Guidelines
- Starting from scratch, see if you can design a new Focal Point, based on the Ark in Exodus, or identify other Focal Points which serve a similar purpose but not necessarily regarded as ‘a meeting with God’.
- Beginning with your own ‘meeting place’ what ‘treasured possessions, traditions and convictions’ are you willing to surrender in order to maintain its essential purpose?
- Is our desire for a Focal Point to know where to find God when we need him or to know how to avoid him when we don’t?
- Reflect on a moment when you have found yourself between a rock and a hard place: conflict or compromise? Neither is a solution, so how do we handle it?
- Spend some time thinking about the part dress plays in our lives. ‘Dressing up‘ or ‘dressing down‘ and phrases such as ‘men in grey suits‘ or a young woman in ‘provocative dress‘ carry strong psychological and emotive overtones. What does this say to us about the impact of clerical dress and how might it help or hinder our thinking if we had to redesign clerical dress from scratch?
- What does the Hebrew understanding of ‘consecrate’ and ‘ordain‘ contribute to your understanding of current practices?
- Think of some recent changes in patterns of worship in your own experience. What, or who, brought them about. Were they helpful and lasting or ephemeral? And what do you think was the motivation? Or reflect on long-established patterns and ask yourself how relevant and meaningful they still are.