step eight: Fall on your face

What a great suggestion! "Fall on your face." I do that well enough without anyone telling me to. And you probably will too, as you figure out how to get your Connexion group functioning. But this is not that kind of face-falling. We are talking about responding to the glory of God -- in other words, worship.

Worship can be said to be the whole point of the Church, its first priority. But we have placed it as the fourth priority of Connexion groups. A group can be founded for mainly selfish reasons, but it moves its focus to God as it matures. It can be founded in isolation, but it moves toward joining the Church in her great Work of worship. Worship is the culmination of spiritual growth and the bridge which joins one small group to the Church as a whole.

These days, worship means many things to people. Some folk have no idea; for some, it means a guitar and praise songs; for some, a priest in vestments with incense. In our Connexions, we want to move to a deeper understanding of the two thousand year old tradition of Christian worship and its incredibly deep psychology and spirituality. Worship, done with a humble spirit, frees us from the bondage of our own perceptions and our own souls.

We will, of course, help with this. To get you started, we suggest you begin your meetings by standing and praying the Praise and Mercy Prayers together. This will make your entire meeting come close to being an act of worship.