Something very strange is happening at the end of our services at AFC; we seem to have invented a new ritual!

It happens as people exit the Sanctuary.  These days we can no longer shake hands in greeting, instead a smile and a wave must do. And then our hands do something else.  We ‘cup’ them, rather like we might in communion, yet instead of bread these hands receive a squirt of sanitiser administered by one of our elders!  It has become quite a tradition and as I watch it week by week, I want to give it an appropriately sounding liturgical name because, it seems to me, it has become an important and meaningful ritual amongst us!

Perhaps that is how all rituals start; out of necessity.  We then invest them with words and meanings that show how important they have become to us. 

Some religions have, for a long time, been keen that people should ‘wash’ themselves before worship – but I think it is quite new to have this tradition of needing to be ‘sanitised’ after you have said your prayers!

Over this last year I suspect we have all developed new rituals that have kept us going.  In our house we have a Zoom family call every Sunday at the same time every week.  It has become incredibly important to keep this going, in fact I would say it almost has something of a ‘sacramental’ feel to it, in that what’s on the outside is but a pale reflection of the deeper truth it represents: that family ties are profoundly precious.

You will have your own rituals, and my guess is they have become special to you over these strange days.

And yes, it will be interesting which ones we keep when this is all over.  I am not entirely sure, however, that administering the sanitiser will permanently be on the list of Elders’ Duties – but you never know!