jonnybaker

are we there yet?

i do love putting together an end of year playlist. i seem to have added a lot to my first take which i have got down to a 3 hour playlist of a selection of tunes from 2023.

are we there yet? apple music version

are we there yet? spotify version

grace christmas labyrinth

come and join us for our grace christmas labyrinth on saturday night. 

Join us for a meditative and prayerful Christmas labyrinth, a peaceful evening before the hectic part of the season gets going.

When we first did labyrinths in the 1990s, there was a four-part structure about our relationships with God, Self, Others and Planet, with the labyrinth itself being about God and the other three as stations. Given current situations this structure seems very relevant.

There will be mulled wine and mince pies in the cafe afterwards.

wild fire

this week we celebrated cms pioneer students achievements graduating with a range of awards from durham university. i teach a module on worship and worked with students on that module to curate the celebration as part of the assesssment! they did an amazing job exploring the theme of the pioneer journey. it was in two parts. part 1 was a series of installations to interact with. part 2 was a fireside celebration. it was so joyful. it's amazing to work with pioneers - i love the way they see the world and seek to catalyse new things, new projects, new communities invariably with those at the edges of their communities. 

every year iain cotton, an artist and sculptor has created a gift representing the pioneer journey. this was actually the tenth iteration. each year is different and each tile is unique. i hope to find all ten and blog about them all at some point. this year's one was just perfect in so many ways. the image is of a chiseled journey which is incomplete. it's also an open circle - a place of gathering but in which others are welcome and out of which the life can spill outwards. at the heart is a fire - the fire of the great spirit which too breaks out of the circle. 

we also admitted several pioneers as lay workers in the church of england.

congratulation to all those who completed awards! 

synchronicity

i have several shows by uva. synchronicity was at 180 studios which is a wonderful setting for their work. i had seen a few of the pieces before. it's impressive and looks wonderful in the dark. we discussed afterwards how art is at its best when the ideas have something to get into that is below the surface. some of their work looks great but doesn't do that deep dive. i have added an album of a few photos - synchronicity.

portal

i really enjoyed marina abramovic's show at the royal academy. her performance art has really pushed the edges of interaction with audiences and indeed her own self.

one of the things that caught my attention were a list of rules that guide her practice. i often think the ay artists and pioneers think is very similar. this could easily be from a pioneer journal on how they might approach their practice!

red moon rising

i think i have been to more art in london in the last monthy than the rest of the year. it was great to see the latest turbine hall installation. i have loved seeing what people do in that space over the years.

grace - a slideshow and a revamped ethos

at grace's 30th birthday steve collins had compiled a slideshow of photos from most of those years. we don't have any photos of a few of the early years but they scroll through in chronological order. the link to a pdf is here. it's 67mb. it's a wonderful reminder. there is also a section in the archive now for slides from various things

we have also spent a bit of time reflecting on what has been our ethos for a long time now and that has had a bit of a revamp. what has surfaced in those discussions is the value of a hospitable and welcoming community (which you might expect if you call yourselves grace!). risk has been demoted to a sub section which i hope doesn't mean we are losing our edge! here is the ethos

 

good samaritans?

i preached this morning at st mary's ealing (which i do about once a term). unusually i was asked if there was something i had in mind rather than there being a series or lectionary text chosen to work from. i was very taken with a chapter in bible blindspots (more about that in another post) by nestor miguez called samaritans and empire. that together with previous ponderings led me to work up a talk i called 'good samaritans?' i developed it as a reflection from photine, the woman at the well in john 4 - i have used that name as that is what she is known as in the orthodox tradition. when i suggested it i had no idea what would be happening in the world and church this week but it somehow felt pertinent. i don't often write sermons out but i did for this one and have added some scripture references into it for those who are curious to explore further. i am not especially giuven to posting sermons here but thought i would this time round.

if you like the gist and want to read further then you might like these three articles/chapters:

samaritans and empire by nestor miguez in the book bible blindspots;
prayer of the sent away by ryan dueck in the book unsettling the word
unmasking state theology by gerald o west also in the book unsettling the word

anyway here's the talk/monologue

Good Samaritans?

Readings: 1 Kings 12:1-24; Luke 9:51-56; Luke 10:25-37

[Today I am going to present a reflection on the readings as today’s sermon by presenting you an imaginative reading from the woman at the well or Samaritan woman. I hope this has something to say into our world today and indeed our church. I won’t draw any conclusions - you can draw those for yourselves.]

Hi! My name is Photine though you probably know me as ‘the woman at the well’. You probably already worked out that the whole encounter between me and Jesus shouldn’t have happened. There was a lot of animosity between Jews and Samaritans. Jews despised us and so 99.9% would walk around going the long route rather than actually have to go through and God forbid meet a Samaritan! Jesus was different - he decided to meet those whom others avoided and despised. As I say we met at Jacob’s well and I have never forgotten it. Jesus and his friends stayed with us for two days after that which was amazing and we talked and talked. I am not sure you realise quite how incredible what Jesus did was.

The disciples were a bit slower to catch on to put it mildly. Even after they had spent those two days with us in our village (John 4:40) a few months later they still wanted fire to rain down from heaven in judgement on us Samaritans (Luke 9:51-56). I was shocked and at least disappointed when I heard that story many years later - they should have known better.

I am getting ahead of myself - let me rewind. A bit of history will probably help. You may be familiar with it but don’t worry if not. When our people were freed from slavery in Egypt we were in twelve tribes (of Israel). When we entered the promised land eventually the land was distributed between the tribes. We all settled and worked out how to live in the land - thanks be to the God of our fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. God is good. After Joshua it was a a bit chaotic really and leadership sort of moved round the tribes - the Judges were from many tribes - Gideon from Manasseh, Samson from Dan, Deborah from Naphtali (we think).… Then of course against the advice of the prophet Samuel, we demanded a King. Saul, David and then Solomon who were all from the tribe of Judah, ruled as Kings from Jerusalem. There are explicit instructions in the law about how kings should rule (Deut 17:14-20). But they pretty much ignored the parts about accumulating wealth and about not lording it over the people. By the time of Solomon he was running an expansive building programme including the temple, with a huge labour force made up of indigenous peoples or foreigners as we thought of them and Israelites (though notably not including people from their tribe of Judah!) (2 Chronicles 2:1-2). He was a real slave driver and that became his reputation. The prophet Nathan counselled against building a temple (1 Chron 17:3) but  that was ignored. Empires and colonial powers can’t resist that city-temple combination - conveniently God legitimates their extractive policies and exploitation of the people. The rich city elites get richer and the peasants get poorer. It’s what Samuel said - ‘the king will take’! (1 Samuel 8:10-18)

I think that is what created the tension that led to a split. Under Solomon, Jeroboam rebelled and took the 10 tribes in the North and Solomon was left with the tribe of Judah and most of the Levite priests too - Jerusalem was the place of the temple. His son Rehoboam who you heard about in the reading succeeded him as King.

They say history turns on key moments. Rehoboam had a real opportunity for peace and uniting Israel as one, for a reset if you like. But instead he ignored the elders who advised this was an opportunity for uniting the people together as one. Instead he listened to the young who no doubt were enjoying their wealth and privilege, the fruits of exploitation. They liked the status quo. So Rehoboam turned the screw, and said he intended to be more of a slave driver than his father Solomon. It’s what empires do - sacrifice whatever or whoever gets in their way. Well you can imagine how that went down - rebellion, violence and resistance. From then on we were  separate. They had their Kings we had ours. Sometimes we fought, sometimes there was peace.

Jerusalem was in the area of land that the tribe of Judah took from the Canaanites. We loved that city but after Rehoboam couldn’t really go there any more. That’s how we ended up with our own sacred site and built a temple at Mount Gerazim - it’s a special place of course because it’s where the blessings were read back in the day with Moses - yes from that mountain! Looking back maybe for us who were being written out of the story that sign of God’s favour was why we chose it?! It was King Omri who decided we also need a capital city of our own. He bought a hill and built a city named Samaria from which you can see the Mount Gerazim (1 Kings 16:24). Well the tribe of Judah (and the priests) did not like that at all. Chronicles pretty much writes the Northern Kingdom out of the records - have you ever noticed that?! Guess who wrote that version of history! Not us. As I tell you this I have tears in my eyes - we are the same family - we are all one people, blood brothers and sisters, it shouldn’t have been that way.

Who are God’s people? It’s a pretty basic question. Is God a tribal God or the God of all the world, of all peoples? When God spoke to our father Abraham he said that all nations would be blessed through him. We (Israel) were always meant to bless all peoples. Since the spilt gradually the Judahites (now known as Jews) claimed God’s favour was just for them - they were God’s people - forget the rest of us - the blessing of God on all of Israel collapsed. It’s ironic that we were meant to bless all peoples but what emerged was an ever decreasing defended group claiming they were God’s chosen people and that God was only with them and not with others. In both the Northern Kingdom which over time became known as Samaria and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) people turned away from God. And we reaped the fruit of our ways which was what was said in the law all along - wild beasts, famine, war and ultimately exile (Leviticus 26). There were some good kings but the overall pattern was not. No one ever believed it would happen but in the North we were taken captive by Assyria.  and in the South some years later Babylon. Samaria was over run by the king of Assyria and he sent people from 5 nations round about to live there (2 Kings 17:24). And of course they brought their religious practices with them. The King of Assyria did send back a priest to teach the ways of the Lord. That has been used to beat us ever since - the 5 nations things, prostituting ourselves to other pagan gods. The author of the book of Kings says ’To this day they persist in their former practices.’ (2 Kings 17:34) which is bit rich to be honest. But that is what we had to live with - accusations of heresy, idolatry.

The return from exile as recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah is another screw turned really for us Samaritans and other Israelites which is now canonised. Anyone undocumented was in trouble - you had to prove your ancestry i.e. really were one of the chosen people meaning you were a priest or from Judah or Benjamin and elite at that!  And those who married foreigners were publicly named and shamed and in some cases beaten. The women and children just sent away. It’s unbelievable really. Of course many of them ended up with us in the North. It’s purity gone mad - imperial politics acting in the name of God - what kind of God would do that? One who hates foreigners?

I hope you get my drift - it’s important to fill the back story. We talked long into the night with Jesus about all of this when he stayed those two days. Jesus is so incredible. He came to Samaria, he spoke with me and when I shared about our sacred site he didn’t mind. He suggested it was about something beyond that - Spirit and Truth (John 4). And what amuses me no end is that everyone who reads the account in John’s gospel thinks I have had lots of husbands but when Jesus said I had 5 husbands - I knew he was talking about that central reason we were hated or what the accusations were - the 5 nations we had supposedly got into bed with! He was letting me know he got all that and it didn’t matter - he had not come to judge. He didn’t judge us but helped us all find the living water he talked about while remaining worshippers as Samaritans - it was extraordinary. The disciples did not know where to look over those two days! But like Hagar I knew he was the God who sees - he saw me, he saw us.

And it didn’t end there with Jesus - his story of the Samaritan who helped the beaten up man when the Levite and pharisee didn’t was brilliant and shocking at the same time - you can imagine how that went down with the powers that be! After he had ascended and the Spirit came we caught wind that it was to come in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth - yes Samaria - thanks be to God!

I remember wondering whether our name ‘Samaritan’ which was seen as a curse really by the Jews when I met Jesus, could ever be seen differently. But Jesus flipped the script or had a good go. What does the word mean in your time I wonder? Do you use that word for good? Is it possible that there are good Samaritans?!

I relay this to you in the future as followers, disciples of Jesus, my sisters and brothers. I imagine these kinds of issues are long gone in the body of Jesus:
defending purity;
claiming God as being for one chosen group and not another;
calling other followers heretics or unbiblical;
domination, oppression and forced labour that comes with empire;
colonial settler expansion and land grabs in the name of Jesus;
expelling undocumented workers.
I am sure these must be a thing of the past I mean when it comes to the church, Christianity.
Jesus is such good news.

heaven exists - grace is 30

this extraordinary cake was commissioned by lynda who is a dear friend and member of grace. she wanted to celebrate grace's 30th birthday and poured her creativity and gratitude into the cake as an amazing gift. the cake is called heaven exists and looked and tasted amazing. thank you lynda! the cake was made by nastassja

we had a wonderful evening doing a new take on communion by numbers round tables. 

a slideshow of moments from grace over the years was scrolling put together by steve collins from his incredible archive of photos over the years - hopefully he will add it online somewhere and i'll add a link - so good to be reminded of so many amazing moments. a playlist with a tune from each of the 30 years was put together by mike rose, the sole founder member who remains part of grace. 

overall there was just a lot of love in the room, with a small community of amazing creative human beings (in the room and online) who have journeyed together as a community of friends making artful soulful worship (fresh vital worship as the early flyers used to say) seeking to follow christ in today's world and support one anther in whatever life has thrown our way. during that time this small group have sparked the imagination of people al round the world, published books, albums, hosted web sites, been part of movements of alternative worship and emerging church, led grace in cathedrals and festivals. and all the while we have remained small, never employed anyone, and been hosted in the mothership of st mary's who have simply let us get on with it. 

a revamped ethos was introduced on the night - tweaked really to add more on being a welcoming community to all which has gione up our agenda over the years as an intention. i will no doubt post that and link to other pieces of the service when they go up on the grace web site.

i am very grateful. it's such a gift of grace.

off grid christianity interview

i was interviewed recently by martin purnell for the podcast off grid christianity. we last spoke in about 1998 when i had recorded the album backbone, a sad angry protest album about palestine. at the time martin was working with crossrhythms. we don't particularly discuss that situation but unsurprisngly i have been pondering some of those songs and feeling that same sense of overwhelming sadness. 

the interview catches up over those years discussing music, alternative worship, pioneering, church leaving as something it might be normal to do after a while and so forth.

it feels slightly weird to say come and have a listen to me wittering on in conversation for an hour but if that appeals then here is the link!

three wise prophets - christmas cards

out of the box cards always do great christmas cards. go and have a look! one of my favourite new ones is three wise prophets continuing their annual three wise women card tradition.

pioneering parishes

pioneering parishes does what it sounds like - it helps parishes gently shift their energy towards focusing outwards in the parish - simple eh?! i discussed this with someone who is a vicar the other day and they simply said 'of course! isn't that what every parish does?'

the reality is that there are many pressures and demands and maintaining church life can take a lot of  energy so a reminder/call/encouragement plus some tools to shift that energy can only be a good thing. there is now a pioneering parishes web site which has just gone live - do have a nose round, sign up to the monthly newsletter by scrolling to the bottom of the page and following the link. and maybe gather a team from your church and sign up to do the first steps webinar series of 4 sessions. you can search pioneering parishes on instagram and facebook if you want to jump on the flow there.

i have spent the last 15 or so years talking about pioneering and working with pioneers. sometimes in churches i get a glazed expression - it just sounds like it's a bit out there or beyond reach or not for them. but i have found when talking with people about pioneering parishes the reaction is different - people instinctively like those two things together and want to be part of a parish like that. parish is of course a church of england way of organising and this project is being funded through the church of england for three years. but i think the ideas will translate if you are a church and interested in your place/locale.

i am delighted that this project is part of the team i lead at cms and it has been fun working with tina, greg, jayne, gail (the team) and seeing how this is naturally taking on a life and growing. it's going to be a fun ride!

killers of the flower moon

killers of the flower moon is a fantastic film. i really loved it. it is classic scorsese exploring the effects of power and money and the evil that unfolds masquaerading as an angel of light when there is unflinching alleigance to those gods/goals. it is based around a true story told in a book of the same name by david grann. set in the 1920s in oklahoma, on a first nations reservation of the osage tribe. their reservation has oil so they find themselves very wealthy. but of course the racism of white settlers is not far below the veneer of pleasantness. and spearheaded by william hale, played by de niro, and suported by his rather naive nephew ernest burkhart (di caprio), the plot is how they use whatever means necessary to get their hands on the indians wealth. i won't spoil the plot for you by unpacking further but it includes the vices of lies, murder, poison, marrying to get access to money and an ever escalating web of deception. when we first meet di caprio in the film he says 'i love money' - which of course is famously said to be the root of all evil (the bible) and that is pretty much how it goes. 

it was wonderful seeing so many osage actors in the film and getting a bit of a window into their tribe. you get a sense of their values of community, tradition, love of the creator and the natural world. in a painful opening scene they bury a peace pipe - a parable for their traditions being buried. i have been reading quite a bit about first nations spirituality in the last year and my interest was further piqued on manatoulin island in canada recently where there are 9 reserves. i think that indigenous/aboriginal/native worldviews and spirituality have so much to teach westerners especially because of connection to the land.

what is so painful in the film is that by contrast christianity is the religion which william hale espouses. he quotes the bible and hides behind a veneer of niceness - like many mafia bosses presenting as a hero of the community and a good prayerful man. this is a con of course - it's not christianity. it's the religion of empire. the lord prayed to is a tribal god, on the side of white supremacy and the evil embodied in it. it's an idol and idols demand sacrifices and many are made. it's disturbing how the language of religion is presented as christianity. of course that's no different to the sopranos or other gangster films. and it doesn't take much of a leap to think about evangelicals and trump supporters or whatever other links ups there are between faith and dominating powers. i can't help thinking about global captalism and its empire, and the ruses of the super rich who present as pleasant while i suspect all the while sacrificing the planet and who knows what else in pursuit of money and power on the altar the the very same gods. (there is a different tone in the catholic priest who seems to have something more authentic especially when he speaks with molly, an osage woman). 

as a follower of christ i always wince when i bump into these kinds of (his)stories. it is a reminder of the importance of deconstructing the association between faith and empire, exploring what it means to follow in the way of christ in a post colonial world. christ of course was himself executed by the powers of religion and state so perhaps it should be no surprise.

anyway you should go see it!

as an aside finally after getting on for 20 years the cinema that was in ealing broadway is now re-opened as an 8 screen picture house. having had no cinemas close by we now have that one, ealing project and actone - we are spoiled!

grace - the BIG 30!

the next grace marks our 30th birthday. i wasn't there when it started - jenny and i joined in when we moved to london a couple of years after that. but it's been home for us, a wonderful creative christian community in which to work out what it means to follow christ in today's world. i think the creativity joel and harry flow in was really nurtured in the air breathed at grace, alternative worship and greenbelt over those years. during that time we have created and curated some really wonderful worship, music, liturgy, movies. all the while there has never been anyone employed to lead it - it's a collaborative venture. i'd love it if you wanted to come even if you haven't ever been but especially if you have been part of that journey at any point. thanks to st mary's ealing for giving the permission and space for grace to be a congregation over those years and trusting us to get on with it. it would be hlepful to know rough numbers so if you plan to come let me know in a comment or something.

here's the blurb on the web site - 

11th November is Grace's 30th birthday service - to mark the occasion we will be meeting around a table for a service of Communion by Numbers. Meeting around a table has been a large part of the Grace experience and sitting at a table with food and conversation we meet our companions, ourselves and sometimes God.

We'd love to see old friends and new around the table on 11th November - there will be food, drinks and music. It would be great to know if you plan to join us.

the poets revival

proud dad moment - harry baker is performing at the royal albert hall on may 1 next year. pretty amazing eh?! 

it's an evening called the poets revival also featuring kae tempest, george the poet and others. get your tickets and hope to see you there!

come to the edge

jen and i are just back from two weeks holiday in canada. it felt weird to be going away this time of year as we always go in the summer (largely because i am involved in teaching students). friends who we shared a house with back when we lived in bath invited us to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary with them along with a group of around 20 for 4 days. my team at cms kindly said it was fine to go and seeing as we were going that far we made a fortnight of it. it was so good to catch up with aad and jeanette in paris (ontario), and we explored a few other spots in ontario - mainly ottawa and manatoulin island. we visited niagara falls which is completely mesmerising. you can get surprisingly close to where the falls roll over the edge - that's where the photo above is from.

i have added a set of holiday photos to flickr. there are quite a few of them be warned - canada 2023. canada is a beautiful country. i hope i'll find space to blog a few thoughts in the next week or so. but first things first - photos!

i also seem to be making a habit of going to a gig the day i get back from n america (well that's two in a row) and you always fly overnight so i hope i stay awake for the young fathers tonight!

the photo title come to the edge is one i used recently in a team day - it's taken from a 1 giant leap track of that name. the opening words are

Come to the edge we said and they said ‘no it’s too high'
Come to the edge we said and they said ‘no we will fall’
Come to the edge we said and they very reluctantly came
And we pushed and they flew

find the poets

happy national poetry day everyone!

i was thinking about poems i have heard that blew me away. ones by linton kwesi johnson, jean binta breeze, kae tempest, nick cave, les murray, edip cansever, harry baker to name a few. but i settled on find the poets by tishani doshi which i heard a few years back on something borrowed and it floored the presenters and me!

i hope it's ok to post it here, largely so i can come back to it.

Find the Poets
I arrived in a foreign land yesterday,
a land that has seen troubles,
(who hasn’t, you might say?)

This land
with its scrubbed white houses
and blue seas, where everything was born,
and now, everything seems as if it could vanish.
I wanted to find out the truth
about how a great land like this
could allow ancient columns to crumble
and organ grinders to disappear.

Find the poets, my friend said.
If you want to know the truth, find the poets.

But friend, where do I find the poets?
In the soccer fields,
at the sea shore,
in the bars drinking?

Where do the poets live these days,
and what do they sing about?

I looked for them in the streets of Athens,
at the flea market and by the train station,
I thought one of them might have sold me a pair of sandals.

But he did not speak to me of poetry,

only of his struggles, of how his house was taken from him
along with his shiny dreams of the future,
of all the dangers his children must now be brave enough to face.

Find the poets, my friend said.
They will not speak of the things you and I speak about.
They will not speak of economic integration
or fiscal consolidation.

They could not tell you anything about the burden of adjustment.

But they could sit you down
and tell you how poems are born in silence
and sometimes, in moments of great noise,
of how they arrive like the rain,
unexpectedly cracking open the sky.

They will talk of love, of course,
as if it were the only thing that mattered,
about chestnut trees and mountain tops,
and how much they miss their dead fathers.

They will talk as they have been talking
for centuries, about holding the throat of life,
till all the sunsets and lies are choked out,
till only the bones of truth remain.

The poets, my friend, are where they have always been—
living in paper houses without countries,
along rivers and in forests that are disappearing.

And while you and I go on with life
remembering and forgetting,

the poets remain: singing, singing.

north

i can't resist a north sign ever since describing the charism of pioneers as true north. this one is from ireland and was painted on a rock. i was reminded of it as i have just landed in cumbria for a couple of days to hang out with friends at the northern mission centre. on arrival it was straight into viewing bake off because abbi is one of the contestants and lives in cumbria and is known to the guys here. one of the places i stay when i come up is with abbi's family and have sampled the delights of her amazing cooking on many an occasion so will be cheering her on!

a quote

i read this quote in subversive mission earlier this year and it has stayed with me since. it sums up pretty neatly the issue of whether christianity is foreign or relatable on the basis of its cultural form. it became a bit of a quote of the day at the london pioneer school on saturday.

halo

i called in to see halo, an installation at st stephens walbrook as part of the london design festival. a pendulum loops round henry moore's altar with a light that moves up and down completing loops. a long exposure photo creates the halo effect. above are ambient projections looking like the northern lights. it was well done. for what it's worth my own take was that it would be interesting to expand this project conceptually by exploring notions of the sacred elsewhere - locating the halo outside the church walls.

i took a video of halo in case you want to see the pendulum in real time as it were or get a sense of the ambient projections overhead.