These Lively Oracles

Weddings. Who doesn’t love a good wedding? They are as good a reason as any for a great get-together and party with family and friends. I have been to a good few weddings over the years. And although they mostly all had a central theme every single one of them was essentially different. Everything from the colours to the location, the theme, and the style. They are all organised in such a way that reveals the thoughts, joys and delights of the couple getting married. And each one was as intense in their preparation as they were magnificent in their presentation. As we go through all the forms vows and of the ceremonies we are all no doubt looking forward to one particular event. The Reception. It is here that all the seriousness and the gravity of the ceremony is set aside and the merriment and celebration begins. And, just like the main ceremony, the reception is designed around the likes, loves and wishes of the happy couple. But there is one particular tradition which...

Over the years I have attended several different churches. And they have been as varied as they have been numerous, with one extreme being more staunchly Reformed and the other extreme being liberally Pentecostal. All of them had their benefits and all of them had their shortcomings. But all of them had one thing in common. The silent volunteers. These are the church workers who quietly work away behind the scenes of their respective rolls and never get a single mention or thought of gratitude. I’m thinking of the church administration staff who silently work and ensure that all the church’s paperwork, insurance forms, correspondance, and the paying of bills, etc, is done. While some of these are paid workers there are an awful lot of them that do not get paid at all. They are the silent volunteers. I think of the Sunday School teachers and youth leaders who sit at home midweek and prepare their lessons for the children. A lot of these volunteers have to buy materials to help them ...

I have often sat in a church or christian meeting and wondered if I was meant to be there. There have been so many services, meetings, conversations and christian get-togethers over the years. I couldn’t count the all. Sometimes I just sat and just listened to the choruses, sermons, talks, and sharings. Or whatever else was going on. And I thoroughly enjoyed them all. But sometimes I left the meetings and wondered why I ever bothered going there. Sometimes people would come up to me afterwards and mention that they saw me at a particular meeting. And we shared good comments about the meeting. And on other occasions a few people would ask me why I was there. This one particularly puzzled me – It’s a christian meeting, isn’t it? A place where God’s people could come together and share in singing and fellowship? Ofcourse, we all can come together in fellowship. “One Church, Born Again, Under God”. But the truth is that we all carry something from our past with us. Things that will never l...

I have an old photograph that was taken when I was at primary (junior) school. It was taken around 1969 and I would have only been very young in it. It shows me with all of my other classmates at a summer camp. And we were all so very young and very ill equipped for our lives ahead.   I look at the photograph from time to time and wonder about some of the people in it and how their lives have fared. I have managed to keep in contact with one or two of them but for the most part all have moved on to their own life stories.   Some went to other countries to live, never to be heard from again. One or two are now deceased. But that little scraggy band of school kids would represent a selection of society which would go on to become teachers, tradesmen, police officers, soldiers, nurses, business owners. And on leaving that school off we went on our various life-journeys.   But while I remember some of the individuals in that photo I can’t help but remember that those little c...