quote unqoute
This is nearly as good as that David Beckham one about wanting to get Brooklyn christened, but they weren't sure into which religion...
Labels: quote, religion, spirituality
posted by LauraHD @ 11:13 AM 1 comments 
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The Sanctus1 blog. An emerging church in Manchester engaged in a journey of creative exploration into spirituality, culture and faith. This blog is a work in progress and by no means the finished article... |
Monday, August 11, 2008 Monday, March 17, 2008Change the Dream (May the 4th be with you!)  Last year, Sanctus1 hosted one of these days - there's another happening soon at the Monastery in Gorton. Book! It's an eye-opener. Labels: environment, event, manchester, spirituality posted by LauraHD @ 2:06 PM 0 comments Tuesday, January 08, 2008Emerging Buddhism? I like the sound of this idea from these Japanese monks.
I mean it's not like you'd ever find any of us in the pub... ;-) technorati tag: buddhism, emerging spirituality Labels: pub, spirituality posted by LauraHD @ 4:23 PM 2 comments Monday, April 30, 2007Mark Discoll, TSK, and more, more, more, more, more, male stuff... This is exactly why I'm thanking God right now that I don't read TSK's blog any longer (a long story in itself)...
Sometimes, I despair. Actually, make that "often". HT: Urban Abbess UPDATED: - and see comments. This is not a post about me choosing not to read Andrew's blog - I've commented on his post at his site and left a comment here. It's a post about the effect that Mark Driscoll's comments and opinions seem to have on my blood pressure...) technorati tag: mark driscoll Labels: gender, religion, spirituality posted by LauraHD @ 4:29 PM 15 comments Top 50 religious films... Fat Roland prompted me to mention this here to those that might not have seen it: The Church Times’ 50 top religious films.
And no, The Passion of The Christ is not number one (but it does make it to 9 somehow). And how did The Sound of Music make it to 17?... Of course, I’m going to argue that their premise is flawed (we’re all po-mo now, right?). Picking the “top religious” films creates a false divide between the scared and the secular. We’re not, after all, watching these movies in church – they’re being made (often in Hollywood) for cinema audiences. They acknowledge this – “A film might promote values that viewers would want to share passionately, but contain no explicit reference to faith or creed. Its plot might be read as an allegory that invites comparisons with religious themes, but only to some of its viewers.” For me, it’s not a good enough reading of the times – people do have spiritual experiences in the cinema and these top 50 films are largely not the ones that would provoke this reaction (think Matrix, think Truman Show). Hardly any of their long list even touch the popular approach to the subject – Liar, Liar and Bruce Almighty might be two to mention here. Plus, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (breaking the “rules”) made it in because it’s “metaphorical nature was clear enough.” And yet, a film that is a metaphor for something else other than religious life/ values/ etc but has overtly religious content made it in as well (ref: The Crucible – McCarthyism/ religious persecution). My other snarl would be towards this quote in particular: “…surprisingly for an era often categorised as greedy and secular, the 1980s produced 14 of our films.” But it’s common knowledge that Hollywood is a (cinematic) decade behind the times, isn’t it? This reflects the fact that writing, pitching, producing and marketing a film often takes about that long. Thus the releases of these “80s” flicks are a glance back to the 70s – the fall out from and reaction to the Vietnam war, the end of flower power, the rise of environmentalism, feminism and so on. It’s the films of the early 90s we should be wary of – hence only five making the list (all post-1994 – The Apostle, The Crucible, Priest, Afterlife, Prince of Egypt). Nuff griping… you can see the list for yourself here. technorati tag: church times, religious films Labels: film, religion, spirituality posted by LauraHD @ 3:47 PM 1 comments reel spirituality - "15 minutes" (this sunday)  15 Minutes (18) The final in our Heroes and Villains series (and the last in this run of films…) This Sunday, 6th May Doors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt VENUE CHANGE ** please note that we've moved venues (email for location details) ** If you want to explore the film's themes and issues: Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm Feel free to bring your own food, drinks and snacks. Labels: film, spirituality posted by LauraHD @ 11:49 AM 0 comments Friday, April 27, 2007Thursday, April 26, 2007last chance to be the change... We're into the last few days of booking for Be The Change and if you've not already registered but want to, please get in touch ASAP.
Labels: environment, social justice, spirituality posted by LauraHD @ 4:03 PM 0 comments Friday, April 13, 2007call to arms?... The Edinburgh Medal (Edinburgh International Science Festival) - Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet
Labels: science, spirituality posted by LauraHD @ 3:23 PM 0 comments Thursday, April 05, 2007Blah...manchester - Trinitarian Mysticism  April 26th | Trinitarian Mysticism with Ian Mobsby 6:30pm – 8:30pm How does the Trinity inform what it means to be church in a 21st Century culture of mysticism? How is the Emerging Church engaging with those who are spiritually searching in a post-secular postmodern culture? Ian Mobsby explores these issues by drawing on recent research from the perspective of emerging church practitioners. Ian is author to the recently published book ‘Emerging & Fresh Expressions of Church’. Blah...manchester is a partnership between CMS and Sanctus1. 6:30-8:30pm Admission free Venue: Nexus Drinks served from 6:30 Input begins at 7:00 For a map of the location see: http://www.nexusonline.org.uk We have a limited number of places. It would help us to know in advance if you're coming, so please book a place and turn up! E-mail Ben Edson on: blah@sanctus1.co.uk Labels: blah..., culture, spirituality, youth posted by Ben @ 7:27 AM 0 comments Monday, January 29, 2007Reel Spirituality - this Sunday  Sunday 4 Feb - The Proposition (18) Reel Spirituality - 1st Sunday of the month at Nexus Doors: 6.30pm Film starts: 7pm prompt If you want to explore the film’s themes and issues: Post-film discussion: 9.15pm onwards Evening ends: no later than 10pm Feel free to bring your own food. Drinks and snacks available on the night. + Book stall of film and spiritual books + The series on "Heroes and Villains" continues with... 4th March - House of Flying Daggers (15) 1st April - Leon (18) 6th May - 15 Minutes (18) technorati tag: the proposition, reel spirituality Labels: film, spirituality posted by LauraHD @ 1:16 PM 0 comments Tuesday, January 23, 2007You've got to give it away... After last week’s tease about St Paul coming to the earth plane and inhabiting a body in order to heal people, I couldn’t not watch last night’s show about Ray on Trust Me I’m A Healer.
To be honest, it was the “usual healing thing” – travelling the country, seeing up to 20 people per day at £30 a pop to do things that doctors can’t through claimed means and methods about which most people would be fairly sceptical… But last night I saw something unexpected, a young woman that Paul couldn’t heal – Ray’s own daughter. She was hurting about the death of her mum and the “loss” of her dad to Paul’s ministry: she said several times that she missed her dad, hardly ever saw him, using words to the effect of “Paul’s at home but Dad rarely is”. Her meeting with Paul (the first time she had done so – Ray admitted he hardly ever talks to his kids about his work) was the hardest part of the programme to watch. She was understandably upset and struggling to come to terms with what she saw – essentially her dad but with a different voice. But for me it was key that he couldn’t reach her, couldn’t heal her. In fact, it seemed like Paul was pushing her dad away from her, and her from him… And it strikes me now that I know many “clergy kids” who also have that sort of relationship with their parent(s) – to everyone, the family is saintly, perfect, holy, but to those on the inside, it can be a very different and alienating experience to have to give your parent away… Next week, apparently, it’s about the healing power of prayer… So more mumbo jumbo I couldn’t possibly believe in then! ;-) technorati tag: trust me i'm a healer Labels: spirituality, TV posted by LauraHD @ 12:15 PM 0 comments Thursday, January 18, 2007Into Great Silence...  I read recently that one of the golden rules of creative writing was “don’t tell the reader, show them”, meaning that explanation is patronizing and ultimately detracts from the narrative. Philip Groning might well have had this line in his head when he filmed his three-hour documentary, Into Great Silence, about the monastery, La Grande Chartreuse, and its order of Carthusian monks. I’m so glad he chose not to make an “explanatory” documentary – this was immersive cinema, which is exactly what it needed to be. I don’t think it could have been anything else. In that sense, it reminded me a little of Koyanisquatsi. Put simply, it was a series of beautiful moving-photographs, capturing the natural and built environments, the rhythmic daily life of the monks, and of course the silence… Yes, I had little idea what the chants all meant; yes, the on-screen quotes jarred occasionally (especially when they’re in French and German, thus subtitled right at the bottom of the screen in English); yes, I spent the first 30 minutes feeling acutely aware of the rustle of every single person in the sold-out cinema. Even a little explanation (a smooth voiceover by Morgan Freeman a la The March of the Penguins?) would have killed it. What’s more, you can’t exactly rush a film that took 16 years even to get permission to make and is essentially about a life of intense, focused, reflective contemplation measured out by seasons and in rhythm to a 900 year old daily pattern. To try and fit it into a neat 120 minutes would have felt wrong. Like slow food is to McDonalds, this is to your average Hollywood blockbuster. I am also struggling to think of the last time I was in the cinema with such a respectful audience. OK, I was the youngest by about twenty years, but a less cinematic bunch I couldn’t have imagined. I reckoned everyone else there either was or wanted to be a priest or a nun… On reflection, it would have been difficult to make a film about the life of this monastery that wasn’t beautiful. My memories of it now are only of elementary essentials: shafts of light, flickering candles, simple food, snow, sunshine, reading and writing, chants, wooden spoons, long corridors, and of course that silence… The daily reality of the monks’ lives was to me a mix of the unexpected and to-be-expected. The unexpected? Them sliding down a snow covered hill and whooping in delight, the plastic bottles, their electric razors, feeding the cats. The expected? The monks praying, praying, and then praying some more - in the flickering light of the chapel, in their simple wooden cells, at all times of the day and through every season. And that silence… It’s not a lifestyle that I would want to live, but it’s an incredible and privileged glimpse into a life a world away from mine. The monks’ economy of action and focus of attention is something that I envy on one level – as if everything has become so simple and so condensed and so thoughtful that nothing else matters. To start with I felt a bit voyeuristic watching them move slowly about the monastery, but my initial worries that there were no main characters to hang 167 minutes of “action” on were put aside as, even without words, the men came to life on the screen – the young one, the ancient and stooped gardener/ cook, the novice… Towards the end, one old monk – who was blind and partially deaf – said a few simple sentences about his beliefs. One of those stuck with me: “The world has lost any sense of God. It is a pity…” And it was the one time that I wanted to speak out and break that silence… technorati tag: into great silence Labels: film, spirituality posted by LauraHD @ 3:00 PM 2 comments Tuesday, January 16, 2007Trust Me, I'm A Healer...  I’ve watched the first two episodes of the BBC2 series “Trust Me, I’m A Healer” over the last fortnight. It’s based on the premise that lots of people are going to healers when they used to rely on conventional medicines. Why is this and what phenomena are at work when this healing happens? The format is that each week the filmmaker spends time with a different healer – last week a guy who believed in water spirits, fairies and the power of dragon eggs, this week a man who is a psychic surgeon (above). Each made (or their patients made on their behalf) fairly extraordinary claims – to have cured people of cancer, to have removed or reduced tumors, etc. The psychic healer this week only charged £25 for up to 30 minutes – relatively cheap in comparison to some of the stuff we’ve seen at MindBodySpirit fairs over the last few years. His wife in particular was really clear with people that miracles cannot be done on command, and there are no guarantees (particularly when someone is proposing to travel from Turkey to be cured of blindness). But he still apparently managed to see up to 100 people a day – £2500 isn’t bad for a day’s work. And one of his associates in Slovenia said that he was “the Christ consciousness in human form”… In both programmes there were things going on that the filmmaker said he couldn’t explain, although each time he started off skeptically and continued to critically question the process, methods, etc throughout. For me, one of the most telling things was that the people who went to them were literally at the end of their road – having been given no reason to hope by anyone else, least of all the medical profession. In that sense, many of them needed the hope that the healer seemed to give, and thus had no choice but to (want to) believe. I’d encourage you to look out for next week’s show (BBC2, Monday, 10pm) – it’s about a man who says his body is frequently taken over by St Paul… technorati tag: trust me i'm a healer Labels: spirituality, TV posted by LauraHD @ 11:29 AM 0 comments |
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