We were talking in the pub tonight about regeneration and the dispersal of people to make places prettier.  Which led me to thinking about the Olympics, notorious for 'cleaning up' homeless people and others less than desirable to the image the hosts want to present.  Which reminded me of the new Amnesty campaign about the forthcoming Chinese olympics:

Advance notice that tomorrow night is a service-style event at Nexus from 7.30pm, run by a small group of members from the community.

The main point of exploration for the service is the creation-destruction-recreation idea that we came out of the scratch service a few weeks back, and was blogged here.

See you there? You'd be very welcome.

Labels: sanctus1, service

Well done to Nexus just for being nominated in the MFDF Food and Drink awards!

Now let's make sure it's a win...

UPDATE - vote **here** for Nexus! Go on - two clicks of your mouse, that's all it is...

Labels: nexus

An Oklahoma baptist church plans to give away an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle during a youth conference - a move described as "a way of trying to encourage young people to attend the event", according to a local news station.

Words fail me.

I just wanted to say I loved last night.

We all contributed to making a service from scratch in a night. It was on the theme of creation/ Genesis 1 and we used any/ all resources and materials to hand. And having planned a section of the worship in small groups, we then worshipped together using all of that at the end of the evening. A great example of what can be made out of next-to-nothingness when working together.

Here's the bones of what we did:

Candle lighting

I light this light in the name of the Maker, who made the sun and the moon, the day and the night.
I light this light in the name of the Redeemer, who is the Light of the World and shows us the way.
I light this light in the name of the Sustainer, the living flame, who burns within us and throughout the world.
We light these lights for the Trinity of love and light. Amen.


Introduction/ reflection on the theme

An edited retelling of the opening sections of Genesis, whilst hanging a map of the world on a washing line, and then other postcard images of people, animals, plants, landscapes. We were then invited to go forward and add something to this line in response to "creation".


There was a reflection and duscussion on the themes of creation/ destruction and some concepts emerged:
- the cycle of creation-destruction-recreation
- the image of the bread broken to share in newness of life
- cells dividing to multiply
- tiles being smashed to make a mosaic
- God destroying nothingness to create somethingness

Finally, we were invited to consider the images of God's "second start" through the flood, and Noah sending out the bird in hope of finding land... We were then able to make an origami bird to symbolise our own flight of hope for finding creation out of destruction.

Confession and absolution

We explored this through the image of brokenness (personal, social, environmental) that is given later in Genesis - taking and eating the fruit. We wrote confessions of brokenness on the back of paper apples, and then remembering that the seed has to die to grow anew, we tore our apples in half (and cut a real apple and planted its seed) as a symbol of God's promise of newness and hope. We finished with a reading of Matthew's telling of the story about the mustard seed that eventually grows to be a home to the birds.


Bread and wine

A simple help-yourself station with two sheets of paper to allow people to write a response as they took bread and wine.


Prayers

A set of prayers themed around the Genesis paragraphs about the sun, moon and stars:
- remembering people who've died
- listening to Moby's We're all made of stars
- considering humanity's divine intention to prosper - thinking of those "stars" who govern our country and world, praying for people, situations, places by writing on paper stars


Blessing
An adaptation of a Northumbria blessing

Candles...
...and an invitation to take on the service at the end of the month having seen how easy it is to create something out of next-to-nothingness. Be in touch about that.

Labels: sanctus1, service

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the number of cases of people being harassed, arrested, having cameras, film and memory cards confiscated by police (or more commonly, PCSOs) for the heinous crime of taking photographs in public. After all, the police can take photos of us.

There was the case of the Welsh bus fanatic who liked to sit and wait to see what type of bus would come around the corner (as opposed to most people, who would wait to see _if_ a bus would come around the corner) who was accused of being a terrorist and a paedophile.

This case was about someone taking photos in Hull who was "detained" by a store security guard.

This video clip has a rather good example of how undertrained PCSOs confront a videographer who was trying to take footage in a public street. It starts with a sudden gloved hand over the camera lens, then it's "give me a good reason why you're filming," then, alarmingly, he is asked to produce his ID (didn't know that was required yet), and when photographer asks what law he is breaking, the response is: "shut up."

To be clear, there is no UK law against taking photographs or video footage in a public space. If you are in a private building (including a railway station) or are taking pictures of military installations (which does not include police cars) then there are restrictions. But there should be nothing to stop you taking pictures in Piccadilly Gardens (for example) at any time of day or night.

Labels: freedom, justice

Tomorrow night (Wed 2 July, from 7.30pm at Nexus), we're sharing in a meal and exploring faith journeys through a short service, especially in relation to Ben's recent ordination.

Do join us - you'd be very welcome.

Labels: service