1-25-09 Doing Chapel Outside

Doing Chapel Outside

“Didja know you could DO chapel outside, Miss Lynette?”

The 4 year old beamed with his new-found knowledge.
“We just did chapel time, and we did it OUTSIDE!”

It’s true. Last week I forgot to turn the heat on in the chapel, and at chapel time it was below 50 degrees. I knew that my fidgety friends and I would never make it through 15 minutes of singing and story and prayer under those circumstances, and so we gathered on the plaza, in the warm sunshine, and sang our songs and admired God’s creation, and read a story. It was lovely- the warm sun making the chilly winter morning more bearable, the voices raised in song making it bright in another way.

When our chapel time was done and the kids returned to our child care center, one of them encountered the director, and informed her with glee of his new discovery: you can do chapel outside!

I have been doing a fair amount of thinking about ‘chapel outside’ lately.

Nancy Wiens, a daughter of this congregation, organized a quest for clergy and spiritual directors seeking sustenance from God. She gathered them for a couple of days of preparation, and then they went out to the Borrego Springs area of the desert, as pilgrims have for millennia sought clarity in the desert. The group of about 10 spent time camping, eating, praying together, and then each of them went out for 4 days of solitude.

They slept under the stars, and they prayed. Each of them fasted, drinking only water during their solo time. They faced their fears and settled into the silence. And they watched and listened to and dwelt in the kind of chapel that you can only do outside. Their companions were the moon and the stars, the rising sun and the solid stones, the tiny signs of life and the wide sky.

When they returned to the world in which all we usually dwell, I went to greet them and welcome them back. Though most of them were strangers to me, it was clear to me that each of them had sensed the presence of the Holy One, had heard a response to the Question they had brought with them, had been filled with a blessing they were eager to share with the world.
While that kind of rigor does not feel like something I am called to at the moment, I have found myself drawn outside often for my daily prayer of late. I sit in the fresh (sometimes cold!) air on my back porch and watch the sky grow light, watch the sun bring its gift of warmth and life back to us. Or I rest there at the close of a day, giving thanks for what has been, and for the promise of rest, and for the chance to begin again tomorrow.
And here is what I have to report: God is out there. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness of it, the world, and all that dwells therein. Did you know you could do chapel outside? Give it a try.

Peace to you- Sandy