We gather for worship every Saturday afternoon in Burnside Park. The Church Beyond the Walls service is attended by about 50 congregants, men and women, young and old, housed and unhoused. We sing God’s praises and we pray with, and for, each other.
During the confession, we pass a small basket of stones amongst us. All parishioners are invited to take a stone in hand, and to pray about our burdens and our transgressions. After the confession, each of us places our stone on the altar, symbolically turning over our sins and our worries into the hands of God. The stones are then gathered back into the basket, to be used again next week.
Week after week, each stone takes on someone’s prayers and concerns, and week after week, through the grace of our Lord, forgiveness is granted and the stones are cleansed and renewed. It has occurred to me that the stone I select today was chosen by someone else last week. Many sins, many burdens, and yes, many blessings.
I look around at the crowd gathered in prayer. We appear to be very different from each other, and yet, in the eyes of God, we are one. I pray with this stone, not knowing whose prayers it bore before mine, nor whose petitions will be made with it in the weeks to come. All I really do know is that, no matter whose prayers are made with this stone, God listens to each of us equally with mercy, forgiveness, and love.
Thanks be to God. the joy.
–Sally Erskine
