Aim: To show that touch, and being in touch, are an integral part of our humanity.

• Each participant will have been specifically invited to bring photographs of themselves e.g. as a baby, toddler, aged 10, 20, 30 through to their current age.
• Paper and pens.
• Pictures of hands at work, at prayer, touching and the like.
• Aroma-therapy oils and containers.
• Glue-sticks and scissors.
• Multitudes of newspapers and magazines.
• Large sheets of paper (wallpaper?).
• An array of tactile objects, religious or otherwise.
• CDs - A Touching Place by Wild Goose Resource Group.

Suggested focal point:
An array of tactile objects suitably arranged with pictures of hands, and aroma-therapy oils burning.

Gathering music: A Touching Place

Song:
Christ's is the world in which we move;
Christ's are the folk we're summoned to love;
Christ's is the voice that calls us to care,
And Christ is the one who meets us here.
To the lost Christ shows his face;
To the unloved he gives his embrace;
To those who cry in pain or disgrace
Christ makes with his friends a touching place.

Feel for the people we most avoid -
Strange or bereaved or never employed.
Feel for the women and feel for the men
Who fear that their living is all in vain.
Feel for the parents who've lost their child,
Feel for the women whom men have defiled,
Feel for the baby for whom there's no breast,
And feel for the weary who find no rest.

Feel for the lives by life confused,
Riddled with doubt, in loving abused;
Feel for the lonely heart, conscious of sin,
Which longs to be pure but fears to begin.

Centring exercise:
Take time to reflect on the words of the song.

Then move gently into an imaginative exercise.

• Think of an occasion you found pleasure in your body ...
• Think of a situation that recently moved you to tears ...
• Think of a time you felt good to be alive and joyful ...
• Think of an individual whose life has deeply touched you ...
• Spend some time simply looking at your hands, recollecting some of their uses ...
• In the silence thank God for the touch of life.

Session 1
Invite people to look at their own spectrum of photographs through their lifetime (if anyone is without, invite them to use their memory).

• Notice the changes physically, facially and so on.
• Notice the changing shape of the body.
• Using the memory.
• How did you feel about yourself at each age?
• What were the important things to you?
• Who were your friends?
• What images or words might describe each stage?
• Who are the significant others who somehow touched your life?
• How, if at all, did you sense God's presence or absence?

After a time of prayer and reflection move into listening groups of, say, three or four, and speaking through the photographs (or memory), share whatever participants feel led to, without comment or reaction.

Session 2
Invite people to create a collage, using the large sheets of paper, from newspaper and magazine pictures and words, to reflect body images.

• Whilst being creative, become aware of the sense of your own body. 
  Do you befriend it or treat it as alien?
• Reflect on the vast variety of body shapes and images.
• Reflect on the reality of being made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1).
• How do you feel about what you are creating in your collage? (It doesn't have to be a great piece of art.)
• What does what you are creating put you in touch with?
• Jot down your thoughts and feelings.
• What title do you give your creation?
• Spend some time prayerfully reflecting on the image or images.

Move into listening groups as before, sharing whatever led to with the group, and sharing your own creativity. How do you feel as you share, and what does it put you in touch with?

Worship:
Worship might include a gospel reading, somehow reflecting touch (perhaps Mark1.40-44; 2.1-12 or Luke 7.36-50.)

Play A Touching Place again, and invite prayerful response, spoken or in silence.

Share the Peace, moving around the group with handshakes and/or hugs.

Close by blessing each other.

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