elpida

just got back from the first part of Elpida's opening night.

I've blogged about this last week - Elpida has been the artist in residence at the cathedral for the past year.

The exhibition is absolutely brilliant - the opening, just now, included a performance artist walking the cloisters in a fabulous dress made of chicken skin.

for more see here

the feig guys will be here in a bit - better get the food onto the table...

El Bano Del Papa

watched this earlier this week. really, really good.

the title means: The Pope's Toilet

it's about the residents of a small Uruguayan town called Melo who plan to cash in on a visit that the Pope is making.

petty smuggler Beto decides to build a toilet and charge pilgrims to use it.

well worth a watch.

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middle aged

this weekend I will reach the half-way point of my biblical three-score-years-and ten.

does that make me officially middle-aged?

not according to current bracketing for commercial marketing purposes: for another whole year I apparently still qualify as an adolescent...

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words of Stanley Hauerwas

So, I'm working hard at this essay on war as a moral problem...

Among lots of other books, I've been using one called Against the Nations by Stanely Hauerwas.

Hauerwas is big on calling Christians to be a distinctive community. He writes the following, which I post for your pondering:

'What was original about the first Christians was not the peculiarity of their beliefs, but their social inventiveness in creating a community whose like had not been seen before. To say they believed in God is true but uninteresting. What is interesting is that they thought their belief in God as they had encountered him in Jesus required the formation of a community distinct from the world exactly because of the kind of God he was. You cannot know what kind of God you disbelieve in, from a Christian perspective, unless you see what kind of community is necessary to worship him across time. The flabbiness of contemporary atheism is, thus, a judgment on the church's unwillingness to be a distinctive people.'

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First Feig Confirmations

Last night we met in the cathedral's triforium - the upper gallery where we host the feast events - for our first feig confirmations.

Bishop John came to take the service which was attended by feigers, friends and family.

Blogging about it doesn't really do it the beginnings of justice.

It was quite simply a profound thing for everyone involved.

It was a massive milestone in the life of our emerging community and witnessing the ritual in the silence of the candlelit space is something that will stay with me forever.

I can't really write anything else about it. If you were there you'll get it, and if you weren't you'll just have to use your imagination.
It's just worth saying that we'd appreciate your ongoing prayers for the four guys who were confirmed.

print. fold. staple. repeat.

me n soph playing church administrators - printing and folding much-o service sheets.

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questions

I'm working on my ethics essay when my little son comes in to my study.

"What you doing daddy?"

"An essay."

"What's an essay?"

"um... I have to answer a question. It's about war. Do you know what war is?"

"No."

"It's when people fight each other... God doesn't like it when we fight each other."

Son thinks for a moment.

"You was in the army." (I was in the cadets)

"Yes I was - a long time ago."

"But - was Jesus cross with you?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Oh."

"I didn't kill anyone."

"Oh... (pause) I'm going to get a carrot."

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Michael Moynagh, Books, titles, meetings, admin etc, etc, blah, blah...

I spent this afternoon with Michael Moynagh, who had come to Gloucester to meet with me and the diocese' other Pioneer Minister, Debbie, to talk about our work.

Michael is well known as a speaker and writer.

He edits the Fresh Expressions 'Share the Guide' which contains advice on starting, developing and sustaining fresh expressions of church based on shared experiences.

He also established the Tomorrow Project, which is an independent charity undertaking a programme of research, consultation and communication about people's lives in Britain in the next twenty years.

Anyway, enough of all that. The manuscript of the book Survivor are publishing about feig came back from the copy-editor whilst I was on holiday.

It's all good to go - I've been working through the M/S to give final approval. The only thing holding up type setting and final cover design is the lack of a title.

We've gone through a whole raft of possibilities - nothing quite fits.

I've got twenty-four hours to come up with the goods or risk being slapped with something very cheesy...

This is a bit of a distraction actually. I have a large ethics essay to do for the Dmin.

Speaking of which, I'm off to London tomorrow for a day of lectures.

That's good. I can think about my sermon for Sunday whilst I'm on the train...

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mind-bend

This coming Friday (24th) we have the first feig confirmation service.

Four feig-ers are being confirmed by +John in a special service to be held in the spot we normally host our feast events in the cathedral.

I've been working on the order of service for the past three hours.

Mostly fine - except that job where, once you've got the text and images sorted, you have to cut and paste things into booklet form. You know the job - everything is in order but if you want a booklet with things on back and front over 10 pages, you have to work out what will go next to what.

I thought about power-point but generally we're post-powerpoint...

So it's funky little booklets (on recycled paper and to be recycled afterwards, so conserve you own energy and don't mail me to suggest that perhaps the power used by the projector might be a smidgen less than the eco-cost of a few sheets of A4...)

If you are up for coming along, please do! It would be great to have as much support as possible. This is a really big deal.

I've thought lots about Christian initiation and their place in fresh expressions.
I reckon the standard stuff, handed to us via the tradition we find ourselves growing out of and into (ie - Anglicanism) is almost more important in a fresh expression of church.

Rites that connect us with our shared heritage are hugely significant and serve, among many other things, as a reminder that we are part of a single body - and not simply a bunch of stragglers working out how to follow Christ in a vacuum.

Anyway, back to the booklet making...

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5 Marks of Mission

Just browsing the CofE's website and found this, which I thought was worth sticking up for a ponder...

'...the bishops of the Lambeth Conference adopted the “Five Marks Of Mission” in 1988. They were then adopted by the General Synod of the Church of England in 1996.

1) To proclaim the good news of the Kingdom
2) To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
3) To respond to human need by loving service
4) To seek to transform unjust structures of society
5) To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and to sustain the life of the earth

The Anglican Consultative Council notes,

“The first mark of mission… is really a summary of what all mission is about, because it is based on Jesus' own summary of his mission (Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:14-15, Luke 4:18, Luke 7:22; cf. John 3:14-17). Instead of being just one of five distinct activities, this should be the key statement about everything we do in mission.”

In 2004 the General Synod commended the report “Mission-shaped church” to the whole of the Church of England. Building on the five marks of mission, this report speaks of five values for a missionary church:

1) A missionary church is focused on God the Trinity
Worship lies at the heart of a missionary church, and to love and know God as Father, Son and Spirit is its chief inspiration and primary purpose…

2) A missionary church is incarnational
It seeks to shape itself in relation to the culture in which it is located or to which it is called…

3) A missionary church is transformational
It exists for the transformation of the community that it serves, through the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit…

4) A missionary church makes disciples
It is active in calling people to faith in Jesus Christ…it is concerned for the transformation of individuals, as well as for the transformation of communities.

5) A missionary church is relational
It is characterized by welcome and hospitality. Its ethos and style are open to change when new members join.

(“Mission-shaped church” pp.81-2)

These values are an outworking of the traditional Declaration of Assent which Anglican clergy, readers and licensed lay workers make on taking up a new appointment. The Declaration speaks of the faith we hold, “which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation”.

The Church is committed to encourage these “fresh expressions of church” and they may be seen in many places, contexts, neighbourhoods and networks, alongside the traditional worship and work of Christians in the church and in the world.'

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Motectum

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva is a friend of ours - she's currently Artist in Residence in the Faculty of Media, Art & Communications at the University of Gloucestershire, and based at Gloucester Cathedral.

Her final exhibition, titled 'Motectum' is opening on 30th April.

It will run from Thursday 30 April – Sunday 31 May.
The works are to be found around Gloucester Cathedral and there is no charge for admission.

You'd be more than welcome to come to the opening night (Thur 30th, 6-8pm in the catherdal). Hopefully see you there...

(the dress is made entirely of chicken skins...)

The Resurrection

The truth about the resurrection matters. If Jesus wasn't raised bodily from the dead then Christianity is a sham, a pious fraud, a failure. Paul wrote some twenty centuries ago:

"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." (1 Corinthians 15:17-19)

I'm preaching tomorrow morning at the cathedral and then another local church. I'll base what I'm going to say on the assumption that the Bible accounts should be taken seriously. We are not wise to reject resurrection out of hand because it requires a belief in miracles. Instead, we seek to understand what the scriptures actually say about the subject.

Anyone who is serious about this would set out by examining resurrection from its earliest mentions in the Old Testament to Jesus' teaching about resurrection. Then I guess they might look at the accounts in each of the four gospels to determine to the best of their ability exactly what took place that Easter morning. Next, they might survey alternate explanations of the resurrection and discuss the strong facts of the resurrection which underlie the Christian belief in Christ's physical resurrection from the dead. After this they could explore the theological and practical implications of Christ's resurrection. Finally, they would want to consider what the New Testament teaches about our own resurrection on the Last Day. Or something like that...

Anyway, A Very Happy Easter!

(The image is: The Resurrection of Christ by Piero della Francesca (c.1420 - 1492.)

Good Friday

An appropriate image for this solemn day:

The Crucifixion by Mathias Grunewald. It was painted as an altar piece for a monastery in which the vast majority of those being cared for by the monks were suffering with skin diseases. If you are able to look closely at the image, you'll see that Grunewald has painted Christ with deeply damaged skin - a Christ to whom those who would have seen this image every day at worship could relate.

Last night, as we gathered at our home for feig, we shared bread and wine - as Jesus did with his disciples on the night before he died.

We then read Mark's account of Christ's passion - taking various parts between us.

As you'd expect, it was pretty sobering. Today feels, rightly, heavy.

Later I'll be joining other Christians from a whole bunch of denominations in a walk from Kings Square to the cathedral. A large cross is carried with us and we stop 3 times along the way to listen to reflections, sing something and pray.
I've given a reflection the past two years. Not this year though.
It'll be good to just be a punter.
A bloke in the crowd wearing a dog collar...

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From John Howard Yoder's 'The Politics of Jesus':

'The believer's cross, is no longer any and every kind of suffering, sickness, or tension, the bearing of which is demanded.
The believer's cross must be, like his Lord's, the price of his social non-conformity.
It is not, like sickness or catastrophe, an inexplicable, unpredictable suffering; it is the end of a path chosen after freely counting the cost.
It is not, like Luther's or Zinzendorf's or Kierkegaard's cross - an inward wrestling of the sensitive soul with self and sin;
it is the social reality of representing in an unwilling world the Order to come.'

oh yes.

Liking this, this Easter season : Mark Wallinger's Ecce Homo (1999), (it was the first sculpture to occupy the empty plinth in London's Trafalgar Square.)

renewing

Off in a minute to the 'Diocesan Eucharist with the Reaffirmation of Ordination Vows and the Blessing of Holy Oils'. (or the: DEWTROOVATBOHO as it is more affectionately (not) known)

Basically all the ordained clergy in the diocese get together in the cathedral, along with readers and others to dedicate ourselves afresh to the service of Christ.

It's a pretty powerful experience - and a helpful reminder that we serve as part of an alternative community - based on values of love and sacrificial service rather than pride and selfish ambition...

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Bob Mayo's Easter Thought...

I like this for lots of reasons, but not least for the point Bob makes about each of us interpreting things from within our own framework of understanding. We all do it - and are all on the receiving end of it: at work, at home, at church...

'This Sunday is Easter day – We are told always to judge (1 Cor 2:15) but never to condemn (Mt 7:1). Holy Week illustrates why this is so. We always interpret things from within our own framework of understanding. Milo (aged 3) wants to be a vicar because he thinks that all I do is to play with the toys kept in the church. Lawrence (aged 6) asked me whether Jesus ate an Easter egg when he was on the cross. In Galilee Jesus had wanted to avoid being labelled. He did not want to raise false expectations and so had repeatedly told people he had healed, to keep quiet about what had happened (e.g. Mark 1:43). Then he went to Jerusalem where people knew of him only by reputation and saw him for the political messiah they wanted him to be. They cheered him because of what they hoped for from him. By (Good) Friday they would be disappointed and by (Easter) Sunday astonished. The Crucifixion and the Resurrection lay beyond the imagination of anything that anyone might have thought of for that week. The story of Jesus’ death and resurrection fits no framework but its own – it can be interpreted only by itself.'

Bishop's Mission Orders

I've been asked to look at Bishop's Mission Orders (BMOs) in relation to feig.

The 'Share' part of the Fresh Expressions website introduces BMOs as follows:

The BMO '...is a new opportunity in the Church of England created by the Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure 2007 and the Code of Practice with it.

The Measure allows bishops to issue a Bishop's Mission Order (BMO) where a church planting initiative would cross parish boundaries or involve collaboration between parishes.

A BMO is not needed for a church plant within a parish. But if the plant takes root, a BMO could be a helpful means to aid the plant to maturity - for example, to help it be recognised as part of the overall governance of the parish.'

Read more here

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ethics and war

I'm into my reading for my next DMin essay on ethics and war - and found this in a book by Stanley Hauerwas called 'Against the Nations'

'Put starkly [my] chapters on war presume that the church does not have something to say about war so much as the church is what God has said about war. The church does not have an alternative to war. The church is our alternative to war. That is why questions of the unity of the church should be our most urgent agenda... More important, therefore, than what the church says about war is what kind of people Christians are that our very being provides an alternative to war for ourselves and the world.'

looks interesting...

Just found this blog (and nicked the bible verse for my last post from it...):

'Living Water From an Ancient Well
an emergent ancient future misal, resource and notes of journey with a Celtic heart beat'

Yet to explore properly but if you're into Celtic stuff, it looks interesting...



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posting a day late

"Rejoice, rejoice, people of Zion! Shout for joy you people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you! He comes triumphant and victorious, but humble and riding on a donkey - on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Zechariah 9:9

yesterday was Palm Sunday, as you probably know...

I was too busy filing a post on the Wild Things to be specific about the day.

I was involved in the procession from a little church near our house, up to the cathedral - palm branches and everything.

During the service the chunk of Mark's gospel containing the passion narrative was sung in its entirety by members of the choir. I have to say it was deeply moving. Good to hear it in a new way - sheds new light, brings new insight etc etc.

So, we are now into Holy Week...

Not sure what else to say about that, other than contemplate, pray, listen, grow.

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Where The Wild Things are...

Has been made into a film...

Oh my word.

Surely this story has affected just about everyone who has grown up since the 70s??

See the trailer here

Best ever?

Possibly the best ever feast last night.

They've all been good but there was something particularly special about yesterday's.

Way more people than I was expecting turned up. It's a word-of-mouth event to which you'd only come if you knew someone else, or had seen details on the website - So I was amazed to find that I didn't know at least half the 40 or so people there.

It's strange actually, because out of twenty potential 'core' feig-ers, only 10 could make it along. Some of the other guests had been before, but plenty hadn't.

The food was as good as ever - lots of atmosphere, great conversations, two trips up the tower - which is always an experience for first-timers.

A local art student, Natasha, had set up an installation in a side chapel - using lines of salt to mark out a kind of labyrinth that took participants to various 'stations' for reflection.

It worked really well and was a popular addition to the evening.

By the end of the night, after preparation, set up, and about 50 ascents of the 50ft staircase to the feasting area, and a trip up the tower, I was pretty tired...

So I had to rally myself just before we cleared away, for an unexpectedly animated conversation with someone who'd come for the first time about God, Buddhism, the gospels, Yoga, instincts, Jesus, the non-reliability of feelings, truth, and searching with integrity.

The feasts rule.

Long live the feast!

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FEAST

This evening we meet in the cathedral for our feig-feast event.

I can never remember how many we've done.

It's lots. And they've all been good. Always new faces, good food and wine, plenty of laughter and the chance to explore the ancient space.

If you're around, and are up for it, let me know - especially if your name is Rowan...

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Let's remember the date...

Posted after midday...

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Lambeth to grace feig

Really encouraged to have an e-mail from Lambeth Palace this morning.

They have been following the feig journey with some interest.

It transpires that Rowan Williams will be giving a lecture in Cheltenham tomorrow and has asked if he could come on to our 'feast' event in the evening.

The events have always been good - with a decent vibe and great food, so I'm sure he'll have a grand time.

His chaplain told me that he is particularly keen to speak to feig-ers one-to-one and to listen to their ideas about how the Anglican communion might engage more deeply with the emerging culture.

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