PHOTO of the Week "Hearing Box"

   This is a photo of the back of a pew [uncomfortable wooden bench seat] from in front of me at Hamilton Wesley UC yesterday. I was there for the Closure of Ministry worship for AKB and I noticed this wooden box with plugs and volume knob.
   This looks to me to be a pre loop solution for those with trouble hearing... it's part of a very old in house PA system and looks suspiciously like two usb connections. The system at Hamilton has been replaced most recently by new speakers, a behringer desk with capacity to play audio. It supplements the now slightly older ceiling mounted data projector and the way all liturgy and clips are projected there for a handsfree experience participating.
   On the one hand we find a community attuned to the participatory needs of all attendees and yet the relics of the past are present in the values, worship style, preference for familiarity and timber boxes with volume knobs... and ability to offer hospitality freely to 'those like us'... while wrestling with the challenge to do that for all people...
   As an aside there's an older gentleman in suit and tie who sits at the back next to the old PA box. He probably oversaw the installation of the wooden box volume knob set up... who until the upgrade of the PA, was there to switch on mice and control the volume and needs during the gathering. I'm not sure what if anything is controlled from the wooden cabinet in that back corner... the screen, the projector, the lights? Yet there he sits as always...
   There's a spirit of inclusion and an openness that's a 'ball of potential' but there's also the need for the mind shift AKB spoke so well about... the idea that we are used to identifying with and inviting those who fit well and used to seeing people for the contribution they might offer. What about those in need, those completely unaware or unsure of their offering... a space of ministry, of care and of 'good news' for all. These are the kinds of spaces and ways of being that Jesus lived and taught... and this is the mission of God present where we live...
   What I saw in that little wooden box was a will to include, a catering for need in a different time and the way in which those former ways of engaging in this context are still there in helpful and unhelpful ways. Like a pair of glasses through which we look at the world [ones we almost find impossible to remove] those round such communities, with eyes to see and a story to tell, need to share their dream of a new space, a new way of being open and new 'resources' required for this culture making challenge.
   Anyhow, that's some of what I was pondering when I looked down and saw this image...