Marcus Curnow

Trying to explore alternative worship forms that engage, challenge and deepen the dominant culture rather than just buy into it or feed off it.

Good art should both communicate and challenge. Like a parable of Christ liturgy should warm our hearts with the familiar, respect tradition, but also cut through our sensiblities and defences to take us on a journey into new realms and possiblities. This is liturgical risk.

Art is not nice. -- Bertolt Brecht

PEOPLE have been THINKING too long that ART is a privilege of the MUSEUMS & the RICH. ART IS NOT BUSINESS! It does not belong to banks & fancy investors ART IS FOOD. You cant EAT it BUT it FEEDS you. ART has to be CHEAP & available to EVERYBODY. It needs to be EVERYWHERE Because it is the INSIDE of the WORLD. ART SOOTHES PAIN! Art wakes up sleepers! ART FIGHTS AGAINST WAR AND STUPIDITY! ART SINGS HALLELUJAH! ART IS FOR KITCHENS! ART IS LIKE GOOD BREAD! Art is like green trees! Art is like white clouds in blue sky! ART IS CHEAP! HURRAH! (The Why Cheap Art Manifesto, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Vermont, 1984)

"We too often forget that faith is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after you have begun to believe, your faith itself must be tested and purified. Christianity is not merely a set of forgone conclusions. Faith tends to be defeated by the burning presence of God in mystery, and seeks refuge from him, flying to comfortable social forms and safe convictions in which purification is no longer an inner battle but a matter of outward gesture." - Thomas Merton

Scholars have taken the dynamite of the church, have wrapped it up in nice phraseology, placed it in a hermetic container and sat on the lid. It's about time to blow the lid off. -Peter Maurin, Easy Essays

Living the liturgical day as much as we are able, beginning with prime, using the missal, ending the day with compline and so going through the liturgical year we find that it is now not us, but Christ in us, who is working to combat injustice and oppression. - Dorothy Day

Now if we want to know when there's a crime wave of civil disobedience coming, we consult the liturgical calendar.—Oakland County Sheriffs Deputy joking to a reporter, Advent 1983

What are you Waiting For: Advent 07

December 17, 2007

WRUW4? ADVENT 07

What are you Waiting For?

words, story, music and interactive stations for Christmas alterntatives

While you Wait !

WELCOME...to this reflective space curated by Seeds for Advent 2007. Seeds describes the types of conversation, relational connections, and commitments that have emerged out of the life of Urban Seed, which began as an ecumenical ministry of hospitality, education and advocacy in the heart of Melbourne.

Seeds now finds expression in groups of people who seek to Know the Word , Grow Home and Go Engage in various neighbourhoods around Victoria.

We value worship that is participatory, supportive of creativity, not afraid of questions and connected to the realities of our lives.

INSTRUCTIONS

This reflective space takes the form of an Advent wreath. As such it involves five stations that are based around the traditional Advent candle themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love, and Christ. After introductory readings at each station you will be invited to interact with the space.

You can move to all the stations , or stay at one. You are welcome to use the time to simply sit quietly and listen to the music. If the communion (the ritualized meal used to remember and participate in Christ’s death) at the central ‘Christ’ station is not according to your tradition or belief there is no expectation or obligation to participate but all are welcome to do so whatever your understanding.

Please respect the silence of other people.

Once the music stops a Closing ritual will be said marking the end of our gathering. Tea and coffee will be served in another room but feel free to remain and reflect in this space if you wish.

OPENING RITUAL

We acknowledge that we gather on the land of which the people have been custodians from time immemorial. We honour this history and commit ourselves to care for the land with them. May our worship and our service be work for reconciliation with people and with our God.

(We say together…)Jesus, light of the world, we confess that you are here. Shine your light into the hidden places of our lives, and bring warmth to the cold places of our hearts. Amen. (silence while a candle is lit)

ADVENT IS….

The four Sunday Period before Christmas Day. It marks the start of the Christian year and is traditionally used by the church around the world to reflect on the coming of Christ. Advent– means ‘To reach for’, ‘to arrive” - and has to do with waiting, hopeful expectation and looking forward. Advent is the time Christians look forward—to celebrating the birth of Christ and also, ultimately, to the return of Christ.

AUSTRALIAN ADVENT WREATH

One of the traditions of the Christian church leading up to Christmas is that of the Advent Wreath. Its origins are found pre-Christian Germanic peoples who gathered wreaths of evergreen and lighted fires as signs of hope in a coming spring and renewed light . The church adapted the tradition of lighting a candle in the wreath each Advent Sunday in order to reflect upon this aspect of the meaning of Christmas and the coming of the “Light of the World”

Annette Buckley from the Seeds: city mob said in 2006;

As I looked at Advent Wreath last year, it struck me that it was very ‘Northern Hemisphere’. The coming of light in the darkness is very appropriate when you are going into midwinter, and the days are getting shorter. But here in this part of Australia, I thought it would be good to think of Advent in terms of what we long and hope for most at this time of year – water! From a cool drink to a drenching summer storm, to protection from bushfires, water is, for me, the symbol of what we most need at this time of year.

In our land. we have a strange relationship with water.

Most of us, or our forebears, came across the sea to live here. Sent by the powers that be, or setting out with hope for a better future, or fleeing in desperation to escape tyranny – water has been a boundary to cross to get to the promised land or to separate us forever from home.

Most of us cling to the edges of our vast continent, our settlement dictated by where water could be found, for a long time defining ourselves as beach-loving bronzed ANZACS, or gritty denizens of The Bush, eking out a living at the mercy of droughts and flooding rains.

Sometimes, there is too much of the stuff. The Wet brings drenching rains to the north – creeks and rivers calm and tame for much of the time become wild and treacherous. Even in the cities, flash floods occasionally sweep away our carefully built notions that we are masters of our destiny.

But here in this part of the world at this time, we need water. We quiver on the brink of the bushfire season, knowing that much of our state is tinder-dry. We see the images of cracked, dusty farmlands, of almost empty reservoirs, of country towns shipping water in. And we wait, and wait, and wait…………for rain.

And so instead of lighting Advent candles, we pour water.

WAITING FOR HOPE

The Ancient Western church devised a rhythmic cycle for the celebration of Christ’s incarnation of which the centre was the time of Advent. By fasting and abstaining from public festivities, Christians were to prepare for the holy day by being drawn into the sense of longing for Messiah’s coming felt by generations of God’s people.

Hear this hope in the vision of the ancient Hebrew prophet:

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
3You have multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
4For the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5For all the boots of the tramping warriors
and all the garments rolled in blood
shall be burned as fuel for the fire.
6For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onwards and for evermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:2-7

We wait as Israel waited. stranded, scattered, exiled, shamed.

Wait with the poor and captive, wait with the lost and lamed.

God we wait as prisoners wait for words to set them free.

For glimpses of your kingdom in the midst of the debris. We wait like weary travellers, sitting at the station.

Not knowing if our train of thought is hope or expectation.

This Advent time we wait, and hope, that just as God was found on earth,

so all that we’ve been longing for and waiting for shall come to birth.

Adapted by Marcus Curnow from Brenda Stone. (Ciytside Baptist, Auckland)

Wreath Pouring

As we pour the water for our Advent wreath we remember our deep thirst for hope.

Hope which revives us like that first icy cold drink of water gulped down from the fridge when you’ve trudged home from school on a 36 degree day.

Hope which transforms us, like drought-breaking rain on parched land.

Hope which carries us forward in its mystery, as the endless waves which connect us to the rest of the world.

Reflection/ Action:
Sit at the tram stop and consider what it is you hope for most this Christmas time. How do you find the hope you need to live?

What is the difference between maintaining high hope and imposing unrealistic or burdensome expectations upon yourself and others?

Graffiti your hopes, prayers or questions on the tram stop

WAITING FOR PEACE

We know the story God, the shepherds and the angels say ‘Peace on Earth’. But on the news tonight another bomb and lying words to mask the blame. While on the street and in our homes voices are raised in hate—a bottle smashed, the glint of knives. We want to help, but in the treadmill of our days there is not even time to calm the noise inside our heads. May the “Prince of Peace” draw near to us so that we may draw near to one another.

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
2The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
4but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
5Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
6The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them. I

Isaiah 11:1-6

Wreath Pouring

As we pour the water for our Advent wreath we remember our deep thirst for peace:

The peace of a long soak in a hot tub after a hard day’s work.

The peace of steam rising around a home saved by the sweat and sacrifice of a community of firefighters and their supporters.

The peace of a spring mountain stream fed by the long anticipated thaw of winter snow.

Peace as deep and mysterious and teeming with life as the vast oceans.

Reflection/Action:

The lyric of Sinead O’Connor’s song “Jeremiah (Something Beautiful) speaks of someone needing to “steal” or “set free” a bible from a church on a ‘chronic Christmas Eve.’ Upon reading the thief receives the lament of God received by the prophet about settling for a false or superficial peace.

In what ways do you experience peace.? In what ways does the personal, social or global peace you have settled for remain superficial? What would it take for you to experience peace more deeply this Christmas?

Consider images of the Credo Cross, an icon of the Seeds:city mob and the work of Urban Seed. It has often been taken to public events as a instrument of peace. Where could you put your own body as an instrument of peace?

Light a candle for peace amidst the barbed wire. Read the poem by Catholic Peace activist , Rose Marie Berger or the prayer of St. Francis.

WAITING FOR JOY

Joy to the World! The EFTPOS handset beeps among the tinsel, lights and shoppers shoulder-jostling, purchasing the Ghost of Christmas Past. In an environment where the right gifts at the right prices means that we can “Give like Santa and Save like Scrooge”, what are you waiting for? Why wait at all, when you can have it all now!

In a fast-food world, we have become so eager to get to Christmas that we bypass Advent. Fasting is replaced by feasting at endless Christmas parties. Waiting is replaced by instant gratification. Rather than savouring the plaintive mood of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” we immediately want to hear a robust version of “Joy to the World, the Lord is Come!”

Any sense of heart-felt joyous celebration is easily diminished.

By the time Christmas Day actually comes we are exhausted. Forget the twelve days of Christmas and Epiphany. By Boxing Day we are done, packed up and off to the beach.

Can we truly sing ‘Joy to the World” unless we wait? Unless like God’s ancient people we have thoroughly rehearsed “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.?”

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus 2it shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
‘Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you.’
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,*
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
8A highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,*
but it shall be for God’s people;*
no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
9No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
10And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 35

In vain we seek the Christmas spirit lurking in a cup of punch, the parties and the smell of pine. True Christmas Joy is found packaged in swaddling rags and held within the gaze of two new parents marvelling at the life new born before them. How often joy enters our lives when we least expect it. In the midst of sorrow , or pain, or everydayness, joy may suddenly come to us. This Advent, whatever our circumstances, let there be moments of true joy as we embrace the presence of Christ in our World.

Wreath Pouring

As we pour the water for our Advent wreath we remember our deep thirst for joy.

Joy which soaks into us and makes our world stand still, like a sudden summer downpour.

Joy which makes our soul dance like kids under a sprinkler on the lawn.

Joy which becomes the centre of our life with others like the water boiling in the kettle for a cup of coffee with friends.

Reflection/ Action:

What is it that brings you joy?

Decorate the Christmas tree as an expression of joy and what it is you are waiting for this Christmas.

Consider giving that creates true joy for poor communities around the world through TEAR Australia’s “Arguably The Worlds Most Useful Gift Catalogue.”

WAITING FOR LOVE

For God so loves the world God comes to us.

Sleeping Bag by Steve Collins

Jesus is in the sleeping bag

Stopping over

He comes around any time he likes

Right time, wrong time

He don't mind

Foxes have holes, birds have nests

But the son of man has the sofa

He’s poking around the fridge

Which needs defrosting

Old sins stuck in the icebox

Fruit gone bad

Leftovers still left over

He throws them out

I guess I should clean up but I never get much warning

It’s embarrassing

But I’d still rather he came

We sit up late talking

Where we’ve been

And where we’re going next

He’s already bought the tickets

All I have to do is get time off work

Goodnight rustle in the corner

The room feels warmer

with him in it.

Christmas is the miracle of God’s love made flesh among us.

The message of Christmas is God’s great love for the world. This Advent let us make room for unsettling arrival of God’s love, in our hearts, in our homes, in our relationships together. Immanuel shall come and dwell with us….even if it means crashing on the couch...or in a manger.

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
15The Lord has taken away the judgements against you,
he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall fear disaster no more.
16On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands grow weak.
17The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
18 as on a day of festival.
I will remove disaster from you,
so that you will not bear reproach for it.
19I will deal with all your oppressors
at that time.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.

Zephaniah 3:14-19

Wreath Pouring

As we pour the water for our Advent wreath we remember our deep thirst for love.

A tsunami wave of love, overpowering, all-enveloping, overwhelming, sweeping all up before it and changing the landscape forever.

Love which has the patience to seep into us, one drop at a time over aeons, forming stalagmites of beauty in the darkest places.

Love which holds us with the silent ethereal mystery of mist on a mountain top

Action / Reflection:

As you wait in the lounge space take time to recognise that you are loved and are surrounded by the love that created the universe. Consider the theme of love as you view Advent in Art Cards on the Coffee table.

What are you waiting for?

Write an Advent in Art Card to someone who needs to know this love this Christmas.

WAITING FOR CHRIST, WAITING TO LIVE, WAITING TO DIE, WAITING TO RISE. WAITING FOR. . .

What are you waiting for?:
An Advent reflection by Kate Allen and Marcus Curnow (Urban Seed, 2005)

It was the first week of Advent 2005. I was living as part of the Urban Seed residential community in the heart of central Melbourne.

I attended the Amnesty International Candlelight Vigil at the Alexandra Gardens for the condemned Australian Van Nguyen. Having acted as a drug mule in order to pay the debts of his brother, he had been captured and sentenced to death in Singapore. Over three years the case had sparked the usual polarised debate about the death penalty. Having exhausted official appeals and in spite of pleas for clemency, he was to be executed the next morning by the Singaporean Government.

I carried with me to the vigil a heavy wooden cross. The Credo Cross was built by a member of our community the day we heard that one of our close friends, a key volunteer at our open lunch for disadvantaged people, had been found dead from a drug overdose in a laneway close to our home. As most from our households gathered and mourned in silence that day, all that could be heard from our apartments was the sound of banging from the fire escape as the commemorative cross was constructed..

(hammer on cross)

Since that time, it has become an icon for our community, a symbol to cling to, a trusted companion when the pain of the world falls upon us like a hammer. We use it regularly during our prayers and worship gatherings, at weddings and at funerals. We take it with us when we attend the various protests and vigils that regularly take place in the centre of the city.

And so it was with me this night. I held it for Van. The vigil was quiet but moving. We lit our candles and made our prayers for a stay of execution and for the life and souls of the condemned, the condemners and ourselves. At its conclusion I headed home.

Carrying the cross upon my shoulder, I was walking past Flinders Street Station when a group of people carrying a video camera thrust a microphone in my face.

“What does Christmas mean to you?” they asked

I supposed that they must have been Christians, looking for “vox pop” responses, perhaps for some sort of Christmas presentation.

“What does Christmas mean to you?”

“Well…” I started, a little surprised by the interruption. (It can be hard to think on your feet, especially when you’re carrying a cross through a crowded city!)

“You might notice I’m carrying a cross.” I continued…. “You see, I am a Christian and it is because of this that I’ve been to the vigil for Van Nguyen, who is to be executed tomorrow.”

I spoke of my opposition to the death penalty. I spoke of how Jesus was also victim of a state execution but that through his example of nonviolent love he showed a way of life that triumphs over death. That this demonstrated that sometimes power could be weak and that what seems weak can be the most powerful force in the world. “And so”, I concluded, “I guess I believe in a world of grace, not the cold, hard, hand of the law.”

“Errr OK!”…..the interviewer looked a little confused. “That’s good; but what would you say Christmas means to you?”

There we both stood.

Waiting…

Me, with a cross upon my shoulder, waiting for him to comprehend.

Him, with a camera on his, waiting for an answer he wanted to hear.

Waiting…

It’s Advent again…..what are you waiting for?

Wreath Pouring

As we complete our watery Advent wreath , we remember Jesus, who said he was the living water for which we would thirst no more.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
3 he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
4Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.
5You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Psalm 23

Action / Reflection

You are invited to eat bread and drink the water from the manger, the place where God made flesh was laid.

We use water for our common cup because of its inclusivity. It makes up 70% of each of our bodies. We each need it. It is used as a symbol if life and death throughout the Hebrew/Christian scriptures.

Bread and water also reminds us of the staple rations of many who are imprisoned around the world.

Remember those who are imprisoned or on death row, waiting for a pardon or waiting to die.

Read the Amnesty international Literature and offer a prayer.

The Eucharist remembers the connection of life and death. Through his ordeal Van Nguyen reconnected with the Catholic faith of his childhood. He walked unbound to his execution, with confidence in the resurrection reciting the 23rd Psalm.

Those who would seek to “Put Christ back into X-mas” fail to understand the incarnation. Christ comes to us whether we like it or not, whether we recognise it or not. So often how Christ comes to us; What Christ offers us and our world comes as a surprise, subverting our expectation.

At his birth, in life, at his last meal, at his death and resurrection Jesus comes to us as the answer we least expect., challenging what we thought we were waiting for.

Eat and drink in this mystery.

Peace on Earth: U2

Album: All That You Cant Leave Behind, 2000

Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I'm sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain
I'm sick of hearing again and again
That there's gonna be peace on Earth

Where I grew up there weren't many trees
Where there was we'd tear them down
And use them on our enemies
They say that what you mock
Will surely overtake you
And you become a monster
So the monster will not break you
And it's already gone too far
You say that if you go in hard
You won't get hurt

Jesus can you take the time
To throw a drowning man a line
Peace on Earth
Tell the ones who hear no sound
Whose sons are living in the ground
Peace on Earth

No whos or whys
No one cries like a mother cries
For peace on Earth
She never got to say goodbye
To see the colour in his eyes
Now he's in the dirt
Peace on Earth

They're reading names out over the radio
All the folks the rest of us won't get to know
Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda
Their lives are bigger than any big idea

Jesus and the song you wrote
The words are sticking in my throat
Peace on Earth

Hear it every Christmas time
But hope and history won't rhyme
So what's it worth
This peace on Earth

Written about the Real IRA Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland in 1998. The song lists the names of people killed. Similarly, inspiration for the lyric, "She never got to say goodbye / To see the colour in his eye / Now he's in the dirt" comes from the funeral of James Barker. The Irish Times quoted his mother as stating, "I never realised how green his eyes were."

Jeremiah (Something Beautiful) : Sinead O’Connor,

Album: Theology, Dublin Session, 2007

I wanna make
Something beautiful
For you and from you
To show you
To show you
I adore you
Oh you

And your journey
Toward me
Which I see
And I see
All you push through
Mad for you
And because of you

I couldn't thank you in ten thousand years
If I cried ten thousand rivers of tears
Ah but you know the soul and you know what makes it gold
You who give life through blood

Oh I wanna make something
So lovely for you
'Cus I promised that's what I'd do for you
With the bible I stole
I know you forgave my soul
Because such was my need on a chronic Christmas Eve
And I think we're agreed that it should have been free
And you sang to me

They dress the wounds of my poor people
As though they're nothing
Saying "peace, peace"
When there's no peace (2x)

Now can a bride forget her jewels?
Or a maid her ornaments?
Yet my people forgotten me
Days without number
Days without number
And in their want
Oh in there want
And in their want
Who'll dress their wounds?
Who'll dress their wounds?

" Theology is an attempt to create a place of peace in a time of war. It is my own personal response to what has taken and is affecting everyone around the world since and including September 11, 2001. I want to be very clear - there is no message. No preaching. Nothing deep and meaningful the artist wants to say, nothing trouble making. I simply wanted to make a beautiful thing, out of something beautiful, which inspires me."

Sinead O’Connor

That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!: Sufjan Stevens

Songs for Christmas Vol 3., Ding! Dong! 2005

Going outside
Shoveling snow in the driveway
Driveway

Taking our shoes
Riding a sled down the hill side
Hill side

Can you say what you want
Can you say what you want to be
Can you be what you want
Can you be what you are

Our father yells
Throwing the gifts in the wood stove
Wood stove

My sister runs away
Taking her books to the school yard
School yard

In time the snow will rise
In time the snow will rise
In time the Lord will rise
In time the Lord will rise

Silent night
Holy night

Silent night
Nothing feels right

True Love Waits: Radiohead

Live Album: I Might be Wrong, 1991

I'll drown my beliefs
To have you be in peace
I'll dress like your niece
To wash your swollen feet

Just don't leave
Don't leave

I'm not living
I'm just killing time
Your tiny hands
Your crazy kitten smile

And true love waits
In haunted attics
And true love lives
On lollipops and crisps

In an interview about this song Thom Yorke suggested the image of "dressing like your niece" means to give up the ego & all the masks we put on in order to love. The reference to "lollipops & crisps" refers to a story in the UK where a young boys parents left him alone in the house for a week & that is what he survived on. It depicts the lover as entirely dependant upon finding scraps & small ways to hang on until the caregiver comes back.

The Rebel Jesus: Jackson Browne
Album: The Bell’s of Dublin, Chieftans

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
Will be gathering around the hearths and tables
Giving thanks for God's graces
And the birth of the rebel Jesus

Well they call him by 'the Prince of Peace'
And they call him by 'the Savior'
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
And they fill his churches with their pride and gold
As their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that I worship in
From a temple to a robber's den
In the words of the rebel Jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when Christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why there are poor
They get the same as the rebel Jesus

But pardon me if I have seemed
To take the tone of judgement
For I've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In a life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So I bid you pleasure
And I bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel Jesus

CLOSING RITUAL

Come and be born in us

Jesus of Bethlehem and Nazareth and Calvary

We are expecting you tonight

Come and be born in us.

Jesus of the manger and inn

Workshop and temple

Lakeside and the city

Fireside and the roadside

We are expecting you tonight

Come and be born in us.

Jesus of Mary and Joseph

Shepherds and angels

Children and animals

Fishermen and priests

women and men disciples

Taxcollectors and prostitutes

Of all who will receive you

We are expecting you tonight

Come and be born in us.

Look and see

We have brought our bread and wine

to be your body for us.

Look and see

We have brought our flesh and blood

to be your body for you

Look and see

The same spirit which lived in your flesh

Is living in your people here

Look at us and let us look at you

And see you now

We are expecting you tonight

Come and be born in us

Doug Gay (Late Late Service)

Curated by Marcus Curnow. Seeds Footscray at Footscray Baptist Church and for Seeds Bendigo, Advent 2007.

Much of the Hope, Peace, Joy, Love reflections have been based on a candle lighting liturgy put together by Brenda Stone of Cityside Baptist, NZ. Obtained from Mark Pierson's Fractals Worship Resource.

Posted by marcus at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

Brianna's Wedding

October 28, 2007

Ex-Urban Seed ressie Bri Noonan marries Damian Peck. The main visual image of the wedding was rose petals....so I set up some projectors with powerpoint images of rose petals on slow fade type animation. It was one of those modern blank/ bare/ big stage/ performance space oriented church buildings that I often think dont work well for weddings. The images were an attempt to have a BIG visual fill up the vacuous church space. Complemented well I thought with the boquets and the rose petals strew over the dark carpet down the aisle and on stage. Congrats Bri and Damian!

Posted by marcus at 02:08 AM | Comments (0)

Loopholes in Love (Good Samaritan)

October 15, 2007

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR?: Looking for Loopholes in Love
Signposts on the Journey from Jerusalem to Jericho
TEAR AUSTRALIA Victorian Gathering
5-7th October 2007

Looking for Loopholes in Love, Concept originally developed by
and curated by Mark Pierson for World Vision Australia at Montsalvat, Victoria, October 5, 2006

WELCOME...to this mornings worship curated by Seeds for the TEAR Gathering...

Seeds describes the types of conversation, relational connections, and commitments that have emerged out of the life of Urban Seed, a ministry of hospitality, education and advocacy in the heart of Melbourne.
Seeds now finds expression in groups of people who seek to Know the Word , Grow Home and Go Engage in various neighbourhoods around Victoria.
We value worship that is participatory, supportive of creativity, not afraid of questions and connected to the realities of our lives.

INSTRUCTIONS
Around the property there are 11 different stations. They are located inside buildings and outside. You are free to move around the area over the next 60 minutes and to interact with the stations as you wish.

You can move to all the stations marked by the signposts, or stay at one. You are welcome to use the time to sit quietly here and watch images and text on the screen or to wander around the property.

Please respect the silence of other people. If you wish socialize please do it away from the stations.

"Come on Up to the House" by Tom Waits will play again at 9.55am and a Benediction will be said in this space should you wish to return, after which the morning session will begin.

Opening ritual

We acknowledge that we gather on the land of which the Jajowurrong (or Djadja Wurrung) people have been custodians from time immemorial. We honour this history and commit ourselves to care for the land with them. May our worship and our service be work for reconciliation with people and with our God.

‘Well the moon is broken, And the sky is cracked,
The only things that you can see, Is all that you lack,
Come on up to the house’ - Tom Waits

1. MY WORD from Luke 10:25

Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?"
26He answered, "What's written in God's Law? How do you interpret it?"
27He said, "That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself."
28"Good answer!" said Jesus. "Do it and you'll live."
29Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define 'neighbor'?"
30-32Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33-35"A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I'll pay you on my way back.'
36"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?"
37"The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, "Go and do the same." The Message

As you re-read the text notice what words or phrase stands out for you. Write or organise the word/s on the whiteboards and ask God to show what they may mean for you.
My word/s ...... Gods word for me.......

2. ROBBED!

People can be robbed of much more than material goods...Time, love, attention, trust, acceptance...
Do you feel like you have been robbed of anything? Who by?
Have you robbed someone else of something?

Can you forgive your ‘robber’?
Can you forgive yourself?

Forgiveness can rarely be of human making, and is rarely a single event or moment. What would you like from the ‘innkeeper’ as you continue on your journey through life?

Jesus welcomes all of us and every part of us to join him at the Table.

Jesus was at a meal with his close friends, and in the same way that he had taken the bread they were eating he also took what they were drinking and said, ‘This is my lifeblood. It represents the new life I’m making possible for you when you have a relationship with God.’ Drink and encounter the healing and renewing presence of Christ in your life and for your journey.
(fill up a cup from the water container...)

When you have emptied your cup fill it with potting mix and plant a seed. Water it from your water bottle. Take this away with you and nurture it to life as a reminder to nurture your own life on your journey toward wholeness.

3. DITCHED BY GOD?

What if you are the person in the ditch, and God is the “Good Samaritan?”

In the story the ‘enemy’ brings life to the person left for dead. The person who cannot help herself, who has nothing to lose, who can’t even refuse help, is saved by someone usually scorned and derided. Perhaps, at different times, you see God as your ‘enemy’ and as your rescuer?

In what ways, if any, do you see God as your enemy?
In what ways would you like God to be your rescuer?
What ditch are you lying in?

Jesus did not come to rescue the healed...he came for the broken, offering to get in the ditch with us, and making us the promise of being put into a right relationship with God.

“On the night before he was to be deserted by everyone around him, Jesus was at a meal with his close friends, and he took the bread they were eating, gave thanks for it and broke it saying, ‘This is my body given for you. Eat it and remember what I can do for you.’

Break and eat bread and allow the unexpected mercy of God into your life, even as you are in you ‘ditch’. Know that there is the promise of the presence of the Christ with you wherever you are in life and however you feel toward God.

4. NEWS-LINE

To ask ‘Who is my neighbour?’ is to ask ‘Who can I exclude?’ ‘Who can I leave out?’ ‘Who am I not responsible for?’ Examples of exclusion and inclusion surround us every day.

Tear out any newspaper article, heading, picture or text that sums up a plea from someone who needs a neighbour. Someone who is excluded in some way.

Hang it on the line.
Read what others have chosen.

Can you act as neighbour in any of these situations? Can you include someone who would otherwise be excluded? Pray for those who can; pray that someone will.

5. NEIGHBOUR-ED

Reflect on a recent situation where someone ‘became a neighbour’ or acted as a neighbour to you, or to someone close to you. How does this feel? Were you surprised? Why, or why not?

How did you respond? Could you or should you have acted differently?

Do you find it easier to be a neighbour or to be ‘neighboured’?

‘In the Kingdom of God mercy is always a surprise.’

Psalm 141 says, ‘God, come close. Come quickly! Open your ears— it’s my voice you’re hearing! Threat my prayer as sweet incense rising; my raised hands are my evening prayers.’

Drop a few grains of incense into the bowl as a symbol of your prayer of gratitude or confession.

6. BAND-AID

The point of Jesus’ interaction with the lawyer was to have him see that , ‘Who is my neighbour?’ is the wrong question. The right question is ‘ Who sees me as their neighbour?’ In other words, ‘Who needs me to be a neighbour to them?’ Who needs me to show mercy, compassion, understanding, acceptance, practical help toward their situation? The initiative comes from the need, not my response.

Are you aware of a person or situation that needs your merciful neighbourly response? Maybe you need that from someone else? Could you use a neighbour at the moment? How will you seek one out?

Take a Band-Aid and write or draw on it with a pen that person or circumstance.

Attach the Band-Aid to the person in the ditch as a symbol of your prayer for, and your commitment to being a neighbour.

7. TEAR

What reasons may the Samaritan have paid the innkeeper to care? For what reasons might you give time or money to TEAR or be an inn keeper, paid to care?

TEAR is committed to serving those in desperate need, prioritising people over money or structures. How do you feel when corrupt officials, warlords or racist bureaucrats stop that happening? What about the failings of TEAR or Australia generally. What keeps you going?

The story Jesus told isn't about doing good works, or following a good example. It’s a story about doing what is right because it is right. It’s about identifying with the loser and sacrificing your best for the lost , the least, the little and the almost dead (Robert Farrar Capon’s litany). It’s about losing your life and somehow in doing that, according to Jesus, finding the meaning of your life.

How do you feel about these tensions and stuggles? Take a copy of the picture and colour it in using colours that represent the emotions evoked in you. When you have finished, nail your picture to the cross.

8. MELTING AT THE CROSS ROADS

There is no reason given in the story to think that the Levite and the Priest were morally corrupt, or self- centred, or too busy to notice what was going on. They were probably good, respectable people. They saw the situation, but were caught between their duty to the people they served, and to the victim. They knew if they touched the injured man they would not be able to carry out their own scheduled duties of service to others in temple worship. They would be considered ‘unclean’.

I don't think the story is about putting the Samaritan’s response above those of the Priest or Levite. It’s about getting the lawyer to understand that his view of ‘neighbour’ was too simplistic and narrow. Too black and white. Jesus doesn't condemn anyone’s choice.

Service, community development, being a neighbour, offering love can’t be defined with words; they are worked out in the messy, compromising, risky reality of difficult and often conflicting choices.

Do you feel pulled in this way in your personal life or work circumstances?
How do you maintain you integrity? How do you ‘love yourself” in these situations?

Take an ice cross in your hand and walk or sit with the discomfort of the cold and wet melt. Talk to God about the impossibility of the situations you face. Remember the similarly difficult choice God faced with Jesus and the cross. Know that you are not condemned by God for your choices. At some point let the cross fall from your hand and walk away.

9. LOVE ME?....LOVE ME NOT?.....

Look over the faces on the wall. Write on the wall your reaction to any of the people that you want to, or your prayer for them.

10. IDENTIFICATION

The main characters in the story are—Jesus, The lawyer, The victim, The robbers, The priest, The Levite, The Samaritan, The Innkeeper.

What do you identify most with?
Do you know why this is?
Is this identification something you are happy with or wish was different?
What location would you place yourself at in the story?

Using the materials make a ‘stick figure’ avatar to represent you. Place that figure in the sand at the place you currently see yourself in the story.

Then light a stick of incense and place it where you would like to be.

11. BRAINS AND BRAWN

“Love the Lord you God with all your passion, and prayer, and intelligence and muscle...Do this and you will live. “

Passion Heart
Prayer Soul
Intelligence Mind
Muscle Strength

What do you think you’re strongest in?
What do you think could use some strengthening?

They’re probably meant to be taken together as an expression of a wholehearted and whole of life commitment to loving and following God rather than broken down and analysed.

Use the paint to draw, or leave your handprint on the plinth as an indication of your desire to follow God with all of your being and in every area of your life as best as you are able.

BENEDICTION

God of the journey, you are always calling us to follow you into the future, inviting us to new ventures, new challenges, new ways to care, new ways to touch the hearts of all. When we are fearful of the unknown, give us courage. When we worry that we are not up to the task, remind us that you would not call us if you did not believe us. (Unknown)

You are God’s servants, gifted with dreams and visions
Upon you rests the grace of God Like flames of fire,
Love and serve the Lord in the strength of the spirit.
May the deep peace of Christ be with you,
The strong arms of God sustain you and the power of the Holy Spirit strengthen you in every way.
(Dianne Karay Tripp)

Posted by marcus at 12:19 AM | Comments (0)

Xavier's Baptism/ Dedication

September 12, 2007

Liturgy for Xaviers Dedication at Dancing Dog Cafe in Footscray which kicked off our Sunday Seeds Gatherings in partnership with Footscray baptist. Due acknowledgement to kester for the circles idea and lots of good words.

Dedication of Xavier Patrick Lacey

Opening Ritual

We acknowledge that we gather on the land of which the Wurundjeri people have been custodians from time immemorial. We honour this history and commit ourselves to care for the land with them. May our worship and our service be work for reconciliation with people and with our God.

(We say together…) Jesus, light of the world, we confess that you are here. Shine your light into the hidden places of our lives, and bring warmth to the cold places of our hearts. Amen.

(silence while a candle is lit. This candle is Xavier’s Baptism Candle used earlier today at hisCatholic Baptism Ceremony. )

Call to Worship

In the name of God, the giver of life, who creates and loves us all, we have gathered to celebrate the gift of Xavier, born into the world;
given to us to love, to nurture and to enjoy.
Within this gathering we embody the different influences that will impact his life: Parents, Godparents, family, friends, community.
Concentric circles, overlapping, radiating and expanding,
Focused on a God who’s centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
Every perimeter is simultaneously a boundary that protects the treasure inside, and a border we are encouraged to cross. So as we gather to give thanks for his coming life, we will be focusing on each circle in turn: ever expanding our boundary in the hope that Xavier’s’ vision will be wide, and his centre true.

Gathering Song
________________________________________
Gathered here in the mystery of the hour
Gathered here in one strong body
Gathered here in the struggle and the power
Spirit draw near

Prayer of Confession/Forgiveness

Psalm 131
My heart is not proud, O Lord
My eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
Or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quietened my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Put your hope in the Lord
both now and for evermore.

Knowing the Word
What happened this morning? : Katherine
Why Seeds? : Chris
Seeds Prayer of Promise

Chris and Katherine: God our holy community of gracious hospitality, in the midst of our homelessness you extend us an invitation to Grow Home.

Holding up the packet of Seeds and bowl

Help us to raise Xavier to know and to grow a rich sense of home. Let us teach him the danger of wealth and the freedom of economic sharing. May the poor always be with him. Teach him the power and beauty of his body; fidelity with your wild creativity and respect for the sacred connections of your Spirit, our bodies and all creation. Teach him how to eat ‘slow’ so that his eyes may be opened to your presence through the breaking of bread. Guide him in his use of power, teaching him the art of mutual submission. Grant us courage to teach him what laws to break and how to give of ourselves with the same passion with which you lived and died.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Dave: May we Know the Word.

Holding up the Bible

May we raise Xavier to know the stories of a God who re-creates a fallen world, not just ancient words on a page but the living Spirit of Christ among us. May your story choose him. Teach him how to choose his stories and story his choices; how to spin a life giving yarn and to listen for your voice in silence and Sabbath rest. Teach him to meditate and pray so that he may experience your love and cling to hope in the midst of failure, suffering and adversity.

Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Kylie : May we Go Engage.

Holding up the bottle of oil (symbol of healing)

May we raise Xavier with the confidence to engage our troubled world. To speak truth to the powers and to each of us. To name and cast out that which is evil in our world and within, through militant nonviolence. Teach him the arts of hospitality, mercy and forgiveness. Teach him how to negotiate the streets and danger by teaching him every community safety trick you know and having done this, when and how to risk it all for the sake of love. Teach him the good work of love as the only true measure of success. And because each of us will fail him, in the midst of our brokenness, may he know and share your healing power; your gracious hospitality to us. (Kylie marks sign of the cross upon Xavier’s forehead with the oil)

Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayer

May we teach him all this but also not forget to learn from him, because the economy of God belongs to such as these.
Amen

Dedication :

Circle 1 : Chris and Katherine come to the centre with Xavier, and light their candles from the main candle.

God our Creator,
Thank you for the waiting and the joy,
Thank you for new life and for parenthood,
Thank you for the gift of Xavier,
Entrusted to our care.
May we be patient and understanding,
Ready to guide and forgive,
That in our love Xavier may know your love.
May he learn to love your world
And the whole family of your children
Through Christ our life,

Circle 2 : The Godparents come to the centre and have their candles lit by Katherine and Chris

God who gave up all to become a baby, a child, a man
Help us be wise guides as Xavier begins his journey back to you
As his world grows, may we:
Walk with him,
Inspire him,
Protect him,
Encourage him,
Correct him,
Trust him
Release him

Circle 3 Everyone
Parents and Godparents now go out to light the candles of everyone else starting with immediate family (who may assist!)

Marcus: It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that not only Xavier, but all the children we know are encircled with love and helped to understand where they are from and to whom they belong. It is also our responsibility to gently expose them overtime to the other stories, place and cultures that make up our cities, nations and world.
So I ask you all:

Will you welcome Xavier to this community? We will.
Will you support his parents as best you can as they bring him up? We will.
And for all the children gathered, will you always try to widen their vision and deepen their understanding? We will.

Blessing for Xavier: Marcus
Xavier, We welcome to our Seedy mob! For you Jesus Christ has come and has lived; life in all its fullness. For you he endured the agony of Gethsemane and the darkness of the cross; for you he has uttered the cry, ‘It is accomplished!’ For you, he has triumphed over death; for you he prays at God’s right hand; all for you, little child, even though you do not know it.
The blessing of the God of Sarah and of Abraham
The blessing of the Son, born of Mary,
The blessing of the Spirit, who broods over us
As a mother over her children
Be with you now and for ever
Amen.

Responses:
(Song: I Want to Be Ready: Ben Harper)

Candle Prayers: place your lit candle in the sand tray as a prayer for Xavier.
Communion: help yourself to water/bread.
Oil and white robe: write your name in the white linen circles and or mark yourself with healing oil.
Offerings: for the work of Seeds in Footscray can be left in the urn.

Community Notices

The Servant Song
________________________________________
Brother, Sister let me serve you
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I may have the grace to
Let you be my servant too.

We are travellers on a journey
And companions on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load

I will weep when you are weeping
When you laugh Ill laugh with you
I will share you joy and sorrow
Till weve seen this journey through.

I shall hold the Christ light for you
In the night time of your fear
I will hold my hand out to you
Speak the peace you long to hear

When we sing to God in heaven
We shall find such harmony
Born of all we’ve known together
Of Christ’s love and agony.

Benediction…
we say to each other…
You are God’s servants, gifted with dreams and visions
Upon you rests the grace of God like flames of fire.
Love and serve the Lord in the strength of the Spirit.
May the deep peace of Christ be with you,
The strong arms of God sustain you,
And the power of the Holy Spirit strengthen you in every way.
Amen. (Dianne Karray Tripp)

Posted by marcus at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

Surrender Faces

August 05, 2007

Used this as the worship/response/sending out to Shane Claibourne's message at the Surrender Conference at Belgrave Heights Convention Centre last weekend. Thanks to Christop for printing all the images. To Dave and Gemma and Talitha for helping set up and Stella for singing the song. It was great having the images hanging around the conference space during the whole event.

Reflection
The face is a powerful symbol for reflection.

Shane Claibourne tells a story of a power point presentation of faces he once used as a response to a talk about scandalous grace. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch “like me” and the faces came up with the text “like me” , “like me”, “like me”. The faces included that of Timothy McVeigh the man executed for the Oaklahoma bombing.....

In the later service the same message, the same presentation but the face of McVeigh had been removed.

Tonight the faces that hang in the space act as a symbol of our-selves and our world. The face is your face, the face is the face of your friends and family, the face of your enemy, the face of the poor and forgotten...the face of Christ. Who do you see when you look into the face of another?

Tonight’s response is shaped by the generous invitation of Jesus to those who would seek to follow his example of engaging a broken world through preaching, healing and casting out evil.

Teach me Jesus.

What “word of truth’ does this conference make you want to proclaim. What is the word of “good news” from tonight for yourself or for others. Using the chalk write this word upon a face as a prayer.

Heal me Jesus.

Consider that which is broken and hurting within you and those you would seek to serve. As a symbol of healing use the bandaids to write the name of a person or an issue that requires healing.

Free me Jesus

Consider the evil in our world that binds, divides and entrenches separation from God and God’s justice.
Take the tin snips and cut a piece of the wire that covers the face as a symbol of your desire to cast out that which is evil within your own life and within our world.

Take it with you as a reminder of the chain breaking freedom that exists in the way of Jesus.

Thuma Mina(South African: Take Me) ________________________________________
Thuma mina , Thuma mina
Thuma mina , Somandla

Send me Jesus, Send me Jesus,
Send me Jesus, Send me Lord.

Teach me Jesus, Teach me Jesus,
Teach me Jesus, Teach me Lord.

Heal me Jesus, Heal me Jesus,
Heal me Jesus, Heal me Lord.

Free me Jesus, Free me Jesus,
Free me Jesus, Free me Lord.

Thuma mina....

Shane Claibourne, Simon Moyle, Gemma and Simon Reeves....

Posted by marcus at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)

Mealtime Liturgy for Seedy Mobs

July 13, 2007

The Seeds Meal

Central to the emergence of the Seeds Covenant has been the spirituality of the table. It is the gathered meal that often unites our efforts in knowing the word, growing home and going to engage the problems of our world. Some queries from our covenant point to the table.

How regularly will we come together around a common meal?

Who will be invited and made to feel welcome at the meal?

How will our meal reflect the Eucharist as practiced through history?

How will our meal reflect peace, justice and joy by making reconciling connections with God, others and the earth?

What practical processes and symbolic rituals around production and consumption of our food will shape the spirit of the meal and build a sense of home? (Who’s cooking and who’s doing the dishes? How and why?)

The following is an attempt to make our spirituality of the table more explicit and to make some of the words and processes we have found helpful more accessible. To celebrate and share different food traditions that exist among our Seedy Mobs and to inspire new production and consumption.

Some of the values of these meals take their cues from the “Slow Food” Movement which arose in Italy as a response to the negative impact of multinational food companies and is spreading around the world – slowly!

Slow Food opposes the standardisation of taste, protects cultural identity tied to food and seeks to safeguard processing techniques inherited from tradition. It involves valuing time to prepare, eat and build community through food.

It is sometimes critiqued as being an elite pursuit, however Jesus himself would often seek out the best feed in town! Far from extravagant eating, Slow Food is about the celebration of the connections that food can make with sustainable production and local food traditions that are often lost in our economy.

Slow Food has helped reframe our understanding of what it means to be “church” because If we read the gospels without getting hungry we aren’t really paying attention. The how, what, where and with whom Jesus eats is a central point of gospel conflict and ”understanding about the loaves” (Mark 6:52) is presented as essential to understanding Jesus’ ministry of recon-ciliation.

This ministry is symbolised in the offer of wilderness bread and of his body and blood in the Eucharist. Our prayer is that like the followers at Emmaus, it would be in the offer of hospitality to strangers, and at the breaking of bread that our eyes will be opened and that Christ may be made known among us.

Possible Elements of a Seeds Menu

Welcome
Grace
Confession
Eucharist Prayers
Know the Word : Sharing Story
Concerns/Prayers for Others
Benediction

BELLS Menu
(Mike Frost / Small Boat Big Sea)
Blessing
Eat
Listen to each other
Listen to the gospel
Sending Out

The Welcome

1. A Listening Welcome

Hear the cry and promise of Jesus who said ;

“Listen, I stand at the door and knock: if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you and you with me.”

In the gift of Jesus and through the presence of his Spirit, we have tasted God’s gracious hospitality to us. And so we extend this grace to each other…

(Each person names the person seated beside them saying….

Welcome to this table in the name of Christ.

Reply: Amen. (expressions of personal feelings or acknowledgement of what people bring to the table may also be offered.)

(adapted from Tablelife, Oxford)

2. Setting Place for the Unseen Christ.

This may involve a simple setting of an empty place at the table. It may involve the lighting the Christ Candle (see below) or Prayer for Placing the Seeds Covenant Symbols which includes a bowl.

3. Lighting of the Christ Candle
We acknowledge that we gather on the land of which the (insert) people have been custodians from time immemorial. We honour this history and commit ourselves to care for the land with them. May our worship and our service be work for reconciliation with people and with our God.

(We say together…)

Jesus light of the world we confess that you are here. Shine your light in to the hidden places of our lives and bring warmth to the dark places of our hearts. Amen.

A time of silence is held during and/or after the candle has been lit.

Grace

Neil’s Grace
(a long term volunteer at Urban Seed’s Credo Café and example of gentle humility and service.)
Heavenly Father we thank you for……………..
May we always be grateful for your provision and may we always be mindful of the needs of others. Amen

Marcus’s Grace
(used at Credo Café 2004)

Take a moment to become aware of your body and your senses.
The smell of the food prepared for you, your salivating mouth, your growling stomach. Become aware of your hunger.
The hunger we bring to this table is not for bread alone but for a sharing with others and our Creator.
No matter who we are at this table, no matter our difference, we are united by our hunger.
We give thanks for our bodies, this bread and that some of what we long for will soon be satisfied.
We remember those whose hunger will not be satisfied this day.
May this food give us the energy we need to work for a world without hunger.
Amen

Eucharist Prayers.

1. Explanation of Water.

At our Seeds Gatherings we use water as our Eucharist cup because of its inclusivity. Water is common and essential to all and does not divide those of us who struggle with alcohol or with watered down grape juice.
As communion serves to remind us of Jesus, using water serves also as a reminder that our city was established here because it was a place for good water.
It reminds us that indigenous peoples often showed settlers how to find the water we needed to survive and that these sources were sometimes poisoned in response.
Bread and water.remind us of the rations of those who are imprisioned and in detention.
It reminds us of the climate change, drought and the constant reality of a culture for whom water is scarce.
It reminds us of Jesus words that he was “Living Water” who would forever quench our thirst.
“To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the river of life.”

2. Prayer for Water.

Eternal God,
We thank you for the gift of water, Essential for life; cause of death; and metaphor for both.
A symbol of your Spirit’s transformative activity within our lives and creation.
Raging water which Jesus our Saviour crossed and subdued,
Still waters to which you guide us.
In the beginning you brooded over the waters
Bringing order from chaos and birth to creation.
The waters of the great flood brought a judgement of evil
and floated an ark of hope and salvation.
Through their baptism in the Red Sea,
you led your people to freedom and drowned the powers that enslaved us.
Water flowed from the rock of Moses,
Sustaining us in the desert.
You directed us through the River Jordan
Guiding us to abundance in a Promised Land.
Within that same river, Jesus was baptised by John and anointed by the Spirit.
With the water of our own baptism we remember our participation in your story
Water and blood flowed from the side of your wounded body at your death
Your sacrifice for our sin and a broken creation
As we share this meal may we continue be born anew of water and the Spirit,
Raise us to new life in Christ, and strengthen us to serve you in the world, until that day when you make all things new.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Adapted from Uniting in Worship baptism liturgy for Communion at Seeds Gatherings, Melbourne, 2005)

3. Tablelife Eucharist (Tablelife, Oxford)

Bread and wine are placed on the table

While they were at the table Jesus took a loaf of bread and after giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying “Take; this is my body”. Then he took a cup of wine, and gave it to them. “This is my blood – which is poured out for many.”

Thank you God that ordinary things can become special when placed in your hands. Thank you that that which is broken may be made whole, and that which is given is not wasted.

In the silence we think about things in ourselves and in the world that we would like to change

Bread is passed around

Be grateful when you touch bread
Let it not lie uncared for, unwanted.
There is so much beauty in bread;
Beauty of sun and soil, beauty of patient toil.
Winds and rain have caressed it.
Christ often blessed it.
Be grateful when you touch bread
We eat bread together

Wine is poured
Be loving when you drink wine-
Let its colour, life and joy be appreciated.
There is so much beauty in this wine
Beauty of self-giving, beauty of forgiving
Winds and rain have caressed it.
Christ often blessed it.
Be loving when you drink wine.
We drink the wine and say together…

Thank you God, for love, for food, and for friends to share it with.

4. Freedom Bound: A Tale of Two Meals
(adapted from Ched Myers’ address at Greenbelt, 2005. Each person could read a sentence around the table.)

• As we eat this day we remember Passover and Eucharist.
• The foundational meals that gave birth to our people.
• Meals that commemorate the journey of faith. “Which make a way out of no way.”
• The Exodus march and the discipleship path.
• Last meals of memory for communities on the run, hunted by the powers of empire.
• Meals that acknowledge blood (of the Lamb), as the power of life over death.
• Meals for a people “Freedom bound.”
• Where the Exodus reminds us we are “Bound for Freedom”; Eucharist reminds us we are bound to the freedom struggle and its cost.
• That God’s freedom calls us to self- restraint, servanthood and justice for all.
• It reminds us that the “first supper” for a free people was wilderness manna where we are reminded our freedom is contingent upon gathering only enough and sharing the gifts of creation.
• Jesus re-enacted this story when, surrounded by hungry masses, he “took bread, blessed it, broke it and distributed it” among the people.
• Using the same ritual words at his Last Supper he made the feeding of the multitudes the bridge that connects these two meals.
• Standing ever between Exodus and Eucharist are poor folks hungering for bread and for the Bread of Life.
• And Jesus’ word to disciples remains: “You feed them!”
• The tale of these two meals is God’s extraordinary invitation to turn the world right side up, coming in the form of the most ordinary thing we do: sharing food together around a table.
• Let us not imagine these meals as a religious entitle-ment, or empty ritual, or for strictly private spirituality.
• Rather, when we take this Bread and lift this Cup, let us understand that we are part of a legacy that invites our embrace. For we, too, are part of the ongoing struggle to take back the Freedom story from empire-builders and profiteers, and to restore it among Kingdom-seekers and prophets.
• Upon these two memorial feasts, we can confidently stake our lives, our aspirations, our vocations.
• On a faithful practice of meal and memory we can rebuild a church that will truly be Freedom Bound, so that the history of liberation may also have a future.

5.
During 2000 and at the height of the heroin crisis the Urban Seed residential community at Central House, Melbourne experienced great struggle hanging its own relationships together.
Peter Chapman of Common Life suggested we share communion as it had a unique power to unite beyond words. Communion was shared weekly where we served each other using the words.

The body of Christ broken for you and all creation. The blood of Christ shed for you and all creation.

A simple Taize style chant was also sung such as:

Jesus Christ, bread of life, those who trust is you will not hunger. Jesus Christ, Living Word, those who trust in you shall not thirst.

Eat this bread drink this cup, Come to me and never be hungry. Eat this bread, drink this cup, Come to me and you will have new life.

At night we hasten in darkenss to drink from the Living Water. Only our thirst drives us onwards. Only our thirst drives us on.

Confession

Jesus said “When you have supper, do not invite just your friends, or relatives, or those who are wealthy, but rather invite the poor and the marginalized.”

We confess to God the ways in which we have not been inclusive and welcoming in the past week.

For our blindness to the needs of others, and our preoccupation with our own agenda
Lord, have Mercy
For our failure to pay attention to the still small voice in our lives
Christ, have Mercy
For our life choices since our last meal which have not contributed to greater love and justice in the world.
Spirit, have Mercy.

Affirmation

The prophet Isaiah writes: On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare for all peoples a feast of rich food, a banquet of well-aged wines – the best of meats and the finest of wines. God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; God will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, and take away the disgrace of the people from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. In that day they will say

This is our God; the one in whom we trusted, the one who saved us. This is the Lord for whom we waited, let us rejoice and be glad.
(Adapted from Tablelife, Oxford)

Know the Word

Sharing time
Each person shares with the group (one item at a time around the table.)
*Good things that have happened in the past week
*Challenges of the past week
*How they believe they have lived as a Christian disciple, according to their personal covenant with God.
(Used in meals by Central House ressies 2006 initiated by Ali Turnbull, obtained from Richard Arnold, Brunswick Uniting Church.)

Offering our past week to God in Confession
From the unsteady heights of our own importance, we sometimes look down on the frailty of others
O God, we offer you our pride; replace it with humility.
At other times we feel that we are nothing and that most other people are more successful and capable than we are.
O God, we offer you our feelings of inferiority; make us realistic and honest in our estimation of ourselves.
Sometimes what we profess sounds good but what we practice doesn’t match up. We are not always the people we make out to be.
O God, we offer you our hypocrisy; help us to be open and sincere.
There is much more that we could confess, both personally and publicly. It is not our acts of confession which maintain us as God’s people, but the mercy and grace of God on which we are entirely dependent.
O God, we offer ourselves to you. We give you only what we are. Whilst we are sorry for our failings, we are grateful for your abundant grace. Amen

The Assurance of forgiveness
The heart of God through Jesus Christ is moved in love. There is no end to the new life which God offers to us. We are forgiven and can live in freedom. Thanks be to God
(Used in meals by Central Houseressies 2006 initiated by Ali Turnbull, obtained from Richard Arnold, Brunswick Uniting Church.)

Benediction

we say to each other…

You are God’s servants, gifted with dreams and visions
Upon you rests the grace of God like flames of fire.
Love and serve the Lord in the strength of the Spirit.
May the deep peace of Christ be with you, the strong arms of God sustain you,
And the power of the Holy Spirit strengthen you in every way.
Amen.

Dianne Karray Tripp

Seeds Symbols Prayer

(This prayer takes some of the key aspects of the Seeds Covenant.)

Holding up the packet of Seeds

Holy community of gracious hospitality, in the midst of our homelessness you extend us an invitation to Grow Home.

We thankyou for your invitation to join the vocation of those who through the ages have vowed to grow new households of love.
Set us free to share our wealth and may the poor always be with us. May we live in fidelity with your wild creative power respecting the sacred connections between your Spirit our bodies and all creation. May we only be obedient power. Grace us with mutual submission. Give us courage to give of ourselves with the same passion with which you lived and died.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Holding up the Bible
May we Know the Word. Not ancient words on a page but the living Spirit of Christ among us. Guide us in our speech at this table, choosing our stories and storying our choices. May this table be rich in story give us strength to raise our voice and to discipline to listen for yours.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Holding up the Credo Cafe bowl
May we Eat Slow. Make us mindful of all that has been given and received in the process of production and consumption. ( At this point mention could be made about different elements of the meal and what is known of their process of production). May this meal reconcile us with God, creation and others. May our eyes be opened to your presence through the breaking of the bread and may our eating bear witness to the meal to come, to which all are invited and where there is enough for all.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Holding up the bottle of oil
May we leave this table energised to Go and Engage our world. To speak truth to the powers and to each other; to name and cast out that which is evil in our world and within; and in the midst of our brokenness may we know and share your healing power; your gracious hospitality to us.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer
Amen.

Posted by marcus at 12:59 AM | Comments (1)

SYG Sacred Space 07

June 12, 2007

Another Queens birthday long weekend and another huge effort attending State Youth Games and curating the Sacred Space. This year without any Oasis Global Action Team punters to help us we went minimal and invited Age Greenwood and the Uniting Church more>praxis mob to run their cafe praxis. UNOH also set up a table selling wares from the Klong Toey slum in Tailand where they work. They organised the go_stand pledge and as our contribution we dubbed our major reflective station the GO_STAND SHOE SHRINE.

Thankfully we were joined by Warragul local Nahkita, who is yet another legend in the long line of Urban Seed work experience legends so we didnt look like total losers...

Thanks to everyone who contributed shoes and stories to the shoe shrine. It was really good seeing the variety of stories which captured the spirit of Urban Seed and our diverse connections really well without being too preachy. You can't see what's on the telly stacks in the photos but we ran a looped image of feet walking in the sand on one stack and some biblical text re feet and shoes on the other. Some people wrote their own shoe stories which was nice. No one donated any shoes but someone took one because they lost theirs!

It was great hanging out with our Credo Cricket buddy the indomitable Johnny Jensen who spoke really well on the Sunday night. Classic line: "Have you ever been asked to give Jesus a cuddle when he's drunk and covered in vomit!??!"

As part of the response he encouraged people to stick newspaper in their shoes as part of the go_stand pledge and to visit sacred space to chat further. I was really encouraged by some of the chats I had with young people about how to go and stand with those on the margins in our world. I was great talking about Urban Seed residency and our youth/community work training course called praxis. Thanks for a great weekend!

Posted by marcus at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

Go Stand Shoe Shrine

June 05, 2007

I would like to borrow your shoes and to hear your shoe stories.

As part of our participation in the State Youth Games and possibly Surrender Conference the Urban Seed/Seeds mobs are putting together an installation for Urban Neighbours of Hope’s GO_STAND. GO_STAND is the way of describing the altar (alt-ernative) call and response time for these events. You can check out the idea at www.myspace.com/go_stand It is about making a commitment to follow Jesus who leads us to the rough places, the unpopular places, to stand in solidarity with our poor brothers and sisters.

As part of the response we are seeking to create a SHOE SHRINE installation using shoes, sand, a simple labyrinth and candle lighting from a “burning bush”...

The idea was inspired in part by artist Paul Hobbs' installation, Holy Ground, which premiered at Greenbelt in 2005 - sponsored by the Church Missionary Society.

It was a collection of shoes from Christians around the world and each pair tells a story. Among the donated footwear were contributions from a world champion runner, a former Indian prostitute and Hitler's goddaughter. The shoes on display were accompanied by the personal testimonies from a broad range of people across the world.

And so I am seeking shoe stories for our own version. You may not want to give up your prized shoes, I could just borrow them, ….what I’m really interested is the stories. For example a young girl who has experienced homelessness has offered a story of stealing a pair of shoes whilst living on the street.

What I am after is a few paragraphs (definitely.no more than an A4 page) that give a short sense of

What your shoes say about you? (Who you are, what you’ve done and why)

How are your shoes a symbol of your belief and your journey toward “sacred space” or “holy ground”? (eg. Moses or following Jesus)

You may or may not have a dramatic shoe story but the whole idea of the stories is to capture a sense of difference. Whilst I have asked some migrants, refugees and homeless people I am also really after some very average everyday Aussie suburban shoes/stories.

I am trying to finalise some stories by next Wednesday June 6th for State Youth Games but am keen to build a good collection for UNOH in August and beyond. Feel free to email me a story or contact me should you have any queries.

Much Grace and Peace

Marcus

PS. no stories but here is the blurb that i came up with.....

go_stand shoe shrine

and he told them to go…
and to take nothing with them except a walking staff…
no food, no cash, no extra clothes…
just the shoes upon their feet.

Mark 6:7-8
GO_STAND is about making a commitment to follow Jesus who leads us to the rough places, the unpopular places, to stand in solidarity with our poor brothers and sisters.

Responses

#1 Take time to read the shoe stories of others around the edge of the shoe shrine. Consider what it may mean for you to see the world (or God) from someone else’s perspective or to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.

#2 You may wish to use the paper provided to write your own shoe story. Consider the questions:

What do your shoes say about you? (Who you are, what you’ve done and why…)

How are your shoes a symbol of your belief and your journey toward “sacred space” or “holy ground”?

You may wish to leave your shoes and the story with the other shoes at the edge of shoe shrine space (you can grab them again later if you need them!)

#3 “Moses, take off your shoes, you are standing upon holy ground.”

Take off your shoes and walk into the centre of the shoe shrine space. Take steps in the footprints that already exist and consider the journeys of others who have gone before you.

#4 When you get to the centre of the space kneel at the foot of the “burning bush”. The burning bush was the place where Moses was told to go_stand up for his enslaved people. He felt terrified and inadequate. Where is God calling you to go and stand? What feelings does this create within you?

#5 Take a candle and light it from the “burning bush” as a symbol of your call. As you walk with it out of the shrine space offer the darkness of your fears and inadequacies to Christ and ask for the light you need to take the next step.

#6 Place the candle in the sand tray. Take a go_stand pledge form and/or other information about ways you can go_stand at the info. table

www.myspace.com/go_stand

Posted by marcus at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

Dead Man Rising 07

April 25, 2007

A Seeds Easter Installation in Footscray and Bendigo inspired by last years Dead Man Waiting. Most content gleaned from NT Wright, Marcus Borg and John Dear....

Running Order

Welcome

Reading 1: Mark 16:1-8 Stone

Song: “Stone” James Laidler

Reading 2: Luke 24:13-43 Bread

Reading 3: Luke 24: 36 Fruit

Reading 4: John 21:1-13 Fish

Reading 5: John 20: 24-29 Touch

Reading 6: John 20:19-22 Breath

Interactive Time/Meal

Background Songs:
“I’ll Rise” Ben Harper
“Life is…” Martin Wroe
“There is a Kingdom” Nick Cave

Reading 7: Food for Risen Bodies VI

Song: “Feeling Good” Nina Simone

continue for full liturgy and pix...

Running Order

Welcome

Welcome to Dead Man Rising.

Today we invite you to respond to the mystery of the resurrection. Like Christ’s followers we invite you to stand, run, touch, eat, fear, worship and doubt. To know and to feel within your own body what it means to bear witness to resurrection.

Along with gospel stories this space features the poems “Food for Risen Bodies” by Michael Symmons Roberts.

He explains that the poems “take this other-worldly physicality as their starting-point, imagining what the first meal in a resurrected world might be, and how it might be conducted. What would they eat, drink, smoke, talk about?”

This installation was created by , an ecumenical covenanted community supported by the Baptist Union of Victoria.

After the formal readings feel free to interact with stations at your own leisure.

Many thanks to the Dancing Dog Café, St Matt’s Long Gully, Christop, Talitha, Long and Minh, the Bendigo mob and as ever, Mark Pierson.

Reading 1: Mark 16:1-8 Stone

Who will roll away the stone?

Food for Risen Bodies-I (by Michael Symonns Roberts)

Stone

Immersion in water was traditionally used on Easter Sunday as an initiation symbol of rising up from the watery grave to new life with the risen Christ.

Consider your life and our world. We are weighed down by many things.
Pick up a stone. What insurmountable barriers stand in the way of hope?

Take time to feel the weight of the stone in your hand.
The resurrection is God’s ‘yes’ to the way of Jesus, affirming that suffering love is a force more powerful than the daunting powers of death.

“When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.”

Let your stone “roll away” into the watery grave.

Baptism

Let your hand wash in the water for a time. Feel the water on your skin and running through your fingers.
If the way of Jesus is true then we too will rise again and live with Jesus in peace. All that is required is that we too lay down our lives for suffering humanity. We too must risk the way of the cross.
Use your moistened finger to make a sign of the cross upon your forehead as a symbol of baptism… of your own desire to die to your old life and rise to new ways of living with Christ.

Song: “Stone” James Laidler

Reading 2: Luke 24:13-43 Bread

What were you talking about upon the road? What things?

Food for Risen Bodies - IV (by Michael Symonns Roberts)

Bread

Following the political execution of their leader, Cleopas and his friend walk the road to Emmaus as refugees, fleeing the scene of death. What things fill you with despair, doubt and sorrow?

View the images at the head of the table. Consider those who walk the road as refugees this day.

Whisper grace for those have been silenced in Iraq, Zimbabwe, across Sudan and in other places of our world this day.

Know that the resurrected Christ walks with them and all who suffer, even if unrecognised…

Christian tradition suggests that at the feast of the resurrection those who suffer injustice are given places of honour.

Using the dinner knives, slit their stitched lips free.

What unexpected voices or stories might you hear to make our hearts burn within us.

The story suggests that we may recognize the presence of Christ through the offer of hospitality to strangers.

Break some bread and eat with them.

Make a donation to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in the urn provided or sign the petition as an act of hospitality.

Reading 3: Luke 24: 36 Fruit

Why are you fearful and why do you question in your hearts? Do you have anything to eat?

Food for Risen Bodies - III (by Michael Symonns Roberts)

Fruit

Like a ghostly apparition the risen Christ mysteriously re-appears, raising fear and troubled questions within his followers.
How do we deal with death? What happens to our bodies when we die? Numerous beliefs exist about the afterlife, our body and the spirit.
Many beliefs deny or seek liberation from the body, promoting the development of private spirituality, emphasising life after death for individuals.

However with invitations to touch, feel and eating before their eyes, the gospel demonstrates that resurrection does not involve the abandonment of the body…

The risen Christ shows a transformed physicality where continuity exists between the present life and the resurrected body.
Because of this hope the present time is shot through with significance. Our choices resonate through eternity.

Generations back...fruit was clad…childrens children waited.

Taste a seed from the pomegranate. Swallow or keep it with you as a symbol of the seeds you will choose to plant for future generations.

“Look at my hands and feet… Touch me and see”.

What beliefs do you hold about your own body?

Touch and eat the flesh of fruit reminding us of the holiness of the human body and wounds of Christ.

Reading 4: John 21:1-13 Fish

Children, have you caught anything to eat? Simon, Son of John, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?

Food for Risen Bodies - II (By Michael Symonns Roberts)

Fish

At death, Jesus was abandoned by his own followers who returned to business as usual. Now without malice the risen Christ stands on a beach offering them an abundant catch, a cooked breakfast and the chance to follow again.

Peter had earlier made himself comfortable in the house of death whilst Jesus suffered at the hands of the Roman Empire. He denied Jesus three times whilst ‘warming himself’ around a charcoal fire in the palace courtyard.

Now by contrast Jesus invites Simon Peter to warm and feed himself in the house of life, around his own charcoal fire, at the dawn of a new day…

Using his pre-discipleship name of Simon, the risen Jesus offers three opportunities to reconcile, reversing Peter’s three statements of denial with three expressions of agape (unconditional love) and fidelity.

Dip some fish in salt. As you taste remember the bitterness of an experience of denial and failure in your own life.

“Feed my lambs” (poetic Greek reference to martyrs)
The resurrection offers a new invitation and co-missioning.

Light a candle as a prayer

• for those who have died;
• for those whom you have failed or with whom you remain unreconciled;
• as hope for your new work.

Reading 5: John 20: 24-29 Touch

Have you come to believe because you have seen me?

Food for Risen Bodies - VI (by Michael Symonns Roberts)

Touch

How is it that you see the stories of resurrection?
• historical fact,
• inspiring metaphor
• a wishful projection of the powerless
• archetypal myth…others?

How is it that you come to know or trust something as being true?
Like Thomas acknowledge your doubts. Choose a quote with which you identify. Use it to touch Jesus’ side. Dip and hold.

“My Lord and my God”

For the first 300 years of Christianity the refusal to address the Roman Emperor by divine title, “My Lord and My God” resulted in execution. Even though people had not seen Jesus, their experience of him as God meant they were routinely martyred for refusing the Empire.

The resurrection proclaims Jesus as King over all the systems and powers of this world including “conventional wisdom”.

Express your allegiance or ongoing doubt by placing your quote upon the central stones or on the crown of thorns above. Know you are loved regardless.

Reading 6: John 20:19-22 Breath

He breathed upon them…

Food for Risen Bodies - V (by Michael Symonns Roberts)

Breath

In the creation stories of Genesis the Spirit blows across the waters and God breathes life into the first human bodies.
Now far from the Spirit’s breath of Genesis we find ourselves living in a time of de-creation. When the suns rising reminds us as much of drought and global warming as it does of the risen Christ.

“Peace be with you”

In the midst of a spirit of fear and the many spirits of the age, Christ breathes upon his disciples in order to release his own Spirit into the world and to enable people to function from a new reference point.

The significance of Jesus resurrection is not simply that it opens up hope for life after death for individuals but that the new creation has begun.

The apostle Paul taught that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with what will be revealed when the creation is liberated from its bondage.
He describes the whole creation as groaning as in the pains of childbirth right to the present time.

“ ’Later, later’...and went straight for the cigarettes”

What is it that you groan for?

Is it possible to imagine a universe where entropy, corruption and suffering is not the final word? How do you feel about the story’s suggestion that the Spirit gives you the power to loose or to bind?

Burn some incense as a prayer of hope. You may long to smoke outside!

Paul concludes that in our weakness the Spirit prays and breathes hope for us with sighs too deep for words.

Interactive Time/Meal

Background Songs:

See his body broken in the shadows of my mind. Can you see the ripple fading from the stone that’s fallen in. Stone, Solid Stone.
James Laidler

Life slips through the cracks, looking for now…
Life is brushing up against you,
worlds within worlds,
the no space between me and you,
between all of God and all of us.
The see through,
seen through,
fat with life…..
Life is waking again and knowing, with thanks, you are waking again.”

Martin Wroe

Just like a bird, that sings up the sun
in a dawn so very dark. Such is my faith for you. All the worlds darkness can’t swallow up, this single spark.
Such is my love for you.

Nick Cave

Reading 7: Food for Risen Bodies VI

Song: “Feeling Good” Nina Simone

Posted by marcus at 12:24 AM | Comments (1)

Why are we baptising Lowenna?

April 23, 2007

Our invitation and explanation of what we have been seeking to do in baptising our kids (includes Seeds Prayer of Promise)...

In a culture where choice is perceived as freedom and spirituality is regarded as a largely private matter, the idea that we are making some sort of public religious choice for Lowenna before she can choose for herself can be easily misunderstood and even regarded as oppressive.

One of the ironies of today is that our Seeds Gatherings are supported by the Baptist Union whose principles are based on naming the historic abuse to individual freedom caused by such practices. We do value individual choice and seek to sensitively engage with this consumer culture.

However with the triumph of late capitalism we presently minister to many young people whose freedom to make life choices of any substance are profoundly limited because they have little connection to an understanding of God or community beyond that of individual consumer choice. We choose baptism for Lowenna in a culture that has already aggressively sought to predetermine many of Lowenna’s choices.

We were both brought up in Christian families where our identities were profoundly shaped by the Christian Story. Both of us were baptised as infants in the Methodist church. We were taught to understand that the significance of this was that as children of believers our identity had a claim over it. Our identity was wrapped up in covenant promises that extend from Abraham and Sarah, to their children and children’s, children.

We were given a secure foundation that came from the Wesleyan idea that the prevenient grace of God reaches out and surrounds us before we are capable of responding. We were always treated as part of the people of God, participating fully in the sacraments before we could decide for ourselves.

Growing up alongside Baptists we were confronted with a different approach which gave emphasis to the importance of conscious confession of faith, freedom of choice and being actively able to take on the ethical implications of discipleship. This of course was not neglected in our own tradition and as we came to experience Jesus as the Living Word for ourselves and decided to follow, we both chose to confirm our baptism as adults in the Uniting Church. Like all of us, Lowenna will one day have to choose for herself whether what is claimed for her today in faith is also true for her.

Our desire to baptise Lowenna derives from an understanding of the covenant promises of God to his people. We believe that the covenants of Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, expressed in the sacramental forms of circumcision and baptism, are essentially connected. We believe Jesus words “Let the little ones come to me”, and embracing children as models to adults of true faith are significant for baptism. We also assume that New Testament practice of household baptism included children.

This means much for us as the sense of collective identity created through hospitable households is essential to the life of our Seedy mobs.

We make this choice for her now with the conviction that a bigger freedom is breaking in around her, protecting, calling, and guiding her and all of us, often despite our own choices. A freedom that extends from the liberation of slaves in Ancient Egypt; to ‘the way” of fisherman, tax collectors and sinners in the face of Rome; to movements across the world today. A freedom found in the gracious way of Jesus.

Our Baptism of Lowenna is a way of saying that she belongs.

BELONGS TO GOD

We believe that God is the community of love at the centre of the universe and the creator and sustainer of the wonderful mystery of life into which Lowenna has been born. Beyond any tradition, culture, religion or family, Lowenna belongs firstly to God who has given her as a gift to us all.

BELONGS TO A STORY

Our human identity can only be understood through stories.

We believe that God has chosen to communicate to us through the sacred story of Jesus and the Bible.

In baptising Lowenna as a child we are acknowledging that she is a participant in ancient promises made in these stories to Abraham and Sarah that ‘they, their children, and children’s children would be blessed.’

This sacred story was embodied in the person of Jesus Christ the “Living Word” who said “Let the children come to me.”

In baptism we want to acknowledge our commitment to this story as the lens through which we seek to understand reality and the way of life in which we will seek to raise Lowenna.

We would seek to be loyal to this living story over against other more dominant stories in our world that would seek our allegiance and make claim to our identity.

BELONGS TO A PEOPLE

Our human identity can only be formed in relation to others.

Community is formed when people gather together around this life-giving story and seek to follow the way of Christ in the world.

This “communion of saints” is one that transcends time and so we will seek to celebrate the traditions of those that have gone before us in faith.

Infant Baptism acknowledges that even before Lowenna decides whether or not she will follow in this way for herself she is already a part of this community.

Because this community is committed to a lifestyle of simplicity, solidarity and service with those considered least in the world, Lowenna will participate in the sufferings and joys this entails even before she can choose otherwise.

It acknowledges that any personal choice she makes will be shaped greatly by those that surround her.

For this reason we have asked people of God to gather and commit to God, this story, this people and to Lowenna.

We currently understand and practice ‘church’ through intentional networks of local Christian households. This is given primary expression for us through the Seeds Covenant that has arisen out of Urban Seed and those who join in its Gatherings.

We also value our participation in The Common Rule and ministry of Common Life, the Footscray Salvation Army and Footscray Baptist Church. We are encouraged by the emergence of Cowethas Peran Sans (Fellowship of St Piran) in Cornwall and its Diaspora and the connections to a living Celtic heritage this offers to Lowenna. We are encouraged that Ewen’s godparents, the Gow’s have returned to minister at the local Church of Christ and acknowledge our historical connection with the Uniting Church and its local expressions… particularly the cricket club that still bears its name….Go Streeters!

We value the love and support of our families and friends.

BELONGS TO A PLACE

Our identity can only be understood in relation to God’s creation.

The promise of land and a renewed creation from which people can work to create a sustainable life for themselves has always been a part of God’s gracious provision.

Lowenna’s name indicates that she is part of a people who have lived in the specific places of Cornwall and Yorkshire. Infant Baptism is a rite that comes out of the spiritual tradition of these places and that of our families and so we want to acknowledge both the Celtic and Methodist traditions of those places.

For many reasons we now call Melbourne’s West our home.

An important part of us finding our identity in this new place is by acknowledging the ancient custodians of this land who have lived long and well in this place.

We believe that even before the time of Biblical history, God has been present in this place and has spoken in and through the stories of the Wurundjeri peoples. We want the liturgy to reflect that acknowledging and learning the songs and totems of this place will be important for Lowenna in finding her way.

Seeds Prayer of Promise
(for Lowenna and each other based upon the Seeds Covenant.)

God our holy community of gracious hospitality, in the midst of our homelessness you extend us an invitation to Grow Home. (symbol: packet of seeds and Credo Café bowl)

Help us to raise Lowenna to know and to grow a rich sense of home. Let us teach her the danger of wealth and the freedom of economic sharing. May the poor always be with her. Teach her the power and beauty of her body; fidelity with your wild creativity and respect for the sacred connections of your Spirit, our bodies and all creation. Teach her how to eat slow so that her eyes may be opened to your presence through the breaking of bread. Extend to her no privilege other than that of Christian equality, teaching her the art of mutual submission. Grant us courage to teach her what laws to break and how to give of ourselves with the same passion with which you lived and died.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

May we Know the Word. ( symbol: bible)

May we raise Lowenna to know the stories of a God who re-creates a fallen world, not just ancient words on a page but the living Spirit of Christ among us. Teach her how to choose her stories and story her choices; how to spin a life giving yarn and to listen for your voice in silence and Sabbath rest. Teach her to meditate and pray so that she may experience your love and cling to hope in the midst of failure, suffering and adversity.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

May we Go Engage. (symbol: bottle of oil)

May we raise Lowenna with the confidence to engage our troubled world. To speak truth to the powers and to each of us. To name and cast out that which is evil in our world and within, through militant nonviolence. Teach her the arts of hospitality, mercy and forgiveness. Teach her how to negotiate the streets and danger by teaching her every community safety trick you know and having done this, when and how to risk it all for the sake of love. Teach her the good work of love as the only true measure of success. And because each of us will fail her, in the midst of our brokenness, may she know and share your healing power; your gracious hospitality to us.
Lord hear us
Lord hear our prayer

May we teach her all this but also not forget to learn from her, because the economy of God belongs to such as these. Amen

Posted by marcus at 01:11 AM | Comments (1)

A Death in the Family: Baptism Sermon

Rach and I shared this rant at my son Peran's Baptism three years ago. I mentioned it and its themes as part of the Prayer of Confession at Lowenna's baptism today. This is in large part based on a Sermon by Stan Saunders of Open Door Community, Atlanta...

A Death in the Family

A reflection by Marcus Curnow and Rachael Scott on the occasion of Peran’s baptism, 8th February 2004 with acknowledgment to Stan Saunders, Open Door Community, Atlanta.

Peter Chapman, the spiritual leader of Common Life (who unfortunately couldn’t be here today) commenced the wedding sermon of Matt and Suellen (who are here today) with the unforgettable (and now legendary) line, “Let us not pretend that today is a happy occasion.” Similarly today you may have come here thinking that this will be a pleasant experience, a chance to look at a cute, little baby – an image of sweetness and purity. Someone will splash a little water on him , at worst case he might cry a bit, and then– as if by magic he will be “Saved” – and we can all relax and enjoy a beer and some food.

You may have got this image from having seen kids get done before. A kindly looking, older, white haired man – takes the cute little baby in the pretty white gown, says a few words, sprinkles the water and holds the baby up while we all “ooooh” and “aaaaah” and smile and think it is the nicest thing.

One of this irony’s of today is that I work in a Baptist tradition who don’t baptise children because they criticise it for what it often is. A benign rite, a cheap, sugar coated salvation spectacle designed to make us feel warm and happy.

As we said in our invitation, when we baptise we are telling a story. The problem is the story that is often communicated at such events is that pastors are old, babies are cute- even cuter next to old pastors – and that something magical and nice happens when the two of them get together. Whilst some of this story is fine, and we admit we enjoy it too, something is often missing. Baptism is about the celebration of new life, but its new life that comes out of a death in the family. Our concern is that if we baptise Peran today without making the reality of his death painfully clear, we are telling a version of the gospel story that has no cross in it. And that just isn’t the gospel.

So just in case you were tempted to witness this today and merely smile we want to tell you what’s going on. In a moment we are going to put my son Peran to death, but soon after we hope to raise him again. In fact if all goes according to plan, these events will happen so quickly that you might think that the death didn’t really take place. But don’t be fooled. Peran William Scott Curnow is going to die today. Rachael and I have come to believe that this is necessary because we no longer trust our capacities, as people living in a broken world, to raise him up in a way that honours the dignity and beauty he possessed at the moment of his birth, and to preserve him from the powers of violence and death. We simply can’t do it, and are convinced that his participation in this world will only corrupt and finally destroy him. So we’ve decided to give him back to God.

The death we are talking about is not just a symbol or abstraction, it's real. It is in us, in the people and relationships and the many current struggles of those gathered here today. We know there are some who could and should be here today who are not because this death is real.

The bible calls this death, sin, the Adam and Eve story, the whole fabric of life lived in denial of the reality of a loving and merciful God that disconnects us from God, other people and creatures. We all have our personal Adam & Eve story. Its what this world makes us, our culture, skin colour, family history, struggles, fears and ambitions, our shadow sides. The good news however according to Jesus is that we no longer have to live under the power of death or be defined by our old stories.

According to Paul, there is only one way out of the Adam and Eve story of sin and death. We have to learn how to die as Jesus did. Baptism is a training in dying- to sin and the old self so that new life can come into being. This is the hope that we have of what this death means. Peran will cease to exist under the powers of this world, and will be transformed to a completely new and different kind of existence, with different powers and possibilities for life, with new eyes to see the world, and most importantly, with a new family and a new Lord. To use Paul’s words, today Peran will be will be crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be destroyed. And when he is raised up again today, his primary family will no longer be Rachael, Marcus and Ewen, or Scott or Curnow, or Yorkshire or Cornwall or Aussie. But now it will be all of those who live “ in Jesus Christ.”

Now you might say that Peran doesn’t have much of an Adam story yet, but the reality is that his stories of sin and death have been in the planning stage for some time now, just waiting to swing into place at the right moments. The powers of this world have been ready and waiting for Peran to come along, just as they were ready for all of us.

In our culture our humanity is often judged by standards of what is “normal.” When people look at Peran they are going to see a white Aussie male and in powerful ways this will determine who he is, how he will be treated, how he will relate to other people, our expectations of him and what his options are.

Today when Peran dies with Christ all of these pieces of his identity, all our worldly hopes and dreams for him, die also, for baptism means a new reality with new marks of identity. From this day forward his identity is in Christ and Christ alone. This is what it means to give up our lives in order to save them.

Like the gospel reading indicated, this dying, these baptisimal arts, if you will., involve dangers and difficulties that will make Peran a bit strange.

• We expect that this dying and rising with Christ will make him the butt of jokes and misunderstanding like the disciples and Christ himself
• He may struggle with playmates and peers because he’s developed a different language or codes of behaviour, or politics that he’s learnt from all you mob.
• He will have to struggle to find an identity and way of relating to others that isn’t just about being a normal Aussie bloke, making his relationships with men, women and people of other cultures more complex.
• He will need to learn how to work with others, and get out of trouble without domination or intimidation.
• We worry that this will make him vulnerable and we hope that he will not suffer because he has not learned to use violence to defend himself.
• Obviously if he grows up hanging out with most of the people here today he’s not going to make a lot of money. You will need to help him build alternatives of support, economic relationships based around sharing, gratitude and dependence on God, rather than exploitation and self interest.
• As a disciple of Jesus we know that he will sometimes have to struggle against his family and particularly Marcus and myself, because we are too often consumed by our own middle class anxieties and addictions. How do we teach him to trust in God when we struggle to trust God ourselves? It’s hard to give him up to death when we often fear death and its power ourselves.

Of course we wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for our own baptisms and the hope and hunger that God has nourished in us through the years for a new creation. And we wouldn’t be here today were it not for the hope that we see at work in all of you. In local food coops and the Common Lifers, in Urban Seed and Credo Community, at Ya Chasin in St Albans. Paul says that as many of us have been baptised into Christ “ There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for all of us are one in Christ Jesus.” Now its often hard to get a sense of this going to churches these days but we get a taste of it in you. We could easily translate “no longer corporate or radical, Eastside or Westside, social worker or street person, Aussie or Viet, Filo, Cambo….whatever. In so many ways it’s a reality in the people gathered here today.

We can only sustain this alternative in the midst of other people who have also died to this world and whose stories and practises reflect this new reality. You are here today because you are that reality for us. Today Peran will receive a new identity in God but it can only come to fullness in the context of a community that lives in Christ.

We could have done this in lots of different ways or places but we have chosen to baptise Peran in the backyard at Footscray today because we are intentionally committing him, as well as ourselves, to the peculiar ministry and disciplines of these communities. We believe there are some things Peran can only learn here in the midst of this chaotic, broken, grace filled family. So we are joining our family with yours and we are entrusting him to you. We trust you will love him, play with him and share your life with him as fully as you can.

• We also trust you will treat him as not as a person of privilege but as an equal brother of God
• We trust you will teach him how to negotiate the streets of the City and Footscray and St Albans with compassion and wisdom and faith.
• We want you to teach him the dignity of all people, including his own and how to suffer for the sake of others in the name of Jesus Christ.
• Please teach him the hope of God who is recreating a fallen the world
• Teach him how to devote the power of his hands and voice and body to the mass of humanity that has no voice or influence.
• Teach him the arts of hospitality, conviviality, mercy and forgiveness and how to hold onto hope in the midst of failure, suffering and adversity.
• Teach him all this but also don’t forget to learn from him, because the economy of God belongs to such as these.

There is a death in our family today. Thanks be to God who raises us up every day to live in Christ. Amen

Posted by marcus at 12:57 AM | Comments (0)

Lowenna's Baptism

Liturgy from Lowenna's Baptism. A great arvo. at the Dancing Dog Cafe in Footscray.

Baptism of Lowenna Louisa Mabel Curnow
Dancing Dog Café, April 22, 2007

ORDER OF WORSHIP

Welcome: Mark Pierson

Opening Ritual: Chris and Katherine
We acknowledge that we gather on the land of which the Wurundjeri people have been custodians from time immemorial. We honour this history and commit ourselves to care for the land with them. May our worship and our service be work for reconciliation with people and with our God.
(We say together…)

Jesus, light of the world, we confess that you are here. Shine your light into the hidden places of our lives, and bring warmth to the cold places of our hearts. Amen.

(silence while a candle is lit):

Gathering Song: Marcus

Prayer of Confession & Words of Forgiveness A Death in the Family/ Stones in Water/ Marcus

The Prayer of St Meriasek and Confession with thanks to Cowethas Peran Sans.

Arluth, a wrug mor ha tyr, pub uer oll re’m weressa, Lord, who made land and sea, always be my aid,
Ha roy dhym y’n fordh a wyr ow bewnans omma gedya. And guide my life here in the way of truth.
Jesu Arluth, orthyf myr, ha’th lel gras dhymmo grontya. Lord Jesus, look on me, and grant me your unfailing grace,
Jesu, pub uer oll ow desyr yw y’n bys ma dha blesya. I seek, Lord Jesus, every hour in this life to please you.

A Dhew an Tas, kemer mercy warnaf. God the Father, have mercy on me.
A Dhew an Mab, kemer mercy warnaf. God the Son, have mercy on me.
A Dhew an Sperys Sans, kemer mercy warnaf. God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on me.
A Drynsys benegys, sans ha gloryes, kemer mercy warnaf. Blessed Trinity, holy and glorious, have mercy on me.

Re gemerra Dew Ollgallosek mercy warnaf, re wrella gava dhym ow Almighty God, have mercy upon me, forgive me my sins,
pehosow ha’m ledya bys yn bewnans eternal. Amen. and lead me in life eternal. Amen.

Mark: Invites children to centre mat to hear Annette’s story

Scripture Reading Annette
"At another time, some people approached Jesus with their children hoping that he might take the little ones in his arms and give them a blessing. The disciples told them to clear off, but when Jesus saw this, he tore strips off them. “Little children can come to me any time they like, and don’t you dare try to stop them. The realm of God is centred on children such as these. The fact of the matter is that anyone who will not welcome the life of God as trustingly as an innocent child will not receive it at all.” And with that, he gathered up the children into his arms, laid his hands on each one in turn, and blessed them all."
Mark 10:13-16 Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net.au

Mark: To express our love and support we now follow Jesus’ example and ask Jon Cornford to bless the children with a song.

Song: Amnificat: Jon Cornford (2004)

I kick and shout and poke my tounge out
God loves to watch when I play
Wants me to learn of his ways
I stamp my feet
I reckon that’s neat
Think and you’ll see it’ not odd
Laughter and play come from God

It’s so much fun
When I wiggle my bum in the air
God laughs with me ‘cause he made me to be
A bit like him

I crawl on the ground, I smile all around
Laughter is a form of praise
Teaches and shows us God’s way
I wave my hand, just because I can
God loves to watch when I play
He want’s me to learn of his ways.

Sometimes I cry
I don’t even know why
God loves me still when I’m sad
Even when I drive my dad mad
When I sleep at night, God holds me so tight
I dream of all the fun that I’ve had
Playing with mum and with dad
Then comes the day, I can rise up and play once again.

Baptism Ted

Marcus and Rachael, Chris and Katherine
What do you ask of God’s church for Lowenna Lousia Mabel?
We ask that she be baptised into the faith and family of Christ
In the light of both the covenant promise offered by God in Christ Jesus,
And of your request, I ask you; Do you believe that the gospel enables us to turn from the darkness of evil, and to walk in the light of Christ?
We do

Lowenna Louisa Mabel Curnow, may the Lord prepare your heart and soul and mind
to love the LORD your God and to love your neighbour as yourself, to the glory of God.

Prayer of Thanksgiving:
Eternal God,
We thank you for the gift of water,
Essential for life and cause of death;
Metaphor for both,
and symbol of your Spirit’s transformative activity
within our lives and creation.
Raging water which Jesus our Saviour
crossed and subdued,
Still waters to which you guide us.

In the beginning you moved over the waters
to bring to birth creation.
The waters of the great flood served
as both judgment and salvation.
Through their baptism in the Red Sea,
you led your people to freedom,
Directing them through the River Jordan
to the Promised Land.
Within that same river, Jesus was baptised
by John and anointed by the Spirit.
By the power of the Holy Spirit,
bless this water and Lowenna Louisa Mabel Curnow
who is baptised in it
That Lowenna may be born anew of water and the Spirit,
be raised to new life in Christ,
And strengthened to serve you in the world,
until that day when you make all things new.
Through Jesus Christ our lord,
To whom with you and the Holy Spirit,
Be all honour and glory, now and forever.
Amen.

Lowenna, for you Jesus Christ has come, has lived, has suffered; for you he endured the agony of Gethsemane and the darkness of the cross; for you he has uttered the cry, ‘It is accomplished!’ For you, he has triumphed over death; for you he prays at God’s right hand; all for you, little child, even though you do not know it.

Lowenna I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Lowenna Me a'th bethisya in hanow an Taas, ha'n Mab ha'n Spiris Sans. Amen

(marking Lowenna with the sign of the cross)

Lowenna, from this day on the sign of the cross is upon you…
Lowenna is now received into the holy Church universal, according to Christ’s command.

(shows Lowenna to the congregation)

Response: Community Prayer

Ted : How will we respond to the graciousness of God. For this baptism to be more than an empty ritual it requires the faith of a gathered people who have experience of this grace and are seeking to celebrate it in the way they live. Today is an opportunity for us all to renew the vows that were made at our own baptism or to consider what this life may look like for us. This gathering is underpinned by people who seek to express this life through the Seeds Covenant. We ask you to join with the parents, Rachael and Marcus and Godparents, Chris and Katherine in praying a prayer of promise that is shaped around its themes. If you can affirm what is prayed we invite you to respond by saying “Lord hear our prayer.”

Chris: God our holy community of gracious hospitality, in the midst of our homelessness you extend us an invitation to Grow Home.

Holding up the packet of Seeds and bowl

Help us to raise Lowenna to know and to grow a rich sense of home. Let us teach her the danger of wealth and the freedom of economic sharing. May the poor always be with her. Teach her the power and beauty of her body; fidelity with your wild creativity and respect for the sacred connections of your Spirit, our bodies and all creation. Teach her how to eat slow so that her eyes may be opened to your presence through the breaking of bread. Guide her in her use of power, teaching her the art of mutual submission. Grant us courage to teach her what laws to break and how to give of ourselves with the same passion with which you lived and died.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Katherine: May we Know the Word.

Holding up the Bible

Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Marcus and Rach : May we Go Engage.

Holding up the bottle of oil

Lord hear us
All:Lord hear our prayer

May we teach her all this but also not forget to learn from her, because the economy of God belongs to such as these.
Amen

Response: Communion, Offerings, Candle Prayers for Lowenna and Others, Confession and Affirmation of Baptism: Today we remember that, from the time of our baptism, the sign of the cross has been upon us. Using the water in which we have baptised Lowenna you are invited to affirm the meaning of baptism by dropping a stone or tracing the sign of the cross upon yourself.

Prayer of Thanks for Gifts. Mark Pierson

Song Be not afraid: Jon Cornford
written by phil hudson, stu. manderson, kate eve 2000

Will there be a time
When greed and violence ceases
And the grieving earth is at peace?

Be not afraid
For I am with you always

Our return is small
Our work is slow and humble
And the world does not give its praise

Lord is there one
Whose care will ever be there,
in my hour of need?

Benediction… Mark Pierson
we say to each other…

You are God’s servants, gifted with dreams and visions
Upon you rests the grace of God like flames of fire.
Love and serve the Lord in the strength of the Spirit.
May the deep peace of Christ be with you,
The strong arms of God sustain you,
And the power of the Holy Spirit strengthen you in every way.
Amen.
(Dianne Karray Tripp)

Posted by marcus at 12:23 AM | Comments (2)

Dead Man Rising

April 10, 2007

dead man fruit.JPG
Been busting my butt working out what I believe about resurrection and putting some stations together for public display..... will post content in time. Thanks to the Bendigo and Footscray seeds mobs, long and minh, talitha and christop., rach and of course all due respect and nods to Mark Pierson. Next year need more green lights and perhaps some flowers in the crown of thorns instead of the blood dripping doubt quotes! Christop has photos here
more photos inc. Bendigo here

Posted by marcus at 12:36 PM | Comments (0)

Wedding: “Fire at Dawn” The Toms-Gaskill Wedding

November 26, 2006

Congratulations to Paul and Amber for a truly unique wedding, although dawn (ie.5.45 am) is rather early...I slept for the rest of the day! Full ceremony and pictures below...

“Fire at Dawn” The Toms-Gaskill Wedding
November 26, 2006

Space Setup: Coloured flags create a large circle in a clearing at the edge of the Maribyrnong River at Pipemakers Park. At the centre of the circle is a steel hearth in a central aisle filled with smouldering coals. At the front is an altar with cross and bible to which elements are added during the opening prayer.

Ushers: Luke and Kyle, Timshel and Shelly
Gate opener: Mark and Kiah
PA: Dave Waterworth

Welcome: Marcus Curnow

Good Morning. On behalf of Paul, Amber and their families, welcome to Pipemakers Park this morning. This is a place with a living sense of history and I encourage you to enjoy the surrounds. I Invite you to make a circle around our hearth. At the Easter Vigil of the Christian Church fire is used as a symbol of Christ and the rising sun his resurrection. Along with fire we will use the other elements, of earth, air and water, in today’s ceremony which have been an important theme in Paul’s art and are also a way we can appreciate our dependence upon the creation, the role that marriage plays in maintaining this connection, and give thanks to the Creator who sustains this circle of life.

Entrance:

Music: “My Lagan Love” performed by Alira and Kathe’rine
Entry of families from different directions on the path,
(Toms family from the River; Gaskill family from the bluestone building).

Attendants: Stephen Toms and Colin White; Miko Gaskill and Liana Leach
Stephen and Miko act as a thurifer leading their group swinging incense via a thurible. Colin and Liana act as boat boy/girl (holding extra incense).

The families join and enter, then take their seats. Paul and Amber walk past the hearth to the right of the altar.

Marking the Circle:

Marcus (walking from altar to hearth facing East):
May there be Peace in the East, Peace in the South, Peace in the West, Peace in the North
(Draws a Circle with finger sunwise, from the North back around to the North again.)
May there be Peace in this Circle, and throughout the whole Earth. Us cres yn kylgh ha yn norvys.

Acknowledgement of Country

The indigenous story of the creation of fire told in mosaic, and an underground oven in the garden behind us act as a reminder that this is a place of age old ceremonies of celebration, initiation and renewal. To begin, Amber and Paul wish to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this place, the peoples of the Murin Bulluk clan of the Wurunjeri of the Kulin Nations. People of Waa the Crow for whom this river was important. We acknowledge their elders and families and commit ourselves to care for the land with them. May our worship and our service be work for reconciliation with people and with our God.
(Take eucalyptus branch, strip some leaves and place in fire, return down ailse and place on altar for the blessings.)

Opening Prayer: Suzy Gilbert

Holy God, Creator of the elements

Earth beneath us, Sustainer of Life; (stone) Nod
Air around us, Inspiring all Life; (thuribles) Stephen Toms and Miko Gaskill
Water within us, Refreshing of Life. (jug of water) Neil Smitham
Fire of Stars above us, Empowerment of Life;

Eternal Circle of Love, Three and One, who knows neither morning nor evening, yet surrounds us in love both night and day.
Lift the curtain from the world and the veil from our hearts
May we know and dwell at the thin places, where your kingdom breaks into our world.
May we walk this day in the steps of Jesus, the Christ.
Who lived and loved on earth and who always worked in harmony with your will, even unto death.
Around this hearth we look to the East*
Rise with the morning sun upon our souls and enliven our work and prayer as we join Paul and Amber in marriage.
Amen

(*At the Easter Vigil of the Christian Church fire is used as a symbol of Christ and the rising sun his resurrection)

Confession

Today Paul and Amber want us to be aware of our emotions. What it is that each of us feel and bring to this place and celebration today.
Perhaps goodwill, a sense of connection with Paul and Amber and their communities, excited hopes for them, a desire to let go, to enjoy and celebrate. It’s going to be a great breakfast!
Or perhaps feelings that are more difficult. Weddings can raise fears and expectations, painful memories of people who have died or are not here, reminders of relationships that have failed or that remain un-reconciled.

Paul and Amber wish today to celebrate not only their commitment to each other but also to their community, as they put their pasts aside to start a new life together they ask for the grace of their community to also put past issues and hurts behind them.

Whatever we feel, whatever the state of relationships, let us bring together with Amber and Paul the good and the bad; our hopes, as well as our fears for their future. As we come together, let us bring to this circle our honest selves and journeys. For the circle is created, redeemed and sustained by God who journeys, who forgives and who celebrates with us.

The Vocation (Call) of Marriage:
Reading: Genesis 2:20b – 25: Robyn Samson

Creation stories are sacred because they preserve for a culture that which is essential to their understanding of what it means to be human.

The story we have heard read speaks of a man Adam which comes from the Hebrew “Adamah” for earth. Adam is created from the earth like the other creatures. Unlike the other Hebrew creation story where man and woman are created together and God looks and says it is good, this Adam or “earth creature” among other earth creatures is described as incomplete and alone and it is described as not good!

And so we see God go back to work and it says he works very hard. This time not working from the earth, from which the other animals but from Adam. At the end of the process the “earth creature” is greatly relieved. “Finally, flesh of my flesh.”

Those who would see the creation of woman as secondary fail to see that far from a subordinate helper, woman is created as the climax of creation, the essential partner who completes an incomplete humanity.
Interestingly at this first wedding it’s not the woman who changes her name. Adams name is changed from adam “of the earth” to of the woman, from ish to ishshah. No longer of the earth but of each other.

It reminds us of our need for the other, for difference, for inter-connection.

For this reason they are made one flesh, leaving behind all other structures of human power be they family, tribe loyalty and identity.
Amber and Paul have chosen this story as it calls for a valuing of the other as oneself, and to mutuality at the deepest level. The story ends by saying they were naked and they felt no shame. It is an image of the connection they seek emotionally, physically and spiritually.
And so marriage is a gift of God, our creator. It declares that love is the ultimate force that drives the universe.

As Gods calls to marriage, so God draws differing gifts and hopes into a unity of love and service.

Through marriage a new household is formed, where children may be born and grow in secure and loving care.

Marriage should therefore not be entered lightly or selfishly, but responsibly and joyfully, with mutual respect and the promise to be faithful.

It should be honoured by all.

Declaration of Call:

Paul and Amber:

Having heard the nature of the call. Of your own free will, understanding the responsibility and commitment it invites, will you choose to belong to each other in the vocation of marriage?

We will

Marcus: Then receive the blessing of God which falls like dew from heaven upon this place, eucalyptus and Water, Peace and Life, entwined. Amen
(Sprinkle with eucalyptus leaves dipped in water)

Immediate Family (they stand)

Parents you have raised Paul and Amber out of the vocation of your own relationships
Siblings you have been raised with and journeyed alongside them.
Will you give your blessing to their marriage and share in its joys and challenges as they embark on this way of life together

We will.

Marcus: Then receive the blessing of God which falls like dew from heaven upon this place, eucalyptus and Water, Peace and Life, entwined. Amen
(Sprinkle with eucalyptus leaves dipped in water)

Symbol: The Mixing of the Coals

The incense in the thuribles on our altar entered our ceremony at the head of each family procession as a symbol of the families and their life. As a further part of the family blessing Miko and Stephen will take the coals and place them in the hearth to recognise the joining of the families in the marriage of Amber and Paul.

Community of family and friends (they stand)

Will you give your blessing and will you support them as they embark on this way of life together.

We will.

Marcus: Then receive the blessing of God which falls like dew from heaven upon this place, eucalyptus Lavender and Water, Peace and Life, entwined. Amen
(Sprinkle with eucalyptus leaves dipped in water)

1 Corinthians 13 - Remix
Written and performed by Cameron M. Semmens

That which is often confused with lust is patient.

That which is the defining essence of God is kind.

That sentiment which most pop songs aspire to capture does not envy.

That which is more influential than power and prestige does not boast.

That which has motivated some of the greatest actions in human history

is not proud.

That which makes hard men write poetry and soft women watch rugby

does not behave rudely.

That which is often reduced to the salutation at the end of a letter is not selfish.

That which is used to rhyme with 'dove' in bad greeting card poems

is not easily angered.

That which is also a four letter word thinks no evil.

That which transcends the law does not rejoice in wrongdoings.

That which sees the best in people always defends.

That which inspires humans to give without thought of receiving always trusts.

That which prompts a man and a woman to commit their whole lives together

always expects the best.

That which binds a mother to a child; a people to a land; a God to a universe

always perseveres.

That which also means 'no score' in tennis is greater than faith.

That which can survive the cut and thrust of being unrequited

is greater than hope.

That which can be easily spelt out but NOT SO EASILY DEFINED

goes on… goes on… goes on… forever.

The Covenanting:

Exchange of Vows:

Paul, Will you cause Amber pain?

I May

Is that you intent?

Amber, Will you cause Paul pain?

I may

Is that you intent?

*To Both*
Will you share each other's pain and seek to ease it?

We will

Amber, Will you share Paul’s laughter?

Yes

Paul, Will you share Amber‘s laughter?

Yes

*To Both*
Will both of you look for the brightness in life and the positive in each other?

We will

Amber, Will you burden Paul?

I may

Is that you intent?

Paul, Will you burden Amber?

I may

Is that your intent?

*To Both*
Will you share the burdens of each so that your spirits may grow in this union?

We will

Amber, will you share Paul’s dreams?

Yes

Paul, will you share Amber’s dreams?

Yes

*To Both*
Will you dream together to create new realities and hopes?

We will

Paul:

Amber, today I am committing myself to being your husband and the challenge of our partnership. I commit to making choices despite myself, by following the example of Jesus, and putting the needs of you, my other, before my own

Sharing every part of myself with you like I do with no other.
You, me, and the Spirit of Christ, this is my new centre by which my world is measured.
Until death reunites us with the one from whom love comes.

Amber:

Paul, today I am committing myself to being your wife and the challenge of our partnership. I commit to making choices despite myself, by following the example of Jesus, and putting the needs of you, my other, before my own

Symbol: Greishog Ritual

Grieshog is an ancient Celtic ritual for keeping the embers of a fire alive through the night. It is the process of burying hot coals in ashes or under a layer of peat in order to preserve the fire for the cold morning to come. It is a holy process – the preservation of purpose, of warmth and light in darkness. At marriage the coals from a family hearth are often transferred to that of the new couple. And so Paul and Amber will use incense to tend the coals that each family has brought to the altar. From the coals of the families a new hearth and household is created. Paul and Amber may your love create a warm centre of hospitality and grace for all.

The Giving of Rings:

Marcus: May we have the Rings

(Karen Borton walks down the center aisle and gives the rings to Marcus who holds them aloft.)

Forged in fire the ring is a never ending circle, a reminder of the never ending love of God, the eternal dance of Trinity, which encircles us all, creating and sustaining the circle of connection in which each of us stand.

Paul:
Amber I offer you this ring as a symbol of the commitment I have made to you today will you take this ring and join me as we continue our journeys together into the future?

Amber:

"I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way."
(places the ring on Amber’s finger)

Amber:

Paul I offer you this ring as a symbol of the commitment I have made to you today will you take this ring and join me as we continue our journeys together into the future?

Paul:

"I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way."
(places the ring on Paul’s finger)

Marcus/Elrond:

"This is the hour of the Shire-folk, when they arise from their quiet fields, to shake the towers and counsels of the Great. Who of all the Wise could have foreseen it?

(Given the stature of the bride and groom they endured many jokes about this being a Hobbit Wedding and having rejected many ideas including going barefoot and dressing me as Gandalf, decided to throw in the words of Frodo and Elrond’s response. As you can see below I put on my extra serious face to deliver it whilst Paul and Amber cack themselves!)

Blessing and Pronouncement of Marriage

Paul and Amber today in the presence of God and your community of family and friends you have sworn solemn vows, shared rings and tended the hearth of a new household. In the name of Almighty God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the groom.

Song: Irish Blessing

Chorus: May your life in this world be a happy one,
May your sun be warm and may your skies be blue,
May each storm that comes your way, clear the air for a brighter day,
May the saints and the saviour watch over you.

Verse 1: As you spend your time with friends and family,
And you see the warmth and love they have for you,
When you see the wars and hate others radiate,
May the saints and the saviour watch over you.
Chorus
Verse 2: As you spend your time in this old world of ours,
As you see the beauty of the morning dew,
As you smell the summer flowers while you pass away the hours,
May the saints and the saviour watch over you.

Celtic Circle Blessing: Marcus Curnow

(Congregation form circle around the couple. All say "Circle them Lord", various voices give the blessings.)

Marcus: Circle them Creator God
All: Circle them Lord
Glen and Mary: May the angels of Heaven protect you this day and circle you with the fragrance of peace.
Virginia: (to name something they wish to be kept without)
Marcus: Circle them Redeemer Christ
All: Circle them Lord
Peter and Joy: May Christ your Lord and loving friend protect you this day and circle you with affection and love.
Jeff: (to name something they wish to be kept within)
Marcus: Circle them Sustainer Spirit
All: Circle them Lord

Sammy and Dave: May the Spirit of Truth, who dwells in your heart, protect you this day and circle you, and fill your heart with joy.

All: A m e n

Housekeeping: Instructions of what to do next, Breakfast, Second Breakfast and Elevenses preparations, family photos. The first meal from their marriage hearth is to be shared with us all.

Final Blessing:

Christ as a light illumine and guide us
Christ as a shield overshadow us
Christ under us, Christ over us,
Christ beside us, On our left and our right
This day be within and without us
Lowly and meek yet all-powerful
Be in the heart of each to whom we speak
In the mouth of each who speaks to us
This day be within and without us
Lowly and meek yet all-powerful
Christ as a light, Christ as a shield
Christ beside us, on our left and our right
(St Patrick)

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Paul and Amber

Recessional:

With the battery operated PA conking out halfway and with no way to play the CD of The Proclaimers “500 miles” Dave Waterworth the PA guy ingeniously coopted the band and spontaneously started singing off the CD cover whilst a slightly bewildered circle looked on.

Posted by marcus at 04:53 PM | Comments (1)

Wedding: Seeds Prayer for Luke and Kylie

November 05, 2006

The prayer I offered for Luke and Kylie's Wedding on the weekend based around the four aspects of our spiritual life. Prayer and more photos below...

Holding up the packet of Seeds
Holy community of gracious hospitality, in the midst of our homelessness you extend us an invitation to Grow Home.

We thankyou that Luke and Kylie have heard your call to follow in the vocation of religious brothers and sisters through the ages and that our own mothers and father to grow new households of love.

As they make vows today to share their possessions we pray they would be set free from the burden of wealth and that the poor would always be with them.

In their promise of sexual fidelity may they experience your wild creative power in their bodies and share the sacred connections between your Spirit and all creation.

As they vow mutual submission, guide them in their use of power. Grace them to lose well, to fail boldly and sacrifice themselves with the same passion with which you lived and died.

Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Holding up the Bible
May you Know the Word. May God's word guide you, choosing your stories and storying your choices. Not ancient words on a page but the living Spirit of Christ among you.

Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Holding up the Credo Cafe bowl
May you Eat Slow. May your production and consumption of food around the table of your household build connections with God, creation and others. May your eyes be opened in the breaking of the bread and bear witness to the marriage feast to come where all are invited and there is enough for all.

Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Holding up the bottle of oil
May you Go Engage, sent out on Christ's mission to preach good news; speaking truth to the powers and to each other; naming and casting out that which is evil in our world and within; and may you heal and be healed.

Luke and Kylie you have already taught us much about what it means to heal. There will be much that you will still have to learn and much more for you to teach us.

And so in the missionary practice of Christ's disciples I annoint you with healing oil; the sign of the cross upon you, that in the midst of our brokenness we may share with you in the power of Christ's healing touch.

Lord hear us.
All: Lord hear our prayer

Amen.

ribbons fly small.JPG

Posted by marcus at 01:18 PM | Comments (2)

Good Samaritan Stations

October 12, 2006

Cant keep the man down! Mark Pierson pulls off another masterstroke setting up 14 reflection stations across the beautiful grounds and builidngs of the Montsalvat artists colony for 350 people as part of a World Vision staff prayer day. The title was "Looking for Loopholes in Love" which explored the story of The Good Samaritan. Pics below...

Punters place prayer band aids on the injured man by the side of the road...or walk by!!!

Placing avatars in sand to place ourselves in the story...

Stations hiding in nooks and crannies all over Montsalvat; art in the loft...

Blackboard responses...

Communion indoors...

Communion outdoors...

Empty communion cups filled with earth and used for seed planting...

Nailing pictures to the crosses...

Melting ice crosses in hands...

ice station...

Incense in the Long Gallery...

Long gallery...

Newsline prayers...

Noodle boxes for punters contained maps, reflections, lollies, band aids etc...

Plinth painting...

The man at work...great job mate!

Posted by marcus at 10:29 AM | Comments (1)

Confession: Beirut

August 22, 2006

christop confess.png
At our Seeds Gathering @ The Den this week Christop Booth used images and sounds of Mazen Kerbaj's blog as the Prayer of Confession. Framing it as an opportunity to consider the impact of violence in our world and in our own lives he introduced us to the musician and artist who lives in Beirut. His cartoon drawings portrayed the practicalities of life and the emotional chaos of being bombarded. His eerie musical recordings literally had the sounds of bombs falling in the backgroud. It was surreal and haunting and was very powerful to use in a Christian worship service. It reminded me somewhat of the time U2 crossed to the beseiged Sarajevo in the middle of their concert. The potential for bringing personal blogs from contested spaces in our world into the heart of our liturgy ( in terms of really hearing the voices of the marginalised, the "other" or our enemy)is very interesting to me. Thanks Christop!

Posted by marcus at 12:07 AM | Comments (3)

State Youth Games Sacred Space 06

June 16, 2006

A visual recap of our Sacred Space contribution to State Youth Games. Great to be involved in putting together a reflective and creative space with young people for young people.

Friday night arrival to empty space 10x10...our mission: to create a sacred space.

Transforming...we also provided a space for the cafe which gave the sacred space more of a casual vibe than last year.

With only a few tables thrown out Friday night turns into a jam session.

Justin begins creating a sacred space Saturday morning!

Drew and Chloe

Drew digs in "The Waters Edge" station

With Jono

Damien texts up the coffin for the Communion of Saints station

Plinth Master Rachael

The Plinth Masters from Oasis begin....

Caroline and Amy from the Oasis Global Action Team.

Hmmm are these prayer plinths, pyramids or obelisks? The debate continues....

Barbed wire "clothes line" for newspaper intercession with confessional box in background.

confession cards.jpg
Confession postcards

The Waters Edge Station: reflection on the stories of jesus

Jammin in the Sacred Space, by the Sunday night people were getting up and sharing songs and testimonies spontaneously which said a lot for the vibe that had been created.

Warragul, winter, COLD!

Tired but happy.

big weekend!

grafitti 7.jpg

Posted by marcus at 11:10 PM | Comments (1)

Wedding: Glenn and Edie wash feet

May 24, 2006

Glenn and Edy's weddings 054.jpg

Glenn Daniels and Edie Wilson.... Great wedding guys, well done! And it all started with sister Di doing work experience with us six years ago! I love it. Given all Glenn's photography mates in the room on the day I'd love to see some better photos than these, feel free to email!!!

Ushers: Mia and Yasmin de Jonge

Prelude Music: Nick Harder (Violin) and Katie Vanderzaag

Entrance:
Glenn and Boys to build the foot washing area before the girls arrive.
Music: Nick Harder and Katie Vanderzaag
Edie’s sisters Dianna and Cathy walk down the aisle together followed by Edie with her parents Geoff and Liesje on each arm.

Welcome: Marcus Curnow

On behalf of Glenn, Edie and their families, welcome to Wonga Park Reformed church today.

Throughout the day Glenn and Edie encourage you to enjoy the surrounds.

It is one way we can appreciate our dependence upon the creation, the role that marriage plays in maintaining this connection, and give thanks to the Creator who sustains all of this.

At the beginning of this ceremony Glenn and Edie wish to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this place, the peoples of the Kulin nations, their elders and families who have lived long and well on this land.

They also want us to be aware of our emotions. What it is that each of us feel and bring to this place and celebration today.

Perhaps goodwill, a sense of connection with Glenn and Edie and their communities, excited hopes for them, a desire to let go, to enjoy and celebrate. It’s going to be a great party!

Or perhaps feelings that are more difficult. Weddings can raise fears and expectations, painful memories of people who have died or are not here, reminders of relationships that have failed or that remain un-reconciled.

Whatever we feel, whatever the state of relationships, let us bring together with Edie and Glenn the good and the bad; our hopes, as well as our fears for their future. Let us come together, bringing our honest selves and journeys to God who journeys and celebrates with us.

Opening Prayer: Mr. Geoff Wilson

Song: Nick, Katie and Jemma

The central image that Glenn and Edie wish to celebrate today as they marry is that of service. As part of their vows they will participate in a sacrament of washing each others feet. Let us join with them in celebrating this symbol by singing The Servant Song.

The Servant Song

Brother sister, let me serve you. Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey; we are brothers on the road.
We are here to help each other, walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you, in the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you; speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping. When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven, we shall find such harmony.
Born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.

The Vocation (Call) of Marriage:

Reading 1: Genesis 2:20b – 25: Amanda Verdouw

Reflection: Marcus Curnow

Creation stories are sacred because they preserve for a culture that which is essential to their understanding of what it means to be human.

And so we see God go back to work says he works very hard. This time not working from the earth, from which the other animals but from Adam. At the end of the process the “earth creature” is greatly relieved. “Finally, flesh of my flesh.” Not quite there yet Glenn!
Those who would see the creation of woman as secondary fail to see that far from a subordinate helper, woman is created as the climax of creation, the essential partner who completes an incomplete humanity. Edie you look stunning.

Interestingly at this first wedding it’s not the woman who changes her name. Adams name is changed from adam “of the earth” to of the woman, from ish to ishshah. No longer of the earth but of each other.
It reminds us of our need for the other, for difference, for inter-connection.

For this reason they are made one flesh, leaving behind all other structures of human power be they family, tribe loyalty and identity.
Glen and Edie have chosen this story as it calls for a valuing of the other as oneself and to mutuality at the deepest level. The story ends by saying they were naked and they felt no shame. It is an image of the connection they seek emotionally, physically and spiritually.

And so marriage is a gift of God, our creator. It declares that love is the ultimate force that drives the universe.
As Gods calls to marriage, so God draws differing gifts and hopes into a unity of love and service.
Through marriage a new household is formed, where children may be born and grow in secure and loving care.
Marriage should therefore not be entered lightly or selfishly, but responsibly and joyfully, with mutual respect and the promise to be faithful.
It should be honoured by all.

Declaration of Call:

Glenn and Edie:
Having heard the nature of the call. Of your own free will, understanding the responsibility and commitment it invites, will you choose to belong to each other in the vocation of marriage?
We will

Immediate Family (they stand)

Neil and Jenny, Geoff and Liesje, you have raised Glenn and Edie out of the vocation of your own marriages.

Cathy & Dave, Dianna, Candy & Mark, Mick & Duck you have been raised with and journeyed alongside them.

Will you give your blessing to their marriage and share in its joys and challenges as they embark on this way of life together
We will. As your families we will seek to serve you as you serve each other.

(The Wilson and Daniels families will present a bowl and towel for the sacrament of footwashing)

Community of family and friends (they stand)

Will you give your blessing and will you support them as they embark on this way of life together.
We will. As your community of friends we will seek to serve you as you serve each other.

(Trevor Marriott and Scott Urquhart will present a water jug and soap for the sacrament of footwashing)

Reading 2: John 13:1-5, 12-17 Hayno

Reflection: Marcus Curnow

Why ever would you want to wash each others feet on your wedding day? At best is awkward, at worst it’s disgusting?

Why ruin the image of prince and princess for a day? Glenn you don’t see too many close-ups of feet in the wedding magazines!

Well the wedding industry and their glossy magazines give us one vision of what it means to be fully human but Christians believe if we want to know what it means to be fully human we must look to God who comes to us in human form in the person of Jesus. A God who does the servants work of washing feet. Jesus shows us that we find life when we give it away. And that is what you are doing today, whilst you maintain your own individuality, there is a death of sorts as you give parts of yourself away in order to serve each other. And so Edie and Glenn are washing each others feet today for four reasons.

It is a symbol of their desire to serve each other in mutual submission.

You are hardly the people who I need to preach to about mutual submission. Both of you have a gentleness and vulnerability about your character that many of us admire greatly and is a great strength.
Glenn said of Edie “She says what it is I’m trying to say”, she completes me.

I have been impressed by the way you have been careful, full of care for each other through the stressful process of getting married.
I even had to ask “Do you guy’s ever fight?” I was glad to hear that you do and that you are each strong in different areas.

This is important. Service doesn’t mean being weak, or to vacillate to the other.

In talking with your friends and families many have said how you have each grown stronger through being together over the past year.
In being strong for each other in your areas of strength, even through conflict, you serve your relationship.

It is a symbol of their desire to serve and be served by you their community of family and friends.

We learn much about service from the families we grow up in and you are privileged to have come from strong families who have taught you much about what service is. In a land of dusty roads foot washing was a common domestic courtesy in Jesus day. I am always offered coffee and cake when at the Wilson’s and I am told there is always a beer on offer when one arrives at the Daniels’. You have much to draw from this source.

Having had time away from family and friends in Tasmania, Edi you have expressed your desire for community to be a strong part of this marriage.

It is a symbol of their desire to serve those who are often considered least in our world.

At the last supper before he giving his life away at the cross Jesus washes the feet of his diverse followers who he knows will betray him and let him down.

It is a sign that love is ultimate and will rise again in the face of other forms of violent power. It reminds us of the need to prioritise and serve, and to be served, by those who are broken and crucified in our world today. Like marriage this kind of service can be costly but in it we find life.

You have both “wet your feet” in this area, Glenn through your experience of living at Urban Seed and Edie your trip to Cambodia. I know you share hopes of future travel together and sharing your many gifts in this regard.

It is a symbol of their desire to serve all of creation.

Glenn and Edie desperately wanted an outdoor wedding for what it says about how they feel about creation. It’s lucky we didn’t end up at Silvan Dam for the outdoor wedding today or we would all have had to wash each others feet!

Marriage creates a household in which children may be raised. Sex and Food are an essential part of the marriage household and both connect us with the forces of creation. Get into it!

Households need food, food requires farms and farms need the wilderness. There is a profound connection between domestic happiness and the wild forces of nature. Any culture, or economy that fails to respect the mystery and sanctity of wilderness; any religion that forbids its prophets go to the wilderness loses the chance of renewal and is ultimately doomed.

Glenn it’s probably fair to say you have always been a bit of a wild child and a restless spirit. It has been very special and important to see you find a peace in this relationship and with the prospect of marriage. Whilst there will be much to learn about household and giving your life away through serving each other, let me remind you both that “settling down” does not mean being domesticated.

Glenn, a surf for you is a spiritual thing. Your baptism was a wild surfing event, so it is great you can share this image of water today. Together you have already known something of the wildness of God’s love as you have come together. God is the ultimate wild child. The Creator’s love cannot ultimately be confined to any temple or household.

May you marriage rest and rejoice in the wild, expansive, never ending love of God. Amen.

The Covenanting:

Exchange of Vows:
I ______, take you, ______to be my husband/wife, my helper and companion in life. It is in the knowledge and assurance of God’s faithful love, grace and strength that I make these promises to you today.

I promise to be faithful to you
to be honest and open with you
to trust and respect you
to cherish you and encourage you
to share my life with you
to walk with you towards God

In unison:
Don’t let me leave you, or turn back from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. And where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. Ruth 1:16

Rings:
I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness to you.

Symbol: Footwashing
What image of love shall we use to capture and celebrate the significance of the commitment Edie and Glenn are making. Jesus Christ offered us an image of love grounded in self giving service. In a confronting demonstration of this serving love, Christ washed the feet of his followers at their final meal, and told them to do likewise.
As part of their covenanting with each other, Glenn and Edie will follow the example and command of Christ by washing each others feet.

It is a symbol of their desire to serve each other in mutual submission.
It is a symbol of their desire to serve and be served by you their community of family and friends.
It is a symbol of their desire to serve those who are often considered least in our world.
It is a symbol of their desire to serve all of creation.

Blessing and Pronouncement of Marriage
You may kiss the groom.

Signing of the Register:

Witnesses: Hayno, Aunty Cazz

Music: Nick, Lisa, Julia “Time after Time”

Song: “The Irish Blessing” John Cornford

Chorus
May your life in this world be a happy one,
May your sun be warm and may your skies be blue,
May each storm that comes your way,
Clear the air for a brighter day.
May the saints and the saviour, watch over you.

As you spend time with friends and family,
And you see the warmth and love they have for you,
When you see the wars and hate, others radiate,
May the saints and the saviour, watch over you.
Chorus
As you spend time in this old world of ours,
As you see the beauty of the morning dew,
As you smell the summer flowers, while you pass away the hours,
May the saints and the saviour, watch over you.
Chorus

Housekeeping: Instructions of what to do next, Arvo Tea in the hall, family photos. If you have been invited to the reception. Follow balloons from the turn off of the Monbulk/Silvan Road to reception etc.

Blessing: Marcus Curnow
Go in peace,
And may the holy God surprise you on the way,
Christ Jesus be your company
And the Spirit light up your life. Amen

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Glenn and Edie Daniels

Recessional: Music

Kim and Jon, Amy, Paul and Amber

hmmm, big day, bit tired!

Posted by marcus at 10:13 AM | Comments (4)

Confession: Vine

May 21, 2006

I Am the Vine - 1960.jpg
I am the Vine, Wantanabe, 1960.

This Sundays Common Readings saw me take the John 15 “Abide in Me” verses and use it for confession. As the reading was read I took my secateurs and walking around the room chopped a piece of vine for each person encouraging them to consider the parts of their life that were dead wood, I encouraged them to hold it until our communion/response time and place it at the foot of the cross, which was placed central, standing on an old tree stump. It made a nice ‘abide in me”, vine as body of Christ type image at the centre of the worship gathering.

Many of the Urban Seed mob were away on Credo retreat up at the Grampians where Ali and Tommsy gave the thing an Aussie indigenous spin by using the image of a gum tree. Whilst reflecting upon the significance of vines for Jewish people they handed around branches which after considering pruning, burning and confession people threw into a campfire. As the service progressed they pulled out a damper that had been cooking under the coals and mixed this with billy tea for the eucharist. A nice ressurection image. I think they finished with some kind of anointing blessing with Eucalyptus oil also. Well done guys, exceptional!

Posted by marcus at 09:59 AM | Comments (1)

Dead Man Waiting

May 10, 2006

Alright finally some photos off the mobile phone of the legendary Easter Saturday service "Dead Man Waiting"......which made an article by the sydney anglicans full of fabulously reactive statements!... Oh my Lord, dripping ice waters down the gospel!!!!!!! I think their Christendom must be crumbling...or is that melting??!! Acknowledging the Dead Man is an important thing! As I said in my last post Mark P. and Cheryl L. rox!

www.sydneyanglicans.net

Content of the service and some of the discussion re follow up/fall out can be found at Cheryle Lawries blog

Posted by marcus at 06:13 PM | Comments (1)

Lenten Reflections

March 22, 2006

lent reflections.jpg
Tom Sine has put some cool photos of Mark Pierson's Lenten Reflections up online for all those who missed out on a copy. Looks real nice!

Posted by marcus at 06:57 AM | Comments (0)

Rosa Parks Tribute: Call 2 Worship

November 06, 2005

As our Call to Worship tonight as we think about All Saints Day and those that have inspired us in faith I want to refelct on Rosa Parks who died last week by reading some reflections I came across about her life
.
One Angle:

When a seamstress sat down on a bus in Montgomery, she was just going about her daily routine. She was not born into royalty. She was not classical in terms of blue blood. She was an ordinary person on an ordinary mission about to do an extraordinary thing. She sat down in a vacant seat that tradition and law had reserved for whites, and when the bus driver told her to get up, she didn’t get up. She sat down and a whole race of people rose up.

On that solitary day, who could have thought that her one act of moral defiance would usher in what history knows as the greatest movement on these soils—the Civil Rights Movement that not only blessed African Americans, but has literally blessed the whole world when you consider that Nelson Mandela and others caught the same wind.

She sat down and the world is still reverberating. She sat down and a man wound up in Oslo, Norway, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize

You think your solitary act does not make a difference, but she sat down. And I’m in this pulpit today because of the wind that began to blow. When God is in a thing, you don’t have to have an army or a navy; you don’t have to have bullets and guns. There is power, Holy Ghost power, in the name of Jesus!

Another Angle: based on an article by Paul Loeb

...the story's standard rendition and one repeated even in many of her obituaries--stripped the Montgomery boycott of all of its context. Before refusing to give up her bus seat, Parks had been active for twelve years in the local NAACP chapter, serving as its secretary. The summer before her arrest, she'd had attended a ten-day training session at Tennessee's labor and civil rights organizing school, the Highlander Center, where she'd met an older generation of civil rights activists, like South Carolina teacher Septima Clark, and discussed the recent Supreme Court decision banning "separate-but-equal" schools. During this period of involvement and education, Parks had become familiar with previous challenges to segregation: Another Montgomery bus boycott, fifty years earlier, successfully eased some restrictions; a bus boycott in Baton Rouge won limited gains two years before Parks was arrested; and the previous spring, a young Montgomery woman had also refused to move to the back of the bus, causing the NAACP to consider a legal challenge until it turned out that she was unmarried and pregnant, and therefore a poor symbol for a campaign.

In short, Rosa Parks didn't make a spur-of-the-moment decision. She didn't single-handedly give birth to the civil rights efforts, but she was part of an existing movement for change, at a time when success was far from certain.

Without the often lonely work of people ..... Parks would likely have never taken her stand, and if she had, it would never have had the same impact.

This in no way diminishes the power and historical importance of Parks's refusal to give up her seat. But it reminds us that this tremendously consequential act, along with everything that followed, depended on all the humble and frustrating work that Parks and others undertook earlier on. It also reminds us that Parks's initial step of getting involved was just as courageous and critical as the stand on the bus that all of us have heard about.

This invitation to worship is a call to look at the reasons why you have chosen to be here tonight. Urban Seed church shapes everything it does according to the goal of ‘sustaining and resourcing Christian spirituality in the world’. Celebrating Rosa Parks, or any "saint" can easily create a standard so impossible to meet, it may actually make it harder for us to get involved, inadvertently removing away Parks's most powerful lessons of hope.

Urban Seed: church is not about social activists coming out of nowhere, to suddenly take dramatic stands. We usually dont act with the greatest impact when we act alone,and change rarely occurs instantly, but is built on longterm, often-invisible actions. It's not about being a larger-than-life figure--someone with more time, energy, courage, vision, or knowledge than any normal person could ever possess.

Our readings tonight will remind us to stay awake. Awake to the real ways that God uses to change us and the world. Rosa stood in a strong black church tradition of people who gathered to worship around stories of liberation, who prayed for themselves and others, who built community and connection with each other, who learnt the skills and developed the character required to live the story in the world. No matter how big or small this group is, no matter how you're feeling at the moment our worship is about sustaining us in the struggle and the little things we do each day and together to keep hope alive.

Let this gathering be such a moment and let's worship God by singing the words of United Mine Workers in the song Step by Step

Step by Step the longest march, Can be won, Can be won. Many stones can form and arch, Singly none, singly none. And by union what we will, Can be accomplished still. Drops of water turn a mill, Singly none, singly none.

Posted by marcus at 11:08 PM | Comments (1)

Call 2 Worship: All Saints Day & Land

October 31, 2005

Gave this Call 2 Worship a run at Urban Seed: church last night trying to make some connections with Ancestral Spirits/Halloween/All Saints Day and The Cloud of Witnesses (Hebrews 12)....no small task really and a bit wordy...but fun!...

All Saints/Souls Day 2005

Opening Ritual
We acknowledge that we gather on the land of which the Wurundjeri people have been custodians from time immemorial. We honour this history and commit ourselves to care for the land with them. May our worship and our service be work for reconciliation with people and with our God.

(We say together…)

Jesus, light of the world, we confess that you are here. Shine your light into the hidden places of our lives, and bring warmth to the cold places of our hearts. Amen.

(silence while a candle is lit)

Call to Worship

20thC saints long.jpg

Image: Martyrs of the 20th Century, Sculptures from Westminster Abbey, London, including MLKing, Max Kolbe, D.Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, Elizabeth of Russia etc.

Let us worship the Lord. Isaiah 42 proclaims

Sing to Yahweh a new song of praise From the ends of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it, The coastlands and all their inhabitants. Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice.

Welcome to Urban Seed: church on Melbourne Cup Weekend. The race that stops a nation. Tonight we have come to stop for a different purpose. We follow a different calander. Tomorrow is of course Halloween or All Hallows eve. All Hallows or All Saints Day is traditionally celebrated on 1 November. Initiated in the eighth century by the Catholic Church as a day to commemorate all the “official” Saints or martyrs who didn’t already have a specific day of remembrance, it has become a day for celebrating all those followers of Jesus whose lives have inspired us. This day is a chance to remember those Christians who have gone before us and influenced our lives in some way and to reflect on the continued presence of Christ on earth through his followers.

All Souls Day on 2 November is in many ways an extension of All Saints Day, but with particular emphasis on remembering those who have died. It fell out of Reformed church practice for a while, due to objections to the Catholic practice of praying for the dead so that they might be released from Purgatory, but the modern Anglican calendar has re-established it. Odilo, the abbot of Cluny monastery, inaugurated All Souls in 998 as a day to remember “all the dead who have existed from the beginning of the world to the end of time.” It is a time also to reflect on the hope that is part of the Christian faith that of life beyond this life.

Tonight we want to acknowledge those that have influenced us and have gone before……

Our opening ritual acknowledges the traditional owners of the land upon which we worship. David Tacey suggests that the cultural ‘mixing’ of Aboriginal spirituality and Christian revelation will give rise to an embodied religious sense, and an awareness of the sanctity and sacramentality of nature. This is not a pagan but a profoundly biblical idea. Our call to worship from Isaiah suggests that the oceans and lands are not inanimate matter but subjects with a voice that can worship the lord.

Some have suggested connections with this idea and that of ‘songlines’ that Aboriginal communities use as navigation stories for finding their way across the country. If we take these ideas of land seriously it can lead to what some have described as “reverse colonization”.

Carl Jung suggested that as we deepen our connection with place, the place slowly conquers us. “Man can be assimilated by a country.”

Some indigenous traditions also assert that one cannot conquer foreign soil, because in it there dwells strange ancestor-spirits who reincarnate themselves in the new-born.

American Indian Chief Sealth Suaqamish once said “At night, when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and deserted, they will throng with the host that once filled, and still love this land, the white man will never be alone.”

The idea of spirits haunting us invokes Halloween. The Celts believed that this magical time of seasonal transition opened up a connection to the dead. They believed that the world of the living was closest to the world of the dead at Samhain and at this time the spirits of the dead travelled among the living. The church objected to the fascination with the spirits of the dead and so began to characterise them as evil forces associated with the devil. That’s where a lot of today’s Halloween imagery comes from.

Whilst Christianity has no doctrine of reincarnation or ancestral spirits. Tacey suggests it is the power of this ‘spirit of place’, however described, that has caused many sensitive Australians to feel at ‘home’ in Aboriginal Australia.

He concludes that the best way for Aboriginal Australians to bring about a social revolution is not to shout “Europeans, go home”, but to cry “We are your soul”, then observe the changes. Ched Myers observes these changes in his own life. “The love in the land has summoned a love in me for it. This love was buried in my soul like the smallest of seeds, placed there by ancestors I never knew." He concludes “I am convinced that beliefs of traditional cultures not only speak truth but they represent an ultimatum to Christians. Will we continue to ignore the songlines and to excommunicate the spirits of the land in which we dwell? Or can we learn to hear the songlines as essential verses in the earthsong of Gods praise and to see the spirits as part of the great “cloud of witnesses” spoken of in the New Testament book of Hebrews.”

As part of our worship tonight I invite you to think of a place, some land or country that is familiar, special, sacred to you, land that you love. During the service mix a finger in the soil mixed with ink and mark the Urban Seed:church cross constructed for us by Paul Toms below its horizon line symbol of land as a celebration of the songlines of Gods creation, the people that have recongised them and sung them through history and our desire to listen, learn and sing them today and for all time.

(Thanks to Mark Pierson for his All Saints/Souls info. from Fractals worship resource.)

Song
I chose a song with connections to the land of my own ancestors from Cornwall with words by Perran Gay. I changed a few to work with the All Saints day vibe.

Gracious God, your love surrounds us, Cove and headland, sea and sand Sing the praises of your beauty, Show the hallmark of your hand Give us eyes to see your glory Ear attentive, hearts aflame Voices raised with natures anthem To the worship of your name

God, in Christ your love surrounds us, Balm in sadness, hope in pain, Costly love that seeks and finds us, Bears us gently home again. Guide us on your pilgrim people, Show us where the songlines lead. May we know and live your message Gospel word and gospel deed.

Spirit God, your power surrounds us, Power of tempest, wind and wave, Source of sainthood, artists vision, Life that conquers sin and grave. Weave us with your great communion, Cloud of witnesses above. Gather in the whole creation To the banquet of your love.

Posted by marcus at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)

Amy's Grand Final Baptism

September 25, 2005

We were honoured to celebrate the baptism of Amy, daughter of Kim and Jon Cornford (ressies 1999-2001) on Saturday at Footscray. They are Common Lifers and, being AFL Grand Final Day, Peter Chapman was in fine form during his sermon...

"That other event being held today that shall remain nameless......"

"Unlike that other event that shall remain nameless you dont have to pay to get into this one.....and despite what many in our society may think....a quaint religious gathering.....this one is infinitely more important!"

More grainy pics & less grainy thoughts below...

"I certainly don't hope that you will be a winner, or have a successful career or be wealthy.... I don't care about any of those things....I hope that you will know God."

The gathered covenanting community was made up largely of Common Life/Rule people and so Peter Chapman chose to speak only briefly about Amy and baptism. He basically said, with the people in the room, she's got a lot going for her in terms of living spritual hertiage, rolemodels, community etc etc.

Using the scathing poem Only a Jockey by Banjo Paterson Chappo spoke passionately about the many in our world who (especially on AFL Grand Final Day) will never know the riches of Christ and what we have gathered to celebrate in any personally or culturally meaningful way. He called upon us on an occasion such as this to think of and remember them!

AB Patterson in The Bulletin 26th February 1887

‘Richard Bennison, a jockey, aged fourteen, while riding William Tell in his training, was thrown and killed. The horse is luckily uninjured.’ — Melbourne Wire.

Out in the grey cheerless chill of the morning light, Out on the track where the night shades still lurk, ere the first gleam of the sungod's returning light Round come the racehorses early at work. Reefing and pulling and racing so readily, Close sit the jockey-boys holding them hard, "Steady the stallion there -- canter him steadily, Don't let him gallop so much as a yard."

Fiercely he fights while the others run wide of him, Reefs at the bit that would hold him in thrall, Plunges and bucks till the boy that's astride of him Goes to the ground with a terrible fall.

"Stop him there! Block him there! Drive him in carefully, Lead him about till he's quiet and cool. Sound as a bell! though he's blown himself fearfully, Now let us pick up this poor little fool.

"Stunned? Oh, by Jove, I'm afraid it's a case with him; Ride for the doctor! keep bathing his head! Send for a cart to go down to our place with him" -- No use! One long sigh and the little chap's dead.

Only a jockey-boy, foul-mouthed and bad you see, Ignorant, heathenish, gone to his rest. Parson or Presbyter, Pharisee, Sadducee, What did you do for him? -- bad was the best.

Negroes and foreigners, all have a claim on you; Yearly you send your well-advertised hoard, But the poor jockey-boy -- shame on you, shame on you, "Feed ye My little ones" -- what said the Lord?

Him ye held less than the outer barbarian, Left him to die in his ignorant sin; Have you no principles, humanitarian? Have you no precept -- "Go gather them in?"

Knew he God's name? In his brutal profanity That name was an oath -- out of many but one. What did he get from our famed Christianity? Where has his soul -- if he had any -- gone?

Fourteen years old, and what was he taught of it? What did he know of God's infinite Grace? Draw the dark curtain of shame o'er the thought of it Draw the shroud over the jockey-boy's face.

Whilst thinking of children I was checking out jonny baker and found a Dedication of an Infant Liturgy by kester with a cool 3 circles (parents, godparents,community) candle lighting type ritual which I liked.

Posted by marcus at 02:11 AM | Comments (2)

Hurricane Katrina Confession

September 06, 2005

I started and ended by playing Nick Cave's "People aint no good" with a voiceover the middle verses which incorporated themes and images from the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina. We also had newspapers with images and slogans from the week around the space for people to interact with as part of prayers for others later on. Confession below....

Prayer of Confession

We come to worship as equals before God because our foundational story, Genesis, says we are created good. But it also says that this goodness is spoiled. We know in many ways that the world and our own lives are far from good and equality is not a lived reality amongst us.

In shaping our prayer of confession we will listen to the the music and lyrics of Nick Cave that remind us of our fallen goodness. Natural disasters reveal a lot about our true character as individuals and a society. We experienced this in the recent Tsunami, where in response, Austrailan's celebrated their generosity.....the so called "wave of compassion". Tonight I invite you to bring to our confession the images, thoughts and feelings that we have witnessed and shared during the week regarding the disturbing events of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

People just ain't no good
I think that's well understood
You can see it everywhere you look
People just ain't no good…

THE water flows in and the water flows out, washing away all that once lay on the surface — and revealing what lies beneath. So it is with all floods in all places, but now it is America that stands exposed. And neither America nor the world likes what it sees. Jonathan Freedland in The Age

The rich fleeing to safety whilst the poor and weak remain to struggle, fight and die.

Another stark reminder of the great curse of racial injustice as the poor left behind are largely African American.

The delay of any adequate co-ordinated response and the depleted presence of National Guard rescuers due to war in foreign countries.

Images of leaders flying over the suffering, days after the event.

Revelations of years of warnings and inaction in repairing and upgrading levee bank storm protection.

Government cut backs to disaster relief organisations in favour of security measures to counter the threat of terrorism.

Rape and murder in places of refuge.

Looting by desperate individuals and violent gangs.

Shoot to Kill' policys being issued whilst aid remains delayed.

'Entrepreneurs' raising petrol prices as people seek to flee and raising hotel rates whilst people seek shelter. Predators upon human misery.

Mark Pierson mentioned at Urban Seed staff prayers how such an event and such consequences in the most wealthy and powerful nation on earth forces us to consider the thin thread by which peace within any society is maintained. It is sobering to remember the anarchy that runs so close to the surface in our world. If we are honest it is a reminder of the anarchy that often runs close to the surface in each of our lives.

As we listen to the rest of the song consider the fallen goodness this event reveals within our society and and its people.
Simply callin oneself 'Christian' in no way makes us 'good' or morally superior. It is instead an invitation to consider our complicity in similar dynamics of human failure and how you may respond or what you may be capable of in the same or similiar circumstances. To consider and confess our own fallen goodness.

It ain't that in their hearts they're bad
They can comfort you, some even try
They nurse you when you're ill of health
They bury you when you go and die
It ain't that in their hearts they're bad
They'd stick by you if they could
But that's just bullshit
People just ain't no good… Nick Cave

Declaration of Grace

Having confessed our sin hear the Declaration of God's goodness to us...

Romans 3:21-23 NRSV (adapted by me!)

But now apart from law, the 'goodness' of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the 'goodness' of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now 'made good' by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his 'goodness', because in his divine 'patience' he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is 'good' and that he 'makes good' the one who has faith in Jesus.

Posted by marcus at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

Tribute 2 Br. Roger of Taize

August 28, 2005

As part of Urban Seed church last Sunday we shaped parts of our service in memory of and tribute to Br. Roger, the founder of Taize Community who died last week at the age of 90. Full service below...

OPENING RITUAL

(We say together…)
Jesus, light of the world, we confess that you are here. Shine your light into the hidden places of our lives, and bring warmth to the cold places of our hearts. Amen.
(silence while a candle is lit)

CALL 2 WORSHIP:

Tonight the call to worship takes the form of a story. We will take our own cues for worship as a community from the story of the Taize Community in France. It's part of our tribute to Brother Roger, the founder of Taize Community who died last week at the age of 90.

Everything began in great solitude. In 1940, at the age of 25, Brother Roger left his native Switzerland in order to live in France, the country of his mother. For several years he had borne within him a calling to begin a community where reconciliation between Christians would be lived out in daily life.

A community where “kindness of heart would be a matter of practical experience, and where love would be at the heart of all things”. He wanted this community to be present in the midst of the suffering of the time, and thus it was that he made his home in the small village of Taizé, in Burgundy, just a few miles from the demarcation line which cut France in two during the first years of the war. There he was able to hide refugees (Jews in particular), who had fled the occupied zone in the knowledge that they could find refuge in his house.

After the war he was joined by others, and on Easter Day, 1949, the first brothers of the community made their commitment to a life in celibacy, to community of possessions, and to simplicity of life.
From the 1950s onwards some of the brothers went to live in areas of deprivation in order to share the life of the poor.

At the end of 1950s the number of young people visiting Taizé started to increase noticeably. And from 1962 onwards, brothers, as well as young people sent by the community, made continual visits in Eastern European countries. They made these journeys with great discretion so as not to compromise those whom they were visiting.

Between 1962 and 1989, Brother Roger visited most of the Eastern European countries himself. Sometimes he went for youth gatherings which were authorised but under surveillance, sometimes he went for simple visits, with no permission to speak in public. “I will be silent with you”, he said to the Christians he visited in those countries.

Today the Taizé Community is made up of over a hundred brothers, Catholics and from various Protestant backgrounds, coming from more than twenty-five nations. The community’s existence is in itself a sign of reconciliation between divided Christians and divided nations.
The brothers accept no donations or gifts. Furthermore, if a brother inherits something from his family, it is given by the community for the very poor. The community earns its living by the brothers’ work.

Today, small groups of brothers are present in Asia, Africa and South America. As far as possible they share the living conditions of those who surround them, striving to be a presence of love among the very poor, street children, prisoners, the dying, and those who are wounded in their depths by broken relationships, by being abandoned.

Every week from early spring to late autumn, young adults from different continents arrive on the hill of Taizé. They are searching for meaning in their lives, in communion with many others. By going to the wellsprings of trust in God, they set out on an inner pilgrimage that encourages them to build relationships of trust among human beings. Some weeks in the summer months, more than 5000 young people from 75 different countries thus take part in a common adventure. Taize’s distinctive prayers take place three times a day in the Church of Reconciliation involving simple repedetive chants that can be sung simultaneously in many languages as a powerful symbol of unity.

To support young people the community has undertaken a “pilgrimage of trust on earth”. This does not mean organising a movement around the community. Each person is invited, after his or her stay at Taizé, to live out in their own situation what they have understood, with greater awareness of the inner life within them as well as of their bonds with many others who are involved in a similar search for what really matters. At the end of every year, Taizé leads a large meeting in one of the major cities of Europe, East or West. Tens of thousands of young adults take part, from all over Europe and from other continents. These meetings are stages in the “pilgrimage of trust on earth”.

Today, throughout the world, Taizé’s name evokes peace, reconciliation, communion and the ardent expectation of a springtime of the Church.

MEDITATION/SONG:
To celebrate the ministry of Taize let us worship God by singing…

Bless the Lord my Soul, And bless God’s Holy name Bless the Lord my Soul, Who leads me into life.

CONFESSION:

As part of our worship we acknowledge the reality of evil in ourselves and the world, our weakness, vulnerability, contradictions and failure.

Last week this evil visited the Taize Community, the custodians of the “Pilgrimage of trust on earth”. This trust was shattered during prayers in the Church of Reconciliation when Luminita Solcan, a mentally ill woman from Romania, violently attacked Brother Roger.
Br. Roger was rushed away quickly by the other Brothers. The announcement was made within the hour that Brother Roger had died from the wounds inflicted upon him.

Much of our confession comes from the eulogy given by Brother Alois at the funeral which was held on Tuesday. He will succeed Brother Roger as the new leader of the community.

Brother Roger opened a road and led us on that road with exceptional energy and courage. Some intimate convictions led him to go forward tirelessly on that road. Allow me to mention just two of these convictions.

Often Brother Roger repeated these words: “God is united to every human being without exception.” This confidence carried and will carry the ecumenical vocation of our little community.

As part of our confession this evening consider the ways you have failed to see God united to others and yourself.

And the other conviction: Brother Roger constantly returned to that Gospel value which is kind-heartedness. He was a kindhearted and gentle man.

Let us consider and confess the things that have prevented you from being as kindhearted as you could or should have been.

Kindheartedness is not an empty word, but a force able to transform the world, because, through it, God is at work. In the face of evil, kind-heartedness is a vulnerable reality. But the life which Brother Roger gave is a pledge that God’s peace will have the last word for each person on our earth.

Let us together declare the grace of God:

The blazing fire of God’s presence refines us,
but in mercy it does not destroy us.
God does not repay evil for evil,
but comes to deliver us and restore us to life.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Brother Roger once said:
“When the Church listens, heals, reconciles, then she becomes what she is in her most radiant aspect: a crystal-clear reflection of a love.”

Sisters and Brothers,
your sins are forgiven;
be at peace.

Let us sing together:

Dona Nobis Pacem: Grant us Peace

Let us pray:

God of goodness, we entrust to your forgiveness Luminita Solcan who, in an act of sickness, put an end to the life of Brother Roger. With Christ on the cross we say to you: Father, forgive her, she does not know what she did.

Holy Spirit, we pray for the Community of Taize and for the many young people who draw strength from their ministry. We pray for Lorinda Curnow.

Christ of compassion, you enable us to be in communion with those who went before us, and who can remain so close to us. We entrust into your hands our brother Roger. Already he is contemplating the invisible. In his steps, you prepare us to welcome a ray of your brightness and reconciliation.

SCRIPTURE READING & SERMON

Mark Pierson presented a reflection on the ‘reversals’ within Romans 12.

COMMUNION & OFFERING

We have said much this evening of Taize and the ministry of reconciliation. The water we use for our cup this evening is a symbol of this reconciliation.

It is a reminder of Aboriginal peoples who directed European settlers to ancient waterholes upon which they relied to start our city. In turn these water holes were at times poisoned to remove the original custodians from the land. This water is then a reminder of the need for reconciliation between peoples in our nation.

It is also a reminder of the dryness of Melbourne’s ‘water holes’ of today. The water reminds us of our need to reconcile our lifestyle within the limits of God’s creation in which we live.

The water is a reminder of the water that flowed with blood from Jesus’ side at his death. As we mourn the violent death of Brother Roger we are reminded of the passion that is required for reconciliation between God, between others and all of creation. Reconciliation that can ultimately only be achieved through the vulnerability of suffering love offered to us in Christ.
With this reconciliation in mind, at the last meal he shared with his followers before his death, Jesus took the cup and said…..

SONG

Eat this bread, drink this cup, Come to me and never be lonely, Eat this bread, drink this cup, Come to me and you will have new life.

PRAYER OF THANKS FOR GIFTS.
CONCERNS OF THE CHURCH
PRAYERS FOR OTHERS
say…Lord hear us and we will respond,
Lord hear our prayer.

BENEDICTION…
we say to each other…

You are God’s servants, gifted with dreams and visions Upon you rests the grace of God like flames of fire. Love and serve the Lord in the strength of the Spirit. May the deep peace of Christ be with you, The strong arms of God sustain you, And the power of the Holy Spirit strengthen you in every way. Amen. (Dianne Karray Tripp)

Posted by marcus at 01:30 AM | Comments (0)

Mobile Phones On!

August 23, 2005

screen where ru.JPG

"Welcome to Urban Seed:church please turn your mobile phones on!"

I did a mobile phone Call 2 Worship (People texted each other parts of the 'Magnificat' in Luke 1 and read them out) followed by Jimmy Little's "Royal Telephone" with images from mobile phone ad's. I then did a Where RU? reflection for the Prayer of Confession based on phones and Genesis 3:8-10.

It was inspired by ideas I scored from Darren Wright at planet telex

WHERE RU? Confession

Genesis 3:8-10 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.“ (NIV)

The advent of mobile technology has meant that the traditional phone greeting of How are you? Has been replaced

These days WHERE RU? is the first question we ask when we call someone on a mobile.

Ringing a land line ensures an understanding of place and location of the subject but with mobile technology we have no understanding of someone’s physical presence. If someone is close by we know we can hang up and speak face to face. They may be very close or they may be far away.

WHERE RU? reminds us that conversation and relationship without an understanding of the context of the other is very difficult.

As we come to confession think about your relationships to other people, perhaps people with whom you have had difficulty or conflict with in the past week, or who disturb you in some way. How might a better understanding of their context shape your response to the situation or your confession.

Where RU? is also the first question that God asks of humanity in the bible. To Adam and Eve in the garden after they have sinned.

As part of your confession consider where are you in relationship to God. Are you near or far?

Like the story of Adam and Eve
Are you doing something you should not, eating something you shouldn't;
Are you hiding, on the run, avoiding the consequences of choices you have made;
Are you blaming others around you for your issues or the position you find yourself in.
Consider a time when you were not there for someone or someone was not there for you.
A time you felt fear, naked or ashamed before God and others.

If you have a mobile phone you may wish to make your confession by texting some words or thoughts to your own phone number.

As you hear the beeps and message alerts know that you are joined with others in your struggles and failures.

You may wish to erase the message as a way of remembering that God is faithful and just and forgives our sins.

You may then turn your phones off for the remainder of the service.

Posted by marcus at 12:32 PM | Comments (2)

The Waters Edge:Tear

August 22, 2005

STATION 6: HOP-E IN THE BOAT

Matthew 14 22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but the boat was already a considerable distance[a] from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. 27But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." 28 "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." 29 "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." 34When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

walkwater sign 1.bmp

Context

The winds buffet against the boat that would seek to cross over the storms and divisions created by the economy of our world.

After the long night of little progress, weary disciples become terrified, unable to recognise the Christ who crosses before them.

And yet racked with 'sinking'doubt Peter takes the risk and gets out of the boat!

On courage

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."
Andre Gide (French writer, humanist and moralist, 1947 nobel prize for literature, 1869-1951)

On the Ripple effect
"It is not one man nor a million, but the spirit of liberty that must be preserved. The waves which dash upon the shore are, one by one, broken, but the ocean conquers nevertheless. It overwhelms the Armada, it wears out the rock. In like manner, whatever the struggle of individuals, the great cause will gather strength."
Lord Byron (English Romantic poet and satirist, 1788-1824)

Reflective Exercise

Find a stone along the beach. Attempt to skim the stone upon the water and observe what happens.

Like Peter, the stone may skim for a moment but sinks under its weight.

Observe the ripples the stone creates noticing how the biggest ripples are created by the first impact…

Allow stone skimming to express how you are feeling or to represent a particular prayer.

Consider difficult issues in your life or in the economy of our world in which the waters are stormy and seemingly impassable. Issues that require a giant, or impossible ‘leap of faith’ to overcome.

Take time to feel the weight of the stone in your hand. Use it to help you feel the gravity of the issue for which you pray.

Become aware of the fears and pain that this weight creates within you. Clasp the stone tightly and let these feelings transfer to the stone.

When you are ready throw the stone.

As you observe the ripples consider the ripples of change that even the smallest ‘first step’ of faith on your part may create.

In the face of failure and futility, let Christ catch you in your inadequacy and doubts.

As issues arise during your walk along the waters edge continue to find and skim stones as a means of prayer.

Posted by marcus at 04:42 PM | Comments (0)

IKEA Call 2 Worship

July 25, 2005

"At Urban Seed:church everything is IKEA ($29 LACK tables work well for stations) except for the cross" (made with recycled hardwood by an ex resident carpenter!) This was a throw away Pierson line during the week and this along with his consumerism references in his "not the manifesto" got me thinking how to bring IKEA into the liturgy...

(Each punter read a line/paragraph each around the circle)

Welcome to Urban Seed: church, where everything is IKEA except the cross.

IKEA: Affordable solutions for better living

I have come that you may have life, life in all its fullness. John 10:10

Most of the time, beautifully designed home furnishings are created for a small part of the population — the few who can afford them. From the beginning, IKEA has taken a different path. We have decided to side with the many.

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Luke 4

That means responding to the home furnishing needs of people throughout the world. People with many different needs, tastes, dreams, aspirations...and wallets. People who want to improve their homes and create better everyday lives.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NIV

At IKEA, most furniture is made so it can be flat packed. Assembling furniture yourself means not paying someone in a factory to do it for you. And, although it can be difficult sometimes, it means you can have the furniture in your home straight away.

And the Word became flesh and tabernacled (fixed His tent, made a home) among us and we beheld his glory. John 1

Take it home today, enjoy it tonight. Because most items are packed flat, you can get them home easily, and assemble them yourself.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

We have a saying at IKEA, “We design the price tag first.”
So together we save money...for a better everyday life

The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant, who when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it

The Narrator from FiGHT CLUB mused:

"Like everyone else, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct. If I saw something like clever coffee tables in the shape of a yin and yang, I had to have it. I would flip through catalogs and wonder, "What kind of dining set defines me as a person?"

You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.
(Chapter 5, Chuck Palahniuk, 1996)

At the end of the story the Narrator confronts his hyper-reality alter- ego, Tyler Durden who says: “Interesting! Where you going with this IKEA boy?”

...Douglas Coupland’s 90’s novel “Generation X: Tales for an accelerated culture” offered a dark snapshot of the highly fortressed inner world of post moderns -- landscapes peppered with dead TV shows, "Elvis moments," and “semi-disposable Swedish furniture.” Beneath the landscapes, deeper portraits emerge, those of fanatically independent individuals, pathologically ambivalent about the future and brimming with unsatisfied longings for permanence, for love, and for their own home."

Ingvar Kamprad the founding father of IKEA and presently the richest man in the world once said:
"It was our duty to expand. Those who cannot or will not join us are to be pitied. What we want to do, we can do and will do, together. A glorious future!"

Jesus once said:
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. John 14:1-2

Welcome to Urban Seed: church, where everything is IKEA save the cross.

Posted by marcus at 02:46 AM | Comments (3)

The Waters Edge (Intro.)

July 17, 2005

The Waters Edge : Resources for a self guided spiritual journey into the economy of God.
See the intro below to get a vibe....We gave it a test run at UrbanSeed:chruch last week but the real purpose is for the TEAR Conference in August. I'll post up actual stations as I feel happy with them.....

Introduction

In many religions The Waters Edge is an important spiritual place. A walk along a waterfront, a beach or flowing stream can be refreshing for body and soul. A place where one is exposed to the elements; can feel space; see the horizon or take a longer view. Where one’s concerns and problems can flow away on a current or a breeze. A place where the meeting point of the elements; earth, sea and sky, enable one to become aware of one’s connection and proper place within the whole of creation.

In the Jesus tradition The Waters Edge is a powerful symbolic location for many key moments of the spiritual journey. A place of calling, of retreat, a launch for dangerous journeys, a testing ground, a place of failure, confession and recovery. A place to find the faith required to re-imagine the world.

The creation inspired communities of the Celtic tradition developed their distinctive spirituality at the remote edges of the British Isles. Exiled to the island of Iona in 561 AD, Saint Columba captures this spirit of The Waters Edge in his prayer.

Columba’s Rock

Delightful it is to stand on the peak of a rock, in the bosom of the isle,
gazing on the face of the sea.

I hear the heaving waves chanting a tune to God in heaven;
I see their glittering surf.

I see golden beaches, the sands sparkling;
I hear the joyous shrieks of swooping gulls.

I hear the waves breaking, crashing on rocks, like thunder in heaven.
I see the mighty whales.

Contrition fills my heart as I hear the sea; it chants my sins,
Sins too numerous to confess.

Let me bless almighty God, whose power extends over seas and land,
Whose angels watch over all.

Let me study sacred books to calm my soul;
I pray for peace kneeling at heaven’s gates.

Let me do my daily work, gathering seaweed, catching fish,
Giving food to the poor.

Let me say my daily prayers, sometimes chanting,
Sometimes quiet, always thanking God.

Delightful it is to live on a peaceful isle, in a quiet cell,
Serving the King of kings.

This prayer captures the essence of this self guided resource. The Waters Edge combines reflection upon stories from the Jesus tradition with simple spiritual exercises.

The aim is for these offerings to ‘wash’ with one’s physical presence at the waters edge in the hope that it may draw you ‘deeper’ into the ‘ebb and flow’ of the source and sustainer of all life.

The Economy of God

This life is described throughout as ‘the economy of God.’ It is an attempt at capturing for our contemporary context something of the subversive power that ‘the Kingdom of God’, the central image of Jesus’ teachings, had in a world of real kings and kingdoms.

"The biblical understanding of “economy” is grounded in the ancient Hebrew spiritual exercise of 'keeping Sabbath'. It is neither solely material nor spiritual, but extends to encompass all aspects of what it means to produce and consume as a living being.

Beyond money, this economy includes elements of time, of energy, of work and of re-creation, of relationship with the spiritual, the created order and other people.

Embracing the economy of God involves a realisation that abundant grace underpins an ethic of redistribution that is the only way out of the spiritual and material slavery that is so characteristic of the dominant economy of our world.

The journey of The Water’s Edge is structured in ‘stations’ based around the texts of the Jesus tradition. The stations stand alone in order to allow you to choose a theme that may resonate with you at a given time or you can decide to progress through each in turn.

The Waters Edge Stations:
1. Start Afresh: the baptism of water & fire
2. Disentangle: beyond ‘business as usual’
3. Recasting: fishing for alternatives: the abundant economy.
4. Resistance: beyond empire
5. Retreat: seedy truths
6. Enough: bush tucker economics
7. Crossing Over: stilling the storm
8. Hop-e in the Boat: sink or swim
9. Drown your demons: therapeutic prayer for activists
10. Resurrection Re-invitation: breaking the fast

Our hope is that The Waters Edge may offer a spiritual experience which takes you deeper into the reality of the economy of God, through which the grace and love of the divine may touch and transform the rhythms of your life.

Posted by marcus at 03:44 PM | Comments (1)

Shout to the Lord (Angry)

May 23, 2005

Image: Eric Drooker

We started Urban Seed: church last night. Our first song was "Shout to the Lord" (Angry version) which used the original Hillsong version alongside some new lyrics I wrote.....see Call to Worship and lyrics below.

Shout to the Lord: Worship and Dissonance

If a single song captured the culture of modern worship movement it is “Shout to the Lord.” Written by the award winning Darlene Zschech from the hugely successful Hillsong Church in Sydney, the song picks up the powerful and majestic themes and images of Psalm 95-100. Its uplifting nature has seen it become a well known hit, inspiring Christian’s in worship literally all over the world.

The Psalms are the song book of the bible that poetically capture the depth and breadth of human experience in relation to God. Reading or singing them often makes me think of the word dissonance.

The dictionary describes dissonance as “harsh toned, unharmonius, discord or disagreement, especially of sounds". It can describe a feeling of clashing or incongruence.

I have often felt this dissonance singing this song.

This is usually nothing to do with the music...Hillsong usually inspire excellence. But more because many times when I walk into a church on Sunday after a hard week with all its problems and difficulties, usually the last thing I feel like doing is shouting to the Lord in the manner of this song.

So when the band strikes up, with the words,the big chords, the smiling worship leader and the big crowd creating the anthem vibe.... I feel the clash. What am I doing here again?

Of course dissonance can be profoundly creative. Just listen to some good improv. jazz. The uplifting worship dynamic can often drag me up, out of depression, lifting me out of what I am feeling. I have often felt the same at a well run Christian funeral where in the face of death life is truly celebrated, or when you experience a moment of pure joy in the midst of great suffering.

Some believe this dissonance is at the heart of Christian spirituality and explains much of the success of early believers who audaciously worshiped a crucified Lord in the midst of Roman oppression. It’s is true today in the incredible progress and spirituality of the church which is strongest in places of extreme poverty and oppression such as Africa and Asia. The dissonance of gospel worship proclaims resurrection that brings hope in the grounds of despair.

Sometimes dissonance is not healthy however. It can stop us from being honest or seeing a reality that is disturbing. When confronted with a reality that doesn’t match our beliefs there is a temptation to change, to fit our preferred reality even if it doesn’t make sense. To live in denial, to justify an abusive situation, to think one way but act another, to live a lie.

Sometimes the dissonance of this song comes from the fact that Hillsong does not seem a church in the midst of suffering but promoters of culture that sees the gospel only in terms of success health and wealth.

Urban Seed has sought to challenge the ways in which the gospel can quite subtly be turned into a message of personal prosperity. At times this has been a public conflict like over Brian Houston’s book “You need more money”. But it has also often been privately pastoral for people who have struggled to succeed in the big church scene. Who don’t feel they measure up, or when confronted by the harsh reality of suffering and loss in their lives / world the songs just don’t cut it anymore.

Christian spirituality is more substantial than an emotional “pick me up” or any worship leading method. I thought it an appropriate way to start Urban Seed: church was to re-write some of the words to "Shout to the Lord" that pick up the themes of the other psalms that often don’t get a run in the dominant worship culture of our day; Psalms that acknowledge our failure, as well as the injustice and pain of our world and our own lives. That Shout at as well as to the Lord. (eg. Psalm 88)

I want to sing both versions of the song together. I’ve printed them on the one page so you can take it and stick it somewhere....maybe on your toilet door……perhaps you can keep turning it over depending on how you feel and what you need.

It's a little awkward singing because I’ve tried to keep my words as close to the words and rhythm of the original in order to keep the connection and create dissonance. As we sing both I hope it creates a clash that may both affirm and challenge you at this point of your journey. Whatever feelings of success or failure you bring to this gathering.

Shout to the Lord (Angry)
(Lyrics: Marcus Curnow 2005)

Why Jesus? Why favour
Those who do not like you?
All of my years I cry bitter tears
I wonder where’s your mighty love?

No comfort, No shelter
Where is the refuge and strength?
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to question You

Shout to/(at) the Lord
All the Earth, let us bring
Powerlessness, tragedy
Rail at the King
Mountains fall down
And the seas will roar
Hear the sound of the pain

I long to see the work
Of your hand
Forever I’ll seek you
Seek to understand
Nothing to hold
But the promise I have
In you

Shout to the Lord
(Hillsong Australia 1993)

My Jesus, my Saviour
Lord there is none like You
All of my days I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love

My comfort, my shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship You

Shout to the Lord
All the Earth, let us sing
Power and majesty
Praise to the King
Mountains bow down
And the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name

I sing for joy at the work
Of Your hand
Forever I'll love You
Forever I'll stand
Nothing compares
To the promise I have
In You

Posted by marcus at 10:47 PM | Comments (25)

An Engaging Wedding

April 24, 2005

Liturgical Risk for the year goes to Andy and Martine who invited everyone to their engagement party but got married instead! A great way to raise the energy levels at a party! Values of faith, simplicity/abundance, service and creation shaped the ceremony in the beautiful garden at Christ Chruch, Hawthorn looking out over the city. Andy and Martine gave the reflection themselves and included the symbol of footwashing and a creatively dissonant Franciscan Benediction. Well done guys! Ceremony below....

The Engaging Wedding of Andy and Martine

Invitation to a Wedding: Roger (with Betty and Andy's parents) (in Hall / Courtyard)

Marcus to introduce himself and Mark and invite volunteers for the readings.
Also, privately encourage musicians that it will be ok!....15 mins later.....

Bridal Procession
Music: Jane and Kate
Andy and Parents followed by Martine and Parents

Welcome / Opening Prayer: Marcus Curnow

On behalf of Andy and Martine, a warm welcome to this garden today.
In holding the wedding in this place and in this way they wish to help us think about the values that they see as essential to who they are and what it is that brings them together.
The connection of marriage with their Creator and the Creation as well as themes of Service and of Simplicity have been very important in shaping the ceremony today.
Accordingly, today is not the ordinary nor extravagant, it’s spontaneous and low key, but neither is it sparse or lacking. Today Andy and Martine want us to celebrate the abundance they share, in the love they have found in their journey toward each other and the love of Christ. An abundance of meaning and of joy.

Let us open the ceremony with a prayer.
Instead of closing your eyes though I ask you to open them and to be aware of your surrounds.
Be aware of your senses, what you see, hear, smell, breathe deeply and take it in.
Allow yourself to appreciate the connection and dependence we have with the creation in which we live.
Let us give thanks to the Creator who sustains all of this.
Be aware of the connection that we share with Martine and with Andy.
What is it that we bring to this place and this celebration today? What is it that you feel?
A sense of surprise may be a common feeling!
Hopefully it is a pleasant one with feelings of goodwill, a sense of connection with Andy and Martine and others, excited hopes for them, a desire to enjoy and celebrate.
Or perhaps not so pleasant. Weddings can also be lonely times, a reminder of people who are not here, of relationships that have failed or that remain unreconciled.
One of the values we celebrate today is honest simplicity.
So Martine and Andy wish us to bring the feelings we have, the good and the bad. Our hopes, as well as our fears for their future.
God, We let go and we offer them to you.
We recognise Andy and Martine’s desire for us to celebrate their commitment
May you grant each of us peace and grace as we share this time with them.
Move amongst us and unite us in purpose as we unite Andy and Martine in the power of your love.
Amen

The Purpose and Meaning of Marriage: Mark Leach

We have come together in the presence of God to witness the marriage of Andy and Martine and to ask God’s blessing on them as we share in their joy.

Marriage is a gift of God, our creator.
It is a symbol of God’s unending love for his people, and of the union between Christ and his Church.
Christ loved his bride the Church, and gave himself for her.
As he has called Andy and Martine to marriage, so he draws their differing gifts and hopes into a unity of love and service.
Scripture teaches that marriage is a lifelong partnership uniting a woman and a man in heart, mind and body.
In the joy of their union, husband and wife enrich and respond to each other, growing in tenderness and understanding. Through marriage a new family is formed, where children may be born and grow in secure and loving care.
Marriage is therefore to be honoured by all.
No one should enter it lightly or selfishly, but responsibly and joyfully, with the mutual respect and the promise to be faithful.
So let us pray with Andy and Martine as they prepare to exchange their solemn vows:

Blessed are you, loving God, your spirit binds us together.
Crown our lives with your goodness; sustain us all our days with your love
Bless Andy and Martine with wisdom and pleasure.
Be their friend and companion in joy, their comfort in need and in sorrow.
And when this life is ended, welcome them into your presence, there with your people to praise your holy name. Amen.

Readings :

Luke 12:
Psalm 63:

Reflection : Andy and Martine

The Declaration :
A/M I give myself to you as your husband/wife to live with you forever in an unconditional commitment forsaking all others, according to God's will. I will be faithful to you and love and serve you in the way that you need through times of both challenge and blessing.

The Vows:

A/M, in the presence of God and our community, I take you as my husband/wife. I promise to keep God at the centre in all that I do and receive my self-worth from Him and not from you alone. Recognising that we are not perfect and that we will let each other down, I promise to continually forgive you and not hold on to past hurts.
With God's help I will always be honest and genuine with you as we grow together. I will respect you and encourage you to embrace the woman/man that God has created you to be. And following the example of Jesus, I will seek to serve those in need, to trust in God's provision, and be responsible with the spiritual, material and natural resources God has blessed us with.

To Family: Mark Leach

Mark and Kathy, Roger and Betty, you have raised Andy and Martine out of the love and support of your own marriage. Simon, Luke, Josh, Natalie, Carolyn and Chris, you have grown up alongside them. Having heard their vows, will you support them in their marriage and share in its joys and challenges as they embark on this way of life together?
[We will]

To Friends: Mark

Friends, you are witnesses to these vows and have an integral role to play in Andy and Martine's well-being. Will you do everything in your power to encourage and support them in their personal lives and union together?
[We will]

Exchange of Rings: Mark Leach

God of steadfast love, by your blessing, let these rings be for Andy and Martine a symbol of their love and faithfulness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Andy I give you this ring as a symbol of our marriage. With all that I am and all that I have I honour you; in the name of God.
Martine I receive this ring as a symbol of your Love and faithfulness to the end of our days.
Martine I give you this ring as a symbol of our marriage. With all that I am and all that I have I honour you; in the name of God.
Andy I receive this ring as a symbol of your Love and faithfulness to the end of our days.

Before God and in the presence of us all, Andy and Martine have joined hands and made their solemn vows, promising life-long faithfulness to each other.

In the name of God, I declare them to be husband and wife. What God has joined together, let no one separate.

Kiss: Andy and Martine

Footwashing : : Marcus Curnow

What image of love shall we use to capture and celebrate the significance of the committment Andy and Martine have just made. Today they have share with us the values that shape this union. Honest simplicity, faith, abundance and creation. For Martine and Andy these values are given focus in Jesus Christ, who through his life, death and ressurection offered us an image of love grounded in self giving service. In a confronting demonstration of this serving love, Christ washed the feet of his followers at their final meal, and told them to do likewise.

As their first act as a married couple, Andy and Martine have chosen to follow the example and command of Christ by washing each others feet.

It is a symbol of their desire to serve each other in mutual submission.

It is a symbol of their desire to serve and be served by you their community of family and friends.

It is a symbol of their desire to serve those who are often considered least in our world.

It is a symbol of their desire to serve all of creation.

Celtic Circle Blessing: Marcus Curnow

(Congregation form circle around the couple. All say "Circle them Lord", various voices give the blessings.)

Circle them Lord :
May the angels of Heaven protect you this day and circle you with the fragrance of peace.
Any individual may name something they wish to be kept without

Circle them Lord:
May Christ your Lord and loving friend protect you this day and circle you with affection and love.
Any individual may name something they wish to be kept within

Circle them Lord:
May the Spirit of Truth, who dwells in your heart, protect you this day and circle you, and fill your heart with joy.
A m e n

Benediction:

May God bless us with Discomfort…
at Easy Answers, Half-Truths and Superficial Relationships
so that we may live Deep Within Our Hearts

May God bless us with Anger…
at Injustice, Oppression and Exploitation of People,
so that we may work for Justice, Freedom and Peace.

May God bless us with Tears…
to shed for those who suffer from Pain, Rejection, Starvation and War,
So that We may reach out Our Hands to Comfort them and to turn their Pain into Joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness…
to Believe that We can Make a Difference in this World,
so that we can DO what others claim cannot be Done.

Amen

Invitation to return to Hall/ Courtyard, opportunity for speeches later : Roger / Andy and Martine
Family photos then sign register with Mark in his office, then back to Hall/courtyard to continue the "Engagement" Party!

Posted by marcus at 08:39 AM | Comments (2)

Easter Tennebrae: dark forces

March 29, 2005

dark forces
This was the second part of our three part Maundy Thursday Service. Following our "dark dinner" Last Supper reenactment meal in Credo Cafe we lit candles and walked up Collins Street to the Treasury Gardens to remember the arrest of Christ.

dark forces
The Treasury Gardens

Reading : Jesus Under Pressure
Mark 14:26-36
When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. 27And Jesus said to them, ‘You will all become deserters; for it is written,
“I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.”
28But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.’ 29Peter said to him, ‘Even though all become deserters, I will not.’ 30Jesus said to him, ‘Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.’ 31But he said vehemently, ‘Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.’ And all of them said the same.

32 They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ 33He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. 34And he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.’ 35And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36He said, ‘Abba,* Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’

Reflection : Surveillance:

from an article by Bill Wylie Kellerman (Sojourners magazine)

The issues of surveillance are not foreign to the New Testament. Perhaps because the enterprise today is so technologized, what with bugs and taps, video monitoring, computerized finger-printing, satellite photography, and the like, we are inclined to think political surveillance is a relatively recent phenomenon (howsoever normal it may have become). In truth, it is an ancient tactic of the powers, one with which Jesus contended and coped.

In An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land, William Stringfellow comments on both secrecy and surveillance in a list of "stratagems" of the demonic powers. He stresses that these among an array of tactics are always aimed at "the immobilization or surrender or destruction of the mind and at the neutralization or abandonment or demoralization of the conscience."

I believe that far beyond the facile function of "information gathering," surveillance needs to be comprehended as a spiritual assault. It is an attack on the integrity and identity of an individual on the one hand and community on the other. It is intended consciously to intimidate, violate, unnerve, and foster self-doubt or indecision.

At the height of its surveillance campaign against Martin Luther King Jr., the FBI's own internal memoranda described its objectives as to "discredit," "expose," and "neutralize" Dr. King. The bureau was intensely concerned with King's "state of mind" and sought to exacerbate the tensions and stress, even the temptations which naturally attended his life. When, via bugs and taps, they had acquired information that would be truly and deeply embarrassing to him in public, they sent him a tape of the material with an anonymous letter calling him a "fraud," "Satan," an "evil, abnormal beast." They even hinted at suicide as his only way out.

King was duly distraught. In a phone conversation with a friend, he confessed as much, saying, "They are out to break me." In another call he said, "They are out to get me, to harass me, break my spirit." (So read the FBI. transcripts of those calls.)

In John's gospel Jesus speaks of being "troubled in spirit." The Greek word tarasso, which is behind it, apparently signifies variously to stir up and agitate, to distress or perplex the mind, to strike one's spirit with fear or dread. It is used with regard to Jesus in the face of death itself but also notably in connection with his awareness of Judas' betrayal, Peter's denial, and the ruler of this world drawing near.

Reading Mark 14:37-41a

37He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? 38Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial;* the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ 39And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. 40And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him. 41He came a third time and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?

Watch and Pray: Prayers for our World
Prayers are said aloud concluding with "Lord here us" to which the response of the people is "Lord here our Prayer"

Reading: Mark 14:41b
Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.’

The gathering walks single file, holding candles to the next station.
(We walked to a point in Melbourne’s Treasury Gardens located directly below the Victorian Premiers Office where a security guard stood on a garden bed above us, looking down on proceedings....a fitting touch!)

The Arrest:

A reading from “Living the Passion” Walter Wangerin

There comes an orange snake eastward through the night. A snake of fire, a long snake of torches. Perhaps the disciples glance down from the Mount of Olives and see it and do not understand. Jesus understands. It winds the same path they themselves have followed from the city. It winks through the trees in a smooth and silent, serpentine approach. It is a fatal snake. It kills by kissing.

The binding strength of that snake is the armed guard of the Temple and the police of the Sanhedrin. Behold how the servants of God can bite!
But the head of the snake is one of the twelve, a disciple of Jesus. Behold how an intimate may kiss for other reasons than affection and respect.
Suddenly Judas Iscariot appears beside the group of friends who stand outside the Garden of Gethsemane. Smiling. Judas is smiling. And claiming his accustomed place. And holding his torch aloft to shed light on the faces around him. Peering into these faces. Looking for . . . no, not for John, not James; no, not for Andrew or for Peter, though he greets them all with familiar nods. He’s looking for . . . ah!
The snake coils now into a thick knot of bodies and flame before the disciples. It has scores of eyes all flashing red in torch light. Its scales are weapons, swords and clubs adown its sides. Its silence is tense, dead menace in close proximity-and it stinks of human sweat.
The disciples swallow, nervous and uncertain.
Jesus gazes and waits.
Now, the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God made. From the beginning its movement was smooth, its manner mild, its promise to elevate whom it would eat. It was a murdered even from the beginning, a liar, the father of lies, and the father, so Jesus once declared, of-
The serpent strikes!
Smiling, Judas says. “Rabbi!” and kisses Jesus. A sign of devotion. A sign, for the Temple guard, that this is the one to seize and lead away. A lie.

Reading:
Matthew 26:47f

While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.’ 49At once he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. 50Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. 51Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?’ 55At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, ‘Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.’ Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.

The Disciples Flee:
A responsive reading based on Mark 14.51-52

Leader: (picking up the white garment/cloth)
A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus.
When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. (Disciple drops garment)

Disciple 1: (picking up the white garment)
The white linen, robe was the garment of an Israelite priest. Moses called for all Israelites to be priests to the Lord (Exod. 19:6), a calling reiterated by the apostle Paul for followers of Jesus (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 5:10).

We are called to put on Christ, to be priests, mediators between God and a broken world.

All: but we have left the garment and run off naked (Disciple drops garment)

Disciple 2: (picking up the white garment)
In the Apocalypse of John, those who have died for the sake of the gospel of love are given a white robe, and are told to wait a little longer, until the number of the brothers and sisters who are to be killed as they have been is complete. (Revelation 6:11)

We are called to put on Christ, to join with this cloud of witnesses, to put our bodies on the line and follow the way of the cross in a violent world.

All :But we have left the garment and run off naked (Disciple drops garment)

Disciple 3: (picking up the white garment) The Apostle Paul states "For as many of you as have been baptised in Christ, have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:26-27).
In the tradition of Christ’s followers the initiation of new believers happens at Easter. Having passed through the waters of baptism the priest places the white “baptisimal alb” upon the disciple as an outward sign of their dignity as a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

We are called to put on Christ and live in light of our baptism

All: but we have left the garment and run off naked. (Disciple drops garment)

Crowd disperse in silence...

We will regather at The Den, 116 Little Bourke Street at 10pm for Part 3 of our service.

Posted by marcus at 06:06 AM | Comments (0)

Benediction Incarnation (Forge)

February 25, 2005

Urban Seed was started 10 years ago when some young people moved into the city and discovered Christ among people who were homeless and experiencing drug addiction. And so the idea of the incarnation is very special to us. It’s an honour for us to be asked by Forge to participate with other communities in Melbourne in this service by contributing a benediction.

Incarnation Benediction

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God
….and the Word became flesh and dwelt
tabernacled,
pitched the tent,
moved into the neighbourhood,
hit the street,
among us.

God became a body!

As we prepare to leave, I want you to be aware of your body
Your butt sitting on the seat,
Your dinner sitting at the bottom of your gut,
Your mind full of the many thoughts of this day.

You too are a body!

But you are more than just body.
More than “consumer.”
More than your appetites and your urges.

May your body be charged, fired, infused with by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Like the saints of old may you blessed with the knowledge of the profound connection between flesh and spirit.
May you feel it in your body.

May you feel this connection when you eat.
May it be impossible for you to read the gospels without getting hungry.
May you know what your food cost, not just what you paid for it.
May it taste good!

May you feel this connection with the earth and all creation,
May your hands and feet get dirty.
May you grow some good fruit.

May you feel this connection with others.
May you love your neighbour, not the ones you wish you had but the ones you have; human and creature!
May you be connected to community built on good sex and intimate friendships.
May you know peace and reconciliation in the war zones of relationship, family, household, church and culture.

You are the body of Christ!

Christ has no body here on earth but yours!
Christ has no hands but yours.
Christ has no feet but yours.
Christ has no butt but yours!

So get it up off your seat.
Dwelt it, tabernacle it, pitch it, move it into the neighbourhood, hit the street with it.

And may God the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of all bodies go with you.
Amen

Forge 2005 participants on our roof during a City Walk!

Posted by marcus at 10:58 AM | Comments (3)

Wedding: Dave and Dom

Nice Christian wedding picking up Celtic, Quaker and Hindu elements. Ceremony and Pics below...

Dom arrives with Anita and meets Dave at the top of the path.
Music plays (moon river) Ian, Cookie and Anita walk down the path first.Dom and Dave walk down the path and greet parents waiting at either side of the bottom of the path. Parents sit down.
Dom & Dave stand at the top step of rotunda with Marcus.

Welcome: Marcus

Wedding Themes: Dom and Dave have chosen three themes from the earth that they want to represent their life together.

Rose for faith, as a beautiful and mysterious gift from God
Eucalyptus for environment, to care and be cared for.
Olive for a welcoming home – to nourish our community.

These reflect who they are as individuals as well as a couple. May these themes shape the choices they make, and act as a vision for who they are to become.

Anointing: We have prepared a balm of rose, eucalypt and olive, to anoint the couple in preparation of their commitment ahead. Greg & Rose come forward and place the oil on Dom & Dave’s forehead and hands.

Silence: Let’s take some time to reflect in silence on what is to come. David appreciates worship in the Quaker tradition which values silence. For a minute, listen to the nature around you, and listen to the stillness inside and give thanks to the creator who gives us the gift of nature and of marriage.

Marcus: Open our eyes to your presence, Open our ears to you call, open our hearts to your love. Amen.

Declaration of Vocation, Affirmation of Families and Community.

Readings

The Prophet (Kahlil Gilbran)

“You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.And stand together yet not too near together:For the pillars of the temple stand apart,And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."

Philippians 4:4-9

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers (sisters, comrades, friends etc), whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me–put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Naomi’s Sermon : Jesus gets away to mourn the death of John the Baptist, feeds 5000, then gets away again! Leads congregation in blessing Dave and Dom with a flap of the paper fans.

Vows: Dom and Dave have written their own vows and they incorporate some different elements. As part of her journey Dom lived for a year in India where one of the marriage traditions is for a couple to take steps as they make their vows as a symbol of journey. And so Dave and Dom will take steps as they say their vows to each other. As they say their vows we will also undertake the Celtic tradition of hand binding as a symbol of committment.

STEPS

“I, David Stuart White, take you, Dominique Saskia Emery, to be my constant travelling companion.I promise to love you in good times and in bad, when life seems easy and when it seems hard, when our love is simple and when its an effort.”

“And so the binding is made” (Marcus binds hands)

STEPS

“I choose to be your faithful partner, forsaking all others.I promise to accept you as a person, and delight in who you will become. As our lives intertwine, I will cherish and nourish that which brings life to our relationship.”

“And so the binding is made” (Marcus binds hands)

STEPS

“I take you as my fellow pilgrim on our journey of faith.I promise to encourage that which is Christ-like within you, and challenge you to reflect and act upon God’s economy of grace and justice, welcoming friends and strangers into our home.”

“And so the binding is made” (Marcus binds hands)

STEPS (back to first step, Dave and Dom lift bound hands):

Marcus:
"Made to measure, wrought to bind.
Blessed be theses lives entwined."
Dave and Dom the knots of this binding are not formed by these chords but instead by your vows.
(untie cord, place across hands)
And so keep this cord as a reminder that you hold in your own hands the making of this union.

Rings:
Dom – My ring is a symbol of love never ending
Dave – My is a circle of our sweet belonging
Dom – A circle of gold in joy and in sorrow
Dave – A circle of gold today and tomorrow

Pronouncement
Signing at the small table.

Prayers x2

Congregational Blessing Song

May the God of all peace and glory
Who gives eternal life
Love you always

And may the Prince of all peace and glory
Of endless faithfulness
Know you always
And may the Spirit of God’s peace and glory
Set your soul on fire
Forever

Amen

Logistics: when to regather, nice walks to do in the meantime.

Blessing:
May the rainbow of many colours bind you to God.
May the soft winds of heaven refresh your spirit (paper fan blessing)
May sunshine brighten your heart.
May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you.
May god enfold you in love,
and may the blessing of God the Holy THree,
bringing peace beyond all understanding,
be with you and remain with you,
and all you love,
now and forever.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dave and Dom!

Band starts up
Dom and Dave start mingling with the crowd
Dips & drinks

Posted by marcus at 09:26 AM | Comments (0)

Wedding: Cookie & Cathy

February 07, 2005

Well done Cookie and Cathy! What a great day on Saturday down on the banks of the Maribyrnong!!! The Liturgical Risks? For Cookie it was picking up a guitar and singing Cathy & family down the aisle....despite grave fears from all who know and love him he pulled it off!!! For me it was trying to talk about the evangelical disciplines without boring everyone to tears.
Thankfully the "chastity" section seemed to keep people awake! Comments included "There was too much sex", "Sex, Sex, Sex thats all you think about", "You talked about sex like God invented the thing.", " I'd never heard about sex in a broader context like that.I got it!" The other liturgical risk was Brent Lyons Lee doing the full "I so wanna be a rock god" worship leader bit for "Hear our Praises" wearing his baby pink shirt... talk about a "closet pentecostal" in more ways than one! They're gunna bash you in Norlane mate!
Ceremony below...

The River and The Tree: Dave and Cathy’s Wedding

Prelude Music: from Jesse and band.

Entrance:
Music: Forever, by Ben Harper
Cookie’s family walks in from the river, welcomed into the space by friends. Then Wilson family, welcomed by friends, while Cookie sings.

Welcome: Marcus Curnow
On behalf of David, Cathy and their families, a warm welcome to the banks of the Maribyrnong River today.

This is a significant place as the images of the ‘tree by the riverside’ and ‘discerning a sense of call’ have been very important to Cathy and Dave in shaping this ceremony.

Throughout the day David and Cathy encourage you to enjoy the surrounds. Be aware of your senses, what you see and hear. Breathe deeply and take it in.

It is one way we can appreciate our dependence upon the creation, the role that marriage plays in maintaining this connection, and give thanks to the Creator who sustains all of this.

At the beginning of this ceremony David and Cathy wish to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this place, the peoples of the Kulin nations, clan of the Murin Bulluk who have lived long and well on this land.

They also want us to be aware of our emotions. What it is that each of us feel and bring to this place and celebration today.

Perhaps goodwill, a sense of connection with David and Cathy and their communities, excited hopes for them, a desire to let go, to enjoy and celebrate.

Or perhaps feelings that involve the more difficult parts of being community. Weddings can raise fears and expectations, painful memories of people who have died or are not here, reminders of relationships that have failed or that remain un-reconciled.

Whatever we feel let us bring all of our memories of times shared with Cathy and David; the good and the bad; our hopes, as well as our fears for their future. Let us bring our journeys together and offer them to the God who allows us to be honest.

Opening Prayer: Mr. Geoff Wilson

Song: Hear our Praises

The Vocation (Call) of Marriage: Marcus Curnow

Reading by: Edith Wilson

“Marriage is not a lifelong attraction of two individuals to each other, but a call for two people to witness together to God’s love. The basis of marriage is not mutual affection, or feelings, or emotions and passions that we associate with love, but a vocation, a being elected to build together a house for God in this world.”

In this tradition, marriage is considered a sacrament, a religious vocation. David and Cathy like brothers and sisters of a religious order today you will make certain vows. Catholic religious swear vows of Stability, Chastity, Poverty and Obedience. Dave and Cathy, today you will not make a vow of Stability: but you will make a commitment for life. You will not take a vow of Chastity but you will take a vow of sexual fidelity. You will not take a vow of poverty but you will vow to share all possessions. You will not vow obedience but you will mutual influence and submission.

The word vocation derives from the Latin “vox”, meaning “voice.” As Nowen suggests marriage is more than a response to the voice within; the private attraction you sense toward each other. Marriage is also a divine call to a holy life; a lifelong process of listening for God’s summons, hearing Gods voice and responding to God’s call of love in the world.

Declaration of Call:
David and Cathy:

Having heard the nature of the call. Of your own free will, understanding the responsibility and commitment it invites, will you choose to belong to each other in the vocation of marriage?
We will

Immediate Family (they stand)

Geoff and Liesje, Clive and Valerie, you have raised David and Cathy out of the vocation of your own marriages.

Edith and Dianna, Andrew and Maria, Narelle and Shane, you have grown up with and journeyed alongside them.

Will you give your blessing to their marriage and share in its joys and challenges as they embark on this way of life together
We will

Community of family and friends (they stand)

Will you give your blessing and will you support them as they embark on this way of life together.
We will

Readings: Psalm 1 (Dianna Wilson) and Acts 17: 22-28 (Narelle)

Homily: Rev. Ron Ham and Marcus Curnow
Introduction: Rev. Ron Ham

Dave and Cathy, as you, Marcus and I have prepared for this day, we have been inspired by some helpful images. We don’t want to ignore any of them because they represent the ways in which, and the places where, we find God and God finds us!

Some of these images are personal to you – the river below us reminds you, Dave, of the Murray River so important to you in your growing up, and now. The trees are so loved by you, Cathy, because your family home is planted among them in the hills. River and trees speak to both of you of the whole Creation which mediates the presence of God.

Two other images are common to all of us:
* We have acknowledged the original inhabitants of this land on which we stand, an image linking us to a past we have ignored but which reminds us that God meets us in all of our brothers and sisters, whoever they may be.
* Henri Nouwen has suggested that in marriage we are building together a house of God in the world. What an image that is! Not just a house of God at our particular street address, but in the world – we are to nourish each other in the privacy of our home, but not as an indulgence for ourselves alone.

That means that your home will be ‘a house of God in the world’, because the doors will be open so that you may go out into the world, and for some of the world to come in to you for hospitality; God meets you at your street address, but waits to meet you in the house of the world.

Dave and Cathy, will this continue? Do you think you may remember any of this homily in twenty years time? I don’t care whether you remember or not so long as the images which inspire you now may continue to energise your life.

You are now living authentically in an alternative community-sensitive lifestyle informed by these images. What shape will authentic living mean for you in twenty years? You cannot possibly know. You may be trying to understand the culture in which your teenage children are living!

You will keep on discovering what shape that living should be by adding two other images: you will live your lives as an inward journey and as an outward journey. The inward journey is a life of prayer and contemplation where you open yourselves to what Paul the Apostle, in his Ephesians letter, calls “the immeasurable greatness of the power of God in us who believe; the mighty power of God in raising Jesus Christ from the dead.” This regular appointment with Jesus Christ, made real to you by the Holy Spirit, will keep the ear of your hearts open to hear what God is saying to you.

And you will discover the shape of your living by hearing God speaking to you in the outward journey when you go out of your street address into the house of the world where you will discover God there ahead of you, sometimes speaking in the voice of the “least of these”, Christ’s brothers.

Marcus has something to say about what this might mean for you now that you are to become a married couple.

The Evangelical Disciplines and the Vocation of Marriage: Marcus Curnow

As Ron has said hearing the call of God has been important for you. Earlier we mentioned the vows of religious brothers and sisters, suggesting that their insights on vocation are not just for single life but can be applied to marriage and us all. Just before you say your vows to each other I wanted to say some things about these “Evangelical disciplines” Poverty Chastity and Obedience, that have stood the test of time in sustaining alternative households in our world.

Vow of Poverty: Money and The Economy of Enough

Delwyn and Peter are here today. At their wedding in this place the preacher gave them a memorable blessing. “I hope you will never have to know the burden of wealth.” It expresses gospel concern about the power of greed over our spirit and the way it builds unequal societies. Dave and Cathy, Money is a major issue in spirituality, community and in relationships. Your going to fight about it!

In the economy of this world it seems there is never enough,

The vow of poverty is a response to this scarcity….and has never been about celebrating poverty. Just ask a poor person!
The vow of Poverty involved renouncing private ownership so that through sharing our possessions poverty could be overcome. Ironically I made many religious houses very rich!
In vowing to share what you have today you are creating your own economy. Ecomony has its roots in the Greek word oikos, which means household, and was also associated with the early church where Christians came together by sharing their possessions.
When Jesus feeds people outdoors, turning water to wine at weddings, much like we are going to do today…. the message is that when we share there may not always be much but there is always enough.

The Vow of Poverty means you can live simply. Anyone who knows David will know he is very careful and thoughtful about how he uses his money and time. This is a good thing but Cathy, make sure he doesn’t get too careful. Simple lifestyle is not about making you more pure, it doesn’t change the world, it’s about celebrating ENOUGH! It points to the abundance and the extravagance of Gods grace to us.

Because of this it means that we have time to live in close proximity to the poor and their needs. Often the voice of God is most clearly heard in those who are broken and you have both sought to do this through your work at TEAR, Urban Seed and your own homes. Remain close to this perspective.

An important part of the vow of poverty involved not just renunciation but taking up of common work. From Brad and Jen in Hollywood down we know that self fulfilment through career is a major barrier to marriage. In the economy of this world, Instead of binding us together our work tears us apart.

Find some work that brings you together. Even if its not in your professional lives, think about it in the work of household.
Today’s economy has made housework & homemaking, a menial, even degrading task. But there is much in the common work of making home, the art of thrift, raising children, grow some of your own food, raising animals, sharing with others that can build an inclusive marriage.

And this connects with the second vow.

Chastity: Sex and fidelity to People, Land and Place

If poverty is about money, chastity is about sex. Guys, If you thought the fight about money is difficult wait till the fights about sex. Again in the Economy of our world it seems there is never enough?
Our basic human desires are preyed upon to sell things. Its seems at times there is no higher purpose to human sexuality than recreation or companionship in the here and now. There is a lot of flesh!!!

Fundamental to the idea of the vow of chastity is not prudish Christian hang up’s about sexuality but an understanding about the profound connection between flesh and spirit.

Wendell Berry, the Theologian and Farmer, whose thoughts have been so defining in building a sense of community that you’re part of here in Footscray gives us a different vision.

“Sexual Love is at the heart of community life. Sexual love is the force that in our bodily life connects us most intimately to the Creation, to the fertility of the world, to farming and the care of animals. It brings us into the dance that holds the community together and joins it to its place.”

These are not ideas commonly heard on Desperate Housewives or Sex in the City.

Today you are not taking a vow of chastity but you are taking a vow of sexual fidelity that is not just about ecstatic highs but about the spiritual connection of your bodies to the whole of creation.

Creation has its cylces, and so does human sexuality. Fidelity in marriage creates households where ecstasy can be returned too. These cycles may also involve the creation and raising of children. No kids, no community. Even the boss of our economy Peter Costello understands this. It also invovles the fidelity of our bodies to the places we live in, the land on which our households are located, the connection of our bodies to the food that sustains us and the common work of producing and consuming in ways that are healthy for us, others and the earth. Good sex involves fidelity to creation and all its creative processes, to land and to place.

You have demonstrated this in your images of the River and the Tree, valuing the places from which you come, the households where you have created and raised.

This is good sex in its broadest sense, our bodies alive with the spiritual, connected with and respectful of the natural rhythms, processes and limits of God’s creation. Get into it guys.

Obedience: Power & Freedom

The final vow is that of Obedience. Its an awkward sort of word in the Economy of our world which worships freedom of choice and the power of the individual. Let us be honest, In the name of marriage and obedience the church has often defended and perpetuated abusive relationships and yet central to this vow is the idea of giving up our own sense of will for the sake of community and others.

The apostle Paul describes this, at times using the language of equality (which modern people like) or at others the language of mutual submission ( which modern people struggle with) but its emphasis is the same.
Love involves the sacrifice of power.
This is central to the message of Christianity, Jesus, God incarnate loves us so much that he dies on a cross.

Marriage is a gift that helps us to understand, practise and perfect love. Your household becomes a space where we learn politics. Where we get confronted and have to deal with our power issues.

It is sometimes said “At marriage Two become one flesh, and within six months you can tell which one.”

Cookie, you are older, organised, and do what you say, doggedly at times, there is great power in that.
Often your strength works in support of people who are broken and let me say you have the respect of this community in that regard. The downside is that sometimes you become attached to ideas and causes, with an inflexibility that drives us up the wall.

One of the ideas that we spoke of around your theme of “The River and The Tree” was that of interdependence. Trees need rivers to be watered as rivers need trees to keep the water tables in balance.

Cathy I know Cookie can be a very strong river. You will need to be a strong tree. I know this is possible because you come from a family of fine Dutch women, who tell me that you are also very strong willed.

Together you will need to learn the skills of negotiating power needed to sustain your marriage and community in our world. May your committment to the vow of obedience mean you have many, good, creative, life giving fights.

Soon you will make your vows. These are not ideas that one can simply get attached to. Love is an art that takes work. Soon the time for words will be over and you will need to live it. Thankfully you are not alone. The voice of God is the living call of a living Christ whose love is accessible to all. May the call and love of Christ that has sustained households of grace and peace across the ages go with you. Amen.

The Covenanting: Rev. Ron Ham

(Dave)

Cathy, I love you

I, Dave Cook take you Catherine Heather Gaye Wilson to be my wife

I believe that God has called us together, and I promise that I will ever strive to place our common faith at the heart of our marriage.

I promise to love you

To cherish you

To comfort you

To respect you

And to support you

Whatever the future holds, I promise to walk with you as my partner, confidant and friend, as long as we both shall live.

(Cathy)

Dave, I love you

I, Cathy Wilson take you David Neville Cook to be my husband

I believe that God has called us together, and I promise that I will ever strive to place our common faith at the heart of our marriage.

I promise to love you

To cherish you

To comfort you

To respect you

And to support you

Whatever the future holds, I promise to walk with you as my partner, confidant and friend, as long as we both shall live.

Rings:
Ron: (Holds up rings)

David: Cathy I give you this ring, a symbol of my everlasting commitment to you and to God.

Cathy: David, I give you this ring, a symbol of my everlasting commitment to you and to God.

Blessing and Pronouncement The Kiss
Signing of the Register:
Song performed by Felicity: Deeper River (Digby Hannah)
Prayers: Ian Charles and Dave White
Song: Irish Blessing
Blessing and Announcement of Couple: Marcus Curnow
Recessional: band to continue music for Irish Blessing.

Posted by marcus at 10:25 PM | Comments (6)

Funeral: Celtic Blessing

February 01, 2005

I was blessed to assist this last week in the funeral of Jan Lacey; Aunty of my colleauge Chris and a passionate educator, activist and Bob Dylan fan. The benediction was an appropriately Irish blessing from John O'Donohue's "Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom for the Celtic World" (1997, Bantam)

A Blessing for Death

I pray that you will have the blessing of being consoled and sure about your own death.
May you know in your soul that there is no need to be afraid.
When your time comes, may you be given every blessing and shelter that you need.
May there be a beautiful welcome for you in the home that you are going to.
You are not going somewhere strange.
You are going back to the home that you never left.
May you have a wonderful urgency to live your life to the full.
May you live compassionately and creatively and transfigure everything that is negative within you and about you.
When you come to die may it be after a long life.
May you be peaceful and happy and in the presence of those who really care for you.
May your going be sheltered and your welcome assured.
May your soul smile in the embrace of your anam cara (soul friend).

More Celtic Funeral Prayers below:

These are from Ray Simpson's "Celtic Blessings for everyday life: Prayers for every occasion (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1998). Ray is Guardian of The Community of Aidan and Hilda, Northumbria.

Father , I place N....into your hands;
Acknowledge a sheep of your own fold,
A lamb of your own flock,
A sinner of your own redeeming.
Enfold N.....in the arms of your mercy,
In the blessed rest of everlasting peace,
And in the glorious company of the saints in light.
Traditional

Go forth upon your journey from this world,
In the Name of God the Father who created you;
In the Name of Jesus Christ who died for you;
IN the Name of the Holy Spirit who shines through you;
In friendship with God's saints;
Aided by the holy angels.
May you rest this day in
the peace and love of your eternal home.
Traditional adapted

May you be as free as the wind
As soft as sheeps wool
As straight as a arrow
That you may journey into the heart of God.

If the deceased person had been baptised:
May you who were baptised N.....
now be immersed into the life of God: (sprinkling water over coffin)
Into the presence of the Creator I immerse you
Into the presence of the Saviour I immerse you
Into the presence of the Spirit I immerse you

May kindly Michael, chief of the holy angels,
Take charge of you beloved soul
And tenderly bring it home
To the Three of limitless love:
Creator, Saviour, Eternal Life-giver

Posted by marcus at 08:31 PM | Comments (3)

Christmas: House of Bread

January 13, 2005

Christmas 2004: House of Bread Poem
Before we ran off to our blood families we shared a very special Christmas liturgy and breakfast in Greg and Elvira’s backyard with our other kin- the various odds and sods of Footscray who live close and hang together around The WOC (Western Organic Co-op), Common Life, Urban Seed, Tear Australia, etc etc. The morning was warm and still, Ewen lit the Christ candle and Jon Conford recited a poem called “House of Bread,” a beautiful ‘Aussie’ slant on the miracle of the incarnation (see below.)

House of Bread (Hebrew: Betlehem)
By Daniel ODonovan

Me and my man had a ruby stone
We found in the creek at Biljurs Bone
Round as a pearl and pure as wine
But wondrous in the full moon shine

The old man had a dream that said
Look and you’ll find a House of Bread
He told me “Come” and rolled his swag
I put the stone in my dillybag.

(That time we starved for a bite to eat
Days since we’d caught a scrap of meat
Even the dog looked like he’d die
The bush was still and pools all dry)

Two days we walked and never spoke
The third, the old man saw some smoke
The dog sniffed and began to run
We reached there at the setting sun

A damper cooked on ashes red
Was the only sign of a house of bread
The man looked up, we saw his face
And knew for sure this was the place

We greeted him and then sat down
He broke the bread and gave it round
He passed around his can of tea
Then said to my old man and me

“Happy the dream that led you here
Where hunger is gone, and gone is fear
You see this bark and boughy shed?
It holds the God who is Living Bread”

We followed him in (the dog went first)
Through a hole in the bark the moonlight burst
There was a woman with a sleeping child
Out of the depths the ages smiled

I reached and got the ruby stone
my old man found at Biljurs Bone
and laid it on the little black chest
of Living Bread, the God of rest

It caught fire under the moons full light
Driving the shadows and the night
Driving the pain, driving the woe
And every people saw its glow

Posted by marcus at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

Advent: Ripples in Time

December 22, 2004

Images from "Ripples in Time" our final Urban Seed evening prayers for 2004 on Tuesday December 21 run by Mark Pierson. Highlights.....

1. Mark Pierson building a reflective pool without leakage @ The Den! Thanks to Cityside NZ for a decade of damp practise runs!
2. A beautiful blue ripples video loop running throughout whilst listening to the whole Christmas story read by various voices.
3. Ewen (my 3 year old) loved throwing stones and placing candles in the pond.....not sure if he got that it was supposed to represent the 'Ripples from the activity of God in history.'
4. Sad goodbyes to Mark Beckwith, Raelene and Virginia moving on from Urban Seed.

Various "Ripples in Time" Liturgies are available on Mark Piersons' CDROM of worship resources called "Fractals".

Posted by marcus at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)

Advent: Nativity

December 14, 2004

Dad goes alt. worship!
How's this for an alternative worship installation...no Mark Pierson back projection and video loops here, my old man the Rev. Ted Curnow, Methodist minister on placement in Cornwall just rigged up this nativity with an old sheet, a lamp and some cardboard cutouts in the old Methodist manse window in downtown St Ives. Proud of ya Dad, you alt. worship McGyver!

Posted by marcus at 02:37 PM | Comments (1)

Wedding: The Journey Home

December 05, 2004

Lavender Pham Tran Wedding: The Journey Home

Officiated today at the wedding of Judy and Long at "Lavendula" Swiss-Italian Lavender Farm near Hepburn Springs, 1.5 hours from Melbourne. A simply stunning venue at this time of year!

The ceremony was the 'Aussie' part of the day, following a traditional Vietnamese tea ceremony at the brides family's house in morning. The real challenge for Judy (Evangelical)and Long (Catholic)was trying to do something that honoured their Vietnamese and church heritage whilst being honest about the limits of its value in where they see themselves now and in the future. The references to Catholic perspective on vocation and a bit of water sprinkling / blessing seemed to be appreciated by the traditional Catholic crowd concerned about the outdoor/non church wedding.

Journey of Healing and Finding Home were themes we workshoped and the Hebrews passage worked a treat.

Having to get back to the big Viet reception in Melbourne, 400+ ppl, complete with kareoke, Long and Judy had all their family photos done at the rehershal. Some very worried farm owners thought they had booked the wrong date when a whole convoy of dressed up Viet's hit the farm a week early!

Read on for the ceremony....

The Lavender Pham Tran Wedding: The Journey Home
Prelude Music: Jazz

Introduction: Marcus Curnow

Entrance:
Music: Over the Rainbow/ Wonderful World- Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

Welcome: Marcus Curnow
On behalf of Long and Judy, a warm welcome to this beautiful place today. In holding the wedding in this place Judy and Long are inviting us to “smell the flowers” both literally but metaphorically.

Lavender comes from the Latin “lavare” which means to wash. It is a flower used in aromatherapy for healing, symbolising peace and reconciliation.

In shaping the ceremony today. The themes of a Journey of Healing and Finding a Home have been very important to Judy and Long.

Their hopes are that this is a space where, like the properties of lavender, we can each feel a sense of peace. A place where you feel free to be yourself and at home. To acknowledge the journey Long and Minh have been on and the home they have found in each others love.

Prayer: Marcus Curnow

Let us open the ceremony with a prayer

Instead of closing your eyes though I ask you to open them and to be aware of your surrounds.

Be aware of your senses, what you see, hear, smell, breathe deeply and take it in.

Allow yourself to appreciate the connection and dependence we have with the creation in which we live.

Let us give thanks to the Creator who sustains all of this.

Today we have journeyed to this place,
Be aware of the journey you have taken,
The business of preparation,
the sights and sounds along the way.

On an occasion like this, let us be aware of our emotions,
What is it that we bring to this place and this celebration today?
What is that you feel?

Perhaps goodwill, a sense of connection with Judy and Long and others, excited hopes for them, A desire to let go, to enjoy and celebrate.

Or perhaps feelings that are not so happy. Weddings can bring up painful memories, of people who are not here, regrets, a reminder of relationships that have failed or that remain unreconciled.

God you teach and allow us to be honest.

And so we bring our journeys’ with all of their memories of times shared with Minh and Long.
The good and the bad.
Our hopes, as well as our fears for their future.
We let go and we offer them to you.
May we know the safe home of your presence and grace as we share this time with family and friends.
Move amongst us as we unite Long and Minh in the power of your love.

Amen

Song: Marie Cris Tagala- Sulte His Eye is on the Sparrow.
Why should I feel discouraged
Why should the shadows come
Why should my heart feel lonely
And long for heaven and home
When Jesus is my portion
A constant friend is He
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches over me
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me

I sing because I'm happy
I sing because I'm free
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me (He watches me)
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches
I know He watches
I know He watches me

Words by Civilla D. Martin, 1905

Reading: Jason, Tuan, Cuong
We will now hear a reading that is an affirmation of how God sees us.
Don’t let this be a quaint wedding reading that washes over you.
Judy and Long want you to listen closely, because they feel that it has been a hard journey coming to this understanding of themselves and their relationship to God and that without this understanding they would not be here today. Jason, Tuan, Cuong have been have been part of that journey since school

A friendship begins (Psalm 139): Henri Nouwen
“I have called you by name, from the very beginning.
You are mine and I am yours.
You are my beloved, on you my favour rests.
I have moulded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you in your mother’s womb.
I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace.

I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child.
I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at every step.
Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch.
I will give you food that will satisfy all you hunger and drink that will quench all your thirst.

I will not hide my face from you.
You belong to me.
I am your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your lover and your spouse… yes, even your child… wherever you are I will be.
Nothing will separate us.
We are one.”

Declaration of Call: Marcus Curnow

In the Roman Catholic tradition of which Long is a part, marriage is considered a religious vocation. Like religious brothers and sisters today you will make certain vows. Catholic monks and nuns swear vows of Stability, Chastity, Poverty and Obedience. Long and Minh, today you will not make a vow of Stability: but you will make a commitment for life. You will not take a vow of Chastity but you will take a vow of Sexual fidelity. You will not take a vow of poverty but you will vow to share all possessions. You will not vow obedience but you will mutual influence and submission.

The word vocation means “voice” And so marriage is more than a response to a private love between you, it is a divine call to a holy life; a lifelong process of listening for God’s summons, hearing Gods voice and responding to God’s call.

Long and Minh:

Having heard the nature of the call. Of your own free will, understanding the responsibility and commitment it invites, will you choose to belong to each other in the vocation of marriage?
We will

Parents and siblings (they stand)

Judy and Long will light incense in memory of Longs mother, Tri.

Thanh, Thoai and Long, you have raised Judy and Long out of the vocation of your own marriage.

Lan, Michelle and Jimmy; Tan, Tu, Tien, and Tam you have grown up alongside them.

Will you give your blessing to their marriage and share in its joys and challenges as they embark on this way of life together
We will

Then receive the blessing of God which falls like dew from heaven upon this place,
Lavender and Water, Peace and Life, entwined. Amen (Sprinkle with sprigg of dried Lavender dipped in mix of Lavender Oil and water)

Community of family and friends (they stand)

Will you give your blessing and will you support them as they embark on this way of life together.
We will

Then receive the blessing of God which falls like dew from heaven upon this place,
Lavender and Water, Peace and Life, entwined. Amen (Sprinkle with sprigg of dried Lavender dipped in mix of Lavender Oil and water)

Community Song: West Footscray Uniting Church

Reading: Lina Nguyen Hebrews 11: 13-16
Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it a way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were refugees; strangers and nomads in this world. People who live this way make it plain they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back anytime they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that - heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a Home waiting for them.
Hebrews 11:13-16

Homily: Marcus Curnow
“The Journey Home” : Finding Home in Creation, The Call and The
Promise of Marriage

The Covenanting:
Vows:
Long
I, Long Pham, feel greatly blessed by the privilege of knowing you and falling in love with you. You are one of the best things that happened to me on this earth. Thank you for the blessings and joys you bring into my life. You’re one of the most beautiful person I’ve ever met. I love your sense of righteousness and your yearning to grow in God’s knowledge and character. I am truly overwhelmed by the intensity of your love. I am charmed by your quirkiness. You make my journey home on this earth so much delightful. Judy, in the name of our LORD and Saviour Jesus, I make my promise to you that I will walk with you for the rest of our journey here on earth, I will always be by your side, through the valleys of darkness, over the mountains of joy and peace. I will love you for eternity, just the way God created you.

Minh
Long Thanh Pham, Your breathe of life is so precious to me, I love your belovedness, (your Longyness), your uniqueness, the very fiber of your being amazes me each day. You are all and more that I desire.

I, Judy Tran take the risk in choosing you (love) rather than fear
I take the risk in loving you and being loved back
It’s been really hard but really rewarding learning to love each other
So I just want to encourage us, appreciate and affirm our growth in our journey so far

I devote my whole being only to you until my last breath on this earth
May that be my physical being, spiritual, emotional or mental

I will learn, grow and bring you joy by encouraging us to continue to hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise (Hebrews 10: 23)

I make an oath to journey with you and love you dearly as an intimate life partner, until it is time to go home to our Father in Heaven

I love you Longy!

Rings:
Marcus: Blesses rings with oil/water

(Holds up rings) The rings, symbols of belonging and of everlasting love.

Long: I give you this ring, a symbol of our belonging in the circle of God’s covenant love.

Judy: I give you this ring, a symbol of our ever-lasting covenant love.

Blessing and Pronouncement
Judy and Long Kneel (Receive sign of cross on forehead)

Receive the blessing of God
which falls like dew from heaven upon this place,
Lavender and Water,
Peace and Life, entwined,
Bind you together, and to the call and promises of Creator God the source of all love.
May the love of the Holy Trinity enfold you,
Bringing peace beyond all understanding, be with you and remain with you, and all you love, now and forever.

ALL: Amen

Long and Minh, Today in this place, before God, your family and friends you have exchanged promises and exchanged symbols to belong to each other forevermore. And so in accord with the laws of this land and in the name of Creator God from whom all authority and love derive,

I pronounce you husband and wife.

The Kiss

Prayers: David Tolputt
Aunty Jeanette
Christina

Signing of the Register:

Musical Item: Jazz

Blessing and Announcement of Couple: Marcus Curnow

Benediction:
You are God’s servants gifted with dreams and visions.
Upon you rests the grace of God like flames of fire.
Love and serve the Lord in the strength of the Spirirt.
May the deep peace of Christ be with you,
The strong arms of God sustain you,
And the power of the Holy Spirit strengthen you
in every way.
Amen

Friends, one journey ends, the next next one begins.

I present to you Pham-Tran Long and Minh; Judy and Long.

Recessional: Over the Rainbow/ Wonderful World- Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

Posted by marcus at 02:16 AM | Comments (1)

Maundy Thursday

December 04, 2004

YaChasin Community, St Albans, 2003-4
Over the last couple of years the Chasers have hosted a "How to Host a Last Supper" Meal in St Albans. Its a simple resource designed by and availiable through Scripture Union Victoria. We've found it a really good exercise for those with little knowledge of the Easter story. We even threw in a footwashing welcome which was funny when one of Tri's gangsta friends came to show off his new WRX Turbo and ended up with clean feet and a part of the party. Last year we kicked on to "The Lookout" at Gelibrand Hill overlooking Melbourne for the readings of the arrest and denial....

We based 'The Lookout Service' on a midnight service on Iona which I was lucky enought to able to attend Easter 2000. It was an hour of mostly silence with the arrest and denial readings interspersed by verses of Sydney Carter's "Bitter was the Night".

Having seen it done really well in the monastery at Iona on a freezing cold Scottish night I was really keen to try something similiar overlooking the city on a balmy Melbourne Easter.

Gellibrand Hill is a real rugged nature reserve with big boulders, bush and kangaroos but with great views of the city skyline, a giant radar dish for airplanes flying in low to the nearby airport. You have to walk a kilometer from the car to get to the top of the hill, so you get a real sense of journey and adventure getting up there in the dark.

Different voices read the readings with Mariecris and I sharing the verses of "Bitter was the Night". Simple, short, powerful....best thing I did all year.

Bitter Was the Night
(Carter)

Bitter was the night,
Thought the cock would crow for ever.
Bitter was the night,
Before the break of day.

Saw you passing by,
Told them all I didn't know you.
Bitter was the night,
Before the break of day.

Told them all a lie,
And I told it three times over.
Bitter was the night,
Before the break of day.

What did Judas do?
Sold him for a bag of silver.
Bitter was the night,
Before the break of day.

What did Judas do?
Hanged himself upon the branches.
Bitter was the night,
Before the break of day.

Bitter was the night,
Thought there'd never be a morning.
Bitter was the night,
Before the break of day.

Bitter was the night,
Thought the cock would crow for ever.
Bitter was the night,
Before the break of day.

Posted by marcus at 06:54 AM | Comments (1)

Wedding: Matrix

December 03, 2004

The Matrix Sulte-Tagala Wedding: Wake up!

Cyd and Mariecris always described their participiation with Ya Chasin Community, St Albans as like "being sucked out of the Matrix", so when it came time to get married they went with the themes and images from the movie they loved.

The challenge was how to do this in a way that wasn't totally cliche as being part of Christian circles with a penchant for the apocalyptic, The Matrix has been pretty much done to death. The other side of this was a traditional evangelical Fillipino crowd who had little idea what The Matrix was about.

Highlights:
1. The "Wake Up" theme : Finally getting to use The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins at a wedding!
2. Processional Music "Mona Lisa Overdrive" from Matrix Reloaded soundtrack: In your face dramatic!
3. Ya Chasin Prayer Collage: cool pop culture visual at front of altar. Just talking about it is a cool way of praying!

Questionable:
1. Cyd and Groomsmen dressed in Neo style trenchcoats in 35 degrees while I wore a traditional Filo Barong!
2. Huge Fountain being turned on at moment of the kiss, drowning out rest of ceremony.
3. "Sleeping Awake" by POD(Matrix Reloaded) performed by band during signing of register. Great lyrics, A little hardcore for traditional Filo crowd!...but it did drown out the fountain!
4. Just way to many words on my part!

Ceremony below...

WAKE UP! - The Sulte-Tagala Matrix Wedding

Venue: Sheldon Garden, Sunshine. An incredible paved outdoor space, semi - enclosed by glass with giant sail/marquee covering and full
1. Asian mats and seating,
2. Pathway lamps filled with Citronella oil in sand filled pots
3. Phat Alberts Table as the altar upon which will sit the family and marriage lamps and the Ya Chasin Prayer Collage.

The Chasers!

The Wake up Call: Marcus Curnow

Ladies and Gentlemen you are today here because you took the red pill . You received an invitation to wake up!

Reading : Matthew 25:1-13 : Marcus Curnow

Listen to the story of an ancient Jewish teacher
…the Kingdom of heaven will be like this. Once there were ten girls who took their oil lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and the other five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any extra oil with them, while the wise ones took containers full of oil for their lamps. The bridegroom was late in coming, so the girls began to nod and fall asleep.
It was already midnight when the cry rang out, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come and meet him! The ten girls woke up and trimmed their lamps. Then the foolish ones said to the wise ones, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’ ‘No way, the wise ones answered, ‘there is not enough for you and for us. Go to the shop and buy some for yourselves.’ So the foolish girls went off to buy some oil; and while they were gone, the bridegroom arrived. The five girls who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was closed.
“Later the other girls arrived, ‘Sir, sir! Let us in!’ they cried out. ‘Do I know you?’ the bridegroom answered, ‘I do not know you.’”
And Jesus concluded, “Stay awake, then, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I invite you to wake up and to stand. The bridegroom is coming! Light the lamps!”

Various Chasers yell out “Light the lamps!”

Lighting of the Pathway Lamps : Tri Nguyen and Kings Park Boyz

Entrance:
Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack, "Mona Lisa Overdrive" Juno Reactor/Don Davis
Page Boy: Ewen Arthur Thomas Curnow with rings
Boys : Cyd and Parents
Flower Girl
Girls
MCT & Parents

Welcome: Marcus Curnow
Friends, Welcome to the wedding today of Cyd and Mariecris. My name is Marcus Curnow from Cyd and Mariecris’ church community known as Ya Chasin. I know that many family and friends from many different parts of their lives are gathered here. This is very significant for Cyd and Mariecris and so whatever part you play or have played, big or small, they would like to begin by welcoming you.

Welcome and Rock and Water Greeting
• Cyd explains rock and Mariecris explains water; they bow to people,
• Marcus invites people to return the greeting
• Couple turn and bow to each other

As we will celebrate, marriage is not just about a georgeous couple, it’s about community and so you are not just spectators today. You are participants, and during the ceremony will we be calling for your support so Be Awake!

I don’t know what you thought when you placed your invitation in the DVD to be confronted with the words Wake up! They were words and images from the recent series of movies called The Matrix. A story in which humanity struggles to free itself from the slavery imposed on us by our own arrogance and an artificial reality created by our own machines.
It’s a sci-fi adventure movie but it themes are rich with Christian symbolism. The nature of truth, what it means to be truly alive and free, to be born again from a dream world and the struggle to see and follow a difficult path that others around you don’t see.

These are the themes of true Christian faith, and so the Matrix has become a powerful metaphor for Cyd and Maricris in both their personal spiritual renewal and in their relationship together. They wanted these ideas and images at the heart of our celebration today.

It makes for a different sort of wedding but this is a good thing because often weddings are full of the problems in our society which often “put us to sleep” in a spiritual/literal sense.

• So often weddings become an expression of culture that is not heartfelt, a dry ritual that has only surface meaning.
• They can be extravagant and expensive occasions, of demonstrating our success and status or impressing and competing with others, but which in reality often leave us with financial pain and social obligation.
• Or the myth of Prince and Princess for a day, where we pretty ourselves up, we pretend that things are beautiful, and everything is happy, but we’re pretending, and the breakdown of marriage and relationships lie not to far below the surface.

It is true that weddings can be ruined by the immaturity of the couple, or their families and peers. Thankfully, whilst Cyd and Mariecris are young, I trust this is not the case today. These are thinking people who are not afraid to question. They are a couple who do not like to pretend and don’t want others to pretend. And so they have thought hard about what would be an honest expression for them to be awake to a different vision of reality from that of the dream world we have described:

After “Consulting the oracle”, they, like the Matrix movie, have found inspiration in the ancient stories of the Jewish-Christian tradition. Today’s ceremony is structured around three meanings of marriage which they want to remain awake to. Marriage in creation; The marriage call; and the promise of covenant love.

We will now ask Ron Ham, a pastor from the Tagala family’s home church at Footscray Baptist to offer a prayer to awaken us to marriage in creation.

Awake to Marriage in Creation
Prayer: Ron Ham, Footscray Baptist Church (Genesis 1, ?Psalm, ?Song of Songs)

Marcus to mention the Lookout at Gelibrand Hill
the reason for outdoor wedding, bigger than church.
love of place, Westside, St Albans.
Ken and Angelica will bring us a reading that highlights God’s love of place….

Awake to the Marriage Call (Vocation)

Reading: Luke 12:22-37 : Ken Sulte and Angelica Rivero

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “And so I tell you not to worry about the food you need to stay alive or about the clothes you need for your body. Life is much more important than food, and the body much more important than clothes. Look at the crows: they don’t plant seeds or gather a harvest; they don’t have store-rooms or barns; God feeds them! You are worth so much more than birds! Can any of you live a bit longer by worrying about it? If you can’t manage even such a small thing why worry about the other things? Look how the wild flowers grow: they don’t work or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers. It is God who clothes the wild grass- grass that is here today and gone tomorrow, burnt up in the oven. Won’t he be all the more sure to clothe you? What little faith you have!
So don’t be all upset, always concerned about what you will eat or drink For people who do not know God run after these things and God knows that you need them. But seek God’s kingdom and these things will be given to you as well.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for God is pleased to give you the kindgom. Sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor. Provide for yourselves purses that don’t wear out, and save your riches in heaven, where they will never decrease, because no thief can get to them, and no moth can destroy them. For where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
Be ready for whatever comes, dressed for action, and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to come back from a wedding feast. When he comes and knocks, they will open the door for him at once. How happy are those servants whose master finds them awake and ready when he returns! I tell you that he will take off his coat, have them sit down and serve them, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake- and so blessed!

Reflection : Marcus Curnow

The second meaning that Cyd and Mariecris wish us to celebrate today is the Marriage Call . Another word for call is vocation which comes from the Latin vocatio, to call, and vox which means voice. Marriage isn’t just a private love thing between Cyd and Mariecris. It is a divine call to a holy life, a lifelong process of listening for and hearing Gods voice then responding to God’s call.

The call began for these two six years ago with a whisper from the heart, a falling in love that captured their attention. But this was more than the voice of their own infatuation and desire, it is a calling from outside themselves to be a gift to the other person.

In the tradition from which you have come there has sometimes been a tendency to suggest that you can best serve God single. That love for each other can get in the way of your love for God. Many of you will know the now infamous story of how Cyd once told Mariecris they had to break up so he could serve God by hanging out with the boys in the schools. I think some of the boys here today might think you were crazy Cyd. Thankfully his mentor and sponsor today, Tri made Cyd return to Mariecris and apologise before he would let him come to the school because he understood that marriage is also a religious vocation.

When we think religious vocation we often think monks or nuns who take vows In the.Benedictine tradition monks and nuns take vow to stay in one place, not have sex, not possesions and Obeying their order in order to serve God. marriage is similar. Today you will also take vows. Not of Stability: but you will make a commitment for life. You will not take a vow of Chastity but you will take a vow of sexual fidelity. You will not take a vow of poverty but you will vow to share all possessions. You will not vow obedience but you will mutual influence and submission.

In the same way that monks and nuns take vows to create a community by which to serve God we can see marriage as a spiritual discipline. Our reading said if you cant manage the small things, why worry about others. It’s in the little things that we find God’s love, not for big ideas or ministries, but for birds and flowers. Cyd and Mariecris, marriage can promote a spiritual maturity and growth in your lives as you learn to practise and perfect love. Love isn’t something you fall in and out of but something that you learn in the day to day hackwork of a lifelong relationship. Be awake to it!

As marriage goes on the call of your love will become broader. The voice is often heard in family life and in the significant task of raising children. Children are the basis of any community or healthy philosophy of life so don’t be scared of this call, worrying that they will only restrict or limit you. In a troubled violent world there is no more radical task or statement of hope for the future than raising children who understand love.

I’m telling you that these ‘little’ domestic things, living together and raising kids are the stuff of love you must care about them, but here’s the thing, you must not worry about theme. These are often sources of great stress and worry in marriage, and the exact things that put relationships to sleep! Love always reaches further and as your love deepens the call extends further…our reading suggests that the only way to stay awake is not to worry about these things but to “Seek first the kingdom of God.”

The idea of the kingdom of God has been a powerful one in sucking your relationship out of “the Matrix” of worries. The ‘kingdom’ story of ‘The Great Banquet’ is comes to life around the table at Ya Chasin each Thursday night , or ‘The Wedding Banquet,’ where everyone, especially the outsiders are invited.

There is much the security of a strong marriage can give to others, creating a space for those who know no love. There are a bunch of people here whom as a couple you have already helped in their struggles. We are already seeing. Your marriage vocation can serve your heart and connection with young people in St Albans. A good way to learn how not to worry about your stuff is to get it knocked off by neighbours struggling with drug issues.

Your passion for the kingdom is shown in the way you deal with these issues. It’s in the way you love life and party together. It enriches you and us, and builds community. This is where the real treasure is in life that doesn’t decay, so stay awake to this call of love

For many a wedding is their big romantic day, an often can be a self-centred experience., You on the other hand are today responding to a call to begin a life together with God, that God wants to use to help you together; and you together with all of us, to Seeking first Gods kingdom, restoring community and creation in the world. This is the lamp we want you to light and keep burning today.

Declaration of Call

Cyd and MariecrisHaving heard the call which we have today proclaimed. Of your own free will, understanding the responsibility and commitment it invites, will you choose to belong to each other in the vocation of marriage?
We will

Parents and siblings >(they stand)
Isidro and Nora, Rodell and Virginia, you have raised Cyd and Mariecris out of the vocation of your own marriage. Jonathan and Ken, Jon Jon and Mary Ann you have grown up alongside them. Will you give your blessing to their marriage and share in its joys and challenges as they embark on this way of life together.
We will

Lighting of the Family lamps: The parents each light their Family Lamp.

Community of family and friends >(they stand)Will you give your blessing and will you support them as they embark on this way of life together.
We will

Community Song: This Little Light of Mine : Arnold, JP: Guitar, Homer: Snare Drum, Cookie, Jesus

This little light of mine, I’m gunna let it shine
Waking up to the Marriage call, were gunna let it shine
Celebrating Cyd and Mariecris, were gunna let it shine
Takin the red pill not the blue; were gunna let it shine…..
This little light of mine, I’m gunna let it shine…

Awake to the Promise of Covenant Love

The third and final image we wish to celebrate today is the promise of covenant love. Very soon Cyd and Mariecris will make promises to each other, a covenant. This is important for us because in a society that has many superficial ways of understanding relationship, covenant is a primary way in which the bible understands what it means to love.

In a story so powerful that it has become the basis of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Abraham breaks the body of a sacrificed animal and walking between it with a flaming lamp receives promises from God to redeem the world. It’s powerful stuff and is in part re-enacted in the Christian tradition of marriage as the couple walks down the aisle in between the two families. We have lamps here today.

All through the scriptures the authors intertwine these two covenant marriages. God’s relationship to God’s people and our marriage to our partner. It suggests that marriage helps us to understand God’s relationship to us and God’s relationship to us helps us to understand marriage.

The great thing about these scripture stories is they’re not reality TV romances, they are honest. They tell us quite bluntly that God’s relationship with us has often been a pretty rocky marriage. Our religion often fails, instead of waking us up it often puts us to sleep, and God hates it. If any of you here today have known Mariecris and Cyd for any length of time you will know that they are passionate about God but they are also pretty public about what they don’t like about church and its failings. But we also know that relationships are not easy, and just like the church fails God, in your own relationship there will be many ways in which you also fail to love each other. So how do we deal with that? We know that many well intentioned, even ‘out of the matrix’ marriages fail. So what hope have you got?

Your hope is found in stories that tell us that God never stops loving. The ancient prophet Hosea describes the passionate love of God in terms of a marriage at a time when his own marriage relationship had been torn apart because of the public unfaithfulness of his partner. In it he found a powerful personal connection with how God felt about the brokenness of the religion of his own day. Yet in the promises of God he saw a hope for religion and himself that ultimately led to him reconciling with his wife.

Now that would make good reality TV, but the real, tough covenant love of God that doesn’t look elsewhere when times are tough and relationships break but offers patience, faithfulness, deep forgiveness and reconciliation. Even when you’ve each got nothing left to give each other, there is grace, the creative love of the universe reaching out to hold you. That’s the sort of story on which to base a marriage, that’s the lamp you want to keep burning.

And so with this understanding Cyd and Mariecris we come to the time where before God and this community, I ask you to make your covenant to each other today….

The Covenanting

Vows: Mariecris and Cyd

Rings : Ewen to give to Marcus

Marcus: (Holds up rings) The rings, symbols of belonging and of everlasting love.

Cyd: Mariecris I give you this ring, a symbol of our belonging in the circle of God’s covenant love.

Mariecris: Cyd I give you this ring, a symbol of our ever lasting covenant love.

Lighting of the Marriage Lamp: (image on Cyds phone)Light lamp and pass through people

Blessing and PronouncementThe flame of your love now burns as one.
May it burn forever,
Warming your hearts,
Lightening your path,
And leading you together
Towards the one Eternal Light.
Amen

Cyd and Mariecris, today in this place, before God, your family and friends you have sworn solemn vows to belong to each other forevermore. Then by the power vested in me in law and in the name of Almighty God, I pronounce you husband and wife.

Da Kiss

Prayers:

Collage: Ya Chasin Community: The prayer collage included an icon of St. Isidro, Saint of farmers popular in Spanish/Filo tradition and after whom Cyd is named. Ironically he was married to a St. Maria...Cyd & Mariecris, Isidro & Maria....nice connection we thought
Blessing: Emilio and Linda

Signing of the Registar : Bridal Party proceed to Glass House with party and sponsors

Musical Item: "Sleeping Awake": P.O.D, Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack David Cook and Band
Reveal to me
The mysteries
Can you tell me what it means?
Explain these motions and metaphors
Unlock these secrets in me
Describe the visions
The meaning is missing
Won't anybody listen?

Define the riddles of my mind
Nothing is really as it seems

Dreaming of Zion awake
Sleeping awake
Dreaming of Zion awake
Can't stop sleeping awake

Do you see what I see?
Can you hear what I hear?
Do you feel like I feel?
Do you see what I see?
Can you hear what I hear?
Do you feel like I feel?
Can't stop sleeping awake

Can you see it?
The writing
Can you tell me what it means?
Translate the symbols; enigma
Expressions keep pushing me
The message slips and the meaning is missing
Won't anybody listen?

Prophecy; interpretate the signs
Nothing is really as it seems

Dreaming of Zion awake
Sleeping awake
Dreaming of Zion awake
Can't stop sleeping awake

Do you see what I see?
Can you hear what I hear?
Do you feel like I feel?
Can't stop sleeping awake
Can anybody seeme?
Can anybody hearme?
Can anybody feel me?
Is anybody out there?

Photo opportunity for people at the Glass House

Bridal Party return to the Big Top!

Housekeeping:The covenant promise of Revelation says “Blessed are those invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb” and we are going to make this promise a reality today with a big party for Mariecris and Cyd this evening. You will be blessed and so will they!

The ceremony will soon conclude, The bar will be open, and you are invited to enjoy the garden surrounds.

Mariecris and Cyd will join us there shortly.

Photos for families will take place on the corner steps shortly and we are also keen to have a photo with everyone…..so stick around.

After all this has happened Maricris and Cyd will leave us for photos off site, and will rejoin those who are staying at the reception centre across the way later on.

Blessing and Announcement of Couple: Marcus Curnow

Cyd and Mariecris, Family and Friends
I Pray you will stay awake to the creation that gives you life,
Be awake to the voice of God, calling you to love; to each other; and the to the service of creation.
And when the tiring trials and temptations of this world surround you, may you face them, awake to the never ending, never failing, covenant promises of God.

I bless you with the words of one imprisoned as a terrorist for speaking out against “the Matrix” of his own day. From the despair of the Guantanamo Bay of ancient Rome, a revelation of God’s promise…

I saw Heaven and earth new created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea. I saw the Holy City, Zion, new-created, descending from heaven , like a beautiful bride prepared for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne “Look!God has moved into the neighbourhood, making a home with men and women. God is yours’ and you belong to God. God will wipe every tear from your eyes. No death, no grief, no crying or pain. The old has gone. Awake, I am making all things new. ”

So let it be, Amen

Friends I present to you Cyd Sulte and Mariecris Tagala-Sulte

Recessional: “It’s a Beautiful Day U2”

Posted by marcus at 12:49 PM | Comments (1)

Wedding-Three Strands

December 02, 2004

Three Strands Venz- Sprigg Wedding

Held at the beautiful Mont De Lancey, at Wandin in Melbourne's hills. The higlights of Tony and Sarahs wedding for me was developing the three theological ideas into the service in an integrated way for the first time. There was no sermon bit but 3, 4 minute reflections that corresponded with that part of the service. I also liked the bible leading the way for the processional and the drama of the bookmarks being held aloft before each reading.....and I finally got to read/preach Hosea at a wedding....What legends!
The liturgical risk was communion as a number of family came from exclusive Lord's table traditions and others who were not of faith, a nice inclusive/qualifying intro was essential.
Ceremony below.....

Tony & Sarah’s Wedding
4 - 1 - 2002

Processional : Song played on CD: Adam Van Leuen
Enter Attendants: Chelsea & Matt, David & Natasha,
Genevieve and Lauri (Carrying Bible with large red, green and white ribbons/strands as bookmarks)
Enter Tony Venz and Parents
Enter Sarah Sprigg and Parents

Welcome: Marcus Curnow

Ecclesiasties 4: Its better to have a partner than go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. And if one falls down, the other helps, But if there is no one to help, tough! Two in a bed warm each other. Alone you shiver all night. By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three stranded rope is not easily snapped. (The Message)
This idea of three strands is often used at weddings to describe a couples relationship with God. Today however we want to use it to talk about three themes of marriage, Marriage and creation, vocation and covenant, and how these ideas may weave together in the life of Tony and Sarah.

Symbol and Reading 1: Steve and Glenda Venz

Opens bible from altar, takes green bookmark and holds up to the people announcing “ The First Strand: Marriage and Creation: A Source of Life” Places strand on the centre of the pulpit.

Reading :
This is the story of how it all started, of Heaven and Earth when they were created. At he time God made Earth and Heaven, before any grasses or shrubs had sprouted from the ground – God hadn’t yet sent rain on Earth, nor was there anyone around to work the ground (the whole Earth was watered by underground springs) – God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive – a living soul!
God said , “It’s not good for the Man to be alone; I’ll make him a helper, a companion.” So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of th eair, named the wild animals; but he didn’t find a suitable companion. God put the man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the man. The Man said, “Finally! Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh! Name her Woman for she was made from Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh. The two of them, the man and his wife were naked, but they felt no shame. (Genesis 2:4-7, 19-25 The Message)

Creation Homily: Marcus Curnow
We begin with creation. Creation stories reveal a culture’s vision of what it means to be human. This story of the Ancient Hebrews we see the conviction of these people that behind the awesome beauty and power of nature lay a distinctive purpose and design, a creator and loving personality.

So important was their view of marriage they linked it with their foundation story. They understood the link between creation and marriage as a source of Life, describing the mystery of two becoming one flesh as the basis of our human existence.

The linking of creation and marriage I think also suggests that human marriage has a divine pattern – it is meant to be like creation in its importance and purpose. Like creation a marriage relationship grows and changes with the seasons of time, like nature it can be fragile. It needs sustaining, nurturing, protection and at times healing. Yet in times of great destruction we can have hope that life and love will often find a way.

These are powerful ideas often forgotten in these times and yet we forget our creation stories at our peril. We celebrate today that far from being a dead, irrelevant or dying institution, marriage, like creation, is a living thing, given breath and sustained by the love of God.

In the Celtic tradition where you have a wedding, (always outdoors,) is very significant. For Tony and Sarah both mentioned the moon and beach at Mornington Peninsula as singificant place in their own relationship have been keen to celebrate this occassion here at Mont De Lancey. In reflecting upon this truth of creation they wish to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this place, the Wurunjeri Balug, Woiwurrung tribes of the Kulin nation, who have lived long and well on this land.

As a way of all of us celebrating creation today I invite you to participate in what we call a Sermon of Silence. Let us keep silence together and take time to listen to and consider the life that surrounds us, of which we are part, and of which marriage we celebrate today is entwined.

Open our eyes to your presence, open our ears to your call, open our hearts to your love.

Symbol and Reading 2: Anna Caddy

Opens bible from altar, takes white bookmark and holds up to the people announcing “ The Second Strand: Marriage and Vocation: The Call” Places strand on the centre of the altar in front of communion.

Reading :

“Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another. Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ.

Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church- a love marked by giving not getting. Christs love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.

No one abuses their own body, do they? No they feed and pamper it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honour her husband.” (Ephesians 5:22-23,25-27,29-33 The Message)

Vocation Homily : Marcus Curnow

The word vocation is from the Latin vocatio, which means summons, to call, and from vox which means voice. Though we may think of marriage as a response to a private love between a Tony and Sarah, it is a divine call to a holy life. Marriage is a lifelong process of listening for God’s summons, responding to God’s call and hearing Gods voice.

The call begins with a whisper from the heart, a falling in love that captures a couples attention. Whilst this may seem to come from within it goes beyond the voice of their own infatuation and desire, it is a calling from outside themselves to be a gift to the other person.

Sometimes in Christian traditions keen to make a difference in the world we have been concerned with the domesticating tendencies of married life prefering the heroic exploits of the single saints. But we must look at marriage as also a religious vocation. Like religious brothers and sisters in
vows involve Stability, Chasitity, Poverty and Obedience. Today you will not make a vow of Stability: but you will make a commitment for life. You will not take a vow of Chastity but you will take a vow of Sexual fidelity. You will not take a vow of poverty but you will vow to share all possessions. You will not vow obedience but you will mutual influence and submission.

The reading we heard from Ephesians 5 uses language of mutual submission in relation to marriage. It is language that modern people find difficult, and it has been much abused, but is essentially about how we give. It suggests that all love involves the sacrifice of power and is a call to give our own power in order to empower others. In this sense we can see marriage as a spiritual discipline. Paul’s description of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is followed by a description of marriage. Marriage can promote a spiritual maturity and growth in the lives of Tony and Sarah as they relate to each other . It’s a gift that helps us to practise and perfect love. Don’t be scared of it, enjoy it, get in to it!

It is love that makes a difference in the world and through the years of a marriage the call of your love will become broader. The voice is often heard in family life and in the significant and can I suggest heroic task of raising children. The purpose and depth of love multiply, the call amplifies and there is much a strong marriage can give to others. Within your love there is much space that can be created for those who know no love. Your marriage can be a haven of love that serves your passions for teaching, and writing and your heart and connection with Africa to name a few.

For many today marriage is the apex of their romantic experience, Prince and Princess for a day. This sustains the wedding industry but is not so reliable for relationships. Today you are here amongst what is largely a community of faith responding to the call to begin a sacramental life together with God, that God wants to use to help you together; and you together with all of us, to restore community and creation in the world.

Declaration of Vocation

Tony and SarahHaving heard the call which we have proclaimed. Do you choose to belong to each other in the vocation of marriage.

Parents and siblings (they stand)
Will you give your blessing and will you support them as they embark on this way of life together

Community of family and friends (they stand)
Will you give your blessing and will you support them as they embark on this way of life together

Community Song: The Servant Song :Jon Cornford

Symbol and Reading 3: Joy Seed

Opens bible from altar, takes red bookmark and holds up to the people announcing “The Third Strand: Marriage and Covenant: The Promise” Places strand on the centre of the altar in front of communion.

Reading :

“And now, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to start all over again. I’m taking her back out to the wilderness where we had our first date, and I’ll court her. I’ll give her boquets of roses. I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope. She’ll respond like she did as a young girl, those days when she was fresh out of Egypt. “At that time”- This is God’s message still- “you’ll address me, ‘Dear husband!’ Never again will you address me, ‘My slave- master!’ I’ll wash your mouth out with soap, get rid of all those dirty false-god names, not so much as a whisper of those names again. At the same time I’ll make a peace treaty between you and wild animals and birds and reptiles, And get rid of weapons of war. Think of it! Safe from beasts and bullies! And then I’ll marry you for good – forever! I’ll marry you true and proper, in love and tenderness. Yes, I’ll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go. You’ll know me, God for who I really am. (Hosea 2:14-20 The Message)

Covenant Homily: Marcus Curnow

The third strand we celebrate today is Covenant. The ancient prophet Hosea describes the passionate love and promises of God in terms of a marriage. Very soon Tony and Sarah will make promises to each other, a covenant. Covenant is important for us because it is a primary way in which the bible understand what it means to love. In a story so powerful that it has become the basis of the worlds 3 major religions Abraham breaks the body of a sacrificed animal and walking between it recieves promises from God to redeem the world. It’s powerful stuff and is in part re-enacted in the Christian tradition of marriage as the couple walks down the aisle in between the two families. We will also enact it in the breaking of bread

All through the scriptures authors intertwine these two covenant marriages. God’s relationship to God’s people and our marriage to our partner. In the previous reading the apostle Paul described it as “a great
mystery – I don’t pretend to understand it all.” Somehow though it suggests that marriage helps us to understand God’s relationship to us and God’s relationship to us helps us to understand marriage.

The problem with powerful religious ideas is that their power is often abused or coopted. We know this so well especially at this time of Christianity and other religions. We also know that many well intentioned, even well theologised marriages fail.

What is amazing about this last story from Hosea is that it was written at a time when his own marriage relationship was broken because of the infidelity of his partner. In it he found a powerfull parallel with the brokeness of the religion of his own day and yet in the promises of God he saw a hope.

It demonstrates the tough covenant love of God that dosent look elsewhere when times are tough and relationships break but offers patience, faithfulness, deep forgiveness and reconciliation That’s the sort of story and love on which to base a marriage.

The Covenanting
The Exchange of Vows & Rings : (Attendants bearing rings stand)

I Tony/Sarah take you Sarah/Tony to be my wife/husband.
I will cherish our friendship and love you today, tomorrow and forever.
I will trust you and honour you.
I will love you faithfully through the best and the worst.
What may come I will always be there.
I come into this union letting go of my deepest fears and embracing all my faith and if I doubt I will remember this time and why we came together this day.
As I give you this ring, so I give you my life to keep.
Blessing and Pronouncement: Marcus Curnow

Receive this blessing. May the rainbow of many colours bind you to God. May the soft winds of heaven refresh your spirit and sunshine brighten your heart. May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you. May God enfold you in love, and may the blessing of God the Holy Three, bringing peace beyond all understanding, be with you and remain with you and all you love, now and forever.

Anthony and Sarah, today in this place, before God, your family and friends you have sworn solem vows to belong to each other forevermore. Then in the name of Almighty God I pronounce you husband and wife.

Celebrating the Covenant

The Eucharist Meal: Marcus Curnow

As a way of celebrating the covenant they have made today. Sarah and Tony have asked that we share in a Eucharist Meal.

Because covenants are hard work which in our our strength we often fail to keep it is a measure of grace that God gave Jesus Christ who showed us how to live the love of which we have spoken today. Who went to weddings where miraculous things took place. Who told his followers to live life like it was a wedding feast; Whos’ vision of the perfect world was that of a wedding feast, where all, especially the poor were invited. In his death he showed us the true love of self sacrifice and the good news is that in his ressurection he lives and makes that love accesible to us through faith in him.

In the last meal that Jesus shared with his followers he took bread and breaking it said “This is my body broken for you” In the same way he took a cup of wine and said “This is my blood poured out for many, for the forgiveness of sins it represents “The New Covenant.”

He told his followers to do this as often as you will in rememberance of me.

In the tradition of the early church the Eucharist was a real meal and this low key approach has been important in Sarah and Tony’s faith communitys, inculding Urban Seed where sharing lunch each day with homeless people is seen as a sacramental act. This tradition emphasizes that salvation comes from the hospitality of God and so welcomes all comers. It also emphasizes the abundance of God’s hospitality so you are encouraged to eat heartily.

If for any reason you don’t identify with the story we have proclaimed today, feel unsure of your participation or come from a tradition that is other to this feel welcome but also comfortable in not participating.

As a symbol of their vocation Tony and Sarah will serve some the bread and wine which is Port from a common cup. And emphasizing the common meal as well as convenience we encourage others to serve yourself from the altar, where non alcoholic grape juice is also available. Please file down the centre aisle and return via the sides.

The Singing of the Registar & Weaving the Strands : Chelsea & Matt (Attendants take the strands/ribbons from the altar and weave them together, making a bookmark they place in the bible)

Community Presentation: Chelsea

On behalf of your community of family and friends we present you with this bible and three strands. May they remind you of the stories we have celebrated today and be woven together in your marriage to be a cord not easily broken.

Benediction Song: The Irish Blessing : Jon Cornford
May your life in this world be a happy one,
May your sun be warm and may your sky's be blue,
May each storm that pass your way,
Clear the air for a brighter day,
And may the saints and the Saviour,
Watch over you.

Liturgy by Marcus Curnow

January 2002

Posted by marcus at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)

Wedding:Celtic

December 01, 2004

Ben and Jin were married in a big teepee-like marquee on the banks of the Yarra river at Warrandyte. A beautiful bush setting. The challenge was finding a ceremony that was meaningful for one family who was traditional Catholic and the other with more New Age leanings. Using elements of Celtic tradtion with its strong creation themes proved a succesful way of bringing things together.....(liturgy below)

Ben & Gin’s Wedding
4 - 11 - 2000

Enter:
Amira playing “Number 3” on Violin by Ben Harper

Processional:
Meg, Victoria, Ardian
Ben & Parents
Gin & Parents

Welcome & Aboriginal acknowledgment: Marcus

Prayer of Silence : Marcus
Listening to the sounds and beauty of the place, considering the connection of marriage with creation.
"Open our eyes to your presence, Open our ears to you call, open our hearts to your love. Amen"

Declaration of Intent: Marcus

Today we stand upon this holy earth and in the face of heaven to witness the sacred rite of marriage between Ben and Jin. Just as we come together as family and friends, so the great spirit of God, the holy three, is present with us.

The scriptures teach us that marriage is a gift of God in creation and a means to grace, a holy mystery in which man and woman become one flesh. It is gods purpose that, as husband and wife give themselves to each other in love throughout their lives, they shall be united in love as Christ is united with his community, the church.

This is the sacred way of life that ben and gin are now to begin. Today as a sign of this they will join hands, exchange vows, Light candles and exchange rings. we will bless them, and each one of you here, that together, with God, their union may be made strong.

Ben and Gin, marriage is a precious gift - a lifelong dedication to love. Marriage is a precious teaching - a daily challenge to love one another more fully and freely.

With this understanding do you choose to belong to each other forever more.

Ben and Jin : WE DO

Families:
We now turn to the Goodes and Strybosch families. you have helped to bring Ben and Gin to this point. Will you give your blessing and will you support them as they embark on this way of life together.

Families Respond : we will

Family Representatives present Tibetan Prayer Necklaces to couple

Jin : Christian and Nicolas on behalf of the Strybosch’s
Ben: Callum and Simon on behalf of the Goodes’

Family Blessing: (Marcus sprinkles with sprig of Lavender and Water)
Then for the sacred task ahead, recieve the blessing of God which falls as dew from heaven. Geranium for harmony, Thyme for Strength, Mhyrr for healing.

Community:
We now turn to Ben and Gin’s community of extended family and friends. you have helped to bring Ben and Gin to this point. Will you give your blessing and will you support them as they embark on this way of life together.

Response : we will

Community Blessing: (Marcus sprinkles with sprig of Lavender and Water)
Then for the sacred task ahead, recieve the blessing of God which falls as dew from heaven. Geranium for harmony, Thyme for Strength, Mhyrr for healing.

Candle Lighting:Marcus: As a symbol of their intent of two becoming one, Ben and Jin will now light candles.

Jin: Lights candle and says

This candle that I light, is a sign of all that I am. It burns brightly with the flame of my hopes and dreams. I offer it to you in love.

Ben: responds

Your hopes and dreams i will respect and defend, and from my heart I thank you for this sign of trust

Ben: lights his candle, he makes the declaration and Jin responds.

Together they light the central candle

Marcus: Today the flame of your love will burn as one, may it burn forever, warming your hearts, lightening your path, and leading you together toward the one eternal light.

SONG: “ The secret of Life” Darren and Claude

READING: Clare Goodes Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

BIBLE WALK & HOMILY: Marcus

In the tradition of Celtic Brittany the couple walk around the bible as a symbol of the journey through life. Ben and Jin may not know where the journey may lead but wherever, walking around it is a symbol that the word of god will be central to it.
(Walk couple around bible and present them with it)

Marriage and Creation story
So what view of marriage does the creation Story have us draw to attention today. In a world with many views on marriage this story calls us

Like creation
Human Marriage has a divine pattern- it is meant to be like creation in purpose, in permanence, in creativity, in totality

Far from irrelevant or a dying institution Marriage is to be a Living thing Like creation it is a precious gift of Love, entrusted
to us from a God who loves us. Like creation itself, it is a gift of love that should be respected, prioritised, nurtured, and preserved.

A wisdom saying from the ancient Hebrew Scriptures Ecclesiastees: Talks very pragmatically about the value of being 2
Love is not the basis of marriage but Marriage is the basis of Love
learn to perfect love.
Ecclesiasties the practical things of marriage
Money $$$$; no DINK couple here
keep warm
Help each other out of hard times, falls
defend each other: defend each others hopes and dreams

The writer goes on about two Then mysteriously drops in a number three. A cord of three strands is not easily broken.
The 3 motif is quite prominent here today
Whilst its unclearwhat the writer its talked about as God
Because God is a living source of Love and we need this source because for all that I said about marriage being a wonderful gift of nature like nature it is still very fragile. And for all I said about the pragmatic reasons to be married we know that it is not enough

We cant do this on our own strength. Because God is a God who goes more than half way, God says I know you cant do it alone and so he says I give you Jesus. Ben wanted me to talk about the real Jesus.
Who as a human being showed us how to live this love. Who went to weddings where miraculous things took place, Who told his followers to live life like it was a wedding feast "To party on"; Whos' vision of the perfect world was that of a wedding feast where all people, especially the poor, were invited back to the pub like we’re going to do soon.

In his death he showed us the true love of self sacrifice and the good news is that in his resurection he lives and makes that love accesible to us through faith in him and an openness to his spirit. Look out for that spirit of love is here now, its within us here as we meet and as we celebrate this arvo. Look out for it.

A triple braided cord is not easily broken. Ardian

The final word I have is that the Love that we have talked of today is more than words: Ben & Gin, After all the preparations and
celebrations of today the occasion will be over, and the time for words will be over. The Hard CovenantWork begins, but not alone. For you both, it will be time to walk the talk, to live out the love and the truth that you have experienced in Christ and bear witness to today.

I think I speak for everyone here in saying that our Love and support and prayers go with you.
Amen.

VOWS:

Jin : Benny, I love you with my whole self and come here before God, our families and friends to be one with you in marriage. All that I am I give to you and all that I have I share with you. Whatever the future holds I will love you and stand by you and strengthen you eternally. As the stars in the sky and the tides of the sea are constant and true, I pledge myself to you in faithfullness and love.

Benny: Jinny I love you with all my heart, self, mind and soul and here I share with you and outward expression of our truly unique love for each other. Before all our closest family and friends and the beautiful earth God created. Our journey together has only begun as our love for each other continues to grow stronger everyday. All that Iam and all that I have I will share with you, and as the stars in the sky and the tides in the sea are constant, with God as our witness, I pledge myself to you in faithfulness and love now and forever.

EARTH SYMBOL: Ben and Jin

hold hands and are sprinkled with earth

Marcus: Ben and Jin the earth from which you came and to which you will go is used at your wedding as a symbol of the connection between the creation and True love that brings life and sustains life eternal.

RINGS: Liam

Marcus: Holy Three, bless these rings and let them be to Ben and Gin symbols of unending love and faithfulness and of the promises thay have made to each other.

Taking Rings
JIN: My ring is a symbol of love never ending

BEN: Mine is a circle of sweet belonging

Placing rings on fingers
JIN: A Circle of love in joy and in sorrow

BEN: A circle of love today and tomorrow

Final Blessing: marcus, Ben & Jin Kneel
Recieve this blessing in the name of the Father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. May the rainbow of many colours bind you to God. May the soft winds of heaven refresh your spirit and sunshine brighten your heart. May the burdens of the day rest lightly upon you. may god enfold you in love, and may the blessing of God the Holy THree, bringing peace beyond all understanding, be with you and remain with you, and all you love, now and forever.

PRONOUNCEMENT:
marcus: Ben and Gin in this beautiful place before God, your family and friends you have sworn Solemn vows To belong to each other foevermore. Then in the name of ALmighty God I pronounce you husband and wife.

SIGNING & SONG : “Waiting on an ANgel” : Ben Harper

Prayers Victoria Goodes
Pamela Ryan
Matt and Jaala

Celtic Circle Blessing: (Congregation form circle around the couple. All say "Circle them Lord", various voices give the blessings.)

Circle them lord :
may the angels oF Heaven protect you this day and circle you with the fragrance of peace.

Circle them lord:
May Christ you Lord and loving friend protect you this
day and circle you with affection and love.

Circle them lord:
May the Spirit of Truth, who dwells in your heart, protect you this day and circle you, and fill your heart with joy.

A m e n

“ My Hapiness ” : Powderfinger

Posted by marcus at 08:28 AM | Comments (2)

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