Artist as Priest

'The root of our problem is that we can only fulfil our intuitively priest-like function as artist on condition that our inner world is animated by God'.

John Taverner 'Temenos' journal - Issue 9 1988

Breaking Bread for All?

We break this bread for those who love God

For those who follow the path of the Buddha

For our sisters and brothers in Islam

For the devotees of Hindu holiness

And for the Jewish people from whom we come

That one day, together, we may celebrate our common humanity.

We break this bread for the great green earth

We call to mind the rivers, the forests, the fields and the flowers

Which we are destroying

That one day the original blessing of God's creation will be restored.

We break this bread for those who have no bread

The starving, the homeless, the prisoners, the refugees

That one day, when justice and peace embrace,

This planet may be a home for all.

We break this bread for the broken parts of ourselves

The wounded child in all of us

For broken relationships

That one day all will be healed in the heart of God.

We break this bread to share in the body of Christ

Though we are many we are one body

Because we all share in one bread. Donald Reeves (b1934)

(A prayer written by Revd Donald Reeves as rector of St James', Piccadilly - used by Paul Oestreicher in Church Times.)

This stretches me, takes me just a bit beyond my normal boundaries of comfort and conformation. Yet the cosmic Christ of Colossians has surely changed and impacted all people, all things for all time. I hope I can be open to the emerging truth of God which we must embrace.

Incarnational Mission

Small Boat Big Sea - not a bad name for an incarnational missional indigenous missio dei community - a day with Mike Frost of SBBS - at the new CMS Mission Centre in Oxford; a day trip for Steve, (and his mate Paul) Chris and myself.

We need to focus on mission rather than worship; so much of what we get up to in church is all about tinkering with our worship. Mike urged us to go for mission and as we do so we find community, discipleship and connectedness.

I liked the story of SBBS; their 5 rhythms of Blessing, Eating, Listening, Learning and being Sent; mixing and relating to people outside of the group, learning about Jesus above all else and journaling, reflecting on all the ways I've been sent this week. And their DNA groups of 2-5 people for Discipleship, Nurture and Accountability.

Then there was the third place thinking; 1st place Home, 2nd place Work, and 3rd place the Great Good Place of interaction. For most Christians their 3rd place is church so we're scarcely comnnecting with the wider community.

Many great insights, laughter and moving reflections. A consistent ambivalence concerning church - the guy who formed the chaplains of the Pine River in I think Brisbane; somewhat reluctantly having to admit that his problem was that 'I think I've actually planted a church'. No not a church - rather just a collective of people who have oriented their lives around Jesus.......

Reminds me of Robert Warren's emphasis on focussing on mission rather than maintenance. Wonderful to be free of all the baggage - yet somehow we accumulate baggage mighty fast. And the new free church becomes so quickly yet another way to become bound by just another set of traditions and preferences.

Then - as I continue in reflection mode - Mike Frost talked of the Chief and the Medecine Man. I didn't get much about indigenous leadership - but I did get the message of how important it is to have a good team leading - those who challenge and confront and live outside, on the outskirts, and those who hold things together and exercise pastoral oversight, who live in the centre.

We chatted at lunch and on the way home about ways forward, about frustrations of whether this ecclesiology is really adequate, of whether we are chiefs or medecine men. I liked being told that whilst I was 'chief' like most of the time I had a healthy tendency to be menacing -(mis-chievous) at times. What future for the initiatives on the Lickey Hills, for Open Church, for Art in Church, for shared meals, for developing further the Home / Cell groups, for connections at work?

CMS tent at Greenbelt was good. Amazing 10 person Nigerian band. I was struck by this prayer from the August CMS Prayerlines - from Kenya

From the cowardice that dares not face new truth

From the laziness that is contented with half truth

From the ignorance that thinks it knows all truth,

Good Lord, deliver me.

Not a bad prayer for Greenbelt theology too.

Laughter as liturgy

In the Baroque period the liturgy used to include the risus paschalis, the Easter laughter. The Easter homily had to contain a story that made people laugh, so that the church sounded with a joyful laughter.... Is there not something very beautiful and appropriate about laughter becoming a liturgical symbol?

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict 16th), Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts (Ignatian Press 1997)

Thank you Spring Harvest for your useful resource from 2008 'One Hope Study Guide'. I found this gem on p29.

How Scotland was created (as seen on picture in 'the wee room' at Bishop's Croft, Birmingham).

How was Scotland created? At the beginning of time, God was discussing the creation of the world with the Angel Gabriel. Leaning back in His golden throne, He told him of His plans for Scotland.
'Gabriel', said God, 'I am going to give Scotland towering mountains and magnificent glens resplendent with purple heather. Red deer will roam the countryside, golden eagles will circle in the skies, salmon will leap in the crystal clear rivers and lochs, and the surrounding areas will teem with fish. Agriculture will flourish and there will be a glorious coming together of water with barley to be known as whisky. Coal, oil and gas all will be there. The Scots will be intelligent, innovative, industrious and........ '
'Wait a minute!' interrupted Gabriel. 'Are you not being just a wee bit too generous to these Scots?'
But the Almighty replied, 'Not really. I havent told you who their neighbours are going to be!'

Meeting with Steve

We met together and set up this blog.