swine flu and communion
I've talked a number of times recently with colleagues about how to handle the actual, and the perceived risks of swine flu as they affect sharing bread and wine at communion. Nowhere was this more complicated to consider than in a conversation about communion at Greenbelt – sharing bread and wine with twenty thousand or so, in a field where washing facilities are not the greatest.
Of course you might say that if you're prepared to survive a weekend camping in a field with thousands of people, you surely aren't afraid of swine flu. But I agree with the very sane decision made by Greenbelt that the Sunday worship won't include communion this year – because if the perceived risk distracts people from the service and makes them think about swine flu instead, it will defeat the purpose.
We haven't yet decided how to proceed at College through next term. What are other people doing, and how is it affecting the community?
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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thanks for this Maggi – I’m trying to put together a labyrinth for the internaitonal day of prayer for peace in September so this is useful – as is the lovely fingerprint maze