the great church merry-go-round...ouch

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

some people are just no good with change!

Birthday bonus

...And to top it off - Spurs won away AND it's the Inspector Morse weekend on ITV3 (sad I know but I'm a big fan)!
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Birthday

Well, today is my birthday. I'm 38 today. I'm writing this while sitting on the terrace overlooking the river at The Trout - a famous pub round these parts - whilst enjoying a pint in the late afternoon sun. I met with lovely friends for a posh breakfast at a hotel in town and then - after a pleasant bit of vinyl browsing the girls and I headed home for a spot of lunch before heading out again for a family swim - my first with Lily Anna. it's been a good day!
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Songs of Praise - with a twist

Oh this is good! Side-splittingly good! Thanks to Paul Roberts for the tip off.

Whatever happened to the resurrection in our missiology?

I love this Easter season in the lectionary - spending time in the post-resurrection narratives.

One thing I have noticed and been surprised by - particularly in the readings in Acts - is that the first generation of apostles/disciples understood themselves primarily to be witnesses to the resurrection rather than the cross (or more precisely, expounding a theology of the cross). Obviously the cross was important but the main emphasis is on witnessing to the fact that God raised Christ from the dead. That was what had changed everything. I have been reflecting on how different that is from our modern emphasis on the cross over the resurrection.

Giles Fraser in the Church Times a couple of weeks ago complained that evangelicals have a very under-developed theology of the resurrection. For them all the action happens on Good Friday and Easter Sunday is almost a bit of an afterthought.

What would it look like if in our mission we 'led' with the resurrection rather than the cross? Not that it would be right to play one off against the other but just in terms of regaining a balance. What would that look like?

Stations of the Cross Photos

Mel, from the the hOME community, who is a really good photographer, has some good photos of our Good Friday Stations of the Cross service here.

easter catch up

It was a good easter at hOME although I am still slightly bemused by the fact that easter seems to have ceased to be the time when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ in Christian community and instead has become a time to go away and visit family (definitely not a bad thing to do but where has this idea come from?!) because after all it's a bank holiday weekend. Consequently our Easter Sunday service is normally one of our lowest attended services instead of our highest attended one!

That said there were some special moments. Our Good Friday Stations of the Cross installation/eucharist was memorable. Really good to get people from beyond the hOME community involved and to have some 'special guests'.

On Holy Saturday we had our second annual Service of Vows at Dorchester Abbey with Bishop Colin Fletcher. We all renewed our baptismal vows and then some people who made 'monastic' vows a year ago were ending their time in Chapter, some - like myself- were renewing vows for the year to come, and some were making vows for the first time. Here's a pic of this year's Chapter -


On Easter Sunday we had our regular small gathering for breakfast at our house with a simple eucharist.

birthday wish list

my birthday's coming up in a couple of weeks and I guess everyone reading this will be anxious to get me a present (ahem...). With that in mind I point you in the direction of my amazon wish list which can be found here (best viewed in order of priority).

Alternatively, if someone wanted to get me a vintage Fender Rhodes stage piano (see pic below) go ahead and make my year! And there's one on ebay here (or if your dad has one under the stairs left over from the 1970's that he wants to find a good home for do let me know).

Can You Feel the Silence?

This was a question that Van Morrison asked us repeatedly in his 'mystical' phase. Well - I'm disappointed to have to tell you that I couldn't really feel it on Friday night. Don't get me wrong - a night out to a Van Morrison gig is, in my opinion, never a wasted evening. But I think the reason that is the case is almost because we see 'through' what is presented to our senses in the here and now back to the glory days of 25-30 years ago (and beyond - Astral Weeks was 1968). What we see now is a fat, grumpy man in a black coat, dark glasses and a trilby (delta bluesman stylee - that's how Van sees himself now) playing swing and skiffle, but in our minds we see the shamanic Van - the Van of 'Ballerina' or 'When the healing has begun' - who was able to take us on a mystical journey of musical ecstacy.

It was a packed out gig. My heart sank somewhat when his elderly band came on before him and did a track on their own - a really predictable, pedestrian blues song. But then Van came on and launched into 'Enlightenment' - not exactly a classic but certainly a song that is more representative of the mystic Van.

More blues followed (yawn) and then there was a lovely moment of confusion where there was some debate onstage as to what came next on the set-list. Seizing the opportunity the audience started shouting out all their favourite Van songs - and what was interesting was that they were all the old stuff - the stuff he doesn't play anymore. At this point Van spoke (a very rare occurrence) saying "that was fun - does anyone else have any suggestions" - before ignoring us all and plodding on with some more blues.

It left me wondering why he's walked away from what I would consider his best stuff. He hardly did any slow songs and even the classics that he did do he reworked to take the soul out of them (I mean he even took a song like 'Have I told you lately that I love you' and did it in a big band, swing style!). Pippa thinks he just can't handle the intensity of it anymore especially in front of big audiences - it's too intimate, too vulnerable.

Anyway, the 90 minute set ended with an encore (another rarity for Van) of 'Gloria' and he nailed it - spot on. He had the whole crowd on their feet (yes it was one of those grown-up, sit down gigs), clapping and punching the air and he did it like we knew it. He had us in the palm of his hand and he could have taken us on from there and probably really enjoyed it himself. But he exited stage left as the band played the outro.

Being the saddos that we are we went round the back of the theatre to the stage door to see him leave. We waited with about 20 or so others of the faithful and then out he came - wearing a woolly hat and scarf which was quite a contrast to his stage persona - had a bit of trouble opening the door of his BMW and then his driver whisked him away into the night.

So seeing Van these days is always a bittersweet experience. We reflected on this some more over a nightcap in the Randolph Hotel and then his band came in through the front door. We wondered whether they might be staying there. No sign of Van himself though.

Where has he gone?

Haircut

Van Morrison review to be posted when I get a few minutes to write it (tomorrow hopefully).

Meanwhile, in other news...My wife has had her haircut and I think it looks great!

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I'm still a believer

Been trying to take some time off this week after a busy easter.

Off to see Van Morrison in concert tonight at the New Theatre in Oxford. Can't wait. Of course, the big question is - which Van Morrison will turn up?


Van the mystic? (or 'The Mystic Fatty' as my friend Simon calls him)






or


Van the swing-band leader.










I've got to say that, unfortunately, the latter is more likely than the former. And he ain't what he was for sure. But I'm still a believer. We will see glimpses of the old mystic poking through I am sure of it.

A review of sorts tomorrow no doubt.

cold

sitting at home with a streaming cold. It had to happen this week - Holy Week - didn't it?! I haven't had a cold for a couple of years and it comes along when I'm up to my eyes in preparation for easter and business meetings to do with the cafe project. So thought I would use my blog to have a moan at the world!

Good endings - Chapter Year 1 draws to a close

We had our final Chapter meal of the first annual cycle last night.

That effectively brings to an end the first year of our Chapter - whose life cycle runs from easter to easter - though we will include some prayers in the Service of Vows on Holy Saturday to mark it more formally.

It felt like a good ending - there was much laughter and merriment - due at least in part to a large bottle of Montepulciano D'Abruzzo (one of my favourite Italian tipples) that the Morgans had just brought back from Italy.

We spent some time writing down the things we appreciated about each other and also the areas we hope to see each other grow in. We then said Compline together.

At the end they gave me a beautiful carved wooden St Francis cross (see photo) brought back from Assisi which is now hanging on the wall above my desk at home, and an icon of the last supper - it was our last supper together after all.

The new 'Chapter in waiting' has just been on retreat together and will make their vows on Holy Saturday in Dorchester Abbey.

"Only the Local is Universal" - James Attlee at QI

Really enjoyed hearing James Attlee at the QI building (see pic) in Oxford last night along with a few other hOMEies.

Attlee is the author of the book 'Isolarion' which is about the Cowley Road here in Oxford (I mentioned it yesterday).

It was fascinating to hear him talk so much about spirituality (for instance the idea of pilgrimage which he talked about at length) and then to claim that, although he has a religious background in terms of his upbringing, he now has no religious belief and that "all the overarching belief systems have failed". I guess it's a story that we're getting very used to hearing by now - religion bad/spirituality good.

And in a sense he's right - they have all failed, certainly in their current form. Christendom is crumbling around our ears and many inside the church don't think that's a bad thing. But I guess many of us would want to avoid throwing the (holy) baby out with the bathwater. Out of the ashes of Christendom comes new communities of Christian practice.

Attlee also talked about the 'fragments of global cultures that have washed up on the Cowley Road', his fight to prevent the local council from tidying the place up and prettifying it in a bland way ("why can't we just walk round the empty fruit cartons on the pavement? why are we all so obsessed with walking in straight lines in the city?"!!), and the importance of simply walking around (which I felt really challenged to make part of my practice).

But the moment I enjoyed most was when he was talking with passion about the annual Cowley Road Carnival (this year happening on Sunday 1st July). He talked about what a difference having no cars around made, but most tellingly he talked about the effect that the Carnival has on the local consciousness - it leaves a trace and opens up possibilities. It enables you to imagine the city differently.

Sound familiar?! I think it's a great image of the task of local Christian community.

new blog - The hOME Cafe

I mentioned yesterday that we are looking into the possibility of opening a cafe/arts space/spirituality centre on the Cowley Road.

For people who want to track the development of this project more closely I've started a separate blog - The hOME Cafe (what it's called for now) - here.
I'm sure if there are any big developments I will blog about them here too.

mission focus : geographic or demographic?

We have been talking quite a lot about mission around these parts recently.

For quite a long time I think it would be true to say that we have conceived of our mission in demographic rather than geographic terms i.e. we are trying to focus on a people group (the postmoderns for want of a better word) rather than a particular geographical area.

I sense that is beginning to change for us.

We are hearing God's call to become a sign and symbol of the kingdom of God (and to seek the kingdom of God) in a more geographically focused way. That for us means the Cowley Road area of Oxford (see photo above).

I said to someone the other day that we want to see people who live, work and play in the Cowley Road area come to faith.

At the moment - although we gather there (in the local community centre) on Sunday nights for worship, no one locally would really know we were there. Our presence is very light - we kind of parachute in and then out again.

So - we are investigating the possibility of opening a cafe on the Cowley Road which will give us a greater ability to be present to those who live, work and play there. I will blog about this separately as things develop. We have an important meeting tomorrow about it.

On another - related note - a fascinating book has recently come out: 'Isolarion' by James Attlee is his pilgrimage (his word) or travelogue up the Cowley Road. It's had some great reviews and some of us in hOME have started reading it.
He is speaking about it tonight in Oxford at the QI building (it would have seemed more appropriate for him to speak about it somewhere on the Cowley Road but there you are!). It's free and it's at 7.30pm if you're local and you fancy it.

planning ahead - can you help?!

We're about to book our Greenbelt tickets while they're still cheaper (before end of March). Chas and Dave are playing - it'd be crazy not to go!
Anyway, it's going to be an interesting experience this year - what with having Lily-Anna with us for the first time.
Ideally what we'd love is for someone to loan us a camper van.
It's a big ask but if there's anyone out there who reads this blog, has a Camper van, isn't going to Greenbelt themselves or anywhere else on the August bank holiday weekend, and would be prepared to loan theirs to us (phew! that's a long list of qualifications!).....then we'd love to hear from you!!

"I'm a Christ-follower, and I'm a Christian" (PC/Mac parody alert)

O lordy! Here is a take on the "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" adverts from Apple but this time it's "I'm a Christ-follower, and I'm a Christian" from GodTube.com. I've embedded this one (there are 4) cos it was the only one which I thought had a good line in it ("think I got a loose fire-wire"). The other three are here, here and here. What's great is that it really emphasises the really important things - like how being a Christ-follower means that you can wear jeans to church (unlike boring normal Christians). Cool!

Chapter Retreat

8 of us are off toBurford Priory today for a weekend's retreat in preparation for the second hOME Service of Vows on Holy Saturday, Easter weekend. Looking forward to it.