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.

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.

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.)

culture with a k

we're delighted to have steve taylor back in town for a week. he's the keynote speaker at our biennial, national in-service gathering for children, youth & family workers.

while steve is in town we've asked him to speak at our next [re]generate (see previous post).

steve will also be running a day seminar/workshop on culture-making as mission - namely how Christian might reshape culture rather than act as victims of culure.

hence "CULTURE WITH A Kiwi"

its wonderful that steve will be back in town. it is so refreshing to have someone who is actively, openly and humbly trying to participate in God's mission. and he almost talks like us (which is deep code for saying that we hear steve as a local, not as a pom or a yank... its a good thing!)

download info here:

Download Culture with a k

[re]generate - august 3

coming events

details of some coming events:

in a few weeks time we have a visitor from Oxford, Revd Henry Kirk here to lead a couple of sessions on using are in preaching, teaching and pastoral care. monday 27 and tuesday 28 july.

Download Henry Kirk brochure

we have several topics in for aged care chaplains and volunteers starting at the end of july.

Download Aged Care brochure

Steve Taylor will be back in town for a week in early August as the keynote speaker at "breathe", our national in-service for children, youth and family workers. we'll be taking the opportunity for these:

"Culture with a K(iwi)" - a day seminar on mission as local culture-making - Sat 1 August. Brochure out later this week.

Download "Culture with a K" poster

[re]generate with steve will be monday night 3 august. postcard out soon!

there'll also be a coaching session for those who participated in steve's coaching series last year. we know who you are - you'll be contacted shortly.

also a reminder that mark pierson will be in town 14-18 september, son we'll have a [re]generate mon 14 september. more details soon!

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.