Mission Picture Gallery: CVS – Blooming Voluntary Groups!

In May 2001 the Council for Voluntary Service and supporters gathered for a service under the title ‘Bloomin’ Voluntary Groups’: "after over 90 years, celebrating the role of CVS in seeking to maximise the activity of the voluntary sector."
With its horticultural theme, the service reflected on the work, recollecting CVS’s roots (!) way back in 1909 – "Aspidistras". Since then there has been much growth, and we were able to consider "compost" – the soil in which we grow, "pruning and weed control" – "green shoots", "woody structures", and "winds from many directions"! Then we offered our "country garden" to God – the great variety of blooms which make up the garden, indeed almost "rampant growth"!
Dear Lord we pray that our dream of community will be realised:
A community where our lives are lived out with God at the centre;
A community where strangers become friends
through stories told and time shared;
A community where all find acceptance, where everyone's worth is applauded, where diversity is celebrated;
A community whose understanding of God grows;
A community of servants, workers together with a vision of a new Kingdom;
We have come far, and have far yet to travel.
Amen