'They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.' Acts 19:5-6.
We wondered what this meant. Among the eight of us only two had had any direct experience of speaking in tongues. It is not a substantial part of our Anglican tradition. We told some stories, tested our impressions and thoughts and soon found ourselves in that rare place where we could, if only indirectly, sense and share the presence of the Holy Spirit itself. By thinking and sharing, by listening and speaking we were brought to a new place together.
I keep noticing that the times when the presence of God are most palpable, when the sense of the Holy is most vivid, is when I am gathered with my brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is most frequent of all when the scripture lays open before us and we are genuinely searching for the ways in which these words are the Word of God for us now.
My prayer, my vision, my hope, my desire is that the people of the St. Paul's community and the world spend more time gathered together in small groups- Bible Studies, Discipleship Groups- reading scripture together. What might God do with that offering of our time and our attention?
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