[ hold :: this space ]

a call to worship - used at the cfm staff gathering this morning

Our task in worship is no less than to dream
an impossible future
shaped by glimpses of a Kingdom
of justice and life

we are called here to boldly imagine
an impossible world
where what is broken is restored to wholeness
where the dead is brought to life

in worship we bring the world’s most damaged realities
and hold them with faith they will be changed
in the presence of hope and love.

Can you imagine a space more holy than this?

welcome to worship

this is for worship i’m leading next week for the cfm staff gathering

it will take grace to let others here be different to our expectations of them
so we pray for grace

it will take courage for each of us to live beyond the story we know of ourselves
so we pray for courage

it will take wisdom to believe we don’t have all the answers
so we pray for wisdom

it will take hope to believe our future is not yet determined
so we pray for hope

in the story of god all expectations are defied
all things are made possible
the whole world is made new

it will take faith to live as though this can be our story
and so we pray for faith.

i was back at the women’s prison today where the new chapel and garden were being opened. the garden is going to be planted with biblical plants - pomegranates [perfect for molasses, i hear], figs, olives… wormwood wasn’t allowed because it can be used for some less than biblical purposes…

i was talking with the buddhist chaplain afterwards, and she talked about how the air is so different in the women’s prison to the men’s. She’s right. It’s not toxic. I don’t come out feeling suffocated, I come out feeling like I can breathe.

It was a multi-faith service this morning, which i always like… i like having to find the language that speaks beyond our truths. it always feels more honest, somehow. and much simpler.

a prayer for the opening of a chapel…

In this chapel are the elements of earth, fire and water.
These have been symbols, since time began, of the most fundamental realities of our world: that life is, at once, fragile and resilient.

They remind us of the things that are most fundamental about each of our lives:
We are human -
fragile and flawed,
needing a place to belong to and a people to be part of,
reliant on forgiveness and mercy,
dependent on the promise that life can begin again.

Because while earth, fire and water are the building blocks of the world,
they are only brought to life
by a breath of grace, of hope, and love.

So we gather today to bless this chapel,
to set it apart,
so that it will be a place where we can bring the stories of our lives -
the dirt, the pain and the promise -
and know that here they will be held and changed
by grace, hope and love.

if you’ve come here after the conference - welcome. thanks for having me at your place for the last few days - you were a fabulous group of people to meet and work with.

these are the liturgies we used, by days.

unitingcare_monday.pdf

unitingcare_tuesday.pdf

i’m beginning and ending each day at a conference next week that will largely be attended by social workers, community development workers and chaplains… this is for them…

We’re only human,
we say,
apologetically,
as though it is a failing

as though we could be more.

Dismissing,
in an instant,
the gift we are most able to offer.

We rush to fill our days and weeks with programs
meetings
administration
people

because to stand still
means we might be overwhelmed by all there is to be done
and our inadequacy in doing it.

We presume that the world could be fixed
if we just tried a bit harder and did a bit more

because the alternative is to admit the fragility of all that we hope for.

Yet when we try to be more than human
we deny space for all that is not human:
the love beyond human making
the hope beyond human faking
the peace beyond human understanding.

It takes courage
to stop looking at all there is to do
and instead to turn and face the limits of who we are

It takes courage
to end where we end
and to let faith begin…

i feel like i’m doing production line worship at the moment - event after event after event, all of them exhibitions …

i’m doing reflection spaces next week for the Uniting Care national conference. It’s an honour to have been asked, and while i’m not yet looking forward to it, i can see that i’m going to enjoy it. The organisers are looking for alternative worship… but, of course, since it’s a conference, I have no control over the space at all - over the lighting, seating, where the focus of attention will be… i can’t do stations, there will be limited multimedia capacity… i don’t know the audience, and they’ve asked for ‘inspiring’. all things that don’t fit what i do, and that go against the definitions of alternative.

up until now i’ve been fighting the limits and getting nowhere. today i’ve just given into them, and stopped thinking it needs to be alternative. it just needs to work with the people and the context. which means it will, by necessity, be word based, and far more direct and concrete than what i would do anywhere else. though starting from that perspective feels like fingernails down a blackboard, i think we’ll end up somewhere good. the letting go has already made the world of difference.

while i love doing this, i’m really missing doing alternative at the moment. i know some people don’t get the difference, but from the planning side of the table, there’s a whole world between them.

all that is to say that it’s deadline hell around here - things will be quiet for the next couple of weeks.

[and i'm thinking of changing the blog into a more traditional website. i wonder if it's time to make it less a journal of the project and more a collection of resources. a blog, by nature, implies something more personal, and I'm a bit over that... I suspect it would reduce readership, but that's not ever been the point of it... anyway. it's just an idea i'm playing with...]

confession

we are broken people.

we make lists
- written in fine script on parchment
or scrawled onto cardboard -
of explanations

stories and excuses
we use to paper over the fragility of our lives

and there is no courage
yet
to strip away the layers
we know hold us together

to shatter takes faith we do not yet have…

[i'm gradually picking up all the loose strings i dropped when going away. today i met with jenny, to talk through prison worship and restorative justice... this week is all about liturgy writing...]

call to worship

this is a holy space and a sacred time

not because god is here in any special way -
god is no different in this place
to anywhere else -
but because we are here in a special way

in this space and time
all of who we are
is welcome

so bring the broken, darkest parts of you -
the parts which strive to be beautiful
and those which are nothing but flawed -

put them next to mine

as together,
in this holy space and sacred time,
we let them be shaped
by god.

welcome to worship.

I’m preparing for a workshop on sunday at the synod meeting. When i’m preparing a workshop i try to make the practical examples and ideas fit with the lectionary reading for the following Sunday. The workshop is on alternative worship within a mission context - what to do when the church’s traditional ‘them’ becomes the ‘us’ in our worship. it’s a hard topic to do a workshop on, i have to say.

it couldn’t be more fitting, though, that the lectionary readings include Luke 16:19-31 and Amos 6:1-7 - we stand convicted… I’m not sure how i’ll use this yet - if i had a dozen directional speakers i’d set it up as a whispering sound installation…

you are the beggar sitting outside our gate

the awkwardness at the edge of our experience

the provocation that challenges our perception of the world

the discomfort that urges us to action

the anger that confuses our theology

the shadow in the corner of our eye that defies us to deviate from our path

the pain that cripples our indulgence

the melancholy that interferes with the party

the discomfort that disturbs our assuredness

the dream that interrupts our sleep

the grief that halts our play

the sorrow that pervades our celebrations

the anxiety that will not let us be complacent

the silence that confounds our judgement

the void that undermines our confidence

the disruption that will not leave us in peace…

we’ve been getting down to the details with planning the uk trip today, and totalling up the numbers of people who’ll be at each point… it seems there will be 16 of us from australia camping out together at greenbelt…