jonnybaker

hope is near - proost and advent

proost is actually organised slightly earlier than usual this year for advent season. and there are some great new resources. i think we are likely to use seeking light at grace (though yet to be discussed). anyway here's the proost update with info and links

As we approach the season of Advent we are reminded again that we wait for God to come to us.  We wait in hope for we know that the presence of God with us - that we remember in the birth of Jesus - is transformative in ways that we can only begin to imagine.  We wait in hope.

Writing his seminal book 'God in the Manger' Dietrich Bonhoeffer considered the amazing hope of the birth of Christ.  

"God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.” 

Sometimes we cry out to God 'How Long Lord?" as we wait for him. But we wait in hope.

Sometimes we wait expectantly knowing that God will be with us. But we wait in hope.

Sometimes we wait in confusion.  Unsure what will happen next. But we wait in hope.

All of our writers here on Proost know and share these emotions and experiences.  We are all human beings.  We know suffering and we know joy.  We hope the resources we share on this website may bring hope to you in whatever you face this Advent.

We are pleased and thrilled to share 'Seeking Light' by Ian Adams.  The latest in his series of season reflections - this time focused on Advent, Christmas and Ephiphany.  If you've not encountered Ian's work before then do have a look.  If you have then you'll know this will be a wonderful accompaniment to Advent.

We are also thrilled to share two new pieces of work from Tim Watson.  Journey to the Inward Wild is Tim's second in the Hymnal to the Wild series.  Bursting with beautiful poems it's an honest, vulnerable and hopeful read.  These poems are perfect to accompany your own devotionals and worship or to read for pleasure or share with others.  We are also pleased to share a free resource Advent Thoughts - a series of simple slides taking us through the season.  This is free so what do you have to lose ! 

Advent is a season where Proost has featured many resources to help with your own journey to Christmas.  These are available in our back-catalogue and through the Seasons button in the menu.  On the frontpage we feature three highlights - Alt.Advent (Jon Birch), We Who Still Wait (a collaboration of Chris Goan, Si Smith, Ian Adams and Steve Broadway) and then People Walking in Darkness (a movie from Grace.)  Do check these and other Advent items on the site.

Lastly the best way to access the site remains our Get it All subscription, still only £60.  Perfect for you but also as a gift to someone else.  Take a look.

Thanks for reading.  May your advent season be filled with hope. 

people walking in darkness

for the first time in a while the advent grace was nine, where we take the traditional nine readings from nine lessons and carols and invite nine people to choose a piece of music and do something else - a reflection, ritual or whatever.

this year was great with a whole range of contributions. a favourite of mine was the first ever contribution from dave and helena who are new to grace. they made this wonderful film to go with the reading from isaiah 9 about 'the people walking in darkness'. 

we have quickly added this to proost so it's available to anyone now - it may be a bit late for this year but tuck it away for next if so!

nine - grace advent service this saturday

if you are around this saturday why not come along to grace at st mary's ealing. we take the christmas story as outlined in a traditional nine lessons and carols framework but rather than carols nine people will select a piece of music or art and something to reinterpret or tell the story. we have had some great times over the years. i am one of the nine and will be performing a song...

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

 

12 days of christmas at nomad

nomad podcast is doing a series of podcasts from a few wise men and women. jenny baker is one and she applies the bechdel test to the christmas story - nice idea! listen here

grace unwraps christmas this saturday

grace this saturday - here's the blurb…

December's Grace unwraps Christmas with a night of storytelling: Carstairs and the Colonel, communion at gunpoint, illegal plum-puddings, and a man in need of hair-care products. There will be no penguins, but there may well be mince pies.

St Mary's Church, Saturday 13th December at 8pm

advent - a gem

this is beautiful - katie pearce has designed a lovely advent calendar with daily posts on themes such as drudge, ache, wait, dark following the journey of mary and joseph and other characters in the story with scripture, reflection, song, image and thoughts...

all incredibly tasteful. follow along. each year it seems i stumble across something new in advent, a new creative soul expressing a fresh take on the old story. katie is hugely talented and i am very happy to say she is training with us on the pioneer course at cms :)

i am making this a worship trick 54 in series 4

advent on proost - we who still wait

well it's a month to christmas which means the season of advent is almost here, that time of expectation and waiting. proost has a new resource we who still wait - this is put together by four artists. chris goan, ian adams, steve broadway and si smith have brought their collective creative wisdom together to shape a wonderful book. it's a book to follow the season with  photos, a reflection and a poem each day. download it as a pdf

proost actually have loads of great resources for advent that have built up over the last few years. read this post.

of course if you subscribe which is a bargain you can log in and download anything for a year.

word on the street

absolutley love this advent calendar - a word is made of jam jars containing water or irn bru to write a word backlit in a café window in glasgow which changes everyday. it's made by heidi gardner, peter gardner and elijah smith. thanks to doug gay for the tip off. so simple! am making it worship trick 49 series 4...

antiphons - worship trick 48 series 4

jason miller has produced a devotional for advent based on the antiphons - if you don't know what that is i didn't either! here's what he says about it...

When I was in seminary, one of my favorite classroom assignments was having to research and report on a historical devotional practice commonly referred to as the “O Antiphons.” In short, they are a series of seven different devotions traditionally done during the seven days before Christmas Eve. The focal point of each Antiphon is a different Old Testament Messianic title for Jesus. I’ve always wanted to create artwork based on these Antiphons and this year - inspired by the street art that an artist named Banksy was doing in NY during October - I was able to complete that goal. As I was doing the research for the art, I realized that the project needed to be more than just artworks; it needed to be something people could use to experience the fullness of the O Antiphon devotional. So, the project became an attempt to create a complete modern day O Antiphon prayer manual.

and he has made it available for free to download - go to the page and follow the link. and i am adding it as a worship trick 48 series 4.

i actually also really love the artowrk on a previous post of his as well exploring themes of darkness and light - this is one of the pieces...

and if you scroll down there are artworks for stations of the cross - definitely one to add to your feeds.

jacob's ladder - an advent calendar in sound

love this advent calendar in sound. it's an absolutley huge amount of time and effort that must have gone into creating it. the intro on the blog explains it all but essentially a speaker a day is added through advent to jacob's ladder. it's by artist sunil chandy and if you are anywhere near penge or beckenham in london go visit...

and of course this is a worship trick - 47 series 4.

#XmasByNos - tweeted grace christmas by numbers - worship trick 46 series 4

in our twentieth year in grace we are revisiting some old themes in a new playful way. last night's grace was a rework of communion by numbers. in the original, a liturgy was followed through by opening a sequence of envelopes around tables in a cafe style and following through a service together. the twist this time round was that each table needed to follow the hashtag #XmasByNos on twitter and instructions arrived via phone or ipad. it worked wonderfully well. and it was particularly amazing to have a few people joining in at the same time from other parts of the world. if you follow the hashtag you can see the instructions, link to some photos, see the tunes played and rework the service yourself.

at the bottom of this post here there are links to the various prayers used including a eucharistic prayer for christmas. i wasn't involved in the planning - it's always fun to arrive at a grace not knowing what is going to happen...

i am making it worship trick 46 in series 4

advent/christmas tunes - playlist from grace

at grace last night i was asked to create a playlist. the service was tweeted and i kept updating tunes i was playing, but a few people asked for the list so here it is. please add your own suggestions in a comment (and no christmas naffness please!)... (and i am making this a worship trick - no 45 series 4). i will blog separately about the service.

FACT magazine silent night electronic mix from 2009 
Elements Of Light - Photon
Always Waiting - Michael Kiwanuke
Believe in Me - Colonel Red
Center Your Love - Machinedrum
Oh Spirit Animate Us - Dr Dee
Power of God - Jaimeo Brown
Digital Pilgrimz - Chronicles In My Soul (this is the latest from Grace's very own Matt - available on itunes here )
Silent Night - Nathan Fake
Dreams Today - Efterklang
Gabriel's Call - Dubh
Blackout - Heights of Abraham
Story of Light - William Orbit
Gabriel - Roy Davis jnr
Gabriel - Lamb
O Come O Come Emmanuel - Sufjan Stevens
Angel - Massive Attack
Nothing To Be afraid Of - Lazyboy
Let Your Light shine - The Relatives
Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down - Robert Plant
The Creator Has A Masterplan - Routine
Masterplan - Diane Browne and Barrie K Sharpe
Prince of Peace - Galliano
Stoned Together - Kruder and Dorfmeister
Jesus is For Losers - Calamateur 
Overdose of the Holy Ghost - Clark Sisters
Jesus Gonna Be Here - 5 Blind Boys of Alabama
Fourtet - For These Times
Cody Chesnutt - Til I met Thee

thanks to david derbyshire who has set up a spotify playlist of the tunes that are available on spotify here

grace christmas by numbers this saturday

forseeing - worship trick 44 in series 4

love this piece by tina hodgett over at her blog and am making it worship trick 44 is series 4 (yes they are still going).

forseeing: a christmas reflection

Life giver bread breaker storm sleeper blame taker

Scroll reader mask exposer sheep steerer wave treader

Temple razer truth wielder light exuder crowd amazer

Life enhancer, drinker, dancer

Cross bearer dazzle wearer law lover wine renewer

Story weaver, hurt healer, death drinker, God revealer

Lone lamb finder, Satan binder

Sight restorer, desert victor, sin forgiver, hymn singer

Morning pray-er, bondage breaker, bone straightener, peacemaker….

Bubbling up with joy river

Death defeater, grace ladler, never sinner, heart burner

Tempest husher, Spirit breather, show stealer, table turner…..

Mary worships.

Baby cries.

All the future in their eyes.

advent begins...

advent begins, a wonderful season in the church year, a season of looking forward to the coming of christ into the world, of longing, of hope, of expectation, of waiting, of trusting, of patience. i got sent a calendar of the church year in seasons with art for each season which was well done.

i have categorised any post in the past linked to advent - there's a lot of good resources if you scroll back through...

a few to mention that are new - alt.advent is 26 movies, one a day - ideal for a family, household, community to follow.

advent in art - mark pierson's reflections 

christine sine loves advent and has already added a movie and will be adding lots 

malcolm guite is posting inconsoleable longings

you can of course follow #advent on twitter and see what appears - i was reminded through this of the lovely rendering of o come o come emmanuel by sufjan stevens

on proost there is a ton of advent resources - see for example wait , advent calendar , unwrap

i drew the picture above when on silent retreat earlier this year - it struck me recently that this somehow seemed to capture the sense of longing, watching and waiting that is the mood of the season

it takes faith beyond imagining...

alleluias is a wonderful call to worship - i always love what cheryl writes.

advent prayers and advent in the dark

christine sine is always a proloific creator and gatherer of advent resources. scroll through her blog or follow along but here's a link to a series of prayers for the journey. 

i love this piece that richard passmore posted called advent in the dark form the presbyterian church of nz.

the magical union chapel did not disappoint

ADVENTurous on saturday was a wonderful day. i hope it is the first of many - a regular advent festival like this exploring poignant themes, celebrating advent, fused with the arts in london would be amazing. i was photographer for the day and have added a set of photos here - see slideshow here.

this photo is the lead singer of hope and social wandering into the crowd literally unplugged - up on a pew (which he politely asked permission for!!) singing and hand aloft to the cavern of the chapel. it was a really magical moment. it was also almost completely in the dark so i was pleased i managed to get a photo out of it!

and this is one of the amazing pieces of art put together by engedi arts and now in leeds and shortly to be in colwyn bay - this chess set is called 'mother mary chess set' and is by pea runstall and pits a series of marys against the empire of domination - it must have taken an eon to make and was quite extraordinary as was the rest of the art.

if you liked the ADVENTurous movies

it was a great day at ADVENTurous yesterday - if you liked the movies shown, several were from proost and three were made especially for ADVENTurous.

elf issues and garbage garbage were both by jon birch and shown in the day

prophet(tear) and wonky donkey were both on display in the exhibition and harry performed wonky donkey.

if you are interested in advent resources on proost, have a look at our advent news which summarises lots, or click on the seasons button and search advent and/or christmas.

oh and it's been pointed out to me after my blog post yesterday that advent actually starts today - advent sunday - of course! so all you people who have advent calendars with a dec 1 or advent candles with a 1 what were you thinking?!