jonnybaker

shine

advent sunday today...

if you want a tune for it the one on my mind is shine by soulsavers

and how about breathe myself a meaning by martin daws for a spoken word piece

and a liturgy/prayers from christine sine

and a photo from me

 

nope!

this rather amused me on saturday. i had created a series of luggage labels with ink stamps saying hope on one side and grief on the other inviting people to write their prayers (at southwark cathedral where i was leading some prayer at the start of the day). i didn't use these but on some of the labels the word hope didn't fully print so they said 'nope'! i haven't done it yet but i think the response of nope in prayer and worship could be quite useful from time to time. so if anyone fancies creating a liturgy along those lines let me know...

 

nomad podcast - pioneering and the gift of not fitting in

i met with dave and tim, the guys behind nomad podcast to chat about all things pioneering. it's up as the latest nomad podcast here - pioneering and the gift of not fitting in. it runs for an hour or so...

the art of ritual - day in brighton in dec

the wonderfully creative martin poole is organising a day in december in brighton on the art of ritual. the blurb says 

The boundaries between art and ritual are becoming more and more porous as artists engage in performance work with highly stylized routines or actions and celebrants (religious and non-religious) explore the use of art to help people mark the important milestones in their lives.  This day will bring together practitioners in all forms of ritual and art to share ideas, talk about trends, experience artistic rituals and enjoy performances.
The event will include performance art, discussion, networking opportunities and a Gravetalk Café.  The afternoon will conclude with a visit to the Beach Hut Advent Calendar opening for that night and will be followed by an evening performance of ‘Mass’ by Amy Mason.

details are on the conference web site here 

exhibiting photos in artisan coffee shop in ealing

the ealing photography group i am part of is exhibiting photos in the artisan coffee shop on ealing broadway in rolling fashion with 4 or 5 people exhibiting for four weeks, then another four and so on. the first group is in their last week. i am in the second group and our work will go up from friday this week for four weeks. i'll try and find a time on a weekend to suggest a meet up for anyone who wants to meet over a coffee. but do pop in...

grace - silent eucharist tonight

if you're anywhere near ealing do join us at grace tonight for a silent eucharist followed by a café.

only grief leads to newness - a reflection for the youthwork blog

i have written a reflection for this month's youthwork blog. it seems as though there is a mood in youthwork circles that some change s needed so i share a few thoughts gleaned from work with pioneers on how newness might come through a cycle of grief, dreams and building.

anyway it's over here - only grief leads to newness [HT brueggemann for that title lifted from his book hopeful imagination]

pioneering spirituality - new book lands

i had so many things going on last week that it was hard to keep up and it was certainly impossible to find time to blog about them. so in the spirit of catch up i'll try and mention them a week later. what is weird about this of course is that i do find time to snap a photo on a phone and say something via twitter or instagram so some of you may think i have already blogged about it but i haven't! 

anyway first up is that pioneering spirituality is out - hooray! it's edited by me and cathy ross and has fourteen chapters exploring aspects of pioneering spirituality. pioneering sounds active but as philip mounstephen points out in the foreword we too readily polarise what should be held together. 

It is only a true pioneering spirituality that will eve drive us out to where God actually calls his whole church to be, on the margins, in the unknown place of greatest need. But if it is true that there can be no true pioneering without pioneering spirituality, then it is surely also true that there is no true Christian spirituality that is not itself missional and pioneering. We tend to unhelpfully polarise what should rather be held together. Too often we caricature 'spirituality' as introspective, personal and static, while 'mission' and 'pioneering' are necessarily extrovert, relational and dynamic. And yet, as the chapters of this book so helpfully demonstrate, that is surely a false dichotomy. Spirituality is of course outgoing and relational and mission is certainly a matter for the reflective heart.

as with the pioneer gift there is a mix of well known writers (such as steve bevans and michael mitton), those in our wider team around what we are doing and learning at cms pioneer training, and i am so proud to say five chapters are from pioneer students - mainly those on the MA that we lead. i don't know of other colleges and courses publishing student reflecting in this way - i hope they are out there. our experience is that we are learning as much through our students as we do from anyone else (pete ward did that for me when i studied an MA back in 2000 and i was invited to contribute a chapter to mass culture which was my first venture into publishing). the book has come from the conversations day we held around this theme last year with chapters from presenters at that along with some others - it's one way we hope to push the conversation out wider. i am really excited about it. if you get a copy we'd love to know what you think and if you see any reviews do let me know. if you are writing reviews anywhere give me a shout and i'll ask the publishers to send you a review copy.

that time of year again

abstracted

any guesses as to what this actually is?!