jonnybaker

the big one

it was great to take part in the big one, extinction rebellion's protest in london. i joined in the discussion, service and march hosted by christian climate action and then things around parliament square. here are a few photos from the day - extinction rebellion the big one

mountain retreat

i go on a retreat every year. in terms of my life, headspace, wellbeing, imagination, relationship with god it's one of the best things i do. i tend now to go somewhere quiet, alone, silent. the last couple of years that has been in the wood. but group retreats are also great. i have done a few of those. last year johnny sertin and paul rose ran a mountain one for pioneers that sounded wonderful. they are running one this year. places are limited so book early if you are interested. book here

we quit

i have so much respect for those putting their bodies on the line to protest the climate crisis and the government's continual ignoring of the gravity of the situation. i got the latest email update from extinction rebellion and they are making a change of tactics away from disruption of the public and to prioritise attendance rather than arrest and relationships over roadbloacks. see we quit. put april 21 in your diary to be in london. 

the big issues for 2023 are the climate and wealth inequality - we don't have to organise our world the way we do. a new imagnation is required. 

liturgies for the earth 3

in response to the challenge i issued of needing more liturgies for the earth,  grace saturday night was a really lovely thoughtful evening. as we met, world leaders finalised the statement from cop26. steve has added pretty much everything from the service to the grace site including prayers and links to photos of stations. i really love the photos of leaves with things written on that we lament as loss. feel free to use anything - lots of it was borrowed or recycled from elsewhere!

my improvised watermelon station - last minute sub for pumpkin worked well. 

the prayers and so on were really good. I think the one that has lingered with me the most is this liturgy against ecocide by sam donaldson from amost trust's download

I love you earth, you are beautiful
I love you earth, you are beautiful
I love you earth, you are beautiful

I love you rivers, you are beautiful
I love you rivers, you are beautiful
I love you rivers, you are beautiful

I love you trees, you are beautiful
I love you trees, you are beautiful
I love you trees, you are beautiful

I love you birds, you are beautiful
I love you birds, you are beautiful
I love you birds, you are beautiful

I love you body, you are beautiful
I love you body, you are beautiful
I love you body, you are beautiful

it feels so important to be lovers of the earth our home.

i am adding this to the worship trick series

liturgies for the planet 2

thanks to a pioneer student who put me on to this collection of prayers for the climate and ecological emergency by john swales which is on the arocha web site. he also has a youtube channel with some of the prayers spoken over videos. and on twitter he recently posted this prayer for those feeling overwhelmed

I can’t stop climate breakdown,
But I can play my part,
A small part, 
So small,
That it is insignificant, 
But I will try. 


I can’t stop climate breakdown,
But I can pray,
And act,
So small, 
That it seems insignificant 
But I will try.


I can’t stop climate breakdown,
But I can love,
And be loved.
So beautiful,
That my life has dignity, 
But I will try.


I can’t stop climate breakdown,
But I can rage against the machine,
And say,
Not in my name,
So small,
But I will try.

I can’t stop climate breakdown,
But I can hope,
And dream,
And participate,
In a conspiracy of compassion,
A holy rebellion,
Until that day when all tears are wiped away.

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. 

 

enough is enough

cathy reflects on another of john taylor's phrases in imagining mission

I think we have all learned that enough is enough and that we need to develop a theology of enough. We are learning that we need to respect the planet and not to be so consumerist and extravagant. In 1972, nearly fifty years ago, Taylor wrote "our Western way of life is marked by excess whichever aspect of our situation one looks at – our consumption of food and our accumulation of goods, our wage claims and price rises, our waste and pollution, the concentration and congestion of our cities, our destruction of living creatures and our plunder of fuels and minerals, our expenditure on armaments and the wanton disproportion of the way we use them – excess is the word that comes continually to mind. Ruthless, unbridled, unthinking excess."

Perhaps we are learning to respect the planet, to live more simply so that others may simply live and to take delight and joy in simple pleasures.

#ImaginingMission

the great animal orchestra

there is a fabulous installation at the moment at vinyl factory by uva called other spaces. i have loved all the things of theirs i have seen (chorus, onedotzero, speed of light, momentum). this exhibition has three installations. one is a reworking of momentum, the second a lazer depth of field experience that reminded me of perspective drawings at school (though somewhat cooler), and the third the great animal orchestra. you can read about it here. and i have a few photos here though after taking a couple was asked not to so there are not many. 

the great animal orchestra in some ways is a fitting follow on to my previous post. it is a sort of celebration at the wonder of the world but also a lament. bernie krause has recorded animal sounds in various landscapes. these are played in a dark room with led screens making up three walls. in front of the screens is a pool of dark water which reflects the projections in mesmerising fashion. the projections are digital graphs or spectograms of the sounds. as the sound goes up and down so the lines respond. when a creature's noise first appears the name appears on the screen and slowly moves round the wall. the whole thing lasts about an hour. it's a gorgeous experience (apart from when you either step in the pool or put your hand in it because you don't realise it's there!). the lament side of it is one track before and after where the sound is first played at two points recorded in time. the second is after the landscape has been wiped out or eroded in some way so the absence of animal voices is an immense loss that is brought into the room in its absence. 

the space itself is an like an alternative worship dream! we have got lazy at grace but we used to create three walls to project onto to be surrounded by projected images and have beanbags in the centre as a space for reflection, with ambient music playing. we still do create that kind of space to some degree but this was so well done. i'd love to have use of a space like that. it was a very fitting space to visit during extinction rebellion. and just as poignant as the planetary mass. go and see it if you can - it's free and runs until december 8th.

i would put it down as a worship trick but i'm just not sure anyone else could pull it off in the same way!

there is a second exhibition at the other side of the vinyl factory which is not quite as amazing but does include an installation by doug aitken - one of my all time favourite artists - so it's worth it for that piece called new era. i love his video installations.

grace does planetary mass

i am in two minds as to whether to put this out there but last saturday with extinction rebeliion in full flow and a focus on the planet for grace we gathered round the table. some members had been in to join in the action - sadly i couldn't make it due to work. so we gathered to pray for our world, to remember it is god's world and lament the ways it is being pushed to its limits. i have a recording of the planetary mass from the nine o clock service. i can't remember where i got it from but i have always loved it and play it to students as an example of creative liturgy. it must be from the early nineties. anyway i transcribed it which i have never done and we read through it together and shared bread and wine round the table. it was without the visuals and drama but poignant and powerful. if anyone is reading who was involved in its creation thank you - and i hope it's ok to put this on my blog. but here is the liturgy and i have added tracks we listened to. the soil by david benjamin blower was perfect for passing round bread and wine and we brought soil and water to the table along with bread and wine.

i'd love to hear of what other laments and liturgies anyone else is creating or using. 

Welcome and Opening Prayer
Listen to planetary mass 0-3:09

The planetary mass is our celebration of life and our ritual of celebration and repentance on behalf of our culture. Here we seek to mourn the destruction of so much life on our planet and to cultivate a compassion that feels in our own flesh the wounds inflicted on others and on our planet and to awaken to the incredible awe and beauty of our existence with God. Whether humanity has a future or whether it is going to become extinct in the next few centuries depends on our will to live and that means our absolute will for our one indivisible life. We have got used to death, at least to the death of other creatures and other people and to get used to death is the beginning of freezing into lifelessness itself. So the essential thing is to affirm life, the life of other creatures, the life of other people, our own lives.

The Lord is here
His Spirit is with us

Breathe in the Holy Spirit…
Breathe in life
And out fear
In passion
And out numbness
In hope
And out death

The Word
Wisdom let us attend. From the book of Deuteronomy:
This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death,
blessing and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and hold fast to Him.

This is the word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Read Declaration of Rebellion from This is Not A Drill

Confession
Creator God the Source of all life we confess our sin to you.
We confess where we have turned away from you and where in ignorance we have turned our back on the earth and on each other.
We confess that as we have wanted more and more we have dominated and exploited your creation.
And we admit that we are responsible for abusing the riches of our home, that we are complicit in crucifying you by polluting the air and the sea, by destroying the forests, by starving the people of the two-thirds world, and by robbing the future generations of life not yet here, our children and grandchildren.
God of all creation we turn away from our addiction
We turn back to you
Our Source and our Hope
We repent and we turn back to you

Communion
This ritual is a symbol of the worship already happening in creation. The whole universe is invited to this intimate event, the feasting on Christ. The church here has no walls - we worship with plants, planets, animals, and angels.

The day before Christ suffered he took bread in sacred hands and looking up to heaven he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying ‘take eat this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me’. In the same way after supper he took the cup and gave thanks. He gave it to them saying ‘drink this all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this to recall me, to remember me.’

Creator and soul of the cosmos
The universe shines with your life Lord
You’re everything we desire.
We give our lives to you
You created everything that lives
Through Christ you are the Source
We believe and trust in you
Our desire is to let go of death and give ourselves to the vision of life your son Jesus believed in to the point of his own death
We commit ourselves to him
Spirit of life, integrity and truth who raised our brother from death and gives us hope beyond death here now
You are our strength and compassion
We believe and trust in you

God of life we bring wine to the table
Touch this now to become a life blood transfusion.
Christ our life we bring bread to the table to become your precious flesh
In our global village we offer it in the presence of those who starve.
Eternal source we offer water:
The overwhelming swell of the oceans unique to this planet.
Creator God we thank you for the gift of soil:
The foundation of the forest, the sign of our mortality
Creator God we offer ourselves along with these elements of bread and wine and join with the voice of the whole universe crying out for life and healing.
Father hear our prayer through Jesus Christ.
Amen

We can no longer see ourselves as separate from nature.
We are all given a chance to participate in the story of the universe.
We’re all in it together - people, particles and God.
Through Christ hope is built into the very fabric of space time and matter.
So now there’s hope.
Now contains the possibility of resurrection.
So let’s come to the table now and let’s reconnect with Christ,
hope of the cosmos,
the power to renew us and change our lives now.

[share bread and wine
play The Soil by David Benjamin Blower during distribution]

Prayer
Let us pray together now for the universal church and the world.
Christ our hope at this critical time lead us into facing our denial.
As the church, as a culture wake us up to an awareness of the responsibility and opportunities we now have.
We honour the wisdom gained by centuries of spiritual and artistic endeavour through the experience of our mystics and the lives and deaths of all our saints.
We pray for an open church that celebrates the coming together of all faith and wisdom traditions, the sciences and the arts.
We pray for a new time of hope, mystery and promise as we bring all these riches to bear on our global crisis.
God the Mother and Father of all creation we pray that a new way of living emerges out of the present reductionist system that’s robbed the world of its spirit and turned human beings into objects and nature into a machine.
We pray for a culture that allows us to live in harmony with all creation and stops crippling the earth’s diversity.
We pray that your Spirit of passionate life that raised Christ from the dead bursts now into all people in our earth community.
Creator God we pray that we will wake up to a new consciousness.

Watch Greta Thurbnberg and George Monbiot video

Listen to Numbers by Radiohead

Blessing
May Holy Wisdom whose voice calls all to the feast
Whose hand draws the whole cosmic community of life to her table,
preserve you in eternal life.
And the blessing of God Creator, Liberator and Holy Spirit be amongst you and stay with you always
Amen

The mass has ended
Go in peace

[All liturgy is from The Planetary Mass by the Nine O Clock Service]

there's a hole in the sky...

i feel so overwhelmingly sad about the state of the planet and the climate crisis. this beautiful world, our home is being pushed to its limits by us. and heads have been in the proverbial sand for a long long time. today began two weeks of action around the world to try and highlight this state of emergency. extinction rebellion have three demands in the uk which are

• The Government will declare a climate and ecological emergency,
• specify a 2025 target date and
• will establish a Citizens’ Assembly to determine the wide-ranging policy changes needed to transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions and halt the extinction of species.

if you are in london go offer your prayers, protest and support if you can. there is a faith bridge at lambeth bridge for example if you are wondering where to head. you will have read of arrests in the news probably but those getting arrested are arrestibles which is amazing but you don't have to be one to get involved. 

i went to listen to extinction rebellion at greenbelt festival and was so impressed with their plans, their passion and their non-violent approach. their handbook this is not a drill is really worth getting and i had a wry smile when i saw rowan williams has written the afterword - what a legend! the anglican church thinks about mission through what it calls 5 marks of mission and one of those is creation care - this is a huge issue in mission today.

i was reflecting that 24 years ago, in 1995, jon birch and i recorded an album 'whose earth' lamenting what was happening and celebrating the wonder of planet earth. it is so hard to fathom how we have done so little as an international community. it's time to change. the music will sound dated so i'll spare you that but i have had the words of a song i wrote in 1995 in my head recently and confess to being depressed at how they are still so resonant...

there’s a hole in the sky
oil in the seas
the desert is increasing
and we’re burning down the trees
species are extinct
acid rain is in the air
we’re destroying the creation
entrusted to our care

sorry lord
show us your mercy

toxic waste is in the ocean
sewage on the shore
environmental destruction
in the wake of every war
resources are depleted
the poor are still in need
we’re abusing the creation
to satisfy our greed

sorry lord
show us your mercy

we have sought salvation
through technology
and backed up uninvolvement
with our theology
yet this is your world
you hold it in your hand
help us turn creation
into the promised land

sorry lord
show us your mercy

 

natural climate solutions

greta thurnberg and george monbiot's video is a must watch and proposes natural climate solutions

rewilding britain

great to see the launch of rewilding britain today

the stuff of nightmares

i was genuinely angry when shell had the audacity to put out an ad making out they are some kind of environmental saviours - what a joke! there’s another energy ad at the moment doing the same thing with an overlay of an orangutan. do these companies think we are stupid???!!! so i was delighted to get an email as a member of greenpeace inviting me to contribute to buying an ad in response which was featured in thursday’s papers doing a bit more truth telling!

6 women one skyscraper no permission

loved watching this from greenpeace

chasing ice

last night i went to see the film chasing ice which was put on by ealing transition. it's well worth seeing if you get a chance. if you are in doubt about the shifts in climate, after watching james balog's time lapse movies of glaciers you will have a visual picture that is at the same time utterly compelling visually and will make you want to lament. it's what he calls the extreme ice survey. the commitment to place 25 cameras in extreme positions and conditions to take hourly photographs of glaciers is amazing...

james balog gave a TED talk in 2009 and towards the end of this you see some of the time lapse movies. it's well worth 20 minutes of your life.

i have been meaning to go to a gathering of ealing transition for a while so it was good to finally go and meet people and hear of local initiatives in response to climate change and shifting our dependency on oil. it's an extraordinary movement. one of the anglican 5 marks of mission is care for the environment. one brilliant way of doing that would be to join in with transiition if it's going on near you.

this is an AMAZING opportunity!

if i were to think what are the themes i want to look at and think about at the moment in the world they would be ecology, economy and faith, and guess what next saturday - dec 1 - there is an incredibly creative event in london doing exactly that - ADVENTurous. 

the day consists of

• a serious of speakers in a TED talks style day - exploring those themes. the speaker line up is fantastic as far as i can see
• artists who have engaged with the themes displaying their work which will go on to leeds and colwyn bay after
• an evening of performers including no less than world slam champ harry baker (biased moi?!)

it's all hosted by greenbelt. you can get tickets for the day, evening or both. if you can't afford it and want to come e-mail me and i'll see what i can do (shhhh don't tell anyone)

i can't wait! what a great way to kick off advent. i'll try and get blogging this week about advent - no time no time and yes i know advent is about waiting.

weed it and reap

what a lovely story - weed it and reap

greenbelt short talks afternoon may 20 - paradise lost and found

paradise lost and found afternoon of short talks on may 20 is being hosted by greenbelt at the greenbelt offices in london

mission and creation care

at cms the library subscrbes to anumber of mission journals. increasingly these are online and some you have to be a member or subscribe to access but others are free. i mentioned anvil's re-invention recently online and free.

well another journbal that is online and free is the international belletin of missionary research. the latest issue which you can download is on mission and creation care possibly one of the most important edges in mission as we head into the next few decades. loads of back issues are available. if i am being penickety i found it awkward to find out what issues might be interesting as the titles of the issues online are the dates of publication rather than the themes. but having said that there is a search facility on the site. there's a wealth of mission thinking and research here - have a dig and see what you find.

growzones

earth abbey is an inspired project/vision/network. here's what they say about themselves...

EarthAbbey is a movement of people helping one another to live more in tune with the earth. We work to promote

• A rich relational life between human beings
• A compassion toward the earth and its creatures
• A sense of interconnectedness of all life
• Wisdom and justice in relationships
• Human fulfilment and the nurture of the inner life
• A way of living that leaves the earth better than we found it

Our inspiration derives from Jesus of Nazareth whose life and mission was to bring about a peace which embraces all creation.  We pursue a life-affirming, creative spirtuality that is open to all. EarthAbbey is more than a website. It is a movement of people and you are invited to join.

one of the projects they are encouraging is growzones. it's a very simple idea - getting a small community group together to either develop a community garden/allotment or to develop one another's gardens to grow food. we actually do this with an allotment anyway and certainly find it easier and more fun to do in a group but it is good to see it being encouraged. there is a web site and kit to get you started if you need help. a group is starting in oxford soon...