advent service - darkness

a few people have asked about this service so ill put it here feel free t use as you will.
this is a service we first did at home sheffield in about 2004. we did it again for a family service at the bear deptford where i now go. this is the family friendly version.

the theme is darkness /light
the whole building was in darkness
these attending were asked to bring a torch and some were given one on the door
a film of the hour before dawn over london played on one wall

there were 10 stations to be done in any order - the text and a brief description are below:

1 Journeys

Take a highlighter pen and draw your journey to church.

Think about what you saw on the way.

What are dark places?

Which places are full of light?

Advent is a journey towards Christmas.

(a large map of local area with a UV lamp – people draw route to church with highlighter pens)


2 Starlit darkness

Close your eyes and listen to the meditation.
(meditation from alternative worship by jonny baker and doug gay recorded and played in the cellar)

3 Story

Listen to Can’t you sleep little bear?

What are you afraid of?

God is like a father bear and is always there when we are frightened.

(cant you sleep little bear? by martin wadell read by torchlight jackonory style)

4 World

The world is a dark place.

Think of an area of the world that needs god’s light this advent.

Say a prayer and light a candle.

Put your candle on the map on the place where you have prayer for.
(world map with tea lights)

5 Glowsticks

Make a bracelet or necklace from glowsticks.

God said, "Let there be light,"
and there was light. God saw
that the light was good.
(glowstick from poundland)

6 Footprints

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 119

Take a footprint and read the bible verse on it. Lay it on the floor to make a path of footprints.

(paper footprints with bible verses on)

7 Circuits

We cannot shine on our own. The church is made up of many parts which need to work together and be connected to the power source.

Make a simple circuit with a bulb and a battery.
(bulbs, batteries and wires)

8 Salt and light

We are called to be salt and light.
Salt adds flavour and preserves.
Put some salt on your tongue.
How can you add flavour to your community and preserve what is good?
(bowl of salt)

9 Hidden lamp

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5 14-16

Take a piece of paper from the light to allow more light to shine. Say sorry for the times you have hidden your light. Write it on the paper and put it in the bin.
( a wire mesh bin with a lightbulb underneath covered in strips of paper blocking the light)

10 Stars

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Oscar Wilde

Sit or lay down and look at the projection of stars. What can you see if you take time to look at the stars?

(pin hole picture of jesus projected on ceiling from OHP worship trick 18 series 2 on jonnybaker.blogs.com cushions blankets etc )

soundtrack on loop (there are loads of other appropriate songs but these are what i was listening to at the time)

made in the dark – hot chip
I see a darkness – bonnie prince billy
Where there is no sun – sun ra

after about an hour the advent candle was brought in and everyone lit a small candle from this.

ill put up the guinness advent service if i have time

high chair

my new obsession/hobby is buying cool stuff for eva.
there's a lot of good design for kids amongst the tat.

eva's new mozzee nest highchair

eurovision

Caught a bit of eurovision and was confronted by usual mix of kitch (eastern europe0 and piss takes (irelands singing turkey)
however amongst the dross was the wonderful sebastien tellier (a real pop star abeit a rather strange leftfield one) performing divine from his excellent sexuality lp. how/why he was there is a mystery and make me think why didnt britain take up jarvis cocker's offer to represent us instead of a dustbinman/xfactor failure.
spains entry also deserves a mention for its bizarre cheecky girls/mike flowers pops number which was in the so bad its good category.

anyway here is the excellent sebastien at eurovision - love the golf cart.

You Dig the Tunnel, I'll Hide the Soil

this is an excellent exhibition at the white cube hoxton and shoreditch town hall based on the writings of edgr alan poe (who seems to be in vogue at the moment with masque of the red death at the BAC) it is curated by the artist and writer Harland Miller, who has assembled an amazing cast of contemporary arts bit hitters ( it features the work of Fergus Bremner, Jake & Dinos Chapman, John Cooper Clarke, Liz Craft, Tracey Emin, Angus Fairhurst, Katharina Fritsch, Paul Fryer, Barnaby Furnas, Douglas Gordon, Rodney Graham, Marcus Harvey, Anton Henning, Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Abigail Lane, Christian Marclay, Kris Martin, Harland Miller, Polly Morgan, Mike Nelson, Magnus Plessen, Michele Howarth Rashman, Julian Schnabel, Gregor Schneider, Norbert Schoerner, George Shaw, Cindy Sherman, Jason Shulman, Dirk Skreber, Paul Steinitz, Fred Tomaselli, Jane & Louise Wilson and Cerith Wyn Evans)

it made by its location. most of the exhibition is in the basement of shoreditch town hall and is navigated in semi darkness along disused corridors and dank rooms. it is perfect for the gothic theme. my highlight was Christian Marclay brilliant The Watch, in one of the dark, dank spaces sits an antique timepiece, bathed in a tiny pool of light, in a crumbling chimney stack with a furious ticking sound filling the room.

noah

started helping out with services at my church the bear on deptford high street as they have recently started having two services on a sunday.at the moment they are going through hebrews looking at heros of faith. today's service was about noah

Noah is a strange story that’s difficult to believe yet probably the most popular story in the bible judging by children’s books and toys. Not many wooden models of Isaiah are there?
yet he le was a man full of contradictions
he lived to 950 in an era of giants called nephalim
was the inventor of wine and first ever drunkard
he exposed himself to his children
was the first meat eater
was very good at collecting animals and building boats
A man who divides opinion either "the man in a fur coat," who ensured his own comfort while ignoring his neighbour. Or a deliberately slow builder who stretching the building of the ark over 120 years, in order to give sinners time to repent.
he was also a hero of faith and an heir of righteousness who was blameless and righteous.
quite a complex and difficlt character
So thought I would plan something about rainbows instead.

i wrote this medtation for the service

In rainbows

To scientists it is an optical and meteorological phenomena that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. a multicoloured arc; a continuous spectrum of colours from red to violet. a dispersion of sunlight as it goes through raindrops.
To Newton it is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
To the forgetful it is Richard Of it is a flag symbolizing a new era of hope and social change
To cooperatives it is their symbol of a democratic model of commerce
To protestors it is a symbol of peace in times of war
To gays it is a symbol of pride and an acceptance of difference
To hippies it is a naive fashion statement
To photographers it is an excuse to stop the car
To Greenpeace it is a symbol of environmentalism
To worship leaders it is the guitar strap of choice
To radiohead it is a revolution in music distribution
To corporations it is a signifier for innocence and playfulness
To children it is red and yellow and pink and green; orange and purple and blue
To thirty somethings it is Geoffrey, Bungle and George
To Greeks it is a path made by the messenger Iris between god and man
To the Chinese it is a slit in the sky that has been sealed by god
To Hindus it is the bow of the god Indra, the god of lightening and thunder
To Vikings it is a bridge between the gods and man
To the Irish it is the location of an unobtainable pot of gold
To Christians it is a divine promise never to destroy all earthly life again
To Noah it is the reward for his faith

It is all these things
It is a powerful and sublime image.
It means so much to so many.
Let us learn from the beliefs of others

we also used the sony bravia adverts as mini meditations

long time

been a long time since i was on blogger
got my laptop stolen
had a baby
lost interest
was briefy distracted by facebook
but not im out less often and got more time to go online as babysitting is my main social activity
so here it is

hvarf/heim

hvarf/heim - stunning new album from alternative worship's very own graham kendricks - sigur ros a double album -one side of new tracks and one side of acoustic versions of sigur ros back catalogue . its all good
not yet seen their dvd heima but caught some of the electric proms performance. as proven by planet earth sigur ros are best listened too soundtracking a breathtaking nature scene.

seduced

went to see the barbicans survey of erotic art. most was pretty dull really - seeing endless sexual acts being repeated over and over makes pretty dull viewing. oh theres another one, this times is boy/girl/boy etc oh this ones in black and white etc etc the upstairs more contemporary section is more interesting - mablethorpes photos were compelling/disturbing but for me the best work was nan goldin's heartbeats slide show of various couples going about their daily lives and making love. it was soundtracked to a lovely bjork version of john tavener's "Prayer Of The Heart" where she sings Kyrie Eleison ("Lord Have Mercy") in English and Greek from 2004, which i hadn't heard before. its a beautiful haunting piece f music and the slideshow seemed to show love whereas most of the other works seemed to be only about lust.
it work a visit but there are better shows around at the moment.

wexley school for girls

like this advertising agency cool website and some nice campaigns

eyebrowy

eyebrowy.com short cartoons about pop stars kinda like south park meets rock profiles

weller weller huh

paul weller has put out a couple of great 7"reccently
this old town with graham coxon on regal youtube playing on jonathon ross
are you trying to be lonely with andy lewis on acid jazz (thats a blast from the past) a great little northern soul thing here

he's also on the new robert wyatt album comicopera

new music

radiohead's new album in rainbows is ok but people wouldnt be rating it so much if they paid £10 for it. its got some nice moments but didnt blow me away

much better is...

devendra banhart new album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon is more lovely folky strangeness you can listen to tracks here especially like the spanish tracks.

and some exciting female singers

bat for lashes is the amazingly talented Natasha Khan who i saw perform at latitude in the summer. she has got a great albumn fur and gold and a nice line in face paint and headband/feathers. her videos are pretty cool especially like whats a girl to do with its donnie darko rabbit headed cyclists.



cibelle a singer who has intrigued me foe a while since getting a matthew herbert remix of noite de carnaval a few months back. shes done a great video for london london with aforementioned devendra banhart and has a nice animated hand draw video for green grass

her album The Shine Of Dried Electric Leaves is amazing new brazillian music

camille is an interesting parisian singer with a beautiful voice who sings with nouvelle vague and also did one of the voices for ratatouille .she has an album called le fil

this summer she did a concert called god is sound which sounds pretty interesting

The chosen location is St. Eustache Church, an unusual venue perhaps, but fitting for a show centred on religion. "The news hasreally caught my attention this year. Why is there so much religiousconflict? I'm an atheist and grew up in a secular society, so it'sdifficult for me to understand the issues. That's why I wanted, inbetween albums, to explore the theme of religion through music in ajoyful and eclectic way: a selection of religious songs fromdifferent religions around the world are first up, followed byChristmas Carols arranged by Benjamin Britten. If God exists, then Godis sound".On Britten's composition entitled "A ceremony of Carols", Camille willbe accompanied by Julia Sarr, Indi kaur, Majiker and Sebastien Martel.Alongside the Britten, Camille is set to perform alone and a capellaa personal creation entitled "God is sound" (The 12 World Prayers).

roisin murphy whoes last album produced by herbert was fantastic. her new one is pretty good but takes her into goldfrapp/madonna teritorry which is ok. i guess its more like her stuff with moloko. you can listen here she also has the best outfits.

feist part of excellent canadian collective broken social scene and now heard everywhere due to ipod advert. more

also just seen david shrigley has got a unch of bands to record stuff for his album worried noodles

frieze and david shrigley

spent saturday at the frieze art fair in regents park inside the biggest (and poshest) tent ive ever seen. work was mainly so so and because it was all about money and selling and there was no curation it was too random and cluttered. it gave a good overview of the current art scene but it was all surface look at me stuff competing for attention without really saying anything.

the best thing about it was a david shrigley animation in the film section called the door. watch it here made me think that one day id be in the position of the dad.
its in the style of his videos for bonnie prince billy's agnes and blur's good song (with shynola)
david shrigley has a great website full of his weird and wonderful drawings, photographs and animations and the bbc collective has his modern thought series in its archive

other shrigley animations can be seen on youtube
what happen after you re dead
who i am and what i want