What are you Waiting For?

words, story, music and interactive stations for Christmas alterntatives

While you Wait !

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.

Credo Cricket: The History
from www.myspace.com/credocricket

Credo is the name of Urban Seed's café in the heart of Melbourne where an open lunch is served to all comers including many who struggle with homelessness and disadvantage. Credo Cricket takes the values that have shaped this space and apply them to cricket.

"You know you're in Melbourne when you're walking through the park and you see someone kicking the footy with cricket pads on." said Viet-Aussie comedian Hung Le.

Credo Cricket began in parks and laneways around Melbourne in just such a way in 2001. People would meet "down the nets" after Credo Lunches as a way of building relationships and physically beating some of the pressures of depression and addiction which followed the then so called "heroin crisis".

The cricket match at the Credo Christmas BBQ became legendary and so in the January of 2002 we entered our first team in the Reclink Australia’s Super 8's Competition. In that first season we won the A Grade Premiership in a thrilling last over victory final on the hallowed MCG. In 2003 at the eve of the second Gulf War we repeated the feat at the Junction Oval (in retrospect perhaps they should have sent "Waugh not War" as our victory banner proclaimed!) The Super 8's continues to be a great time over Jan/Feb each year.

In 2005 we partnered with St Marks in Reclink's 25 over-a-side Clem Brigg's Jnr Memorial Cup which runs through October till December. With their close links at St. Mary's House of Welcome in Fitzroy we formed a merged team known as the Credo/St Marks Lions. Once again we triumphed in our first season with a thrilling A-Grade final win against a team from St Kilda's Sacred Heart Mission. St Marks and Sacred Heart were both foundation members of Reclink cricket in 1995 and in recognition we now play a match each season known as the Peter Ryan Cup.

Since 2005 we have played a number of games against teams comprised of our corporate supporters such as Price Waterhouse Coopers and Clayton Utz . This not only gives our team a workout but brings different people together in a fun environment.

Since this time we have also been building closer links with the Barkly Street Uniting Church Cricket Club with some of our players joining the iconic Footscray club. This has improved the cricketing ability and broadened the social circles of a number of Credo Cricketers beyond the "welfare recreation" scene and added to the diversity of the local club.

In 2007, seeking to extend the important role Credo Cricket plays in peoples lives through the winter months, we entered an Action 6+ indoor cricket team in the Action Indoor Cricket Centre competition in Footscray. Over 30 players played in over two fifteen week seasons and although we only won a handful of games, two were thrillers against much stronger opposition.

In the future we are keen to keep playing as much cricket as possible and to welcome all comers in the spirit of Credo.

• We aim to provide two cricket or team related events per week throughout the course of the next year in order to provide a reliable sense of community, access and opportunity for those whose lives are in crisis or transition.
• We are building our links with our corporate partners local cricket clubs, welfare bodies, cultural groups and cricket authorities.
• We have enjoyed making connections with Samoan friends via Praxis NZ and the “Homies and the Popz” Compton Cricket Club from LA. Perhaps one day we will get to go ‘on the road’ for a cricket tour.

The Credo Cricket story continues... pad up, you're in!

It’s good to be here in the burial place of my own ancestors. I have never lived here but I feel a strong connection to this place.

As the son of a Methodist minister with its peculiar circuit system I have lived a transient lifestyle in many places across South Australia and Victoria.

With my work these days I often move around the Basalt Plains of Western Victoria and as I do my thoughts are often drawn to this plain.

In my house we have a cross that was constructed out of some of the original timber of the church that once stood upon this site. My children call it the “family cross” and we often take it with us when we attend public functions or protests as a reminder of why we are here, where it is that we come from and the land on which my people first stood in this country .

In a world of great social and economic mobility it is hard to know where we belong anymore; to know where our roots truly are.

I am conscious of this each day as I work in Melbourne with people who are homeless, who are often the most disconnected and transient in our society. This is most evident as I sit and listen to urban indigenous people whose sense of displacement and pain seems so much greater than my own.

One of my work colleagues travelled to England for the first time recently and spoke about it as a spiritual awakening; of the power of physically being on the land that has shaped his culture, of the palpable sense of living history and becoming conscious of ones roots.

This was a mixed blessing as upon return he realised how little we know of any sense of ancient or sacred history of this place and how foreign and even at odds with the land our Australian culture remains and indeed much of our iconic battler identity is based . he was haunted by the question “Can we ever truly feel at home in this place without some form of cultural reconciliation?”

Upon return he was sharing this tension with a local indigenous leader. In a powerful moment of gracious invitation the indigenous elder looked him in the eye and said.…..”You belong here! This is your place!”

It was a reconciliation experience that gave him the focus and sense of call and connection to continue his work to build community in one of the poorest suburbs of Geelong.

As I have grown I have watched as my fathers interest has been sparked and then grown through similar travels to Cornwall and the inevitable processing that occurs on the journey home. Much of this traveling; the book that we are launching today; and I would suggest gatherings like today, involve personal, spiritual, identity work, with which many people here would identify.

I want to share briefly the importance that land and Place have had in shaping some of my own journey.

My fathers love of the stories of this place has led me to reflect upon the idea of songlines.

Myers says a truly contextual spirituality “must pay attention not only to history and social location, but to the songlines of the land,” By songlines, he refers to the Aboriginal cultural ways of seeing, describing and navigating their way through landscapes.

These are powerful stories of creation from which, and for which, Australian indigenous people believe themselves to be created. They are also often quite practical stories about how to survive, where to find water, negotiate tribal boundaries, and find shelter at different times in the land.

Another colleague of mine has just returned from a tour in Northern South Australia structured by such songlines where ancient rituals and sacred stories were told as part of the journey. She noted that the particular stories of one people group often overlapped with that of another between tribes, giving a sense of interconnection and allowing people to navigate large distances. (John Magor's hand drawn map in the back of my father's book is a highlight for me as it has many pictures from stories that occur through the book...a kind of songline may i suggest!)

Unfortunately I believe that in ‘settling’ or seeking to make this place their spiritual home our pioneering parents often transplanted songs from another place (the hymns of Charles Wesley spring to mind) at the expense of listening and knowing the stories or songlines already here.

One view of our pioneering forebears is of religiously zealous, pioneer farmers armed with the protestant work ethic and a vision of political and religious freedom who built the city of churches which has formed the basis for today’s prosperity.

An alternative view that I am struck with as I stand in what is now a car park where our pioneers church once stood, and as I look at the many decaying chapels, dotted over the denuded and drought stricken landscape is one of our forebears as, economic and religious refugees. A profoundly dislocated and desperate people who sought to recreate an ideal of home that belonged to another place. So desperate in fact that we imposed our songs on the landscape and its people with an often unconscious violence.

Whether we ascribe to a black or white arm band view of Australia’s history. (Personally I think mine is grey!) The question that each of us must ask of our ourselves, our spirituality, our church traditions and structures, our land and economics is. What is that can truly take root in this country? What is it that is truly sustainable?

The Australian spirituality writer David Tacey suggests that Western and European spirituality is associated with 'ideas' and is accessed through the ‘head’. Such ways of seeing imply that Aussie culture a secular rejection of such ways. Tacey suggests we are spiritual but that the unique Southern landscape calls us to experience spirituality from the ‘feet’ up, arising in stillness and silence from the land itself.

Far from a trendy new age concept such ideas can be found in the best parts of the Christian heritage. Land is also sacred in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Land forms the core part of the covenant promises to the ancestors as a connection point through the generations. The religious laws of Torah provides that place, opportunity and freedom that comes from land may be extended to all not co-opted by a few. Adelaide based Theologian Norman Habel has written on the ways in which the earth itself is seen as a character, an active participant which has its own voice thoughout the biblical story.

Highlighting similar biblical songlines (eg. Isaiah 42), Ched Myers sees the task of contextualisation as “to reclaim symbols of redemption that are indigenous to the bioregion in which the church dwells. To remember the stories of the people of the land and to sing anew its old songs. These can be woven together with the symbols, stories and songs of our own traditions.” He suggests that this will necessarily be a local and personal exercise.

I personally believe that the roots of Methodist Revival in Cornwall which have so shaped the spirituality of the place on which we stand can be traced back to an earlier Celtic spiritual tradition. Andy Philips, the founder of the recently establish Celtic Christian community of St Peran suggests that for Celtic monks, a rooted-ness in the land was essential for spiritual wholeness. There was deep reverence for certain places which were considered holy or sacred, even if, (perhaps especially if) seen as such by pagan traditions before the coming of Christianity. The Celts described Thin Places; where heaven and earth seemed closer.

I’m not sure if any of us experience Burton as a thin place? The Celtic monks often worshiped outdoors in the extremes of nature and I can sense some of that same spirit is here today. (100 people sitting in a car park /cemetery, 35 degree day, hot northerly wind!) The contemporary resurgence of interest in Celtic spirituality is in part because it is a non institutional spiritual tradition, which has a sensitivity to environment and other cultures not found in much modern Christianity.

My late uncle in law from Yorkshire was a dear friend of mine and wrote in the cover of a book about Celtic saints which I treasure…… “From one dreamtime to another”.

Another idea that has helped my journey is that of the spirits of the ancestors of a place which I acknowledged at the outset. Jung suggests 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.

Whilst the Methodism of our forebears has no doctrine of reincarnation or ancestral spirits, David 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. Ched Myers makes connections between local Aboriginal ‘spirits of place’ and the great ‘cloud of witnesses’ spoken of in Hebrews 12:1.

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 says Tacey.

Myers observes these changes in his own life using the metaphor of the parable about the ways of God being like the germination of a seed that is sown in the earth. A seed which has a life of its own.

“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. The nights and days of my life have passed and the seed has grown, ‘I know not how’ (Mark 4:27; 1994 p.368, emphasis his).

My father writes in the book we are launching today….

“While we will never pioneer the land again. Our culture and way of life will not survive on memorabilia of the past.” That is not what this gathering is about…”When it comes to making and shaping our identity… every generation is called to make its choices and set its priorities.”

I believe this place, the land itself, needs to be our guide in creating this identity. I am not naïve about the difficulty of this process. The authors I have quoted are contested in the culture wars of our day. One must avoid the temptation of superficially synthesizing or consuming romantic ideas. Whilst not easy, this process calls for the same pioneering courage and determination exhibited by those that have gone before us. This is why we are drawn here today. This is the spiritual work for our generation.

The land has a power transcends our denominational, religious, cultural or political differences.

When this weeks round of tax cuts have come and gone, long after the latest homes that now surround us, or the contemporary religious buildings be they supermarkets or mega-churches are rubble, long after our own bodies have gone, the land will remain. The love that created it and that remains in it will call its inhabitants to make a place, to listen and learn its stories, its songs of love and of lament and to live wisely.

As we gather today we are not alone but we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses; the spirits of our pioneering mothers and fathers, and those of the ancient dreaming.
They bear witness to this moment and our choices. Amen.

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...

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.

(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)

‘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)

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.

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)

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.....

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....

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.

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.

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!

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”...

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