The Complex Christ | Signs of Emergence

OneVoice: To End the Conflict in Israel/Palestine

From the 18th October celebrations. All power to this arm.

Technorati: Israel | OneVoice | Palestine

Rites of Passage | Atheists Marking Life's Big Events

Interesting piece in this week's Time Out: atheist Tim Arthur talks about the privilege of being asked to be 'celebrant' of friends' marriages. He has done so four times, and wonders if he's asked because he is a theatre director and has a degree in religious studies: people think he's like a vicar, and he can make stuff look good. For those interested in following his path, there is a 'Rites of Passage Workshop' at this year's Workshop Festival in London from Sept 4 - 9th.

I'm all for this to be honest. Having seen so many people go through Christian rites when they clearly have no interest in the faith, I'm all for them celebrating and marking life's big events in ways that reflect their beliefs. Sure, some vicars would claim that bringing people in to church at these times, regardless of their faith, is helpful in leading people in to it. But I'd argue that more commonly people see vicars and other 'faith professionals' as having too much of an agenda, and are scared off.

One nice story: Greg in Ventura was telling me how every church leader in town had refused to celebrate the wedding of the leader of the Hell's Angels. Greg agreed, and this did turn into a fruitful relationship.

The article mentioned Arthur's search for resources/liturgies online, but "generally I don't find much useful, practical advice". In light of this, I'd like to flag the Open Office project up again, which is simply an online liturgical resource exchange. Sign up to post stuff from your community; search for and read other people's stuff free.

What the piece does suggest to me is that, again, the church simply can't rest on past norms. People are in search of the sacred in ways that suit them, and if we want to be part of that journey, we need to get where people are at. Would you be prepared to be celebrant at a wedding where the friends asked you because they so respected you, but to 'keep God out of it'? I think we ought to be.

Technorati: Atheist | Rites of Passage | Tim Arthur | Time Out

Wise Traveller...

Just out is this set of three books of reflections, to which I contributed 8 or 9 pieces.

Nice thoughts for the journey to pop in and out of.

Here's one I submitted for book titled 'Loss'

Fruit

I want to change the fruits of my labours.

When someone says ‘Apple’,
I shouldn't want sleek plastic and titanium,
but England’s Coxes,
heavy hung in dappled orchards.

When someone says ‘Orange’,
I don’t want to know about free minutes and the latest upgrades.
I want to think citrus thoughts;
the appeal of slowly peeling skin.

And when someone says ‘Blackberry’,
I don’t want my head to rush with virtual thoughts
of emails and deadlines and documents and settings
and schedules and coverage and battery life.

I want, instead, my tongue to rush with sweet sensation,
a bowl of fruits shared with friends.
A rug.
Open space and blue sky.

Lech Walesa came to the West and said:
“You have riches and freedom here,
but I feel no sense of faith or direction.
You have so many computers,
why don’t you use them in the search for love?”

Devices all sold to connect me.
When all I had to do was pick some fruit, and share it.

© KB 2007

Walesa's quote is strangely prophetic, I think.
We've all heeded his advice in some way.

Technorati: Blackberry | Fruit | Love | Scripture Union | Walesa

The Human Dress | Signs Launch

Thanks to everyone who helped out to give Signs a fantastic launch last night. It was great to phrase it as a time of worship; the guys from the Bridge imagined different sections in terms of doing laundry. Out of that I wrote this piece, meditating on 'the human dress', beginning with a quote from Blake.

"Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face:
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress."

One piece of divine fabric,
Unblemished, woven without defect
Knit together in a girl’s womb,
Perfectly fitting this human frame,
Was stitched up, and stretched out
And torn.

Die! said the soldiers,
And they took one and rolled,

They were mistaken,
And we have bought into their mistake.
This cloth was not for sale,
But offered as a free gift.

Taut, pierced, this pelt collapsed around a broken frame,
Pinned out and exhausted, it’s colour drained,
While, in the Temple, another fabric tore top to bottom.
And the weaver escaped
With thoughts for a new design

Hued with mercy,
And lined with love,
Shrouded in mystery.

Technorati: Blake | Bridge | Human Dress

Freedom of Information ¦ Sodom and Gomorrah ¦ Power and Accountability

'Thought for the Day' this morning was an excellent piece  by Martin Palmer.

MP's have recently voted to exclude themselves from their own Freedom of Information legislation - a move that has angered many. It seems the law-makers want everyone else to be accountable save themselves.

Palmer made an interesting connection with Abraham's bartering with God over Sodom and Gomorrah. As he whittled God down to 'I'll not destroy the city if there are 10 just people there', Abraham inquires of God "Will the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Palmer saw this as an absolute benchmark: justice must be done justly, and those with power must be clearly seen to be acting justly. "If this was true of God, how much more true must it be of our human leaders."

Absolutely. This "pernicious little amendment" must be stamped out if trust and accountability are to be preserved in our legislature.

Alpha TV Ad to go out during Big Brother...

It's actually rather nice.

Technorati: Big Brother | Alpha

Saga | Photos

Saga has just started Flickring. Some wonderful shots. Cheer your eyes up with a lazy browse...

Technorati: Glass | V & A | Saga Arpino

The Truth Isn't Sexy | Act Now

There's been a lot of talk around the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade, and rightly so.

But, right now, there are more people caught up in the international trafficking of sex slaves than were ever involved in that slave trade. It's happening right now. Young girls duped into thinking they're getting a better life in the West, ending up being brutally raped 40 times a day to 'break' them. Make them malleable. So they're ready to answer the calls of the men who take the cards from the phone booths. Tonight. Every night.

The Truth Isn't Sexy is a brilliant campaign led by a devolved network of concerned people. And that ought to include you. Don't hesitate. Do something positive this Lent and visit their site to find out what you can do to make a real difference. Like get hold of some of their award-winning beer mats and distribute them in your local pub.

For those based in London, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are holding a gig in the Bloomsbury Ballroom on the 6th March, all the proceeds of which are going to the campaign. Contact Si for more info.

Technorati: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club | Lent | London | Sexy | Slavery | Truth Isn't

The Open Office ¦ Liturgy Share

The Artists Formely Known as Vaux have just launched a project called The Open Office. (Here's one of us at work ;-)

What we're hoping to achieve is simple: an open-source, online space to resource a liturgical rhythm of life. A monastic office... but for the emerging city.

Over the years we've written a whole load of great pieces, and it seemed a shame that they were only really used once. And over the course of this year we are trying to create new pieces for whatever's going on: daily prayer, birthdays, dedications of children... even A Prayer for a Meal on a Tired Evening After a Day of Struggles in the City. A full list of what's there so far is [ here ].

But this is about us; the aim is for as many groups as possible to join and share their resources too. If you'd like to be able to post, leave a comment here or email theopenoffice {at} vaux [dot] net and we'll send you an author invitation. Include the name of your group so we can add a category for you. Then read the posting guidelines and get sharing.

MacOSaiX...

...is one of those great free bits of Mac software, and if you have a large iPhoto library (or just access to Google Images) you might want to download it and have a play. Very flexible. Very simple. Pick a target image, choose your source image folder(s) and let it get to work.

Technorati: Jesus | mac | MacOSaiX | Mosaic | photography