my submission for photo – Friday
Today is Ascension Day which is a day that I think gets overlooked in the tradition of church that I have grown up in. We mark it at the cathedral but from my experience last year not many people become involved in the sevice – but it is a Thursday evening when people are doing other things.
Ascension day is quite an important day to remember. It is the day when Christ ‘ascended’ into heaven. This can be (and is by many) viewed as Jesus simply returning home. But he is changed. There is a difference. This is the human Jesus ascending in to heaven and sitting with God. This is the Jesus carrying the marks of crucifixion taking up his place in heaven. Humanity is now permanently in heaven; and it’s not a ‘fluffy’ ideal nice humanity but a real imperfect humanity scarred with the marks of cruelty – I wonder if that is so that the rest of us don’t feel to out of place?
I read a great article towards the end of last week: ‘God Inside Out: notes towards a misionary theology of the Holy Spirit‘ which I picked up on from Jonny’s blog. It’s well worth a read and i have been contemplating bits of it over the last few days.
Bevans basically challenges the way we have traditionally view the Trinity. Bevans says ‘we simply have to reverse the order in which we commonly think of the Son and the Spirit in the world. Commonly we think of God first sending the son, and of the spirit being sent in that context, to bring to completion the work of the son. … on the contrary, God first sent the Spirit, and then sent the Son in the context of the Spirit’s mission to bring to completion … the work of God.
It’s an interesting view and one that sits well in light of Genesis 1 and the article ends with a challenge to think more missiologically about the Holy Spirit.
I won’t say more – go read and come back here and talk!
Yesterdays gathering was a great experience and one that I think was encouraging for us all.
We thought a little about Pentecost. After our gathering liturgy, James led us in some trust games which flowed well into watching a short video clip of the scene in Acts 2. After chatting about ‘what all this meant’, particularly to us in the 21st century in Kent, we them moved into Open Space.
Open Space is a practice I saw at COTA which has stayed with me. During this time we have ‘space’ to think about or dwell on what we have been talking about and heard from each other. For some, this could involve sitting in front of an icon, watching a video that asked more about the theme, or praying in a creative way – on this ocassion by using anointing oil or sitting in front of a fan to feel the spirit upon your face.
We came back together to pray before Sarah got us making ‘tassles’ made up of 3 different colours to symbolise the Trinity. We had quite a laugh doing this and my tassle has been sat in my pocket all day and each each time I touched it my mind wandered to think about the Trinity. We finished with our sending/eating liturgy and shared cakes together in the crypt.
This was an encouraging time for a number of reasons – we had 2 new people come to the gathering which is exciting to see. Seeing James lead us at the start showed how seriously we take children within this community. This was a gathering where people were free to explore and create as they try to make sense of their faith journey.
The joining of new people and the chat we had afterwards leads us to think that we are moving in the right direction in the format that we have. Sarah mentioned to me that I have become ‘churchy’ in my language and so that is something that we, or I, need to be aware of in the future. I guess the frustration now is how do we let people know who are searching and on this ‘faith journey’ that we exist?
Although this is all exciting – there is a frustration for me. I feel something is missing – a key person to work alongside me, to bounce ideas off from within the community, to set up with me. At the moment I am ‘taking a strong lead’ with the gathering in ensuring our monthly gathering happens and at the moment because of another key family lots of great things happen…but I think this should be more organic and decentralised rather than resting with one, or even two, people or sets of people. To be decentralised, however, we need more people and so I feel we are in this frustrating chicken and egg scenario! We have great people in the gathering but we need more.
So if you are the praying type – please pray that I bump in to some other people soon that I can bounce things around with regularly or that they find us.
YOu can also find the gathering on facebook.
My submission for Photo Friday.
This Sunday see’s the second of our gatherings in the crypt of the cathedral.
We are starting to have a web presence and you can find us on facebook and temporarily in an early draft form at this site so that people that may be interested can find out more. If that is you please message us, or of it is someone you know please tell them about us. Feel free to pass the links on to others so that people can discover us for themselves.
This months theme is looking at a mixture of truth and Pentecost and I am looking forward top seeing what the community creates as we continue our journey together.
The weekend is well and truly over but I am still ‘on a buzz’ over what happened over the weekend. The rest of my Sweeps photos are here if you are interested.
We engaged meaningfully with loads of people. People were surprised to see us serving in this way in the cathedral. They were visibly touched by the welcome and the love shown from the team. It’s a shame that we cannot keep this kind of different space alongside the other areas, such as the chapels, for people to dwell with God.
The team had loads of amazing conversations with people searching in a variety of ways for a variety of things. People have been healed both physically and emotionally. People have experienced the Spirit using them to bless a fellow human being.
For me, it was the first time that I had really engaged with the Jesus Deck with people. At one time on Monday I think I did something like 6 back to back readings. As I looked at the cards with some people more people became interested and so a little queue grew. I have always been nervous about looking at these cards with people but the links people were seeing with their lives were quite amazing. It was a privilege to stand with people as they started to clearly see the Spirit of God communicating with them in their present situation. The situation is hard to explain, but as every person thanked me for my time my natual response was ‘no … thank you because it has been an honour.’ And it was – people have been letting us into a small part of their lives, trusting us, sometimes, with parts of their lives that they vacuum packed and compartmentalised in their memory.
I felt a sense of sadness as we packed down on Monday as the festival drew to a close. Rebecca asked me what I had learned …. i had to think a while and I guess I have been reflecting on that question all day. I guess I have re-learned some stuff – particularly that God is drawing people and I don’t really have to find people but just be available. I had a sense of sadness that we had to work inside on Sunday, but it soon became clear that working inside the cathedral was the better place to be. Maybe I had mis-heard God for the Saturday, or maybe not, but we engaged with far more people on Sunday and Monday inside the cathedral than we did on the Saturday outside the cathedral.
I have also re-learned that if we give God space, God will work. Too often we try to force the hand of God through our activities or events. Here we gave God space and people have been powerfully effected.
I guess I have learned most of all this weekend that it is this engaging with people through spirituality, engaging with people through serving them, and engaging with people who have a genuine quest for faith are the things that really energise me and make me think ‘this is what I am here for – to listen, to serve, to love.’ I’m missing Sweeps already – I hope we do this again next year.
The weather today was rubbish and so we moved the Dekhomai stand into the south transept of the cathedral. Initially I was feeling a bit disappointed about this but it seemed to work quite well and by the end of the day we were talking about carrying on inside the cathedral tomorrow whatever happens with the weather.
Inside the cathedral, with access to power, the stand looked more inviting and welcoming due to the use of light. The atmosphere was calmer and conversations with people seemed to flow easier. People came into the cathedral because they were looking for ‘something’ and finding Dekhomai was like finding ‘an oasis’ according to many that I spoke and prayed with today.
Today I have had the honour of praying with people, laughing with people and even shedding a few tears with people as they have shared things which they would welcome prayer for. That may not sound that unusual to some – but as 90% of those I listened to today would not call themselves a person of any faith in particular I find that pretty mind blowing.
What started as a day with me feeling sad at the ‘lost opportunity’ of being outside and available to the masses ended as a day where I felt very excited by what had happened throughout the day. I was reminded that it is God who draws people and that it does not matter where we are – people who are searching will be drawn to those places where they might be able to make one more step on their journey.
Towards the end of the day Ross, one of the team, looked above our stand to the stained glass windows of the south transept. There above us, unnoticed was a stained glass window of St. Florian, the patron saint of Sweeps. Is this God telling us we are in the right place for this festival. we are giving out the prayer of St Florian and praying the blessing of St Florian with people; where better to do that than at the feet of the window of St Florian himself? Or … is that just coincidence?
The first day of the Sweeps festival has gone really well. There is a wonderful vibrant atmosphere as people celebrate and enjoy the music and the dancing.
After a slow start Dekhomai became busier and busier as the day went on. Loads of people were initially warey over what the cost might be but after a while word got round that we were offering stuff for free and so people came and had a look.
As well as massaging feet and helping people make prayer beads we have had a lot of chats with people and had the privilege of praying and anointing people for healing. Many people were also intrigued by the St Florian prayer cards.
At the start of the day I was pretty nervous how all this was going to go down in this festival atmosphere – but our presence in a way that provides something that clear;ly fits with the atmosphere of the Sweeps may festival seems to have been appreciated.
WE have another 2 days so if you re around come and find us. Our only concern today is the weather- as I write it is trying to rain. If it succeeds then we will have to move everything in to the cathedral which I am quite reluctant to do as we won’t then be available to the masses of people outside.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 