Where to be... or not to be.

I'm supposed to be at a seminar/resource thingy this morning. Rev Prof Bill Loader is speaking on the Year of Luke. I'd really LIKE to be there but I'm just exhausted! I HAVE to be there this afternoon because I'm presenting a workshop called 'Reimagining the text through symbols and art.' I hope I'll have more energy by then.

BRAIN DEAD...

I've got so much to do before Sunday and I just CANNOT get my brain to work! Maybe I need to stop trying so hard. I'll go for a walk.
I wonder how many people think this business of coming up with something interesting week after week is actually easy... 'cos some weeks it just AINT.

Crafting Sacred Spaces

It was good to hear Mark Pierson again and to be encouraged in the pursuit of doing ridiculous things in and for worship. I guess I've always known (at some level) that the occasional hours spent in creating interesting worship spaces and experiences are a good thing but it's the devalued artist in me who thinks it's not REAL work.
The sensible part of my brain says "actually, you're potentially facilitating a moment that changes people for good... for ever" AND "worship / encountering the holy is not just about words."
So - I'll keep doing what I do as much as I can and I'll try to get others to do a bit more of it with me.

YAY!!!

It works... sort of. If I post from Facebook, I'm a bit limited in what I can put in. I don't think I can insert videos and I'm not sure I can add tags BUT... at least I can do stuff all from one login. I may even actually do it!

Facebook Test(icles)

I think I've managed to put this on Facebook as a mirror thingy... so I'm just testing it.

Transfer

You know... I really don't do this very well. (In case you hadn't noticed.) Maybe if I transfer it all to my Facebook, I'll be more regular. Although... I tend to spend more time maintaining my Farm (Farmville on Facebook) than writing stuff. I'll see what I can do.

Ryan Freeman

It's taken a while to get to this post... mainly because I don't know what to write. I only met Ryan a couple of times but, from what people have said, he was an integral member of the CoTT community for... always!

Ryan was rock climbing in Canada with his mates a couple of weeks ago when something went wrong. He slipped, fell and died.

Ryan was only 24. Roger and Yvonne's youngest of three boys. His family has been in that awful and, in this case, prolonged waiting space for Ryan's body to be returned home so they can properly begin to say goodbye.

I hope the next few weeks will be gentle to them.

LIFE...

...is what happens when you've made other plans.
There's been a LOT of life happening in the last few weeks. Probably even a bit too much... hence the lack of attention to the blog.
I'll attempt some catchup stuff but don't don't hold your breath!

(moderately) High Tea

Yesterday afternoon we launched our Community Day with an afternoon tea. It was FUN! Some guests dressed for the occasion (note the hats, gloves, stoles and flowers in the hair) and many did their best poshy accent... well... here and there during proceedings.

Her Maj., Q.E.II was disappointed not to be there to launch the event but she sent her best wishes and may turn up for the odd game of cards on a Wednesday when Phil is out of town.

It was great to have one of our expats join us (in her fallout chair!!!) from the Nursing Home where she now lives. Apparently, she received the invitation and was determined to come so she hired an access cab! Good for you Ruth!

Here are some piccies and the invitation we snail mailed to everyone: [click on the invitation for a bigger view]

Here's a thing...

From the Advertiser on Monday, June 14th. [Click on it for a larger image with more readable text.]

Been a while... Not really sure what to put up here and what not to. However, last Sunday which was Pentecost, I made a little video to go with the reading from Ezekiel and a couple of people said "you should put that on the web for other people to use" so... here 'tis:

You can also find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I18VdGnMY8Y

Here's the reading about Ezekiel's vision from the Hebrew Scriptures (New Revised Standard Version) Ezekiel 37: 1-14

The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.
He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD."
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act," says the LORD.

It's prob'ly worth saying...

I'm crook this week... might've overdone the whole Easter thing.
I DON'T RECOMMEND IT!

Had a sore throat Sunday... by Monday evening my neck glands looked like golf balls and I won't even begin to describe the state of my tongue and throat. Today I sound like this:

Thank God for Alex Fleming's poor housekeeping and thus... penicillin!

[BTW - the video is the end bit of this one from YouTube.]

Easter Sunday

Thankfully, Roger and Yvonne helped de-garden the church on Saturday and set up the chairs etc. for Sunday.

The long white cloth that had been covering the cross on Thursday evening was left crumpled on the floor below and then there were butterflies... (These are from my mobile phone and Val's BIG butterfly that hung over the cross isn't here yet but you get the idea.)

Maundy Thursday

This was an Alt Worship experience rather than a traditional, structured service of worship. Here's a bit of an outline and some pictures.

People gathered in the Hall where I'd set up a long table (3 tressels) covered with layers of white tablecloths. In the centre, a sliver Menorah with 7 purple candles. There was a selection of flat-bread, dips, antipasto, grapes and there would have been dates but I couldn't find them quickly. This is an "after" photo:

People were invited to consider various stories they knew about Jesus and those he encountered and to choose a character from one of these stories. Then, for about half an hour, they were invited to adopt this character and talk to other people at the gathering. Some questions to get them going were "How do you know Jesus", "Why do you think you've been invited to this party?", "What do you think is going to happen next?"

Everyone got right into it! One person told me he had thought half an hour was too long but found that it went by really quickly.

At the end of the 30 minutes, we did a sort of an Oprah style thing and invited people to give some of their thoughts and reactions to the whole group. The diversity in character choice was amazing and it was good when a few characters appeared more than once because they had different perspectives. Overall, it seemed to work well and created a vastly different experience from the usual... at least... that was the feedback on Friday morning and Sunday.

Sean Gilbert (the Minister from Christ Church, with whom we share the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services) was "dumped" into the Jesus role. He was not thrilled - but did it anyway - and closed that part of the evening by holding up his glass and saying "drink this all of you... I shall not drink with you again until God's kingdom is revealed" or words to that effect.

With that, people were invited to move up a dimly-lit path into the church which had become "the garden of gethsemane."


5 metre lengths of plastic tablecloth with an image of the Olive Grove in East Terrace* rear-projected and various branches, garden bits and candles set up in front. Loreena McKennitt 'An Ancient Muse' playing in the background.

People were invited to spend as much or as little time as they wanted in the garden - reflecting on their party experience and the Holy Week journey... then to leave in silence.

* If you want to try this and need some olive grove photos, you'll find a few on my Flickr page.

Palm Sunday Bits

This was the Call to Worship for Palm Sunday (today)



Using bits from 'Jesus of Nazareth' the 1977 Franco Zeffirelli movie and (incongruously) a Jean Joseph Mouret fanfare - From Premiere Suite D'orchestre (Masterpiece) performed by Ars Aureum Brass on their Angels and Kings CD.

Then this for 2 voices... with some similar elements as at the beginning of Lent.

How shall we worship our God?
The end is beginning.
Jesus knew what the week would hold
We, too, know the story
The beginning of the end.

But they did not know,
The people -
laying out a red carpet
of cloaks and palm branches
The people -
shouting loud hosannas
celebrating the coming of their king.

Shall we join them?
Waving branches and flags in celebration?
Shouting a welcome?

Or shall we turn our faces toward tomorrow
and set a steady pace,
resolutely following Jesus the Christ
into the city,
out to the garden,
onward still,
even to death
and the hoped for resurrection?

How shall we worship our God?

Let us put on the sturdy shoes of faith,
let us hold the promise of the rainbow in our hearts
and let us begin this journey in hope.

Come... let us worship our God.

And here, a few photos of the space. The red bottle was the symbol for the anointing at Bethany which was the only other story used... Just the beginning of the end - not the whole Passion Story as is often read on Palm/Passion Sunday.

Palms for Sunday

"More than 300 million palm fronds are harvested each year from Central American rain forests for the U.S. market--many for Palm Sunday, when Christians commemorate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem five days before his Crucifixion."
I didn't know that! That's shocking! This story is from 2006 and it does have a happy ending... well... as far as I know.
You can read the rest HERE.

Interview with God

A friend sent me this... it's worth watching. Thanks Jill.

The original website is 'theinterviewwithgod.com'

Rainbows & Roads - Lent begins

Here's the Call to Worship for the first Sunday in Lent... Our theme this year is 'Rainbows and Roads' (symbols of hope on the inevitable journey)

How shall we worship our God?
Shall we chase rainbows,
seeking their end
and the elusive pot of gold,
or the fantasy that lies beyond them?
Shall we wait...
here...
in the wilderness...
between what was and what is to be?
Or shall we turn our faces toward tomorrow
and set a steady pace,
resolutely following Jesus the Christ
out of the rivers of baptism,
into death
and on
toward the hoped for resurrection?
How shall we worship our God?

No ruby slippers for us,
nor endless waiting,
for the road lies before us
and all roads lead to Jerusalem.
Let us put on the sturdy shoes of faith,
let us hold the promise of the rainbow in our hearts
and let us begin our Lenten journey in hope.
Come... let us worship our God.

Immediately following this, we listened to Israel Kamakawiwo'ol sing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and enjoyed images of the same. What an amazing voice that guy has!

Lament

We were a week ahead of the Prime Minister's National Day of Mourning for the victims of Black Saturday. It was a difficult and draining service for all of us.

The worship space was very simple. I draped black cloth over the communion table which was in front of the dais, closer to the people. On this I placed 2 large, glass bowls. One held salty water and other fresh water. Fresh flower petals were scattered around the second bowl. On the dais, instead of the usual bright flowers, I placed a black vase on a low pedestal which stodd in front of a taller pedestal - both were draped with black. I found various smokey things (incense sticks and mosquito coils broken up) and lit them before the service so that, by the time we started, there was a visible wisp of smoke rising out of the vase.

We used poems and prayers written by Victorians including the following as an opening statement before the Call to Worship...


What is left (Kinglake Feb 08,2009) by Jellz Fisher
Grey ash lingers,
blanketing,
shrouding life.
Smoldering heat.
Eerie silence emanates.
As morning breaks,
invasive scent of
burnt eucalyptus.
Blackened trees stay erect,
random spent joss sticks,
punctuating flat, lifeless land.
Smoke hangs lower than
heads of defeated fighters,
while chimneys still stand
defiant and ironic.
Sorrow, profound,
infects everything.
Change has swept all before it.
Lives ignited in gratitude,
joined in community
of salvation, desolate
for loss.
Bleary focus, tear‐filled insecurity.
Flashbacks of survival,
overcoming
and the start of new memories,
will burn in theirs…..
forever.

Later, while Graham played something in a minor key, we put up this slide show (composed of pictures from news.com.au)



and people were invited to come forward as they wanted, dip their hands in the salty water (the Bowl of Tears) and wipe them down their cheeks as an act of solidarity. Then, as an act of prayer and hope, they could take some of the flower petals and place them into the bowl of fresh water.

By the time I had to stand up to give the blessing at the end of the service, my tears were real... as were many others.

Bushfire

I've been watching news of the devastating bushfires in Victoria all morning... and weeping.

God of infinite compassion,
are tears but water wasted
when beds are burning?
Or...
are they prayers
when words
fail us.

Australia Day / Invasion Day

Yesterday, we began with the following acknowledgement written several years ago by Rev. Dr. Jason John and I:

Acknowledgement of Land
Before we were born
and before our ancestors
who came to this country were born;
before Jesus, even before Abraham,
a people lived here.
In this place - the Kaurna people.
In this one nation we call Australia -
more than three-hundred nations of people
lived in intimate relationship with God and the land.
We remember with gratitude the Kaurna people,
the traditional custodians
of the land on which we now gather.
We pay our respects to their Tribal Elders,
past present and future
for they hold the memories,
the living culture
and the hopes of Indigenous Australians.

Then this video (a compilation from a variety of sources - with apologies to anyone whose copyright I've unknowingly breached)

Followed by:

Tomorrow we celebrate Australia Day.
It is the day when all Australians
are encouraged to celebrate our nationhood.
But it’s not a celebration for everyone.
The actual date is not the anniversary of Federation
as many may think.
That anniversary is January 1st.
January 26th commemorates the landing of the first fleet in Port Jackson...
The arrival of the first white people
and the beginning of the destruction of Indigenous culture.
Last year, the Prime Minister made the long awaited apology
to the Stolen Generation.
It was a significant turning point in Australia’s history...
but it does not and must not end there.
However you choose to spend the day tomorrow,
keep in mind the need for each of us
to continue to pray for and work towards
a nation and community
marked by genuine understanding,
honesty and hope for all.

"backblog"

The following are the 3 posts I put on 'myspace' when I first started this blogging thing and before I decided to shift to here:

January 8, 2009 – Thursday
now what...
So... I suggested to Andrew (our website guru) that it might be good to have a blog. When I actually THOUGHT about it, I realised that meant I'd have to put stuff on it. Consequently, I didn't mention it again.

BUT... Andrew did!

I'm thinking I'll put occasional bits of liturgy, the odd sermon (and they are) or two and maybe even a few drawings or photos. It won't be a regular daily or weekly blog... more of a 'wheneverly.'

Thanks for your help Andrew... I'll buy you a beer when your braces come off and you're old enough to drink it!

January 11, 2009 – Sunday
Surviving Technology
Everything was good to go for this morning's service... at least... that's what I THOUGHT!

First, the photocopier decided to have a baby instead of copying the newsletter on to the back of the Order of Service. Nevermind... we can cope with that.

Then, early in the service, after a somewhat profound introduction to our prayers for Israel and Palestine which was to be a 4 minute movie of photos from various news sites with a moody, minor key background piece from Bach that Graham was to play... the screen was BLANK!

The movie was playing on the computer but not through the projector.

We tried various things to fix the problem and people were incredibly patient but, it just wasn't going to happen. In addition, I managed to mess things up SO well that NOTHING played! Our entire service - songs, images etc. - was jammed.

So... I reshuffled things and we went straight into the Bible Reading - hoping everything would be sorted by the time I finished that... NOPE.

Then Graham suggested we sing the one song we planned that was actually in the old hymn books. A handful of people rushed out to grab piles of books and we were underway. Then, halfway throught the first verse of would have been our third song, Andrew got the technology going again. WHEW!

By about now, I had NO idea where we were up to so I launched into the message - which wasn't actually a sermon as such but an introduction to the Gospel of Mark. No technology required... although I did have an image that could have been useful.

Then, someone noted that we'd missed the children's bit. There were 3 little boys present. Matthew - who hasn't yet learned to speak - Mitchell and Lachlan who are barely understandable. Anyway, we had a nice chat about story-telling and being excited and a purple hippo with green spots doing water ballet in the pool and then more conversation about swimming and so on. It wasn't really about Jesus (as Kid's talks usually are) but about telling stories and being excited like the author of Mark seemed to be.

We sang another song.

About then I realised it was getting late.We'd kind of done everything except the offering and 2 more songs. You can't really have 3 songs one after another. So, we sang the one I had planned to go with the prayers, while we made our offering. Then we presented the offering, had a blessing and got the heck out of there!

WHEW!

The really lovely thing is that the dear people at Church of The Trinity - and even the visitors - said it was just fine... and lots of other positive things.

As I was going out to my car to go home - I caught myself smiling. I really love these people. They are so open and forgiving and happy for things to "just happen" as is so often the case.They've been a gift and blessing to me - moreso than they'll ever know! I hope we'll continue to be a blessing to one another for a long time.

(One of these days, I'll put a nutshell version of my story on here and you might see why and how this little group of people is such an amazing gift.)

I'll pop some of the liturgy etc. from today in my next post. You never know... somebody might find it useful.But not right now. Right now I need a glass of wine and little lay down!

January 11, 2009 – Sunday
Prayers for Israel & Palestine

Call to Worship & Gathering Prayer
When creation suffers,
our God suffers with it.
When humanity destroys itself
in senseless violence
or cruel indifference
to the suffering of others,
our God weeps.
When people gather to worship and pray,
our God waits.
Our God waits for our attention
to the pain of others.
Our God waits for a response
more worshipful than words.
Dare we meet with this God today?
Do we have the courage to worship
knowing that, in so doing,
our God may ask more of us
than we have the courage to give?

Suffering, weeping, waiting God,
God whose name is love,
help us to worship you today. Amen


Prayers of the people

There has been conflict in the holy land for as long as history.

Personally, I find the politics confusing and the aggressive working out of those politics anger making and terribly sad.

Every day we read or hear of the latest attacks, the growing number of dead and injured, the blame-game about who started this latest round, the history behind it and so on... to the point where it’s difficult to know whether anyone is right or wrong.

But the thing is, there are better ways to work this out.

Violence begets violence and it’s often the innocent who pay.

I was shocked to discover that there is no safe space in the Gaza Strip. In that small, overpopulated strip of land, there is nowhere to hide. There are no bomb shelters and the borders are closed. Civilians in the Gaza strip have no place to flee.

I was even more horrified to learn that more than one-third of the Palestinians killed so far are children.

By today – into the third week of the conflict – that probably means close to 300 children have died. And then there are the missing...

If there are around 3500 injured, how many of those are children?

And what of the injuries medicine cannot fix? The loss of innocence... the mental, spiritual and emotional legacy of prolonged terror... What of them?

How do we respond to this?

How do we pray?

I don’t know.

I don’t know.

I wanted to create a prayer that would help us respond to the reality of this situation, so I went looking for images and stories. The more I saw, the less able I was to find words to pray.

There were so many photos of children... injured... terrified... dead...

There are no words.

In the end, I pieced together some of these images. They are dreadful and they are confronting. You may want to turn away but... I hope you will not.

We need to see this.
The world needs to see this
–and the world needs to respond.

As we watch this together,
know that our God weeps
and let us pray that,
even as we weep with God,
peace may come.

Let us pray...