The Vestry
Busy, anxious, checking, calming
Dressing, processing, light bearing
Waiting, announcing
The aisle
Silence as the full church waits
The silence deepens, becomes experience of itself
Attentive, expectant, delight brimming
over, flowing into waiting
The nave
Candles burn, choir poised,
parents proud, daughters excited
The story is repeated
Hodie Christus natus est
Repeated in each carol, in ten different verses
The same story is rehearsed
In readings wondered over
Told again
Again
I sit
The sanctuary
Coped in the love of God
Clothed in righteousness
Accompanied by singing
Through the story
To the wonder of it all
‘Christ plays to the Father through the image of our faces’
His embrace sustains in one another
Love
That overlooks our pain
And shares
So that living becomes hope
And coping somehow I am coped.
Sarah Cawdell lives in Shropshire with her husband and three teenage children.