jonnybaker

scotland

i have added photos from our trip to the west of scotland (and edinburgh at the end) to a slideset on flickr here. i am sure i'll add a few individual photos here to keep reminding myself how magical it is.

skye road

loved two weeks in the west of scotland for a break - every corner you go round seems to be an amazing scene of mountains, big sky, lochs, waterfalls, clouds and sun breaking through. i'll add some photos here over the next couple of weeks no doubt. this is on the island of skye - just had to stop the car and take a photo as this road was so brilliant!

greenbelt - weather and catching up

so it's greenbelt this weekend, an annual highlight for me since i was about 11! the theme is the common good - which i think is a brilliant one and something i have been thinking about for a while.

the weather forecast has no rain drops at this point for the whole duration - i know this is england and greenbelt and a field but i am still very happy about this!

i tend to spend a lot of greenbelt catching up with people which is always great. and then try and remember to attend a few things. cms have a stand there. if you are interested in pioneer training or simply in pioneering generally then i am very happy to meet up at greenbelt - best to contact me through the cms stand or via a message. and at these points we will be gathering so do come along to say hi on

• friday 7:30pm onwards in the pub jesus arms
• saturday 2pm tiny tea tent
• sunday make good is a session in the 'exchange' venue which will feature stories from the make good course we run and after that we will head to jesus arms after 7:30pm
• monday 11am tiny tea tent

and of course i will be cheering on harry and chris at the harry and chris show 2 on sunday at 1:30pm 

too much!

one of our pioneer students this year found her voice not only as a brilliant feminist theologian and pioneer but also as a poet. her MA dissertation incorporated a few poems including one on formation. formation is a word i confess i did not use before i got involved in training people getting ordained. it's whispered in magical tones in grand corridors because that's what it is all about apparently. from day one that i got involved i sought to find out what people were getting at and realised pretty quickly there are formations plural i.e. a range of ways of training and forming students and maybe not all aspects are desirable. it's something contested in other words and i hope at cms we have developed our own take on what formation might be. but all that to say ruth wells has a poem formation on her blog that i hope she won't mind me posting here and linking to. she has some others on her new web site playing with poetry - go follow along.

Formation
Conformation
Confirmation of conformity
Me squeezed into a too tight, uptight, cassock shaped mould,
Hold on – who am I?
Without wanting to wander into the hazy dazed realms of nostalgia,
I remember, I was someone else once.
Formation – anaesthetising the self out of me.
Habitus,
If I keep doing these things, your rituals,
If I stick to the prescription – ‘take twice a day before meals’
I’ll be formed.
Forged in the fire of the machine.
The machine fed on the same fuel as centuries ago;
Tradition.
 
Now I’m not saying there are no edges to be knocked off of me,
On the contrary,
I am a multi-faceted collection of rough edges.
I am too much
Too little
Too feisty
Too timid
Too limited in knowledge
Too quick to judge
Too cruel to be kind
Too much
Too much
 
But maybe just one of these edges might cut through the shit
The same old that holds up the barriers
That stops people in their tracks
That acts like it holds all the answers
That controls power with white knuckles clenched
Entrenched systems
Suffocating, stifling
I don’t fit in
I can’t fit in
I won’t fit in.