On a bright sunny autumn morning the members of Engadine Uniting came bearing plates of Anzac biscuits and scones as we set up tables and urns on the front lawn, ready for our Biggest Morning Tea.
Congregation members were keen to join in: everyone knows someone who has or has had cancer, and it would be rare indeed to know only one person! Of course many people have also had their own personal cancer experiences.
Many of the resources supplied by the Cancer Council were very cheerful and jolly, designed to help people make their office morning tea a bit more fun and encourage people to come along and make a donation. As a church, we are well placed to offer a supported place of reflection and solace where people can pause to remember their friends and family.
With that in mind, we set up a couple of reflection stations and invited people to take part as they pleased. At one table, people could write the name of a loved one they were grieving on a smooth river pebble and, with a prayer or thoughtful remembrance, add it to the ‘river’ represented by rippling blue cloth winding its way along brown hessian riverbanks edged with small pot plants. At another, coloured pencils and crayons were provided to decorate paper hearts with names of those who were currently living with a cancer diagnosis, and peg the heart onto the finger-knitted woollen chain hanging below the church sign. We promised to take the hearts into church on Sunday and pray for the people mentioned.
Over the course of the morning, we connected with each other and with community members passing by, and raised nearly $400 for the Cancer Council.
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