Hymn of the Big Wheel - Week 1

The Hymn of the Big Wheel had its début last week; and it worked!

The Hymn of the Big Wheel is a 1 hour contemplative service with a social justice theme. It's focus is a reading of a list of statistics concerning the magnitude and issue surrounding world poverty. It's a list that can't be rationally absorbed when heard; it's more of an emotional thing. Then we contemplate the hope that Jesus brings.

Elements of the service include sitting in silence, listening to music (mostly contemporary), lighting candles, praying together and a few random elements.

Stu and me wrote it to give us a really different contemplative experience. It's great for Lent, but we hope we can put it on any time of the year.

The first week went well, though I was nervous! We noticed that there was a lot of silence, so we've made some changes to allow people to recite prayers together earlier and to make a personal response earlier. We tried a bit of drumming, but it was too much to ask, so we're replacing that with some candle lighting instead. Week 2 should be even better.

One of my favourite moments is when we pray Wesley's prayer, and then the prayer supporting the Millennium Development goals. One prayer is from the start of the industrial revolution and is in archaic language, the other is at the end of the industrial revolution. The prayers have similar sentiments; but are coming from really different contexts. Both ask that we commit ourselves to something different from the pursuit of our own prosperity whilst ignoring the plight of others.

8pm Wednesday nights in Lent, Fairfield SPACE, 88 Station St Fairfield.