2004 -2005
Sept 04 - Slow
[this service was inspired in part by the idea of the three mile an hour god from theologian kosuke koyama]
Set up:
Set the room up with two screens in the middle back to back – project speed on one side and slow on the other.
do visual stuff from arkaos for speed side
do visual stuff through mixer for slow side
have two mac classics, one for each side of the screen with slow and speed on
Before the service:
Give out tickets for the fast track that lets people in early/quickly – make it slow for others.
Have a rev counter type thing that runs from flat out to flat out – invite people to answer one or two questions - how do you live your life? how do you want to live your life? – and place a post it note or sticker on according to their answer
Service:
1 Preparation:
Welcome/intro
invite people to take watches off and turn phones off
Opening prayer/sentences/call and response liturgy (could involve slow and fast ends of room)
Play track from logical progression with sample from ferris bueller’s day off (life moves pretty fast....)
Slow down
adbusters reading of guy who stands still
prayer of st hilda community
video of jar being shaken and settling with words to encourage people to slow down (taken from cd rom accompanying tune in chill out)
play 'hey man slow down' radiohead
Group discussion
on contemplative vs commuter:
Questions along lines of
Is slow good? Is fast bad? If you're in an accident, you want the ambulance
to come as quickly as possible. When else is speed good?
We work quicker so we can work fewer hours - but do we?"
are you naturally more a commuter or a contemplative? martha or a mary?
slow confession with Reflective piece on time
visual of hand written clock
Praise
My heart is restless
The Lord is compassionate and gracious
2. The Word
Readings
Bible passages/readings on either side of the room re slow and fast
Reflective piece if we slow down... accompanying a video slow moment that no longer seems to be online - it was a brilliant combination.
3. Response
Prayer
Make Jesus prayer cords – use to pray – use animated iconostasis and jesus prayer tack from tune in chill out
Concluding ritual
Take boiled or soft sweets depending on whether you are feeling the call/need to go slow or fast
slow blessing
Oct 04 - Miracles [1]
the first of a series of two services looking at miracles inspired by jeffrey john's talks at greenbelt 04
order of service
'Call to worship'
couple of songs
Simpson's clip/Life of Brian clip
Discussion of miracles and feedback
(people to write miracles they remember on a big sheet so we have a record
of them.)
Inspiration for service and summary of Jeffrey John book with clips from GB tape (see below for summaries)
Ignatian reading - pool of Bethesda (taken from de mello book)
Stations:
a)Water into wine
b)Hem to touch
c)Inclusion/exclusion - stories and post-it notes
d)faith
Need for belief and concluding ritual
From Jeffrey John -- introduction
A summary of Jeffrey John's book "The Meaning in the Miracles".
The Guardian Editor section used to include summaries of books "condensed in the style of the original", and that is what I have tried to do here.
Introduction
The author starts by referring to two Scripture teachers from his school.
One of them believed the Bible in the most literal possible sense, and
considered the meaning of each miracle story was to prove the supernatural
nature of Jesus. The other teacher, in the interests of being relevant,
dismissed anything that sounded supernatural. Her explanation of the
miracles was therefore naturalistic (e.g. the calming of the storm was a
convenient coincidence) or moralistic (e.g. the feeding of the five thousand
was achieved by inspiring everyone to share the food they had). Both
teachers assumed that the only interesting thing about the miracles was the
question of what did or did not happen, and both therefore missed the point.
What we need to do is look for the meaning.
"Let us ask the miracles themselves what they tell us about Christ, for they
have a tongue of their own, if it can only be understood. Because Christ is
the Word of God, all the acts of the Words become words to us. The miracle
which we admire on the outside also has something inside which must be
understood. If we see a piece of beautiful handwriting, we are not
satisfied simply to note the letters are formed evenly, equally and
elegantly: we also want to know the meaning the letters convey. In the same
way a miracle is not like a picture, something merely to look out and
admire, and to be left at that. It is much more like a piece of writing
which we must learn to read and understand." -- St Augustine
a) Each miracle story is a literary creation with a theological purpose.
The gospel writers were steeped in Old Testament Scripture, and constantly
use threads of prophecy-fulfilment, symbolism, or allegory to create a new
story which reapplies the truths, hopes, patterns and meanings of the
scriptural past to the present.
Therefore the key to unlocking the theological meaning of a miracle story
requires knowledge of the Old Testament. The author therefore recommends
following up the cross-references in the Bible, and using a good commentary.
b) The stories must be understood in their own religious, historical, social
and political context. A story such as the healing of a woman with a
haemorrhage shows Jesus overturning a taboo which subjugated and oppressed
women, and was nothing less than revolutionary. Read properly, it
challenges the Church to assess its own treatment of women today as
powerfully as Jesus challenged the gynophobic conventions of his own time.
A similar point can be made about most, if not all, of the healing miracles.
They seem to have been deliberately selected by the evangelist to show
Jesus healing at least one of every category of persons who, according to
the purity laws of Jesus' society, were specifically excluded and labeled
unclean, or who was set at varying degrees of distance from worshipping in a
temple. They are demonstrations of Jesus' healing power and compassion for
the individual, but that is not the main point. Far more relevant to us is
the miracles' universal significance: the overturning of social and
religious barriers, the abolition of taboos, and Jesus' declaration of God's
love and compassion for everyone, expressed in a systematic inclusion of
each class of the previous excluded and marginalised. How often has the
Church failed to follow this inclusiveness and, and preferred instead to
create and cling to its own taboos?
c) Principalities and powers. The gospels continually refer to demonic
powers,, and we must avoid the pitfalls of literalism and reductionism. We
are not required to believe in the existence of demons with forked tails,
nor even, necessarily, in the powers as being entirely distinct, self
existent entities, but nor should we simply dismiss them as if they were
merely outdated dramatic trappings which no longer mean anything in a
"scientific" age. The New Testament uses the same terms to mean both
supernatural forces and the very real powers which represent them on earth.
(They are not inherently bad.)
Just as the healing miracles often imply reinclusion of a whole class of
excluded persons, the power of sin and rebellion against God, and the
healing that they require, must be understood as operating corporately as
well as individually.
d) Faith. One of the many paradoxes in the gospels is that at first sight
the miracles seem to be intended as straightforward demonstrations of Jesus'
divine power, but at the same time the gospels contain strong warnings about
the dangers of being impressed by signs and miracles, and Jesus himself
appears to be extremely wary of being known simply as a wonder-worker, and
is scathing about those who seek signs for their own sake. A personal
belief in Jesus that goes deeper than self-interest and the mere worship of
power is at least part of what the gospels mean by "faith".
e) Eyes to see (and ears to hear). When the disciples fail to understand
the significance of the miracles, they seem to incarnate both the particular
spiritual blindness of Israel and the general spiritual blindness of all
humanity. Mark in particular appears to believe that God had willed a
temporary spiritual blindness to come upon the people which actually
prevented them from understanding. The hope, prophesied by Isaiah, remains
that one day all the blind eyes will be opened. All the gospel miracles of
Jesus healing the blind are to be interpreted in terms of this theology of
revelation: their point is not medical but spiritual and theological.
Summary: the background knowledge of a miracle is indispensable if we are to
get the spiritual meaning. All the miracle stories contain profound
teaching which is of indispensable relevance today, teaching that all too
often gets passed over because we do not get past the "miraculous" packaging
and the endless issue of "did it happen?" We should aim to share the same
perception of the truth that impelled the evangelists to write the miracle
stories in the first place.
That covers the introduction -- the rest of the book consists of analysis,
from the above perspectives, of almost all the miracles. Each chapter also
has some devotional materials.
From Jeffrey John -- the healing of the paralysed man
... the one who was lowered through a hole in the roof. (Mark 2 v 1-12,
Luke 5 v 18-26, and there is a similar story in Matthew 9 v2-8)
The main point of the story is Jesus' claim to forgive sins. It is a
fundamental assumption in Judaism that God alone can forgive sins on God's
behalf or with God's authority. The reality of Jesus' claim to forgive
authoritatively could not be proved on its own, since it is an inward,
spiritual matter. Hence the importance of the miracle. Jesus' question,
"Is it easier to forgive or to say to the paralytic, get up?" is not meant
to imply that forgiving sin is literally "easier" than physical healing. It
is more a question of visibility. The physical healing proves the truth of
the claim to exercise forgiveness.
The fact that Jesus heals and forgives simultaneously might suggest that the
sickness was the result of a specific sin on the paralysed man's part, or
that he was an especially sinful person. But as is referred to elsewhere in
the Gospels, as well as the book of Job, human sickness is to be linked not
so much with the personal sin of the sufferer as with human sinfulness in
general. From the Gospel point of view all disorder, even natural
phenomena, derive from the separation between God and the world. Conversely
the various demonstrations in the Gospel of the power of Jesus over
sickness, sin, disorder and death are all equivalent signs that he bears the
authority of God to drive back the darkness, and reclaim the world and human
beings for their creator.
Many Christians are suspicious of sacramental confession, but it does carry
a special healing power for those who still need to hear the kind of
objective and authoritative declaration of God's forgiveness that Jesus
makes in the story. A desperately needed ministry (which the Church is not
particularly effective at) is the opportunity to open oneself up in faith,
and to be reassured of God's acceptance of our whole person, despite the sin
and mess.
From Jeffrey John -- wedding at cana
There is a barely concealed implication that Jeffrey John considers this
story to be allegorical rather than factual. Many Jewish writing symbolise
the messianic days as a wedding feast, and many of the stories in the
Gospels are about weddings as well.
There are two particularly important points from the story, and the first is
the production of the wine itself. There are reminders of Jesus saying "can
the wedding guests fast while the groom is still with them?" and "no one
puts new wine into old skins".
The production of a huge abundance of wine, and a production of a similar
abundance of bread at the feeding of the five thousand, suggests an allusion
to the Eucharist, the sacramental means by which the believer is united with
Jesus. [I am reminded of the communion liturgy which says "let us make a
huge loaf of bread, and let us bring abundant wine."] The story of the
wedding, like communion, is also about celebrating a corporate as well as an
individual relationship -- and the story does not hesitate to compare the
joy of the celebration with drunkenness. In the Western Church we are not
good at joy, though the joy does not necessarily have to be expressed in
loud and visible joyfulness.
The second point concerns Jesus' words to his mother -- a verbal slap in the
face which suggests hostility between them. Jesus' view of the family was,
to say the least, ambiguous, and he himself clearly had problems with his
own family. His teaching that all human relationships and all human
institutions need redeeming -- including motherhood and apple pie -- is
important to keep in mind, especially when our relationships prove
difficult. God comes first, and everything else needs ordering in the light
of our relationship with him.
Nov 04 - Miracles [2]
second service on miracles
this included communion where people were invited to take a thorn as well as bread and wine and concluded with
order of service:
PowerPoint presentation of optical illusions at the start
welcome/focus on God
song - this is the house of God
Intro to service - miracles today
Simpsons clip
Introduce stories - of miracles and unanswered prayer, faith and doubt.
People to tell stories - Steve, Moya - leg, ? - St Marys
Mystery in miracles, place of faith, refer to coins from last time
Heavenly man story
Invite people to take a thorn - what do you want God to do for you?
Time of quiet for prayer
Song - O Lord hear my prayer
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego Liturgy - we believe you can do miracles, but even if you don’t you are still God.
Communion, leave thorn with God, prayer for healing/miracle - needs explanation at the start.
miracles liturgy
Dec04 - Nine
nine is explained here...
these are the nine readings we used this year:
1. Genesis 3:8-15, 17-19
2. Genesis 22:15-18
3. Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
4. Isaiah 11:1-3a, 4a, 6-9
5. Luke 1:26-35, 38
6. Luke 2:1, 3-7
7. Luke 2:8-16
8. Matthew 2:1-12
9. John 1:1-14
And these are the tracks people chose:
Adam Lay I-Bounden Anon 15th c
No title - Welk
At the Centre’ - Lies Damned Lies
It Hurts So Good - Millie Jackson
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day
Personal Jesus - Johnny Cash
Untitled – Joel Baker and Simon Burrell (aka twotone)
Sound effects of a journey – Mark Waddington
As I Went Down - Lies Damned Lies
To Be Alone With You - Sufjan Stevens
Lesson 4: Isaiah's vision of the kingdom
Here we have Isaiah's vision of an ideal future world -- call it "heaven" if you like. And this picture, the Plains of Heaven by the Victorian artist John Martin, is another vision of heaven.
What is your vision of heaven? And what do you think will need to happen for that vision to be realised?
Isaiah's vision is of a world without conflict.
What would it take to stop humans fighting with each other (never mind animals)?
Here are a couple of possibilities:
Give people all the resources they could possibly want -- be it living space, time, oil, carbon credits... and they won't have anything to fight over. I call this the George Bush model.
Or change people so that they are incapable of fighting -- the Brave New World model.
I'm sure you can think of other possibilities.
Now let's get back to Isaiah. He makes it clear that this is the Jesus model. Jesus will lead the world to the vision of heaven. This is Jesus who healed people -- and who promised to bring fire to the world.
I really don't know how he will bring heaven about. But we can be sure that it will be alive.
Jan 05 - ignatian examen
a guest from the london meditation centre (julie) led grace in an ignatian type examen for the new year
ignatian examen
Lent 05 - lent blog
Feb 05 - Minor Prophets
12 people had taken a minor prophet and had a space under their head (which are sculpted in stone around the church) to offer their interpretation, reflection, ritual or whatever.
there is a smallfire photo album here
and jonny's photo album here
the second photo album above has a summary of each station though we may dig out some other bits and pieces for here...
amos
habakkuk
haggai
hosea
joel
jonah
malachi
micah
nahum
obadiah
zachariah
zephaniah
Mar 05 - Prophecy
Mar 05 Holy Week - Out Of Nothing Installation
Annual Report for St Marys PCC 2005
Grace continued in a pattern of two worship services a month. The main creative service is on the second Saturday of the month. We tend to loosely follow the pattern of the church calendar as a basic structure for our services. Themes this last year included miracles, slow, minor prophets and prophecy, nine (our untraditional take on nine lessons and carols), the ignatian examen and stations of the resurrection. We have a couple of visiting speakers each year. This year we welcomed Julie Dunstan from the London meditation centre who led us in the Ignatian examen. And Bishop Pete joined us for a BBQ in the vicarage garden where we 'grilled the bishop'.
Gracelet is the second service each month which is smaller and one or two people from Grace put it together each time rather than a creative group effort. We have moved this back to the church rather than meeting in peoples homes. It is a reflective service usually structured round a basic liturgy.
At Easter we ran the installation 'Out Of Nothing' for three days of holy week. This was a new worship experience meets art installation on the theme of creation.180 people passed through and the feedback was great.
We took part in Greenbelt arts festival again where we have become something of a regular fixture. This was the first outing of 'Slow' the service that we subsequently led at St Marys in February.
The lent blog was a big success again (a web site with people posting a reflection each day through lent).
Numbers at Grace vary between about 30 and 60. Gracelet is more like a dozen. We have the usual mix of regulars and tourists. Partly by being in London and partly through having a strong web presence we are always hosting visitors from round the world looking for creative ideas for worship and church. The strangest this year was when two mini bus loads of Danish youth pastors arrived.
The planning group has been pretty strong this year. Communication with St Marys is definitely helped by Anna being a member of Grace and on staff at St Marys. We also took part in a training day for the diocese of Willesden in response to the report Mission Shaped Church. We are in the middle of a process of re-evaluating what Grace is about and how we structure our life together. In part this is in response to a challenge bishop Pete gave us to reflect on what mission means for Grace. The first phase of the process has led us to develop a set of values that we hold and/or aspire to. We'll let you know the outcome once we've finished the process.
You can generally check what we are up to on the grace web site, by looking at the grace notice board in the polygon and of course you are always welcome at any grace services.
the grace team xxx
Apr 05 - Parables [1]
opening words
opening prayer
songs:
come holy spirit
this is the house of god
confession
intro notion of parables
three different takes on hospitality
brick testament – unhospitality [slideshow on screens]
mike riddell parable [read out]
babette's feast [on dvd]
creed
song - this is the table of christ
eucharistic prayer [andy sillis guest priest]
invitation
[bread and wine]
prayer
blessing
May 05 - Parables[2] - Godly Play
Jun 05 - Parables[3] - speed parables
Parables 3 notes from e-mail:
The service will be ‘topped and tailed’ by Mike leading some worship. The
main part of the service will be loosely based on ‘speed-story telling’.
Groups will congregate around 6 tables (more if we have to double some up)
and experience parables told/discussed/explored for 8 – 10 minutes (we’ll
fix the time on the night). After the allotted time the gong will sound and
in a Mike Reid Runaround style groups will move to a different table.
If all goes well we’ll have 6 rotations so everyone gets everything but
we’ll be responsive to mood.
We’ll set up the parable tables in the large polygon room with some chilled
muzak in the backgound. Café set up as usual. Do we have drinks available
during as well as after?
Order of service:
§ Welcome and introductory worship – Mike
§ Explanation of the service – Jen
§ 6 parable tables + facilitators:
q Good Samaritan – fill in the blanks - Mark facilitator, Ben/Mike to prepare
q David and Bathsheba – Rebecca ‘Hypocrisy is the greatest luxury’
q Why did Jesus use parables? Matthew 13 - Jen
q Tales from peoples lives – M & Ms - Adam
q Film + response – Ben ‘Hudsucker Proxy’ + ‘Life is Sweet’
q ‘Nicholas of Cusa’ or Unforgiving servant – Jackie
§ Parable of the sower – prayers Mike
M&M's
The M&M’s exercise consists of giving each of a small group of people a subject to talk about, depending on which colour sweet they draw from a bag:
Brown: something you fear (it doesn't have to be personal)
Green: something you hope for
Red: a gift you have to offer
Yellow: a show, film or exhibition you have seen
Orange: a place you have visited
Blue: a person who has particularly influenced your life.
I am not going to explain too carefully exactly what I mean by each of these topics, because the precise interpretation is not important -- the purpose of the exercise is just to give people something to talk about, so they will tell stories. But it helps to give an example. This one is for yellow:
"Last night I saw a real live dragon. I am not joking -- it was a Green Water Dragon at Kew Gardens. They had a special late-night opening for "locals", for which I just about qualified, mainly to allow us to see the exhibition of glass installations, most of which can be found among the plants in the greenhouses. My favourite installation was hanging from the ceiling of the Temperate House -- a large cluster of glass leaf shapes in flame colours. I was just in time to see it catch the evening sun.
"But even after that, the best thing I saw on my visit was the dragon. I have never seen anything before that looked so alive."
That is the first part of the exercise. We were not able to do the second part at the Grace service, but we have done it at a Gracelet meeting:
A large drawing of a tree is required, and some leaves cut from green and brown paper and fruit cut from red paper. This is the point at which you discover the reason for the choice of colours. Each participant takes a leaf or fruit to represent each hope, fear or gift they mentioned, and any others they may have thought of, writes something on them if they want to, and puts them on the tree. The leader glues down the green and red shapes, but does not put any glue on the brown leaves.
When the tree is complete, the leader prays, to dedicate everyone's hopes and gifts to God. Then the leader picks up the tree and allows all the brown leaves to fall off.
Jul 05 - BBQ
Greenbelt 05
