On the way to church this morning, we listened to part of a radio broadcast about a helping African-American Teenagers find their dramatic voices. They tied it back to the importance of remembering and telling our stories. It seemed fitting, because for me, church is a time about remembering the common stories of our ancestors and relating it to our contemporary stories and that is what happened at church in a spectacular way.

You see, he had a visit from Bishop Curry. He wore a large heavy cross and at the end or the service, he invited all the children up onto the altar and told the story of the cross. It was made out of pieces of Mozambique machine guns. When the fighting in Mozambique was over, the government got people turn in their guns in exchange for things to help rebuild Mozambique. Then, they destroyed the machine guns and asked artists to do interesting things with the remains.

It is from these parts that Bishop Curry’s cross was made. He talked about how the artists had taken a symbol of death and made it into a symbol of hope, much like how Christ had taken the cross as a symbol of death and made it into a symbol of hope. It is part of taking the common stories of our ancestors and relating it to our contemporary stories. After the service, it was brought home in even greater immediacy as we heard stories about a friend of the church who is a priest in Kenya. Her church, which was well known for its multi-ethnic nature has had to close because it would be a target of ethnic violence.

With all of this as context, Bishop Curry asked the children to join him in pronouncing the blessing at the end of the service. Fiona enjoyed making the sign of the cross from the altar and with that, I pass on The Blessing of Mozambique Machine Guns.