abbotsford.org.uk

Ikon

It was just superb, for me and a couple of others. Ikon at Greenbelt was the top moment. Their web page is here with lots of goodies and theology and images. Not everyone is in to deconstructionalism and even fewer can spell it and I don't know if anyone actually cares, but those who don't know Ikon may wish to pop over there in cyberspace and see the stuff that is at the outer edges of the church but heavily influencing what's going on. This is church in the future and I can already hear what folk are muttering but seriously, give it a thought and see what they are doing not week by week, but see what they are doing on the grand scale of things...

Change the world for free

While you are all discussing the communion stream below, here's a wee free gift for you to take up and change the world with that I picked up at Greenbelt this year. You can subscribe for free to a magazine called 'Bug' from worldvision. It doesn't cost anything and you can do it by email if you write to them. As they say, if you think you are too small to make a difference then you haven't gone to bed with a mosquito in your room. Now, back to communion...

Your favourite communion

A wee request from those who can...

As I said further back 'up stream' as they say, I've a talk to do on communion in about a weeks time for a wee symposium which is to stretch folk in their experience and discussion of communion. I'm doing stuff on creative communion and I have it in mind to simply let people experience one. I haven't a long time in which to do this, namely 20 minutes so it has to be concise so there is time for discussion afterwards. So my questions is which contemporary/creative communion do you remember, or what bits of services do you recall. Not that I want to simply to the most popular one or the most memorable one but if there is one that many folk engaged with then it seems a good idea to do that since it clicked best. So I'd be really grateful if folk would log in here to make a suggestion or email me separately.

Now I'm off to panic about biting off more than I can chew with this one. There are about 70 folk going to it. They've all got brains bigger than mine and more coherent than me. I need to find a few good theology books before then (to throw at folk rather than read!).

Sunshine and Theology

Sadly we are all back from Greenbelt and it was a belter in terms of sunshine and ideas, especially lots of art stuff. Some good speakers and all of us I think had our Greenbelt moments and all quite different from each other. I'll upload some images tonight for folk to have a wee look at which will possibly tell the story better than here. But there were some good thoughts in amongst it all that got me thinking and I'm sure the others will add stuff here too.

And thanks for all those who remain behind in the church and be the community here while others are away enjoying themselves and maybe witnessing and tasting things that may come.

NEXUS

Nexus is all set up and ready to go. Lots of stands and some qute nice art figures. If you can go Thursday, Friday or Saturday thenI'd recomend it. There is a lot going on in the world of the church and some of it is very, very good! There are also some weird Christian Groups too! Anyway lots of things going on along with a whole seminar programme over the three days. Your £5 tickets gets you into everything for the whole three days. If you can go Thursday and Friday that would be best because Saturday will be busy.

Also pop into the Labyrinth becasue A couple of Abbotsford folk designed it. It's looking mimimalist and colourful. Quite happy.

Take a wee packed lunch too instead of buying SECC priced food. But there is lots of coffee and stuff on the go.

Visitors

Hey, by tomorrow we'll have had 10,000 visits to the blog. That's more than in the congregation's lifetime. There might be a prize for the 10,000th. I don't know what will happen but maybe there will be a fanfare, pixel fireworks or a congratulation message exploding from your screen. If you get one of these then do let us know.

That was the Sunday that was

Not too bad. The Gap are back doing thier quiz after about a year of just having to listen without any help so they gave the service 7/8 and the sermon 8/9. Their enthusiasm always worries me. But then I knew things were fine because they gave the hymns 3. That's pretty low. And they were right, they weren't the most exciting, though they liked the last one. So back on track I think. Yet its the hymn that come bacl to haunt every time. Maybe I should do the Gordon brown thing and remit the choice of hymns to a different group of people...

Other than that, it was all very run of the mill. Not a bad thing. No seron from me next week but I've worship to do for Church without walls at NEXUS on Thursday morning which I keep forgetting about. Chose the hymns for that last week but they aren't known either. I'm doing well!

Hope some can go to NEXUS. It's big and it will be fabulous. Lots going on. If you are there on Thursday, I'll see you then but thereafter Greenbelt, here we come...

Sunday's Notices (19th Aug)

Sermons: There are always copies available in the Welcoming Hall for those who wich to find all the loopholes and contradictions.

Lunch with the Almighty: 12.15 on Wednesday with tea and coffee.

Bowling Club: Thursday from 6.30, open to everyone for a wee game, a wee cup of tea and a wee chat.

Door Duty Next Week: P Edwards, H McFarlane, J Smith, F Sinclair, D Campbell, S Hillis, N Wilson, R Edwards

Next Week: We have a guest preacher as a number of folk from Abbotsford are attending Greenbelt Arts Festival in Cheltenham. Please do continue your encouragement of the congregation by supporting the preacher next week.

Concert: Sydenham Singers will be in concert at Kilbowie St Andrew’s on Thursday 23rd August at 7.30. Tickets, at the door, £4/£3

NEXUS: The biggest Christian Event this year begins on Thursday at the SECC. It costs £5 for the whole three days of exhibitions, seminars, music, art, labyrinth and resources for congregations. There is a newspaper in the Welcoming Hall will all the information you need.

Magazine and Communion Invitations: Both are available for Elders to deliver or you can pick up a magazine to pass to others in the Welcoming Hall.

CAOS Task Groups: Monday 3rd September for Phase II. The Resurn.

CAOS:summer : all the art and craft from the summer event is on display throughout the church. Please take some time to have a wee nosey at what was done. There are ‘CAOS:moment” notices at each.

Hint for Sunday

Was Jesus ever surprised by what faith could do?

Did Jesus know or was it by faith
by faith sat with a woman excluded by race
hiding under the noonday sun
and offered a cup of living water
sharing her own shadowy history
and saw transformation

Did Jesus know or was it by faith
by faith turned to a woman
bleeding for so long who touched his hem
and felt the need in her that had reached out
and witnessed the healing her longing brought
the transformation

Did Jesus know or was it by faith
by faith spoke to the cripple
bedridden for so long being lowered from the roof
and said sin no longer binds you
and watched him believe him and rise before him
and saw the transformation

Did Jesus know or was it by faith
by faith took the cross
whose shadow he had lived in for so long
and bore it’s weight and knew it’s truth
and saw the darkness and reached the end
following love right through

Did Jesus know or was it by faith
by faith stood before sunrise
expelled from the grave
as dawn began to break
and found himself saying the words he thought he’d never say again
‘Mary!’

Pitching the Tent

We need lots of ideas for the tent we MIGHT buy for the National Gathering on 3-4th May. Just to sum up, it would be 1 of 500 so we need something distinctive to set it apart so we need ideas about what to put in it and also how to mark it out.

Thought we could start a new thread on this to keep it clear and also a new category called 'Gathering' for future reference.

Anyway, so far:

- an inflatable planetarium.
- telescope for people to have a close-up look at creation
- late night interviews on blowup sofas with a wee glass of wine
- do projection on the tent walls. Imagine how cool that would be at night from the outside.
- serve tea and coffee
- speakers
- bands
- crafts stuff,
- games, all-day crafts,
- a drumming hour?
- mini-seminars on CAOS,
- all-age worship, all-age communion, or do late-night discussions . Will two days be enough.
- Gift wrap the whole marquee and put a big ribbon and enormous bow on it. And a 6-foot tag to say who it is a gift to
- Put nothing it, but just fill it entirely with balloons. Just imagine the fun as people go through it , bumping into others, making unexpected friends and laughing all the time.

But we need lots more. Let the imagination run riot...