jonnybaker

improvised blessings - worship trick 39, series 3

our latest unusual suspect at proost is juli allen. her big thing is blessings. in her community(s) she listens in and joins in the evening reflections and dialogue and at the end improvises a spoken blessing that weaves the threads together. we got to experience this first hand at greenbelt in the proost lounge evening (thanks to everyone who took part and came along). at the end of the evening she gave us a greenbelt blessing which she has posted on her blog. it was great to meet juli having never met before greenbelt and just liased via e-mail on the book.

we have published with juli the latest book in our pocket liturgy series (we're now up to number 6!!) - a book of blessings - which is available from proost and if you are a subscriber you can download in the downloads area (actually as i write this we are shifting the site to a different server so the site is temporarily down for maintenance but it will be back shortly.) you can find juli's book to download or as a hard copy in the book section of the site.

i really like improvised liturgy - juli reminded me how much i liked karen ward improvising the eucharistic prayer a few years back where she wove into the prayer lots of stories and thing to be thankful for. it somehow blended the depth of the liturgy with a more personal touch. it's a real skill.

i am making the idea of improvised blessings a worship trick - no 39 in series 3

here's the text of the blessing...

blessings on you who have entered this space-
who have traveled far and near to be in this space.
let your soul sigh in this space.
let yourself be undone in this space.
let yourself feel the love that surrounds, and permeates, and brings this space together.
breathe it in and let it wash over you.
for some, this marks the beginning.
the beginning of a new year,
a new song,
a new season.
for others it is a close, an end, a period at the end of a chapter.
hopes have been sparked here.
dreams have begun here.
revolutions and relationships have arisen here.
and as a phoenix, we will descend in all the glorious shades of red, and orange, and yellow.
this time together...
this space together...
this experience together...
we will take deep, deep down into our bellies
where a fire will burn that will take us through the next year.
until we meet again we will carry within us memories that will never leave us.
embrace what is left in this space,
and in this time soak up all that you can,
and be sent out knowing that you are loved and you are blessed.

 

ReSource - training for the next year

ReSource is a course that i am on the planning group for and have helped run for three years now. the strapline is creating church in the emerging culture. if you are involved in a new mission project, church, or are dreaming of starting one then do have a look at it. or you might think of a couple of people in your community to encourage to go on it. here's a few reasons why:
the team doing it is brilliant
the teaching and discussion/reflection balance is good
we visit communities in different locations who are doing it to hear their stories
doing the course with a bunch of other people in mission is almost the most valuable part
the edge of this course over others is that it is more geared towards emerging culture and has a younger age profile (mostly under 40) - msm (which is also good) is more didactic, an older crowd, and denominational.

there are some changes this year -
we are doing three elongated weekends instead of 5 shorter ones. some people have said they were finding it difficult to make 5.
you can opt into a single weekend if you would like to.

the dates, themes and locations are:
mission and culture, birmingham, oct 31- nov 2
emerging church, reading, feb 20-22
transforming communities, leeds apr 17-19

please pass it on to anyone you know who might be interested -
download course info | download application form

i have chatted to a few people doing pioneer ministry training with the c of e - have a word with your diocese and ask them to let you do this as part of your training.

greenbelt 2008

just back a little bleary eyed from greenbelt festival, as ever a hopeful sign for the church. this year i wasn't co-ordinating worship - that was wonderfully done by ben, ruth and gayle with a brilliant programme. if you want to catch the edges of what is happening in creative worship greenbelt is a great place to go. we (grace) took a service lunch not included that was good fun - unpacking hospitality. the opening created an experience of being in/out when 'members' were taken out of the queue early and given privileged seats at the front in a  members only enclosure. a very 'in' set of notices and utterly pretentious liturgy followed that only members were able to join in before a staged protest led to the barriers being pulled down. all good fun and it certainly was getting a few people irate up to that point! hopefully it will all get written up in the grace archive/smallfire at some point.

unusually for me i didn't take a camera. i decided that i had too much to do to be able to think about carrying a camera and taking photos - yes i know i have broken my golden rule to always carry one. but there are a ton of photos at the official gb flickr pages - too many in fact to digest! and if you follow the tags greenbelt or greenbelt2008 i'm sure you will trace plenty of peoples photos.

i ended up spinning three plates - the grace service (and spontaneous act of worship which i missed) both went well. we (proost) were running a stand, had two events, an ad on the big screen and beer mats in the organic beer tent. i loved the unusual suspects evening and the proost lounge which was a showcase of artists. hopefully we have let a few more people know about proost who will want to subscribe. and the third plate was cms  where we had a dedicated blah... tent with discussions on mission, emerging culture and all that. pretty much every session was packed. i also took part in a discussion with my friend yemi on the difference in african and european takes on spirituality and faith which was pretty interesting.

so... although in theory it was a less busy greenbelt it ended up pretty packed. i got to two things - matthew herbert big band and jenny speaking on gender differences - she was brilliant of course. this may sound weird but the highlight was an evening on the thursday evening before the festival in gloucester cathedral hosted by feig with a meal, stations, and a candlelit labyrinth accompanied by the astonishing sound of two hang drums, the most gorgeous ambient instruments - see this video or this video to get the idea. about 80 people from various communities were there.

it always feels like summer is over once greenbelt is passed and a new season looms once september kicks in...

olympic hopefuls in ealing

i have to confess i absolutely loved the olympics. it helps that britain did so much better than we all expected and the cyclists were just unbelievable. i'm not sure what i'm going to do at 7pm each evening now the highlights of the day won't be on. anyway the baton now passes to london for 2012. and as part of that build up ealing is in on the act...

congratulations to ed lee. i went to the opening of his exhibition at pitshanger manor gallery in ealing of 5 olympic hopefuls. there are 5 photos of each hopeful following them in training. ed is part of the ealing london independent photography group. the ealing times review is here. the exhibition is only on until the end of august. if you do go, there is also a very interesting exhibition of photos on afghanistan, although at points it tries too hard to communicate the dutch army's involvement who sponsored the photos!

emergingchurch.info august issue

emperor arcadia, mark scandrette's story (which i have blogged about before i think) makes into the august issue of emergingchurch.info along with a really good interviw with barry taylor

season of plenty

i don't blog about the allotment much as i figure it won't be of much interest to most readers but following our first year last year we have got our act together a bit better. this is the season of plenty - this photo is one day's gleaning of around 15 different fruit and veg. we work the allotment as a group which makes it manageable with our friend lynda taking the lead.

for my own benefit (memory) i use my blog to record things so when i look back i have a record... so this year's efforts

strawberries | raspberries | blackberries | blackcurrants | rhubarb | plums | potatoes | onions | garlic | carrots | spinnach | beetroot | parsley | tomatoes | cucumber | courgette | basil | aubergine | dwarf beans | runner beans | mange tout peas | chilli | jalapeno pepper | pepper | sweetcorn... and yet to come... cabbage | parsnip (only one successful plant this year!) | swede | leeks | squash

we normally get an organic fruit and vegetable box delivered each week but at this time of year we don't have to bother...

if you are coming to greenbelt... 4

it is one year since we relaunched proost. we are back in g-source with a stand where we'll be showing movies and so on and encouraging new subscribers to sign up. we've also sponsored the beer tent on sunday so if you are there you'll see some proost beer mats!...

fri night 10pm we have an unusual suspects evening in new forms - unusuals suspects is a project to identify and encourage new talent in a range of media to publish their work for the first time. a few of the suspects will be interviewd and performing or showing their work.

and then we have a proost lounge saturday evening in the hub (next to the book store) at 7pm. the first 100 people will get a glass of sparkling wine on us. and a whole bundle of artists will be there performing - i guess it will be a laid back showcase sort of evening. please come and join us.

we've had a good first year. focused on good content each month. it now means there is £200 worth of downloadable content plus new content each month for the year ahead so we think it represents great value to subscribe for £60. but we don't really have much in the way of marketing campaign so please let anyone know who you think might be interested...

grace are back in action as ever. we'll be lifting the lid of our explorations in hospitality over the year with lunch not included on monday at 12noon in new forms and one of several groups acts of spontaneous worship round site. watch out for the red umbrella apparently!

this is my final if you are coming to greenbelt... post

maybe see you there if you are coming. let's hope the weather improves!

if you are coming to greenbelt... 3

and you have read about NET, the network of entrepreneurial talent and been frustrated that all the get togethers are in london, well NET are running a symposium over two 3 hour slots at greenbelt exploring business as unusual. there will be a mix of input, panel and practical advice to help people with business/social enterprise ideas that want to make them happen. the two slots are sat 2-5 in cms blah tent, and sun 5-8 in workshops 1 - more detail here

the goat house, french alps, and being in a cloud

i have finally added a set of holiday photos in the french alps to flickr...

we started off in grenoble for a couple of days meeting up with the glocks - i have known matt for a while so it was great to hang out with the family and watch the fireworks on bastille day. we caught the funicular to catch a view of the city, loved the fountain, and wandered around at night. then we took a day to visit the chartreuse monastery - these are the monks filmed in the film into great silence. they have communities all round the world and part of their vision is sustainability - this slogan shows that they don't want to have to ask others for money. the chartreuse liquor they have developed (we visited the vaults and tasted some - 59% tastes like mediciine!) has clearly brought in a lot of money. having looked at communities a bit in the last few years i was interested to see just how thick their rule is. a bizarre quirk of the visit was watching a film about the monks in 3d specs - got to love this photo of matt and sylvie donning the glasses.

then it was off to la chambre de la chevre, a converted goat house in a tiny hamlet on a thin windy track in the alps 1800m above sea level. there was no electricity, just gas and then in the evening an open fire, candles and parrafin lamps - which of course meant a holiday from computers... it was an absolutely wonderful place - the view from the balcony of la meije mountain was breathtaking and seemed to look different every time you looked. we've not done a mountain holiday before but had a great time climbing, rafting, swimming in mountain lakes. we got a cable car up to snow topped mountains above la grave where harry fulfilled an ambition of his of being in a cloud and we visited an ice cave full of ice sculptures. opposite the goat house was a climb up to a peak with the most amazing bench i have ever encountered with an amazing view to contemplate the mountains. the alpine fields are an array of colour with all sorts of dazzling flowers. the glocks came out one day to visit and walked up there with us. this photo is pascal standing on a rock dangling his foot over a drop below!

we only had one rainy day where we literally in cloud all day. but in its own way that is magical in the mountains. a highlight of course was the visit to the alpe d'huez to watch the spectacle of the tour de france where sastre sealed winning the tour. this year joel nad harry had both finished school because of exams so it was a rare chance for us to be able to watch a stage of the tour. it totally lived up to expectations.

it was an amazing holiday. the photos only capture a glimpse of how stunning the alps are...

if you are coming to greenbelt... 2

jenny mcintosh came to greenbelt from new zealand in 2005. following on from research by alan jamieson into why people were leaving churches, published as churchless faith, alan and jenny launched spirited exchanges in new zealand. the key finding of the research was that church leavers had given up on church but not necessarily faith so it was to help people on that journey, through publishing a newsletter and website, networking, facilitating a number of groups and trying to educate the churches.

well jenny is back and this time back and living in the uk. following her visit last time round a few of us got together to explore the same idea in the uk as we have exactly the same issue of people leaving church but still journeying in faith. it's been low key and a quiet thing but jenny's vision and arrival has pushed it up a gear and greenbelt is in some ways the launchpad for a new phase. jenny will have a stand in g-source so go and say hi. she is also running two discussion type groups in the cms blah venue - see previous post for times and there is a panel on monday evening at 7pm - it's actually the worst possible time for a slot as there will be no chance to follow up in conversations later in the weekend, and half the festival seem to leave but never mind! if you are around come along.

women olympians

i am enjoying the olympics - an hour summary each night ends the day nicely. i loved this piece celebrating women athletes in today's guardian.

[update: watch this space - our friend sky will be up there in a few years time!]

if you are coming to greenbelt... 1

cms always have a marquee and run a programme, but this year have added a couple of small tents. one of them is hosting a programme related to emerging church and blah... type stuff. the tent only holds around 30 people so it will be small, cosy and intimate. but i'm not sure to what degree it is or isn't in the greenbelt printed programme so thought i'd post it here. i have also added a couple of things in that are in the main cms venue...

Sat -
10:30 Serum - space to explore Christian spirituality hosted by Naz
12-1pm Mission in spiritual market place with Jonny, Ben and Laura
1-2 Networking and learning opportunities for mission leaders
2-5 Business as unusual 1 Shannon Hopkins
4-5 in CMS main venue - reimagining Christian thinking on other religions - Richard Sudworth
5-6 Gender and youth work - Jenny Baker
6-7 Mission service opportunities

Sun
10-11 CMS main venue - Yemi and Jonny head to head discussing African certainty vs emerging doubt
10-30-12 Serum
12-1 God as Flow - Richard Passmore
1-2 Climate Change - James Pender
4:30 Skinny on the emerging church - Andrew Jones
5:30 Spirited exchanges with Jenny Macintosh
6:30 New monasticism - Mark Berry
7-8 Asbojesus.com - Jon Birch

Mon
11-12 Aradhna
12-1 Bible in 60 minutes - Paul Thaxter
1-2 Cafe church in bangalore - Jacob Isaacs
2-3 Mission in 1024 window - Andrew Jones (i.e. your computer screen)
3-4 Spirited exchanges with Jenny Macintosh
4-5 Discussion around ordinaton and pioneer ministry with Stephen Croft and Paul Thaxter

man on wire

i haven't been to the cinema a lot this year - not sure why... but friday night jen and i went to see man on wire which i had been meaning to see for a while. the thing that reminded me about it was chatting to a girl who served me a coffee at the big chill who was raving about it having seen it at the festival. she said it had made her think nothing was impossible...

it's an extraordinary film of an extraordinary feat by philippe petit, a high wire walker who covertly rigged a wire between the twin towers of the world trade centre and walked across, lay down on the wire, went to and fro spending 45 minutes out there enjoying himself! he did this in 1974 and the film blends interviews with the group of friends and philippe with original footage.

send your confession into space - worship trick 38

this month on proost we have three interactive confessions. send your sin into space on a rocket, watch as it is destroyed in a machine or eaten by a goat! yes jon birch had a touch of inspiration/craziness all at the same time. all are in the movies section of proost. if you buy one feel free to add them to your church web site or blog. just give a link back to proost. i am making these worship trick 38 in series 3.

since our relaunch at greenbelt one year ago proost now has around £200 worth of downloadable content iincluding 9 books, 20 albums, and 23 movies. you can access all that plus new content each month for a year whenever you like if you subscribe and it only costs £60! what are you waiting for?

voice of an angel - notes from the chill 2

i mentioned jamie woon in the last post but wanted to say a bit more...

he has an album out soonish apparently - put it on your christmas list now. i first came across his voice via joel in a remix track of wayfaring stranger remixed by burial that is brilliant and made it into the worship tricks list. but wandering past the open air stage on saturday at the big chill i heard a voice i knew that i had heard before and worked out it was jamie who was standing in for someone else. sadly it was his last song so we missed nearly all of his set - matt sent me a link to that track on youtube - spirits which you can download from his myspace. someone said in introducing him later on that he had the voice of an angel which isn't far off.

looking at his hits on myspace he is still a pretty unknown but i suspect not for long...

on the subject of new music the big chill label has a couple of new albums out by animat and john metcalfe, both of which are worth checking out if you like your music instrumental and chilled. i have been a fan of animat's ever since seeing their live rescore of belleville rendezvous...

power of words - notes from the chill 1

one of the surprising things i found myself doing at the big chill was sitting in an afternoon of 2 hours of poetry. i don't really know why - i just fancied it. it was an afternoon celebrating 25 years of apples and snakes, an amazing organisation who encourage emerging poets and wordsmiths in education, prisons and the like. the afternoon was a showcase of their work. they have a cd out which i bought for harry, an emerging poet. i so wished he was there...

the power of words was amazing, perhaps most stunningly demonstrated in the dub poet jean binta breeze who  stood up and lamented, railed against injustice, whipped the powers that be with her tongue, celebrated the poor and women in tender and humourous ways. i was moved to tears and inspired. i felt i had encountered something like an old testament prophet - it really was unbelievable. the other stuff was excellent too - ty was performing his wonderful hip hop that knocks the stuffing out of bling and gansta to reclaim the tradition, jamie woon and zena edwards track in other words was angelic (it's on the cd and is on her myspace page as is the other beautiful track she did solo - healing pool). it turns out the guardian have a podcast from the big chill on the words in motion stuff hosted by ty and jean binta breeze is on it from that afternoon performing third world blues which will give you the flavour. i can't believe that random connection!

it made me want to go and write some songs or poems...

still centre

still centre, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

have added a photo set from the big chill 08 to flickr.

a few links

back from the big chill festival which was brilliant as ever. i'll blog more about that later and edit photos (haven't even managed holiday ones yet!). meantime a couple of links i have meant to add...

25 photography tutorials from round the web

if you are missing the mix tape

what one diocesan bishop did to understand the conflicts around sexuality