From toast to bread to an encounter with the Risen Lord: this was the narrative trajectory, yesterday, of my first assembly at the Infants School since September. I began by asking the children about what they'd had for breakfast, following which we discussed what you needed to make bread, and then I told the story of the Road to Emmaus, which isn't in the Lion Storyteller Bible which they are customarily read from so I presume most of them had never heard it. It was either that, or the life of St Alphege whose feast day it was and for once I shied away from bishops, martyrdom and Danish invaders. 'Did you say Emmaus in the story?' one girl asked. 'I go to a church, it's not your church, but it's called Emmaus Church'. I realised that thanks to my disconnection from the school over the last year I could only name a handful of the children (or rather a smaller handful than I used to know). They still seem to know who I am when I meet them about the roads of the parish, but this is just one aspect of the church's life which needs some urgent rebuilding as we start to get back into gear again.
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