jonnybaker

a light through the noise

at grace on saturday night we had an amazing evening. 10 people created something in response to advent, picking a passage from a prophet or a theme. i am collating all the pieces and we will add them to the grace archive at some point. joel baker made an amazing video - his intro is below. the track he played with it was ben frost - theory of machines which has been switched out for putting it online as we don't have permission for it. but do switch it for yourself if you can. i honestly thought this was amazing (not just in a biased parent way!). it's been added to the proost advent series here. anyway here's the spiel from joel to go with it...

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned." Isaiah 9:2

When reading a few verses / passages for inspiration this one really struck out at me.
As we come to the end of the year we reflect; pulling together end of year playlists, highlights and lowlights, miles run, walked and cycled, goals and achievements. But one thing I haven't particularly wanted to reflect on is what's going on in the wider world. It’s pretty depressing.

Sometimes it feels as if we are walking in darkness and could really do with seeing a light. This then was my visual response & exercise. By scraping various headlines from the past year or so, I tried to see if I could shine a light through the noise and give us something to hold onto as we move into 2025.

lino water

a lino print of water from saturday's advent grace. the (intentional) blur gives it a sea like feel. 

a carol i have written

earlier this year i wrote a carol or perhaps it might be better described as an advent hymn. it has been posted as part of the proost advent series here incorporating a video from jon birch. i was inspired reading isaiah 9 and in particular the imagery of verse 5:

The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire.

in a world with so much brutality and violence the image of a fire burning army boots and clothes of war struck a chord and a deep sense of advent longing for another possible world. that turned into lyrics for a carol or advent hymn ‘smoke is rising’. the last verse quotes arundhati roy which I am sure many of you will recognise. niall dunne has written what i think is a beautiful melody. this came about through a chance conversation at cms (niall has started the undergrad pioneer training this year). i’d love any reactions to it. even more I’d love any of you to try it out and lead it. let me know how you get on if you do though it’s a bit late possibly for this year now. i imagine it with a huge church or choir but I don’t have one of those!

my sister ruth kindly has written out the melody and chords. i should add that the guitar tuning is DADGAD which sounds lovely. hopefully you can work out what i am doing from the video if you go that route and like me are not used to that. that’s how I learned it from niall. i should say i am singing it a bit lower than niall as I struggled to reach the top note in f. ruth has written chords in f and in d and unhelpfully I am playing it in e flat!

i have not had the time or kit to record it properly so this is recorded on a phone - thanks to jon birch for his steady hand (and gorgeous lounge). maybe this will spark a new project?! and double thanks to jon who was inspired to make a movie loop of a fire of army boots and clothes of war (with help from ai) which you can see incorporated into the proost version. it's great to be able to contribute to proost which seems to have risen like a phoenix from the ashes.

here are the lyrics:

Smoke is rising
Jonny Baker and Niall Dunne

Smoke is rising from a fire
Of army boots and clothes of war.
Weapons made into ploughshares
Violence is no more
Violence is no more

You have broken slavery’s yoke
And the oppressor’s rod
Lifted the burden from our shoulders
Prince of peace, mighty God
 
Herod’s palace is in crisis
At the news of a new king.
One has come into the world
Who makes the angels sing
Who makes the angels sing

Peace on earth, peace on earth
Their chorus fills the skies
The rich will leave empty handed
The humble poor they will rise

Peace on earth x 3
Their chorus fills the skies
 
Another world is possible
She is on her way
I can hear her breathing
On a quiet day

Another world is possible
This shall be the sign
A child is born, a son is given
In darkness light will shine

Peace on earth x 3
Their chorus fills the skies

proost advent series

the phoenix rises from the ashes! proost has reappeared thanks to chris and rob. for those who are new to the blog proost was a platform that i created with friends jon and aad back in the late 90s to piublish music originally and then it was a digital platform for all sorts of artistry from people involved in alkternative worship and emerging churches. it was an incredible era really. i have very fond memories.

andy freeman then picked up the baton and ran it for a season, then it felt as though it was time for it to be let go.

but chris and rob felt a tug towards exploring with the community of artists who contributed what it might look like to do something. they have been running a podcast series. and for advent they are now posting a daily something on chris's blog this fragile tent. day one is a wonderful poem from chris called east of eden and day two is a brilliant illustration from si smith.

so do follow along. i like to have something daily to reflct on in the season of advent (advent is the season which runs up to christmas).

the image to the right is si smith's take on the virgin mary living in a flat in leeds!

i plan to be contributing later in the series.

smoke is rising - advent grace dec 14

i am looking forward to this year's advent grace on sat dec 14 at st mary's ealing. we have invited people to create something - music, video, poem, liturgy, installation or whatever. i have written a carol which opens with the words 'smoke is rising...'- yes i don't know how that happened. i'll post it on the blog with music at some point in december. the tune is written by niall dunne who is training as a pioneer with cms at the moment so that is a delight too. 

anyway here's the blurb. put it in your diary. we will zoom it as well so if you are interested in that leave a message or email me.

Advent is a season in which we look forward in anticipation and longing for another possible world when all things are made new, when Christ returns, when there will be no more injustice. That longing in the run up to Christmas is also waiting in hope for Jesus Christ to come into the world as a sign of that incoming future.

Join us for an evening of longing which will be expressed through song, art, prayers, poems written and made by those who are there. If you would like to contribute then do let us know. There will be a cafe afterwards with mulled wine and mince pies.

grace christmas labyrinth

come and join us for our grace christmas labyrinth on saturday night. 

Join us for a meditative and prayerful Christmas labyrinth, a peaceful evening before the hectic part of the season gets going.

When we first did labyrinths in the 1990s, there was a four-part structure about our relationships with God, Self, Others and Planet, with the labyrinth itself being about God and the other three as stations. Given current situations this structure seems very relevant.

There will be mulled wine and mince pies in the cafe afterwards.

advent grace saturday night

grace saturday night (yes i know it clashes with football so we'll catch up in the cafe afterwards!). here's the blurb

If it's hard to see where God is in current events, and hard to feel hope for the future, imagine what it was like to hear nothing from God for four centuries. Centuries full of empires and atrocities, with only the long-unfulfilled words from the past to feed faith.

And then something happened (so small that hardly anyone noticed at the time).

Join us for a quiet reflective service on how that long Advent sheds light for today. Café afterwards as usual - mulled wine and mince pies of course.

nine - grace this saturday

we've had a lot of fun at grace with nine over the years - respinning the traditional readings and carols with nine readings and tunes. it will be live in ealing at st mary's but it will also be online - hybrid and all that. if you want to join online let me know and i can send the link.

nhs star

i have added more photos to the nine elms advent trail album - jen and i cycled in for a view of things we missed - this time in daylight

follow the light

jen and i cycled in on what turned out to be a wet and windy evening to go round the nine elms advent trail. it's quite a big area and due to building work not straightforward to work out where you are going so it is quite a trail. we probably managed half of it but enjoyed it and hope to go back. it's outdoors so it's socially distanced and all that. our walk was punctured by news that christmas in london is under tier 4 so it means our plans to see family and grandkids are scuppered - feels like a depressed london today. i definitely feel in need of a bit of light in the darkness. big thanks to betsy and others who put this together.

i have added a photo album here - as ever in the dark i had to work quote hard to get anything like a half decent photo but i do quite like that challenge.

nine elms advent trail

betsy blatchley is a pioneer in nine elms which is a huge new housing area near battersea power station just south of the river thames in london. the focus of her pioneering is arts and community building. she has pulled off what looks like an incredible advent project no doubt with some others - nine elms advent calendar trail. every day through advent a new location is unveiled on social media which reveals a piece of art produced by an artist or community group or some sort of collaboration. but it sounds as though the whole trail is up already so you can go round it. i plan to cycle in at some point and wander round and take some photos. there is a really good instagram and twitter flow with images every day. this is such a good project for this year when you can only really meet outside. and it is an amazing project regardless of the year. a huge effort is behind this i am sure. you can download a map of the trail and follow round it. i really like the look and feel of what is happening through nine elms with the living room and other things - it's been quite a while since i last saw betsy and it looks like things have developed in really creative and good ways since we last spoke. i must catch up! great to see creative pioneering like this in london. 

i am making this a worship trick - two in a row!!!???

angels over hoxton

ben bell loves advent! when he was a youthworker he always produced something creative and now he is a priest he is still up to his old tricks i am glad to say. angels over hoxton is a street art project where two churches have worked together to angel bomb the area and encourage photos to then be posted on social media using the hashtag #angelsoverhoxton - follow the instagram here

it's a very simple idea but it makes perfect sense to take advent to the streets this year perhaps more than any other year but i always like things like this that engage in public space rather than simply inside church buildings. 

i am adding it as a worship trick. i'll blog about the other advent project that has caught my attention tomorrow.

grace 9

several times at grace we have done our own take on nine lessons and carols - only it's unikely to be carols! nine people select a tune related to the traditional readings following the christmas story. come and join us from wherever you are in the world - sit back and relax. here's the blurb

The next Grace will be a Zoom gathering at 8pm on Saturday December 12.

9 lesson, 9 tunes - it’s a Christmas tradition! Even King’s College are going virtual this year.

There will be a cafe afterwards. We would have mulled wine and mince pies in normal circumstances - maybe get yourself some seasonal snacks and be the envy of your breakout group.

If you would like to join us please email [email protected] and we will email you an invitation link.

the art of advent

this advent i am going to read through this lovely little book the art of advent by jane williams which has a painting for each day of advent with a short reflection. it's full colour and less than ten pounds! i was delighted to see meg wroe's reworked rublev's icon is in the book.

where will god be born? - advent coming up...

i always love the season of advent. love this flyer from steve for our grace advent service this year which will consist of a series of reflections, prayers, meditations, songs brought by whoever comes. if you plan to come do bring something to share in that way. it will all be followed by mulled wine and stollen. 

and i am not sure i should confess to this but if you look on the grace web site there is a link to a video from 1996 of grace on channel 4 which we dug out for the 25th celebration - it is fairly amusing/embarrassing!

after dark

go and see after dark at chiswick house gardens which is a series of light installations in the grounds - on until christmas

proost bargain

if you have been thinking of subscribing to proost for a year, now is a good moment because there is a reduction to £45 - that runs until december 11 so be quick. that is real bargain - it gives you access to download all resources. you might also like to check out the new resources for advent

seeking light - it was dark!

i have been meaning to add this since the last grace but don't know where the time has gone...

anyway it was a lovely grace advent service and i know next year is a way off but you could easily repeat this idea so tuck it away somewhere. grace was inspired by ian adams reflections for advent seeking light - which you can get from proost. we printed them off a3 size and suspended them from the balcony in the church space with nylon thread. we used about 20 in total i think. it was handy that having done an exhibition there before we still had the stuff from that. to straighten them out we just clipped a strip of card behind each sheet.

then apart from a central candle and a few candles highlighting the step at the far end the church space was completely dark - we had moved benches from the main space. a set of tunes played quietly in the dark around the theme of seeking light (see below). then the bulk of grace was 45 minutes where people were given a candle to take into the space and read the reflections by candlelight. they could sit quietly in the space or read through them all as they wished. we simply topped and tailed that with an opening and ending prayer/liturgy. these have been added to the grace archive here . it was very simple. the candlelight really made it a magical evening...

the playlist i think was:

lovebleeps - laura b
incense - andy thornton (from labyrinth)
o come o come emmanuel - sufjan stevens
blackout - heights of abraham
shine - dave gahan and soulsavers
a change is gonna come - the fugees live
anthem - leonard cohen
young death - burial
open the light - boards of canada
gathering light - detriot escalator co
searchlight - jon hopkins
the light - album leaf
a light to guide you - clem leek
near light - olafur arnolds
into forever - eat lights become lights
to believe - cinematic orchestra
jesus alone - nick cave
since i - jono mccleery
lighthouse - patrick watson

i have added this as a worship trick - no 68 in series 4

grace advent service - sat dec 10 - seeking light

join us next saturday for a contemplative grace for advent on the theme of seeking light, inspired by and riffing on ian adams proost resource seeking light (thanks ian!)

apollo christmas - new movie on proost

there's a new movie on proost from jon birch - apollo christmas. the latest update from proost has links to various advent and christmas resources but here's what it says about this movie...

This week we launch Jon Birch's wonderful apollo christmas movie.  On Christmas Eve 1968 astronauts orbiting the moon made an amazing broadcast.  With incredible visuals, euphoric electronic music and the words of the three astronauts - this movie takes a different spin on wonder at Christmas.