Best for Manchester Awards/Notions

I was up visiting a friend in Manchester last week, and killing some time in the PopCafe (eating a delicious veggie burger), and picked up a couple of the myriad of flyers for gigs and arts events around the city. I liked the design (with quotes in different colours interlaced with one another), and one of them seemed to have a vaguely Christian spin, which I thought was interesting, so I clung onto them.

When I got home, I thought I'd check out what the significance of the flyers was, so I grabbed one of them, and typed the title "Best for Manchester Notions 09" into Google. It was only at this point that I realised that the flyer had none of the information that you'd expect - no website, no venue, nothing. In fact, it seemed to have little to do with the other flyer at all.

I found myself looking at this blog entry, which kindly informed me that yes, indeed it was a spoof. Curse my eyes for not seeing this sooner! No one seemed to kno0w anything about it. Sanctus1 didn't claim responsibility, but wished they could. Eventually I found that the artist had fessed up, and provided a little information to the spoofee (?) "The Best of Manchester Awards", here.

Turns out the artist is interested in "anti-advertising", buying billboard space only to fill with not-advertising, thus giving people a break from the constant bombardment of 'Buy This!' or whatever. And, seemingly with a Christian(ish) message. It seems to chime beautifully with the subversive, counter cultural spirit of the gospel, which we often lose track of.

So, in the comments section, if you please, does anyone have any thoughts on challenging ways of presenting this faith of ours? The other day, I was moved by the sheer ambition of Phillipe Petit in "Man on Wire" - he smuggled a wire up to the top of the World Trade Centre, strung it between the two, and tightrope walked between them just because he though it would be an act of beauty. What acts of beauty can we commit?

The Medium is the Message

"All we ask is that you do it regularly (every day potentially) and do it mindfully / being open to encountering God through the activity. This is your act of worship, as it were. It might be helpful to keep some form of record of what you've done - either a journal or photographs or some notes/doodles."

Thanks to everyone who made it to Ambient Wonder on Sunday. There were plenty of new faces, some of whom had travelled a fair old distance, and it was lovely to meet together and share our experiences of the last few weeks, whilst barbecuing between rainstorms.

For those of you who weren't able to make it, the evening centred around the activities that people had been doing over the last few weeks. We charged everyone on the mailing list with a challenge, to be done in the spirit of the above quote. This was everything from 'create an image' to 'treat someone like it's their birthday'.

As we discussed how people had got on with their tasks, there was a really tangible sense that God had been speaking through the activities. Here are a few examples...

Tim had been asked to fast. And in a spirit of creativity, chose to forgo his early morning Sudoku routine. Instead, he read a passage from the Bible, and wrote a poem reflecting on it. If you'd like to read what he came up with, all 18(!) of the poems can be read here.

Heather, meanwhile, was coming up with an image over the course of a few weeks, and created the masterpiece shown above...

And finally, Ali wasn't able to make it to AW this week, but just to show that she had been taking part in the task of 'Silence', she posted about it on her blog, here.

If you have any thoughts or comments, or reflections on your own experiences, we'd love to hear them - comment below!

Prayer for Ambient Wonder

On Sunday evening we reviewed the past term's events and prayed about where we've come from and where we're feading. Here are the scribbles, prayers and thoughts we wrote down,in no particular order:

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Very good that AW has moved out into bigger spaces of St Stephens and St Luke's main worship events. Good to continue to find opportunities to move out of St Augustine's Sunday evening slot.

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Thankful for this great space to be in (physically in the hall and the wider church that gives permission and freedom)

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AW has enlarged my life - my experience of God, my relationships with others and has increased my reach as a person.

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Drawing disparate people together.

Giving voice to the frustrations and longings of many.

Trying - even when we fail.

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Community.

Mission.

Challenge.

Going beyond only being a group twice a month

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Thanks:- God enabled us to do new stuff -> experimented, taken some risks (e.g. St Stephen's, Greenbelt, Diocesan Music Day.

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Thanks:

- we've seen people encounter God's kingdom

- we've seen people become more integrated

- people who wouldn't otherwise have come, stayed and created church

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What would it be like to explore our common life together, other than through running events?

Could we explore an Ambient Wonder 'way of life'?

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Allow us to help each other get to the place of the 'Unknown' - don't let us forget that you made it possible, make all things possible.

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Steps to other places, places we have never thought of, places we are scared to go, places we don't know will be there, places You want us to go to.

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Let your breath fill our sails and move us in the direction You envisage for us.

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HOW - let us be inspired

WHO - help us to be inclusive

WHAT - keep our creativity wild

WHY - keep our motivation pure

Help us to know what is in your heart for others.

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Father God, I pray that you will lay us open, cut us open and place your desires in us, help us to cry with your eyes and let our hearts ache. Then fill us with your creativity....

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We need to go down as well as up

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Creativity flows and our Creator God flows through us.

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giving away power is liberating and makes more space for our sould

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The Tallis scholars music links us so much with the past - looking forward is difficult - we can't see a clear path - it is scary and yet exciting

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I pray that we will find freedom and grace in AW, and not burden and frustration

I pray that we will challenge ourselves others and our own expectation

I pray that AW will draw many or at least a few really close.

I pray that truth will be self-evident in what we do.

In the name of Christ, Amen.

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exciting to be moving out of words. Experiment with silence, colour and simplest music and movement. To be wordless, music should be without words.

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May children find their place

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Somewhere where the scales drop from people's eyes and they see our wonderful glorious God, for the first time.

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Make us community (as we are tonight)

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Let us be the door through which people come to meet You and You show yourself to us

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The beauty of You

the glory of You

The Ambient Wonder of You!

You are an amazing God and I thank you for the touch of your hand on AW.

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Out of chaos comes a beautiful You.

Help us not to loop past You. Keep us fixed on You. Sometimes smooth, sometimes scratchily but always making a mark.

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Grace

opening up

surrender --finding a path

/ \

my ideas my ego

narrow view fitting in

the journey's to the centre....

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Kenosis ? Apophatic - Cataphatic. How link?

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May AW be something that shapes the whole of our lives

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A theme: WORKING TOGETHER. Everyone who comes is involved in making something as a community effort e.g. a joint painting

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To see God as You are. Revelation.

(Christ Sight drawing)

To see the world, our time, lives, purpose, place as You see them.

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Encounters without resistance (drawing)

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A theme: LIGHT

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A place to respect the past but look to the modern - EXIST IN THE NOW (the only place we can ever be)

Meet, recognise and be moved by Jesus in our time, our place, our culture.

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So I wonder if we could continue to pray and continue the conversation? How about it?

Ambient Wonder @ St Stephen's

So, as anyone who finds themselves in this corner of the internet is likely to know, Ambient Wonder held an event on Thursday evening in St. Stephen's Church, Norwich. Now, for the uninitiated (should you be reading this) it is probably worth explaining that St Stephen's is a church more or less situated slap bang in the middle of the newest biggest shopping centre in Norwich (Chapelfield). In fact, it only just occurred to me that this may well be the Chapel after which the area is named. Seems obvious now... Also, it is worth noting, it was the penultimate late-night shopping opportunity before Christmas. It was busy. And very, very cold.

Anyway, for us Ambient Wonder peoples, this was kind of a Big Deal. Partly because someone was letting us loose in their beautiful old church... and partly because it was treading into the unknown, with our not-very-specific brand of worship experience. Not even a brand really. Just a bunch of things.

So we set up shop, supervised by some intrigued/baffled/terrified members of the church. The focus was on advent, and the significance of the build up and anticipation of Christmas. Anna and Neil had prepared a reflective prayer area, Tim had produced some beautifully thought-provoking poetry, and I had come up with a bunch of pictures thieved from around the internet that we projected onto a huge screen. And Debbie was dishing out free hot chocolate.

We had produced 'gifts' to pass to those that took an interest - small baubles made out of folded paper, each with a blessing written on the inside. We'd spent Sunday evening making tons of the things (an experience at once frustrating and uniting...), and the plan was to stand by the doors thrusting them into the hands of people as they charged into the church intent upon seeking enlightenment.

As it happened, there wasn't a surge. There was barely even a trickle. Heather dived into the throng of people, determined to draw attention to our event (since she started training to be a vicar, her sense of self-preservation seems to have diminished), whilst Paul, Ian and I wandered in a dazed state, wondering how to engage with the multitudes rushing past on their way to gather carrier bags from as many department stores as possible.

Eventually (for the long version, read my next post), we did start to get the interest of the odd-passer by, and a gentle flow of people into the church. Mostly there for the free hot-chocolate. But inside, with us, part of Ambient Wonder nonetheless. As we reached the final moments of packing away, a group of lads arrived in the Church, expecting to take advantage of our refreshments. Sadly, we had nothing to offer them, other than the meditation cards we had prepared and failed to distribute. They looked confused but grateful... (actually, the cards had the website address on them, so if you're reading, Hi Guys!).

We had barely given away any of the baubles. But we had prayed the blessings. We had experienced making them together. We had gone out and tried... something. And perhaps, as with Christmas, the significance was in the preparation.

Scruffy Edge

Sorry about the tedious delay between posts. Perhaps I will get the next one up sooner.

However, this is something I've been thinking of - we quite often talk about things being 'cutting edge' or (better still) 'bleeding edge'... and I certainly see that there's something wonderful and inspiring about things that are are the very forefront of their field. But somehow, this doesn't really seem to fit with my understanding of the things that we do at Ambient Wonder, or the wider world of the Emerging Church.

For a start, Cutting Edge suggests something refined, defined, clear and deliberate - cutting in one direction, and absolutely focussed on a single point with a single purpose. And I suppose that many Christians might say that this sums up what our faith should be. But in terms of how we function as a community it seems a little bit too... prescriptive? In my experience, movement forward in a creative community is (and should be) a little bit more all over the place than that. It's kind of, unpredictable, nuanced, experimental, and (here and there) wrong. People have ideas, other people contribute, and we end up with something that is somewhere ahead of where we were before.

So perhaps we're more 'scruffy edge' than 'cutting edge'. We are cutting something, but in our own, wartsandall, ramshackle, makeitupasyougoalong kind of way. It seems to be a little how the early Church functioned. Perhaps I just wanted to coin a new phrase. Your Thoughts?

Global Gathering and all that...

First off, welcome to the new and fresh 'Wondering' blog. Here's a space where the thoughts, ideas and reflections whizzing around inside the collective brains (and hearts) of the Ambient Wonder community can find a voice. A space where can deepen our understanding of God, and over time (I hope) a space for questions, response, discussion, collaboration, maybe even healthy debate.

So here's a good place to start. At the 'Global' Ambient Wonder last night, we explored what practices we could take from other faiths, and still remain true to our central Christian beliefs. It was always going to be challenging to our established ideas of 'in' and 'out'. Although we didn't want to alienate people, we perhaps wanted them to become a little uncomfortable as they pushed at the edges of their faith.

The thing that struck me most from the evening was a conversation with Anna afterwards (I hope she doesn't mind me mentioning this!), whi had curated the event. She noted that even though she had thought through the ritual of applying bindis to one another's foreheads (in acknowledgement of the presence of God within that person), her background and upbringing made her uncomfortable with it, and she was unable to participate.

My equivalent discomfort (and one shared by others I have met) is perhaps with purchasing items on a Sunday. Although my personal interpretation of the 5th commandment does not mean I have a problem with popping to the shops on the Sabbath, years of being brought up in a good Christian household have given me a slight unease even when using a vending machine on the day of rest (now i know how Pharisees felt...). Perhaps this is a good thing - I actualyl acknowledge the significance of the day, despite my heathen buying habits...

So, the item for discussion, I suppose, is what are those things that make you uneasy... that you sense are counter to your faith. And do you have a rationale for this discomfort, or is it in spite of yourself? Maybe you're uncertain. Thoughts, please!