Within the circle

Here's a picture of my IKEA-sponsored joined up candle-Trinity:



I made this - with a little help from my friends - a few weeks back for an all age service. We remembered the widow, the orphan and the alien in our midst and people who wished to do so came out to the front of the church and received prayer and one of these candles to signify that they were part of us; part of the body of Christ.

I'd been meaning to post this picture for ages - the candles are all linked together at the base - and I felt it was a significant picture for our fellowship, which over the last 20 years or so has become more and more ethnically and socially mixed; which we could never have foreseen!

I've got a real thing about how we sit when we go into groups. Like my slight edginess around swinging on chairs and gum-chewing; not forming a circle to discuss together gets to me. It's a teacher thing - like Paul's "thorn in his flesh"!

Aside from not being able to hear or see everyone in the circle, the body language of having a wavy or straight line instead of a circle makes me think of little islands; separateness; voluntary exclusion. Children are very sensitive about being even slightly outside a circle. They feel they don't belong or aren't part. And so to link to the picture posted above - I have always love the celtic symbol of the Trinity; not just three circles, but interlinked; interdependent and mutually inclusive.