Transcendence comes of age

Many of you will know that I spend some of my time working on a monthly service called Transcendence in York Minster, a blending of traditional high church worship with modern ambient music, mood lighting and interactive prayer activities. For all its newness, Transcendence is threatening to become routine, or it was until last Sunday.

St Therese of Lisieux

I write this sat in the Chapter House of York Minster at half midnight, have spent an hour watching and praying a few meters from the relics of St Therese. Aware that I’m somewhat beyond my own comfort zone, the whole thing is a learning experience. But if this event is about reconcilliation, then one thing is for certain: it cannot ‘work’ without give and take from both sides.

Are Dog Collars on Vicars outdated?

This is the question that seems to be gripping my workplace at the moment. Its been argued, as I understand it, that its an outdated fashion and that it makes relating to others more difficult and less obvious. But is there more to Dog Collar wearing than meets the eye of today’s fashion critic?

Liberals, Evangelicals and Deep Church

A year ago I read Amy and Frog Orr-Ewing’s book, “Deep”. I realised recently I never wrote anything on my blog about it, even though it provoked some useful thoughts. Their assessment of the state of the Church in Britain today is often very useful, inspired amongst other things, by work in deprived areas and mission trips to repressive Islamic regimes, including Afghanistan.

For SCM: Vision and Mission

Student Christian Movement have begun a group blog, and are asking people to contribute their thoughts on the concept of “Mission” to get the ball rolling. I was wondering what to write, until my sister preached her first ever sermon, at which I’m both impressed and slightly envious. It was very interesting to hear her link Justice to Mission work, and Mission to Vision.

Finding faith in Social Media

Several weeks ago a Roman Catholic Archbishop said one of the most regrettable, misguided and short sighted things I’ve heard from a church leader in a very long time. Did it concern the role of women, or gay marriage, or perhaps even abortion? No, none of these. It concerned the internet, social media and new communication technologies. (Warning, this post may contain unwarranted levels of bitterness).

So, what exactly is Social Action?

Its not so much a crises, a moment of panic, indeed, anything dramatic at all. I’m just slightly dazed by the enormity of what I could choose to consider my “patch” in this new job. There’s an awful lot of it! As Social Action Parish Assistant, I could be said to cover campaigning, volunteering or indeed anything justice related, but none of these seems to fit. And there is only one of me, a lesson I may have to learn extra well this year.

The Songs We Sing

Another heavily religious post, so apologies to the atheists. This tends to happen at this point in the year, as I grapple with a bunch of issues that have come up during Soul Survivor and Greenbelt. One of the major differences between the two events is quite often the approach to music in the context of faith that comes between the two events, and the misunderstandings attached.

The Hand Gel Prayer

The last few weeks have seen an explosion in the number of people regularly using alcohol hand gel, so much so that Boots were reporting a national shortage of everything but the most basic 250ml bottles when I needed one before the cycle ride. No where has more comment been passed on the craze than in churches, where bottles are now routinely passed round before the peace, and during communion. So what if we developed some kind of liturgy around them?

Finding Momentum, Finding Vision

So Momentum is in full swing here in Somerset. My major feeling is that this is the first year when Momentum has really escaped from its image as “Soul Survivor grown up”, and begun to find a vision of its own. And its seen some truly groundbreaking talk addressing the concern that so many 20-somethings are quitting the church in such numbers, with our age group half as likely to attend as the general population and that 50% of those of us who do attend are within London; the regions being a place of total absence for an entire age-band.