Monthly Archives: January 2010

Burma VJ

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As an explanation to newcomers to this blog – I found out quite late in my life (30ish) that my natural father is Burmese. While researching  the country I became aware of the situation there and find myself having a real passion to see justice come in this land. Please read and act if you are able. If you have no idea what is happening in Burma, then check out the this website.

Dear friend

‘Burma VJ’ tells the remarkable story of the brave young video journalists who, using hidden cameras, put their lives on the line to tell the real story of the 2007 uprising in Burma and the subsequent crackdown by the ruling military regime. They now face up to 65 years in prison for simply recording the events in the film.

Enter our prize draw to win your copy
Burma VJ is released on DVD next month and now you have the chance to enter our prize draw to win your own copy of this gripping documentary.

To enter the draw please go here.
Winners will also receive a Burma VJ poster along with their DVD.

The film has won awards from the Sundance film Festival, Amnesty International and the Berlin film festival, and has been short-listed for the Oscars. You can find out more on the website.
To buy Burma VJ DVD, visit the shop here.

Burma VJ on More 4
Burma VJ will be shown on More 4 (UK only):
10pm Tuesday 27th January
2am Wednesday 28th January

Best wishes
Anna Roberts
Burma Campaign UK

Day 12 part 2

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This afternoon and this evening I have spent time with different parts of the COTA community and I am learning more and more that they, as a group, love each other and enjoy the company of each other.

At 3.00pm I joined the Liturgy Guild. This is a group of people that plan the liturgy for the services. COTA develops seasonal liturgy to reflect the liturgical seasons. Today we were looking at the lectionary readings for Lent and trying to develop the liturgy and practice that COTA will use in the services throughout lent. This was a small but creative group as they sought to find ideas that would help people to connect with God in a significant way and so leave the service changed in some way becasee of an authentic encounter with God.

In remember Karen saying a while ago people wanted the liturgy to change each week. After working with them the practice is now agreed to be seasonal. We are currently in Epiphany and the liturgy and practices for the services reflect that. I like the idea of liturgy and practice for the season. In the Church of England we already follow that practice in the daily offices, but I like the creative ‘write your own’ and ‘curate the service’ approach which I think as a community we can pursue when we start to become more established.

I’ve just realised the excitement this afternoon brought shows me that I love liturgy. I think it is a way we can easily connect with God and express our love in a language that means something. The word, if you don’t know, means ‘work of the people’ and it is pretty impressive how COTA creates this so that it really is the work of the people. The trust from Karen towards this group is amazing too.

After the guild meeting we had COTA Eucharist at 5.00pm. Another creative service. I am not a fan of music in worship. I know its been said by many before, but I do find myself increasingly more frustrated with the songs that people sing in lots of churches. They are not just ‘I love Jesus like my girlfriend’ type songs … but I think it is the shallowness and bizarre theology of some that give me concern.

Despite my aversion to music in worship I find Lacey’s curation of the woship in COTA to be sensitive, stunning and challenging. We sing words and chants that mean something and that allow us to become aware that we are in the presence of God. I am meeting with Lacey tomorrow and look forward to hearing from her about her story and why she leads in this way.

The service tonight was fantastic. It was simple yet profound in a way that allowed us space with God. The structure, or ordo, that COTA uses is great and the ‘open space’ section after the homily, where people can reflect ina  variety of ways from using icons to watching video, acknowledges that we are not all one and the same.

COTA is going through an interesting time and the last meeting of the day was after the Eucharist when I joined the group that are making plans for a morning service. COTA is in good shape, it is in the community in various ways and now looking to move from 1 to 2 services on a Sunday at the abbey. I enjoyed being part of the discussions and hearing peopels ideas and dreams of getting this service of the ground.

It’s been a packed and really good day, and I am strting to learn more and more about the COTA community, particularly as options for interaction with people with COTA seem to be increasing.

Day 12 : Fremont market

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Sunday morning was spent wandering around the Fremont market this morning. There were some interesting stalls, such as the Blissful Wunders Chocolate stall.

There is a big ‘retro’ thing going on in Fremont. Retro is cool and there are a nmber of shops selling stuff from my childhood … so much do I am wishing I brought a suitcase of old stuff to sell!

Deluxe Junk is a typical shop where amazing retro stuff from clothes to lampshades can be bought.

The rest of the day I’ll be involved in COTA stuff which I am looking forward to.

Day 11 : Space Needle or Reflections on the city

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Saturday I had a day off so explored more of Downtown Seattle.
I started by catching the monorail from downtown Seattle to the Seattle Centre. A nice quick ride. From there I ascended the 520 feet at 10 mph in the lift, sorry elevator, to the 360° observation deck of the Space Needle. Despite an overcast day the views of the city were still quite stunning. The structure of the building is pretty impressive too, and it is hard to believe it was constructed in the 1960’s.

I had a coffee (there’s a surprise) while I looked out across the city. As well as taking lots of photos, I also walked around with the flip video and you can watch that here if interested.

Looking at the patterns and variation of the city caused me to reflect upon more of whay I am here and how varied, yet ordered God is. You can tell from the video and photos that Seattle is a fairly varied city. There is Pike Place market, the area around the Space Needle, the water, the skyscrapers, the low apartment blocks, industrial areas, dock areas …. I could continue to list. It’s very diverse and yet it is all Seattle.

Like wise, you can’t point to the Space Needle and say ‘that is Seattle’. As much as I, and many others love Pike Place Market, you can’t point to it and say ‘that is Seattle’. You might like the waterfront, but again you can’t point to it and say ‘that is Seattle’. Seattle isd a collection of them all. Without one part, something of the character of Seattle would be lost. To get an understanding of Seattle I need to visit a variety of areas. I am told to get the best understanding of Seattle I need to go on the underground tour. This shows the original Seattle that has been built on top of. To understand Seattle, I would need to look underground to learn something of its history.

In many ways this is similar to how we can grow in understanding of our faith in God. Our different interpretations of scripture or prayer are as varied as the buildings and neighbourhoods of Seattle. To understand more we need to observe and listen to all areas. To gain greater understanding of God we need to go underground with him, and explore the past roads of faith.

As we do this we need to realie that we will never come to a full understanding of God! Sermon over!

After all this reflection I soent money on gifts for the family to take home and then I met up with Ned to listen to some music in the 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea House – (just look at all these coffees they offer!)a pretty cool end to the day!

The Hopes of MOOT

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A great short video here from my friends at Moot
please pray for them and for Ian, the Priest Misioner, when you get a chance for this ‘time of transition’

Last night …

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 Today also had some goodbyes.

This past week I have enjoyed chatting with Sue and Scott, church leaders from Victoria, who came over on the Clipper Service last saturday to have a break in Seattle and drop into some of the stuff we were doing. We have had some great chats over beer, pizza, sushi and more beer …. or strawberry lemonade, coffee and … well you get the picture. I’ll miss them being around next week. I may well take a day out and visit them in Victoria though – who knows!

We also said good bye to the Lutheran students from Wartburg Seminary tonight. They have been on J-team and spent the week at COTA learning about emergent church. They have had a rough week as one of their fellow students, Ben Larson, was killed while on a similar team in Haiti. I can’t believe how his family must be feeling, nor how the students coped!

It’s been good having these guys around as well. I’ve laughed with them, joked about the language differences between the US and the UK and even found an ally in Jutta, having a year out from Germany, in talking about real football …. although she did seem to forget the 1st September 2001 in Munich.

I’ll miss laughing with these guys and sharing with their enthusiasm. I hope they have a good trip back (they will be on a train for 30 hours!!!!) and, who knows, if they ever visit God’s own country of England we may catch up again.

Day 10b Pub Theology

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Tonight (Friday) we met up in a bar for Pub Theology. This is a format that COTA have been using for a while and was started by Jon Myers. I think it is pretty self explanatory but people go to a pub, have a beer, something to eat and talk theology.

Jon said that on the first week he took a topic to discuss, but he never had to do that again for over a year as people kept suggesting thinsg, or things simply developed from the initial topic and were carried over into the next week.

I like the concept, and not just because I like pubs. I like the idea of people getting together to chat theology in a normal natural environment. The idea of giving a relaxed space to explore questions, to argue, to share understandings, and misunderstandings, speaks a lot to me of what the church should be doing. I like the way this takes the ‘academic’ out of theology and, as Jon says, ‘there is something very refreshing about being in a pub, drinking beer, being very open about our frutrations and our doubts and hanging out together at a pub. At a pub I can be a little more free.’  I think this is probably the easiest thing yet that I could just ‘lift off the shelf’ from Seattle and try out in the UK.

I recorded the ‘interview’ and have posted a clip of it here to listen to.

In Seattle it works pretty simply … every 2 weeks, this pub at this time, come if you want to! I’d like to start a little research now from a distance – why not email or message me if you would be up for something like this in Medway. I’d love to pull together a group and see how this goes.

Day 10: Bishop Greg and Dr. Dwight Friesen

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This morning I met up with Bishop Greg. After I was invited to visit COTA by Karen I wrote to Bishop Greg to let him know about why I was coming and he asked to meet up when I was here – so today we did. I said earlier in the week how large a diocese this is, and Bishop Greg is very talented person and needs to be to run a diocese like this.

I met with the bishop for about half an hour and he was interested to know my story as well as knowing about what I was doing in England.  I then spoke to him about his vision ofr emerging and pioneering work in the diocese and it is clear that he wants to encourage it and bless it as much as he can. One thing in particular that he was keen on was working on training ordained pioneers in the diocese of Olympia using the skills of people like Karen. That’s a pretty good vision to be having.

I realise how fortunate I have been to spend some time with the bishop of the diocese I have been visiting. I want to thank him publicly for giving up time in an amazingly hectic diary to see me. It’s clear that he has a passion for mission and engaging with those outside the church. I hope he is able to continue to support emerging church here, and particularly able to look ahead to see what investment is needed now to ensure the future looks good for churches like COTA.

This afternoon we spent time with Dwight Friesen of Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle (which has no connection and thankfully a very different theology to Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church). Dwight came to talk about Network church and he said a few things that have really made me think; and things that I have noted down in my ever growing mind map so that I may reflect upon them later.

When talking about community he spoke of the Trinity and how each member of the Trinity perpetually empties themselves to raise up and support the other.  This is known as kenosis.  He then went on to say as a church they were askign what does this perpetual pouring oneself out for the sake of others look like in our community. The Trinity gives the image of perfect community, and so he was looking to that for guidance.

I find that amazingly simple yet profound as well as an impossible image to come close to. But … there surely is a lot of truth and sense. If we are to consider how to be community as church we need to look to the perfect community, the Holy Spirit, and ask how can we act in a way similar to that?

I was then very surprised with his response to be asked ‘if starting again, what would you do?’ His response was that he would not pioneer something new. Instead he would look for a small or stagnating church and work with them, find out what their passions are or used to be, and work with them on becoming mission focussed in a contextual way in their neighbourhood. That’s quite an interesting response to make to a group of seminarians who have signed up for a week to experience emerging church and church planting. It is also a fresh challenge to me and causes me to ask ‘am I doing the right thing?’ or even ‘when my curacy is up should I be looking to take on a church in this frame of mind?’ All questions to reflect upon.

The day is not yet over – its pub theology at 9lb hammer with Jon Myers tonight.

Photo Friday: Damaged

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I took this photo on a walk during my ordination retreat.
The petrol pump was in the middle of a village in a long gong garage.
It stood proud, but damaged.
It is almost as if someone is trying to make fun of the damaged contraption by placing a mdern plastic wheel trim against it.
Years apart … but both incomplete, both damaged.

church upsetting us?

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I’ve been able to catch up on my blog reading a bit and caught this post from Andrew of TSK fame.
10 types of emerging church that will no longer accept your grandfather – a short but interesting article in that it makes me think …. ok, does that mean we are playing too safe?

To progress, and by that I mean to remain contextual and therefore relevant to people not part of church, should the church always be emerging and always be changing? I think that it should.

So … what models of church are out there now which would upset our grandfathers, or more importantly … what churches are out there and on the edge that might upset those of us that place ourselves in the emerging/fresh expression area of ecclesiology?