We light three lights
Since we went into lockdown we have been lighting candles together at the beginning of our services not just to bridge the gap between those leading the service and those at home; not just to help us enter into the presence of an active, creator God; but also to remind us that we are children of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit; children of God who is before us and behind us, above us and beneath us, the beginning, the end and the everlasting one; children of the Trinity, who knows our needs, hears our cries, feels our pain and heals our wounds.
In the midst of pain and grief, anxiety and sorrow, we have - intentionally - brought the truth of the Trinity to the heart of our worship week by week for over a year. Of course, the Trinity has always been at the heart of our worship: at Mattins and Evensong when we say (or sing) "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost .. "; and at the Eucharist when we recite The Creed and give voice to our theology of the Trinity. I felt that in the extraordinary needs of the moment, lighting candles together might help affirm the place of each one of us at the heart of the community of this church, even though dispersed, and our place at the heart of our God: maker, redeemer and sustainer.
The Creeds we regularly use in church are The Apostles Creed and The Nicene Creed. There is a third: The Athanasian Creed. In this creed, named after Athansasius, seeks to explore the nature of the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit "neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence". You can read the BCP version here and a modern version here. The image here tries to embody the truths of which the Athansian Creed speaks.
Happy Trinity !
