An emerging church in Bristol
2010 littleservices #9: “Change Is Inevitable”
Mar 8th
Change is inevitable, and it informs and challenges how we deal with our faith.
Farmdation Workday, Saturday 13th March 2010
Mar 5th
Foundation’s community allotment project, lovingly named Farmdation, invites all Foundationers to a workday on Saturday 13th March. There is a talk of some social stuff afterwards too for those who come and lend a hand!
For more information about Farmdation in general, check out the Farmdation tab above, or for more information on this event please contact Rob on the address listed under the Contact tab.
Filmdation, Friday 12th March 2010
Mar 5th
The March Filmdation is on Friday 12th March.
The film choice is Fish Tank, a 2009 British drama directed by Andrea Arnold. The film is chosen by Rob Telford.
Mia, a volatile 15-year-old, lives on an Essex council estate with her single mother Joanne, and younger sister Tyler. Neglected by her frequently drunk mother, Mia is a loner, and is seen fighting with the other girls who live nearby- one of whom she headbutts in the nose. Excluded from school, she is frequently in trouble with the authorities and spends a lot of her time drinking alcohol procured from older kids on her estate. It is clear 11 year old Tyler, who drinks and smokes, is going the same way. Mia’s only outlet is street dancing, which she practices alone in a deserted flat.
The film has been nominated for this year’s BAFTA Awards in the categry of Outstanding British Film and has received many positive critical reviews.
Location: Tim’s place. If you need the address and/or directions, contact Rob on the email address under “Contact”.
Turn up any time from 7:45pm (we’ll start the film a bit after 8pm). Bring something to drink and/or munchies.
2010 littleservices #8: “The Compassionate Life”
Mar 5th
A Celtic evening liturgy with Henri Nouwen’s thoughts about the compassionate life.
Community Meal, Wednesday 24th February 2010
Feb 17th
The February Community Meal will take place at Adam Bond and Jen Cavill’s house on Wednesday 24th February.
For more information on where it’s happening (obviously best not to display it here!), please contact Rob on the email address listed under “Contact”.
2010 littleservices #7: “All You Need Is Hate”
Feb 17th
“Hate is a disguised form of love. You can only hate someone that you have the capacity to love because if you are really indifferent, you cannot even get up enough energy to hate him.” Sri Chinmoy
Things the Bible says God hates…
The nations [Leviticus 20:23], all kinds of detestable things that you do in worshipping other gods [Deuteronomy 12:31], sacred stones [Deuteronomy 16:22], dishonesty, partiality and bribery [2 Chronicles 19:5], all who do wrong [Psalm 5:5], the wicked and those who love violence [Psalm 11:5], eyes that are arrogant, a tongue that lies, hands that murder the innocent, a heart that hatches evil plots, feet that race down a wicked track, a mouth that lies under oath, a troublemaker in the family. [Proverbs 6:16], cheating in the marketplace [Proverbs 11:1], switching price tags and padding the expense account [Proverbs 20:10], thievery and crime [Isaiah 61:8], invitations that are ignored, words spoken that are brushed off, things God exposes as evil [Isaiah 65:11 & Isaiah 66:3], houses whose roofs were used as altars for offerings to Baal and the worship of who knows how many other gods [Jeremiah 32:26], the loathsome gutter of gods [Jeremiah 44:1], the arrogance of Jacob and his palaces and strongholds [Amos 6:8], cooking up plans to take unfair advantage of others, doing or saying what isn’t so [Zechariah 8:14], Ephraim [Hosea 9:15], divorce [Malachi 2:16], a man’s covering himself with violence as well as with his garment [Malachi 2:16].
A service providing an alternative to Valentine’s Day and the language of love that is used.
Questions
Is hating just a disguised form of love, as the poem above suggests? Does hating certain things make us better lovers of God, of each other, of the world around us? Does God hate some things? Does that mean we are duty bound to hate some things too? Is hate necessary for living a life that pleases God? Or should hate be vanquished from our lives?
The New Testament doesn’t really talk much about God hating things. Is this because God’s wrath has been “satisfied” by Jesus dying on the cross (as one kind of theology suggests)?
If God actually lost his anger or had it “satisfied” by some “action” he is purported to have taken, I don’t think he would be God any more. If he wasn’t angry about the way we’ve messed up the planet, I wouldn’t think he was God.
Film clip: I Heart Huckabees
Music: “All You Need Is Hate” The Delgados, “I Love You But I Prefer Trondheim – Parts 1 to 4″ Stars Of The Lid vs Adam Wiltzie, “God Loves Everyone” Ron Sexsmith
2010 littleservices #6: “Prepare to be prepared to change”
Feb 10th
Picture courtesy of wonker@flickr
A simple service to prepare us for Lent.
Verses from Mark chapter 1 (click link to read).
Discussion: When Jesus was sent by the Spirit into the desert to fast and pray, he was preparing for God to use him in the years ahead. He was prepared to be challenged. He was prepared to change.
How might we prepare to be challenged so that we might be prepared to be changed by God this Lent?
What are the obstacles to change in our lives – change in how we think and feel, how we speak, how we behave, our habits and disciplines?
Confession: Jesus Christ, fully human and fully God, we come to you in sorrow for our resistance to be changed through and by you, and confess to you our lack of faith and courage. We have lived by our own strength, and not by the power of your new life. In your mercy, forgive us. Lord, hear us and help us.
We have lived by the light of our own eyes, as faithless and not believing. In your mercy, forgive us. Lord, hear us and help us.
We have lived for this world alone, and doubted our home in heaven. In your mercy, forgive us. Lord, hear us and help us.
Reflection: First, to ask God to reveal specific areas in our lives where He is challenging us to change this Lent. Second, as Lent is traditionally a period of spiritual discipline, what spiritual discipline might you want to adopt more fully and regularly to create the kinds of conditions in your life where that change may take place? E.g. silence, fasting, solitude, study, meditation…
Blessing: May the Father from whom every family in earth and heaven receives its name strengthen us with his Spirit in our inner being so that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith and that, knowing his love, broad and long, deep and high beyond all knowledge, we may be filled with all the fullness of God; And the blessing of God almighty,the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,be among us and remain with us always. Amen.
2010 littleservices #5: “Everything is permissible”
Feb 7th
What is sin in the current day? Does the bible and its commandments speak to us about something real we experience in the now? When we have so much choice and so many possible paths we can take in life, how do we choose which way to act? Is there a right and a wrong choice? Very few actions seem unpermissible, but is everything advisable? From a liberal perspective, do we know what is right and wrong any more?
Begin with Eden bible reading and welcome. Read some conflicting bible readings on sin: 1 corinthians 10:23 vs strict food laws in leviticus. Talk about the dilemma over sin. Kalil Gabhrin reading about wisdom rather than rules governing our actions. Everyone writes what they think of as a sin on a piece of paper and we display them in the middle…
“Wasting time – watching TV. We have only one life-time to learn, to love & be loved.”
“Badmouthing people. Lying.”
“Trying to control people/others for your own ends.”
“Laziness???”
“Judging others without allowing for circumstances.”
“Harming ourselves/Harming others/Turning away from life.”
“Gossip + speaking badly of others. Justifying myself (why do I need to?). Not caring about…”
“Not caring for the environment.”
“Dishonesty when honesty is needed/Being hurtful in the name of being truthful.”
“Sin is false piety.”
“Not showing love & grace to others.”
“To keep fit at home.”
“Sin is simply the exercise of free will to do something that deviates from our best ideals/Sin is an objective fact of daily existence – murder, theft, betrayal, lack of care for others, apathy, neglect/Sin is time-wasting and not making the most of your opportunities to do good and do your best/Sin is born within us, not present in us before our birth/Guilt is the existential dealing of all of these things, with God.”
“Disobedience – when you know you shouldn’t say it, but you do anyway.”
“Oblique anger makes me feel guilty because it makes the subject hurt + bewildered and at the same time I can not recognise how angry I am.”
“Hurting other people with the things I say/don’t say. Not doing the good I ought to do.”
Get into groups and have a brief discussion about whether the concept of sin plays a role in our lives. Everyone is given an apple and has time to reflect whilst eating it. We come to communion to repent of our sins. A prayer is said to close.
2010 littleservices # 4: “Work”
Jan 27th
What do you think, and do, about work?
For me (Tim) there’s a disparity, a disconnect, between the amount of work that I do (I confess, I’m a workaholic) and how much I profess to care about it (because on the contrary I profess bohemianism, stoicism, detachment; my friends are buying smallholdings in Wales, going on walking pilgrimages in Spain, are not corporate lawyers). I think I’m sufficiently self-aware to bring an end to this phase of overwork when I feel that the time is right.
I thought of three possible attitudes to work which are each in some sense spiritual, or which find a place within the forms of Christianity that most of us in Foundation know.
The first is the EVANGELICAL attitude. All work can be turned to good. Working in a merchant bank is good because you are a witness to Christ there (citing the Book of Daniel); if you disapprove of the financial system then fine, you’re working from within to improve it. Most work is also *hard*, the sweat of Adam’s brow since the fall. Pros: it’s bracing and a feelgood attitude, a great leveller. At HTB I enjoyed rubbing shoulders with the chairman of UBS, Ken Costa. Cons: not sure if getting to the main board of a City bank *really* means you’ll make a difference, except for the money you can give to charity. Don’t you have to get in line and play the game, more or less?
The second is the LIBERAL attitude. You should work in a justice-oriented job and demonstrably make a difference. None of that evangelical wishful thinking. If you aren’t building the kingdom here and now, what are you doing? Everyone at Greenbelt seems to be in this game and I come away feeling square, guilty and that I should change my career. At the very least, lawyers should be writing letters on behalf of death row inmates, drink fair trade, recycle and go on marches. Pros: yes, more tangible world-changing propensity than the evangelical model. Cons: unless you work full time in a caring/justice job, do you actually have the energy to go the extra mile all the time?
The third is the BOHEMIAN attitude which is a family relation to the STOIC or DETACHED attitude. All of them my personal favourites. Drop out and write poetry away from the city (quoting Gary Snyder, Wordsworth), berate your square ex-girlfriend stuck in a rut with “telephones, and managers and where you’ve got to be at noon” (Crosby Stills & Nash), consciously oppose the Man and all his doings (Tom Hodgkinson, How to be Free) or, if you must work, then hold it lightly and treat it all as a game (Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha). It’s all meaningless anyway (Ecclesiastes). Pros: speaks for itself really: the correct attitude. Cons: very few of us have the balls actually to do it.
I concluded that there was a bit of me in each of these three camps. How about you?
Filmdation, Friday 29th January 2010
Jan 25th
The January Filmdation is on Friday 29th January.
The film choice is Harold and Maude, a 1971 comedy directed by Hal Ashby. The film is chosen by Lexy Long.
The film, featuring slapstick, dark humor and existentialist drama, revolves around the exploits of a morbid young man, Harold, who drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes for him, as he develops a relationship with septuagenarian Maude.
Harold meets Maude, 79 years old, at a funeral. The pair form a bond, with Maude slowly opening Harold to the sensual pleasures of music and art – and the general anarchy of living for the moment and doing whatever one pleases. Their relationship turns sexual, despite Harold’s mother’s best attempts to get her son to settle down with someone she considers appropriate…
The film is number 45 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Funniest Movies of all Time and number 69 in its list for most romantic. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” The film was a commercial flop in its original release, and critical reception was extremely mixed. However it has since developed a large cult following.
Location: Tim’s place. If you need the address and/or directions, contact Rob on the email address under “Contact”.
Turn up any time from 7:45pm (we’ll start the film a bit after 8pm). Bring something to drink and/or munchies.