jonnybaker

minor prophets

i'm looking forward to the next grace on the minor prophets. there are 12 heads round st mary's and someone will take each one and interpret it through whatever form they like. we have currently still got two prophets needing volunteers to do something with them (zechariah and nahum). i'd hate for them to feel rejected - it's a tough enough call being a prophet... so if anyone would like to get involved in this grace (regular or not) let me know... in fact if you want to get involved and can't be there you could send me your text/artwork/music or whatever and i could set it up!?...

four rooms

four rooms - new piece on rejesus

Different traditions stress different aspects of Jesus. In this module immerse yourself in four distinct experiences to investigate these aspects for yourself.

new ideas originate at the margins

There is a debate in this month's Creative Review on 'What is design for?'. The most interesting part is the tension designers feel about working for advertising (to earn money, where a lot of the creative energy is) and staying true to their vision/art. How do you manage to not sell out? One of the guys basically says that if you want your work to be seen and have an influence you have to get it in with the big players. But Rick Poyner (who I'm increasingly come to like - I am currently reading a collection of his essays called 'Obey The Giant') disagrees...

This idea of the person on the one hand at the margins having no influence and then the person in the corporate world who is making a difference because his work has an audience: I don't buy that dichotomy. When you look at the important cultural makers, not just designers, but photographers, film directors, cultural people, over and over they are people who are preserving a position of some kind of independence, being able to pursue their own direction, which produces work which is of immense cultural value.

Does it matter if their audience is small? I'm inclined to the contrary, the 3000 people who bought that product are engaged in a kind of cultural exploration which is the very stuff of self-education and growing as a human being. Smallness is not a barrier to significant, influential work. If, as a designer, you choose to position yourself there then you've got my support because it's culturally important - it's difficult, a struggle, but it's difficult to imagine a world that doesn't have those people - without them it would be a monoculture, full of people who shared mass experiences and ultimately it would stagnate. New ideas tend to originate in the margins where those makers are freest.

Sounds like many a conversation that's been had in alternative worship over the years.... Read that last bit again but thinking about creating worship...

Smallness is not a barrier to significant, influential (worship). If, as a (curator of worship), you choose to position yourself there then you've got my support because it's culturally important - it's difficult, a struggle, but it's difficult to imagine a world that doesn't have those people - without them it would be a monoculture, full of people who shared mass experiences and ultimately it would stagnate. New ideas tend to originate in the margins where those makers are freest.

labyrinth revisited...

had a couple of e-mails about the labyrinth today. glad to see it's still proving a wonderful resource/tool/gift...

labyrinth australia charts what eddie is up to with it in australia. if you are in australia you can get CDs and kits etc from him if you want to run one...

and richard white has posted his thoughts including visitors comments on running it at the st helen's show here and here. i like this thought...

Seeing the labyrinth connect so effectively with all ages and types at a showground in a Northern, working class town strongly confirmed my suspicion that many elements of so called “alternative worship” are only alternative in relation to church. They are by comparison more mainstream than ‘normal’ church in relation to the culture we live in. Again, more thoughts to follow…

subversive and prophetic act

from signposts:

When we take the Lord’s Supper, we aren’t just agreeing to a theological principle or performing a dutiful act of remembrance like laying flowers on a grave. The Lord’s Supper is a many-layered subversive and prophetic act that declares once and for all - the exile of God’s people is over. The kingdom of God has come and will culminate in a final feast where all the friends of Jesus, regardless of class, race, gender, or nationality will sit at his table. Israel is - not a proud, pure, triumphant nation - but a rag-tag band of sinners living in the grace of God. That’s who we are and that’s why we bother with the Lord’s Supper....

zoo

a good time at london zoo last night with people from headpsace, grace, vaux, RCA, l8r, moot.... there is going to be a zoo at greenbelt this year sunday 3pm in the winged ox bar which is for anyone involved in alt worship to get together...

mayc communion

had a good time in blackpool at the mayc weekend. (as someone commented in an earlier post there was a lot of yellow and green in evidence!). the workshop on alt worship was well attended. and the communion service we did went fantastically well...

i said for people there that i would put a list of music tracks etc that we used on here... so in terms of what we did, here is the order of service (pdf file). the structure of the service follows the 4 sections of a methodist communion service but takes karen ward's idea of renaming of sections of the litugry as described by shane. the component parts are sourced as follows:

relax animation and traffic videos - from cd rom with book alternative worship
breathing prayer - candle video loo and prayer from book alternative worship, track azzolini and the branch brothers meet being - two lone swordsmen from the album 'swimming not skimming'
space and time - track from the album 'spirit of the new' available from proost
god above - track from the album 'spirit of the new' available from proost, video loop from dvd digital glass available from sacramentis
prayer and confession - from the liturgy eucharist hospitality which is in the book alternative worship - track kid for today by boards of canada
meditation on images of jesus - images from the pack the christ we share, track/meditation swear word from the album by martin wroe life, death, god
group discussion - tracks my culture by 1giant leap and pollo de pallo by fila brazillia
creed - from book alternative worship - track one perfect sunrise by orbital from the blue album
song table of christ - from album spirit of the new (see above)
eucharistic prayer - from eucharist hospitality liturgy in alternative worship - track - pont des arts by st germain on the album tourist
sharing bread and wine - played tracks i will receive you now from album eucharist available from proost, everything in its right place by radiohead and breathe by telepopmusik from the album genetic world
hymn here is love - from album old hymns in dub available from proost
prayers - tracks (unpublished) another time and sleepy happy by jenny brown
final track - hallelujah by jenny brown (unpublished)
various video loops (bread, cup, jesus statue, new star.... from alternative worship cd rom, highway video, and my own stuff)
presentation software was arkaos

london zoo mon evening...

don't forget london zoo monday night...

off to blackpool....

off to blackpool at some unearthly hour sat morning to take part in breakout, a weekend for the MAYC (methodist youth). am leading a workshop on alternative worship and a communion service on sunday morning with tlb as VJ and jenny from vaux - a small but creative team! looking forward to it... i'll post the list of tracks etc that we use when i get a minute (i seem to be into a madly busy couple of weeks at the moment!)

virtual international alt worship?

i missed this but it looks like a fantastically creative time was had by everyone who took part in suddenly seminary.

it was a virtual international worship/prayer/learning experience. way to go andrew! the picture is of the 24/7 prayer room they created complete with post it notes on the walls and candles lit. i popped into the rooms last night but no one was there! but it was still fun chatting to people at habbohotel

i actually finally got round to going into the church of fools this week as well which is also fab...