jonnybaker

dinosaur love

dionosaur love - harry baker's latest performed at greenbelt last orders

pecha kucha

i took part in the pecha kucha evening at greenbelt. i stumbled across mike radcliffe's reports on greenbelt and saw he had uploaded a movie of my presentation - small adventures. the presentation format is 20 slides on for a duration of 20 seconds each.

greenbelt - a few things i'm up to...

pechakucha - no i'd not heard of it before but greenbelt has two evenings with people presenting in the pechakucha format of 20 slides giving a spiel for 20 seconds on each one. i am giving one (as is steve collins and presumably about 5 others) on sat night 8pm called small adventures on my approach to photography

silent pilgrimage - pick up a set of headphones and follow this year's trail which has been put together by proost and is all spoken word on the theme of home exploring longing, wandering, exile, and homecoming. we have three poets - pádraig o tuama, harry baker and chris goan - should be pretty good!

DJing - i confess i loved playing tunes in the wine bar a couple of years back and so had to say yes when mike rose and i were invited to play tunes in the beer tent on friday night. i think our slot is from round about 9:15-10:30pm. expect a pretty chilled selection - horizontal dancing. whether you'll be able to hear anything in there above the chat i have no idea! but at least come and say hi and buy us a beer :-)

grace are taking part in the worship programme as ever with two services and an installation. yearn riffs on the parable of the prodigal son on sat at 12 noon (which sadly clashes with harry's spoken word show in the big top - grrrrr) and love thy six billion neighbours on monday explores our planet as home at 2pm  and we are adding kitchen to the horsebox installation on home.

cms have a stand in g-source and pioneer training will be one of the things featured. do come and say hi or if you want to meet me to chat about it i will happily see you in the tiny tea tent or bar. there's a workshop in there at 5pm on saturday which i am taking part in along with guys from ripon college on ordained pioneer ministry.

...and i'll be taking a photo along to the photoswap i mentioned below

but no doubt i will be mainly talking to friends old and new from near and far thinking i really must go to something!

greenbelt photoswap is back

the last couple of years at greenbelt there has been a photoswap. it does exactly what it sounds like. and you get a photo exhibited over the weekend. i have taken part the last two years and no doubt will again. here's some blurb on it

Bring your photograph along on the first evening of the festival and see it hung as part of an exhibition that will last all weekend. 

Bring your friends to see your work, and eavesdrop as people try and understand your "motivation". 

Then, on the final evening, watch as your fellow photographers fall over each other for the privilege of taking home your art and sticking it on the fridge. 

You bring a photo, you take one back. Simple. Inspirational.

full blurb here | download info here

mavis staples at greenbelt

more lineup announcements from greenbelt today - mavis staples is playing which is wonderful! harry baker also gets annunced in the lineup which made me smile. he's putting together what promises to be a pretty stonking line up for a spoken word night.

greenbelt announce line up

greenbelt festival announce some of their line up today - of course there will be a bundle more to follow! always a must visit festival to end off the summer...

Best-selling author Rob Bell returns, alongside the likes of political satirist Mark Thomas, theologian Brian McLaren, Christian Aid director Loretta Minghella, and emerging church guru Phyllis Tickle.

Beyond the talks programme, already confirmed to in the music lineup are singer and activist Billy Bragg, familiar Greenbelt names Iain Archer and Martyn Joseph, folk favourite Kate Rusby and Scottish rock outfit Idlewild.

Other musical highlights include Christian rock outfit [dweeb], new worship group the Rend Collective and jazz-rap renegade Soweto Kinch.

As previously announced, Greenbelt is focusing particularly on family and children’s provision this year. New performance, film, craft and play venues for children will operate alongside spectacular shows for the whole family, including breath-taking aerial theatre from Ockham’s Razor, charming puppetry from PuppetCraft, and dance workshops led by Britain’s Got Talent finalists Flava.

"We're so pleased with the lineup that’s coming together," said Greenbelt Chair, Andy Turner. "Only Greenbelt could host such a diverse group of incredible artists, thinkers and activists."

Further contributors will be announced over the next few months.

To celebrate the launch of this years lineup, Greenbelt will be hosting two evenings with Rob Bell which will take place at Westminster Central Hall (in partnership with the Methodist Church) and at Cheltenham Racecourse on Tuesday 19th April. The Festival itself will take place from Friday 26th - Monday 29th August 2011. Tickets for both events are available at greenbelt.org.uk/tickets.

greenbelt tv

greenbelt have just mailed out their latest newsletter and in it is a link to greenbelt tv youtube channel which includes a bundle of video short talks (around 8 mins) from people speaking at the festival. one is me talking about worship. the way these were put together was that a booth was set up and the media team contacted people on site on the day to come and give a talk. i was asked and foolishly said yes and even more foolishly had no time to think about what to say until i stepped up. fortunately what was at the time embarrassingly stop start and incoherent has been edited into something at least vaguely coherent. apologies to anyone in the audience in that particular session! - but go watch the likes of dave andrews on the beattitudes, mark vernon on friendship or clare short on palestine and many more...

go to gloucester

the most astonishing exhibition of sculpture opens tomorrow for the next two months in gloucester cathedral. the web site bandwith is exceeded which is a little unfortunate but you can read about it here. called crucible, it contains work by around 30 sculptors in and around the cathedral including the likes of gormley and hirst. the cathedral is remarkable in itself! the evening before greenbelt we had a gathering of emerging communities/leaders/friends in the cathedral so got a sneak preview wandering around the sculptures which was truly wonderful. i didn't take my camera to greenbelt this year as i had enough to carry round without. but i will definitely be going back.

obviously back from greenbelt. brilliant as ever. feeling bleary eyed as ever! now it's the last day of august - time to gear up for what always feels like the start of the year for me even though i left school a long time ago!

greenbelt, proost and don't forget the week after...

looking forward to greenbelt this coming weekend. hope to see some of you there. our big news from proost is that the greenbelt shop is going to be stocking quite a few proost downloadable products - audio, movies and books. it's not particularly profiled on the site but the link is here. it will be great to develop this partnership and put the stuff out to gb punters, a wider and different audience. i think this will gain momentum after the festival but the infrastructure is there. it makes great sense as so many artists on proost are greenbelters doing things at the festival and it fits with the creative gb arts, faith and spirituality vibe.

as for proost ourselves lots of artists and communities will be doing stuff but we are not doing any exclusive proost events this time around. grace have a service on monday at noon in the big top which is going to be amazing - a lot of effort has been going into it! landskapes gets an airing in the hub on friday at 10pm. and i will be chairing a conversation around curating worship on sunday at 2pm.

this may seem crazy (!?) but after greenbelt we have a couple of days in oxford with dave andrews and mark yaconelli - who obviously are over for the festival. this is on the weds and thurs the week after. details below. please book in if you are coming so we know numbers for catering! details below. book online here

 

Join Dave Andrews and Mark Yaconelli in an exploration of rootsy youth and community work and radical spirituality.

Church Urban Fund, CMS and the Centre for Youth Ministry are hosting a couple of days in September at CMS House in Oxford to explore further useful ideas, thinking and practice to do with radical community and youth work. Inspiring and practical, with time to dig deeper and discover more, each day will help to equip you in the work you do. We’re really pleased to welcome Dave Andrews on Sept 1 for a day on community work, and Mark Yaconelli on Sept 2 for a day on youth work, spirituality and young people. Both Mark and Dave are well known and highly respected practitioners making rare visits to the UK.

 

1st September 10am-4pm: Growing Radical, Rooted, Distinctive Community work, Dave Andrews

This is a great opportunity to reflect on your own community work with a rootsy activist working at the grassroots. Dave is particularly interested in radical spirituality, incarnational community and the dynamics of personal and social transformation.

During the day you will:

1. Explore frameworks for effective community involvement that don’t assume large numbers or funds.

2. Develop skills to encourage and mobilise others in ongoing community work.

3. Provide perspectives to keep the fire in the belly, avoid burn out and help sustain ourselves.

4. Confront questions and seek answers about work.

5. Connect with other activists and organisations involved in compassionate community work.

Dave and Ange and their family have lived and worked in intentional Christian communities with marginalised people in Asia and Australia for nearly 40 years. With their friends they started Aashiana, Sahara and Sharan - three well-known community organisations working with slum dwellers, sex workers, drug addicts and people with HIV/AIDS in India; and they are currently working alongside Aborgines, refugees and people with disabilities with the Waiters Union, an inner city community network in Brisbane Australia.

Dave is an educator for TEAR Australia and an elder for Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor. He has written many books including Christi-Anarchy, Not Religion But Love, People Of Compassion and Plan Be.

 

2nd September 10am-4pm: Wonder, Fear, and Longing: Tending the Adolescent Soul, Mark Yaconelli

How do we slow young people (and ourselves) to the speed of God? How do we help young people discover their capacity for love, generosity, compassion, and kindness? How do we cultivate the heart and life of Jesus within the young people of our communities? How do we as youth workers, ministers, pastors and parents become transparent to the suffering and needs of young people without burning out? Through story, discussion, and spiritual practice Mark Yaconelli will share his experience and practical research from twenty years of ministering to the souls of young people and the youth workers who serve them.

Mark Yaconelli was the founder and director of the Youth Ministry and Spirituality Project at San Francisco Theological Seminary which received attention across the United States for its ground-breaking integration of spiritual direction, contemplation, and ancient spiritual practices within adolescent spiritual formation programs. Mark is author of four books including Contemplative Youth Ministry: Practicing the Presence of Jesus and most recently, Wonder, Fear, and Longing. Mark currently serves as Project Director for the Center for Engaged Compassion at Claremont School of Theology.

You can download a pdf with the information on here. Please spread the word - e-mail it to your friends and networks. Drinks and lunch are included in the ticket price.

counting down to greenbelt...

well greenbelt isn't so far away now. how did that happen?!

last year i took part in the photoswap - which does what it says - bring a photo which gets exhibited for the festival. turn up on the monday and swap - you go away with someone else's. last year photos ranged from a small ink jet printed image through to a decent print. this year at least it needs to be on photo paper! but participation is the name of the game... follow the link above to see details

greenbelt pocket liturgies book

it's a bit of a proost week on the blog...

ben edson (who co-ordinates the worship at greenbelt) had the great idea of pulling together some of the liturgies from groups who had contributed to the worship programme at greenbelt this year to make a book in the pocket liturgies series on the festival theme - standing in the long now. this whole self publishing world is amazing - within 2 months the book was made, uploaded and printed. and is now available on proost to download or as a physical book. contributions in the book are from sanctus1, blesséd, safespace, sanctuary, church on the corner, ambient wonder, foundation, sanctum and maybe along with the sunday morning communion liturgy. the series of pocket liturgies really has grown into a neat series...

if you subscribe you can access the book as a download in the download area.

i didn't mention it in the last post because there was so much advent stuff to write about and the books hadn't been delivered but they have now arrived.

other pocket liturgies books

grace, moot, navigatio, sanctus 1, hold this space, book of blessing, holy darkness, sanctuary, listings, espresso scriptures

end of an era

last night was a farewell party from greenbelt for beki who has been festival director for 9 years. when she took it on there were big financial challenges and numbers were much lower than they are now. she has done an amazing job to grow the festival, put it on a secure footing, and create (with the staff and huge numbers of volunteers) several fantastic festivals. everyone was saying how good this year's festival was. so way to go beki! all the best for the future... while greenbelt interview and appoint a new festival director jenny is acting as interim director for 2.5 days a week.

on greenbelt...

this is an encouraging reflection on greenbelt - such a change to get away from the usual negative media portrayal of christians. occasionally it's good to realise that actually there are some things about christianity and the church that are unique and brilliant!

speaking of church just a reminder of what the church is not from asbo...

theo hobson's piece in the guardian a very english revolution is another really interesting piece, suggesting that greenbelt is brilliant but largely unnoticed. he suggests that it is not about trendy vicars trying to get in with the kids but...

it is more about the trendy kids growing up and awkwardly realizing that Christianity matters to them, despite the backward naffness of church culture. They sense that a new crossover is possible between Christianity and forms of culture that people actually like, that they themselves actually like.

he wrote that in response to the piece an athiest goes to greenbelt which he felt was unsypmathetic. i actually quite liked the piece and good to see that attending naz and co's serum was a positive experience at least. and a wonderful reminder of the power of silence and space, rare things in our culture...

oh and i am looking forward to the world cup - can england really have qualified so easily - where's the usual last minute agony?!

worship trick 69 - the long worship liturgies and fridge magnet liturgies

the worship at greenbelt this year was really wonderful. i can't think of anywhere else you could experience such creativity and diversity in worship. well done to ben, pete, michael and anyone else who put the programme together...

grace took part in a day long worship with feig, safespace, and dream. i wasn't involved at all as i was busy with other things. it went amazingly well. there were lots of interactive stations that built up through the day interspersed with some liturgies written by mark berry. people dropped in and out as they wished - around 1000 visits were made. mark has added the long worship liturgies to his blog. there's a rumour that the various standing in the long now (greenbelt's theme) liturgies may get knocked into a pocket liturgy book sometime in the next few months - watch this space . mark's liturgies also include instructions for the fridge magnet liturgies. this was a very simple idea but worked brilliantly. 840 words that had been gathered from discussions within safespace were printed on postcards and then people selected words to create liturgies on the wall which were read out at various points. there are some photos in the monday set of greenbelt photos

anyway these liturgies and fridge magnet liturgies worship trick 69, in series 3

a new season begins...

august is always holiday season for me so the blog reflects that by being pretty inactive but today i'll gradually kick back into action and that includes getting the blog going again. big chill, family holiday in scotland and greenbelt are now all over. photos from scotland will be appearing shortly but (shock horror!) i didn't take a camera to greenbelt as i find i am doing so many things i just can't give taking photos the attention it deserves.

greenbelt was wonderful as ever - it's such a great festival, a hopeful sign on the church map. i didn't actually get to much but the proost events were a real highlight and i must confess i loved inflicting my taste in tunes on people in the wine bar for two and half hours on sunday night!

speaking of festivals here is a movie i made of sky lanterns being let off at the big chill festival - if you are at the start of the year what are your dreams, hopes, prayers? i'll say more about this in a couple of weeks when it has fully landed but it is a bit of a new season for me at cms with some team changes and a shift of focus to more working with training pioneer mission leaders which i am really looking forward to.

sky lanterns magically float across the big chill festival from jonny baker on Vimeo.

greenbelt 09

well back from holiday in scotland yesterday and now getting ready for greenbelt. hope to see a load of you there! here's a few places i'll be...

• thursday evening - gloucester cathedral for network gathering
• friday 5pm - dropping 2 photos off at the hub to take part on the participative exhibition
• friday 10pm - proost unusual suspects evening in new forms - new talent - come and support/cheer on agents of future, dubb, andi mac, ben norton, chris goan, cntrst, harronell, ben mcavoy, and padraig
• sat 10am - following last year's postmodern doubt vs african certainty i am interviewing yemi more in depth about the experience of black majority churches in britain - in the cms venue
• sat 2pm - hosting a conversation with a few esteemed guests on curation as a model for leading worship following on from the fertile conversations on the blog - winged ox
• sat 5pm - i get to play (DJ would be an overstatement) a selection of chilled tunes for an hour in the wine bar - a new venture for me! - wine bar
• sat 9pm - proost lounge featuring 3 artists - harronell, dubh, and dubb - i can't wait. i'm guessing some of you will be tempted by royksopp but you'll be missing out - the hub venue
• sun 10:30am - interviewing guys from slot festival as part of main worship - so chuffed they will be there - main stage
• sun 2pm - so you want to be a pioneer? - with ben norton and mark rodel - hearing their stories of pioneering in mission and exploring the future for others interested in pioneering - cms venue
• sun 3pm - proost making movies - jon birch is actually hosting this with joel, mark waddington, andi mac - showing a few of their movies and sharing tips on the inspiration and making of movies - cms venue
• sun 4pm - sitting in to learn from andrew jones as he shares tales of his travels across europe and reflects on what is happening in the egdes of mission and the church - cms venue
• sun 8:30pm - be at the tiny tea tent for an act of proost impromptu performance
• mon 10am-6pm (?) - the long now - grace and other groups have joined together to create a long worship experience for you to drop in and out of in new forms. i haven't been involved so have no idea what's going to happen - looking forward to finding out
• mon 3pm - hosting a conversation on liturgy in new/emerging communities with a few wonderful guests and contributors to the pocket liturgy series on proost - winged ox
• mon 6pm - photo swap time at the hub - someone gets mine i guess and i go home with theirs - here's hoping you bring something good!!

other than that no doubt talking and drinking coffee and or beer - will try and see some of arts programme and worship which looks great - so glad i passed on the planning - it's got better! joel is DJing main stage on Sun night. cms have a great programme as ever. there is a conversation going on about the way forward for relational youthwork which is much needed - 9am sat in ymca venue - part two to be arranged from there i guess. if you have an iphone/ipod you can download an app - search greenbelt and you'll find it. or you can buy a pdf of the daily diary from greenbelt site.

greenbelt photo flash swap

greenbelt is at the end of august and is looking like it is shaping up nicely. one new thing that came across my radar is a photo flash swap which i intend to participate in. take a photo to be exhibited. then at the end of the weekend collect and take home someone else's. so if you want one of my prints i'll swap you!

while on the subject of greenbelt royksopp, duke special, dan le sac and scroobius pip, and sway are all in the music line-up which sounds good...

greenbelt visual arts

greenbelt visual arts

blogs - greenbelt and tom sine join the conversation

tom sine has started blogging. i always enjoy tom's insights and reflections

greenbelt festival have also started a blog and podcast (well revamped their old blog is strictly more accurate). they are going to be uploading a talk fee each month so that's worth looking out for if you like listening to talks. i confess that whilst i think it's a good idea i have probably listened voluntarily to about 2 talks after an event in my entire life! i guess i'm more of a reader to learn...

on the subject of summer festivals we have bought tickets to the big chill and jen's coming this time round

african and emerging sensibilities

can a postmodern englishman agree with a pentecostal nigerian?

at greenbelt this year one of the things i did in the cms venue was take part in a debate/conversation with yemi, a nigerian friend/colleague on the different sensibilities arising from out of african churches and postmodern/emerging. it was titled african certainty meets postmodern doubt. i enjoyed it. anyway there is now a recording of it on the cms web site...