Design

 I've been experimenting with some design lately and wanted to share a few pieces created in the last week:. These are the first fruits of a new project, SRFB.

Prayers For Peace

 

LNC PRAYERS FOR PEACE 2020

 

A Reading: from Isaiah 11:6-9 (NIV)

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.
⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

 

 

You are invited to share a few minutes with us as together we hold before God:

- our collective sadness for the wars that rage across this earth

- our shared remembrance for the wars of the past

- our firmest hopes for peace

- our dream to see an end to all violence

- our longing to see renewed dialogues that cross every boundary

 

 

 

Our collective sadness for the wars that rage across this earth

Even now there are people and places around the world where war and strife are a daily part of life. Places where generation after generation have fought the same enemy. Places where generation after generation children are raised to prepare for war.

At this time we hold before God, Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh border conflict.

We hold before God Syria.

We hold before God Yemen.

We hold before God the places whose conflicts are unknown to us, or are at this time relatively quiet.

 

We also hold before God the conflicts that happen within nation states.

Conflicts rooted in cultural identities.

Conflicts shaped by history.

Conflicts waged over resources and people.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

Our shared remembrance for the wars of the past

As we look back on the wars and conflicts of the past, we recognise the complexity of history and we recognise that we see the events of the past from a very different perspective to those who fought in the midst of those conflicts.

We remember before God those wars waged as a response to acts of aggression by different nation states.

We remember before God those wars waged due to ideological and theological differences.

We remember before God those wars waged in the name and for the benefit of wealthy elites.

We remember before God that those who suffer as a result of war are by and large the marginalised, the poor – the ordinary people.

We remember before God those people and places that we hold close to us, people and places that have suffered due to war.

We remember before God those who have lived through wars and still carry the emotional and physical scars of those conflicts.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

Our firmest hopes for peace

We bring before God our firmest hopes for peace.

Peace for those places and peoples currently consumed by war.

Continuing peace for those places where the violence of war has temporarily been laid down.

Peace for the hearts and minds of those who live in areas ravaged by wars for generations.

The hope of peace for those who have never experienced true peace.

Peace that goes beyond ceasefires and speaks of ongoing hopeful, hope-filled mutuality.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

Our dream to see an end to all violence

We dream of a day when violence ceases.

A dream that is barely imaginable.

A dream that is so far removed from our present experience that the very thought of it verges on insanity.

A dream that might not even be possible – and yet we recognise that this is the realm of dreams.

Out beyond the expected, in the hinterland beyond what is known.

And so we hold to this dream as a worthy dream.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

Our longing to see renewed dialogues that cross every boundary

For peace to truly blanket this world will require a level of interdependence and dialogue that is beyond imagining.

For dialogue to penetrate the hates of generations, the stories of generations and the experiences of generations would be miraculous.

And so we long for miraculous dialogues between neighbours, forever foes and former friends.

We long for the unexpected to bloom as flowers in the desert.

We long for words of grace to be spoken.

We long for open ears.

We long for receptive hearts.

And we recognise the ease by which such words are written and spoken by those detached from conflicts drenched in the suffering of the generations.

We recognise this.

And yet we also recognise our vocation as peace-makers and peace-speakers.

We long for earnest dialogue.

Dialogue that breaks down the barriers of pain and rejection.

Dialogue that acknowledges differences and difficulties and yet still seeks for something more.

We long for dialogue that reaches out beyond the sanctuary of what is known, to embrace the longings of the forgotten.

We long for dialogue that gives voice to the voiceless, those whose worlds have been torn apart by war.

We long for dialogue that strives for peace and mutuality, prophetic dialogue that is not dismayed by adversity but still hungers for peace.

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

 

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours

now and for ever.

Amen.

 

 

A Prayer of Blessing

Creator God,

We long for your peace

To reign in this world and in our hearts

Help us to be messengers of peace

Empowered and blessed

By the power of your Holy Spirit

All this we pray

In the name of the Father

The Son

And the Holy Spirit

Amen.

We Are. A poetic reflection from the closing session of the #Cofereimagining conference 2020

The following piece was created during the Cofereimagining conference 2020 by collating lots of phrases from the conference and adding others that summed up conference themes. The final piece was completed while ++Justin was speaking.

We Are (On Pilgrimage with Sanjee Perera, Archbishop Justin Welby and many others)

During her talk Dr Sanjee Perera stated “we are”. She went on to describe Christ’s followers in this way, “we are rebellious prodigals redeemed by grace”

The assertion that “we are” struck a chord. Elsewhere Dr Sanjee described followers of Jesus as, ‘A new tribe baptized and liberated by a new covenant.’

I think this piece would have become a call and response, a litany, had we been together in person, but instead, “we are” becomes the refrain

--------------------

The people round here, the people round there

 

We are…

 

The people together, the people apart

 

We are…

 

You, me, we, - there’s no such thing as “us” and “them”

 

We are…

 

Rebellious prodigals redeemed by grace

 

We are…

 

The called and the sent

 

We are…

 

This new tribe baptized and liberated

 

We are…

 

Followers of Jesus Christ

 

We are…

 

The Church, the body, the bride

 

We are…

Those who listen

 

We are…

 

Hungry for compassion

 

We are…

 

Filled with sighs of longing and the laughter of hope

 

We are…

 

Companions of the just shepherd

 

We are…

 

Those who call for the walls of our hearts to come down

 

We are…

 

Those who call for the frontiers of our minds to be opened

 

We are…

 

Friends of disruption

 

We are …

 

Not locked in our buildings

 

We are…

 

The Hilda’s who will scare the snakes away

 

We are…

 

Those with holy intentionality

 

We are…

 

Consumed by creative questions

 

We are …

 

Working through the gaps between what we think and feel and do

 

We are…

 

Wading through the quagmire of Christendom saturation

 

We are …

 

Fools for hope chiming softly across the land

 

We are…

 

Seeking after the Spirit wherever she is found and celebrated

 

We are…

 

The people asking after the heart of our neighbour’s week

 

We are…

 

Wanderers of wonder in a world wearied by worry

 

We are…

 

Those called further out into the world

 

We are…

 

Proclaimers of the Good News of the Kingdom

 

We are…

 

Willing to walk the wilderness roads

 

We are…

 

Those with soft hearts and hard and holy feet

 

We are…

 

Those who reimagine what it means to join in with God

 

We are…

 

Servants of our communities

 

We are…

 

The people who hang luggage tags of hope and prayer from the branches of trees

 

We are…

 

Those who carry the cross

 

We are…

 

Those who speak up for the despised

 

We are…

 

Those with eyes open to the Spirit

 

We are…

 

People with a willingness to go and act and listen and speak

 

We are…

 

Bearers of the light, speakers of life

 

We are…

 

Witnesses to tiny sparks of possibility

 

We are…

 

Those who are willing to go

 

We are…

 

Those liberated on the road

 

We are.

Closing Benediction from #cofereimagining

 Closing Benediction

Lord
Send us out from this time together
Send us out from Whova and Zoom
Send us out from the rooms in which we’re each sat
 
Send us out with a hunger to seek after your Spirit
Send us out with renewed imaginations
Send us out beyond the lychgate – to the new normal that awaits us

Send us out to those who are struggling
Send us out to those who are seeking
Send us out to those who are still on the journey
 
Send us out in the name
And with the blessing
Of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen

In These Days (closing worship #cofereimagining )

 

In These Days ( A poem – many of the phrases in the poem are taken from talks we’ve heard – a collation and elaboration)

 

In these days of Covid chaos

Collective confusion

And separation

We need a transfiguration without tabernacles

There’s no space for distraction by tasks

 

In these days we must be willing to be distracted by people

Their needs, the gospel, enacted through

Serving hands and wondering words

 

In these days of change

From one day to the next

With the ups and downs of laws and legislation

Advice and statistics and guidance

We need to support each other

To be cloisters of Christian hospitality and care

 

In these days when words whirl and widen

We recognise the absence and lack of silence

Heads and hearts filled with fear and trepidation

Tiredness, frustration and expectations

We need more curious questions

And renewed imaginations

 

In these days we need to be humble

To hold space for lament and self-care

And have a willingness to pause

To pause

To pause

To pause and stand with the confused and grieving

 

In these days we know and are aware

That we need to be leaner

Unencumbered by the cumbersome

To be agile

To move out beyond the lychgate

Re-imagining the way we

See our situation

And our part in any solutions

Because we’re part of the many

We’re not the whole

Shaped by openness and humility

Receptivity and vulnerability

 

In these days of top-down voices

We need to be aware of our own cadences

And to seek new Caedmons to sing new songs

Songs of the voiceless

Songs of the silenced

Songs grappling with cognitive dissonance

Songs freeing captives from violence

Songs in regional tongues

Songs sung from Spirit-filled lungs

 

In these days

We long for a church that

Re-fires the Spirit

A church that watches for the little sparks

And lights the beacons

A church filled with Aidans holding their torches aloft

 

In these days we long for

A new Pentecost – not the domain of the few but the many

A Pentecost of online groups and innovation

A Pentecost of preaching in the quietness of 8:30 Communion

A Pentecost among the people of peace of our places

A Pentecost of the local, rooted in the soil

A Pentecost of flame that can’t be tamed

 

One that won’t be held back by bricks and mortar

One that will flow and spread like living water

Like a baptism of water, fire and Spirit breath

A baptism of hope in what is left

And what is still to come.

A baptism of Father, Spirit, Son

A baptism of God, the three in one.

At This Time

 

AT THIS TIME (POEM) – edited on 29^th September 2020 during the Reimagining 2020 Conference

An opportunity to reflect and explore the shape of our communities. Such reflection on communal practices, recommitment to faithful presencing is essential but will look so different in each context. At This Time is a short poetic reflection that might frame an act of worship or begin a conversation.

 

At this time we commend each other to each other – but from a distance…

At this time we draw nearer to God – but from a distance?

At this time we seek God’s guidance – what now Lord, at this distance?

 

We are here together again, present as one community – though we know of many who cannot be with us

Yet still we are

Rooted in this place

A community of prayer, hope and justice

A community of conviviality

A community of calling

 

Before us lies an unknown future

Filled with fear and hope and grief and delight

 

Behind us lies a known past

Filled with fear and hope and grief and delight

 

And this moment  - this present ever-passing second is

Filled with fear and hope and grief and delight

 

What is behind is held in memory

What is now is now is now

What is to follows lies within our grasp and is waiting to be invoked

 

So let us take this time to reflect

Pour out ourselves at what has been

What has shaped us as people and as a community

 

Let us fish around in the murk of shadows

And bring out the treasures that have built us

Into what we are

What stories, practices and hopes from the past do we long to hold

Now and onwards into this new future?

 

What ways of working

Ways of speaking

What cadences

Ways of being

Are no longer fit for purpose?

No longer speak for us?

No longer reek of us?

No longer meet a need?

 

What must with due respect and thanks

Be placed back into the dusk of memory?

A point of reference and a story to be told

But not the story of our future

 

What have we learnt from these locked down days?

What learning has not just been for these times

But might by glimmer and chance

Be learning to hold to

In these days

And the days to come?

 

Where and when and how

Have we lived sacramentally in these locked-down days?

 

Where and when and how

Have we encountered the Creator in beautiful

And unexpected ways?

 

Where and when and how

Have we been blinded by the wonder and light

Of community in these days?

 

As we look onwards

From the vantage point we have

What might we need

For the days ahead?

 

What might the journey look like

In these uncertain and unexpected days?

 

What might an emerging mixed ecology

Look like for us?

What might that mean?

 

What can we bring with us?

What do we need to refresh?

And what might we need to build from nothing

But the clay we hold in our hands?

 

So let us pour ourselves out

Let us give each other space

Let us listen for the Spirit

Let us light the beacons

Let us together find our place

Let us hold this moment purposefully

And await the renewing of God’s grace

AMEN.

 

 

AT THIS TIME (POEM) – original version

 

An opportunity to reflect and explore the shape of our communities. Such reflection on communal practices, recommitment to faithful presencing is essential but will look so different in each context. At This Time is a short poetic reflection that might frame an act of worship or begin a conversation.

 

At this time we commend each other to each other – but from a distance…

At this time we draw nearer to God – but from a distance?

At this time we seek God’s guidance – what now Lord, at this distance?

 

We are here together again, present as one community – though we know of many who cannot be with us

Yet still we are

Rooted in this place

A community of prayer, hope and justice

A community of conviviality

A community of calling

 

Before us lies an unknown future

Filled with fear and hope and grief and delight

 

Behind us lies a known past

Filled with fear and hope and grief and delight

 

And this moment  - this present ever-passing second is

Filled with fear and hope and grief and delight

 

What is behind is held in memory

What is now is now is now

What is to follows lies within our grasp and is waiting to be invoked

 

So let us take this time to reflect

Pour out ourselves at what has been

What has shaped us as people and as a community

 

Let us fish around in the murk of shadows

And bring out the treasures that have built us

Into what we are

What stories, practices and hopes from the past do we long to hold

Now and onwards into this new future?

 

What ways of working

Ways of speaking

Ways of being

Are no longer fit for purpose?

No longer speak for us?

No longer reek of us?

No longer meet a need?

 

What must with due respect and thanks

Be placed back into the dusk of memory?

A point of reference and a story to be told

But not the story of our future

 

What have we learnt from these locked down days?

What learning has not just been for these times

But might by glimmer and chance

Be learning to hold to

In these days

And the days to come?

 

Where and when and how

Have we lived sacramentally in these locked-down days?

 

Where and when and how

Have we encountered the Creator in beautiful

And unexpected ways?

 

Where and when and how

Have we been blinded by the wonder and light

Of community in these days?

 

As we look onwards

From the vantage point we have

What might we need

For the days ahead?

 

What might the journey look like

In these uncertain and unexpected days?

 

What can we bring with us?

What do we need to refresh?

And what might we need to build from nothing

But the clay we hold in our hands?

 

So let us pour ourselves out

Let us give each other space

Let us listen for the Spirit

Let us together find our place

Let us hold this moment purposefully

And await the renewing of God’s grace

AMEN.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original version of the piece was written as a contribution for the Church of England’s Fresh Expressions liturgies for the Opening the Doors project.