My church had a special wee service to commemorate the 1859 revival that happened in Ulster in… well 1859 i suppose. I know very little about it. I wasn’t born at the time.
The original plan was to have it down beside the wee bowling green in town. You would think in the midst of the Northern Irish summer that you’d be guaranteed a clear, dry summer’s day and there’d be BBQ’s and jumpers for goalposts and it would all be lovely.
Not quite.
There was really quite a lot of thunder and lightning. Some people used to see that as an omen of the gods. When it comes to running a PA rig outdoors then I suppose I still do.
So we packed everything back in the van and went back to the church and unpacked it all in the hall (this was plan B).
Of course at that point it then became very sunny and pleasant. And being the nice, enthusiastic church people we are, everyone plodded back down to town to stand in the sun for a few minutes and hear the moderator speak.
And of course the thunder and lightning came on again and they all got very wet.
I stayed in the hall with the sound monkeys eating the biscuits.
Anyhow. After all the wetting and drying and the singing there was the obligatory cup of tea and a chat.
Standing on the stage packing up the drum kit I decided that there is often more grace and humility and love in a bourbon and a cup of tea than there is in so much of the rest of what we do.
This is a radical concept, but during this point of our time together, people actually smile. They laugh, they even embrace. It is perhaps at this point more than most that we seem together.
As cynical I can be about how the church does the business of church – it is often in the cups of tea and dear old men and ladies wiping tables and young guys packing up sound gear that I find myself most content and happy to be part of all this.
Yes, as zoomie rants, it would be easier to walk away, to gripe and to moan and disengage but under (and it may really be quite far under…) the politics, and the bureaucracy and the conservatism there is pure gold. And surely that’s something worth sticking around for.
you know it’s the bourbon that did the trick right?
ah, now there’s an idea, instead of a bourbon (most favoured of the brown, chocolate flavoured biscuits) we could use bourbon (of jack daniels fame) in the tea. Now that would make for some peace, love and understanding…
i thought you said you have no internet in outer mongolia or wherever it is?
i have internet it’s just i get few chances to go on it! cant belive you’d ruin a good cup of tea like that. shame on you.