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Friday, January 25, 2013

A Flower Prayer for Healing and Reconciliation

I am a member of the Worship Committee at my church and, like all churches with many different people who come together for a few hours each week to worship, along with all of the good things, like fellowship and spiritual support, we also have our share of strife and struggle.  It seems as though we are finally coming out of a particularly rough time of it and this Sunday is our congregational meeting which has been dubbed a service for "Healing and Reconciliation."  Along with that, the budget will be reviewed and new lay leaders and officers will be elected into various leadership roles for the church.


In any case, as a member of the Worship Committee, I was charged with the task of coming up with table centerpieces that would convey the spirit of the day--healing and reconciliation.  Even though it's January, it seems as though life has not slowed down for me. So, it has just been in the last few days that thinking about these centerpieces has taken a forefront in the onslaught of activity and chores on my "to-do" list.

In my eighteen years as a devoted member of this church, I feel as though I've seen, heard and done a lot of things, along with so many others who I know have worked, most certainly, a lot harder than me at keeping  it's doors open.  Thus, we as a congregation will come to church this Sunday morning having weathered the ongoing growing pains of faith and community alike as we look forward to hopefully, an ongoing bright future.  Along with that, this is a good-sized congregation meaning that there are a lot of tables that will need centerpieces.

What shall I do?!?  Out came my books on the language of flowers so that I could somehow convey a message of what, I think, we as a congregation, are looking for as we worship together and then come to an understanding of what lays before us in the year of 2013 and beyond--In flowers, no less!  I looked out into the snow covered and very asleep herb garden to see what may be peeking out of the cozy white blanket enveloping it and sighed.

In the end, with the help of a few stalwart herbs from the garden, dried flowers from this past summer and Micheal's Craft Store, I gathered assorted greenery that may, or not, help us to reflect upon as we discuss future plans, make hard budgetary decisions, elect some new leaders and, at the same time, hopefully look with optimism toward the future.  If anything, these petite tussy-mussy style bouquets will smell good!

Yarrow = HEALING
Olive twig = RECONCILIATION
Rosemary and lavender = DEVOTION
Pine branch = FRIENDSHIP & SPIRITUAL ENERGY
Creamy colored roses = UNITY
Rue = BEGINNING ANEW
Myrtle = PEACE

While gathering all of this greenery, I came to realize that, like them, our congregation may look a little weathered, in spite of it all. Yet, in the end, we are a resilient group of open and welcoming people and we will be around to see many, many more years in the life of this church. I really do find this to be a prayer and, I hope that my congregation and clergy alike, will find it within our hearts to come to a meeting of the minds, learn from our mistakes, celebrate our achievements and above all, listen for God's word.  Yes, the gathering of these flowers and greenery really is a prayer for my church.

1 comment:

  1. Cyndie, those are beautiful bouquets, and I love that you wrote down the meanings for each part of them.
    Funny thing that I came by to read this right after reading the newsletter that arrived in my e-mail! It was so wonderful to find out that the childcare center is doing well and to see new names listed among the familiar names in leadership.

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