Dear God

I was asked where the space for public lamenting in church gathering can be found.

I’m not sure.

Perhaps this post is in someways a lament in itself. Laments are both an expression of grief and longing. An exploration of loss coupled with a hope that things could – should – better. There are psalms that are laments.

Is there any room in the songs we sing each week?

When we are led in intercessions there is in theory room to express grief, and frustration – but how would those gathered respond? Would their upper lips soften or become awkwardly stiff.

Seasonally, could we mourn the passing of summer each year and take time to let go.

On remembrance Sunday do we help people encounter the tragedy of reckless hatred and violence we are witnesses of (and some would say complicit in, through our countries hosting of WMDs and supply of armaments).

Hiring professional mourners to carry our grief on the streets would be culturally inappropriate. Have you seen the bunches of flowers, or football strips and plaques on benches by roadside though?

Has the absence of the tradition of lamenting found in the psalms been taken up by those outside the organised church? If so how could the body of those who follow the Way of Christ adapt?