jonnybaker

the last post

from now on find me at jonny-baker.com and the blog page is jonny-baker.com/blog

this is the last post on my typepad blog! i have used typepad for over 20 years now. i have enjoyed it - thank you to the team there. however it is clear that it has been dwindling for some time. there have been very few developments. quite often uploading images generates errors and typepad themseves are taking no new users but directing them to bluehost which is essentially wordpress hosting. so it seems to be winding down. i have been thinking about it for a while but i have finally taken the plunge and moved my blog across to a wordpress site in a couple of down days between christmas and new year. no doubt there is more to be done and a few pages to add but it's well on the way. i have also bought a domain jonny-baker.com which i can point wherever i end up in the future. the annoying thing of course is that people following jonnybaker.blogs.com will not now find me unless they read this post. on the new site you can sign up to receive a newsletter - i won't send you info on every blog post - probably a monthly news so feel free to sign up to that. i have not yet worked that part out. i suspect most people see blog posts linked to in facebook or other social media sites anyway. i actually think blogging will make a comeback in 2025 because we are all fed up with the hosts of most platforms! i am glad i have kept it going anyway since my first blog entry on blogger in april 2022!

i thought about substack but to be honest that seems to suit people writing for one niche or focus. i am much more eclectic and like to add videos, photos, music and so on. i also don't really like the way substack writers withold content for those who subscribe. i appreciate it's a way to make a living but it's not a way i want to go or like being on the receiving end of. i haven't paid for a single substack and don't intend to start. maybe i'll change my view in time...

for the geeks i have successfully managed to export from typepad and import into wordpress over 4000 posts! i did my best with images but most of them are in typepad links rather than imported so i assume once i stop paying typepad those links will break - we'll find out. i will get the images thanks to typepad but i have not got the time or motivation to add in that many images but at least the text, links, categories will be there. i'll host typepad for a few more months but there's not much point paying a monthly fee for too long. 

thank you thank you thank you everyone who has followed along here. do continue to follow along. i think i'll be blogging more not less in 2025. and i intend to add in some other pages. and thank you to the typepad team.

a light through the noise

at grace on saturday night we had an amazing evening. 10 people created something in response to advent, picking a passage from a prophet or a theme. i am collating all the pieces and we will add them to the grace archive at some point. joel baker made an amazing video - his intro is below. the track he played with it was ben frost - theory of machines which has been switched out for putting it online as we don't have permission for it. but do switch it for yourself if you can. i honestly thought this was amazing (not just in a biased parent way!). it's been added to the proost advent series here. anyway here's the spiel from joel to go with it...

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned." Isaiah 9:2

When reading a few verses / passages for inspiration this one really struck out at me.
As we come to the end of the year we reflect; pulling together end of year playlists, highlights and lowlights, miles run, walked and cycled, goals and achievements. But one thing I haven't particularly wanted to reflect on is what's going on in the wider world. It’s pretty depressing.

Sometimes it feels as if we are walking in darkness and could really do with seeing a light. This then was my visual response & exercise. By scraping various headlines from the past year or so, I tried to see if I could shine a light through the noise and give us something to hold onto as we move into 2025.

lino water

a lino print of water from saturday's advent grace. the (intentional) blur gives it a sea like feel. 

a joy to celebrate first students completing african christianity route through our ma!

it was a joy celebrating with pioneer students at cms the completion of various durham university degrees and awards through their training. this photo shows the first graduates from the african christianity route through the masters programme with harvey and joseph who lead it. congratulations to everyone who completed an award - it's no mean feat. cathy has written up a blog post on the graduation old, new and unexpected treasure graduation 2024

a carol i have written

earlier this year i wrote a carol or perhaps it might be better described as an advent hymn. it has been posted as part of the proost advent series here incorporating a video from jon birch. i was inspired reading isaiah 9 and in particular the imagery of verse 5:

The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire.

in a world with so much brutality and violence the image of a fire burning army boots and clothes of war struck a chord and a deep sense of advent longing for another possible world. that turned into lyrics for a carol or advent hymn ‘smoke is rising’. the last verse quotes arundhati roy which I am sure many of you will recognise. niall dunne has written what i think is a beautiful melody. this came about through a chance conversation at cms (niall has started the undergrad pioneer training this year). i’d love any reactions to it. even more I’d love any of you to try it out and lead it. let me know how you get on if you do though it’s a bit late possibly for this year now. i imagine it with a huge church or choir but I don’t have one of those!

my sister ruth kindly has written out the melody and chords. i should add that the guitar tuning is DADGAD which sounds lovely. hopefully you can work out what i am doing from the video if you go that route and like me are not used to that. that’s how I learned it from niall. i should say i am singing it a bit lower than niall as I struggled to reach the top note in f. ruth has written chords in f and in d and unhelpfully I am playing it in e flat!

i have not had the time or kit to record it properly so this is recorded on a phone - thanks to jon birch for his steady hand (and gorgeous lounge). maybe this will spark a new project?! and double thanks to jon who was inspired to make a movie loop of a fire of army boots and clothes of war (with help from ai) which you can see incorporated into the proost version. it's great to be able to contribute to proost which seems to have risen like a phoenix from the ashes.

here are the lyrics:

Smoke is rising
Jonny Baker and Niall Dunne

Smoke is rising from a fire
Of army boots and clothes of war.
Weapons made into ploughshares
Violence is no more
Violence is no more

You have broken slavery’s yoke
And the oppressor’s rod
Lifted the burden from our shoulders
Prince of peace, mighty God
 
Herod’s palace is in crisis
At the news of a new king.
One has come into the world
Who makes the angels sing
Who makes the angels sing

Peace on earth, peace on earth
Their chorus fills the skies
The rich will leave empty handed
The humble poor they will rise

Peace on earth x 3
Their chorus fills the skies
 
Another world is possible
She is on her way
I can hear her breathing
On a quiet day

Another world is possible
This shall be the sign
A child is born, a son is given
In darkness light will shine

Peace on earth x 3
Their chorus fills the skies

treasure seeking

as promised following the last post about the pioneer student tiles this year's one is above. as ever it take s a new turn. iain explains it...

The carved path represents the journey of the pioneer. This year's path will appear more like an archeologist’s trench on the site of the tile. This is pioneering as a work of excavation searching for wisdom. The treasure is represented by a splash of gold leaf - perhaps spilling over the edge of the excavation into the landscape. 

interviewing artist iain cotton about his pioneer graduation tiles

it's a celebration at cms today for pioneers graduating today which is always a joyous occasion. from the first graduation we commissioned artist iain cotton to make a gift for each student. this has now had ten iterations - this year will be the eleventh. they have become a really interesting reflection on what pioneering is about. so i visited iain cotton in his studio to ask him about the graduation tiles he has made over the last decade. you can read the transcript here and see some of the tiles. i'll make sure i take some photos later of this year's iteration.

proost advent series

the phoenix rises from the ashes! proost has reappeared thanks to chris and rob. for those who are new to the blog proost was a platform that i created with friends jon and aad back in the late 90s to piublish music originally and then it was a digital platform for all sorts of artistry from people involved in alkternative worship and emerging churches. it was an incredible era really. i have very fond memories.

andy freeman then picked up the baton and ran it for a season, then it felt as though it was time for it to be let go.

but chris and rob felt a tug towards exploring with the community of artists who contributed what it might look like to do something. they have been running a podcast series. and for advent they are now posting a daily something on chris's blog this fragile tent. day one is a wonderful poem from chris called east of eden and day two is a brilliant illustration from si smith.

so do follow along. i like to have something daily to reflct on in the season of advent (advent is the season which runs up to christmas).

the image to the right is si smith's take on the virgin mary living in a flat in leeds!

i plan to be contributing later in the series.

smoke is rising - advent grace dec 14

i am looking forward to this year's advent grace on sat dec 14 at st mary's ealing. we have invited people to create something - music, video, poem, liturgy, installation or whatever. i have written a carol which opens with the words 'smoke is rising...'- yes i don't know how that happened. i'll post it on the blog with music at some point in december. the tune is written by niall dunne who is training as a pioneer with cms at the moment so that is a delight too. 

anyway here's the blurb. put it in your diary. we will zoom it as well so if you are interested in that leave a message or email me.

Advent is a season in which we look forward in anticipation and longing for another possible world when all things are made new, when Christ returns, when there will be no more injustice. That longing in the run up to Christmas is also waiting in hope for Jesus Christ to come into the world as a sign of that incoming future.

Join us for an evening of longing which will be expressed through song, art, prayers, poems written and made by those who are there. If you would like to contribute then do let us know. There will be a cafe afterwards with mulled wine and mince pies.

politics in the pulpit

this week i was invited to be the guest on politics in the pulpit. this is a podcast that is a conversation about the readings from the bible that will be used in sunday church services in mainline denominations (aka the lectionary). sometimes you get given some wonderful passages that are easy to respond to or open up and connect with today's world. other times they are a bit more challenging! this week's was the latter but it was good fun to join matt and nathan for a conversation. search politics in the pulpit in your usual podcast app or click oin the link above if you are interested.

remaking religion

chris goan is on something of a roll. he is blogging a series of reflections on his blog this fragile tent called remaking religion. he is arguing that western religion is no longer fit for purpose and needs some sort of revolution. lots of good provocative stuff there and actually when you scratch below the surface he is highlighting that we need communities that embody the way of jesus christ more authentically. the posts are quite long so pour a drink and take a bit of time with it. i confess to being envious of his latest canoe trip too!

the poetry of pilgrimage

michael mitton has a new book out - poetry of pilgrimage. together with russ parker he has led pilgrimages around the british isles to sites of celtic saints. i had the pleasure to go with a group of pioneers on one to ireland many years back which was wonderful. the book is a square format, and for each of the 23 celtic saints has a photograph, story, description of location, a poem and some questions for reflection. when i went on a pilgrimage to ireland michael wrote and read a couple of the poems. you can get a flavour of the poems actually on michael's poetry page on his web site here. i have linked to that before actually. it's obviously a great book if you are visiting any of those sites but equally is a lovely book for reflection anyway. the celtic stories are always inspiring and resonate with pioneers in my experience.

michael asked me to give an endorsement and i wrote:

The poems are beautifully crafted... they are soulful, spiritual, and carry a depth and a yearning. They bring to life in a wonderful way the lives of Celtic saints and their mystical longings. They reverberate like prayers. I am drawn back to them again and again.

proost links removed

thank you to readers who have contacted me via comments over the last year to let me know that all the proost links on the blog are broken and what was the proost domain now points to a porn site! a sorry depressing tale of our times. anyway i have painstakingly gone through and unlinked everything so no one has that experience any longer. it's possible i have missed one or two so please leave a comment if you do find a link. ironically this is at a time where proost seems likely to be resurrected though not with the same domain. chris and rob are continuing their proost podcast series - search proost on spotify to find it. they are up to twelve episodes. and there is a rumour of advent resources brewing...

grace: remember - sat 9 november

the next grace is close to remembrance sunday. we will be taking the opportunity to pause and ponder what has happened in the last year in gaza and the west bank following the hamas attaack on october 7 2023. chris rose who is the director of amos trust will be joining us. he is very informed so do bring any questions. i will be playing a few spngs from backbone, an album i recorded in 1999 with jon birch as jonnys in the basement. they seem as poignant now as then so have reworked them for acoustic versions. there will be a cafe afterwards - everyone is always welcome.

lost in light

in 2023 i saw fourtet and he had an amazing light display of nearly 40000 light balls suspended - see this post for a photo. that lighting was done by squidsoup who currently has an exhibition in shoreditch, london of 5 installations - lost in light. i love that kind of immersive exhibition. we went in half term so there were lots of kids enjoying it and charging around touching the light hangings so i hope it survived that week! anyway here's a few photos to give you the idea. it is light and sound so you get half the idea probably.

northern lights over st beunos

what a treat to be in north wales at st beuno's and to see the northern lights in the night sky. i am here doing a course on spiritual conversations.

sunflower triptych

we were issued a challenge of making a triptych for the photography group. this was mine.

acts 11 project launched!

yesterday was the first day of the first acts 11 project conference. at it's heart it is a centre focused on human migration and global witness. we took a moment to celebrate the launch by cutting a cake. it was an exciting moment. more to follow...

the lost art of getting lost

this week i had the absolute joy of catching up with friend lowell sheppard who was in london for a book awards ceremony as his book dare to dream was one of the books in the final selection. he was giving a workshop at the royal geographic society.

i have never been there before and we got a tour as part of it. it's a place with millions of maps, paintings of colonial explorers and their artefacts and so on. we were shown the lecture theatre and this slide was up for a lecture that was happening that evening called 'the lost art of getting lost' which was celebrating 50 years of the bradt guides. hilary bradt is a female explorer.

that of course made me think of getsidetracked as we had the same thought and one of the prompts is GET LOST . it's one of my favourite illustrations and would love it as a t-shirt if and when we get round to doing that (there's another idea for a GET!)

GET LOST says

It’s really hard to get lost these days. So switch off your phone or even better leave it behind. Set yourself a challenge of genuinely getting somewhere where you have no idea where you are. This will sharpen your senses no end. See what you find! It’s worth practicing lostness with low risk so you’re prepared for really being lost. You lose a friend, a job, a home, your health. Whilst you wouldn’t wish these bigger displacements on anyone people often find things they would never have discovered if things had followed the path they had planned. So whether you choose it or it just happens embrace it.

GET SIDETRACKED is an app on creativity with 54 promts - shake your phone for a random GET. search getsidetracked in the apple or android app stores. 

get lost!

grace

we kicked off a news season of grace last night revisiting the liturgy from wounded in all the right places. this time we all contributed some broken pieces to make 'grace', a sign that our own brokenness can become something when we come together with others who are broken. westill have the communion table we made from broken pieces in 2008 which we used last night. we topped and tailed it with a couple of nick cave tunes - joy and as the waters cover the sea. my playlist is here if you are on apple music.