abbotsford.org.uk

Blessings

As Simeon sees...

May all wonder find a place in your soul
and dance with you unexpected steps;

May all joy be at home within your heart
and weave a sacred rhythm throughout this life and all to come;

May unsolved mysteries make your life an adventure
and pull you towards unknown places waiting for you since the very beginning;

May blessing be your forever-companion
and cradle you, strengthen you and love you always;

May all stillness coorie (snuggle) into your soul
forging a peace that gives to all things a place;

May the ebb and flow of life be a daily gift
offering times of pain and celebration and healing;

and may God let you see what others miss:
promise cradled in every wonder,
the flow of life shaping a sacred story
where love, and you, dance together daily.

And when eyes that have seen all living
draw into focus salvation’s intent,
may they recognise at days end
a promise, a deed, a gift
fresh born in the world.

10 ideas

I've been reviewing the idea wall in my study. It was rather small until I got into conversation with someone today and now there are 10 projects to be undertaken this year! All the ideas have come from people in the congregation over that last month or two (some longer) but only today did they all find their way onto the wall.

The beauty of them is that they dovetail together. Joined up thinking. One leads to another and compliments others etc and none of them involve getting rid of pews.

Here's a wee list and your comments are always welcome. Always. Of course, none of these descriptions are full descriptions.

1. OUTPOST: An open community of searchers looking for honesty in faith. Weekly, non-Sunday meetings for the whole community exploring belief through cafe style church, art, film, communion, reflection, contemporary worship etc.

2. Big Books: A library for our Sunday School chidlren with guest readers and a reading space and a book club.

3. Timeline: a piece of art that timelines all the Bible characters and events in the context of bronze age, iron age etc. Images from the congregation used to illustrate. Sunday School researches it over a year and community artists hels design. There for all to see across the biggest wall we have!

4. A green Peace and Justice: Putting together the yet to be formed peace and justice group and the yet to be formed green group.

5. Faith No More Communion: a whole month diving into communion practices and exploring what they meant in the past and what they mean now and why. This has been the biggest discussion on the blog be far.

6. Group 12: some adult education looking at what the church can be rather than what the church has been. Using big people in the chruhc like Peter Nielson (Church Without Walls) to work with us exploring all the stuff we do and finding new hooks and possibilities to explore the emerging church in our local place. Getting a paradgim shift going in the life of the faithful. A series of courses that tries to expand our idea of church beyond what we've traditionally been and settled down with as the true way. (Its working title is Group 12 because there were 12 disciples who had a paradgim shift 2000 years ago. That doesn't mean this is limited to 12 people. Nothing is exclusive!)

7. New spaces: Looking at the church space we have and working togetehr on how to best use the space we have. Creating multifunctional spaces where we didn't think they existed.

8. Cafe Church: This links with OUTPOST with the very real attempt to find new ways to be the church for those who aren't the church as we have created it. Looking towards outreach rather than a group for ourselves.

9. Death by Chocolate: A lent series that gives chocolate a new meaning.

10. Living the Word: An Alpha course for the liberally minded. Inviting people into the church but taking a liberal, left of centre understanding of who we are. Meals, DVDs, discussion and everything Alpha is, but with a liberal approach.

Few of these have been discussed formally, some have, but I place them here to show you where some of the ideas from the Blog and other discussions I've had round the church lead to. There is also the very big project of the Community Arts Worker as well. That's moving apace too.

So there. Thats what happens when you say 'Yes!' to ideas rather than, 'Well, the last time we tried that...'

Here's a moment

When Christmas becomes fragile. When we realise we don't know the whole story. Yes, we know the stable and manger stuff but the whole thinner incarnation bit is a lot more expensive. For me that was probably the Christmas Carol service and the four stories or the Christmas Eve homily. It is unusual that it is not a creative thing or a symbolic thing that does it because I'm a spatial thinking, not a cognitive thinker but at Christmas Eve, words are so thin. They carry a promise so fragile, as fragile as your voice, spoken and then gone. The whole thing isn't ingrained in stone, it isn't recorded for all time, it is just that one moment and then it is gone and you have to catch the words somehow. So fragile. So like God. Hmmm...

Moments

Chocolate teapots this week is based on Luke 2:22-40. Not convinced that's the passage we'll use yet but anyway, I'm looking for moments over the last few weeks:
- words from services
- moments that made people think
- images that changed things or gave a different perspective
- songs that opened up things a little
- liturgy that hit home
- phrases that spoke deeply
anything in fact (and I hope there is at least one or two things) that shaped Christmas this year for folk. I'm not looking for opong explanations (thought that's fine) but moments that made the moment.

There is a wee thought brewing for the New year Service...

For those who hold their breath - real world version

This from Tom who places it squarely in Clydebank's world. Thanks.

ALTERNATIVITY
(With humble apologies to your original)

angels unfurl their wings   
             the ungrateful unwrap their presents   
roadways  straighten   
             foreheads furl   
stars slide   
             revellers fall   
brokenness heals   
             broken heels   
time hesitates   
             time hastens on   
creation bows   
             heads start to fall   
promise whispers   
             promises broken   
blind folk see   
             too blind drunk to notice   
darkness fades   
             it's all a blur   
deserts bloom   
             televisions boom   
captives released   
             I just want out   
valleys fill   
             stomach too full   
flesh stretches   
             waist band tight
yokes are broken   
             new toys are trashed   
imprisoned freed   
             no prisoners taken   
and straw makes a bed for a saviour   
             and cardboard makes a bed for the others   

for those who hold their breath   
         for those too full to breathe 

....... hopefully my Christmas is like yours!

For those who hold their breath

angels unfurl their wings
roadways straighten
stars slide
brokenness heals
time hesitates
creation bows
promise whispers
blind folk see
darkness fades
deserts bloom
captives released
valleys fill
flesh stretches
yokes are broken
imprisoned freed
and straw makes a bed for a saviour

for those who hold their breath

The hour

All light gathers in this moment
ready to break into the world
But not yet

All song holds its breath
ready to release halleluias
but not yet

All word holds silence
ready to release the Good News
but not yet

And a mother’s laboured cries
And a father’s fraught attention
And a God’s letting go
And a Son’s pushing through

ripens this moment
of unease
of sweat
of fear
of letting go
into a moment of salvation

Ours.

Hold all breath.
The time is soon.

Mucky Paws is a monthly mailing of liturgy from Abbotsford. It is sent out to anyone who wishes to fill up their in-box with words that are useless anywhere else by email at the end of every month. However some stuff is published here and this month it came out early at the request of some who would like Christmas stuff before Easter! You can subscribe by sending an email. You can also get off the list by sending an email. I won't tell you whish one is more popular.

A dozen goats can't be wrong

A dozen goats, enough meals to feed the 5000, allotments, calves, donkeys, medical kits and other stuff ciovers the corridor board of all the thikngs we've bought instead of Christmas cards. I just wanted to past a big thank-you because it is fantastic. I know there are other things still to come and we'll need to spread ourselves onto the next bolard but this alternative present lark has been tremendous. When people pass the board they all pause to look at the plethora of presents for others.

Yet it is a tiny fraction, but you can't save the world in one day. Someone on the radio yesterday said all we need to do it sort out our square metre and if everyone would do that. Okay, not everyone will do that but the number of goats and stuff we've supplied would be more than 30 square metres. And with the knock on effect of this where people from the congregation are buying these things for family and friends: I know a few who are, instead of presents and teachers in the congregation who have got classes doing it too, it must come to something like a small village.

This is the thing that has really made Christmas this year for me. That, and my daughter playing an angel.

Mary's Ear

Here's a little piece of information to educate you and broaden your minds. It did mine.

There is a tradition that goes back to Augustine that Mary concieved through her ear. The reformers picked this up and held it quite dearly and used such phrases of Mary as "let it be according to your word" etc to prove it.

My question is the same as a collegue, Karen deJong, on a discussion group called Midrash: When Augustine said that the Holy Spirit entered Mary through the ear, was he concerned about her remaining physically virginal? Or did he also use it as a double entendre as the Reformers did. ie. We become pregnant -- filled with new life -- when we use our ears to listen to the Word?

I bet this, and not much else on thuis blog will be the centre of discussion this week!

Chocolate teapots

Can't remember why this is called chocolate teapots but it's a slice of the weekly discussion where anyone can chuck in some thoughts about the upcoming services.

Christmas Eve... (Isaiah 9:2-7)

Haunting, dark, gothic or razzamataz, all-singing, all-dancing or an onslaught of carols or just a thin place of encounter with incarnation... where do we best meet emmanual?

What are you feeling this year? Where is the place for the encounter with birth? What silence needs to be held and what words neeed to be spoken? How can Christ be born this year into this particular world?

How to shape a service...