jonnybaker

letter from god

went to a fab gig on thursday night with joel and harry to see ben westbeech. he hails from bristol and just has his first album out this week on gilles petersen's label. if you are going to the big chill you can catch him there. the support act was a uk hip hop act scroobius pip and dan le sac who were also brilliant - political, full of attitude, funny and poignant. at one point scroobius pip pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and read out a letter from god. joel, clearly an opportunist, went and asked scroobius pip for the letter at the end and has posted the lyrics as yesterday's grace lent blog entry.

if you are in london tomorrow

don't forget...

iglow

glow, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

this photo may not seem much but it is is the first picture i have taken with my new lens - i have been saving up and splashed out. i unpacked the lens and was sat at the table at my friend ed's house, looked around and this was the first thing i saw. the lens lets so much more light in that the shutter speed is much faster than it would be on the regular lens that came with the camera. i was astonished to see how the shot came out. why this lens? i have been inspired by thomas hawk who says it's his favourite lens.

easter journey

easter journey - my day on the grace lent blog

grace easter installation 2007 - breathe

just got in from my travels - a bit bleary eyed as ever after chasing the dawn... seeing the departed for the second time helped keep me going. just a quick post before going to bed for an hour or so. if you are in or around london in the lead up to easter next week, come and visit breathe. it's a fabulous installation created by jenny and a team and is open thurs, fri and sat hosted by grace and st marys ealing - see times below.

we are all photographers now

well taking a leaf out of dean's book, i submitted a photo to be exhibited in the we're all photographers now exhibition and here it is displayed in all it's glory... i guess it's some kind of first though i suspect not hard to get your photo exhibited! this is the original which looks a whole lot better than it looks in the picture here.

progressive mission

it's my last morning in lancaster before heading off to canada to visit friends in paris, ontario and toronto...

the sessions seem to have gone fairly well. it's been my usual mix of teaching about mission, culture change, emerging church and alternative worship. what's been new for me is doing that in a seminary that identifies itself as progressive. i've not come across the term in the same way in the uk. it seems that no matter what your tradition or theological leanings, everyone is facing the challenge of what it means to be church in the emerging culture and what mission looks like. i have met leaders looking to transition existing churches, people starting new alternative worship stuff, people involved in missional communities and house churches and so on. if you are stopping by the blog for the first time hi!

i have been kindly hosted by bruce epperly whose area of interest is progressive spirituality and has written several books on the subject. i've got a couple to read on the way back... 

joel internet radio debut

so i'm sat in lancaster online. before i know it all the family are in an ichat - ahhhh! that was a first...

joel has just left the chat as he has his first ever online radio performance starting at 10pm (uk time), or 6pm (lancaster time). so i've just tuned in and am sat here listening across the atlantic - weird!

way to go joel...

so if you happen to read this post now go listen in...

gandhi

on the plane yesterday i read e.stanley jones gandhi:portrayal of a friend. some of you may remember my enthusing about the christ of the indian road [and here and here], stanley jones seminal work. well geoff and sherry who gave me that book also gave me this one and it's taken me this long to get round to reading it...

it's a wonderful read and both jones and gandhi are astonishing. i want to just quote a few extracts from the book as they speak for themselves. the first is an exchange between jones and gandhi that i quoted before...

"How can we make Christianity naturalized in India so that it shall no longer be a foreign thing identified with a foreign people and a foreign government, but a part of the national life of India and contributing its power to India's uplift?" He responded with great clarity:
"I would suggest first of all that all of you Christians, missionaries and all begin to live more like jesus Christ. Second practice your religion without adulterating or toning it down. Third emphasise love and make it your working force, for love is central in Christianity. Fourth, study the non Christian religions more sympathetically to find the good that is in them, so that you might have a more sympathetic approach to the people."

He constantly said to the Indian Christians and missionaries: "Don't talk about it. The rose doesn't have to propagate its perfume. It justs give it forth and people are drawn to it. Don't talk about it. Live it. And people will come to see the source of your power."

jones reflecting on interpreting christ in india:
Jesus is the gospel. We therefore bring him to the East and West and say: Take him direct. You don't have to take our interpretation of Christ, except as you find it helpful in forming your own. Go straight to the gospels to discover Jesus anew, and if you show us a better interpretation we shall sit at your feet. The system which we have built up around Christ in the West may be useful and helpful as embodying a collective experience, but it is no integral part of the gospel. Create out of your own experience the corporate expression of that experience. Christ is universal but he uses local forms to express that universality. We expect you in india out of your rich cultural and religious past to bring to the interpretation of the universal Christ something which will greatly enrich the total expression. Especially now that Gandhi has lived and died we think you can interpret Christ in terms that are lacking in the West.

A movement that was fighting the West was showing to the West its own Saviour in a new way. A Hindu summed it up for me in these words. " We Hindus and you Christians should change sacred books. The Bhagavad Gita gives philosophic reasons for war while the New Testament teaches peace, and yet we are more peace minded and you are more war minded. If we change sacred books it would suit us both better."

the power of gandhi's commitment to non violent resistance and truth changed everything. one of my favourite stories is  gandhi's remarkable fast in delhi in 1948. there was tension and fighting between hindus and moslems. he announced that he would fast until hindus and moslems agreed on 8 things. all eight things were in the moslems favour. i won't list them here but they were pretty full on. after 6 days the hindus and moslems agreed to the terms and the whole atmosphere changed. how much do we need that kind of love of other faiths and cultures today?...

what do you mean we need a break from the old routine?

routine, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

 

travels

heading off to lancaster, pennsylvania today to do some stuff at the seminary (scroll down page). if you are anywhere nearby everything is open to the public.

thurs
faithful improvisation: worship and mission in postmodern times
worship 2.0
fri
adventures in alternative worship
sat
youth event - faithful improvisation

then i am stopping off in toronto on the way back to visit friends in paris, ontario and toronto...

worship trick 97 - thin places exercises

on the subject of inspiration another blog that always inspires me is embody by bruce stanley. amazing stuff...

he has started a series of thin places exercises which i am making worship trick 97. the first two are

mountain prayer
desert prayer

and you can even learn how to make a meditation stool....

worship trick 96 - you'd never end the story

as ever cheryl has been inspiring me with her easter postcards for prison, and various written pieces. i am making this reflection on the prodigal son, you'd never end the story , worship trick 96.

You’d never end the story by turning us away
so why do we live as if we could do something that will stop you loving us?

You’d never end the story giving up waiting for us
so why do we live in fear of wearing out your patience?

You’d never end the story with a litany of our sins
so why do we live as though you see us only with eyes of judgement?

You’d never end the story giving us one last warning
so why do we live in fear that your goodwill will run out?

You’d never end the story not recognising us
so why do we live thinking you don’t know the shape of our souls?

You’d never end the story with outpourings of anger
so why do we live in fear of incurring your wrath?

You’d never end the story by taking us back as servants
so why do we live as though there are limits on your grace?

You’d never end the story slamming a door in our face
so why do we live in fear of your rejection?

You’d never end the story with anything but love
so why do we live as though our story might end with anything but love?

i also loved this rumour

contemplative rhythms

gareth sent me this

I have been instigating getting a alt.worship style service started 
at Southwark cathedral - the first one is on tuesday 20th march. 
Could you possibly blog about it - would be good to get the word out 
as far as possible. Something like this is badly needed on the 
southbank as nothing much is going on. I am helping curate the first 
service and then help in the background for a while... so if anyone 
wants to help kickstart a community then this is their chance...

slavery 200 years on...

this coming sunday (25 march) is 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade bill was passed in uk law through the house of lords. i confess my knowledge of the history is pretty thin. but one of the groups heavily involved in the campaign were the clapham sect who also founded cms. william wilberforce is the best known member of that group. amazing grace the film that tells the story of the abolition through his life is out this coming weekend and the preview is tonight.

the current issue of yes magazine focuses on the issue of slavery (15mb pdf).

the irony is that there are more slaves today than 200 years ago with child soldiers, sex trafficking, and forced labour. this is tragic. lots of groups are making the most of the anniversary to focus attention on the issue of slavery today. these are a few things i am aware of. feel free to add any others in the comments and i'll paste them in...

african snow - a play that cms has sponsored
free for all - the cms youth team are undertaking a huge tour round the uk
ending slavery resource pack - education pack for cizitenship, RE, and history
the truth isn't sexy - i love this simple campaign to raise awareness of trafficking through some fairly full on beer mats in bars and pubs. there's a parliamentary launch tomorrow - well done guys!
stop the traffic - coalition of organisations,  with a particular campaign focused on chocolate.
chaste - churches alert to sex trafficking across europe
set all free - churches together site
anti-slavery
rowntree uk slavery report

all this can be a bit overwhelming. find something that touches you, or grabs you and get involved. an example of a group getting involved that inspired me is a youth group from st pauls and st barnabas in oldbury who are working on a production esther's story. as part of the promotion for it they put a video together and it got aired on channel 5 news - amazing! the play blurb is...

Shocked by the imprisonment of young women in a nearby brothel a group of teenagers from an Oldbury Church are actively and creatively highlighting the modern day evils of human trafficking and sex traffiking through a youth theatre production at Leasowes Community College Theatre, Kent Road, Halesowen, B62 8PJ.
The performance will be on 27th and 28th March at 7.30 p.m. with doors open at 7.00 p.m.  Tickets are reasonably priced at £2.00 for adults and £1.00 for under 16’s.
Tickets from Paul and Barnys 0121 4226700

newness [2]

following my post newness the sun has continued to shine for 8 days in a row. (though the rumour is that cold weather is back tomorrow).

i have created a slideset newness of some photos from the week...

alien water

there's an alien in my water feature

sidesliding part 2

following the few links in the post below and the link to sidesliding, jon posted a link in the comments to a wonderful story on sidesliding - growth. i am adding it as a worship trick [95] - curiously i don't think i have a single story as a worship trick so it's about time! turns out to be a pretty interesting blog and i've added it to my list...

a few links

sidesliding - i love that term... so much better than backsliding! talking of sidesliders see
letters from leavers
freebase - web 3.0 apparently (thanks bob)
magnatune - looks a good alternative source of tunes (thanks richard)
sublime magazine - looks interesting

lcd soundsystem

off to see lcd soundsystem tonight. this is the second time i've seen them and both times someone has given me tickets. last time for my 40th and this time a friend was given tickets and couldn't go so passed them on to me - result!