Carol Singing

Yesterday evening some members of CVM went along to the nursing home over the road with James to sing some carols and have a short service. Margorie and frances were there, and seemed really pleased for us to have come to share amongst them. Quite a few of the residents were in attendance, and Frances' friend, who couldn't speak, chose most of the carols by pointing to them in the carol sheet. Those that could manage the hymn book seemed to enjoy joining in with the singing, and James did well to delivery a short message and prayer. The message was of course straight forward and simple, like something you would use with children, which made me think about faith a bit. When you're a child, faith is so much more innocent and easy to accept - which i guess is why christ says you have to become like children to accept his message. The reason being, is that his message is difficult to accept if taken critically with no room for the mystery of god in faith. As you get older, i certainly find, that i begin to question my faith. Which is not a bad thing, and is worth while doing, as it certainly helps me to appreciate my faith and see new aspects of it through such critiques. Then I guess when infirmity kicks in and once again the childlike faith returns, not that this faith is any weaker then that which has undergone the rigours of intellectual critique, but is the result of a lifetime of experience and realisation of the fragility of life. And i think it was this context that made the prayers in the home really quite moving, not through any noble actions of making an annual visit to those members of society that have been pushed to the edges, but through knowing the peace of god in singing and praying with people for whom life is now quite difficult.

I wish i was a bit better at communicating with the residents as I collected the hymn books, i'm not too bad at chatting with Margorie and Frances, but that is after weeks of ferrying them to church and chatting to them there. Even though Frances sometimes gets confused. I am in admiration of the staff at these places, who show great love and care for these people, and yet are paid incredibly poorly. I get paid more to photocopy bits of paper and file things.

We were also invited to go and sing on the top floor of the nursing home, where the residents who are much more confused, but again they seemed to be really enjoying it and the carers came and joined in to. We sang much more than we anticipated, and my throat was quite dry. These homes seemed to be kept at tropical temperatures!