Long Journey

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.

Chirstmas Card Shots

Ever since Rebecca was born we have sent out picture Christmas Cards with her on the front. As she has got bigger, this has seemed more and more the "proud" parent sending out cards than the cute images each year. BUT everyone keeps on telling us they love the cards and to keep them coming!

So this year we tried a bit of blue screen, and dressing up! It worked OK. the blue screen was infact our yellow wall in the hall!

Rebecca is in THREE nativity plays this year, two more than last year. She had three plays last year but only one was a nativity (the church one!).

So they would seem to be in vogue this year.

She plays (in order of plays)

One Wise Person, with present helper!

Mary, the lead role!

One Angel - Church!

Only a couple of roles and she would have the complete set, so if you need a Shepherd or a Joseph let us know!

Power Cut

So for the first time since greenbelt, out comes the gas lamp. We are
having our first power cut on ages, and rebecca is loving it!

And thanks to the iphone I can still blog

Only trouble I'd that I was finally sitting down at the mac to prep up
for the Grace 9 service on Saturday.

Oh well!

Clean Comedy Tour II

Coming Soon to the South East

The line up is looking good, and as ever these events need support to make them worthwhile. The tour has a simple site, at www.cleancomedy.org.uk. So if you are in the area on the night, and in the area then drop in.

Leopard beats MS in Japan

It had to happen sometime, and at last it did. Leopard outsells MS, just in Japan. At least the turn has started!

see: http://www.macrumors.com/2007/11/14/leopard-overtakes-windows-os-sales-in-japan-for-october/

Apple, Apple, Apple.

PS, I do like my iPhone.

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 photos 2

Grace Photos

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.