This is the Light of the World – Put Out for Health and Safety Reasons

It is always good to have Phil Waldron leading our services at Chester as he brings great warmth and humour to what he does and his sense of the dramatic means you never know where you might be going next. Last Sunday he even sang which all of us enjoyed very much apart from Mariecarmen's dog, who has been living under the misapprehension that church is where you go to catch up on sleep. Probably if the truth be known, there are people in churches all over the country who feel the same way, and some of them are in the pulpit.

Phil's service was memorable, and not just for the singing. We meet in a sports centre, and just as the service was about to begin the fire alarm went off so we had to go outside where we were met by another group of people carrying bows and arrows. For a moment I wondered if Phil's sense of the theatrical had got the better of him and we were about to become the unwilling participants in a dramatisation of the story of St Sebastian but fortunately it was just the archery enthusiasts who meet at the same time as us.

After a few minutes, we were allowed back into the building and were about to begin our service with the lighting of the candle, when the caretaker walked in and told us that we were not permitted to have naked flames in the room for health and safety reasons. Phil's face fell. Several candles adorned the table and he explained that he was following an advent theme, exploring light coming into the world. It's pretty hard to be warmed by the light of the world when someone has demanded that it be put out on health and safety grounds. God said, 'Let there be light,' and the health and safety man said, 'Not if it's a naked flame and if it is electrical you will need to get it PAT-tested before I allow you to use it,' and God said, 'But this is metaphorical,' and the health and safety man said, 'I don't care how it's powered, you can't use it without a PAT test.'

On this occasion, health and safety won the day and as Phil reflected on light piercing the darkness at this time of year we sat, enveloped in the shadows, gazing at the unlit candle, aware of its ineffectiveness in piercing the darkness and longing to see it lit with the urgency of children waiting for fireworks on bonfire night. None of this was the intended effect, of course, but days later I am still missing that flame. Probably that means that as the Christmas season approaches, I will put a little more effort into finding light in the world wherever I can. Maybe losing the light in literal form heightens my desire to seek it out spiritually in the days to come. Here I am not advocating conducting worship in the dark but it is interesting how often when things don't go according to plan in worship, new meanings arise and failing that, we share a laugh and a heightened sense of our human fallibility.

It was technical fallibility that let us down next. At Chester we don't normally have a musician so we make our joyful noise to the accompaniment of a CD. One of the hymns that Phil had chosen was 'How can I keep from singing'. Unfortunately, there was something wrong with the CD and the track would not play so thinking myself helpful and recalling that I really enjoyed hearing someone sing the song at a concert in Wisconsin in 1999, I confidently suggested that several of us knew the tune so we could sing it unaccompanied. It turned out that I was wrong. To be fair everyone had a go at singing, but unfortunately we all had different tunes in mind (the dog's was the least embarrassing). We stumbled unsteadily through the words:

My life flows on in endless song;

Above earth's lamentation,

I hear the real, tho' far-off hymn

That hails a new creation…

By this point we knew we were in trouble but bravely we persevered:

Thro' all the tumult and the strife

I hear the music ringing;

It finds an echo in my soul

How can I keep from singing?

On this last line, we ground to a halt for it was clear that none of us could confidently sing this hymn. The irony hung in the air. How can I keep from singing? Pretty easily as it turned out.  We read the rest of the words together, trying to imagine what it would sound like with the right tune and when the hymn was over we were invited to sit down for a contemplation of light coming into the world (unfortunately not via any of the candles in front of us).

Part of Phil's address was concerned with the stars in the night sky and the vast distances between them. We contemplated the beauty and mystery of the lights of the heavens and Phil referred to a theory suggesting that throughout the Milky Way there are likely to be thousands of other intelligent life-forms. Warming to his theme, Phil was exploring the claim that according to some, it is only a matter of time before these alien species get in touch when the telephone behind the bar rang. I wondered if whoever or whatever was on the other end of the line was calling long distance.

Sunday's service did not go according to plan but sometimes good things come out of unexpected places and now I can't get that hymn out of my mind. In case you don't know it, Enya's version is linked below. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to light some candles….