a few churches are setting up sacred spaces during mental health week next week:
Wesley Church in Lonsdale Street will be open on Monday 9th between 4.30 and 6.30pm and on Thursday 12th between 11.30 and 2.00pm.
Other places include Melbourne University, South Port Parks, Kyneton and Bendigo.
A reminder that it’s mental health week in Australia next week. Resources are available for creating a public sacred space here
From Carter Heyward:
And you whose spirit is sad and unsure, try to remember
the very best parts of your life, the loveliest
feelings in your body self,
occasions of bold delight and quiet confidence,
moments of unambivalent commitment and unrestrained joy.
Try to remember when you have believed passionately in
something or someone human or divine.
Try to imagine that someone now believes in you
because she trusts your loveliest feelings
… commitments… confidence… joy.
She goes with us as we are called forth to go, with one
another, evoked by historical memory
and voices audible only to ears that can hear the
power of God in history.
Her name is love.
When we would rather fill our lives with something – anything – to distract us from the overwhelming reality
God knows that which we cannot confront.
When it’s too hard to admit to anyone – even ourselves - the deepest thoughts in our hearts and minds;
when it’s too overwhelming to name the fears that rest deep inside us,
God knows what we are unable to say.
mental health week runs from october 8 - 15
we normally create liturgies during weeks like this for mainstream worship in churches. this year we’ve also designed a community sacred space, specifically for those who live with a mental illness, or who love someone who does.
the space is based around Psalm 139.
the pdf is here: mhw community space
the mainstream worship resources are available from the synod’s outreach ministries website
[i'm beginning to do some thinking around liturgies / worship for mental health week. one of the things we're doing is sacred space in the city, curated with the family and friends of those living with mental illnesses in mind. we're using psalm 139:1-12 for this space. this poem won't be part of it - it ended up going in a different direction - but it's got my initial reaction to this psalm out of my system! if you've ever been 'watched' in a destructive way, or had secrets you've needed to hide, this psalm has the potential to be oppressive instead of liberating...]
what comfort is to be found in this?
you are no more than a divine surveillance camera
watching from on high
swivelling to catch
every move
and thought
recording it for later reviewing
where you can isolate the moment
this all began to go wrong
(and how does that make you different
from anyone else?)
i will not have my life known that much
by anyone
there are secrets to hide
things better left unknown.
so i run
to leave it all behind
and i reach the edge of the world
and the very end of myself
and i throw myself with relief into what lies beyond -
hell, known, for once, by its own name
and it’s here i find
that i’m held
by nothing
but a whisper
that speaks of wonder
of intricate extraordinary fearless beauty
in a tone of overwhelming all-consuming love
and though i look for who else you could be speaking of
i know there is no one here but me
[...]