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)

Guy Kawasaki on 'creating community'

Jason Clark recently turned me on to this fella - Guy Kawasaki - who used to work for Apple but now, I'm not exactly sure what he does....write books by the looks of things. His blog is fascinating. He's coming from a kind of corporate management angle - which I know is a huge turn off for those of us walking away from a CEO style of church leadership - but I think he's got some real wisdom that is definitely apply-able to church. His latest post is called 'The Art of Creating Community'. He makes 8 suggestions:
1. Create something worth building a community around
2. Identify and recruit your thunderlizards—immediately! (evangelists for your 'product')
3. Assign one person the task of building a community (questionable in our case but he's talking about someone who wakes up in the morning with the building of the community at the top of her/his priorities for the day)
4. Give people something concrete to chew on. (i.e. make the community 'open source' so that people can re-code it for themselves)
5. Create an open system (giving people tools to tweak what's going on)
6. Welcome criticism
7. Foster discourse
8. Publicize the existence of the community
If you can see past the corporate overtones and look for the undertones (great name for a band) then there's something worth taking from this I think. Read the full piece here.

football (non sports fans look away now)

for the first time in I don't know how long, Spurs are in with a shout of a decent league placing and possibly european football next season as a result. The teams seriously vying with us for 4th place are Arsenal and Bolton (I am discounting West Ham because I honestly don't believe they can keep their run going). I have been looking at the remaining games and trying to predict the points haul for Spurs, Arsenal and Bolton from their remaining games to see how things will end up. Here are my predictions:

Arsenal
v Blackburn (a) 1
v Fulham (a) 1
v Liverpool (h) 1
v Charlton (h) 3
v Portsmouth (a) 3
v Aston Villa (h) 3
v Man Utd (a) 0
v West Brom (h) 3
v Man City (a) 3
v Spurs (h) 1
v Sunderland (a) 3
v Wigan (h) 3
= 25 more points
= total of 66 points (4th place)

Spurs

v Wigan (h) 3
v Blackburn (h) 3
v Chelsea (a) 0
v Birmingham (a) 3
v West Brom (h) 3
v Newcastle (a) 0
v Man City (h) 3
v Everton (a) 0
v Man Utd (h) 1
v Aresenal (a) 1
v Bolton (h) 1
v West Ham (a) 1
= 19 more points
= total of 64 points (5th place)

Bolton
v Fulham (h) 3
v Newcastle (a) 1
v West Ham (h) 3
v Sunderland (h) 3
v Middlesborough (a) 1
v Man Utd (h) 1
v Liverpool (a) 0
v Chelsea (h) 0
v West Brom (a) 1
v Charlton (h) 3
v Spurs (a) 0
v Birmingham (h) 3
= 19 more points
= total of 58 points (6th place)

so it looks like Arsenal could pip us to 4th place and the final Champions League spot. If that happens I will be gutted and be looking back to the final minutes of the game at home to West Ham when we conceded an equaliser (thereby losing 2 points) in the final minute, as we also did against Sunderland last Sunday. Those goals and therefore those points, I predict, will be the difference between us playing in the Champions League and the Uefa Cup next season.
It's all an improvement on last year but it'll be a shame to miss out on the CL by a couple of points.
Any other football fans like to disagree with my prognosis?

generalising

I am really enjoying this book - it's a very helpful survey of what's going on and the common themes that emerge from what's going on. i've already found it useful in clarifying my thinking, particularly when there's stuff you know intuitively but you haven't quite put it into words yet. There have been plenty of those moments.
But one aspect of the book disappoints and frustrates me and that is that it seems to continually generalise and perhaps doesn't recognise the diversity of approaches that are going on. Continually we are told that "emerging churches do this" or "emerging churches do that" or "such and such is important to emerging churches". I know for a fact that there is more diversity that this in the emerging church community.
They are doing a great job at picking out important themes, and Andrew Jones is probably right that this is the best book yet on the 'emerging church' but they just need to be more careful about some of their language I feel. Does this resonate with anyone else who has read the book?