jonnybaker

grace - a slideshow and a revamped ethos

at grace's 30th birthday steve collins had compiled a slideshow of photos from most of those years. we don't have any photos of a few of the early years but they scroll through in chronological order. the link to a pdf is here. it's 67mb. it's a wonderful reminder. there is also a section in the archive now for slides from various things

we have also spent a bit of time reflecting on what has been our ethos for a long time now and that has had a bit of a revamp. what has surfaced in those discussions is the value of a hospitable and welcoming community (which you might expect if you call yourselves grace!). risk has been demoted to a sub section which i hope doesn't mean we are losing our edge! here is the ethos

 

heaven exists - grace is 30

this extraordinary cake was commissioned by lynda who is a dear friend and member of grace. she wanted to celebrate grace's 30th birthday and poured her creativity and gratitude into the cake as an amazing gift. the cake is called heaven exists and looked and tasted amazing. thank you lynda! the cake was made by nastassja

we had a wonderful evening doing a new take on communion by numbers round tables. 

a slideshow of moments from grace over the years was scrolling put together by steve collins from his incredible archive of photos over the years - hopefully he will add it online somewhere and i'll add a link - so good to be reminded of so many amazing moments. a playlist with a tune from each of the 30 years was put together by mike rose, the sole founder member who remains part of grace. 

overall there was just a lot of love in the room, with a small community of amazing creative human beings (in the room and online) who have journeyed together as a community of friends making artful soulful worship (fresh vital worship as the early flyers used to say) seeking to follow christ in today's world and support one anther in whatever life has thrown our way. during that time this small group have sparked the imagination of people al round the world, published books, albums, hosted web sites, been part of movements of alternative worship and emerging church, led grace in cathedrals and festivals. and all the while we have remained small, never employed anyone, and been hosted in the mothership of st mary's who have simply let us get on with it. 

a revamped ethos was introduced on the night - tweaked really to add more on being a welcoming community to all which has gione up our agenda over the years as an intention. i will no doubt post that and link to other pieces of the service when they go up on the grace web site.

i am very grateful. it's such a gift of grace.

grace - the BIG 30!

the next grace marks our 30th birthday. i wasn't there when it started - jenny and i joined in when we moved to london a couple of years after that. but it's been home for us, a wonderful creative christian community in which to work out what it means to follow christ in today's world. i think the creativity joel and harry flow in was really nurtured in the air breathed at grace, alternative worship and greenbelt over those years. during that time we have created and curated some really wonderful worship, music, liturgy, movies. all the while there has never been anyone employed to lead it - it's a collaborative venture. i'd love it if you wanted to come even if you haven't ever been but especially if you have been part of that journey at any point. thanks to st mary's ealing for giving the permission and space for grace to be a congregation over those years and trusting us to get on with it. it would be hlepful to know rough numbers so if you plan to come let me know in a comment or something.

here's the blurb on the web site - 

11th November is Grace's 30th birthday service - to mark the occasion we will be meeting around a table for a service of Communion by Numbers. Meeting around a table has been a large part of the Grace experience and sitting at a table with food and conversation we meet our companions, ourselves and sometimes God.

We'd love to see old friends and new around the table on 11th November - there will be food, drinks and music. It would be great to know if you plan to join us.

we are ready for grace

it's a new season of grace. in november grace will be 30 years old. put nov 11 in your diary if you'd like to join us for that celebration. but the next two we are looking at the theme of grace itself. sept you are invited to bring something - a poem, song, prayer, photo or whatever. see you there.

grace easter vigil

grace conveniently falls on holy saturday this year so we will be hosting an easter vigil. we’ll be beginning with the cafe open at 9:30pm and then grace will begin at 10pm mixing the traditional fire lighting, candle procession and readings with grace’s own take and flavour on proceedings. hope to see you there.

grace saturday - praying with a lump in our throat

continuing our grace lent we have a prayer focused evening on saturday with a series of stations praying with and for those at the edges. do join us. the title is inspired by claudio carvalhaes book that we are reading through lent.

grace open table

the next grace is on saturday - an open table. the blurb is as follows:

Join us for Grace where there will as ever be an open table.

We have always been inspired by Christ’s welcome of all around the table, especially those at the fringes. We will be gathering to continue that practice, and remember him.

You are of course welcome!

this tees up our lent. lent has always been a season which we enjoy as a space to dig deeper into something related to following in the way of christ. this year's reflections are inspired by claudio carvalhaes book praying with every heart which is possibly the best book on prayer i have read (it's not cheap though reasonable on kindle and is on perlego if you use that). we will focus on praying from the edges and there will be conversations around those at the edges due to sexuality, empire or race who we will endeavour to pray with and for with a lump in our throat as claudio would put it. i am really looking forward to all of that. maybe see you saturday...

labyrinth - grace next saturday

it seems to have become something of a tradition to walk a labyrinth for the first grace of the year. do join us. it will be simple, meditative, with a soundscape of ambient tunes followed by a cafe - saturday 14 jan 8pm st mary's ealing

st lydia's dinner church

it was lovely to visit st lydia's in brooklyn on my visit to new york. it was founded in 2008 by emily scott meeting in homes and then a zen centre before getting a shop front where it is now. i have not read it but there is a book which includes the story of st lydia's or stories from at least - for all who hunger. they describe it as a dinner church which is fairly apt as the worship is organised around a meal (and the food we had was great). it's prayerful and conversational. there are two dinner tables so probably works for about 20 people.

i stayed with christian scharen who is the pastor there now. he is delightful! he gave me a copy of a book he has written which is a theological reflection on the roots and hip hop culture someone has to care . i loved it! it is part of a series of short reflections on music - there is another in the series on radiohead and one coming on new order for example. 

i do like churches where the size is constrained by the space to be small - you get more intimacy and a real sense of community. we meet in our home most tues nights with friends over a meal to share life and pray - the table always seems to me a great space for a community of disciples. i also really like church that is in different kinds of spaces - it just shifts the imagination. the worship was simple chants along with a shruti - i had not seen one before but worked well. you set it to play a chord and squeeze it to create a drone ove which the chanting is done. it was advent so the chant i remember gegan 'honour the darkness'.

if you are in brooklyn call in.

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.

alice in wonderland eucharist - grace this saturday

the next grace will be led by tina hodgett and kathryn marson. they have crafted a rather delightful and playful liturgy fusing holy communion and alice In wonderland. it was created for the holy rumpus in the south west of england for a gathering of pioneers. intrigued? come along and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. it will be relaxed, gathered around the table followed by a cafe. everyone is welcome. and of course do feel free to dress accordingly if you would like to!

cms twenty: worship tricks

this is the fifth of a series of short reflections celebrating twenty years at cms

see also  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah | 4. new forms 

as well as being at cms twenty years i had another twentieth anniversary this year which somehow passed me by. that is how long i have been writing a blog. i was persuaded by andrew jones that i should write one and began on blogger and my first entry was in april 2002. one of the first things i started was a series of worship tricks. the name is a bit naff but they were creative ideas, installations, rituals, liturgy, videos that i came across that could be shared. back then search engines were not so good so having linkages was helpful. it also helped me catalogue things i could return to. there are 4 series - see the sidebar for links to them on the right. they have completely slowed down over the last few years (or decade even) but occasionally i add another. the thing that interests me about them looking back is that i have always loved creative, soulful, artful worship. i have published more in that area than anything else i think - alternative worship, curating worship, chapters in other books, labyrinth kit, the pocket liturgy series with proost, various albums and so on.

fresh expressions and pioneering (more on those in later posts in this series) rightly brought different start points from alternative worship - listening, being present, getting involved in community things. growing a community of disciples and finding ways to express worship come a lot later. so it interests me how i have carried that thread right the way through. i still think it's important - there is something magical about an experience or expression of worship that feels like it is on the inside of a culture, that you can be totally at home in. and at some basic level i think i have also been passionate about it because i struggle with expressions of worship that are done by the book or have blocks of singing with songs you can predict and make no connection imaginatively with the context, or that simply feel alien. the added value at cms has been learning from the global church and seeing places where indigenous expressions of worship and liturgies emerged as opposed to imposed western ones. the description of the mass with the masai in vincent donavon's christianity rediscovered blew my mind i seem to remember.

i haven't checked but i expect many of the links in worship tricks are broken or disappeared (and i have no intention to fix them) and the worship tricks are dated though no doubt some still ring true. but the delight of those creative moments and offerings is still there and i hope to stumble across many more going forward and i long for more people to have the courage to create. i have taught the worship module for pioneers at cms and that has been a great joy too seeing them explore what worship could look and be like in the communities they are among.

it has been incredible to be a part of a small creative church all the time i have been at cms - grace in ealing. there are so many beautiful prayers and liturgies and rituals that have nurtured my theology and faith that have then made their way into worship tricks, been shared at cms with pioneers, been picked up round the world. what a gift that has been. i have always thought the church's liturgy should be open source - downloadable, able to be remixed and uploaded for others to rework. i hope that's what people do with the worship tricks. the availability of communication technology has certainly made that possible though on balance i find the church still seems to prefer control to trusting its people and the creative process.

cms twenty: new forms

this is the fourth of a series of short reflections celebrating twenty years at cms

see also  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah 

my memory of dates is somewhat hazy but greenbelt festival played significant host to creative engagement with new forms of worship and church going back quite a way. i picked up the baton from doug gay in the early 2000s round the time greenbelt landed at cheltenham racecourse and took on co-ordinating it as a volunteer with help from a host of other people - sue wallace, gayle findlay, sonia mainstone, ben edson, ian mobsby and others. doug had co-ordinated worship for the festival hitherto and was one of the pioneers of the late late service which was truly ground breaking back in the day. bear in mind alternative worship had a decade under its belt by the time i picked up the role.

it's probably worth a pause to recap how movements worked back then. if you wanted to get involved in alternative worship there was a photocopied magazine -  i think it was called re:sonate with stories and articles but crucially it had a list of groups, people and phone numbers on the back so you could get in contact and go and visit them. there were a few weekend gatherings too but it meant meeting at greenbelt was very precious because it wasn't possible to just chat online and visit someone's web site. one of the first online forums i remember was an email list called postmodern christian which subsequently morphed into other things. hardly anyone had web sites or knew how to access them. it was oldish tech but there was something magical about dial up that connected you into this other world of conversation with people exploring theology and practice in postmodern culture. i can still hear that dial up sound in my head!

but back to the early 2000s and by then it had moved on a bit. cheltenham racecourse had lots of indoor rooms and as long as you could kit them out your self it was easy enough to host a venue or two. we ended up for a good run of hosting two - new forms and new forms 2. the latter was more of an installation venue where the labyrinth made its appearance. 

cms were gracious enough to let me do this as part of my job in those early years. cms had been partners themselves at greenbelt for many years anyway.

i was reminded recently of new forms by paul northup, the greenbelt programme director. he interviewed nadia bolz weber for the greenbelt podcast and she said how significant new forms had been for her and others visiting from other parts of the world. he was musing on that. with the new connectivity it became host to people and groups from round the world - new zealand, germany, america, australia, ireland, scotland, england. greenbelt was the perfect host because it loved new ideas, art, theology, practice, risk taking and so on. i bumped into alex and kat at this year's greenbelt and we were remembering the cyber feminist eucharist that they led - where else would you get that?!. 

steve collins site smallfire has plenty of photos of that era - this photo is from a grace service on the theme of desert where we suspended a block of ice from scaffolding as you do! he describes the move to cheltenham and what ensued as follows:

This enabled the creation of 'New Forms', a dedicated alternative worship venue with a full sound and audiovisual setup and a rolling programme of worship events and related talks. Many of the events on this site took place in New Forms. During the 2000s Greenbelt was a major showcase for creative worship and a place for practitioners from all over the world to get together.

it was a fun time for sure!

the reason it's been on my mind for a season now is that i think we could do with making visible new forms still. i don't mean the venue and those groups. but i think it would be valuable to see and hear more stories from the edges. i was thinking who i could think of and there are a quite a few in and around the edges of pioneering - new forms such as revs , sacred bean coffee, church gathered around boxing, mountain pilgrims, the table and so on. there must be lots more. i came across a new form called grace notes through chatting with jed at greenbelt this year which i did not know about (i'll blog about that another time and hope to pay it a visit). i still really like the name new forms too....

[update: since writing this i found i had listed in 6 blog posts the various worship things happening which is quite an incredible read - what a feast in one year - see greenbelt worship part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 - that was 2004! part 2 and part 3 are the new forms venues.]

wolf fields labyrinth

over the years i have been involved along with others in grace in making a whole range of labyrinths. in 2000 we installed one in st pauls cathedral which went on to be toured round the country and translated into an online interactive version and then turned into a kit format in the USA. we have run various ones at grace. and this has included mowing a range of patterns - my blog post here from 2006 on how to mow a grass labyrinth has proved popular. anyway all that is to say it was a delight last weekend to be at the opening/launch of the wolf fields labyrinth in southall. we were invited to partner with arocha uk and the table community at st johns to create an outdoor labyrinth. steve collins came up with the design and it was made by clearing the area, putting down a membrane and then painting the pattern on that. the paths were then created by using small wooden stakes and the paths filled with wood chippings. there are a few flower beds en route. it has all come out rather well. i took the photo above but steve coillins has documented it in this photo album here which gives you the idea of how it was made from start to finish. thanks to idina dunmore for inviting us.

of course that has to go as a worship trick...

mike riddell

i was so sorry to hear of mike riddell's death this weekend. it was a long time since i had seen him of course as we live on other sides of the world. but he was a gentle, creative, kindred spirit and fellow traveller in exploring faith. he was a writer/poet/liturgist. when alternative worship was happening in the uk mike, mark pierson and steve taylor were exploring similar questions and adventures in new zealand through parallel universe and the like. our worlds collided online through email forums and blogs in the days of dial up!

i was thinking of memories of mike...

he was in the uk doing a few things - i remember getting him to do things for or with CMS, and possibly brainstormers and he visited greenbelt too - in 1997 i think but possibly other times too. he happened to be visiting us one time in ealing when the matrix first came out so we went to see that together with a few others from grace - that must have been 1999! this is pre-blogging days so i can't check the archive to see exactly what we did when!

mike wrote a little book called godzone which i loved - so much so that i bought 50 to give away. it was telling a story of faith and spirituality in very fresh language with stories and parables. the one i remembered that i have retold many times as it is such a great flip at the end is...

God walked into heaven and discovered everyone was there. This didn't seem fair as some of them had done terrible things in life. So everyone was summoned before God where an angel read the ten commandments. When the first commandment was read God said 'Everyone who has broken this commandment will have to leave.' The same happened with each of the other commandments. By the time the angel had finsihed reading the seventh there was hardly anyone left. God looked up and saw a small group of grim self righteous ascetics looking very smug. For a few minutes God considered the prospect of eternity with them and then shouted out 'Alright everyone come back!' The religious group were furious saying 'we have wasted our lives.' 

threshold of the future was a wonderful book - the chapter in there on acts 10 captured the paradigm shift in mission as well as anything i have read before or after and the notion of the 'sin of holiness' has stuck with me ever since. i pretty much collected anything mike wrote - a pamphlet of liturgies, the prodigal project, alt spirit, god's homepage, deep stuff, sacred journey, imagining anew - a pdf of reflections he published on facebook in the pandemic.

he wrote some lovely prayers and liturgy. i was trying to find some earlier fairly unsuccessfully but i think this invitation to the table which i found in an old grace communion liturgy is borrowed from mike...

The table of Jesus is your place of gathering
Here you are welcomed, wanted, loved
Here there is a place set for you

So come all you who thirst,
All you who hunger for the bread of life
All you whose souls cry out for healing

Come all you who are weary
All you who are bowed down with worry
All you who ache with the tiredness of living

Come all you poor
All you who are without food or refuge
All you who go hungry in a fat land

Come all you who are lost
All you who search for meaning but cannot find it
All you who have no place of belonging

i remember going to a launch event of the film the insatiable moon which mike wrote and worked with pip piper on...

my world is definitely richer for my path crossing with mike's. so sorry for his departing this life and for family and friends who will miss him so much.

 

walk a labyrinth this saturday

i have always loved labyrinths since i was first introduced to them by kev and ana draper back in the nineties! this year should see a new one land at wolf fields as we (grace) are creating an outdoor one there for friends in southall. it should be ready by easter i imagine - you can see progress above.

but meantime as seems to be our wonderful habit there will be a labyrinth at grace this saturday - it's a pretty easy thing to remain socially distanced on as we are small in number. do join us. 

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.

liturgies for the planet

in imagining mission with john taylor there is a chapter called 'enough is enough' which reflects on mission in relation to consumer culture and its impact on the planet. In that we say

We need new liturgies, prayers, songs, theologies, and rituals that articulate connection with the soil. We should lament with sorrow the loss of species and the planet’s warming, and pray and work for its healing and renewal.

of course we need action too, which is also a form of worship. but i am interested in what you might be doing to pray or make an articulation in worship that fits this moment when COP26 is about to take place and we hold our breath to wonder what actions will come out to help us as a world community.

if you have something do message me - leave a comment or email. i will post suggestions and links here.

a few to get the ball rolling.

lectio365 have a series starting nov 1 (which will remain up) of daily reflections 

the planetary mass is still a wonderful liturgy

little spaces of hope collates some prayers and reflections from amos trust who held a climate summit and includes a climate justice liturgy at the end and some other lovely pieces too.

the next grace is the day after COP26 ends and we will be sharing bread and wine using the planetary mass liturgy which still feels so poignant. there will be space for prayer, lament and reflection. 

 

still curating worship

it's funny how things come round again. i published a book on curating worship some years back and it was based on interviews with people doing wonderful creative things trying to get at what it was that helped them in pulling together worship events. some months back i was invited by the diocese of bath and wells  to curate a celebration in bath abbey of their lay ministries. they have a passage of scripture (colossians 3 in the message translation) that they have been reflecting on all year which involved the idea of putting on clothes as a metaphor for the kind of life you might live. so we invited lou baker to be an artist involved in the celebration and she added to four clothing rails throughout. those attending had been invited to bering something that represented them to add to the rails. it was a simple idea but because it was big it created a really good visual centrepiece for the event.

afterwards i was celebrating with pioneer students who had completed the pioneer certificate in the holy rumpus which was fun. 

then midweek i took a workshop/webinar for a group of koreans online on the subject of curating worship. it's kind of weird that the idea translates across the world. but it was a really enjoyable session and they seemed to be quite energised by it. i had sent something in advance that was translated but you could feel the interest and energy in the questions. it was great to hear one story of how curating worship had inspired a very participative approach to one online exploration of worship from one attendee. i took a screen grab which is a visual with an outline of a service online. for some reason it looks very cool in another language!

embers and gracelet

the next grace is called embers and is on saturday 9 october - really liking the theme... here's the blurb:

A reflective service inspired by Jon Hopkins' track 'Sit around the fire'.

It feels like the past two years have left many things burned out and reduced to ashes, but among the ashes may be embers that can be nursed into flame again.

What for you feels like it has turned to ashes? Is there an ember at the core of you that you would like to fan into flame? What are the embers of Grace that we would like to fan into flame? What would you like to leave as ashes?

Join us at 8pm in real life at St Mary's Ealing.

Café afterwards, possibly with burnt offerings.

i think grace have been pretty creative online for the last eighteen months but it is good to be able to meet on site as it were. but we are wanting to carry our learning forward and have a mix of online and on site so gracelet will be a monthly online gathering. it's been lovely connecting with the grace diaspora and others - see flyer above for info