jonnybaker

it takes faith beyond imagining...

alleluias is a wonderful call to worship - i always love what cheryl writes.

advent prayers and advent in the dark

christine sine is always a proloific creator and gatherer of advent resources. scroll through her blog or follow along but here's a link to a series of prayers for the journey. 

i love this piece that richard passmore posted called advent in the dark form the presbyterian church of nz.

the magical union chapel did not disappoint

ADVENTurous on saturday was a wonderful day. i hope it is the first of many - a regular advent festival like this exploring poignant themes, celebrating advent, fused with the arts in london would be amazing. i was photographer for the day and have added a set of photos here - see slideshow here.

this photo is the lead singer of hope and social wandering into the crowd literally unplugged - up on a pew (which he politely asked permission for!!) singing and hand aloft to the cavern of the chapel. it was a really magical moment. it was also almost completely in the dark so i was pleased i managed to get a photo out of it!

and this is one of the amazing pieces of art put together by engedi arts and now in leeds and shortly to be in colwyn bay - this chess set is called 'mother mary chess set' and is by pea runstall and pits a series of marys against the empire of domination - it must have taken an eon to make and was quite extraordinary as was the rest of the art.

if you liked the ADVENTurous movies

it was a great day at ADVENTurous yesterday - if you liked the movies shown, several were from proost and three were made especially for ADVENTurous.

elf issues and garbage garbage were both by jon birch and shown in the day

prophet(tear) and wonky donkey were both on display in the exhibition and harry performed wonky donkey.

if you are interested in advent resources on proost, have a look at our advent news which summarises lots, or click on the seasons button and search advent and/or christmas.

oh and it's been pointed out to me after my blog post yesterday that advent actually starts today - advent sunday - of course! so all you people who have advent calendars with a dec 1 or advent candles with a 1 what were you thinking?!

advent

well advent begins. love this poem by rowan williams...

this is an AMAZING opportunity!

if i were to think what are the themes i want to look at and think about at the moment in the world they would be ecology, economy and faith, and guess what next saturday - dec 1 - there is an incredibly creative event in london doing exactly that - ADVENTurous. 

the day consists of

• a serious of speakers in a TED talks style day - exploring those themes. the speaker line up is fantastic as far as i can see
• artists who have engaged with the themes displaying their work which will go on to leeds and colwyn bay after
• an evening of performers including no less than world slam champ harry baker (biased moi?!)

it's all hosted by greenbelt. you can get tickets for the day, evening or both. if you can't afford it and want to come e-mail me and i'll see what i can do (shhhh don't tell anyone)

i can't wait! what a great way to kick off advent. i'll try and get blogging this week about advent - no time no time and yes i know advent is about waiting.

24.1 can't wait - grace this saturday

sadly i am not able to be there but it's grace this saturday introducing advent. if it seems a little ahead of time it's because we meet the second saturday of the month so the next one is too late for advent! love the flier...

now is the time you ADVENTurous bargain hunters

ADVENTurous is an event not to miss - greenbelt comes to London for a day in the winter! but the cheap ticket price deal ends at the end of october so get yourself over to the web site and get yourself a ticket!!!!

ADVENTurous

ADVENTurous is an exciting festival on dec 2 in london hosted by greenbelt at the wonderful union chapel. there is a day of thinking, artistry and imagining around the world we live in and the issues we face in the areas of faith, ecology and economy and how we get to a new world. the line up of speakers looks great - mike frost, ann morrisy, ruth valerio, ann pettifor, abdul rehman malik. then in the evening there is an evening of artistry with harry baker (!), iain archer and hope and social. tickets for the whole day if you book before the end of october are only £25 which seems like a pretty good deal. 

en gedi arts are curating the visual arts for this and simultaneously exhibitions and events in leftbank leeds and the imperial hotel in colwyn bay. hope to see you there!

what time is it?

walter brueggemann suggests that prophets know what time it is. at christmas jen's parents invited all the family to make a decoration/bauble for the tree. this was mine - i was still obsessed with and in many ways still am captivated by the phrase from occupy - another world is possible.

i thought it was entirely appropriate for advent and had visions of a whole tree decorated like this - maybe next year?! but i definitely managed to confuse my mother in law and at least half the family even after an explanation of advent and what it might be about (to be fair i got half way through my explanation before a few people glazed over and i gave up).

right next year back to fluff and tinsel!

beer and carols with foy vance

if you want to go to a christmas carol type event in london this one tomorrow promises to be right up there with the best i suspect - with the talented foy vance in his own inimitable style!

if you are looking for christmas movies...

...we have a couple of new ones on proost...

noisy night is ideal for all ages on christmas day and complements silent night from previous years. noisy night began life as an asbojesus cartoon

immaculate mary is a spoken word piece by harry baker animated by jon birch reflecting on mary, an ordinary girl being visited by an angel

xfm advent calendar

xfm have an advent calendar with something each day - today's track skinny love is beautiful...

waiting...

waiting - our advent grace this saturday - come and join us!

357a

that's the number of the beach hut we visited in brighton on saturday. it's become something of an annual pilgrimage for jenny and i to visit brighton (which we love), do some christmas shopping (which we love less), and visit whatever beach hut is opening that day as part of beyond's beach hut advent calendar. follow the blog to see each day's hut as it unfolds.

advent begins - tweets, beach huts, liturgy, god of the moon and stars and other ideas

if you are up north go and visit bridlington advent beach huts

down south visit the beach hut calendar in brighton by beyond

follow an advent freshexpressions tweet [day 1 is from me!]

how about a bit of angel light painting? i saw this idea on someone's twitter and can't for the life of me remember where or who?! but it seems a great aadvent idea...

christine sine always comes up with a ton of stuff for advent - here's a prayer for the first sunday of advent

i still think the best statement i have heard for quite some time that relates to advent is from occupy st pauls - another world is possible - we look forward to the coming of christ into the world and to the day when christ returns and all things are made new - in both cases another world is possible and we seek to live out a life that makes another world possible now.

sim nolloth has put together a movie on the song god of the moon and stars that is rather delightful. i confess it's not my favoured music - in fact i turned the sound off preferring to just see the words(!), but the words are powerful and it is really well done. i am making this movie a worship trick - no 17 series 4... and i recognised most of the places in brighton that are in it.

and if you want something for a primary school assembly beatbox nativity might do the trick?!

follow the category advent on the blog to see other resources i have linked to before on advent.

fast food christmas

ben bell does it again! every year he seems to come up with a very creative and often provocative image for advent. there's a set here of his previous images which have now been used all round the world. fast food christmas is this year's. if you want to use the images ben asks you contact him and give a credit.

this is worship trick 16 series 4!

roll on christmas - worship trick 14, series 4

roll on christmas - brilliant playful facebook movie featuring you from the creators of shipoffools and featuring milton jones!

advent - new si smith and ian adams resource on proost

i can't quite believe it's time to think about advent and christmas but i guess it's not far away. si smith and ian adams have combined together to produce a new digital advent calendar which is available on proost. it blends 25 si smith iconic illustrations with a short reflection each day from ian. it's a pdf which you can either view on a computer, monitor, projector, iphone, ipad or whatever else takes your fancy. if you subscribe you can also access the individual images - one person has contacted us to say they are printing out one a day to put on their church noticeboard outside through advent. we also have a bundle of other advent resources which you might want to look at. here's a few for example -

9 lessons, a flash animation | nine - nine artists interpret the traditional nine readings with 6 movies and 3 songs | 25 - si smith's amazing cutout and make nativity characters and advent calendar and comic. | wait - vaux movie | silent night movie

we also have another liturgy book as well that is new this month from urban expression, an urban mission agency that recruits, equips, deploys, and networks self-financing teams pioneering creative and relevant expressions of the christian church in under reached areas of the inner city. this collection of liturgy and prayer is based around the core values and commitments of urban expression. it is inspiring and relevant whether or not you are connected with urban expression. it provides a month's worth of prayers, readings and exercises. it's just available as a download. i have all the proost pdf liturgy books on my phone and I find that's a great way to be able to use them. i'll be adding this!

have a great christmas everyone!

have a great christmas!