jonnybaker

advent icon

nadia's community created a wonderful icon for advent from christmas advertising - a simple idea, often the best... worship trick 54

christmas ambient tunes - worship trick 53

i was looking on jon hopkins web site (perhaps my favourite artist of the moment) and followed a link to sound asleep records who look like a label worth keeping an eye on if you like your music ambient or electronic - i guess a little in the vein of kranky records for those of you who have discovered the delight of the incredible dead texan album.

anyway it turns out they have a free 8 tracks of their artists doing christmas songs. i am not sure how long this offer is up now christmas is over. you can link to it from their front page or this is currently the direct link. there are a couple of tunes here that are gems including an amazing 11 minute ambient silent night and they will no doubt be providing a soundscape to some alt worship in ealing next advent...

this is worship trick 53, series 3

advent revisited

a couple of advent links for you...

grasp ideas - i don't know why i like this but it did amuse me. an idea a day for advent using plastic milk containers! (thanks ian)

the hubble space telescope advent calendar for a dose of wonder (thanks boytons)

manchester christmas market

manchester christmas market, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

enjoyed a visit to manchester christmas market where sanctus1 beer and carols took place yesterday. i was up for a spirited exchanges meeting today in liverpool - more about that later... have added a small set to flickr

advent prayers

sunday papers has a few advent prayers (from james hawes i assume)...

why wait?
give god a hug today
advent grace
advent affirmation of faith

[worship trick 52]

grace - christmas in bethlehem - this saturday

the last few years the grace christmas service has been nine which has been a lot of fun and a good tradition - one others have picked up on and one we at proost have been inspired to join in. well grace never stays still so this year is taking a break from nine and doing something different...

so join us for christmas in bethlehem: waiting for a sign of hope this saturday. rumour has it there will be mulled wine, mince pies and carols in the cafe afterwards. this is a first for me in that it is the third grace in row that i have not in any way been involved in planning so i have no idea what is going to happen which always makes it fun. it's at 8pm at st maty's ealing. visitors always welcome.

on the subject of bethlehem and christmas kester forwarded me this letter which is pretty poignant.

beach hut update...

the beach huts seem to be catching a bit of media interest!

advent abundance... worship tricks 48,49,50, 51!!

well as ever people are doing wonderful things to celebrate advent.

here's a few...

1. have a look through my category advent to see things from previous years which include some wonderful prayers and reflections

2. the advent beach hut calendar is now under way - check the blog for photos. seems like the heavens were re-aligned for day one!

3. ben bell always produces a wonderful image for advent - i was half expecting him to come up with something and sure enough light of the world is simple but brilliant. contact him if you want to use it. i am making his images worship trick 48 - see mary set and card, wait

4. the church of england has  produced a creative site why are we waiting. i am not actually sure who is behind the site though it says copyright archbishops council (!) but rowan williams gives a reflection on a plasma screen over the fireplace and there is a calendar window to click on each day for a reflection to create space. you can also sign up for a daily e-mail through advent. worship trick 49

5. cheryl lawrie is prolific when it comes to advent. she makes me smile because there is a build up saying she has no ideas or energy and then wham! an overflow of liturgical and creative genius lands. i have not counted but i am sure cheryl is listed under more worship tricks than anyone else but all her new pieces which are bundled as a pregnant pause can get added as worship trick 50. the pieces are here here here here and here. i am looking forward to hearing how christmas in the basement goes which i received an invite to but sadly won't be attending!

6. advent windows is something i found via following a link from no 4 above. it is in london and is again so simple. created by st alfege in greenwich it's a community advent calendar where a literal window is opened every day. the first one was at the tourist information centre! there's a blog which will follow the windows. this is worship trick 51. i was thinking what we could do in ealing in a similar vein to the beach hut idea and hadn't thought of windows. i can see this idea taking off in lots of communities in future years. must pay it a visit. i love the way people are taking worship and the christmas story into public rather than church or private space...

7. cms produces a service share the light each year for advent. (i forgot this yesterday but it was on my list...) which has resources and stories from cms for an advent worship service

feel free to add any things you have come across in the comments...

advent resource from proost - nine

at proost we have been cooking up a project for advent for a while which is now available... inspired by grace and their service nine over the last few years we invited nine pieces by nine artists to interpret the christmas story. all the pieces have been created in response to one of the traditional nine readings from the nine lessons and carols christmas service. there are 6 movies and 3 tracks. the items are not available individually - we wanted to keep this as a set. the pieces are:

1. Genesis 3: 8–15; 17–19
Dust by Dubb and Coyote - mp3 spoken word and beats

2. Genesis 22: 15–18
God of Abraham by Doug Gay - mp3 song

3. Isaiah 9: 2; 6–7
O Come O Come Emmanuel by Pádraig Twomey and Jonny McEwen - mp3 song

4. Isaiah 11: 1–3a; 4a; 6–9
Love's Impossible Reality by Cheryl Lawrie and Mike Emmett - movie

5. Luke 1: 26–35; 38
Blessed by Juli Allen and Jon Birch - movie

6. Luke 2: 1; 3–7
Signs of Love by Andi Mac and Harronell - movie

7 Luke 2: 8–16
A Great Company by Jonny Baker and Jon Birch - movie

8. Matthew 2: 1–12
Magi by Andrew Jones - movie

9. John 1: 1–14
Word by Gavin Mart - movie

nine costs nine pounds and is available in the movies section of the web site. you could use it in your church/community, at home alone, with a family. it's all downloadable.

i'm really pleased that harry (dubb) gets to make his debut on proost (proud dad moment) - we'll have an ep or album from him next year in the spring we hope.

i'll be blogging a few more advent ideas and links in the next few days/weeks but other things on proost that are also worth a look are si smith's amazing 25 - advent calendar and comic and cutout nativity - totally brilliant, kester's movie wait and jon's movie silent night.

thanks to everyone who has contributed.

[added as worship trick 47]

advent beach huts - worship trick 46

every year there are wonderfully creative ideas for advent and lent. i don't know what it is about these two seasons but they are definitely the most creatively embraced by alt worship and emerging church. i always look forward to seeing who will come up with new ideas. well this year's craziest most brilliant idea i have come across is advent beach huts.

beyond are a community in brighton who look form their blog like their worship is a lot of fun and very creative. well for advent they have contacted owners of beach huts in brighton and every day through advent a beach hut owner will open their beach hut between 5:30 and 6:30pm in response to a christmas carol or theme. there is a list of which hut will feature on what day on the blog where they will also be posting a photo of each. i don't know if there are plans to open all the huts together at the end but that would be fun...

i really like it when groups are creating art stuff in public spaces like this. i'm notsure what the equivalent would be in ealing though... i am making this worship trick 46 series 3

happy christmas!

happy christmas!

regardless of theologies and postmodern theories and new ideas of church, and irrespective of our programmes, plans and energy levels, God will come and be born in our world...

...he will be born in our world whether we are ready or not, deserving or not, prepared or not. The incarnation of God will defy our plans, upset the organised and come with ease and rapturous joy to undeserving sinners and the poor in spirit.

[a quote from maggi dawn's book]

walled nativity

this is the most thought provoking nativity i think i have seen since steve's chess set from amos trust... the nativity wall is detachable which is sadly not the case for the real one.

advent again

i have been really enjoying maggi dawn's advent book. it sits on the kitchen table and each morning or evening i read the reflection. she has some great insights/nuggets that she draws out of passages from the bible. her stuff on abraham and elijah has been particularly good at least for where i'm at. inspired by maggi one of our grace services in lent will explore elijah's desert journey.

other advent stuff (i find it's a very creative season - there's so much around)...

prayer of mary
pray peace

and on a completely different tack jon has stirred up over 100 comments so far on this cartoon!!!

proost christmas movies

this month's proost release sees one advent movie and one christmas movie

wait was originally created for vaux by kester. it last 12 minutes and embodies the advent theme of waiting with 6 minutes of the word wait and people standing on train platforms before moving to a reflection of words fading in and out. it really is beautiful... it originally had the sigur ros track svefn g englar from the album agaetis byrjun underneath it. we don't have the copyright/permission so you'll need to download or buy it yourself or use something similar.

and silent night is a new animation from jon birch that sees people journeying to visit jesus christ. perfect for all ages...

they are both in the movies section of the site and can be previewed in the player.

take me to the peace labyrinth in new zealand

i love seeing what steve taylor and community get up to each year for advent. if i was in new zealand i'd love to join in. of course it's a bit different to what you can do in the uk as it's summer!

well this year they have a peace labyrinth that has a wonderful promotion campaign and video. driftwood little people with eyes are being left around the city with a tag on saying take me to the peace labyrinth. you can read about it on steve's blog but do watch the trailer. this is fun, spiritual, in the marketplace, and totally over the top - brilliant. i look forward to seeing how it goes.

advent movies from jacobs well - worship trick 21

i picked up this link via steve taylor's blog...

andy michael made three movies for advent last year for jacob's well community in kansas and they are really good quality (the kind of thing we could easily put on proost) and free to download. i think the first is my favourite. i am currently reading tim keel's book intuitive leadership. i've met tim a few times on visits to the US so. he is also at that community so that was a neat connection. i'll blog about the book when i finish it or when i get time!

on the subject of movies, bob carlton sent me a link to this quirky wonderful video vittorio cosma - passo - dopo passo . the blog that this is from no fat clips looks jam packed with stuff if movies is your thing. if you find any good ones if you have time to trawl through let me know in the comments.

[note: all these movies are fairly large]

grace nine - samurai swords and helium balloons

last night was the grace christmas celebration nine. i think this is the 6th year we have done this which is definitely as traditional as we get! taking the nine readings from the trad nine lessons and carols service, nine volunteers choose a piece of music and something artistic/creative to do/show/reflect on. it's a really simple idea.

this year didn't disappoint. nine sets of helium balloons defined nine spaces from which the readings would be done. each reading was signaled by one of the kids bursting a balloon at that space. this was a simple idea but it really made the space work as a whole.

i did the reading of the birth of christ which was a good opportunity to use si smith's amazing 25 advent models. people got cutting and sticking and within 10 minutes or so we had created a nativity scene. my tune this year was foy vance's gabriel and the vagabond, a story of hope.

the most dramatic reading was ben's who reflected on thin places, where heaven and earth seem to touch. the reading was from behind a muslin sheet with projected stars on it. having described the shepherds on the hillside experiencing a thin place that night, he produced a samurai sword and cut through the muslin sheet which was a first for us and the sword was quickly locked away out of sight...

mince pies, mulled wine and cntrst DJing rounded off a good night.

i'm sure photos will get added to the gracelondon flickr group in the next few days and the archive will no doubt list the tunes etc some time soon...

swords into rakes - worship trick 19

cheryl has posted an outline of an advent service/reflection she led on the text from isaiah about beating swords into rakes. wonderful as ever...

paperless christmas - worship trick 18

kester has dug out some good stuff for advent...

a video a day on paperless christmas through advent with a wonderful team of creative people who have put it together which i am making worship trick 18, series 3.

and if you follow the blog you'll know i have visited and enthused about santas ghetto, a collaboration between street artists each december. well this year it is in bethlehem! and proceeds from sales will go to local projects. wow... and the artists have been adding their touches to the 'apartheid' wall.

i also got a surprise today with the guardian which is doing a free piece of christmas wrapping paper by an artist every day this week. well today's was by mark wallinger (of the bear suit fame i blogged about who could win the turner prize today?) and was simply a sheet with the words 'jesus christ' in red and green in small type over the whole paper. it's so simple and i wish i had thought of it! brilliant...

it feels like advent is under way.

nine - this saturday

it's the grace advent/christmas service this saturday - nine.

nine people take the traditional readings from a carol service and select a track to play and something to do - a reflection, piece of art, audio visual piece, ritual etc..

always simple but profound.

mulled wine and mince pies to follow - join us if you are around.