Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of nights and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I wonder whether W B Yeats knew how relevant and contemporary “Cloths of Heaven” would remain 200 years later? In some ways the muted colours and sounds could have been a balm to those who were at the scene of Pentecost. Imagine the confusion, the chaotic sounds, the smells, animals and people all in together, no social distancing back then!

Imagine, if you can, you are the person speaking in Yeats’ poem, you are the one with only dreams of coloured cloth and all around you is unfettered chaos. Your dreams are silent to all but you…In the distance there is the one who treads softly and whose feet touch the cloths of your dreams. You become at one with the silent colour in the noisy chatter and here in the midst of it all is one who has heard your dreams.

The Holy Spirit came among this geographically disparate group and they understood. There were no barriers for inclusion, it mattered not if the cloth was rainbow, pink, white or black, all came and were as one. As we come to Pentecost this year, and we can gather together in person, are we a church of inclusion, where everyone is understood, or do we remain the person holding the embroidered cloths with dreams trampled on in the chaos?

Marian Bisset

Candidate for Ministry of Deacon