new Album Leaf record

The Album Leaf have been one of the greatest joys of my musical life over the last few years so I was delighted to see, whilst browsing in Fopp yesterday (surely the best record store chain we have) that they have a new album out, entitled 'Into the Blue Again'. For those who haven't yet experienced the delights of The Album Leaf they have a MySpace page where you can listen and also download one track. Enjoy!

Gloria EP - new preview track on MySpace

There is now a new preview track from the hOME Gloria EP to listen to on our MySpace site. It's an electronica setting of the old prayer of St Patrick - St Patrick's Breastplate. As before - the EP is available for download via our Lulu site, where you can also listen to previews of all trh tracks and download instrumental versions to use in your own setting.

if you're local to Oxford...

...the Al Gore movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is now showing at both the Phoenix and the Odeon. Go see it and tell your friends. As Empire said in their review, "if you ever thought it was possible for a film to change the world, this could be it."

Peace One Day

Heard a report about today's Peace One Day (not a snappy title - but I think someone had already pinched 'World Peace Day') on the Breakfast news this morning and found it very moving. The dream of one day where all forms of violence are laid down is a very potent prophetic sign of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God. There are some fantastic suggestions for how to participate in the day here - including some very overtly spiritual ones.

hOME Gloria EP

We've just finished hOME's first 5 track EP. It's for sale by download via our Lulu site where you can listen to previews of each track and download. There are also instrumental versions if you want to use the tracks in your own setting. On our MySpace site there is a full track from the EP that you can listen to. Let me know what you think!

who's he talking about?

A little while back I suggested that the story of the Sheep and the Goats may not mean what we often take it to mean. Some people didn't like that too much.
In a nutshell, I suggested that even though we have always been told it's about how we treat the poor, could it actually instead be about how the world treats Jesus' disciples? There are some hints in the text that it could.

In yesterday's lectionary readings we find a similar idea emerging. Luke 6:20 says,

20 Looking at his disciples, he said:
"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.

Obviously this is the parallel to Matthew's account of the Beatitudes but I thought it was noteworthy that Jesus is directing his statements, not to the poor in general, but to the disciples.

Admittedly, a few verses later Jesus says "Woe to you who are rich" and it could be said that if he is directing verse 20 towards the disciples why not verse 24 too, but I'm still left with this sense that Jesus isn't saying that to be poor is somehow virtuous in and of itself. There are unfortunately plenty of very poor people on estates all across the country. Some of them have ASBO's. In what sense are they particularly and unusually blessed, or have a special relationship with God, simply because of their social status?

Of course I'm not saying that God doesn't care about them and that we should not care for them or work to eradicate poverty. Of course we should. I'm just asking a hermeneutical question - what was Jesus really getting at with some of these things that he said?

a new season of hOME life

9/11 Five Years On

"Let me say this another way… the ‘War-On-Terror’ has to date killed 8 innocent people for every innocent person killed in a terrorist attack… discuss." Great, thought provoking post from Jim on this very sombre day.

An Inconvenient Truth

and empire magazine gives it a maximum 5 stars!

go and see this film...please

An Inconvenient Truth - the Al Gore movie - that I blogged about before opens in the UK today. You really must go and see it and tell all your friends to go and see it too! Definitely one of the films of the year for me.

emerging jerk?

While surfing the web for images for a flier the other day I came across this from Matt Glover.

I've seen it all now!

Thanks to Kyle for the tip off.
The 'Left Behind' series of books and related paraphanelia has been a festering sore on the body of Christ for many years. Now they've gone one further and released a video game. The plot in brief (cos it's not worth any more of my time) - Christians who have been 'left behind' after the rapture has taken place have to either convert others who are still on the earth or kill them! It was difficult for me to type that last sentence as it's SO RIDICULOUS.
Anyway, read a great rant about it here.
Should you be so inclined visit the official site here.

Greenbelt

Off to Greenbelt in the morning. Can't wait.

TV Update

After a very disappointing weekend, football wise (my team lost) Sunday night had a couple of TV gems to cheer me up.

I have already blogged about The Miracles of Jesus. This was the last one of the mini-series and it focussed on the resurrection. I thought it was great. High production values and perhaps surprisingly sympathetic although in this age of increased sensitivity around religion (normally every other religion except Christianity - though I understand why I think) perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. I thought it was surprisingly theologically robust - looking at the theological significance of the resurrection etc. I know some people have found it slightly patronising in tone and lacking other sources (where were the famous talking heads we have come to expect in these sorts of shows?!) I liked it.

The other gem was Melvyn Bragg's hour-long interview with Rowan Williams later on ITV1 (there is a transcript of an excerpt here). I always enjoy listening to Rowan talk - he's so erudite and articulate about faith and life. And he always strikes me as being a really humble, holy guy (ok I'll stop sucking up to the boss now!). The interview was revealing - he talked about his upbringing and what God means to him personally and his experience of prayer. He bigged up 'Fresh Expressions' of church as something he was particularly excited about.
But the thing that made the biggest impression on me was his reflections on monastic life. Apparently he considered becoming a monk in his mid-twenties. When Bragg pushed him further on the reasons for this Rowan said that the rationale behind monasticism is the desire to 'dial-down' the noise and clutter of life - by taking out the 'hyper-choice' of contemporary life i.e. when your life is ordered you don't spend energy on when and what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear, what you're going to do, how you're going to pray etc. and so a space is created - a mental, spiritual, and emotional space - within which you can go deeper into God.
That made a lot of sense to me.
He also said that we need monastics because we need to have 'people who can see' around. Not just people who can 'do' things, but people who can 'see' deeper levels of reality.
I hope we can take on some of these thoughts in our little monastic experiment here in the hOME Chapter.

here we go!

Really excited about the start of a new football season today. Come on you Spurs!

zoo

Some days you wake up in the morning and say to yourself "today I think I need to go to the zoo" (well, at least I do). So yesterday, Pip and I went to Marwell Zoological Park (near Winchester) where we met up with Pip's god-daughter and family and spent a few wonderful hours looking at the animals. Our trip confirmed to me something I already knew - Tigers are easily the best animals in the world, hands down.

An Inconvenient Truth

Was lucky enough to get tickets for a preview viewing of Al Gore's film - An Inconvenient Truth - a couple of nights ago. You have just got to see this film. It's based on his lecture tour on global warming (which sounds really dull, I know!) but it's very well conceived and released by a major studio so the production values are really high. I found it very moving. If you live in the States and you haven't seen it yet - WHY NOT?! It's been out for a little while over there. If you're a UK resident go and see it when it gets its full release in a couple of weeks time - and tell everyone you know to go and see it. There's much more I could say about it but I don't want to colour your opinion.

The Miracles of Jesus

Really enjoyed The Miracles of Jesus last night on BBC1 which I taped as it clashed with our gathering.
I thought the dramatisations were really great and Rageeh Omaar's narration was very Tom Wright-esque I thought: lots of talk of how Jesus was acting in ways that only God could act etc. This was perhaps surprising given the fact that Omaar is a Muslim.
The question of whether or not Jesus thought of himself as in some sense divine and how that self-realisation developed was fascinating and very thought provoking.
I know it sounds daft but the dramatisations brought home to me again the fact that we follow a man who lived in many ways just like everyone else lived 2000 years ago; a man very much of his culture and time whose ways would be very strange to us now, but a man nevertheless who we believe, as Christians, was in some mysterious way God himself among us.
I know that sometimes I lose sight of that and end up with a Jesus who has somehow come loose from the world that he was a part of.
Anyway, if you've missed the show so far make sure you catch it next week when it focuses on the resurrection.

missing verse

I noticed when reading the Lectionary on Saturday that there is a verse missing from the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 17 verse 21 doesn't exist. You've got verse 20 and verse 22 but no verse 21. So far I've looked it up in the NIV and the NRSV and it's not there in either. Go look it up for yourself! Maybe it could be the theme text for some church or other body - any suggestions as to who it should be the theme text for?!! Or, perhaps more constructively, does anyone know why there is no Matt 17:21?

The St Tropez of Devon!

Salcombe

5 of us had a fantastic week away in Salcombe, Devon, last week courtesy of Jim's brother Andrew who has an amazing holiday home down there overlooking the estuary out to sea. It was brilliant to sit out on the terrace, have a glass of champagne (it was Jim's birthday while we were there), read, listen to the iPod etc. Someone described it to me before we went as the 'St Tropez' of Devon and they were right. We really could have been on the Med - we had sunny weather all week and could sit and watch the boats coming in ("...and I watch them going out again" - sorry, Otis Redding moment over now). My favourite moment was when I came in to the kitchen to find Mark (far left) watching a big boat through the binoculars saying "So Mr Bond, we have been expecting you" (in a kind of vague european, mr big, dr evil type way). Thanks for organising it, Jim - I'm looking forward to the next one already!

emerging church get-together

(thanks to Andrew Jones for the picture)
I really am a bad, bad blogger. Nearly a week has gone by (a long time in the blog world) and I have yet to record my thoughts and feelings about the 24 hour get-together I went to last week at High Leigh conference centre for those involved in the 'emerging church' in the UK. It was a privilege to be there and great to connect with many friends from around the country (too numerous to link to here).

As usual with these things there's as much value in just being together - at the meals, down the pub etc. - as there is in the actual sessions, as good as those were.

We were there principally for two reasons : to have some time reacting to Ryan Bolger (and Eddie Gibbs's) book - Emerging Churches - from a UK perspective, and to talk about whether or not we needed to be more intentional as far as networking individuals and groups together is concerned.

As far as the first of these aims was concerned it was great to have Ryan Bolger present with us to talk about the book. I think it's a great book - I loved the stories etc. My concern is that the '9 marks of the emerging church' that it presents (don't have it to hand so can't list them - go look it up!) sound to me simply like authentic Christianity rather than any particularly post-modern form of Christianity! I think it was helpful to have these characteristics mentioned - on the level of practices - but I also think that if the emerging church is truly about incarnating Christian community in postmodern culture then we also need to tease out what is specifically postmodern (not simply biblical) about the way we are expressing faith together.

So, for example, I think that one of the features of churches who are intentionally seeking to exist in the postmodern context is a desire to operate beyond conservative/liberal polarities.
In other words - if the emerging church is about engaging with postmodernity what are the things that make it postmodern? I'm not sure the book answers that question although I think maybe one of the 9 points (doing away with the sacred/secular split) begins to.

As far as the other aim of the get-together is concerned there was some lively discussion about whether or not we should name an intentional network and have some more shape to what we are doing (together).

My gut feeling is that there should be some more intentionality but we don't need to name it. Let's just let it evolve naturally. I would be happy to get together again like that next year and maybe all the people who were there this year could suggest others who could be invited and it could just grow naturally and organically.

(BTW on the naming thing, some were concerned that if we don't name ourselves others will do it for us - but in the scriptures naming was always done by others).

So intentionality : yes (so thumbs up for get-togethers and gatherings) but naming and structuring it too much: no. (Unless we called it something like 'Old Wine'(which incidentally I always thought was supposed to be the best anyway!).

One last thing - I'm really looking forward to us getting beyond the self-referential stage in our get togethers i.e. getting together to talk about the 'emerging church'. Don't get me wrong - I thought last week's content was good and necessary. It's just that there is a stage beyond being very conscious of a new tool and that is incorporating the tool into yourself (almost as an extension of the body) where you become less conscious of the tool and more conscious of what you are doing with the tool.

So I look forward to more times of gathering together when we're moving beyond talking about who we are and we give more attention to what we are trying to do. My suggestion would be to have a conversation about theology (get a theologian in to spark us off) or spirituality or mission.
Anyway - sorry about the long, rambling post.

Had a great time - thanks to Jonny and Ben for organising it.

warning: controversial post

Today's lectionary readings (gospel reading) afford me an opportunity to share a view which will probably make me unpopular with some people (so why would I want to?...hmmm.. am I a theological masochist?).

Today in Matthew 10 we read this verse:
"And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is known to be my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly be rewarded." (v 42).

This, I would suggest, is pretty obviously an anticipation of the longer parable of the Sheep and the Goats that we find later on in Matthew (25: 31-46).

I've got to say that I think The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats is one of the most misused passages of scripture I've ever heard. The message, we are told, is usually something along the lines of:

'it's really important to minister to the poor because when we do so we are actually ministering to Christ. Jesus told us that whenever we feed or clothe someone, or give them something to drink, we are actually doing it to him'.

I've lost count of the number of times I've heard the Sheep/Goats story used in that way.

But I don't think that's what Jesus is saying in that passage at all.

The key to understanding it is surely the phrase "the least of these brothers and sisters of mine" (25:40). This was a phrase that Jesus used (also in Matt 10:42 quoted above) to refer to his disciples. In fact in the Matthew 10 passage he makes the link explicit ("one of these little ones who is known to be my disciple").

So the sheep/goats story isn't about how we treat poor people. IT'S ABOUT HOW PEOPLE TREAT JESUS' DISCIPLES!

They were the ones who Jesus was sending out with nothing - no food, no extra tunic, etc. i.e. in relative poverty and reliant on the generosity of those they encountered. (see the gospel texts from last week - the fourth Sunday after Trinity). How they were received and treated would influence God's judgement of people.

All of that is not to say, of course, that we shouldn't care for the poor and those in need. OF COURSE WE SHOULD. Just not on the basis of the sheep/goats story which is making a different point entirely.

Ok - rant over. Thanks for listening!

answer phones

I swear to God I can't remember the last time I tried to call somebody and they actually picked up the phone! No one ever answers the phone anymore. What's happening to our world?

brownie points

Do brownies really get points? and if so, what do they get them for??

today: robes, viola, and mooters

Today is looking good.

I will be pretending to be a proper Anglican priest when I go and pick up some new robes in a few minutes. I say 'new' which makes it sound like I already had a set but that is not true. I have been ordained for 3 years and all I have owned is a single clerical shirt. But I am having to borrow robes too often now and so I am now finally getting some of my own.

Then I'm doing a little bit of recording with Tom at lunchtime as we try and get the first hOME EP finished.

Then I'm off to London. On Jonny's recommendation I am going to check out the Bill Viola exhibition at the Haunch of Venison gallery.

Then I'm meeting Ian Mobsby for a spot of dinner before going to Moot this evening in Westminster. Ian has invited myself (and I'm bringing along a couple of others from hOME too) to go and share with Moot the story of the new-monastic journey we've been on.

Should be a good day.

reflections on wimbledon

2 Things that annoy me about Wimbledon:

1. the way they only display the score (in the top left corner) when the action is happening and remove it when the action has stopped - THAT'S WHEN YOU WANT TO CHECK THE SCORE!!

2. The way that the ball boys are now, as part of their job so it seems, expected the continually hand a towel to a player between every point. IT'S NOT THEIR JOB! I've played tennis in very hot weather. You don't need to towel down after every point. What next - ball boys expected to give quick rub downs and massages? THEY ARE THERE TO COLLECT THE BALLS! (Now I know that the towelling down thing is a little mental routine thing and nothing to do with actually needing to towel down - Sharapova always tucks hair behind both ears just before serving..even if there's no hair to be actually tucked in - but COME ON!).

1 thing I would like to see at Wimbledon:

a player reading a book in installments each time they sit down on their chair every 2 games. If it was a 5-setter they could maybe complete a whole short novel. Can you imagine? That would be great (especially if when the Umpire calls 'Time' the player asks him to hold on until they've finished the chapter!).

The Convent - form and content

Pip and I have really enjoyed watching The Convent on BBC2 the last 4 Wednesdays. There are a couple of things I want to comment on though.
Firstly, there is a very interesting article in this week's Church Times (no weblink available unfortunately), by Nick who was in the programme The Monastery and is now training for ordination. His basic point is that religion is not therapy and to confuse the two does a disservice to both. Religion is always focussed on the other - God primarily, and our neighbours (and is essentially corporate in nature)- whilst therapy is focussed on the self (and is essentially individualistic in nature). He felt that to a certain extent The Convent has allowed a blurring between the two. I think it's definitely true to say that the show did very much talk in terms of MY path, MY journey etc. etc. So Nick's point is that in a consumer culture, religion is now viewed as one more lifestyle option and is essentially about a personal 'detox for the soul' (which is how the show was advertised actually). What do other people think about this?
Secondly, I have been thinking about the monastic life in terms of form and content. Regular readers of this blog will know that the monastic tradition plays a very important part in the life of our community. Last Easter 8 of us made vows and committed to live by a Rule. The deeper I get into this whole thing the more I realise the power of these rhythms to change us individually and corporately.
The 4 women who entered the Convent were certainly shaped by the pattern of the communal life - the regular times of prayer etc. But the content did seem to be often very dreary. Does that matter? Is it simply the patterns and the rhythms that shape us or does the content within these patterns matter? I guess we're probably all going to say that both are important, but what are the relative values?

RSS Comments

does anyone know a way of creating RSS feeds for comments on Blogger (or other formats for that matter)? It would be great to be able to track conversations happening in comments through my newsreader rather than visiting the different blogs directly.

The da Vinci Code - what's the problem?

I realise I may have missed the boat on this one, but allow me to play catch up (as they used to say on cult 80's daytime telly - 'Going for Gold' - ahhh student life..).
The basic premise of the Da Vinci Code plot is that the church has been guilty of covering up a secret that, if discovered, would rock the very foundations of Christianity. And the secret? That Jesus was married and fathered a child.
Now, whilst wanting to make absolutely clear that I don't believe Jesus was married or fathered a child, what exactly would be the theological problem if he had?
I mean, he was fully human - no debate there (any more) - so where is the theological conundrum (another game show reference - sorry!) if he had??
Obviously, if he had and it had been left out of the gospel records then that would throw up interesting questions about the reliability of the scriptures, but leaving that aside for a moment - where exactly is the problem here?

Theo Walcott's mates wait for him to arrive home from Germany

Theo Walcott arrested in Germany

people change

So last night at our huddle - whilst talking about many deep and meaningful spiritual things - Nelly Furtado came up in conversation. What is up with that girl? She's gone from "I'm like a bird" to "I'm like a prostitute". The evidence for this (as Chris has pointed out - he's just showing concern for his compatriot) is that her new album is called 'Loose', her last single was called 'Promiscuous' and her current single is called 'Maneater'. Something ain't right in Furtado-land.

announcment

I guess that most people who read this blog will know this already but for the sake of the one or two others it's time to announce to the world that Pippa and I are expecting our first child.
The due-date is, wait for it, ....Christmas Day. Can't believe it. So obviously it will have to be called Yeshua Immanuel Noel as a result. It's a sign. Poor kid. I feel sorry for it already.
Pip and I are now waiting expectantly for the parental feelings to develop.
We will definitely not be getting one of those 'Baby on Board' signs for the car though. "oh, ok - you have a baby on board, I didn't realise...well, I guess I better not crash into you then in that case".

does anyone know the name of the film...

I'm sure I've seen a film involving an army unit that hasn't heard that whichever war they're fighting is over and so they are still fighting it. They're out of communication with their base etc. I know it sounds a little like Apocalypse now but it isn't that. Does it ring any bells with anyone? I'm preaching on Sunday morning for a church in town and I'd like to use it as an illustration.

summertime vibe

a modern day St Francis

It's been a pleasure to have Travis from Church of the Apostles, Seattle, with us the last couple of days. I met Travis when we visited COTA after Easter. He's currently spending a month on 'placement' with Moot in London. Anyway, he's one of the most pastoral people I've met. We could do with some people like him in hOME.
Anyway, yesterday morning Travis and I were just chilling out in my front room when we heard our little cat come through the cat flap with a bird in her mouth that was still alive and struggling (and occasionally succeeding temporarily) to get away. We managed to get the cat away from the bird and then Travis got the bird on to our dustpan and he took it out into the garden (I told him to kill it!). I, meanwhile, stayed in the house trying to stop the cat getting back outside through the cat flap.
I eventually found the thing you can slide into the cat-flap to stop the cat getting through it and then I went out to see whether Travis had completed his executioner duties.
He was stood at the end of the garden blessing the bird! I saw him make the sign of the cross. It was a vision of a modern day St Francis!
The bird was injured but not so badly that we felt justified in killing it. But it wasn't flying off and we couldn't leave it in the garden cos the cat would have got it. So I suggested we put it in a box and sent it down the river. We found a little cardboard box, put some grass in the bottom of it, put the bird on top of the grass, and pushed the box out onto the water and watched it drift off downstream.

This morning I suggested to Travis that perhaps someone was sitting by the riverbank yesterday watching the river drift by only to see the bird in the box drifting past them and wondering how on earth the bird had managed to build a boat for itself and launch it.

TV Theology

I think you can tell a lot about where someone's coming from theologically by whether or not they leave their TV on standby.

US Anglicans elect first woman Presiding Bishop

So the General Convention of ECUSA (or just 'The Episcopal Church' as it's now called which sounds a bit like they've forgotten about the rest of the world - not something Americans are often accused of ;-)) have gone and elected a woman as Presiding Bishop for the first time - Katherine Jefferts Schori, formerly Bishop of Nevada.
Not being someone who opposes women becoming Bishops (looking forward to the day it happens here) I don't have any problems with it per se. It's definitely going to stoke some people's fires though and it's quite amusing that just when the conservatives thought the fight was on another front (i.e. the gay thing) the focus has shifted to another contentious area.
are there any American readers of this blog who have an inside word for us on this one? is she cool?

Little and Often

ok - I really want to be a better blogger. I have decided to adopt a 'little and often' approach to blogging for the next little while. That's also my approach to prayer right now largely due to Phyliis Tickle's fantastic volume - The Divine Hours : Prayers for Summertime - which is helping me stumble towards four times a day prayer.
Pippa and I are up at my parent's place in N Wales right now (really glad my mum decided to get wireless broadband a little while back). Many of you will know that my dad has been very ill for some considerable time now so it's good to be up here for Father's day.
Looking forward to hOME tonight. We have been blessed by Kyle Potter's presence amongst us as a community over this last academic year while he has been in Oxford - a long way from home which for him is Lexington, Kentucky where he is part of The Vine and the Branches Community with Alan Creech et al. Anyway, tonight is his last night with us before returning to the States and he is going to lead the discussion on the lectionary texts for today. We will miss him.

Trinity Sunday - participating in God

[UPDATE : The podcast link is now fixed. Apologies to the many, many frustrated people who were unable to download it!]

After the drama of Easter and Pentecost (loved our Pentecost service - we had sparklers and everything!) Trinity Sunday marks the start of the rather curiously named 'Ordinary Time' (BTW I found Alan Creech's comments on this title very helpful).
I led the discussion on the Trinity on Sunday night - and, after some preliminary theological groundwork, tried to focus in on how we relate to the Trinity.
For years I heard it said in church that the Christian life is about us asking/inviting God into our lives - these days I find it more helpful to consider that God invites us into HIS life.
The image used by the Cappadocian Fathers for this was that of Perichoresis - the dance of the Trinity (one of beautiful mutuality and interdependence) - and us being invited to join the dance (thereby becoming 'partakers of the divine nature' (2 Pet 1) - i.e. divinization).
But the problem is we are poor dance partners and we don't know how to dance. So the Christian life, the Spiritual life, is about us learning how to dance - learning the rhythm of God as it plays out in all aspects of our lives.
If anyone is interested the podcast is here (and is also available through iTunes - search for hOME).

crunch time

We are entering crunch time as far as our attempt to acquire the lease on the Ultimate Picture Palace is concerned. There are some crucial meetings over the next couple of days. If you are the praying sort then do remember us in your prayers....if you are the giving sort (or have access to someone who might be) then do get in touch (matt@home-online.org). Our time is running out to raise the up-front cash.

sour grapes

As a Spurs fan I can't say I'm too disappointed about last night's Champions League Final result (understatement of the year). I am less than impressed about Arsenal's lack of graciousness in defeat - accusing the referee of bias, accusing the Barcelona players of diving etc. The fact is Jens Lehmann was rightfully sent off - there can be no argument about that - and the better team on the night won. It was good to hear David Pleat on the commentary though - I particularly enjoyed the classic line: "the sight is in end" (where he was suggesting Arsenal were on course to victory just seconds before Samuel Eto went and equalised).

MacBook

Apple's replacement for the iBook - the MacBook - has arrived and it looks very impressive - and very reasonably priced. Comes with built in iSight, remote control, etc. and starts at £749. If you are a switcher in the making - there are now NO excuses for not making the move! Full spec etc. here.

hammock

Yesterday I bought a hammock. It rocks.

wasn't expecting to like this...

I am not normally a man who delves very deeply into the world of modern-day soul, it's not normally on my musical radar. I was surprised - I'm not sure why - to hear that U2 had recorded a version of their song 'One' with Mary J Blige. Then I heard it in Vancouver and it absolutely blew me away. Got straight on the net and downloaded it from iTunes. If you haven't heard it...boy...the girl can sing. It's even brought a tear to my eye. So...there's no accounting for taste...maybe I should explore further (and while I'm at it I could go the whole hog and 'pimp my ride' - can you do that to a Honda Civic?!).

San Francisco

The last leg of our trip - San Francisco - was, again like Vancouver and Seattle, fantastic. As previously mentioned (below) we had found a great hotel on the web - right in the heart of the city just off Market Street.
On our first day there we walked around Haight Ashbury which of course was the centre of the whole 60's hippie counterculture - nowadays more of a hippy museum than anything else but still worth a look anyway. We hired some bikes and cycled round Golden Gate park & saw the Japanese tea garden and De Young museum - well worth doing. We also sat and chilled out in the Panhandle - a smaller park nearby where Hendrix played in the Summer of Love in 1968.
It was great to connect with Mark Scandrette and his household and we had dinner at their place in the Mission District that night.
Day 2 was spent taking a look at Grace Cathedral, then lunch with Bob Carlton, Chinatown, and North Beach - particularly City Lights Bookstore owned by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the centre of the Beat scene in the 50's and early 60's. City Lights - the first bookstore to sell paperbacks in the States - was the epicentre of that whole scene, getting raided for selling banned books, Ginsberg and Kerouac hanging out etc. Here's a shot of me outside it:
So we rode up and down on the Cable Cars - went all the way down to Fisherman's Wharf and saw Alcatraz from a distance.
Day 3 we hired a car and drove out of the city - over Golden Gate Bridge (see pic above) and into Marin County. Stopped in Sausalito for lunch, found a great beach, drove for a while up Highway 1 before heading back over the bridge to the city where we found another great beach at the end of Golden Gate Park. had a quiet night as it was our last and we had to get up early to catch the plane to Vancouver for our connection back home.
San Francisco is a wonderful city - colourful and creative, great to look at, fascinating. I have wanted to go ever since seeing The Last Waltz (and by the way I saw THE guitar that Robbie Robertson played in TLW in The Experience Museum in Seattle - how excited was I!).
I was sad to leave and really hope to be able to go back.

Seattle

So - I finally get around to blogging the rest of the trip (now that we are back in the UK and we've got our jet-lag on). First up (following Vancouver (see post below)) - Seattle.
We had such a good time there. Very people intensive. Karen picked us up (we took the boat from Vancouver Island) and we headed straight to Brouer's Bar where they have the finest selection of Belgian ales known to man.
We were staying in the COTA Abbey (pictured) in the Fremont area (North Seattle), courtesy of our good friend Abbess karen. It was great to see how creatively they use the space and also to see their plans for the future of the building - transforming it into a totally multi-functional arts/community/worship/cafe space.
So we were there for the day conference on new-monasticism that COTA hosted, and it was great to connect with guys from the east coast - Shane Claiborne and Amber from The Simple Way in Philadelphia, and Chris and Cassie Haw from Camden House in Camden, New Jersey - and to hear about their communities, as well as hearing about the monastic element of COTA. I shared a little of our journey in the monastic tradition here in hOME, Oxford.

I think it's true to say that the East Coast guys represented one stream of new-monasticism (probably Franciscan - very involved in living amongst the poor as the primary expression of their faith (and it was amazing to hear the kind of radical lives they are living in community) - and COTA and hOME representing another stream of new-monasticism (probably Benedictine - more of an emphasis on prayer and spiritual practices). At some point I would like to develop further this idea of the different streams of new-monasticism as reflections of the different streams of classic monasticism - where are the new-Dominicans, the new-Jesuits etc.??

On the Thursday evening - after the new-monasticism day - we headed to the COTA Theology pub (in Ye Olde English authentic pub called 'The Reading Gaol' - v kitsch, especially with Pip actually coming from Reading) with Travis in the chair.

The Friday and Saturday were spent participating in Tom and Christine Sine's 'Church has Left the Building' conference along with Mark Pierson, the guys from Thursday, Rachelle Mee-Chapman, and plenty of others who I hadn't met before. It was a good time. Mark and I had a little freak out moment when we both thought we were covering the same material in our repsective seminars - both drawing from the 'slow food' movement - but as it turned out, he was taking it in a worship direction (local tastes and flavours etc) whereas I was talking about spiritual formation.

My seminar seemed to go well (you can never really tell - Christians are always so nice!) but, rather ironically as I was talking about slow-church, I seriously struggled to keep to time and had to rush through some of the interactive stuff that I had planned to linger longer on.
Perhaps I shouldn't have spent the first 5 mins talking about The Waltons but I couldn't resist it after I found a great rocking chair which I decided to sit and rock on whilst doing the talk (see pic - I know, it looks like I've rocked myself to sleep!).
Pip was worried that my Bristish humour (and that of Eddie Izzard of whom I showed a couple of clips) wouldn't translate. But people seemed to laugh in the right places. Again, perhaps they were just being kind!
Anyway, the material was a kind of theological reflection on mine/our journey over the last number of years from what I would call a 'fast-church' model (un-reconstructed charismatic-evangelical) - using phrases like 'revival fatigue' and 'spiritual viagra' - to a more blended-spirituality that I was calling 'slow-church'. This isn't the place to unpack all the points I was making. Another time maybe.
So it was fun to connect with people from Evergreen church in Portland, and also Nadia from Colorado (who I had met previously when she and her husband Matthew had visited the UK recently) - all of whom were also staying in the Abbey.

Anyway, we finished the conference with a meal at the Sine's house along with the other participants. And then on Sunday we took a look around the Fremont area (including the famous 'Fremont Troll' - thanks for the tip Sue!) before the COTA Taize service.

Then after a fantastic meal out on Sunday night with Karen and Travis (see photo), on Monday morning Travis took us to the airport for our flight to San Francisco.
At some point I'll put a flickr album up. Well done for reading such a long post!

San Francisco update

I'm going to blog about the last week which we've spent in Seattle - which was great - in the next post but just wanted to do a quick update on where we're at now.
We flew into San Francisco this lunch-time and headed downtown to find our hotel. Having found it you can only imagine my joy when I discovered that it was literally spitting distance from the main Apple store in town (Market Street) - the mother ship - or as Karen called it last night - The Vatican (see picture). I write this entry from there. So if any of you emerging church mac addict types are planning to visit San Francisco may I recommend our hotel : The Mosser - a funky little boutique hotel that even has a built in recording studio for some reason.
So - thanks to Karen (our fantastic introductions agent!) - we are hoping to hook up with Mark Scandrette (dinner at his place tomorrow night) and Bob Carlton while we're in town. It's great to be part of the global emerging church family - friends in every town!
Anyway, when I get a chance I'll blog Seattle.

Vancouver

I'm posting this from a coffee shop in Seattle - opposite Fremont Abbey (see next post) but I thought I'd take the opportunity to update my blog with news of our trip so far. This is my first time to N America and also the longest flight I've ever done, so the jet lag was a bit of a nightmare but it was good to be in a hotel with a pool etc. for very early morning swims when I couldn't sleep etc. This image is the view from our hotel room overlooking the harbour in downtown Vancouver. We could watch the sea-planes take off and land and see the mountains to the north.
We loved Vancouver - it's such a great city. We hired bikes one day and cycled round Stanley Park - fantastic - round the shoreline to Yaletown (a very funky area). There is literally a Starbucks on almost every corner in Vancouver and as breakfast in our hotel was very expensive (we found out on the first morning) we had breakfast in the Starbucks round the corner from our hotel each morning.
On our last night we had dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top of our hotel which gave us a great 360 degree view of the city. On our last day we went to the aquarium and saw the dolphins, the biggest sea-lion known to man (chernobyl sea-lion I called it), balooga's, sea-otters etc.
Then we took the boat to Vancouver Island where we were staying with an old college friend of Pip's - Maila - and her family: husband Rob and little daughter Teija (+ dog and 2 cats). They live in a classic N American house with a porch etc. - just like in the Waltons! Here's a pic:

We had a great time with them - spent two afternoons on the beach, went to the iMax cinema one night, out for dinner etc.. Vancouver Island is actually the same size as England+Scotland - not the small island I was imagining.
I've put a set of photos on flickr here.
We then took the boat from Victoria down to Seattle - where we are now - for the next leg of the trip which I'll blog about in the next entry. Tomorrow we go to San Francisco for the last leg of the trip.

Holy Saturday Service of Vows + Easter Sunday

Those who track this blog will know that yesterday was a very significant day in the life of the hOME community here in Oxford. We had a 'Service of Vows' at Dorchester Abbey (a very old monastic site just outside Oxford). We had Bishop Colin with us and many renewed their baptismal vows and 8 of us made monastic vows of simplicity, purity, accountability and presence (our versions of poverty, chastity, obedience and stability) for the year to come. These 8 form the first ever hOME Chapter and I am thankful to God for my brothers and sisters who form the stable core at the heart of hOME in what is a very transitory culture. I have uploaded a flickr set of photos (taken by Jim) here.
This morning (Easter) we had a really great, mellow, Resurrection Breakfast - fruit, pastries, coffee etc. by the river at the end of our garden, and then an easter egg hunt, followed by a service of prayer and meditations in our house. We had a long length of muslin - representing the grave clothes - that we laid over each of us where we sat, and then we went through the service - prayers, the lectionary texts, a visual meditation using a great video (from highwayvideo.com) + the track 'early' by Chicane, a reading from Tom Wright, and a meditation using the questions : 'where do we need to see resurrection in our lives/world?' and 'where can we already see signs of resurrection?', and then we finished with a eucharist. tops.
This afternoon I'm trying to put the finishing touches on my seminar 'slow church' for the conference in Seattle - tomorrow we fly to Vancouver. phew!

The Great Triduum (or 'the great 3 days')

Next year I want Holy Week to be more Holy rather than the week I run around like a headless chicken trying to get lots of services prepared!
However, really looking forward to:
Good Friday Prayer Gathering this afternoon including Stations of the Cross Meditation.
Holy Saturday Service of the Vows : tomorrow afternoon in Dorchester Abbey with the Bishop -
people renewing baptismal vows with some of us making year long new-monastic vows (with the
hope being that these will be renewed each Easter, but this is the first time).
Resurrection Breakfast on Sunday morning with a service of prayer and meditation following.
Then, the day after, i.e. Easter Monday, Pip and I are heading off for 3 weeks to Vancouver (week 1), Seattle (week 2, where we will be hooking up with Karen and the COTA crew, staying at their Abbey, and participating in their new monasticism conference and I'll be doing a workshop ('Slow Church') at the Tom and Christine Sine 'The Church Has Left the Building' conference), and then on to San Francisco (week 3), before flying back to the UK.
It was nuts to think about doing this trip the day after Easter (won't do that again) - but really looking forward to it all the same.

p.s. apologies to all who have been waiting with bated breath for my next thrilling blog post - our 'upgraded' broadband line at home has been down for around 6 weeks now! Good old British Telecom.

hOME Chapter Retreat at Burford Priory

I have been a very poor blogger recently due to ongoing broadband issues at our house (my advice - don't ask for a line speed upgrade unless you really need one as it might take a month to put right).
Anyway, just had a fantastic weekend at Burford Priory Some of you will know that in hOME we have a special service coming up on Holy Saturday (the day between Good Friday and Easter Monday) at Dorchester Abbey where some will be renewing baptismal vows and, in addition, others will be making a form of Monastic Vows for the year to come - vows of simplicity, purity, accountability, and presence (our versions of the traditional monastic vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and stability). The idea is that we will renew the vows each year at Easter. Those making the vows will be given a cross to wear by the Bishop with 4 knots on the cord representing the 4 vows.
Those who take the vows will form the Chapter within hOME to serve and bless the wider community. Membership of the Chapter has been open to anyone who feels called by God to explore this path, and the provisional Chapter has been gathering through Lent to write the Vows and the Rule that we will all hold in common. Once formed the Chapter will elect an Abbot.
Part of this Chapter formation process has been the weekend just gone in Burford Priory - a wonderful Benedictine Monastery where we stayed for 2 nights, prayed with Brothers and Sisters 5 times a day, ate meals with the community in silence whilst being read to (so not technically silence then!) and had some group time with the Abbot there - Brother Stuart.
Your prayers are apprciated - particularly for the one or two who are still wrestling with whether or not to go ahead and make the vows for the year to come.

Sigur Ros tonight

off to see Sigur Ros at the Hammersmith Apollo in London tonight. Can't wait. Also can't wait for the ADSL to get fixed on our landline. Sort it out BT! Can't take much more of dial-up. If I'd have known getting a speed upgrade on our line would cause this much grief I'm not sure if I would have bothered. Remember kids - faster ain't always better.

Pray as you Go

I am very disappointed with Simon Kirby who I saw yesterday for not tipping us all off earlier to Pray as You Go which is a 10 minute daily podcast for lent produced by the Jesuits in the UK. I haven't listened in yet but apparently each day there is some prayers, music, meditation suggestions etc. It lasts about 10 minutes and a new one is produced each day. So I guess I will just pick up from today's podcast rather than try to work through the backlog.

Fasting and Feasting (or - what having a beer can teach you about the kingdom of God)

As those of us from the more liturgical end of the church know, we are in the middle of the season of Lent. And, of course, with Lent being a penitential season it is customary to fast.
This Lent I am fasting alcohol. For me this fast is a good balance between being something genuinely sacrificial - I enjoy a drink and the two times so far this lent I have been out for a curry it's been murder not to have the customary pint of beer with it (I mean, curry without lager is like Morecombe without Wise, Torvill without Dean or Tom without Jerry - you get the idea!)...Jim (who is also fasting alcohol) and I tried Kaliber (a non-alcoholic beer) with our curry the other week but it was disgusting) - but on the other hand it's not so debilitating that the fast becomes the focus of everything (like it can do when you are fasting food etc.)
Lent is 40 days long and runs from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday - but it doesn't include the Sundays in between: those are feast days.
So we don't fast on Sundays because on those days (even in the penitential season of Lent) we remember the resurrection.
So I have a beer or two on Sundays.
At first I just thought - "great, a day off!" but the deeper we get into this season I have started to appreciate the rich theological resonance created by Sundays being a feast day not a fast day.
Not that I get drunk on Sundays or anything like that! But enjoying a beer or two on Sundays in contrast to the rest of the week when I am tee-total really speaks to me about the celebrative dimension of the Kingdom of God and the 'age to come' (which of course is breaking into this present age). When I have a beer on a Sunday night (I would be worried if I reached over for a beer when the alarm went off on Sunday morning - just cos it was Sunday and I could!) I am reminded of the new, resurrection life of the Kingdom - and I give thanks.

if microsoft re-packaged the iPod

here.

Spiritual Direction

Recently I have felt led by God to offer spiritual direction to anyone who would find it helpful. Yesterday I had my first session with a person who asked me about it. I felt it was a really good beginning and a real privilege to come alongside and begin to listen to the movement of God in this persons life. I tried to make it clear that our time together wouldn't necessarily be about me dispensing spiritual wisdom but more to do with me joining this person in a very intentional way for the next part of their journey as a human being and helping to discern what God is doing in their life.
If there is anyone else in the Oxford area who reads this blog and who would find this useful to them then do get in touch - matt@home-online.org

Album Leaf videos

readers of this blog will know that I am a huge fan of the beautiful atmospheric ambience of The Album Leaf (aka Jimmy Lavalle). There are videos of a couple of tracks - 'Malmo' and 'Another Day'- available here (along with clips from a whole load of other peeps that I've never heard of!)

Oscars Party

today I am desperately trying to avoid hearing any news on the Oscars last night (so I am not reading any blogs just in case) as tonight Jim is hosting an Oscars party. He recorded the awards ceremony last night and a bunch of us are getting together to watch the highlights (i.e. skipping the ads and the awards for 'best sound recording in a nature documentary' - that sort of thing). Perhaps there should have been a dress code and jim should have required us to come dressed as if we were receiving an award (cos Jim does look great in a dress).

Pop Music Profundity

The Arctic Monkeys - hottest new brit band - explore the eastern apophatic theological tradition with their debut album 'Whatever People Say I Am, that's What I'm Not". Seeing that people are saying that they are fantastic perhaps they would like the chance to rename their album.
More pop profundity in evidence this week with Beyonce releasing a single ('Check Up On It') which seems to be an entire song dedicated to her ass.

good day/bad day

I read an interview with Douglas Coupland recently where he said that every morning he goes out and buys lots of newspapers - if they all have the same headline we're in trouble, if they have different headlines he knows we'll be ok for another day.

good night and good luck

Went to see this last night and was surprised at how little I enjoyed it. I thought Mark Kermode- may he live forever - made a good point (in his review of The Constant Gardener) when he said that sometimes if a film carries a worthy or important message we can feel compelled to say that it is a good film. That's how I felt about Good Night and Good Luck : loved the message (how important the freedom to dissent is in a society) but the film-making choices didn't work for me at all - not a single exterior shot, hardly any wide shots, no soundtrack (apart from the few Jazz songs that were used to break up the monotonous pace) - and by the way, isn't it interesting to see how much we have come to rely on soundtracks in films to dictate the pace and the mood...to tell us how we are supposed to be feeling - all these things added up to a not particularly enjoyable filmgoing experience for me.
But then again, what do we go to the movies for? to be entertained (which I wasn't) or to be informed (which I guess I was).
I am surprised, though, that this film has made it into the nominations for the Oscar for best film. I can only think (as Chris pointed out in the pub afterwards) that perhaps that is because of the parallels with the possible current erosion of civil liberties under Bush and Blair in their war on terror and the thinking that whoever is not for us is against us - which is very McCarthy-ite.

I hate.....

....finishing a season of 24!!!

ash wednesday

video funny

If you are easily offended by 'toilet humour' this may not be the one for you (also avoid if you don't think Christians should poke fun at the church)...but this video (of 'the farting preacher') is hilarious. Thanks to Chris for the tip off. (Mac users will need Windows Media Player for Mac)