way out west

God and Earth

We're just beginning to dig deeper into the whole Christian role in/responsibility for/response to the environment and what it means to live as a community that engages more responsibly and creatively with creation itself... so along with exploring St Francis, some of the books we've picked up are...

"Jesus and the Earth" (James Jones)

"Utopian Dreams" (Tobias Jones)

"Planetwise: Dare to Care for God's World" (Dave Bookless)

But we'd value any other thoughts.

[update] ht Matt Stone for this link...

Season on Creation

Technorati Tags: Church: Community: environment: Mission: Missional: new-monasticism: Religion: Spirituality

Our setting of St Francis' Canticle of Creation

One above all other, most powerful, utterly good God,
All the praise, glory, honour and blessing belong to you before anyone else.
They are yours alone, we are not good enough to even speak your name.
May all your creation and its creatures praise you.

First and foremost, Brother Sun.
Who brings the day, and who you created to shine light on life.
He is beautiful and radiant in all his splendour.
His majesty points to you. 

Sister Moon too, shouts your name,
And the stars of the whole universe as you formed them,
Shining clear and precious and beautiful.

In Brother Wind blows the sound of your name,
Through the air, stormy and still,
And every kind of weather, which feeds and waters the land,
Sustaining the tapestry of the life you created.

Sister Water praises you too,
Water, which is vital to life,
simple and yet precious and pure.

Praise to you is heard in the roar of Brother Fire,
Through him you give light and warmth in the dark, cold night,
He is entrancing, playful yet powerful, even dangerous.

Sister, Mother Earth, on whom life flourishes,
She who provides the rhythm of life and the sustenance we need,
Her rich colours, sweet flavours, and aromatic herbs,
Paint a picture of your goodness.

We lift our eyes to you,
Through the stories of those who suffer,
And endure pain who yet still love you,
Through the peace of those great people,
Who deserve your honour above the rest of us.

Even in Sister Death, the death of our bodies,
Which is inescapable for every single one of us,
We sing the greatness of your name.

It is terrible to die in the grip of greed and selfish living
Yet those who die in the knowledge of your great love and purpose,
Even though they too cannot escape the death of the body,
They will continue to live with you, they have nothing further to fear.

We shout your name out loud,
We thank you for all life,
May we follow you and serve your purpose with the utmost humility.

AMEN

Technorati Tags: alt.worship: environment: Poetry: Prayer: Religion: Spirituality: Worship

priesthood?

I chatted again last weekend with a few people about the whole ordination thing and why it made me uncomfortable... then re-reading "Christianity Rediscovered (SCM Classics)" (Vincent J. Donovan) I came across this section which captures something of how I see my/the role of priest/guardian/abbot...

That man who called the community together and held it together; he would not be the one who knew the most theology, the theologian.  He would not be the preacher or the evangelist of the community.  He would not be the prophet.  He would not be the most important member in the community, in the sense of being the one who was to make the most important contributions, of which the community might someday be capable.

But he would be the focal point of the whole community, the one who would enable the community to act, whether in worship or in service.  He would be the animator of the individual members of the community, enabling them to make their various contributions, enabling the preacher to preach and the teacher to teach and the prayer to pray and the prophet to prophesy.  He would be the necessary sign of the power that is in all of them,.  He would be the sign of unity that exists among them.  He would be their link with the outside, the sign of their union with the outside, the universal church.  He would be their priest.

And he would not be painted into a sacramental corner or restricted to the sacristy.  Wherever and whenever the community acted as the Christian community he would be carrying out his function, the focal point of the whole community, building that community, holding it together, animating it to action, signifying it’s unity, enabling it to function,  If that community were at worship in the liturgy of the Word, he would not be the reader or the preacher or the teacher; he would be the one enabling those people, not as individuals, but as community, to hear that Word, to understand it, to judge it and discern it, to make it live, to let it act on them.  Each one could do the same in the privacy of his home, but doing it in community adds an entirely new dimension, the power of the Spirit given to that community to reach to the throne of God, to hear the Word of God to carry out its mission.

There are still some issues left in this for me... notably, does the guardian always have to be the "focal point", though that may just be my experiences/modern understanding of the role of Priest colouring my understanding of what Donovan means... or it maybe a remnant of his Catholic context?

Technorati Tags: Books: Church: Emerging Church: Mission: Missional

Learning from the New-Monastics

This morning I led a seminar at the Christian Resources Exhibition... entitled (their request!) "Learning from the new-monastics"... click here for a quicktime version of the presentation (nb. you'll need to pause the movie to read some of the quotes) ... a recording of the talk will be available soon... i.e. when they send it to me so I can convert it and upload it.

Technorati Tags: Celtic: Church: Community: CRE: Emerging Church: Mission: Missional: new-monasticism: Religion: Spirituality: Telford

Small AND beautiful... Italian style!

Sorry the Blog has been so quiet recently... TBH I'm really struggling with getting back into the habit... I think this may mean I now have "a life" ;-)  Anyway I had to blog this, with all the reincarnations of iconic small cars, finally someone gets it right... and of course it had to be the masters of automotive style... the Italians! We want one... and it is Mac formatted and ipod compatible...

Technorati Tags: Art: Cars: Culture: News