I love stumbling on creativity.
On of the good things about the web is that is is a treasure chest of creativity, but much of the treasure goes undiscovered.
I love these worlds from Brueggeman who I believe is the best OT scholar there is:
In our secret yearnings
we wait for your coming,
and in our grinding despair
we doubt that you will.
you can read more of this Advent prayer here.
I’ve just said goodbye to the people that came to our 6th or 7th gathering – I lose count.
we took Advent as our theme.
The house has been noisy as people have been able to meet up again.
There has been laughter and shouting as the children have played together.
There has been silence and calm as we have lit candles and watched them float on water as we mentally hand things over to God.
There has been contemplation as we consider again the Christmas story.
There has been conversation and delight as we have eaten and drunk together.
I’m not sure where we are all going as a group – but this afternoon we were all able to meet God where we were, whether we are 5, or 55 so I guess something is happening.
The Beyond Advent Beach huts over at Brighton look stunning again.
Wishing we were closer!
I always look at these and wonder what would be an appropriate and relevant idea in the Medway setting?
Over the Dickens weekend we used some monologue scripts in an attempt to get people to stop and pause while they walked around the cathedral. The script seemed to work well and so I share them here.
This weekend sees the Christmas Dickens Festival hit Rochester. This is a great time of fun and a really good time to visit Rochester if you don’t mind crowds!
At the cathedral we expect anything up to 6000 people to pass through the building today. As well as welcome them, in keeping with our Benediction tradition of hospitality, we hope to be able to engage with people and encourage them to pause as they consider the meaning of Christmas.
Today pop down to have your photo taken in our nativity scene as part of Get in the Picture, or wander the building and find some quiet place to meet with God, or listen to monologues from the Christmas story characters, or light a candle for someone you care for or miss particularly at this time of year ….
The opportunities are varied – why not pop down and pop in for a while – it may be the last chance you get to pause before Christmas!
Advent started today.
Being at a cathedral it may be viewed as quite traditional inthe way this is celebrated, and I think this morning it pretty much was with the lighting of one of the candles in the Advent Wreath.
One of the thing that has ‘challenged’ me is that during the gradual hymn (I don’t know … google it!) some who are presiding stay seated while the congregation and choir stand. The rest of the ministers follow what the priest presiding does. I have felt uncomfortable with the sitting thing and so when presiding I would always stand. This week that changed as everyone sits as, I learned today, this particular hymn is to be sung as we relfect on the reading we have just listened to. The sitting thing make ssense now.
This evening we celebrated Advent again and the service, although traditional in a setting of nine lessons and Advent hymns and antiphons was stunning in its creativity and journey. Neil, the Precentor (person in cathedral responsible for all worship – and very good at it) designed a service where the boys and girls choirs sung from different parts of the cathedral, came together, and then separated again …. causing us to think and notice the journey from west to east and we thought about Mary and Joseph’s journey of similar direction.
The music and choreography tonight was quite stunning and powerful and gave an excellent example of how space can be used both powerfully and meaningfully. It also illustrated how spolit we are in the cathedral with the standard of choirs that we are blessed with.
Tonight I was excited because I came away with ideas that I think would work in a traditional building but in a pioneering or fresh expression setting. As a pioneer I am often mistaken as someone that wants to throw everything out and bring in totally new stuff, when actually I think it is more about looking at our tradition and reframing in a way that is meaningful and engaging for 21st century people that are searching for God but don’t normally feel able to find him in church as it is.
A few people have drawn my attention to Beyond Church in Brighton are doing the Beach Hut advent thing again as last year (you can still see the BBC news report on lasts years event here). This year, as well, so the rest of us can enjoy the experience they have published a paper Beach Hut Advent Calendar.
I ordered mine which arrived yesterday and simply everyone that has seen it has wanted one and ordered it. It just looks beautiful and will be a great addition to our house in the Advent season.
You can check it out here but I guess if you want to order one you’ll need to be quick as I can’t see these hanging around for long!
I am preparing myself for the Dickens Festival in Rochester.
Last year 10 000 people passed through the cathedral over the weekend; and so it is an amazing opportunity to share something of the amazingness of God.
For the past couple of days I have been drawing things together for an Advent installation to be placed around the High Altar. I have collected various photos of waiting, from pregnancy to bus queues to kettles to cakes rising. These photos will be on four display boards which will flank the high altar.
In front of the altar will be a variety of cushions and people will be invited to sit and wait. We shall also be giving away this postcard in which Ben has been kind enough to allow us to use his striking image for advent.
I don’t know what will happen, or whether people will sit and wait and allow themselves time to engage with God. They may and it may be quite powerful for them, and then there again the idea may be off-putting for people. I am definite, though, that unless we take the risk and have a try at something different then we will never know if something like this will help people engage with God.
My prayer for the people passing through the cathedral this weekend is that they may take time to allow themselves to be found by God.
It’s only December but I’ve already sung a fair few carols and started Advent with a bang.
On Sunday evening we had an outstanding Advent carol service by candlelight. The cathedral is amazing in darkness and that may sound strange but it is difficult to explain. I read from Exodus chapter 20 and noticed these words for the first time:
The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
God in the thick darkness was a bit of a revelation to me. God is light and particularly at Advent with the lighting of candles we talk of Christ as light of the world. Yet Moses met with God in the thick darkness.
As we turned the lights off in the cathedral on Sunday night I could not say the darkness was thick but it was clear that God was there in the darkness with us.
It’s easy to use darkness as negative and prefer the imagery of light because it may be easier to explain. But … God is also in the darkness, he was in the darkness with Moses and is in the darkness with us.
This links with today’s thought in Beginnings and Endings where we are reminded that the Christmas story started at the beginning of creation, not with the baby in a manger, or even with the angelic visit of to Mary.
In the beginning there was a formless void and darkness. The darkness was not absent of God, God was there, right in the middle of the darkness.
This Advent as I search for God and await the return of Christ, I must remember to seek him in the places of darkness as well as in the places of light. God in the darkness throws uop new images for me, and will inevitably bring fresh knowledge of what it means to find God in the darkness.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 