A Bleak Mid-winter!?

There was a rye smile on many a face this morning as I announced the closing hymn of "In the Bleak Mid-Winter".   After yet another snow shower this morning, a good number of people had abandoned their cars and pulled on their hiking boots to make their way to church.

The dilemma for the minister began at 10am this morning.   There had been a small part of me that had thought about checking the heating was working yesterday, but other things overtook and I didn't.   The reality is I don't think it would have made any difference.   However at 10am this morning the phone rang from the church to let me know that there was no heating in the sanctuary.   The light was on suggesting it should be working but there was no heat in the pipes.  

Never one to make an instant decision, the office bearers there set about setting up the hall for worship as I thought about what to do.   Walking into the boiler house revealed the problem, and so there is a burst pipe to be fixed at some point this week.   I'm hoping we haven't made the situation worse by turning the heating to the sanctuary off entirely.

I don't like worship in the hall, as nothing is in the right place and the sound system doesn't work for me so well.   I find myself having to reign my voice in.   However not wanting to be in the hall was made worse with a new organist starting today, and not wanting them to feel uncomfortable in a new situation with strange happenings.  But a decision had to be made and with people potentially complaining about the cold in the church we moved to the hall.   This time the complaint was not enough seats, but that is a good complaint to have.

The rye smiles though were for the fact that despite the weather as a congregation we have had a fruitful season, with people making real efforts to be here.   The photo with this piece is one of my favourite of Christmas Eve.   In the midst of falling snow many families felt it was important to be at our Christingle serve and so made their way here on sledges.   The Christingle and Watchnight Service are two services that really touch our community with nearly 700 people appearing across both of them.   So it was good that no matter what the weather people still wanted to celebrate God's gift of love to the world.