jonnybaker

fiesta - pioneer festival in london in july

i'm looking forward to fiesta in london in july - a festival for pioneers, activists and others wanting to make their community a better place. it's being hosted by earlsfield friary and will be great food, music, spirituality, conversations and the like. book in here . grace are taking part on the sat night and i see harry and chris will also be performing. i am a big fan of alastair mcintosh who is going to be the resident wise elder for the weekend. 

space

everyone is welcome to join us at grace on 9th february for a service of meditation and silences, followed of course by a less silent café! this year our february service falls in a space between church seasons - christmas and epiphany are past, lent does not begin until march, so we find ourselves in an in-between place, a place to pause for quiet reflection.

a worship trick - flash paper

 

flash paper from jonny baker on Vimeo.

grace last night was a rather beautiful evening with a magical labyrinth and stations on themes of gold, frankincense and myrrh. i can't remember where i read about it but i came across flash paper which is a kind of paper magicians use in tricks - when you light it, it flares up and goes up in smoke in a flash. i took a very short video of it on my phone. so if magicians use it i guess it is probably as close to a worship trick as is possible! we used it at the myrrh station where people reflected on things to bury or get rid of or put to death in their life and then they went up in a flash!

grace new year labyrinth

another year of grace begins this next weekend - join us to walk a labyrinth

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

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

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

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)

labyrinth - a new design

it was a wonderful evening at grace with a new labyrinth designed by adam baxter and made in the afternoon from some cloth and gaffer tape. st mary's in ealing is a wonderful magical space for it and with candles flickering and a playlist of ambient tunes a prayerful meditative evening ensued... if you click on this link and scroll through you'll see some of the labyrinths we have made and run over the years. i think the first was back in 1998 or 1999. this labyrinth web site has lots of info if you're wondering about labyrinths

grace labyrinth this saturday

i'm looking forward to grace on saturday as it will be a labyrinth and it's a brand new design and mat that i haven't seen yet. there will be a cafe so you can sit and chat and then go and walk the labyrinth in your time at any point during the evening. 

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).

turn

well it's getting close to the season of lent. it's a time of year when grace, the community i am part of spend some time reflecting on what it means to follow christ in today's world. we'll be having a couple of grace services and then reading various things and discussing them over meals.

 

but if you are around london join us at grace on feb 10th for the first of two services exploring the themes of lent. themes for both are taken from words in the ash wednesday service ‘turn away from sin and be faithful to christ’. first up is ‘turn’ - face down your vices and join us in grace’s very own 3 step programme followed by grace café which will be serving up pancakes.

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!]

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.

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.

grace retreat

did you know that there is an ignatian centre in london that hosts a retreat day on the second saturday of every month open to all? 

next grace we are joining them for the day - see here for info - so if you are planning on visiting grace next month it will simply be a cafe with a prayer space in the evening as the day is the main focus this month.

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