Change and Continuity

Posted April 24, 2016 by wendy & filed under bandstand.

This morning was chilly but sunny and fresh green leaves are starting to emerge on some of the bare branches of the trees now. Our focus was on living in a world where everything changes and the good news that there is one on whom we can depend who is unchanging… Steve had written the following affirmation of faith for us:

God never changes…
The flowers of the field will fade, the grass will whither
BUT GOD NEVER CHANGES
The seasons will revolve, the years pass
BUT GOD NEVER CHANGES
From childhood to pensionhood
GOD NEVER CHANGES
From innocence to wisdom, from arrogance to humility
GOD NEVER CHANGES
In the midst of calm waters and in the storms
GOD CHANGES NOT
In trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword
GOD CHANGES NOT
When perplexed or dimly mirrored or when treasuring epiphany
GOD REALLY DOES NOT CHANGE
When we reach out and when we sulk
GOD REALLY DOES NOT CHANGE
His love is faithful, steadfast, constant
AND GOD DOES NOT CHANGE
And God has promised that no-one and nothing can separate us
AND GOD DOES NOT CHANGE. AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!

I think it is a post here from 2010 when I led a Palm Sunday session on all creation praising the Creator. I’d come across an article on the net about how scientists at Sheffield University believe they had recorded the Sun singing! They had shown that there are specific frequencies that resonate from the Sun’s atmosphere. The sun emits acoustic waves in exactly the same sense as a plucked guitar string. They went on to say that when the Sun sets off flares and such, there are even more sounds that are emitted. The frequency at which the Sun is “singing”, is too low for the human ear to hear. It has always intrigued me since then to think that the Sun is singing for its creator and no one else.
On top of that, in the last decade or so, scientists discovered that the earth gives off a relentless hum of countless notes completely imperceptible to the human ear, like a giant, exceptionally quiet symphony, whilst the origin of this sound remains a mystery. They also say that unexpected powerful tunes have been discovered in this hum. It is known as ‘Earth’s Hum’.

At this time of year, I can’t help but gaze at the trumpeting daffodils and imagine the unheard tunes they might be playing. In the lectionary, the psalm for today was Psalm 148 which is all about stars and earth and creation singing God’s praise. Could it be that this is not merely poetic but true?! We took 10 minutes to reflect on the words of the psalm and to walk around the park to join with the river and trees and sky in worshipping our constant God.

We prayed by name for those in the midst of change and shared bread and wine to these words:

Rock solid God, who is the same yesterday, today and forever, we give you thanks that in you we are secure and treasured. Your love is assured, your promises enduring; you will not fail.

God of wind who blows us from the known to the unknown , we give you thanks that the future in unwritten and that you invite us to be the change your kingdom demands.

We took copies of words of Teresa of Avila with us – to learn and to share with others

Let nothing disturb you

Let nothing frighten you

All things are passing

God never changes

Those who have God find they lack nothing

God alone suffices.

And we finished with this blessing, also written by Steve:

May blessings of the dynamically unchanging Trinity be ours! May the Father’s enduring love accompany us in our lives; may Jesus himself strengthen us to be co-builders of his kingdom; and may the Spirit indwell and inspire us on our journey. Amen.

Who are you?

Posted April 24, 2016 by fi & filed under General.

I was struck by the grace-filled words from the Archbishop of Canterbury when he reacted to the discovery that the man who had raised him was not his genetic father.
“There is no existential crisis, and no resentment against anyone. My identity is founded in who I am in Christ.”
Our identity: so easily and quickly defined by where we come from, what we do; the pigeon-holes we put ourselves and others into.
J Philip Newell in his book “Echo of the Soul” explores what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God.
“The dimensions of us that defy definition are closer to the essence of our being than any outward characteristics of our lives. The known and the unknown are like the two sides of a crescent moon. Our inner self is the dark and hidden side. Our deepest identity is found in these unknown dimensions of our being.
Our inwardness is absolutely unique. It is to these inner depths that we are being recalled.”
I am still not entirely sure what this means for me, (and for some of us, this was too much of a nod to dualistic thinking) but the words we used as part of our liturgy this morning went some way to enabling that recalling. (apologies that I can’t give a link for this – please let us know if you wrote it!)

This is who I am –
Image of God –
Born of God’s breath –
Vessel of divine Love –
After his likeness –
Dwelling of God-
Capacity for the infinite –
Eternally known –
Chosen of God –
Home of the infinite majesty –
Abiding in the Son –
Called from eternity –
Life in the Lord –
Temple of the Holy Spirit –
Branch of Christ –
Receptacle of the Most High
Wellspring of Living Water –
Heir of the kingdom –
The glory of God –
Abode of the Trinity –
eternally in his Word –
This is who I am

Beauty.

Posted April 12, 2016 by Grayden Daniels & filed under Band stand, bandstand, bread and wine, emerging church, General, Outdoor church, Third Space.

On a cold, misty morning we met at the bandstand for worship.

The beauty of creation is a symbol of God’s beauty and a demonstration of his creativity. We were encouraged to be in awe and wonder at God’s creation and to thank him for beauty.

The following verses from Psalms 8, 19 & 50 were read out:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?

The Mighty One, God, the Lord,
speaks and summons the earth
from the rising of the sun to where it sets.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

By this time the sun was breaking through the mist, and the morning was beginning to warm.

We thought about “What is beauty?” with help from several quotes:

“Beauty is that which pleases and delights.” Wilfred Owen.

“Beauty is the illumination of your soul.” John O’Donohue.

“…..the beauty in God’s universe is intended to fill us with joy and inspiration.” Michael Abbate.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

“Beauty is a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.” Khalil Gibran.

“You’re so beautiful, my love, so beautiful!.. your smile is generous and full….our lips are jewel red, your mouth elegant and inviting… my love you are beautiful beyond compare!” Song of Songs

“Outer beauty pleases the eye, inner beauty captivates the heart.” Mandy Hale.

“Nothing can make the lives of people more beautiful than constant kindness.” Tolstoy.

“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” John Keats.

“Beauty is the way you think, beauty is the way you act, beauty is what you are.” Brianna Kimball.

“Think of all the beauty still around you and be happy.” Anne Frank.

Consider:

Does beauty necessarily go hand in hand with pleasure?

Do we love beauty because it gives us pleasure?

Or is it other way round, do we see beauty through pleasure?

Is the appreciation of beauty something that is worthwhile just in itself?

How does inner beauty feature in all this?

Is it still possible to see beauty in the face of great suffering?

(In the film “The Pianist” the Jewish-Polish musician temporarily escapes the desolation and suffering of Warsaw in WWII by playing Chopin.)

When we are creative we participate with God’s creativity, beauty and mystery. So we were asked to create something beautiful – a piece of writing, a poem, a drawing, a photograph, a prayer or a piece of liturgy.

Here are some of our attempts at being creative:

Leaves beautiful on their own made into a beautiful wave.

A Blessing for Friends

May you know the peace that comes with inner beauty,

and may the Lord inspire beauty in your life and works.

May you be inspired every day with the beauty that you see,

and not be blinded to the artistry of God that surrounds you.

May God’s beauty illuminate your soul and influence the way you think, the way you act and the way you are.

Beauty in death of a seed head.

Beauty in the changed of the seasons. New growth showing signs of spring.

A creative way of using language in a famous Spanish saying. This is a play on words for those who are linguists !!

“Hacer lo que quieres es libertad, querer lo que haces, felicidad”

(translation “To do what you want is freedom; to love what you do, happiness”)

sunshine epiphany

Greyness banished.

The Word spoken.

The sunshine illumines.

We hunger for more reality of that which we clutch at.

The dalliance of dogs,

running, playing, living for the sheer heaven of it.

The bread and the wine,

Prepared and at the centre.

Jesus community now.

Rubbings made of beautiful patterns on tree bark.

We ended our worship by sharing bread and wine using the words of sunshine epiphany.

By this time it was so warm and sunny that we had our Fairtrade coffees sat outside at Cool River!

Easter Sunday

Posted April 2, 2016 by barbara & filed under emerging church, Outdoor church.

It was grand to meet with our friends on Easter Sunday morning. What followed was a time of worship in which several of us brought a contribution.

John 20
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Mary of the Tower.
1. When Jesus rises from the dead on the first Easter Day the first person he reveals himself to is Mary Magdalene.
2. Mary and Jesus were very close friends – although I am not inferring a sexual relationship.
3. Mary is a disciple with equal status to the male disciples.
4. In Jewish society women would have been the property of their father, husband or brother. Mary is very unusual for the time – in travelling around the country with Jesus – obviously she is independent, and a woman of means – and therefore of relatively high status.
5. Her name Mary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala could be translated as Mary of the Tower. Perhaps this is associated with fishing? Towers were used as lighthouses on the lakeside because of night fishing. Small tower-like structures were used for drying fish. Perhaps Mary was a successful business woman?
6. Luke ch8 records that Mary had seven evil spirits cast out. Does that mean she had suffered from a mental illness? Or does it suggest a physical illness and the seven demons represent a particularly severe illness?
7. In the Luke 8 passage Mary is mentioned along with Joanna, Suzanna and other women who support Jesus and the disciples financially. They are all well to do, independent women of means, and have all been cured of illnesses.
8. Mary is named as present at the crucifixion. All four gospels name her present. John names her as the first person that Jesus revealed himself to after his resurrection.
9. In the early church she would have had a position of status, probably an apostle because she was a close friend and disciple of Jesus and a witness to his resurrection.
10. Then comes the slow but deliberate downgrading of Mary in particular and women in general in the Christian church. At the same time there is the gradual deification of Mary, Jesus’ mother. She becomes the Virgin and eventually the perpetual Virgin, whereas by the late 500’s AD Mary Magdalene is identified as a whore. This all comes about because the church becomes obsessed with sexuality as the root of all evil. This is used to subordinate and disempower women, and to justify an all male clergy which traces its authority back to the all male twelve disciples, so only men can be priests/ministers. These changes are also linked to the branding of theological differences as heresy, making orthodoxy very narrow. Mary Magdalene came to represent the repentant fallen woman, the repentant whore. She can then be represented in Renaissance art naked!!!
11. So let’s dish all this invented rubbish about Mary, about prostitution and sex. Instead let’s see her as an independent woman of means who supported Jesus financially and who became a special friend, a disciple, and later an apostle, who was there with him at his death, and who was the first person to whom he appeared when he rose from the dead on that first Easter Day.

We shared a liturgy from Cheryl Laurie holdthisspace.org

The resurrection was first discovered by the friends of Jesus who stood in grief outside his tomb.

Resurrection turned despair into life. It was discovered again by a group of Jesus’ disciples who had known the loss of all they had known.

Resurrection turned fear into hope. It was discovered again by black South Africans when apartheid was dismantled.

Resurrection turned injustice into liberation. It was discovered again by the people of East Timor who fought for independence.

Resurrection turned oppression into freedom. It’s been discovered again whenever someone has found the space to love after being hurt, has found the courage to begin again when it seems life has ended. And that gives us faith to believe resurrection will happen in Palestine and Israel.

We have faith to believe resurrection will happen in Iraq, Syria and Guantanamo Bay. We have faith to believe resurrection will happen in refugee camps in Europe, in Laos and detention centres in Maribyrnong.

We have faith to believe resurrection will happen in the systems that crumple and oppress.

We have faith to believe resurrection will happen in the lives we know are shattered and the hearts we know are broken.

may the resurrection come.

may the resurrection come.

Amen.

Easter activity

What is the Easter story all about? Forgiveness, grace, love and resurrection.

Many people, places and situations require some or all of the above.

Write an Easter message or prayer for them in an Easter card.

Fairtrade Fortnight and Food Security

Posted March 7, 2016 by Grayden Daniels & filed under Band stand, emerging church, Fairtrade, Outdoor church, park.

The theme for this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight is “Sit down for breakfast and stand up for farmers.”

“BEFORE YOU FINISH EATING BREAKFAST IN THE MORNING, YOU’VE DEPENDED ON MORE THAN HALF THE WORLD.”

Martin Luther King.

But what didn’t he say?

THERE ARE TIMES OF THE YEAR WHEN MANY PEOPLE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES WHO GROW THE FOOD WE EAT CAN’T FEED THEIR OWN FAMILIES.

Shocking, isn’t it?

THE PROBLEM IS SO COMMON THAT FARMERS AND WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD HAVE DIFFERENT NAMES FOR IT………..

THE SEASON OF HUNGER

THE TIME OF SILENCE

THE THIN MONTHS

THE MONTHS OF THE BIG STOMACH

THE HUNGRY MONTHS

THE MONTHS OF WATER

We wrote a grace or thank you prayer after thinking about food insecurity.

Food insecurity

Millions of farmers and workers in developing countries who work hard every day to grow the food we eat still don’t earn enough to put food on the table throughout the year. In other words they do not have food security.

There is no guarantee of food security in many parts of the world. For example in coffee-growing communities there may not be enough food available for up to 5 months of the year. It is so common that in Latin America it has its own name – the Thin Months.

It happens in the period between harvests when payment received for the previous crop has run out. It may also coincide with higher local food prices.

It can mean parents missing meals so children can eat, or women missing meals so men can eat.

It may mean deciding between continuing to send children to school or the family missing meals, and this can lead to children not being able to concentrate at school because they are hungry.

It may mean if someone in the family is ill then it’s a choice between paying for treatment and eating!

There is enough food in the world for everyone. But with farmers and workers often earning so little they simply can’t afford to buy food all year round.

Fairtrade works to change this by making sure companies pay a fair price for what people grow, plus a little extra – the Fairtrade Premium – for producers to invest in their communities and businesses.

When people receive a fair price they can take more control of their lives when times are hard and worry less about how to feed their families.

Fairtrade means that many farmers and workers are able to do what we take for granted – put enough food on the table throughout the year.

Prayer – we each chose either Fairtrade chocolate or a Fairtrade banana and then we prayed for people who are hungry due to food insecurity. It is estimated that 795 million people are undernourished globally.

Rozina’s Story

Rozina Begum, a tea farmer in Bangladesh, tells the story of how Traidcraft and tea plants have helped her to make her dreams become a reality.

“From my childhood I knew that poor people had only one dream which is to be able to eat three times a day. I dreamt the same. I thought I would get to eat if I could get married to someone. I got married when I was thirteen. My mother-in-law had five sons including my husband. My father-in-law died when my youngest brother-in-law was just five. My in-laws were in terrible poverty; a kind of poverty which is not describable in words. When the men of the house were seated to eat, my heart kept on trembling and I was worried they would ask us to get one more spoonful of rice. I would have to tell them that there was no more rice in the pot. When my husband used to ask me if I had eaten, I reluctantly nodded my head so he would not know that my mother-in-law and I ate only once a day.

I had only one Saree that I had to wash at night when everyone went to sleep. Sometimes I wore the wet Saree while sleeping. Even after working in people’s houses my mother-in-law and my husband could not manage to bring food back to our home. Our bamboo hut could not stop the winter’s cold breezes from coming inside. There were no beds and we kept freezing on the mud floor. In the rainy season we got wet sitting inside our only shelter and all of us remained quiet about that situation.

My youngest brother-in-law Faruk fell ill when he was 10. The family could not afford treatment and so Faruk died, but poverty did not. We had no ducks no hens no cows or any furniture. We were fighting against poverty with empty hands.

After that I got pregnant with our eldest daughter. I often went to sleep after starving a whole day. My husband used to give me courage saying that one day our days would change. I left my daughter at home with my mother-in-law and both my husband and I started working as labourers in tea gardens. Together we could earn about £1.15 a day.

We got to know that there is profit in tea planting. I heard about Traidcraft. My husband and I decided to use our land for growing tea plants. Our soil is very good for tea planting. I received six training sessions from Traidcraft. We are now able to see the face of happiness. Now we have electricity. We built a house and we built a kitchen. I have hens and ducks and five cows. Everything has changed miraculously. The tea plant is a miracle in our life. Now we have beds to sleep in. My mother-in- law has a separate room. I bought a tea pot and nicely decorated the room. Now I can buy a Saree when I wish. My daughter is going to school.

My self-esteem and willpower have multiplied many times now. I am confident about my success and inspire to do more. I am one of the elected women members of our small tea growers association. I not only dream about myself and my family, I also think about my community. I want more people to be self-sufficient so no one goes to sleep with an empty stomach. Now people look at me with respect. They say though I had neither education nor experience I become one of their heroes. That makes me very proud. I want to educate my children and believe one day they will come forward to bring hope to the hopeless. My dream has come true, poverty can be defeated.”

We shared bread and wine thinking about the feast that all are welcomed to.

Closing prayer was taken from the Church action guide from the Fairtrade Foundation.

Connecting with our Celtic roots at the bandstand

Posted February 28, 2016 by wendy & filed under bandstand, General.

This morning we gathered in beautiful sunshine to reflect on the traditions from our Celtic brothers and sisters in the past that have consciously and coincidently influenced ThirdSpace. We began considering the importance of

1. Monasticism The importance of living in community to learn and to live out the faith. Encouraged ‘Soul friends’ – ‘Anam caras’ –to urge one another on in faith.

The Kenyon household has been so touched by the love and kindness of the ThirdSpace community in the last fewdays or so, following the death of our much, much loved dog, Inca. Barbara and Grayden were back from their travels in India too – so there was a real sense of gratitude once again for this community. Thus we began with prayer:

Your love, flowing within us,

and between us, living water purifying in that cleansing flow; and our worship, joining with the songs of nature, echoing through the air as birdsong at the dawning of this day. Stream meets stream and river flows, emptying into Ocean’s store. (Adapted from faithandworship.com)

Lord God, we come with hearts full of thanks for one another, for the ThirdSpace community, for the gift of today, for sunshine and life and breath, for the beauty of the natural world around us and for the hope of the renewed earth and life everlasting.

The next characteristic of Celtic faith was the

2. Sacramental Principle Seeing God in everything ordinary and every-day. Using the ‘Five-stringed harp’ in worship – embracing all five senses in order to recognise and appreciate God’s presence.

To enhance our worship with taste and smell we shared warm pastries and then set off to walk in the park where we considered the next characteristics and responded to them:

3. Creation affirming A love of nature. Recognising ‘thin places’ where heaven and earth were close and where people could more easily connect with God.

We were invited to go and touch / smell / see / listen to God’s creation and recognise God there.

4. Contemplation and mission Seeing life as a journey – both an inner journey to and with God and the need to go out to others to share faith.

It was suggested that we follow a path – to take a journey and reflect on how our Lenten journey was going so far… To ask God if there is anyone we needed to go to in some way… to know God with us – as a light to our feet, as a shield overshadowing us, beside us on our left and on our right.

5. Understanding of time Seeing time as sacred, to be used wisely and well. God as ‘I Am’ meaning that past present and future are all linked.

We were invited to embrace the now – connecting to all that has been and all that will be; to ask God to help us to manage our time well so that it is a gift to us and not our slave-driver!

Back at the bandstand we considered the last elements of the Celtic expression of faith.

6. Hospitality Everyone welcomed and treated as equally made in God’s image. Unusually for the time, the early Celtic Christians had women leaders e.g. Hilda, Brigid, Ebba…

We shared news of those who needed our prayers and prayed for them and asked for opportunities to offer hospitality to more people.

7. Spiritual warfare Using ‘encircling’ prayers (Caim prayers) and setting up stone crosses in recognition of evil as real and the importance of prayer and the difference it can make.

We used the Caim prayer below as we circled those named:

God to enfold us, God to surround us, God in our speaking, God in our thinking.

God in our loving, God in our giving,

God in our healing, God in our hoping.

God in our sleeping, God in our waking,

God over us, God under us,

God behind us, God before us,

God beside us on our left and on our right.

(Adapted from the Northumbria Community’s prayers)

We shared bread and wine as we recognised that we and all are welcomed to the table…

8. Trinitarian belief Being aware of God the Father for us, the Son with us and the Spirit in us. (St. Patrick’s Breastplate hymn. ‘I bind unto myself this day the strong Name of the Trinity.’) The idea that community begins in the person of God and all community flows from this.

For this we gathered in a circle around each household in turn and prayed this blessing upon them:

May God our Mother-Father protect you, hold you and comfort you

May God the Son accompany you, encourage you and inspire you

And may the Holy Spirit fill you, equip you and gift you

Today and always.

Amen.

9. Love of learning Creative gifts encouraged (Music, story, calligraphy, jewellery etc. all seen as ‘windows on heaven’)

This final element was set as a homework with a Celtic image of a tree (copied from Google images!) to be coloured prayerfully, meditatively, with each leaf a person connected to ThirdSpace from the past, present and future…

Lovely to spend time with everyone again – as ever! We hope this might prove useful to anyone visiting our site and wanting to use this themselves. There is something so significant about connecting with the past…

Join us in prayer during Lent?

Posted February 4, 2016 by wendy & filed under General.

This Lent we are trialling using a communal set of prayers each day of Lent. The prayers are based on the Anam Cara prayers we often use, our own version of the Lord’s prayer and other things we’ve come across from time to time that we have credited the sources of before. I thought we’d post the prayers and reflections here – but anyone who’d like a hard copy, let us know – we have some spares of some that will be given out at our Ash Wednesday prayer evening next Wednesday. So this is what we’ve got – with the idea that we will all use at least one of the prayers once a day at some point in the day…

ThirdSpace’s Anam Cara for Lent

Creator God, I pause in your presence and hold my day before you.

Still me, calm me, guide me as I enter this day.

I hold my day before you…

I hold before you all those that I love…

I hold before you each member of the ThirdSpace community…

I hold before you all who are sad because someone they love has died…

I hold before you all I know who are troubled this day…

I hold before you those who I will meet today…

———————————————————————————–

Lord God, grant me the faith this day to truly walk in the light of Christ:

Christ as a light illumine and guide me. Christ as a shield overshadow me.

Christ under me, Christ over me, Christ beside me on my left and on my right.

This day be within me and without me, lowly and meek yet all-powerful.

Be in the heart of each to whom I speak, in the mouth of each who speaks to me.

Christ as a light. Christ as a shield. Christ beside me on my left and on my right.

————————————————————————————-

Lord God, Forgive me for the thing I have done and not done.

Forgive me for the things I have said and not said.

Forgive me for the life I have lived and not lived.

That I may reflect the image of the one I profess to follow in thought and word and deed,

and in discovering my true self draw others into that light. Amen

————————————————————————————-

God, who cares for us, the wonder of your presence fills us with awe’

Your name, your very nature, is holy. All creation resonates with it! Let all people come to proclaim it!

May we move into your presence and unimpeded love.

Let not our will, but your will and purposes be fulfilled in our lives here on earth.

Give us the material things you know we need to survive.

Release us – as indeed we release others – from the debt of wrong-doing.

Strengthen us for difficult times. Liberate us from all that is evil.

For you reign in majesty, in love, power and glory, from the beginning of time and forevermore.

————————————————————————————

For ourselves, for those we have named and for ThirdSpace soul-friends:

Creator God, may your peace go with us wherever we will be this day.

May you guide us through the challenges, protect us when in need and inspire us with your love.

May we acknowledge your presence in all the human goodness we will see.

And may you bring us back rejoicing to our place of rest this night.

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin!

(Mother Teresa)

———————————————————————————-

Fast from discontent

Feast on gratitude

Fast from worry

Feast on God’s Providence

Fast from complaining

Feast on appreciation

Fast from consumerism

Feast on generosity

Fast from unrelenting pressure

Feast on ‘all will be well’

Fast from self-concern

Feast on compassion for others

Fast from evasion

Feast on openness

Fast from avoidance

Feast on participation

Fast from cynicism

Feast on hope and truth

Fast from problems that overwhelm

Feast on prayer that sustains.

——————————————————————————–

People are unreasonable, illogical, self-centred… love them anyway.

If you do good people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives… do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies… be successful anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow… do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable… be honest and frank anyway.

People love underdogs but follow only top dogs… follow some underdog anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight… build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you try to help… help people anyway.

If you give the world the best you have, you may get kicked in the teeth… but give the world the best you have… Anyway.

(Mother Teresa)

The Wonder of the Periodic Table.

Posted January 25, 2016 by Grayden Daniels & filed under Band stand, bandstand, bread and wine, emerging church, Outdoor church, park, Science, stuff we like, Third Space, what we're up to.

On a very mild and dry Sunday morning Third Space met as usual at the Bandstand in the park in Matlock. The topic for our worship was the Periodic Table of the Elements.

Most people I think will have a sense of wonder and awe at the scale and beauty of the Universe, and a feeling of wonder about the Earth and life upon it. My thinking behind using the Periodic Table was to show that the natural world is also amazing and wondrous even at the atomic level.

“In all things of nature there is something marvellous.” Aristotle.

We said together the following prayer of praise:

O Divine Voice,

You sing and the universe comes into being;

O Divine Breath,

You breathe and all things spring to life;

O Divine Word,

You call and creation is sustained;

O Divine Flesh,

You are born among us, and the Creator is clothed in creation;

O Divine Spirit,

You fill all that has been formed;

O Divine Life,

You are the pulse of all that is.

And so, in amazement and awe, in wonder and celebration

we marvel at this mystery:

In you all things live and move and have being,

In all things, you live and move and express your Divine artistry;

And so we join with creation in the eternal song of worship and wonder………………….

The Periodic Table is a tabular arrangement of all the chemical elements in order of increasing atomic number (i.e. the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom).The table is arranged into Groups (columns) and Periods (rows) and we discussed the chemical properties of various Groups and Periods. We learned that the non-radioactive naturally occurring elements are made in stars by atomic fusion from hydrogen and helium. All the elements beyond plutonium (atomic number 95 to 118) are man made, and that in 2015 the last four elements ( 113,115, 117, 118) were synthesised in labs and so Period 7 is now complete. It must be added that the four new elements only have a fleeting existence of less than one thousandth of a second!

We then individually read the following bible passages to inspire a time of reflection and thanksgiving:

Psalm 8:3-4

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

Isaiah 40:26

“To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.

Job 38: 4-7, 31-32

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?”

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
Can you loosen Orion’s belt?

Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons?”

Matthew 2:2

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem, and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

Rev 22:16

“I, Jesus, am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”

Back to the Bandstand and the Periodic Table and we learned together about the chemical properties of various individual elements:

Gold – it occurs in the Earth in its metal state and is very resistant to chemical attack. It was treasured in all ancient civilisations as a symbol of the immortality of the gods and as a gift fit for a king.

Sodium – we remembered from school how as the metal it reacts violently with water and gives off hydrogen which burns, and how with chlorine it makes common salt.

Lithium – if people with bipolar disorder take lithium compounds it smooths out their highs and lows and how it makes it possible to build small yet powerful batteries.

Caesium – it reacts so violently with water that if it was placed in a beaker of water it would explode smashing the beaker. Used in atomic clocks it helps them to keep time extremely accurately. It is the largest atom of all the elements, the most reactive metal and pale gold in colour making it one of only three coloured metals.

Osmium – this is the densest element being twice as heavy as lead – this is because of the way its atoms exist in its crystalline structure.

Flourine – the most reactive element of them all.

Copper – it is found in the respiratory protein haemocyanin, and carries oxygen to the tissues in some crustaceans (crabs, lobsters etc) and most molloscs (octopus, squid etc). For these animals living in cold water with low oxygen pressure it is effective at transporting oxygen.

Neodymium – is in Period 6 and one of the lanthanides, it makes extremely strong small magnets for use in modern technologies.

Radon – it is the second biggest cause of lung cancer in the UK after smoking!

Carbon – it is the fourth most common element in the universe after after hydrogen, helium and oxygen. It is the chemical basis for all life on Earth. It is very unique in that the number of compounds it can form is almost infinite. The atoms of carbon can be bonded together in different ways to form both graphite and diamonds.

Bismuth – it is the last stable element before they all become radioactive. Generally, elements are like the ones around them in their group or period. Arsenic and antimony near bismuth in the same group are very poisonous, lead and mercury just before bismuth in Period 6 are very poisonous and polonium just after bismuth in Period 6 is both radioactive and poisonous. Bismuth is an ingredient in ingestion remedies!

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom”. Socrates.

We then had a bit of fun thinking of names for the four new elements and where to place Third Space in the Periodic Table and why.

We closed by sharing bread and wine with the following words:

In spite of our doubts,
may we recognise you in our midst:
wounded, bloody, and resurrected.

In spite of our doubts, may we receive you in bread and wine.

In spite of our doubts,
may we know when we come face to face
with love that is greater than death.

In spite of our doubts,
may we reach out to touch the wounds of the world’s pain
trusting that when grace and love surround them
they will become part of Christ’s resurrected body.

And in spite of our doubts,
may we live as though we are, too.

Cheryl Lawrie.

We then adjourned to Cool River for Fairtrade refreshments and further discussion.

Becoming a child again at the bandstand

Posted January 17, 2016 by wendy & filed under bandstand.

Snowballing over - we gathered in the bandstand

Steve led us today in a snowy landscape – it was beautiful! His theme was based on the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:2-4, including the words

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

After an opening Psalm (that we walked to – to keep warm!) we wandered off into the snow to read some musings on the passage which were as follows:

21^st century stream of consciousness:

So I get the bit about humility in verse 4. Not being puffed up. Taking the lowly position. Fair enough. But the rest…become like a little child? Is this really necessary? What on earth does this mean? Become a little child – really? Just not think at all; stop all analysing, stop over-thinking; learn not to doubt or be cynical. Just become naïve once again, trusting when we have given up on trust. Questioning is the very basis of our intellectual enquiry; probing for truth, seeing through the fakery. Tripping down the yellow brick road only to discover the terrifying wizard is a sad old man with a bit of technology. It’s all a delusion – a God delusion maybe and all discovered by Toto the dog.

“You will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” – that is pretty tough stuff. Have our mindsets so imbibed post-modern cynicism and doubt that we urgently need to re-mythologise, re-sacramentalise our world. Perhaps we have indeed taken on the role of gods with our arrogant accepting and rejecting of truth according to our very limited perceptions. And God calls us to back to innocence, back to the Garden of Eden, back to wonder.

1998 – a little girl goes into Rouen Cathedral and looking up says, “Wow!” Where and how can we discover “Wow” worship once again?

Answers on a postcard in the café?

Returning to the bandstand our prayers were enhanced by a child passing by on his bike, singing with glee at the snow! Steve suggested that prayer is like the child reaching out to its parent. We aren’t meant to understand it; just to do it like the little child pointing his parent’s attention to the broken glass in the window. We walked and prayed silently. We prayed our version of the Lord’s prayer and remembered the things we had prayed for on Wednesday…

Finally we shared bread and wine to words written by Steve:

Like little children we gather, heads craning to see what might be on the laden banquet table. We can see only a little but it excites and tantalises our taste buds. Like little children we understand only so much of how our heavenly parent nourishes us with this bread. Bread for our bodies and bread for our spirits. Amen.

Like little children we understand only a little of the sacrifice of our heavenly parent in this wine. Wine for our bodies and wine for our spirits. Amen.

Like little children brought up in that idyllic garden, we run with wild abandon scarcely looking round to acknowledge the God who walks in the cool of the day. May we take him on our adventures, include him in our dreams and share with him our delight and wonder in his creation. Amen.

And may that be the focus for this coming week for us all : )

The Diagram

Posted January 11, 2016 by jon & filed under bandstand, General, Outdoor church, Third Space.

What do diagrams do? Diagrams simplify and bring clarity. Diagrams demonstrate the relationships which exist between the parts of the whole. Diagrams often reveal creative ideas.

Chauvet Cave Drawings

In 1994, three French cavers were exploring the limestone cliffs above the former bed of The Ardeche river when they discovered a large cave where the walls were decorated with detailed drawings of wild species that have been long extinct.
These drawings are the earliest known examples of Palaeolithic art circa. 30,000 BC. Why are these drawings actually diagrams? The archaeologists believe that these cave diagrams may have served to initiate young males into hunting and were intended to acquaint them with some of the game they would encounter. This is reinforced by the fact that there are hardly any humans in the diagrams.
These diagrams were amongst the first that were ever drawn by humans: paper, the printing press and the Internet, all of which were inspired by the desire to share knowledge can trace their origins back to these early drawings.
These cave diagrams are the start of something which would transform human life here on earth. The diagrams tell us that Palaeolithic man gazed at a world of beauty amongst the daily struggle for existence. They understood that the best strategy for survival was one of collaboration. In order to work together, they needed diagrams to share knowledge. These diagrams demonstrate the beginning of an idea which would allow information to be shared and ultimately multiplied millions of times. We can take something that is very small, and if it is properly cared for and nurtured, it can multiply more times than we can possibly imagine.

We considered a series of diagrams which changed the world and why they were so revolutionary. In response to these diagrams we produced our own diagrams which demonstrated a metaphor, idea or principle. In addition, we produced a collaborative diagram of Third Space and considered how it might alter over time:

Barbara’s positive communication diagram:

Steve’s church history diagram:

Grayden’s plea for justice:

Fi’s meaningful words diagram:

Collaborative Third Space diagram:

Per Signum Crucis (By the sign of the Cross.)The first mention of the practice of tracing the sign of the Cross was by the early church father Tertullian (A.D. 160-220) who wrote “In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting off our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the Cross”
The sign of the Cross is a very ancient practice and prayer. We don’t have any indication of it in Scripture, but St. Basil in the 4th century said that we learned the sign from the time of the apostles and it was administered in baptisms.

Source: Adriatikus

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that when Catholics are baptised “the sign of the Cross, on the threshold of the celebration, marks with the imprint of Christ the one who is going to belong to him and signifies the grace of the Redemption Christ won for us” on the Cross.
We would make a sign of the Cross when entering a church or during confession using two fingers.
Some priests would put the thumb, index and middle finger together to form a sign of the Trinity, and the remaining two fingers touching the palm to represent the human and divine natures of Christ.
If we were an Eastern Orthodox bishop or priest we would hold our fingers in such a way that they form the Greek abbreviation for Jesus Christ “IC XC”
If we were consecrating a Bishop or a Priest, we would use two hands in order to create three movements in honour of the Trinity.

The Rev. Bosco Peters makes the following three observations:
– The sign of the Cross Is regularly used to start prayer, at the absolution, at a blessing at the end of the service. Many are signed with a cross in ash on the forehead on Ash Wednesday. The sign Is there at the beginning and end of the service; the beginning and end of a life.

– We make the sign of the Cross- in the name the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and commit ourselves to a journey from my head, into my heart, and lived out in our lives.

– The sign of the Cross marks out- this time, this person, this money, this place, this community.

We gather to meet with God
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
To be aware of your presence in our day
For you Lord are here now; your Spirit dwells within us
To bring you our worship
And offer you our praise
To be conscious that you walk beside us
And we do not make the journey alone
God our Creator
make us new
Lord of life
make us new
Spirit of life
make us new
. Adapted from Lighting Beacons Liturgy

During the coming week, we commit ourselves to a journey from the head to the heart and seek to demonstrate your love and grace in our lives.

ThirdSpace