Skip to main content

Candles of Joy and Concern

A liturgical question:

What is the best equipment to use for candles of joy and concern? (I'll leave other questions about the best way of doing this aside for now)

I've used tea lights on a metal tray before, but I'm not sure that's the best way. I think a better way is probably taller candles in a bowl of sand like this:


Is that the best way to do it? It needs to be something that is safe and easy for people to use, especially elderly people. And something that looks good.

But where do you get a good bowl like that? Come to think of it, where do you get a big lot of sand? Any thoughts?

Comments

Rich said…
Somewhere like B&Q should sell you your sand.

As for the bowl, the first place I thought of was a craft fair. Usually there are wood turners there who would probably make one for you if they didn't have exactly what you wanted on the day.
Robin Edgar said…
Maybe you could throw a few Roman Candles in for people who have spectacular joys and concerns. ;-)
Anonymous said…
Sorry, bit late to be commenting on this but, firstly, how about CHILDREN? It's not just the elderly who find candles difficult, and children can and should be involved in joys and concerns services. They don't look so great but you can buy battery candles which kids can blow on and off. Tall candles have the advantage that they can be held more easily to light them off other candles - and that's the tricky bit with tea lights. Encourage people to light from the centre/back first. Craft sand may be better (but more expensive) for holding the candles. Even more straightforward would be a piece of wood with holes drilled to hold the candles. I sometimes wander why we can't do something else (like adding a flower to a vase) for joys and concerns... You could have different types of stems/greenery/spikey stuff etc so can people can pick something which fits their mood.

Popular posts from this blog

The dumbest thing about American Unitarian Univeralism

I'm glad Peacebang started blogging about this cos I was about to, and now it's like I'm joining in with a conversation rather than doing a big rant and having a go at Americans (though that is always fun ;-)). Why the hell do American (or is it just in New England??) UU churches take, like a quarter of the year off? In the summer they close. They CLOSE!! A church, closing. It's so bloody weird and wrong. Where does it come from? Why? Why? Why? Why do people need church less in the summer? Where are people supposed to go? Where is the Divine supposed to go? My church in Boston didn't close exactly, but moved to the smaller upstairs chapel, but the minister still had all that time off. Now I've spent most of my life around teachers and priests, both jobs where people think people don't put many hours in, when in fact they put in loads ('you only work Sunday mornings/9 to 3.25'). Teachers work hard and need their long holidays. Ministers work hard, a...

Is humanism theologically tolerant?

OK, well this might be controversial, but I feel the need to say it. Is humanist tolerant? Please note I'm not asking about humanism within society. Clearly humanism certainly believes in tolerance within society and I'm forever glad they are often the only people in the media calling for a separation of church and state. No, what I'm talking about is descriptions of Unitarianism like this and adverts like this , discussed at Peacebang here , which say that humanism is one option, Christianity is another, God is one option among many. The trouble is, humanism, by definition is theologically opposed to theism. This is very different from the relationship between Christianity and Buddhism. These two traditions may be vastly different, but Buddhism, by definition , is not opposed to Christianity, and Christianity, by definition , is not opposed to Buddhism. But humanism is consciously defined in opposition to Christianity and theism. So to say that humanism and theism can bot...

LOST and theology: who are the good guys?

***Spoiler alert*** I'm continuing some theological/philosophical reflections while re-watching the series LOST. One of the recurring themes in LOST is the idea of the "good guys" and the "bad guys." We start the series assuming the survivors (who are the main characters) are the "good guys" and the mysterious "Others" are definitely bad guys. But at the end of series 2 one of the main characters asks the Others, "Who are  you people?" and they answer, in an extremely disturbing way, "We're the good guys." The series develops with a number of different factions appearing, "the people from the freighter" "the DHARMA initiative" as well as divisions among the original survivors. The question remains among all these complicated happenings "who really are the good guys?" I think one of the most significant lines in the series is an episode when Hurley is having a conversation with ...