cross of flowers

Today at church the children processed in with flowers and placed them in a large cross, covering it with a variety of spring blooms. We sang All Creatures of Our God and King and All Things Bright and Beautiful as hymns. And recessing out of the church behind the flowered cross, we ended up in the cloister garden for the blessing of a new addition to our columbarium and for those who tend the garden. The garden looked lovely, with its parterre beds of lavendar and other plants, outlined by small edges of boxwood. It is still too soon for the New Dawn roses along one of the porches to open its pink buds into white blooms.

Today is Rogation Sunday, where rural parishes prayed for the planting of the crops, and in fishing villages, people prayed for the fishing season. Since our parish is in the city, we celebrate this sixth Sunday of Easter with the flower cross, turning what was an instrument of death into a sign of hope and beauty.

At the Adult Forum, people talked about the upcoming General Covention in Columbus, Ohio. Since I sing in the choir, I miss these programs.

It is hard to hear the epistle lessons in this Easter season, from the letters of John, that talk about love, God's love for us, our commandment to love others, and then to think about a church convention where people are possibly preparing for a religious civil war. I hope that we will muddle through this upcoming meeting with a great amount of humility and quiet.