Way back in the 1990s I wrote a liturgy based on the idea that we were an in-between people. More recently I have discovered more about Bridget of Kildare or St Bridget and I loved how some people see her as someone who inhabited the nineteen spaces. This resonated a lot because of how I have been thinking about the Fresh Expressions strategy and inhabiting the living middle/the ecotone.

So as part of our Leadership Community gathering last week I wrote this reflection/prayer which I called the Prayer of the Inbetween.

God of doorways and crossroads,
of fading embers and kindled flame,
you meet us in the in between spaces,
between the known and the new,
between the gathered church
and the searching world.

We remember Brigid of Kildare,
born on the threshold of a door,
who wove a cross from rushes
and made the ordinary a shelter of grace.

They say that where she walked
through the cold fields of winter,
white snowdrops rose in her footsteps, small lanterns of hope
breaking through frozen ground.

Teach us to walk the in-between places,
between tradition and tomorrow,
between doubt and faith,
between the church doors
and the open road.

let hope rise quietly behind us,
like snowdrops in late winter,
Help us weave signs that point to new life
and notice everyday grace.

Make our hands generous,
our tables wide,
our communities warm as a hearth-fire.

And where we go
in streets, cafés, homes, and thresholds
may your Spirit leave small flowers of grace
growing in the wake of love.

Through Christ,
who walks every road with us.

Amen.