For music, we used Peter Broderick’s ‘A beginning’ as people came into the church, and then ‘Something has changed’ was behind Rabbit Proof Fence at the end. The first RPF clip was accompanied by David Bridie’s ‘Salt’… the music after Kate’s reflection was Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Something Beautiful’. Images were either from Rabbit Proof Fence, or out of my photo album!

The various prayers are below… the communion liturgy was adapted slightly from the Wild Goose Resource Group’s ‘Wee Worship Book’

Opening meditation [unsaid - printed on handout]

Why are you here?
Maybe you are here because you recognise in your own story
a greater story
one spoken since the beginning of time
by prophets, preachers and peacemakers
a story where god calls the world
into liberation and wholeness.

Maybe you are here because you have glimpsed
a moment of love that is beyond human reach
the grace that lies just beyond our finger tips
that transforms the ugly into breathtaking
the impossible into the real

Maybe you are here, not defined by faith
but with a deep conviction
that the ending to everyone’s story is yet to be written
and can be shaped into life by justice and compassion.

Maybe you are here, no longer sure whether you belong
or how any of this makes a difference
struggling to remember the vision that inspired you
or the call that now eludes you.

You are welcome…

Call to worship

In the beginning,
the story tells us
the breath of God
breathed life into existence
and loved it into wholeness…

We gather
as people of the story
and people of a prayer
longing for the breath of God
to make our world whole again:
Let there be life
Let there be love
Today.

Welcome to worship.

Opening prayer / confession

There is a time for celebrating,
and this is that time.

There is a time for mourning,
and this is that time.

There is a time for confessing,
and this is that time.

There is a time for dreaming,
this is that time.

God, we bring our stories to this place tonight
and we wait to be held by yours.

We bring our faithfulness
shape it with grace

We bring our success
shape it with generosity

We bring our weaknesses
shape them with compassion

We bring our possibilities
shape them with hope.

We confess, God, that the way is hard
and we are tired
speak into our tiredness with your story of grace

We confess that the way is unclear
and we do not know the path
speak into our wandering with your story of vision

We confess that we are tired of waiting
and we just want to make it happen
speak into our impatience with your story of wisdom

Let your story be our story
and we pray this in Jesus’ name
Amen.

Sending out
They are right,
those who doubt what we do.
It is purely the product of over-active imaginations.

Who but the foolish would look at barren ground and imagine food for all,
see past desolation and believe it will become an oasis,
would not be stopped by war, but live for the day it will be peace,
and reach deep into the world’s fear in the prayer it would bring life.

So if faith is the terrain of the deluded
then may you leave here with the faith of the fools
who have loved the world since it’s beginning
and will live for its redemption until its end.

And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…

Tomorrow night is the liturgy for the Uniting Care Agencies, boards and whoever else comes along… that’s at Wesley, Lonsdale St, here in the city 7pm. I believe there’s drinks afterwards… at least, i’m hoping so.

Thursday I’m leading a workshop for ministers in Port Phillip West Presbtyery – that’s at Bacchus Marsh UCA and will run all day. Ostensibly, it’s about worship… but i’m really going to talk about beauty, imagination and transformation, and hope that people can make the links.

Sunday 31st May I’ll be at Fitzroy Uniting Church, in Napier St Fitzroy [is there any better located church in Melbourne?], curating a space / worship at 10 am.

And – more about this in the next post – June 20 is the winter solstice space, here in the basement. Mulled wine, art, music, space, company, darkness… it’s just going to be lovely…

it comes straight after reading Isaiah 43:18-22

The promise echoes through history

whispered by angels and shouted by prophets

But did they know how dry this desert could be?

How do we hold faith
when the cracks in our reality are deeper than ever before
when the pressures add up relentlessly
[fire
flood
drought

unwieldy bureaucracies
financial crises
unprecedented demand...]

You are making all things new?

We are trying to hold faith.

We need a glimpse, God
a moment

something to carry us beyond what we know

So we pray
with no faith
and with all faith

give us eyes to see
faith to believe
courage to live
today

these are the liturgies we used, by days.

unitingcare_monday.pdf

unitingcare_tuesday.pdf

We’re only human,
we say,
apologetically,
as though it is a failing

as though we could be more.

Dismissing,
in an instant,
the gift we are most able to offer.

We rush to fill our days and weeks with programs
meetings
administration
people

because to stand still
means we might be overwhelmed by all there is to be done
and our inadequacy in doing it.

We presume that the world could be fixed
if we just tried a bit harder and did a bit more

because the alternative is to admit the fragility of all that we hope for.

Yet when we try to be more than human
we deny space for all that is not human:
the love beyond human making
the hope beyond human faking
the peace beyond human understanding.

It takes courage
to stop looking at all there is to do
and instead to turn and face the limits of who we are

It takes courage
to end where we end
and to let faith begin.

i’m doing reflection spaces next week for the Uniting Care national conference. It’s an honour to have been asked, and while i’m not yet looking forward to it, i can see that i’m going to enjoy it. The organisers are looking for alternative worship… but, of course, since it’s a conference, I have no control over the space at all – over the lighting, seating, where the focus of attention will be… i can’t do stations, there will be limited multimedia capacity… i don’t know the audience, and they’ve asked for ‘inspiring’. all things that don’t fit what i do, and that go against the definitions of alternative.

up until now i’ve been fighting the limits and getting nowhere. today i’ve just given into them, and stopped thinking it needs to be alternative. it just needs to work with the people and the context. which means it will, by necessity, be word based, and far more direct and concrete than what i would do anywhere else. though starting from that perspective feels like fingernails down a blackboard, i think we’ll end up somewhere good. the letting go has already made the world of difference.

while i love doing this, i’m really missing doing alternative at the moment. i know some people don’t get the difference, but from the planning side of the table, there’s a whole world between them.

all that is to say that it’s deadline hell around here – things will be quiet for the next couple of weeks.

[and i'm thinking of changing the blog into a more traditional website. i wonder if it's time to make it less a journal of the project and more a collection of resources. a blog, by nature, implies something more personal, and I'm a bit over that... I suspect it would reduce readership, but that's not ever been the point of it... anyway. it's just an idea i'm playing with...]

Easter: we’re not doing anything, for many reasons… but the Urban Seed guys let me know about a Stations of the Cross which will be happening at Mission to the Seafarers. Via Crucis @ Docklands 2008 will include art and multi-sensory, interactive worship stations based upon the Easter stories. The space will be open for personal reflection from midday on Maundy Thursday, 18th March. The exhibit will close on the evening of Good Friday, 19th March with a Reflective Worship Service commencing at 8pm.

The next public thing we’re working on is a basement space for the Forge Grassroots conference. After that we move into communal justice workshops, then a workshop in May for the Progressive Christian Network… At the end of May Jonny Baker arrives in melbourne to speak at the Urban Ministry Conference, and he’s also participating in the Alternative Worship Nosh [registrations are coming in for that - we've got limited places, so sign up soon if you plan to come].

Some of you will have heard that Pete Rollins was coming out in September – we’ve changed that date to February / March next year, in order to not clash with everything else that’s happening in September [and to be able to take a breath, post-greenbelt], and because we’re planning some fabulous things for Lent next year, which will be topped off with Pete’s visit.

The Docklands space is back on the agenda, the communal justice project is ramping up, i’m working with a new school development which is designing a ‘ministry centre’ / sacred space from scratch, and i’ve got an idea for next year’s holy week and this year’s christmas…

Today I’m working on worship / reflection spaces at the UnitingCare national conference in a couple of weeks – UnitingCare is the umbrella for the various agencies that are part of the uniting church [the uniting church is the largest non-government provider of welfare in australia]. this is my favourite kind of ‘audience’ – a large number of them wouldn’t define themselves as christian. i love having to look for new language…

welcome to this space

maybe you are here because you recognise in your own story
a greater story
one spoken since the beginning of time
by prophets, preachers and peacemakers
of God who calls all humankind to
liberation and wholeness.

if so, welcome to this space.

maybe you are here, not defined by a relationship with god
but nonetheless as someone with a deep conviction
that there is no inevitable unfolding to anyone’s life
but that our futures are yet to be written
and can be shaped by justice and compassion.

if so, welcome to this space.

maybe you are here because you have glimpsed
a moment of love that is beyond human reach
the grace that lies just beyond our finger tips
unexpected and beautiful
that transforms the ugly into breathtaking
the impossible into the real

if so, welcome to this space.

maybe you are here tired
no longer sure whether you belong
or how any of this makes a difference
struggling to remember the vision that inspired you
and to find the passion that eludes you

you too are welcome to this space…

things were so busy yesterday that the only possible thing to do was to take off and go and wander around the NGV for a couple of hours. thanks to sue for pointing me in the direction of a new installation… can’t wait to use this somewhere… it was a ladder made out of tubes of LED lights, hanging between two mirrors, one placed on the floor, one on the ceiling [about 3 m apart]. if you stand over the mirror, the ladder reaches up or down forever. it sounds mundane, it’s actually quite amazing.

and thanks to Kathy for pointing me towards Proyecto para un memorial (Project for a Memorial) – five video projections, each of a different face being painted with water on concrete, slowing disappearing in heat. the idea ties in beautifully with ecclesiastes ‘vanity, all is vanity’, which i’m using for the Uniting Care conference…