jonnybaker

wolf fields labyrinth

over the years i have been involved along with others in grace in making a whole range of labyrinths. in 2000 we installed one in st pauls cathedral which went on to be toured round the country and translated into an online interactive version and then turned into a kit format in the USA. we have run various ones at grace. and this has included mowing a range of patterns - my blog post here from 2006 on how to mow a grass labyrinth has proved popular. anyway all that is to say it was a delight last weekend to be at the opening/launch of the wolf fields labyrinth in southall. we were invited to partner with arocha uk and the table community at st johns to create an outdoor labyrinth. steve collins came up with the design and it was made by clearing the area, putting down a membrane and then painting the pattern on that. the paths were then created by using small wooden stakes and the paths filled with wood chippings. there are a few flower beds en route. it has all come out rather well. i took the photo above but steve coillins has documented it in this photo album here which gives you the idea of how it was made from start to finish. thanks to idina dunmore for inviting us.

of course that has to go as a worship trick...

pioneer practice in craft beer

on the pioneer practice tour we were hosted by the wonderful mark bamping at candid beer. i couldn't help noticing that the beer labels seemed to lend themselves to pioneer practice themes. so in no particular order...

Pioneer practice in craft beer

Beer labels made me think of pioneering

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we are in brighton next saturday and sheffield the week after

a wild time

i have been so busy i have just realised i have not posted yet about gather wild-erness on anglesey. it was an event not to miss. liz dunbar has posted a review here and there are some lovely photos in it from mark kensett. i have a very simple theory that movements need spaces to collide - that's how connections get made, ideas shared, emergence happens, and you get encouraged. all of that and more happened. the content was amazing too. people keep asking me what's next - i have no idea at this point! but i am sure we will gather again. a few of my photos are here but i didnt take that many so go look at mark's.

deja vu

just when you have cleared your house of books a second print run arrives and refills the lounge! seriously i am so chuffed to have had to do a second print run of pioneer practice - thank you so much everyone who has cheered me on and/or bought a copy. 

stafford, leicester, brighton, sheffield - june tour dates

the pioneer practice tour has passed the half way point. it's been brilliant connecting with the wider network, meeting pioneers, hearing stories. this is me in a cafe at poole harbour sat catching some sun on what was a glorious summer day before diving into the fray there.

one of the lovely stories there was how a simple idea of a few raised beds and a bench has created community in a street. this is the bench.

the next gigs are all on the tour page with links to register and get tickets under each location - stafford, leicester, brighton, sheffield are in june. we'd love to see you there. they are all double acts with me and gav this month. they all have evenings too with a chance to get some food and conversation as well as the tour stuff. i confess i am doubly excited that we are visiting candid beer in stafford which was an idea brought to our make good week by mark bamping, and we get to visit new lubbesthorpe where sue steer has been building community in a new housing area since before the very first house was built and she has done an amazing job. looking forward to all the venues i should add!

i have now cracked into the very last box of books from the first print run which feels amazing - thank you so much everyone who has bought it. so we have now ordered a second print run which feels very exciting for our very first project from getsidetracked. they will arrive in time for the june leg of the tour - june here we come (via anglesey of course).

theories of culture

on june 9 i have been invited to host a conversation about culture in willesden (my locale) - theories of culture

but i didn't realise the event is online and apparently anyone can join. this is the blurb i sent:

The gospel always comes wearing cultural robes – so says the great missiologist David Bosch. Yet for most of us that is not easily visible because culture is ‘the way we do things round here’ – it’s our normal. So it can be a surprise when we cross a border or encounter others who don’t share the same values or way of doing things. That gets further complicated when our normal gets tied up with what we think of as the right way to do things or the right way to believe. We kind of know that other countries have different cultures and we think about cross-cultural communication or contextualisation then. But a big adventure the church has been on in the last 50 years is realising that questions of culture are right at the fore in our own neighbourhoods and parishes and not just in relation to other ethnicities and national identities. Youth ministry, pioneering, fresh expressions are all attempts to respond to the challenge of cultures in creative ways. Come and join in a conversation about culture in an undefended relaxed environment. It’s a very rich subject and one that holds a lot of clues for ministry and mission for us all regardless of context or parish.

register here

review of jvt quotes in ecclesial futures

thanks steve taylor for a review of jvt quotes (click where it says pdf) - the fact anyone thought to review such a thing is saying something! sadly the cards are sold out. it was a very limited run for a lockdown project. but i did put the images with quotes in a photo album here if you are interested. you are welcome to use them. he picks up on the gendered language - i was in two minds about that but chose to stick with john taylor's quotations rather than change them - he was writing in the 1960s.

ecclesial futures is now online and available free which is great to see

new pioneer hub in birmingham

i am really delighted we (cms) have a new pioneer hub in birmingham - the newbigin pioneering hub that will be starting the cms certificate in mission this september. it will be hosted by ash and anj barker and is a partnership with the united reformed church, cms and seedbeds. there is a taster day this saturday (short notice) do have a look at the prospectusget in touch if you are interested and do pass on to anyone in the area who may be interested. it's open to anyone to join.

newcastle, bristol, yeovil, poole

new york london, paris, munich everybody talk about mmm... ok showing my age and if you get the reference you are too - pop musik by m in case you were wondering.

not quite those locations but this week pioneer practice heads to newcastle and bristol. it's not too late to sign up. love to see you there. the week after i am heading south west - i'll be in yeovil and poole. all the dates are on the tour page here.

who do you think you are?

it was so wonderful last week to get to spend a few days in scotland with pioneer practice tour packing in 5 gigs in 4 days along with gav mart. we were hosted by steve aisthorpe who had helped pull together the itinerary. he even had a van so it was like a proper tour bus :)

each location was different but my biggest takeaway really was that in each location the start point seemed to be us being told that there's not really a lot of pioneer practice going on, but by the end of the session when we had invited stories to be shared it was clear that all sorts of things are happening and bubbling up around the edges. it feels a good time (at least from the outside) in that networks are forming, there is a pioneer scotland facebook group, and so many good people involved across the board in encouraging, networking, training across denominations and streams. and crucially imaginative practice. scotland you have enough in your hand.

we bumped in to various scottish phrases along the way - it reminded me of kate fox's watching the english book where she explores phrases to get at englishness. i wish i'd written them all down. but one that stayed with me was 'who do you think you are?' - which was some peoples way of saying it is a hard culture to stick your head above the parapet. and yet when we did a poll on pioneer practice the top answer in every location was it's about seeing and imagining. so those gathered really seemed to embody something different, or at least their answer to that question was 'a possibility people' (for those old enough to remember that is a nod to a late late service rant which of course was a scottish liturgy).

thank you for having us! this is a rare moment when we had a minute to catch our breath on montrose beach - thanks to gav for the pic

no gigs this week, but back into the fray the week after with newcastle and bristol - yes i know not exactly good planning on my part! 

a place of discovery

it was very exciting to find goshawks nesting in our wood (at least we are pretty sure that's what the nest is). certainly there are a lot of goshawk calls which are very distinctive and large birds of prey that fit the description.

we also prayed that the tipi would be a wonderful and blessed space using the words of john o donahue in for a nw home from his book benedictus. i hope he wouldn't mind me posting the blessing here 

May this house shelter your life.
When you come home here,
May all the weight of the world
Fall from your shoulders.

May your heart be tranquil here,
Blessed by peace the world cannot give.

May this home be a lucky place,
Where the graces your life desires
Always find the pathway to your door.

May nothing destructive
Ever cross your threshold.

May this be a safe place
Full of understanding and acceptance,
Where you can be as you are,
Without the need of any mask
Of pretense or image.

May this home be a place of discovery,
Where the possibilities that sleep
In the clay of your soul can emerge
To deepen and refine your vision
For all that is yet to come to birth.

May it be a house of courage,
Where healing and growth are loved,
Where dignity and forgiveness prevail;
A home where patience of spirit is prized,
And the sight of the destination is never lost
Though the journey be difficult and slow.
May there be great delight around this hearth.
May it be a house of welcome
For the broken and diminished.

May you have the eyes to see
That no visitor arrives without a gift
And no guest leaves without a blessing.

there are so many beautiful ideas and phrases. and indeed it became a place of discovery this weekend as we saw the goshawk fly through the woods around the nest almost directly in view from the tipi entrance. 

hope

pioneer practice next stop southall 28 april

the pioneer practice tour really gets going after easter. next up is an evening in london hosted in southall with food to kick off. if you are in or around london hope to see you there. the evening is free or maybe will ask for a donation but it would help to know numbers so please do register. then it's 5 gigs in scotland at the start of may...

maths, poetry and code

so proud of harry and joel (and matt and alex!) for their exhibition recreation at the pie factory in margate. i took some photos at the opening - an album is here. the exhibition is a playful mix of poetry meets maths and code. we made a family weekend of it celebrating harry's 30th! 

recreation and the fabulous baker boys

heading off to margate for the weekend for a family gathering to celebrate youngest son turning 30!!!! how did that happen? aside from the joy of hanging out with the baker clan we will also be visiting recreate. harry and joel (our two lads) have collaborated together to put on an exhibition. private view tonight but open every day from today until tues 12 april at piefactory. it's words meets maths meets code meets play or something. harry actually gave joel a week in an exhibtion space for his 30th birthday which is a mad kind of present. due to coronavirus it has only just been able to land. no doubt photos will follow at some stage. the blurb says

“Maths is fun”

No, seriously. It is a given that playing is an essential part of the creative process. Recreation uses maths as a base to play with words, images and form. Poet meets graphic designer, rhyme meets code in this interactive exhibition debuting in Margate.

love it when a plan comes together - gather angelsey june 2-5

gather wilderness on anglesey is from june 2-5. i was in cumbria last week and a couple of people there who know anglesey for holidays said this gathering is cheaper than you could find anything to just stay on angelsey on that peak weekend. i must admit i can't wait. it's a gorgeous location, beaches nearby, a light programme with plenty of space to collide with others and hang out. this latest flyer has a bit more info on it. there are around 100 coming so far which will be perfect but there's plenty of room for some more. it's the double bank holiday weekend. it's open to anyone - i say that because someone i spoke to assumed you need to be in a cms network - not so. if you want to hang out and be with creative pioneering types come along. all we need now is the sun to shine!

first fire

made a fire place in the tipi today which made it feel really magical - this is the first fire. the smoke seemed to rise and go out of the smoke flaps too which was a result! i originally made the poles too long so cut them down to 25 feet. this meant i had some nioce pieces of wood that i have used to create an edge and hold the floor on the liner - it also looks cool...

in cumbria

i am in cumbria for a few days with work. it's so good to catch up with friends connected to the northern mission centre which we (cms) partner in. i stayed one night with friends in threlkeld below blencathra which has to be one of the most impressive village locations in england - at least of villages i have visited. i realise it has been cold everywhere this week which has been a shock after the warm weather - there was snow here yesterday.

mike riddell

i was so sorry to hear of mike riddell's death this weekend. it was a long time since i had seen him of course as we live on other sides of the world. but he was a gentle, creative, kindred spirit and fellow traveller in exploring faith. he was a writer/poet/liturgist. when alternative worship was happening in the uk mike, mark pierson and steve taylor were exploring similar questions and adventures in new zealand through parallel universe and the like. our worlds collided online through email forums and blogs in the days of dial up!

i was thinking of memories of mike...

he was in the uk doing a few things - i remember getting him to do things for or with CMS, and possibly brainstormers and he visited greenbelt too - in 1997 i think but possibly other times too. he happened to be visiting us one time in ealing when the matrix first came out so we went to see that together with a few others from grace - that must have been 1999! this is pre-blogging days so i can't check the archive to see exactly what we did when!

mike wrote a little book called godzone which i loved - so much so that i bought 50 to give away. it was telling a story of faith and spirituality in very fresh language with stories and parables. the one i remembered that i have retold many times as it is such a great flip at the end is...

God walked into heaven and discovered everyone was there. This didn't seem fair as some of them had done terrible things in life. So everyone was summoned before God where an angel read the ten commandments. When the first commandment was read God said 'Everyone who has broken this commandment will have to leave.' The same happened with each of the other commandments. By the time the angel had finsihed reading the seventh there was hardly anyone left. God looked up and saw a small group of grim self righteous ascetics looking very smug. For a few minutes God considered the prospect of eternity with them and then shouted out 'Alright everyone come back!' The religious group were furious saying 'we have wasted our lives.' 

threshold of the future was a wonderful book - the chapter in there on acts 10 captured the paradigm shift in mission as well as anything i have read before or after and the notion of the 'sin of holiness' has stuck with me ever since. i pretty much collected anything mike wrote - a pamphlet of liturgies, the prodigal project, alt spirit, god's homepage, deep stuff, sacred journey, imagining anew - a pdf of reflections he published on facebook in the pandemic.

he wrote some lovely prayers and liturgy. i was trying to find some earlier fairly unsuccessfully but i think this invitation to the table which i found in an old grace communion liturgy is borrowed from mike...

The table of Jesus is your place of gathering
Here you are welcomed, wanted, loved
Here there is a place set for you

So come all you who thirst,
All you who hunger for the bread of life
All you whose souls cry out for healing

Come all you who are weary
All you who are bowed down with worry
All you who ache with the tiredness of living

Come all you poor
All you who are without food or refuge
All you who go hungry in a fat land

Come all you who are lost
All you who search for meaning but cannot find it
All you who have no place of belonging

i remember going to a launch event of the film the insatiable moon which mike wrote and worked with pip piper on...

my world is definitely richer for my path crossing with mike's. so sorry for his departing this life and for family and friends who will miss him so much.

 

tipi build

had a lot of fun yesterday building a tipi for prospect wood. over 18 months we have gradually cut and peeled 17 25 ft poles for it. i watched a few youtube videos and with instructions in hand we managed to get it done. it looks quite magical. it was a perfect day for it. this photo album shows stages of the process though i haven't yet taken any of the inside and we have yet to build a fire and make it cosy.