Long Journey

Sound system coming along

So, I've been looking to build a small sound rig to use for Sanctum, and over the Christmas Period I've managed to put it together for an acceptable price.

The Kit in the arsenal so far is:

1 x Soundcraft Spirit M4 Mixing Desk, which is just perfect for my needs. Having four mic channels, plus four "instrument" channels. This lets me process a couple of macs, plus a couple of ipods and still leaves four channels open for mics. Got it second hand and in perfect nick!

2 X Phonic PA 550 active monitors, from Andertons in Guildford. I can't recommend them highly enough (Andertons that is!). I took up their test room for most of a morning, and they let me configure a rig and test everything out. No pressure and ended up selling me the monitors from ex-demo stock so saved at least 50% on the street price and then gave me £40 worth of leads for free.

So the rig will power at around 800+ watts which is more than enough, and so far I have spent around what I could of spent on a single monitor.

Next to come, some speaker stands, and some cheap mics.

Probably looking at a couple of these, as GAK in Brighton have the kit for £30 in their sale: Its a peavey PVi 100 mic with stand and bag for the same price as a stand......

And Finally I will add in a radio, but not too sure what is best to go for, as I won't spend more than £130 and it must be UHF. Basically It comes down to a sennheiser freeport or an Ashton. Either-way both would be great at Greenbelt as we always seem to be lacking a radio at New Forms.

The freeport is better known, but the Ashton can use 16 channels. Anyway I will need to wait a couple of months on the mics, as the bank account needs a chance to recharge!

Grace Nine - 2008

I did a small mediation at Grace's Nine service on Sunday, and it was its usual special eclectic mix of the profound. I ran out of time, and did a very quick picture meditation using Mary did you know.

The others put far more effort into their pieces, and it was great. The most impacting bit was were Ben did a piece on thin places, with a muslin sheet hung projecting stars etc onto it. The readers stood behind the sheet and were cast into a silhouette, then the sheet was cut with a samurai sword showing the gap being opened between Heaven and Earth.

Some shots from the iphone.

The scene before the service, relaxed and peaceful.

Soon to be disturbed, as around the church were these sets of balloons. A balloon was popped to tell people where to focus on each reading. BANG!

Jonny used these nativity cut outs to build a scene after his reading, so it was a good thing that my piece only took 3.20, out the 5 mins allotted to each piece. Jonny's took over 20!

The afore mentioned silhouettes.

"Finger" painting on new paper stories.

Sanctum Poster for Advent Service

The service looks like it is shaping up to get a true start of a service, so why not drop by?

Grace Hospitality Communion Round up

So Grace was very interesting last night. The service started with all the people being sorted and made to state if they belonged to Grace or were a visitor. People were not allowed into the church and had to wait in the side hall. Everything was formal and kind of like a waiting room.

We were allowed in to the church, but made to sit on the side lines, and then the "service" started. The visitors were kept out of the start of the service, and the members used private language to keep things close. Then a welcome prayer came from the slide lines and opened things up, bean bags were dropped from the gallery and the real open Grace came out.

The service asked some challenging questions about our hospitality and what is a member, finishing up with communion and food in the "cafe".

There are a few photo's on flickr, and as you can see from earlier posts the iphone can be used to blog on site as it were.

not very welcoming

So sitting here waiting for Grace to start. They have seperared out the members from the visitors, and are doing everything possible to make all feel unwelcome. Stuck out in a side hall, made to sign in. It is very strange to feel so unwelcome where normally I feel so welcome.

Hospitality is not on the cards so far.

Grace tonight

Off to grace tonight, they are doing a service on hospitality. I will see how posting from the iPhone works as the service progresses

Set up at last

The venue is now rigged, at last! Just waiting for the H&S review and the capacity to be sent. All has gone well, and the venue looks great. I will submit a photo of the 1st service tonight, but it looks good.

Greenbelt is getting upto speed, but if you haven't made it so far make the effort. It is well worth it!

Come on Down

Its 7AM on Thursday morning, the sky is blue, and its GREENBELT! I'm typing this from my tent, WIFI in the campsite!

Setting up new forms cafe today, and the tech gear will arrive throughout the day. If you are coming to GB, pop in and say Hi!

Rant

OK, time to get this off my chest.

I am fed up with Christmas.

But this year it is different, this year its not the stupid commercial crap that surrounds it, its not the over indulgence, the binge drinking, the stupid adverts, the crush of people, the general exploitive nature of this season.

No its the attack on the Christmas story, the attack of the meaning. I am fed up of seeing our society blasting out how we need to respect all religions, whilst not daring to be too "Christian" with our own. Rebecca has celebrated Divali, and a load of other ethnic celebrations. BUT come to Christmas. OH NO, can't do a nativity, can't send a Christmas card, can't mention Christ. Might offend. What about sending my daughter home with a light that she has made, and encouraging us to light it.

Its not the other activities that bother me, there is no real issue there. BUT please oh please, don't transform our own activities into a third class activity. Its like positive discrimination, its proving that all this commercialization is working. Where is the meaning of Christmas.

So here is an idea. Next year I'm thinking of having 9 Services that would run from the 1st through to the 23rd. Nine services that are quick, simple, and quiet. Based around the nine traditional readings. A bit like Grace's NINE service, but spread out across Advent. A place to escape, but fully enter into our season of waiting.

It won't solve the issues, but it will secure a communities chance to remember.

Hold me to this one.

On Vox: Word - Sanctum 10 - End Video

I have signed up to Six Apart's new social blogging tool - VOX

Its in its early days and not without its problems, but it is set up to take larger file sizes than Typepad.

I have posted an early draft of a video I am doing for Sanctum 10 - WORD.

It is John 1: 1-5 in several languages (Maori, Lithuanian, Korean, Gaelic, Greek), which are displayed. Each verse is taken down from each language and is transformed into English for the end of the song. The track is Image of the Invisible God, by LLS (LLS4, Track 4). The music is available from Sticky Music.

The VOX application doesn't seem to play video on Safari, so the link below does not play the video. I was mainly testing the cross blogging function.

» Read more on Vox

This is a direct link to the video.