jonnybaker

the special relationship

having plugged harry baker's tour in my last blog post, i am now plugging esther baker's play (my sister). she is the director. turns out the family are on a roll!

esther is directing the special relationship for a month at soho theatre. this is pretty huge! i am not expecting you to come and hang out with me necessarily but jen and i are going on feb 27. the play explores issues of immigration, detention and deportation. i have seen loads of plays over the years directed by esther and they are always exploring contemporary challenges in the system for those at the edges. ths has been written out of conversations with ex prisoners and those involved in immigration - should be good and no doubt hard hitting.

see harry baker on tour

harry baker has a solo poetry tour i am 10000 from feb to may. it may well be coming to a town near you. the rumour on twitter is that london has virtually sold out so not sure if another date will get added but i think other venues are fine. you can see here a list of dates. this is his show from edinburgh festival in the summer which was fab. i can't go to the london gig so am thinking i will make the oxford one if anyone else fancies joining me at that? i really enjoy harry and chris but if you've not seen the solo poetry it is really good too and quite different. go support your poets (and my family!). 

soil soul society

alastair mcintosh says that the triune basis for community is soil, soul and society - community with the earth or place, community with one another and community with spirit/self/god. i really like this as a simple framework. johnny sertin first introduced me to it and they have made it the basis of what they are up to in earlsfield. 

anyway all that to say that at grace last night we started the year exploring those themes with a space for each. soul was the labyrinth, and then two other spaces with interactive installations. i loved it and think we're bound to pick those themes up further. in classic foolhardy new year fashion i have decided to try and blog with a bit more intent this year. life is so busy that it is a genuine challenge but i'll start as i mean to go on... so i'll add this as a worship trick and have uploaded the descriptions and a photo of each below in case any of you want to chew over the themes or nick them for you own use.

soil

there were four activities in this space and a poem to reflect on. the four activities are below and the poem was the very thought by gerard kelly

The earth, our home, one tiny planet spinning in space in the vastness of the universe is extraordinary with its wonderful creatures, plants, landscapes, and habitats. To gaze at the ocean’s horizon, to walk in a forest and listen to birdsong, to climb a mountain, to sleep under a starry sky, to hold a newborn baby’s tiny fingers in a hand, to enjoy a freshly cooked meal with friends, all evoke wonder and thankfulness. What a gift life is, what a gift it is to be alive! The Christian story is fundamentally a story about the world, the heavens and the earth that have been made good and entrusted to us as gift to look after with love, tenderness and care.

1. Put your hands in the soil

The Soil by David Benjamin Blower played on loop (I love that tune)

All citizens
Put your hands in the soil
And feel the groan
and can you feel the joy?
And be still

Take a moment to be still.
You are human made in God’s image
Adam was the first human - the word adam means ‘of the soil’
You are made from dirt, from soil, from the stuff of the earth
We are earthy
Place your hands in the soil and be still
Feel the groan of the earth in our times and pray
Feel the joy of the earth in all its beauty and give thanks
And be still

2. Lament for the heat

Have word soil spelled in candles in soil

Te world is too hot. Global temperature is rising due to emissions. The last IPCC report suggested there are 12 years left in which to change and limit warming to 1.5 degrees which, as we are experiencing, is already having dramatic impact. David Wallace Wells in his remarkable book which has over 6 pages of footnotes citing the evidence to back up his writing, outlines the cascades taking place that will only accelerate as we reach that temperature and beyond. He opens the book with the ominous words “It is worse, much worse, than you think”. We all have seen the images of fires in Australia, a sign of our times if there ever was one.

Blow out a candle as a prayer for the world’s fires and warming

We have sinned against you and against the earth
It is too hot
Lord have mercy on us and on the soil.
Cool the earth.
Amen

3. What a waste

Compost is like magic. Our waste is thrown in the dark with other waste. Over time it rots and becomes beautiful rich soil that feeds new plants in the next season.

Take some food waste
What feels like waste in your life
What are you throwing away
Offer it to God with whom nothing is wasted.

4. Drop in the Ocean

The challenges of the world seem so big that it can paralyse us. But as Greta Thunberg says - no one is too small to make a difference. Or as Harry and Chris say

They say it’s just a drop in the ocean
As if that’s a reason to stop
But maybe they’ve forgotten the ocean
Is literally made up of drops

Take a drop and add it to the water

Soil is about connection and community with the land, the earth itself. Our first challenge is to become lovers of the earth, the land, the home in which we live. We are all too easily disconnected from the land. How can you nurture being a lover of the earth, of the land, of the soil?

Write on a drop something you could do that helps you to be a lover of the earth, to be closer to the soil.
Write on a drop something you could do that lightens your footprint on the earth and its resources

society

To be human is to be related. Even God is community!

Add yourself to the web of relationships
Write your name on a card and then connect it to others with a piece of string. Then think about your connections to others. perhaps friends, perhaps groups you belong to whether local or far away. Write them on other pieces of card and build up the web.

Grace is our faith community.
What is it about the community that helps you, that nourishes you? Give thanks to God!
Are there ways you would like to participate?
Are there gifts you have to offer in the year ahead?

Do you ever feel alone?
Do you know others who are alone?
Is there someone you could show friendship to?
Hold them in prayer.

One of Grace’s ethos words is engage
How will you engage in society locally this year?
How will you build community?

soul

this was the labyrinth - i just took a photo on a phone before we started which isn't great. no doubt someone else will have a better one. but you get the idea. we pretty much reused the words from the first labyrinth we ever did in 1999 by the then live on planet earth! here they are...

Take off your shoes...

The labyrinth is a walking meditation. Take off your shoes, pause at the start and then slowly follow the path. There is one path to the centre and then you follow the same path back out. There are others on the journey. Take your time. If you have to wait that is a good thing probably. There is no rush! Taking care and paying attention to your soul, your true self, the you of you is important soul work. Use this journey to give your soul some time. Soul is also about your relationship to God - take time to be with God in this space. Below are some prompts for the journey in, the centre and the journey out. But if you prefer to simply walk in silence and ignore those prompts then that is also good.

The inward journey:
As you move towards the centre of the labyrinth begin by confessing and letting go of things that hinder your relationship with God. This stage is also about shedding images or projections of yourself so that you can be real with God. Let go of what other people think you should be, their expectations of you, their projections. As you journey, empty yourself, peel away the layers - grow by subtraction. Prepare your inner self - the you of you - to meet with God.
Think of hurtful things people have done or said to you. Imagine a symbol or a word to describe this....
Jesus said, if you let go of the hurtful things people do to you - so God will also let go of the hurtful things you do. Think carefully. Are you willing to 'let go' of the things people have done or said to you?
Think of things you do - patterns of behaving that you know are harmful to your relationship with God, others, yourself or planet Earth. Imagine a symbol or word that symbolises those things.
If you are honest with yourself and God, if you really want to let go of these things... "If we confess our sins God is faithful and just and will purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 Jn 1v9) God will help you to move on. Do you want to take it with you? Or do you want to let it go? If you want to let it go open your hands as a sign of letting it go and move on.

The centre of the labyrinth:
At the centre of the labyrinth is that point where we symbolically meet with God. Please spend some time here. Relax. Enjoy God's presence. Meditate on God. Commune with God.

The outward journey:
As you journey back out of the labyrinth take your encounter with God with you. Reflect on how this encounter might affect or change you. John said that God became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood - think about how you might allow God to be made flesh in your life and in your neighbourhood.
What boundaries do you need to pass through?
Which of your abilities are you neglecting?
Look around and notice. Even though they may be at different stages, others are on this journey too.
As you approach the end of the labyrinth think about God who has been the host for this part of your journey. If God asked you to fill in a guest book - what would your comments be?

i have added the photos to a flickr album grace labyrinth - soul + soil + society

i loved the soil section the most - we need much more engagement with the earth, the planet, soil, place, our home and lots of soulful liturgies, prayers, songs, spirituality.

art objects

i have blogged before about art and how much i identify with artists and the way they see the world. i like to think i am one even though it's not my life's work. when i read books on art i always find myself playing with the the way pioneers interact with the world and switching the word artist for pioneer. i think it's probably because pioneering is a gift of sight and imagination. which is true of art. in both cases they also go on to make or translate into something tangible out of that gift of sight. it's also perhaps because that seeing has to suspend what is 'normal' to see and imagine differently and is a form of truth speaking and acting. it can't sell itself, it has to embody gift.

i have done that with think like an artist, and art matters, and the creative stance for example.

a book i read a year ago was art objects by jeanette winterson. it is a collection of essays on art written in 1996 that i absolutely loved. she says about it:

I wanted to communicate the passionate excitement I have for art of all kinds. I really believe in the redemptive, persuasive, healing power of art. We all need it.

she is a wonderful writer. her sentences are so beautifully crafted. i have heard he speak twice and loved what she had to say. she is someone who thinks and lives deeply. as is my (probably bad) habit i underlined various sections of the book and particularly loved an essay called 'imagination and reality' in which she says that the currency of art is the currency of imagination and that the original role of the artist is as a visionary. artists see beyond the view from the window, beyond the mundane and interestingly she says that is why art fares better alongside religion than capitalism or communism. here are a few quotes i liked...

Art’s true effort is to open us to dimensions of the spirit and of the self that normally lie smothered under the weight of living

In a money culture, art by its nature objects. It fields its own realities, lives by its own currency, aloof to riches and want. Art is dangerous

The artist is a translator; one who has learned how to pass into her own language the language gathered from stones, from birds, from dreams, from the body, from the material world, from the invisible world, from sex, from death, from love.

The charge laid on artists is to bring back visions

The rebellion of art is a daily rebellion against the state of living death routinely called real life.

Art is pushing at the boundaries we thought were fixed. the convenient lies fall; the only boundaries are the boundaries of our imagination.

Art is pushing at the boundaries we thought were fixed. the convenient lies fall; the only boundaries are the boundaries of our imagination. How much can we imagine? The artist is an imaginer. The artist imagines the forbidden because to her it is not forbidden. If she is freer than other people it is the freedom of her single allegiance to her work. Most of us have divided loyalties, most of us have sold ourselves. The artist is not divided and she is not for sale.

the book is totally brilliant for inspiring about art so let it do that work for your heart and soul. but if your brain works like mine and you are a pioneer, you might also try and switch the word art for pioneering or artist for pioneer and see how that resonates...

 

grace labyrinth on saturday 11 jan

join us at grace on saturday january 11th and walk a labyrinth. if you have not walked a labyrinth before it is a lovely prayerful space surrounded by candlelight and ambient tunes. you meditate by walking. it’s a perfect way to start the new year reflecting on what has gone before giving thanks and letting go. it’s a space to be still, to be with god, to place yourself into god's care. and then it’s a journey into the decade that lies ahead with all of its possibility, challenge and adventure. there will be a cafe afterwards as ever with space to chill and catch up. 

tunes 2019

i love music and yes it's that time of year. if you are on apple music (and are interested) you can look me up and simply add 2019 selection . it's about 3 hours long as i think that's the length of a decent radio show and if ever invited onto bbc6music i am ready! most of the tunes have been discovered or heard there to be honest. lots of people i know are on spotify and i don't tend to use apple so here is a list of my selection of tunes for this year curated into some kind of order. i love instrumental music and as i did last year have also made a 2019 horizontal playlist though i seemed to come across a bit less this year - that is also below. a few of those intro and outro the main selection. my actual playlist for 2019 is around 14 hours so i won't bother sharing that one though i really love it.

[update - harry being a spotify user and keen to listen to the playlist created a spotify one so i can now share that all you spotify users - the one track not on spotify is vin gordon's african shores but apart from that i think they are all there... here's the link JonnyBakerBestOf19 ]

weird fact - this year i listened to four albums that came out by people who are dead - leonard cohen, gang starr, marvin gaye, john coltrane. 

• sea watch - floating points
• the haunted victorian pencil - a winged victory for the sullen
• a walking embrace - nils frahm
• debushy - kenny segal
• earth tone - simiah and the phantom ensemble
• uman - kokoroko
• mark sampson (feat carlosoverall extended mix) - kassa overall
• icy roads )stacked) - joe armon jones
• jupiter - kinkajous
• what am i to do? (feat loyle carner) - ezra collective
• free my skin - steam down
• wake up - old paradice, confucius mc and morriarchi
• ill wind - radiohead
• a caged bird/limitations of life (feat roots manuva) - the cinematic orchestra
• family and loyalty (feat j cole) - gang starr
• get it together - ted jasper
• cool water (justice rolls down like a river) - brian owens
• joy - the cranes
• that's how the good lord works - sunday service choir
• this is what love looks like - carlton jumel smith
• let me go - sault
• heaven (feat andreya triana) - the vision
• rise up - the freedom affair
• eternal light - free nationals and chronixx
• african shores - vin gordon
• temptations - jitwam
• please won't please - helado negro
• heroist - apparat
• traffic - thom yorke
• healer (feat theophilus london) - jnr williams
• evening time (feat knucks and etta bond) - oscar #worldpeace
• therapy - little simz
• breathe in - technimatic
• valley of paradise - psychemagik
• blood orange - else hewitt
• plain jane - rhi
• doin' time - lana del rey
• solid ground - michael kiwanuka
• the soil - david benjamin blower
• bright horses - nick cave
• listen to the hummingbird - leonard cohen
• meditation app - ryuichi sakamoto
• moments in love - kara-lis coverdale

and the horizontal playlist...

• home - aukai
• a walking embrace - nils frahm
• zerzura theme i - ahmoudou madassane
• run - tara jane o'neil
• odemark - isorinne
• billow - ultra straus
• istid iii pt iv - northaunt
• shallow, shadowless - earthen sea
• bridget's theme - adam bryanbaum wiltzie
• meditation app - ryuichi sakamoto
• equivalent 7 (feat secret pyramid) - loscil
• untitled, live in portland - sarah davachi
• am see - ben lukas boysen
• drei projektile - ben lukas boysen
• the haunted victorian pencil - a winged victory for the sullen
• the rhythm of a dividing pair - a winged victory for the sullen
• sea watch - floating points
• the slow descent has begun - a winged victory for the sullen
• moments in love - kara-lis coverdale

murmuration - london pioneer celebration

it was really wonderful last night to join london school of pioneers for their first graduation. i have added photos and blogged about it on the cms pioneer blog. so i am just reblogging myself! it was so encouraging to hear from pioneers on the course what they are up to and how the course had really inspired them. see the link above to find out how to join the next round which starts in january and is recruiting now. the venue was laid out beautifully with origami birds suspended and we were invited to add one to join the murmuration.

this saturday grace midvent

this saturday is midvent (ok that’s something we made up)! but it’s our advent grace which will be reflective and with photos related to various traditional advent readings. here’s the blurb. do come along…

Join us for a mid-Advent meditation, featuring photos by members of Grace that have been inspired by the season’s traditional Bible texts. We will make our own Advent calendars, that we can continue to fill with images up to Christmas.

Everyone is welcome to stay for mulled wine in the cafe afterwards.

what is a pioneer? faq

i chipped in to a discussion on facebook on a discussion about pioneer and whether it is a helpful term. the post was letting the world know about a new page on the cms pioneer web site which has a series of frequently asked questions beginning with 'what is a pioneer?' paul bradbury wrote most of it and i have then added in some stuff too. i am sure they'll get tweaked and added to and they are not the definitive answer on anything but hopefully they help answer a few questions! anyway i wanted to post the link here and i left a comment which i have pasted below largely because i can refind things on my blog so wanted to keep the thought!

i have come to really like the word pioneer - there i've said it!

in its usage in relation to the church of england it was used in the report mission shaped church to say that starting these new forms of church bubbling up around the edges of the church required a different kind of leading or skill set or imagination to being a regular vicar or parish priest. that makes really good sense to me - it does require something different. they used two ways of describing that - pioneer minister and mission entrepreneur. pioneer seems to be the one that's stuck. i have elaborated on this story and my sense of it in various other places so won't do so here - but see the pioneer gift chapter i wrote for example.

all language is challenging particularly when you are trying to find language to make the world differently. and it's important because language does make a world. in relation to people involved in mission doing something new every word i can think of has something good and something problematic. the word 'mission' itself is problematic for some people especially in the usa church i have found, but i love mission and so use that word and hope to redeem it. evangelist, apostle, entrepreneur, prophet, leader, priest, chaplain, minister, missional leadership, innovation, incarnational, contextual... the list could go on. these all have associations positive and negative depending on your story and context. and like many other areas there is a massive amount of jargon.

but i like 'pioneer' because it isn't in a previous category. it's also a word that gets used in the wider culture - i.e. it's not overtly religious. and i like it because it's a bit awkward - it has some grit to it. but i mainly like it i think because we have used it now for a decade or so and got loads of wonderfully creative people doing amazing things in mission who are pioneers. so when i think of the word i imagine all of them and what they are doing and the brilliant and much needed gift they bring to the church and world. hence we called the book we fist published 'the pioneer gift'. 

pragmatically you have to use something and it's as good as anything else. it also takes a long time for the church to warm up to anything. for example the idea of the missio dei has been around about 60 years maybe but it is just about catching on in some places so of course some people want to deconstruct it but i want to keep it. likewise i know some dioceses that are really warming up and starting to get pioneer. so i cannot see any sense in losing it in england at the moment. 

 

very happy with the findings of the impact of make good

in the cms pioneer training at undergraduate level students do a module on missional entrepreneurship which is a week long module called 'make good' where students come with an idea and explore and develop it through the week making a pitch at the end of the week. it's a really fabulous module. anyway we have done some research into it. we wanted to find out what was being started as a result of students doing it. i actually can't quite believe the percentage of people who have started projects - 76%. the other thing we were interested in was how students were making the connection between mission, theology and business. as part of the research we also looked at other courses who had run the module in durham common awards but i am afraid gdpr and all that made it pretty tricky. but we did at least have some comparison. and there are actually not that many places that choose to run this module. anyway i am pretty happy to find out that the learning is translating into tangible outcomes. there's a blog about it here on the pioneer site which has links to the full report and a one page summary and info graphic summary. the one pager and graphic are just based on the cms data.

thinking about church as woodland...

the latest issue of anvil is out and explores mission and church. the direct link to this issue is here and you can read online or download articles as pdf or the whole thing.  there are so many questions to explore in relation to this. it's a brilliant issue i think. we try and make it accessible but to have weight to the reflections. hopefully we get that about right. i have a piece in there where i am in conversation with tim nash around what is happening in relation to nomad podcast. a community is orbiting around it that seems quite significant. it's not a church (as in a congregation who meet together weekly) but it is very much church in other ways. so we dive into a discussion around that. in that i speculate that a helpful metaphor for church might be a woodland. i actually push this further in a book i am working on that will be out next summer.

anyway have a read and see what you think. the reason i think the conversation may be of interest is that i think it shines a light on the way many people, at least in western contexts, are assembling their faith and navigating what it means to follow christ in a mix of spaces - online contributes to this environment. thanks to james butler for editing a really good issue. aas ever anvil is online and free.

ecoutez

this morning on a run along the front in menton, france i was surprised to bump into boris! having been on holiday in the summer every year of my life, this year we couldn't. the big bonus has been that we have taken two weeks out now mid way through term which feels sort of cheeky to do. but we have had a great time. i've never stayed on the mediterranean in france before - the heat and the crowds in the summer sounds like something to avoid. but in late october the temperature was regularly 20, the sun shone most if not all days, we sat out on the balcony for breakfast each day, swam in the sea. of course there were a few autumn showers and it was dark by 6 but a totally brilliant place for a break this time of year and we got there by train in a day from london. tomorrow we head back. it looked like brexit might happen while we were away but we are getting back to an election in december and who knows what will happen next. the world is changing for sure. i have just uploaded an album of photos from menton, nice, monaco and ventimiglia.

the great animal orchestra

there is a fabulous installation at the moment at vinyl factory by uva called other spaces. i have loved all the things of theirs i have seen (chorus, onedotzero, speed of light, momentum). this exhibition has three installations. one is a reworking of momentum, the second a lazer depth of field experience that reminded me of perspective drawings at school (though somewhat cooler), and the third the great animal orchestra. you can read about it here. and i have a few photos here though after taking a couple was asked not to so there are not many. 

the great animal orchestra in some ways is a fitting follow on to my previous post. it is a sort of celebration at the wonder of the world but also a lament. bernie krause has recorded animal sounds in various landscapes. these are played in a dark room with led screens making up three walls. in front of the screens is a pool of dark water which reflects the projections in mesmerising fashion. the projections are digital graphs or spectograms of the sounds. as the sound goes up and down so the lines respond. when a creature's noise first appears the name appears on the screen and slowly moves round the wall. the whole thing lasts about an hour. it's a gorgeous experience (apart from when you either step in the pool or put your hand in it because you don't realise it's there!). the lament side of it is one track before and after where the sound is first played at two points recorded in time. the second is after the landscape has been wiped out or eroded in some way so the absence of animal voices is an immense loss that is brought into the room in its absence. 

the space itself is an like an alternative worship dream! we have got lazy at grace but we used to create three walls to project onto to be surrounded by projected images and have beanbags in the centre as a space for reflection, with ambient music playing. we still do create that kind of space to some degree but this was so well done. i'd love to have use of a space like that. it was a very fitting space to visit during extinction rebellion. and just as poignant as the planetary mass. go and see it if you can - it's free and runs until december 8th.

i would put it down as a worship trick but i'm just not sure anyone else could pull it off in the same way!

there is a second exhibition at the other side of the vinyl factory which is not quite as amazing but does include an installation by doug aitken - one of my all time favourite artists - so it's worth it for that piece called new era. i love his video installations.

grace does planetary mass

i am in two minds as to whether to put this out there but last saturday with extinction rebeliion in full flow and a focus on the planet for grace we gathered round the table. some members had been in to join in the action - sadly i couldn't make it due to work. so we gathered to pray for our world, to remember it is god's world and lament the ways it is being pushed to its limits. i have a recording of the planetary mass from the nine o clock service. i can't remember where i got it from but i have always loved it and play it to students as an example of creative liturgy. it must be from the early nineties. anyway i transcribed it which i have never done and we read through it together and shared bread and wine round the table. it was without the visuals and drama but poignant and powerful. if anyone is reading who was involved in its creation thank you - and i hope it's ok to put this on my blog. but here is the liturgy and i have added tracks we listened to. the soil by david benjamin blower was perfect for passing round bread and wine and we brought soil and water to the table along with bread and wine.

i'd love to hear of what other laments and liturgies anyone else is creating or using. 

Welcome and Opening Prayer
Listen to planetary mass 0-3:09

The planetary mass is our celebration of life and our ritual of celebration and repentance on behalf of our culture. Here we seek to mourn the destruction of so much life on our planet and to cultivate a compassion that feels in our own flesh the wounds inflicted on others and on our planet and to awaken to the incredible awe and beauty of our existence with God. Whether humanity has a future or whether it is going to become extinct in the next few centuries depends on our will to live and that means our absolute will for our one indivisible life. We have got used to death, at least to the death of other creatures and other people and to get used to death is the beginning of freezing into lifelessness itself. So the essential thing is to affirm life, the life of other creatures, the life of other people, our own lives.

The Lord is here
His Spirit is with us

Breathe in the Holy Spirit…
Breathe in life
And out fear
In passion
And out numbness
In hope
And out death

The Word
Wisdom let us attend. From the book of Deuteronomy:
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and hold fast to Him.

This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Read Declaration of Rebellion from This is Not A Drill

Confession
Creator God the Source of all life we confess our sin to you.
We confess where we have turned away from you and where in ignorance we have turned our back on the earth and on each other.
We confess that as we have wanted more and more we have dominated and exploited your creation.
And we admit that we are responsible for abusing the riches of our home, that we are complicit in crucifying you by polluting the air and the sea, by destroying the forests, by starving the people of the two-thirds world, and by robbing the future generations of life not yet here, our children and grandchildren.
God of all creation we turn away from our addiction
We turn back to you
Our Source and our Hope
We repent and we turn back to you

Communion
This ritual is a symbol of the worship already happening in creation. The whole universe is invited to this intimate event, the feasting on Christ. The church here has no walls - we worship with plants, planets, animals, and angels.

The day before Christ suffered he took bread in sacred hands and looking up to heaven he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying ‘take eat this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me’. In the same way after supper he took the cup and gave thanks. He gave it to them saying ‘drink this all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this to recall me, to remember me.’

Creator and soul of the cosmos
The universe shines with your life Lord
You’re everything we desire.
We give our lives to you
You created everything that lives
Through Christ you are the Source
We believe and trust in you
Our desire is to let go of death and give ourselves to the vision of life your son Jesus believed in to the point of his own death
We commit ourselves to him
Spirit of life, integrity and truth who raised our brother from death and gives us hope beyond death here now
You are our strength and compassion
We believe and trust in you

God of life we bring wine to the table
Touch this now to become a life blood transfusion.
Christ our life we bring bread to the table to become your precious flesh
In our global village we offer it in the presence of those who starve.
Eternal source we offer water:
The overwhelming swell of the oceans unique to this planet.
Creator God we thank you for the gift of soil:
The foundation of the forest, the sign of our mortality
Creator God we offer ourselves along with these elements of bread and wine and join with the voice of the whole universe crying out for life and healing.
Father hear our prayer through Jesus Christ.
Amen

We can no longer see ourselves as separate from nature.
We are all given a chance to participate in the story of the universe.
We’re all in it together - people, particles and God.
Through Christ hope is built into the very fabric of space time and matter.
So now there’s hope.
Now contains the possibility of resurrection.
So let’s come to the table now and let’s reconnect with Christ,
hope of the cosmos,
the power to renew us and change our lives now.

[share bread and wine
play The Soil by David Benjamin Blower during distribution]

Prayer
Let us pray together now for the universal church and the world.
Christ our hope at this critical time lead us into facing our denial.
As the church, as a culture wake us up to an awareness of the responsibility and opportunities we now have.
We honour the wisdom gained by centuries of spiritual and artistic endeavour through the experience of our mystics and the lives and deaths of all our saints.
We pray for an open church that celebrates the coming together of all faith and wisdom traditions, the sciences and the arts.
We pray for a new time of hope, mystery and promise as we bring all these riches to bear on our global crisis.
God the Mother and Father of all creation we pray that a new way of living emerges out of the present reductionist system that’s robbed the world of its spirit and turned human beings into objects and nature into a machine.
We pray for a culture that allows us to live in harmony with all creation and stops crippling the earth’s diversity.
We pray that your Spirit of passionate life that raised Christ from the dead bursts now into all people in our earth community.
Creator God we pray that we will wake up to a new consciousness.

Watch Greta Thurbnberg and George Monbiot video

Listen to Numbers by Radiohead

Blessing
May Holy Wisdom whose voice calls all to the feast
Whose hand draws the whole cosmic community of life to her table,
preserve you in eternal life.
And the blessing of God Creator, Liberator and Holy Spirit be amongst you and stay with you always
Amen

The mass has ended
Go in peace

[All liturgy is from The Planetary Mass by the Nine O Clock Service]

chihuly at night

the chihuly exhibition at kew gardens is amazing. we visited at night. i am sure it looks incredible in the day but i love this sort of thing after dark. it's hard to photograph but i had a go and there's an album of some of my better attempts here.  

b wing

i was delighted that we managed to get to see the B wing exhibition at shepton mallet prison exploring themes of incarceration in a very evocative way. and i was super proud of @loubakerartist - her centre piece of shadow sacks dripping over a black pool was amazing. the piece is inspired by the idea that we push away our shadow self but eventually it leaks out and we need to face it, welcome it, integrate it. the show was part of somerset art weeks 2019. i have added a few photos to flickr album b wing. lou's web site is here

harry and chris tour

been meaning to blog this for a while but harry and chris are now on tour so check out their dates on the web site and see if they are coming near you. they are in oxford tomorrow i noticed. we'll be going to their london gig on sat 20 dec if anyone fancies it - see you there?!

there's a hole in the sky...

i feel so overwhelmingly sad about the state of the planet and the climate crisis. this beautiful world, our home is being pushed to its limits by us. and heads have been in the proverbial sand for a long long time. today began two weeks of action around the world to try and highlight this state of emergency. extinction rebellion have three demands in the uk which are

• The Government will declare a climate and ecological emergency,
• specify a 2025 target date and
• will establish a Citizens’ Assembly to determine the wide-ranging policy changes needed to transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions and halt the extinction of species.

if you are in london go offer your prayers, protest and support if you can. there is a faith bridge at lambeth bridge for example if you are wondering where to head. you will have read of arrests in the news probably but those getting arrested are arrestibles which is amazing but you don't have to be one to get involved. 

i went to listen to extinction rebellion at greenbelt festival and was so impressed with their plans, their passion and their non-violent approach. their handbook this is not a drill is really worth getting and i had a wry smile when i saw rowan williams has written the afterword - what a legend! the anglican church thinks about mission through what it calls 5 marks of mission and one of those is creation care - this is a huge issue in mission today.

i was reflecting that 24 years ago, in 1995, jon birch and i recorded an album 'whose earth' lamenting what was happening and celebrating the wonder of planet earth. it is so hard to fathom how we have done so little as an international community. it's time to change. the music will sound dated so i'll spare you that but i have had the words of a song i wrote in 1995 in my head recently and confess to being depressed at how they are still so resonant...

there’s a hole in the sky
oil in the seas
the desert is increasing
and we’re burning down the trees
species are extinct
acid rain is in the air
we’re destroying the creation
entrusted to our care

sorry lord
show us your mercy

toxic waste is in the ocean
sewage on the shore
environmental destruction
in the wake of every war
resources are depleted
the poor are still in need
we’re abusing the creation
to satisfy our greed

sorry lord
show us your mercy

we have sought salvation
through technology
and backed up uninvolvement
with our theology
yet this is your world
you hold it in your hand
help us turn creation
into the promised land

sorry lord
show us your mercy

 

natural climate solutions

greta thurnberg and george monbiot's video is a must watch and proposes natural climate solutions

in real life

i enjoyed visiting in real life - olafur eliasson's exhibition at the tate modern. this exhibit wasn't working properly but seemed to look nice without the rainbows or whatever else was supposed to happen! it was also good to go to an exhibition where they let you take photos... there are a few more over at my flickr site