holy::ground

holy::ground is now up and running. It is a merger between sacred:space (Christchurch Woking) and Holy Ground (Trinity Methodist)

holy::ground is a fresh expression (FX) of church, that meets twice a month at st michael’s sheerwater.  'we are creative,  experimental and believe in having fun as well as exploring what it means to live well and build community together.'

The website is coming on   worth having a look at....  and if you are interested in participating or finding out more there is a facebook group you can join

And here is the programme for autumn to give you an idea of what we have been doing (ground we have passed)  and what is still to come (the journey ahead) ....


WHAT WE'VE BEEN DOING (ground we have passed)


 





the naming game
choose a name for the newly formed group, followed by night prayer
sun 8^th sept @ 7pm  st michael’sheerwater








reduced greenbelt 
share some of the experiences of greenbelt ‘40’ without the camping or the mud! 
sun 22^nd sept @ 7pm st michael’s sheerwater








little holy communion  share bread and wine together –but first help create our communion table. 
 sun 13^th oct @ 7pm st michael’s sheerwater










death matters  time to talk about death and funerals (and hopefully to stay fairly cheerful!) 
 sun 27^th oct @ 7pm st michael’s sheerwater








starry starry night
exploring the spirituality of vincent van gogh though his life and paintings. including some actual sunflower painting    sun 10^th nov @ 7pm st michael’s sheerwater

 




stir up sunday!
community bake-in to make christmas cakes & puddings to take home and to give away. finishing with night prayer.  sun 24^th nov @4pm st michael’s sheerwater

  
 STILL TO COME (the journey ahead) ......

a global christmas 
international carol service:  a multi-cultural service of songs and readings from around the world celebrating the birth of jesus      sat 7th dec at christchurch woking









welcoming advent
advent meditations ‘from darkness to light’, ending with holy communion
 sun 8^th dec @ 6:30pm  st michael’s sheerwater










christmas leftovers

share christmas leftover food, poems, stories and songs and to swap unwanted gifts – ending with night prayer  sun 29^th dec @ 7pm at venue to be confirmed



 





 orthodox christmas vigil  a holy;;ground trip to brookwood monastry
 to join in the orthodox christmas eve vigil.  ‘come when you can; go when you must’
 7^th jan @ 7pm   meet at trinity carpark to travel together or meet at brookwood

you can find details of this last event on the eventbrite site 
we hope to advertise all future events in this way .......

come and join us

Pioneering @ CMS

Some of you maybe aware that we are exploring a merger of sacred:space (@ Christchurch Woking) and HolyGround  ( @ Trinity Methodists) and creating a new FX -  Fresh Expression of Church 


So I was looking at the CMS Pioneer website to get some inspiration and found a few things  which might be of  interest to others.    

PIONEER HUB -   This supported by  and South Central Regional Training
Partnership  RTP  which includes our own Guildford Diocese

As part of the Pioneer Hub they are creating a  Community of Practice  and meet locally for informal conversations (typically in coffee shops around the country)  Coming to a starbucks near you.....!

Have  a look at the brochure - It is all about what has already happened  but gives you an idea   This look like just what we need to support our new FX venture!    You can also read about Chrissie Lacey's involvement   She did a Pioneer Witness about ScAT, Woking. I took a picture of her preaching from a bath at Christchurch one Sunday evening service - I think it was about soaking prayer but I can't really remember - but it was nonetheless very pioneering!

There is also a regular Pioneer blog.  For example here's one about Jonny Baker's  trip to Seoul, Korea a place I know well.   You quickly learn the biblical imperative to 'eat what is set before you'

I noticed an OPEN DAY on TUES 12 NOV:  Conversations on Pioneering: Research and Reflections   costing £15 at CMS, Oxford. Looks like some very good content. Anyone interested in attending?   I am..... Maybe we could go together ?

There is also a PIONEER OPEN DAY  on Tuesday 26 Nov 2013   (Also Tuesday 11 Feb 2014  Tuesday 13 May 2014) You can download the flyer here  By the way it seems that most things happen on a Tuesday with CMS pioneers.

sacred:space - The Puzzle of Evil

The last sacred:space evening (Sat 28th April) was led by Mike Cope in the NAWKI style - Church but 'NotAsWe KnowIt' 

And the theme was the Puzzle of Evil. It was an excellent, thoughtful evening.  Mike had help from 3 friends Alan, Shona and Ivan.

They explored the theme by means of video, image, discussion, conversation, music, song - a rich multimedia of thought-provoking material.  A heavy topic with a light touch. With space to think and reflect using various prayer stations...

The content was rich, mainly dealing with the problem of suffering rather than evil per se.    Drawing from negative theology (or apophatic as opposed to catathatic theology), we see an 'imperfect reflection' (through a  glass darkly). To the standard question 'if God is so powerful, why is there so much suffering,  the standard answer is 'free will'.  Augustine called this a 'better explanation than any other philosophy'    
But John Hick argues that 'if the price of being human is suffering then the price is too high'
(All of this was on an simple video which I will post once I have the link)

Alan had a number of pointers to potential answers .....

• The film the City of Angels   (Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan) an angels who falls out of heaven and experiences humanness - love and pain together
• Eli Weisel's picture of the young boy hung by Nazis - who took a long time to die - 'where is God?' someone in the crowd asked - 'There he is on the Gallows'.   Either God is dead, hung like the young boy, or he is involved in suffering. 
• Bonhoeffer argued that only a Suffering God is of any use 
• Grunewald's Triptych of the 'Crucifixion' in the chapel of a hospice for leper

The pointing finger of identification, the leprous skin of Christ who became 'a curse'; the purity of the praying women, and the Cross like a giant Crossbow shooting the Christ-arrow to hit the Divine target.  The image of the Divine lamb that was slain..... all point to God's involvement in our suffering.

‘A god who cannot suffer is poorer than any human. For a God who is incapable of suffering is a being who cannot be involved. Suffering and injustice do not affect him. And because he is so completely insensitive, he cannot be affected or shaken by anything. He cannot weep, for he has no tears. But the one who cannot suffer cannot love either. So he is a loveless being’                       Jurgen Moltmann   (1974) the Crucified God

 
 As I said, the evening was thought provoking. Yet it was in the simple acts of lighting a candle, or writing a prayer or dropping stone in water, that somehow provided a way forward in the face of such huge, unanswerable, puzzling questions......

Four Dimensions of the Cross: Good Friday Meditation

The 3 hour meditation service at the Foot of the Cross, at Christchurch Woking, had as its centrepiece the Cross we had painted in the previous sacred:space. 

The service was based on John 3:16  "For God loved the world so much that gave his only son (Length) that whoever believes in him (Breadth) should not perish (Depth) but have everlasting life (Height)" 

We looked at the 4 dimensions of the Cross with images, music, liturgy, prayers, thoughts (by Martin) and responsive activities. Each section was 45 minutes. In the background the DVD of 'The Passion' was playing silently (and often illustrated the reading of Scipture exactly!) ....

1. The Length of Christ's Love

Georges Rouault,  "Ecce homo", 1937-41. canvas on wood. Paris, Musée national d’art modern

‘The meaning of the story is found in every detail, as well as in the broad narrative…..  The death of Jesus…. is either the most stupid, senseless waste and misunderstanding the world has ever seen, or it is the fulcrum around which world history turns’Tom Wright: Simply Christian (p95) 

2 Breadth of Christ's Love 

‘The Yellow Christ’  Paul Gaugin 1889 Albright Knox Art Gallery Buffallo NY

‘God in Christ has united our human nature to himself…. And demonstrated to us that supreme love of which Christ himself speaks: ‘Greater love has no-one than this (John 15 13), We are thus joined through his grace to him and our neighbour by an unbreakable bond of love….’ Peter Abelard 

We think that Paradise and Calvary, Christ's cross and Adam's tree, stood in one place ;

Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me ;

As the first Adam's sweat surrounds my face,

May the last Adam's blood my soul embrace.

John Donne; Hymn to God, My God in my sickness’ 

3. The Depth of Christ's Love

Crucifixion by He Qi, China  www.heqigallery.com

‘A god who cannot suffer is poorer than any human. For a God who is incapable of suffering is a being who cannot be involved. Suffering and injustice do not affect him. And because he is so completely insensitive, he cannot be affected or shaken by anything. He cannot weep, for he has no tears. But the one who cannot suffer cannot love either. So he is a loveless being’Jurgen Moltmann   (1974) the Crucified God

4. The Height of God's Love  

Mount Calvary  
William H. Johnson  1944  Smithsonian American Art Foundation

‘God’s act of universal forgiveness is the whole train of action he sets working through Christ, through the Spirit, through the Church, through all-embracing providence, towards the reconciliation of the unreconciled, whether in this world or in a world to come. And of this great process Christ’s blood was, once more, the cost.’
Austin Farrar Saving Belief (p 107)

    Benediction Prayer

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.  Eph. 3:17-21