jonnybaker

grace silver

we had a wonderful celebration of 25 years of grace last night.

projections - fairy lights - tunes - 4 course feast - communion shared at the table - memories - toasts - stories - laughter - an amazing cake - 25 year old whisky - nostalgia - hope - gratefulness - friends - church - alternative worship - zine - late night

here's a few photos

grace xxv - the zine

steve collins has put together a 64 page zine for grace's 25th celebration. it's free to download as a pdf - we'll probably do a limited edition print run but haven't got oprganised for that yet. but it's a great collection of photos and memories - largely visual - and organised into sections on worship, people, technology, greenbelt, labyrinths, music and ethos. mike and i had fun selecting a few tunes from each year that have been on the grace playlist. who would have thought - two zines in a year?!

#gracesilverservice

grace - 25th anniversary!!!

it's hard to believe but november will see the 25th anniversary of grace. i wasn't there when it started but jen and i got involved when we moved to london in 1995. it has been an amazingly creative group of people with whom to share life and faith as we have sought to follow christ together in today's world. i'll save a longer post for nearer the time but i am so thankful to be part of it.

to celebrate we are having a meal/banquet. unusually we would like to know numbers in advance for the catering side of it so if you plan to come please can you let us know - email or leave a comment. if you have been part of grace's life over the 25 years do see if you could make it along - we'd love it to be a sharing of stories and memories, of thanks as well as hopes for the future as we are not done yet! 

(there is of course a grace service before that in october too)

give me eyes to see like a photographer

i spoke at st mary's ealing on sunday in the context of oblique strategies, a photography exhibition, hanging in the church. i found it a good challenge last year to combine thoughts about photography with spirituality - i guess it is doing a sort of local theology for photographers. this year i used some of the ideas and practices from last year with different photos and passage (of course) and penned a couple of photography inspired prayers. i am guessing the sermon will be recorded and i'll link to it if so because the interviews with sean and edmond were really good. anyway here it is...

In the Guardian last week there was an article on what was termed ‘peoples innovation’ which referred to park run as like church - park run is a weekly run organised by volunteers. But it was likened to church because it is a space in which people find community and friendship in the city in what can be an isolated space. Community groups in cities are really important spaces. I am part of a photography group which is is one such group.

I have invited two members of the group, Sean and Edmond, who were part of the team curating the exhibition that is hanging in the church, to come along this morning and I’d like to begin by asking then a few questions about the exhibition and indeed about photography.

Sean: Tell us about the photography group - what do you do? Why do you go?
Edmond: The exhibition is called Oblique Strategies - what does that mean? What is it about?
Sean and Edmond: Which is your photo? Tell us about it.
Sean: What do you like about photography?
Edmond: I am going to explore in a minute the idea of photography as a spiritual practice. Is there any connection for you between photography and spirituality?

(For the reader - Oblique Strategies is a series of playing cards that Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt designed in 1975. The idea is that a creative person who got stuck in the creative process could draw a card at random and use it as an oblique strategy to spark their imagination in new directions. So for the exhibition each of the nineteen photographer’s received a card drawn at random and had to take a photograph provoked by that oblique strategy. And on the photos you see each strategy written.)

For me photography is a connected with contemplative spirituality because it helps me to pay attention, to see, to really look. I won’t say much about this as I spoke about it last year but there is a tradition of photographers who use words like transcendent for their approach because they recognise that there is something beyond the immediate, a presence that they connect with as they slow down and learn to see - much like people experience in silence, a walk in a forest, or gazing at the horizon on a beach. Today people might call it mindful. Paul Hill, much loved of London Independent Photography describes photography as ‘learning to see’. Here’s two quotes from a book on the contemplative Thomas Merton and his photography that I used last year but can’t really better:

“To become a contemplative one must develop the spiritual eye of attention and what in modern life symbolises more fully and exactly what the life of a contemplative life entails than the camera.” and…

“Solitude and silence are the sine qua non of being a contemplative. In fact a photographer is a contemplative in his/her own right: he/she too must become a master of attention”

I have been thinking about what we can learn from photographers way of looking at the world. You can try this later but I began to write some lines of prayer that begin ‘give me eyes to see like a photographer…’

give me eyes to see like a photographer
that the whole world is shining
to notice how your light falls

give me eyes to see like a photographer
that beauty is in the ordinary and everyday
not in a quest to capture the perfect sunset

give me eyes to see like a photographer
that the world is broken in grief
longing for healing

give me eyes to see like a photographer
that all is gift
and you are the one who draws with light
amen

(the word photo graph means light drawing by the way photo-light graph-draw)

Last year I developed two practices that related to photography and I thought it would be good to engage them as ways of learning to see together

a) visio divina
Lectio divina is a way of reading the bible which has four stages formally known as lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio. These stages can be applied to reading or looking at photographs. I have renamed these four stages as follows:
Look
Reflect
Talk/pray
Ponder

Pick one of the photographs that catches your attention and look at it, then reflect on what it evokes for you, how does it connect with you and your story, where does it take you, then talk to the person next to you about what you see (in lectio this would also be a space for prayer to talk to God about it which you can do later), then sit for a moment and ponder what gift is in this that you will take from the experience.

[Space to do this and discuss]

b) Imaginative reading where you are the photographer
We heard a story about Jesus earlier (Mark 7:24-30). I will read it for you again in a moment. A practice that is really helpful for reflecting on a story like this is to use your imagination to picture the scene and explore it with all your senses and then watch the scene unfold in your mind’s eye. Be playful with it. It often helps to be a character in the scene - a member of the crowd or the person in the story. But the twist is that i want you to be a photographer in the story noticing it unfold and thinking as it does what photos you are inspired to take. It might be worth saying a couple of things to help frame the story - Jews did not view Gentiles as included in God’s story. They are outsiders and from this passage we see they were commonly described as dogs. Jews would not eat with them or go into their homes for example. And Jesus is in Tyre which is Gentile (Phonecia) trying to keep his head down.

[Read passage and then get a few people to share what they imagined.]

Thank you for your seeing of this intriguing story and of course we don’t know what Jesus intentions were. But I have come to see the courage and strength of this woman not taking the script and place given to her in the ordering of the world - she won’t stay in her place and I love that. To even take the risk of finding Jesus and get a hearing which was unlikely in the culture required her to get beyond the voice in her own head saying ‘who do you think you are?’ Many women have this script by the way. I also love that in terms of learning to see, she as the person who is an outsider and of another faith than Jesus is the one who help him to learn to see. What an extraordinary reversal. I really hope we have the same openness to receive the gifts of other faiths and their insights and wisdom as Christianity has its blind spots for sure. That seeing is this - that where God has been viewed as God of the Jews, a tribal God only, God is actually the God of all peoples, the God of the whole world. In Mark’s story Jesus goes on from here to the Decapolis which is Gentile and mainly on the East side of the Jordan (he has been there once in Gadara already - see Mark 5). He heals a deaf man and ministers there and it is followed by the feeding of the 4000. Earlier he has recorded the feeding of the 5000 for Jews and 12 baskets were left over signalling provision presumably for the twelve tribes of Israel. But this time 7 baskets are left over - 7 being the number for wholeness or completeness. So God is the God of the whole world the God of all peoples and Jesus mission is beyond the limits of the Jewish people. Jesus learns to see this through the oblique strategy of a foreign outsider from another faith who presses in with ‘courage’ and banter when she was being turned away. Flipping brilliant - I love her!

Thank you to you the people of St Mary’s so much for letting the Ealing photography group which is a satellite of London Independent Photography use your beautiful church to exhibit Oblique Strategies. It is part of BEAT - the Borough of Ealing Art Trail - over 100 artists are exhibiting in homes, studios and other venues in Ealing this weekend and next. I encourage you to go and visit.

I’d like to end with another prayer I was writing last night whilst thinking about photography. It’s slightly photography nerd territory. But let’s pray

open the shutter of my heart to let the light in
bring out your image in me like film in the dark room
hold me steady like a tripod with my aperture wide
give me a neutral density filter so i can have a long exposure to your love
help me learn to see
amen

 

exhibition opening

Oblique Strategies from Edmond Terakopian on Vimeo.

the opening night of Oblique Strategies exhibition was wonderful. the video above was put together by edmond terakopian and gives a really good feel of the photos, how they are hung and the space. about 150 people came along to the opening - thank you all so much! 

there is a gallery of the photos here where you can also purchase prints in a range of sizes and types of paper.

oblique strategies - i am taking part in an exhibition in ealing

if you are anywhere near ealing do come along to oblique strategies, our latest group exhibtion. it is part of the wonderful local art trail BEAT. each photographer had to respond to an oblique strategy drawn at random from brian eno's card deck of that name. it's fun! if you would like to come to the opening that is next weds night - here's an invite - i'd love to see you there. 

as with last year's exhibition grace on the saturday night 8 sept will incorporate the exhibition and on sunday 9th i will be preaching at st mary's on oblique strategies using the images which could be a challenge!

hanwell hootie

saturday is the hanwell hootie - a festival of free music. grace normally meet on this saturday but we have a retreat day so there is no greace in the evening so will be free to go along. i am actually helping out at a cafe fade to black where there will be djs and a bar so do pop in and say hi if you are between venues.

the table - next grace april 14

next grace we are delighted to welcome friends from the table in southall. the table is a fresh expression of church that fits perfectly into southall's context gathering around the table over food and conversation and hospitality. friends from the table will be coming and  helping lead grace and cooking up some food southall style - one not to miss. don't eat before you come!

because we'll be catering we could do with knowing numbers so let us know if you are planning to come (if possible).

new year at grace

kick off the year with grace next saturday - a chance to reflect and meet others in the cafe afterwards. [i won't be there myself as it's harry and grace's wedding that day which i can't wait for!]

showing photos in artisan coffee ealing in october

it is a fun time in the ealing photography group at the moment with lots of action. we are about to kick off a three-month long exhibition by ten members with three smaller groups alternating to exhibit each month in october, november and december. i am part of the october group and will be showing a couple of photos from my trip to japan last summer.  

Runs 5 October – End December 2017
Open Mon-Fri, 7:30am-5:30pm; Sat 8:30am-5:30pm; Sun 9am-5:30pm

Artisan Coffee
32 New Broadway
Ealing
London W5 2XA

the gift of sight - photography and learning to see

[thanks to danilo leonardi for the photograph]

the TAG photography exhibition has gone really well - just a couple of days to go. st mary's ealing is a wonderful space for exhibiting and i think the connection for the church with the wider community is a good thing and vice versa. as part of the exhibition we asked if the photos could be left up on the sunday for the services - very kindly the church agreed in exchange for which i did the talks incorporating the photos in to them which of course i said yes to. i really enjoyed the challenge. i gave some reflections on why i think photography can be considered a contemplative practice and then introduced a couple of spiritual practices with a photographer's twist. these were visio divina - (like lectio divina but reading the photographs), and an ignatian imaginative reading of a passage but imagining being a photographer in the scene. the service was buzzing when people were sharing where that had led them. i have added the text here - the gift of sight - for anyone interested. 

TAG - The Gift of Sight - St Mary’s Sept 2017 

TAG

Thank you to St Mary’s for hosting the TAG exhibition as part of BEAT - the Borough of Ealing Art Trail. Members of Ealing London Independent Photography which is a local photography group really appreciate it because it is a wonderful space and exhibiting space is in short supply in Ealing. Of course the Church as a whole has a great history with the arts being spaces where artists have produced and made art. The church has been a patron for the arts in all sorts of ways and home to many an artist guild over the centuries. So it makes perfect sense both ways but we are grateful. The exhibition TAG which we are sat in the midst of is actually a game where one person tags another, only this time it is played with photos. Each photographer responds to the previous image in random order creating a chain reaction of connected images. You can read the blurb to find out more.

Photography as Contemplative Practice

People take photos for many reasons and they are everywhere. If you take a photo in London with people in it’s hard to take one without someone holding a phone up for a photo. They can be about beauty, shared memories, documentary, selfies, longing, grief, everyday wonder.… I love getting photos via whatsapp of my granddaughter Flo for example! I am a visual thinker and have always liked images as much as words. I realised after a while that the reason I like taking photos is that it helps me look, it helps me pay attention, to stop and notice, to see things I might rush by or miss. I want to suggest that this is a spiritual or perhaps in today’s language a mindful practice. Lots of the mystics and contemplatives who have so much wisdom about life and prayer talk about attention, seeing, waking up, awareness being at the heart of a contemplative life.

The book “Thomas Merton: A Master of Attention” by R Waldron has a chapter on Merton's photography. In the book he says that if you had to sum up Merton’s writing on spirituality in one theme it would be ‘learning to see’ and comments

“To become a contemplative one must develop the spiritual eye of attention and what in modern life symbolises more fully and exactly what the life of a contemplative life entails than the camera.” and…

“Solitude and silence are the sine qua non of being a contemplative. In fact a photographer is a contemplative in his/her own right: he/she too must become a master of attention”

Paul Hill who I think was one of the founders of London Independent Photography or at least an early member and who is held in very high regard gave the annual LIP lecture a few years ago and he described photography as learning how to see. He also shared his own sense of never waning interest and excitement in taking ‘small adventures’ locally with the camera on a kind of quest.

In my own experience sometimes this seeing or noticing on small adventures can be like electricity. The connection between me and what I see evokes awe, wonder, gratitude, grief, and there is an energy of presence, and sometimes a moment of epiphany. Of course you don’t need a camera to have this sort of experience - I have found the same experience in silence or in everyday moments of life. .

I have been trying to find language to make sense of this (if it needs making sense of) and have been very helped by John Taylor’s writing - he was the head of CMS who I work for and a former Bishop of Winchester. In one of his books (The Christlike God) he writes about luminosity.

“We should perhaps be ready to trust our occasional perceptions of the luminosity of the physical world and its apparent potentiality for becoming a voice and a word whereby we know ourselves to be addressed and held in relationship.”

He says that the Greek word for God 'Theos' might easily be translated as 'shining' in some of its other Greek usage. I like this idea. Is luminosity a photographer’s name for God I wonder?!

This seeing has the quality of encounter i.e. it is quite common to experience it as more than observation. In photography there have been schools or traditions where people like Ansell Adams and Minor White came to talk of photography as transcendent or numinous i.e it seemed to connect beyond the experience itself. Again John Taylor, this time in a different book - The Go Between God - says

“Instead of being part of the landscape, part of existence, it presents itself, becomes present, it commands attention.”

He suggests that many people experience a force, or what feels like a third party, a go-between, setting up a current of communication. Christians talk about this Go Between as the Spirit or breath of God in all things, present in all life and the moments of epiphany are moments when we see truly as things are. But these experiences are not in any way limited to those who formally profess a faith.

Spiritual Practices with a Photographer’s Twist

Aside from thinking about taking photos as a practice in itself I want us to try two spiritual practices together here which are both centuries old but I have given them a photographer’s twist.

a) Visio Divina

Lectio divina is a way of reading the bible which has four stages formally known as lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio. These stages can be applied to reading or looking at photographs. I have renamed these four stages as follows:

Look

Reflect

Talk/pray

Ponder

Pick one of the photographs that catches your attention and look at it, then reflect on what it evokes for you, how does it connect with you, where does it take you, then talk to the person next to you about what you see (in lectio this would also be a space for prayer to talk to God about it which you can do later), then sit for a moment and ponder what gift is in this that you will take from the experience.

[Space to do this and discuss]

b) Imaginative reading where you are the photographer

We heard two stories about seeing today - the healing of Blind Bartimaus and the healing of the woman with bleeding for 12 years (from Mark 10 and Mark 5).

A practice that is really helpful for reflecting on a story like this was introduced by Ignatius of Loyola. It is an imaginative way of reading in which you use your imagination to picture the scene and explore it with all your senses and then watch the scene unfold in your mind’s eye. Be playful with it. It often helps to be a character in the scene - a member of the crowd or the person in the story. But the twist is that i want you to be a photographer in the story noticing it unfold and thinking as it does what photos you are inspired to take. We will do this with the story of Bartimaus which is a story about the gift of sight or learning to see.

[Read passage again and give space for exercise and then get a few people to share what they imagined. Draw out aspects of the story]

These stories are not just about Bartimaus or the woman seeing with new eyes. The crowd’s seeing is changed (indeed perhaps it is they who have been blind all along) by their interaction with Jesus. They see that those who they have shouted down or ignored or excluded as unclean are welcome and that the world needs to be remade as a place where those that our systems exclude economically and socially are welcomed back into community. I suggest we might actually think of Jesus as one who himself is a photographer if you’ll allow me a bit of license. The word photograph means to draw (graph) with light (photo) - Jesus as one who sees is someone who draws with light. Through his seeing he remakes the world.

I picked this last story because it has a (somewhat tenuous) connection with the exhibition theme of TAG - the woman tags Jesus by touching his garment! I hope that today you have heard an invitation to learn to see from photographers. That seeing may well include seeing the God who is luminosity, who is the go between, present in all of life. I also hope that we might all be open to being tagged or to reach out and tag the hem of Christ’s garment and see what might happen.

I was at a wedding yesterday and to my amazement this quote from Thomas Merton (who of course is one of Ealing saints as he lived in Ealing as a boy) was on the cover of the order of service with which I conclude:

“We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story, it is true…. God manifests himself everywhere and in everything - in people, in things, in events and in nature… You cannot be without God. It’s impossible, it’s just impossible”

TAG opening tonight - come and hang with the ealing art crowd!

i'm looking forward to the opening of TAG, our photography exhibition tonight. consider yourself invited - drop in any time between 7 and 9:30

grace - tag

so it's a new season of grace. we kick off by making the most of the photo exhibition TAG that will be in the space. i'm at a wedding so can't be at grace sadly but the photos will be up for the services at st mary's on sunday 10th and i will be preaching using them as inspiration on 'the gift of sight' - come along 10:30 or 6pm if you're interested in that.

TAG - exhibition in ealing in september as part of borough of ealing art trail (BEAT)

i'm really pleased to be able to announce TAG - a photographic exhibition that the photography group i am part of are putting on as part of the borough of ealing art trail.

here's the blurb :

Tag is a game where one person tags another, only this time played with photographs. Each photographer responds to the previous image creating a chain reaction of connected images. The results are displayed for the first time during the Borough of Ealing Art Trail (BEAT) and will be suspended in mid air in the beautiful space of St Mary's Church, Ealing. 

september 6th- 16th
st mary's church, st mary's rd, ealing w5 5rh

opening times:
mon-thurs 9:30am-5:00pm
fri 9:30am-8:00pm
sat 11am-6:00pm
sun 12:00noon - 6:00pm

download a pdf of the flyer  download a print version pdf of the flyer

the opening night will be weds sept 6th and it would be great to have a big crowd there for that - so if you fancy a private view put it in your diary - 7:00 - 9:30

good - grace next saturday

Jeremiah 29:7: Work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.

Proverbs 11:11: Good people bless and build up their city, but the wicked can destroy it with their words.

What does good look like, in Ealing, in London, in the world? How does Grace support good and how do we support one another as we do good? What is God saying to us at this time? Join us for Communion, conversation and prayer.

the god of unwelcome

Unwelcome!

God is here
His Spirit is with us
[but not with them]

so opened last night's provocative liturgy at grace responding to the usa and uk climates of fear and shoring up borders to those from other countries. the start was a liturgy of unwelcome which included the unveiling of an icon of the god of unwelcome which was a reworking of rublev but with the faces of trump, pence and bannon - it was disturbing! we had scriptures reassuring us that god is on our side and will destroy enemies and sang a song to the god of unwelcome which included these verses...

Excluding God
Excluding God
You love me
but not my neighbour
Excluding god

Unwelcoming God
Unwelcoming God
Close the door
Ring fence the table
Unwelcoming god

we then had take two which was a liturgy of welcome and included similar things. the highlight for me was meg wroe's amazing rework of rublev's icon with the three as migrants. we discussed together when we exclude and seem to follow a tribal god rather than the god of the whole world and all peoples recognising that there is a judge or pharisee in all of us as well as someone longing to be christlike with an open home and table. here is a link to the service in the grace archive including the unwelcome icon! and here is a pdf of it for anyone interested - it draws on several prayers, songs liturgy from other grace services. i really enjoyed and was challenged by the experience both of planning and then leading grace. and i long to follow in the way of the god and christ of welcome rather than whatever unholy gods seem to be centre stage right now. i am making this liturgy a worship trick - 69 in series 4.

[massive thanks to jon birch for the icon of unwelcome and meg wroe for the icon of welcome]

grace - feb 11 - unwelcome

in light of the mood of escalating unwelcome for those in the margins in britain and the usa, february’s grace will be a space to revisit the story of jesus and see what light that might shed on how we might respond. bring your troubles, questions, conversation, anxieties and prayers. there is room round the table.

saturday february 11, st mary’s ealing, 8pm

progress - join us for first grace of 2017 on saturday

this saturday is the first grace of 2017. come and join us as we progress from the challenging 2016 to look with hope to the year ahead. it's something of a tradition now that chris read curates january - at least it's the third year in a row he has taken on the mantle and harry baker will be joining him. no idea what has been dreamed up but it will doubtless be inspiring and i guess flock will be performing their unique contemplative poem/songs (is that a pong?! or a soem?)

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!)