The theology of flapjacks?

I was so tired yesterday I missed the fact that the photo of us at the Greenbelt communion was the perfect lead into to one of the posts I'd been brooding on since Sunday - but here it is now!  It seems highly likely that the person who took the picture was one half of the couple who joined our group to share communion in the huge field just outside the racecourse (some idea of the scale in the picture below) and were bemused to find that the nearest we'd managed to get to bringing bread as requested (we had absolutely no problem with the wine part of it!) was one of those plastic pots of M&S mini flapjacks.  We were sure they were unleavened, and decided that their seediness was very appropriate for a festival whose theme was Tree of Life - also the only alternatives were Crackerbread (sticks to the roof of the mouth just like real communion wafers....) or garlic flavoured crispbread. 

It wasn't really clear from the instructions on the sheet or from the stage when or how we were actually supposed to  take communion, although the absence of anything resembling a Eucharistic Prayer might have been an indication of Not Yet, but we were led astray after the offering by a large group a few rows back (egged on, we suspected, by a not-quite-off-duty-clergyperson) loudly leading off with one of the prayers on the sheet to say over communion.  So we passed the wine and flapjacks too, and were slightly embarrassed some time later when the leaders began what was clearly the EP proper..... BUT at that point the (camera-owning) couple with us rapidly packed up and left as one of them was due to start duty in the hospital at 12, and if we hadn't already shared the fjs and wine they would have missed out altogether.... so it had been the right thing to do after all!

I do have some reservations about such a large service though it's a lovely idea in principle- inevitably it was quite difficult to focus on what was going on, and looking round it seemed that many of the children were not fully engaged as the whole thing needed to be fairly slow.  But perhaps, as the programme said, it was like Christmas dinner - just something that had to be done, and done together.... and there was a remarkable degree of focus and engagement for such a large crowd, as well as some powerful liturgy.

But did everyone else manage to come with proper bread?  I was left with about a third of the flapjacks, and rather than carry them around with me all day, when we got back to the main site I pressed them on a slightly nonplussed but eventually quite grateful group of teenagers, with assurances  that I wasn't trying either to poison or to entice them.  Probably Gb is one of the few places in GB where such an assurance would be readily accepted.

PS  I  drove the bus, on my own, all the way from Crystal Palace to Bermondsey, down the Walworth Road and round the Elephant, in this morning's rush hour, arriving 15 minutes before St Hugh's Junior Church was due to leave in it for Legoland.  And I've provisionally booked it (not Legoland, the bus...)  for next year - some of my devoted readers may have views about this!!

Comments

[Voyager]

http://www.gipsyhill.org.uk/misc/communion.jpg

[fishsoup]

We got very confused by the picnic instructions and had er... bread water and geobars. They had grapes in them.. in our defence.

[Mary]

Hmmmm. I wonder if some feedback is needed to the GB organisers - or whther there is an entrepreneurial opportunity: perhaps we could raise money for charity next year by selling bread and wine (licensing laws permitting) to the GB equivalents of the foolish virgins.

[Kathryn]

There has been bucketloads of feed back to GB management, via the GB forum among many other places...the experience of starting at the "wrong" moment seems to have been very widespread, and people are talking about the need for a more assertive style of worship leadership...Nobody seems to turn a hair as to what the elements actually were, though...

[Lorna]

:)

I love this post and its comments. I read it a few days ago - not having been to GB I don't know what really went on, but it sounded like a glorious shambles and for me a bit like the feeding of the 5000. I mean when you picture that do you imagine it orderly like in church? ROFL

I'm not sure the elements do matter really. Sorry if that sounds like heresy. I mean water and wine (or grape juice) are good - but Jesus used those because they were a) tradition in the Jewish passover feast and b) they were part of the staple diet. Even the poorest homes had bread and wine.

Wondering what the postmodern equivalent is? mmm tea and digestives? nah that's old fashioned! And Hob-nobs (I've heard) aren't called that anymore. But I digress.

The point is that you broke (whatever) and drank (whatever) together. That's fellowship. For those who didn't know people there I'm sure they were invited into a group - welcomed - and what there was to eat /drink was shared. That's fellowship and hospitiality. They are so important.

Whatever your theology on the Eucharist - God is present when we come together like this. And while many may have felt like the foolish virgins for not having the right stuff, and others foolish cos they took the communion too early or too late - I get the distinct impression that God was there, smiling and fondly saying 'Look at my children :)'

At the end of the day that's where our focus should be!

be blessed :)

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