mountain masala

spirituality, creativity and culture

in march next year we'll have jonny baker and cheryl lawrie here, partnering with steve taylor (who will then be a 'local') and tim hein for a week of seminars, public conversations and art installations titled "a spirit of wonder."

A Spirit of Wonder: Brochure (1.2mb)

a central part of the week is an Adelaide Fringe Festival event. called "the landscape of desire", it will be an interactive, multi-sensory installation space at Pilgrim Uniting Church in the centre of the city. jonny and cheryl will curate it with support from me.

really looking forward to the whole thing. if you like the look of it, come along or send some people.

worship resources section added

one of my bits of writing this week is some worship stuff for the upper room, so to help me find stuff i've added a worship resources section in the column to the right. thanks and apologies to all those whose ideas i've ripped off over the years, most notably cheryl, roddy, the iona community, darren, etc, etc....

now off to write day and night for stephen....

curating is allowing people to make stories

what brian eno says about curating...

Here's a group of cultural objects.
I claim that they are related in some way
That is what the history of curating is.
The job of the curator is to say
"I think this story is interesting"
and to weave that story through all of this.

I find these words compelling and completely unlike what systematic theologians do. thank you stanley h for shifting my brain all those years ago.

reflecting on a wonderful and too brief time with mark pierson last week.

creative worship tour

thanks to mark pierson i'm trying out joining creative worship tour, an online social network worship website. its partly an experiment in participating in this kind of online community, but also i'm passionate about this stuff.

international day of peace

we had planned to run prayer stations in the city tomorrow, coming out of our time with mark pierson, but we've had a very small group available for this part of the week, and frankly, not enough time to put together something good. so the fact that it might rain helped us decide not to go ahead.

we outlined four themes:
STATION ONE: PEACE IS A GIFT… CELEBRATE
STATION TWO: PEACE IS A LAMENT… GRIEVE
STATION THREE: PEACE IS A MYSTERY… HOPE
STATION FOUR: PEACE IS AN ACT… CHOOSE

so for what it''s worth, this is what I'd written for the 'prayer tree' that we were going to create using the tree out the front of pilgrim church.

Peace 

throughout human history
peace remains a mystery
always hoped for
yet never arriving
evasive and elusive
attractive and inspiring
we can’t grasp it
but we can choose it
 
though peace seems unlikely
we hope in its coming
we trust in its blessing
we dwell in its promise
 
so we have the strength
to offer trust
in the face of fear
we have the daring
to live simply
in the face of greed
we have the audacity
to live honestly
in the face of deceit
we have the courage
to live gently
in the face of violence
 
Write your own dream, hope or prayer for peace and hang it on the tree.
Read some other people’s dreams and hopes.
Pause for a moment. Let this hope flow inward and outward.
 
Take an olive branch as a gift. 
The gift of peace to you and our world.
You are invited to give it to another person, one with whom you seek peace, as a gift to them and a sign of reconciliation.
 
Peace be with you.

crafting sacred spaces

mark pierson arrived here today from auckland for a few days leading us in creating 'alt worship' both for church settings and more public occasions. mark spoke at our [re]generate gathering at the astor hotel. told his story and introduced the notion of 'curating', which was new for some. we had a wide age range from 20s to 60+.

for the next couple of days we're learning and workshopping. on thursday we're hosting an outdoor public sacred space on the theme of world peace in the city as part of the lead-up to international peace day. i have no idea yet what we're going to do, so i hope something good comes together over the next couple of days. we'll let you know...

if you're in adelaide, come along to pilgrim church thursday morning to help set up, or thursday afternoon to experience whatever it is that we create.

living with dirt

i'm recovering from leading chapel today on mark 7 - called it, you guessed it - "living with dirt". here are some of the bits and pieces...

i put a bunch of signs outside and inside - WIPE YOUR FEET, WASH YOUR HANDS (we had bowls), SIT UP STRAIGHT, NO TALKING, etc etc. The communion table had yellow CAUTION tape (from Bunnings) around it (idea from cheryl). 

when people entered i had a movie loop of a ink drop into clear water (from istockphoto.com I think....., as was the hands photo) music was "you will find" from "fractured, broken and beautiful" by dubh - brilliant album available from proost.

crafting sacred spaces

continuing our theme of trans-tasman brain-draining, we're delighted to have mark pierson from auckland joining us 14-17 September for sessions on crafting or curating alternative worship and participatory public art installations.

the idea is that over a couple of days we will explore and create a series of public installations for the annual World Day of Peace that is celebrated at the end of that week.

Download Mark Pierson brochure

It should be a great experience. We are encouraging churches to bring teams.

go and visit the cityside baptist website and have a look at their easter, lent and advent stuff!

(the photo is from an easter thing that mark and cheryl worked on.)

world peace on north terrace

i had a great meeting and conversation today with mark and sue, two minister-artists, about mark pierson's forthcoming visit 14-17 september. i am trying to build a loose network of churches/ministers close to the city who have an interest in the intersection between creative arts, theology and mission. somehow there are quite a few who fit that category, and who are progressive in a good sense (not just in a weird christian-label sense).

we're asking mark to work with us on 'alternative worship' and on public sacred spaces/events, something we plan to continue with jonny baker in march 2010, hopefully involving womadelaide and the fringe.

subscribing to proost

thanks to Mr Rudd's financial stimulus, I decided that I should assist
the world economy by finally getting a proost subscription.

proost is on online multimedia library run by list member jonny baker,
fellow conspirator jon birch, and who knows who else in the UK. if you
read jonny's blog you'll know that he is into all things multimedia
(music, photography, video, text... etc etc), and jon birch is a
graphic designer, musician etc etc.

For 60 UK pounds (yes, about A$150) you can access any material on the
site for a year.....

so what can you get?

Audio - currently 28 offerings - mostly albums and some EPs - music
with vocals, instrumental albums, music with spoken meditations. I
havent listened to them all but there's a mix of styles, including
electronic (upbeat and down beat). folky, some gospel/soul. what you
won't find is 'hillsong' praise songs...

Books - 8 books of 'pocket' liturgies and some seasonal resources from
'alt worship' people and communities around the world. I've seen
several of the books and there is sensational material here -
liturgies from Grace Community, cheryl lawrie, mark berry of
safespace, ben edson at sanctus1, si smith's lent and advent visuals,
ian mobsby & moot. the subscription is worth it for this stuff alone!
really.

Movies - features film clips and animations in a wide variety of
styles, some interactive - currently 36 items. these include movie
loops, prayer and meditation resources, seasonal and scriptural
material.

so this is a mini-review to encourage you to check it out. I'm
currently maxxing out my monthly broadband allowance - but I have a
whole year to get the stuff, and new material is added regularly.

of course, you can preview items on the site, buy a couple to check
them out, and even buy the 'hard' versions of books & CDs if you need
to.

well worth checking out.

craig