This is a re-print from last year’s Halloween-Candy-&-Candles-Giveaway in downtown Edmonds… come join us Saturday Oct 31 5-7pm, this time with more candles!

“What is this?” The woman stared down at our Church of the Beloved table with a puzzled look.  We were handing out candy at Edmonds’ Main Street Halloween party, along with the rest of the Edmonds businesses, but we also offered something unique, something very ‘us’ – a bowl of sand with tall skinny candles. “Tomorrow is All Saints Day,” I told the woman.  ”That’s why tonight is called ‘All Hallow’s Eve’ or ‘Halloween’.  So, if you want, you can light a candle here to pray ‘thanks’ for someone important to you.”

She looked intently at the bowl of sand and said, “How much?”

“How much?”  Now I was puzzled.

“How much does it cost?” she said.

“It doesn’t cost anything.  It’s free.”  I said.

She quickly took a candle, lit it, and placed it in the sand.  She stood there looking at it for a minute and then began to tear up.  ”Thank you”, she said, “I needed to do that.”

For some this was their ‘first time’ praying and would ask, “What do I say?”

“It’s easy.” I assured them.  ”Just say ‘thank you’ to God, like you would to anyone who’s given you a really good gift.”

Kids seemed to like it the most.  The little pyromaniac boys were more excited about the prayer station than the candy we were handing out.  Running up to their parents they would yell, “Mom!  Can I light a prayer candle??  Can I??”

At one point we had about fourteen kids all gathered around the sand bowl praying prayers with their parents and guardians behind them.  Ken would ask them, “So, who’d you pray for?” after they stuck their lit candle in the sand.  ’My grandma’s dog’, ‘My uncle who died’, ‘The soldiers in the war’, ‘My dad’.

Last night God was showing us a different way to love our neighbors.  We weren’t offering ‘a harvest alternative to Halloween’.  We weren’t asking people to come into our church domain.  We were joining with the established expression of our neighborhood, in the public marketplace, alongside businesses and community services, and there, on common ground, we offered our unique way of serving Edmonds.  There was nothing confrontational about it.  It was what our neighborhood was desiring and it was what we had to offer – a moment of prayer and gratitude that flowed in and out of the party.  By the end of the night Marilyn, Ken and I had handed out over 3,000 pieces of candy, over 200 candles had been lit and we were convinced that God is alive and at work in the Edmonds… and certainly on Halloween.

(Unbeknownst to Beloved, Bishop Rickel of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia heard this story and shared it at the Diocesen gathering of over 500 priests and parish leaders, concluding by telling them, “Now this is radical hospitality!”… the funny thing about it all is that the whole All Saints candle thing was an after thought, not a planned thing at all.  As we were heading down to Main st. we thought, “Let’s just bring some candles and a pot of sand down for fun.”)

PURPOSE:  To re-discover the context that surrounds you, to get a sense of where God is already at work in your neighborhood, and inspire missional imagination in your faith community.

WHAT YOU NEED:  This project is best done with a group of 10-15, which breaks into smaller groups of 3-4 and will require:
4 digital cameras,
4 writing tablets,
the capability for projecting digital pictures (computer, projector, photo-software),
and a medium to gather and summarize the group’s discussion (white board, flip-pad, etc.).

FIELD STUDY ASSIGNMENT:  In teams of 3-4 walk in different directions starting from your location, bringing with you one digital camera per small group.  As you walk take pictures of things that you are drawn to and things that you avoid.  Be discreet and respectful.  You are an anthropologist and do not want to disrupt the environment that you are studying.  As you walk look specifically for 5 things:  Community, meaning, worship, healing, and marginalization.  Take photographs as you look for:

1.  Places of community: gather to find a sense of identity, belonging and connection.
2.  Places of meaning: ideas are shared, experience is reflected on, information is gathered, and opinions are formed.
3.  Places of “worship”: spend their time, money, and affection.
4.  Places of marginalization: most of the neighborhood excludes, ignores and has disdain.
5.  Places of healing:  hurt is engaged, brokenness is held, comfort and reconciliation are possible.

Journal some of your gut level feelings and observations as you take photographs.
(This study could also be done by individuals and families as they commute between their residence and their church location.)

SMALL GROUP DEBRIEFING:  While the small groups are debriefing, one person should be loading the images onto a computer in order to project them and share them with the whole group.

1.  What were you surprised to see?
2.  What were you surprised not to see?
3.  Write a ‘meta-story’ from your collection.

WHOLE GROUP:  Project the group’s images in a slideshow:
1.  Create lists for “places of community, meaning, worship, healing, and marginalization”.
2.  Compare and contrast the groups collections of photographs.
3.  What are the compatibilities and tensions between the collections?
4.  Are there discernable patterns of images, reactions, and stories?
5.  What do these images tell us about the place we wish to embed ourselves and love?

6. Where are places to join God already at work?  Where are there unmet needs?
7.  Write a ‘meta-story’ from the combined collection.