jonnybaker

greenbelt looking for programme organisers

greenbelt programme is mainly run and planned by groups of volunteers. i helped plan worship for several years and really enjoyed it (though it was hard work too). there are several key roles being advertised. get involved...

worship programme joint co-ordinator
literature programme co-ordinator
film programme co-ordinator

improvised blessings - worship trick 39, series 3

our latest unusual suspect at proost is juli allen. her big thing is blessings. in her community(s) she listens in and joins in the evening reflections and dialogue and at the end improvises a spoken blessing that weaves the threads together. we got to experience this first hand at greenbelt in the proost lounge evening (thanks to everyone who took part and came along). at the end of the evening she gave us a greenbelt blessing which she has posted on her blog. it was great to meet juli having never met before greenbelt and just liased via e-mail on the book.

we have published with juli the latest book in our pocket liturgy series (we're now up to number 6!!) - a book of blessings - which is available from proost and if you are a subscriber you can download in the downloads area (actually as i write this we are shifting the site to a different server so the site is temporarily down for maintenance but it will be back shortly.) you can find juli's book to download or as a hard copy in the book section of the site.

i really like improvised liturgy - juli reminded me how much i liked karen ward improvising the eucharistic prayer a few years back where she wove into the prayer lots of stories and thing to be thankful for. it somehow blended the depth of the liturgy with a more personal touch. it's a real skill.

i am making the idea of improvised blessings a worship trick - no 39 in series 3

here's the text of the blessing...

blessings on you who have entered this space-
who have traveled far and near to be in this space.
let your soul sigh in this space.
let yourself be undone in this space.
let yourself feel the love that surrounds, and permeates, and brings this space together.
breathe it in and let it wash over you.
for some, this marks the beginning.
the beginning of a new year,
a new song,
a new season.
for others it is a close, an end, a period at the end of a chapter.
hopes have been sparked here.
dreams have begun here.
revolutions and relationships have arisen here.
and as a phoenix, we will descend in all the glorious shades of red, and orange, and yellow.
this time together...
this space together...
this experience together...
we will take deep, deep down into our bellies
where a fire will burn that will take us through the next year.
until we meet again we will carry within us memories that will never leave us.
embrace what is left in this space,
and in this time soak up all that you can,
and be sent out knowing that you are loved and you are blessed.

 

greenbelt 2008

just back a little bleary eyed from greenbelt festival, as ever a hopeful sign for the church. this year i wasn't co-ordinating worship - that was wonderfully done by ben, ruth and gayle with a brilliant programme. if you want to catch the edges of what is happening in creative worship greenbelt is a great place to go. we (grace) took a service lunch not included that was good fun - unpacking hospitality. the opening created an experience of being in/out when 'members' were taken out of the queue early and given privileged seats at the front in a  members only enclosure. a very 'in' set of notices and utterly pretentious liturgy followed that only members were able to join in before a staged protest led to the barriers being pulled down. all good fun and it certainly was getting a few people irate up to that point! hopefully it will all get written up in the grace archive/smallfire at some point.

unusually for me i didn't take a camera. i decided that i had too much to do to be able to think about carrying a camera and taking photos - yes i know i have broken my golden rule to always carry one. but there are a ton of photos at the official gb flickr pages - too many in fact to digest! and if you follow the tags greenbelt or greenbelt2008 i'm sure you will trace plenty of peoples photos.

i ended up spinning three plates - the grace service (and spontaneous act of worship which i missed) both went well. we (proost) were running a stand, had two events, an ad on the big screen and beer mats in the organic beer tent. i loved the unusual suspects evening and the proost lounge which was a showcase of artists. hopefully we have let a few more people know about proost who will want to subscribe. and the third plate was cms  where we had a dedicated blah... tent with discussions on mission, emerging culture and all that. pretty much every session was packed. i also took part in a discussion with my friend yemi on the difference in african and european takes on spirituality and faith which was pretty interesting.

so... although in theory it was a less busy greenbelt it ended up pretty packed. i got to two things - matthew herbert big band and jenny speaking on gender differences - she was brilliant of course. this may sound weird but the highlight was an evening on the thursday evening before the festival in gloucester cathedral hosted by feig with a meal, stations, and a candlelit labyrinth accompanied by the astonishing sound of two hang drums, the most gorgeous ambient instruments - see this video or this video to get the idea. about 80 people from various communities were there.

it always feels like summer is over once greenbelt is passed and a new season looms once september kicks in...

if you are coming to greenbelt... 4

it is one year since we relaunched proost. we are back in g-source with a stand where we'll be showing movies and so on and encouraging new subscribers to sign up. we've also sponsored the beer tent on sunday so if you are there you'll see some proost beer mats!...

fri night 10pm we have an unusual suspects evening in new forms - unusuals suspects is a project to identify and encourage new talent in a range of media to publish their work for the first time. a few of the suspects will be interviewd and performing or showing their work.

and then we have a proost lounge saturday evening in the hub (next to the book store) at 7pm. the first 100 people will get a glass of sparkling wine on us. and a whole bundle of artists will be there performing - i guess it will be a laid back showcase sort of evening. please come and join us.

we've had a good first year. focused on good content each month. it now means there is £200 worth of downloadable content plus new content each month for the year ahead so we think it represents great value to subscribe for £60. but we don't really have much in the way of marketing campaign so please let anyone know who you think might be interested...

grace are back in action as ever. we'll be lifting the lid of our explorations in hospitality over the year with lunch not included on monday at 12noon in new forms and one of several groups acts of spontaneous worship round site. watch out for the red umbrella apparently!

this is my final if you are coming to greenbelt... post

maybe see you there if you are coming. let's hope the weather improves!

if you are coming to greenbelt... 3

and you have read about NET, the network of entrepreneurial talent and been frustrated that all the get togethers are in london, well NET are running a symposium over two 3 hour slots at greenbelt exploring business as unusual. there will be a mix of input, panel and practical advice to help people with business/social enterprise ideas that want to make them happen. the two slots are sat 2-5 in cms blah tent, and sun 5-8 in workshops 1 - more detail here

if you are coming to greenbelt... 2

jenny mcintosh came to greenbelt from new zealand in 2005. following on from research by alan jamieson into why people were leaving churches, published as churchless faith, alan and jenny launched spirited exchanges in new zealand. the key finding of the research was that church leavers had given up on church but not necessarily faith so it was to help people on that journey, through publishing a newsletter and website, networking, facilitating a number of groups and trying to educate the churches.

well jenny is back and this time back and living in the uk. following her visit last time round a few of us got together to explore the same idea in the uk as we have exactly the same issue of people leaving church but still journeying in faith. it's been low key and a quiet thing but jenny's vision and arrival has pushed it up a gear and greenbelt is in some ways the launchpad for a new phase. jenny will have a stand in g-source so go and say hi. she is also running two discussion type groups in the cms blah venue - see previous post for times and there is a panel on monday evening at 7pm - it's actually the worst possible time for a slot as there will be no chance to follow up in conversations later in the weekend, and half the festival seem to leave but never mind! if you are around come along.

if you are coming to greenbelt... 1

cms always have a marquee and run a programme, but this year have added a couple of small tents. one of them is hosting a programme related to emerging church and blah... type stuff. the tent only holds around 30 people so it will be small, cosy and intimate. but i'm not sure to what degree it is or isn't in the greenbelt printed programme so thought i'd post it here. i have also added a couple of things in that are in the main cms venue...

Sat -
10:30 Serum - space to explore Christian spirituality hosted by Naz
12-1pm Mission in spiritual market place with Jonny, Ben and Laura
1-2 Networking and learning opportunities for mission leaders
2-5 Business as unusual 1 Shannon Hopkins
4-5 in CMS main venue - reimagining Christian thinking on other religions - Richard Sudworth
5-6 Gender and youth work - Jenny Baker
6-7 Mission service opportunities

Sun
10-11 CMS main venue - Yemi and Jonny head to head discussing African certainty vs emerging doubt
10-30-12 Serum
12-1 God as Flow - Richard Passmore
1-2 Climate Change - James Pender
4:30 Skinny on the emerging church - Andrew Jones
5:30 Spirited exchanges with Jenny Macintosh
6:30 New monasticism - Mark Berry
7-8 Asbojesus.com - Jon Birch

Mon
11-12 Aradhna
12-1 Bible in 60 minutes - Paul Thaxter
1-2 Cafe church in bangalore - Jacob Isaacs
2-3 Mission in 1024 window - Andrew Jones (i.e. your computer screen)
3-4 Spirited exchanges with Jenny Macintosh
4-5 Discussion around ordinaton and pioneer ministry with Stephen Croft and Paul Thaxter

here comes the sun

gb issue a challenge or two...

1giantleap to play greenbelt

1giantleap to play greenbelt!

their new dvd film and cd is out later this week. i have seen most of the tv series what about me? and loved it. it is the most celebratory single project i know of around global culture. see 1giantleap.tv

coldcut kit tour

a few of us at greenbelt were having a discussion about coldcut and how they do the audio visual stuff live. mark blogged a link to a video talk through the kit by matt black.

coldcut at greenbelt festival

coldcut at greenbelt festival, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

 

greenbelt

greenbelt was my second festival of the summer. i think it was the busiest i can remember. i help co-ordinate the worship programme across site so there is always lots to do for that, but i was also relaunching proost and we had a stand in the marketplace venue as well as a number of events across the festival. on top of that jenny was ill... so it felt like a bit of a whirlwind. a sure sign of this is that i didn't take any photos - well i have six, 5 of which were taken the first morning before the festival started - have a look at the latest in my flickr stream if you want to see them! but it was a fab greenbelt - the weather was amazing. i can't quite believe that this summer i have been to two festivals and both have had incredible weather. it could have been so different if they had been on other weekends.
thanks to everyone who was involved in worship at greenbelt or who came to worship.
thanks to dean for pulling together the grace communion by numbers.
thanks to  my friend shannon who  spearheaded the proost relaunch
thanks to everyone who visited proost and made encouraging noises about the new approach/postcards/content/website

here's me and jon cracking open the champagne at the relaunch celebration in the cms tent (thanks for the pic sarah)

off to greenbelt

so off to greenbelt festival.

the 5 day forecast on the bbc for cheltenham made me happy this morning!

back from holiday and gearing up for greenbelt 07

just back from two weeks family holiday in portugal...

it was my first visit to portugal and we had a great time. we stayed near obidos, about an hour north of lisbon on the atlantic coast.

i now have one day turnaround and then heading off to greenbelt festival which i am looking forward to as ever. it's going to be a busy weekend. along with gayle and a team of other volunteers, i co-ordinate and plan the worship programme. if you're going, greenbelt is unique for a festival in terms of worship - there is so much diversity. i write a monthly column on greenbelt worship for the church times. each month i have focused in on a particular theme or worship group. but for the latest (possibly the current issue? not having been in the office i haven't checked) i chose to write the latest one on the breadth of the programme so i have cut and pasted most of it here to give you the sense of what is going to be happening.

The New Forms café is the venue dedicated to new and alternative worship led by communities round the UK. Join in Emerging Matins with Feig from Gloucester or meditate on feminine images of God and the mystery of birth with Park from Sheffield. These are both very young communities making Greenbelt debut’s. Sanctuary from Birmingham bring a multicultural flavour fusing Asian spirituality with alternative worship. They have inspired others to go on a similar journey so we actually have five groups from Birmingham this year. DJs and VJs will mix it up while you get the best coffee on site.

The familiar alternative worship groups will also be there – Visions lead a Trance Mass, Ikon the God Delusion and Grace take you on an Emmaus Rd journey in the Arena guided by the Big Screen. Sanctus1 will be leading this year’s Sunday morning communion service across two venues around the story of the wedding at Cana – one traditional and the other more leftfield but united in sharing bread and wine (and by video feed!).

Soul Space is the most wonderful venue on site in the panoramic café at the top of the Grandstand overlooking the racecourse. It is a fitting location for contemplative worship. Expect a full immersive experience of music and scripture with Molten Meditation, bathe in the ancient stillness of liturgy with Nchant, be silent, join in Evening Prayer with bishops’ thoughts or go to Orthodox Great Vespers.

Taize and Iona have both been renewing streams in the worship of UK churches and will be leading services across the site. Join in the Iona Wild Goose Big Sing on Saturday afternoon. And if you really like singing, elsewhere you can catch Matt Redman, the Love and Joy Gospel Choir, Vineyard, rock worship and even ska with Sounds of Salvation (think Madness playing choruses). Or have a go yourself at the open mic worship.

If you prefer black and purple to white and beige then join the late night Goths. And if you really fancy something a little bit quieter join the Cheltenham quakers or visit the Fransiscans on the camp site with a daily rhythm of liturgies. John Taverner is at this year’s festival for the first time which should be quite a treat if you like your music on a classical tip.

To encourage new young talent there is also a project Unusual Suspects being launched by proost at this year’s festival. Three young talented suspects – Cntrst, Sophie Dutton and Isaac Everett will be showing movies, DJing, reading liturgy and poems, and performing music across the site. Proost’s Jon Birch will also be leading worship with a mix of new animations, reflections and tunes.

The UK church is packed with creativity and diversity in worship and Greenbelt is a feast of it. Festival spirituality is wonderful – a chance to enjoy things on a scale that you never encounter at home, step out of your comfort zone, be renewed, have your imagination sparked, and find yourself feeling hopeful about the church again.

one thing that is quite different for me this year is that I have had nothing to do with planning the grace worship experience as i haven't been around to help plan and i am so busy with the relaunch of proost (will blog separately about that) and the wider worship programme. it sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun on sat afternoon at 3:30pm guided by the big screen in the arena following the emmaus road. rumour has it that there are lots of windmills involved. i'll be there as a punter.

the weather forecast looks to be good for the weekend which is good news as it's been a pretty weird summer for weather in the uk.

the wider programme has some great stuff in it - coldcut, nu:tone and logistics, and soweto kinch will be on my list to try and catch. then there is the usual amazing line up of speakers and seminars - i doubt i'll make many but it's great that mark yaconelli is making a greenbelt debut, as is becky garrison and i want to try and hear john o donahue for the first time. experience tells me that most spare time will be spent with friends (old and new) drinking and chatting. greenbelt always feels like a reunion.

hope to see some of you there...

mark yaconelli at greenbelt and in london after

i have enthused big time about mark yaconelli's book contemplative youth ministry before. i have also mentioned that he is going to be at greenbelt this year so i'm looking forward to meeting him. if you are around after greenbelt and anywhere near london mark is doing a day on the saturday called presence organised by diane craven from the southwark diocese (who also co-ordinates the contemplative worship at greenbelt). it wil be well worth going to...

Download Presence flyer

Download presence booking form

Download presence poster

unusual suspects at greenbelt

we're still in the throes of re-inventing proost in time for re-launch at greenbelt later this summer. we'll have lots of new content, venturing into movies and books along with the music, all downloadable, plus an annual subscription which will give access to the back catalogue and new monthly content and of course a new web site...

one of the projects we are excited about is unusual suspects - talent under the age of 25. we have three this year who will be performing at greenbelt - cntrst, isaac everett and sophie dutton showcasing DJing and movies, music and a book of liturgies respectively.

there's a write up on the greenbelt web site - unusual suspects

on the subject of greenbelt john taverner has been booked - wow!

free ticket to greenbelt

if you are looking for a free ticket to greenbelt we are looking to recruit a team of stewards in the new forms cafe venue. you'd get some meal vouchers when working too. leave a contact e-mail below if interested. it's an indoor venue and where a lot of the alt worship is happening on site.

worship outside (in) the box

my latest monthly greenbelt column for the church times which was in last week's paper...

Worship Outside (in) the Box

Last year one of my favourite contemporary art installations was The Bridge by Michael Cross at Dilston Grove in Bermondsey. The artist had constructed a pool inside the old chapel and designed a series of steps so that visitors could walk on water. The water had been blackened with dye so it looked pretty mysterious. When you stood on the first step the weight of your body as you leaned forward caused the next step to appear from under the water. It was quite a slow process, designed to be meditative and step by step you walked across the water. That experience still lives with me and when I have faced decisions requiring a step of faith I have pictured that moment.

Lots of alternative worship groups have drawn inspiration from art installations and have created interactive experiences as part of worship. These might be stations in a service or something on a grander scale. Greenbelt being an arts festival has hosted some wonderful worship art installations over the years. To much amusement at an ideas session for last year’s festival someone suggested doing ‘shed worship’. As far as I know that’s a new concept! But a few months later and lo and behold a few groups rose to the challenge of creating a worship experience with a shed that would be placed outside on site. My favourite one never took place because of health and safety – “the Scape Shed”. People were to be invited to write things on pieces of paper that they wanted rid of in their lives and post them through holes. Then at the end of the weekend the shed would be ceremoniously burned! At the festival there was a poetry shed, a graffiti shed and a shed obscura (a shed turned into a pin hole camera as a reflection on the upside down kingdom).

A mission challenge is how to take spirituality that resonates with contemporary culture and do it out in public spaces rather than inside church walls. In New Zealand, Opawa Baptist Church did precisely this last month taking the Christmas story to find a home outside the church and in the marketplace of Christchurch. Under the creative leadership of Peter and Joyce Majendie eight 20ft long containers were designed, created, wrapped and delivered to parts of the city to be unwrapped. Steve Taylor, the pastor describes it -

“Each had Scripture written on them by a local artist to provide context for the Christmas story. We had people comment "wow that's the largest I have ever seen the Bible written in the city". We had to call the police when 10 drunk santa's invaded one station. There was quite a contrast between the local cathedral who celebrated Christmas by erecting a giant Christmas tree outside with the names of all their commercial sponsors and our container about 20 feet away with planets in motion and a baby crying and people invited to make a star out of wire. About 15,000 people visited the containers. It was brilliant to watch people walk out of a station and say "that changed me" and to have over 200 church volunteers spending time in the city, engaging with people and it's rhythms.”

It sounds a fabulous way to take worship outside the box (and in to other ones!).

worship as bedazzlement

worship as bedazzlement was my latest church times column

if you were bedazzled...

if you were bedazzled by ikon's service at greenbelt and found it incomprehensible then that was the point... according to pete

this may not be everyone's cup of tea but one of the big postmodern debates is around truth and interpretation. i have mentioned churchandpomo before that is having a series of engagements with jamie smith's whose afraid of postmodernism. the last engagement is by pete rollins and along with the conversation in the comments takes a bit of chewing over but is really getting at some interesting issues... (if you like a bit of philosophy)