that for me the God message was something within me that urged acceptance on my part. The search for social justice led me to a realisation that there must be room for all. All humans seek God; just different cultures might have different names for him. What has changed? I have. From being suspicious of other denominations, sects and religions, I am now curious about them. I believe the Christian life has a key which provides spiritual uplift without which our lives have little meaning.

Offering 12
My offering is titled Faith and Disability. I have a son who has severe cerebral palsy. Through his disability I have come in contact with some amazing people, and others who wanted to put their slant on our misfortune. I was brought up thinking that faith equals helping folks in need. I am in the process of still trying to work out for myself whether I am a Christian or not as Easter has always been a problem to me. In 2006 it suddenly occurred to me what resurrection meant for me - that we had been through deep dark harrowing times but in the end we had come through it, perhaps not the way I had envisaged but I had survived, reasonably intact.