mootblog

Sorry - made me laugh....

2007-09-11T13:07:00.001+01:00

sorry it made me laugh - from asbojesus

For those interested in Emerging/Fresh Expressions of Church

2007-09-10T10:20:00.000+01:00

Just so people know, I am participating in this London Methodist initiative to promote Emerging/Fresh Expressions at a vision day in Methodist Central Hall this Saturday. Click on the pic to be able to read the details.

You can book in advance by e-mailing admin@methodistlondon.org.uk and the day costs £15.

Revd Dr Martyn Atkins is a well known theologian and speaker who has done some thinking around the emerging church. I think there are still spaces left so do come along if this interests you.

I didn't know it - but there is a Fresh Expressions community at Methodist Central Hall, just round the corner from Moot. I don't know why we are so disconnected in London - but it just shows how fragmented things are in the Capital City....

A letter to my family back home

2007-09-07T21:44:00.000+01:00

This is a piece of fiction by Bart Wolffe, reflecting the sense of displacement felt by the Zimbabwean diaspora. Also a reflection changing values, and the nature of life in 21st century London. Click the link in the title box to view his online store.

I write to you, my dear family, to tell you how it is for me now, after some years in England. At first, I used to sit on a bench and watch people walk by. I thought I had lost my skin. My head felt sick. I could not recognise a single bird or tree. I stopped to sleep at night. It is better now. As the river flows in Africa, sluggish, slow, I know my blood’s arterial pulse. Serene, beneath the sun, once. Now comes this roaring tide, the Tube, or the traffic of Marleybone Road, a language shouting against my centre, displacing the settled stone I am who sits at the river bottom, so hard to stay still when everything pushes me like a pebble in the flood. It erodes, and with it, the cost of Freedom’s survival, so hard to find the spaces in between where I can dream the languor, the poet and the peace. I have dances of Babylon instead, the thousand heads about me of faces and places, signs and times that are not home. People listen to football every night or shout in places where coins and beer are exchanged without measure! Liverpool, you will be glad to hear, are doing well. Did you get the T-shirt I sent you? You remember, Baba Mukuru, how the children could never get any paper too play with or write on. How paper was for the rich and we used to save the cigarette boxes for schoolwork. Well, here, they push forests through your door, each day, all talking about money. Brightly coloured as the shops in Camden market, or the fruit stalls at Mbare Msika before the Government bulldozed them.

It is the god of money who is king in England. True, they have a queen, but the King is the pound sterling. You should know from the Western Union transfers that keeps the family alive back home. What did you say one pound was worth last time we spoke? Was it 5 million Zimbabwe dollars. I forget and it’s hard to keep pace with your inflation back home. I shall celebrate the sacrifice of safety. The cost of this Brave New World is debt, begging and fear for the need to pay, to sit and drink a cup of kindness has tax attached, no open fallow lie of land unless I declare myself as homeless and join the addicts in Euston Square by the station like Platform 5 in Harare or Porta farm’s squatter camps of plastic and make-shift love affairs and AIDS, so some other kind of measure comes in place that forces me to be acceptable.

Are my papers in order or must I hide beneath the curtain of the close circuit television cameras and duck away from the scrutiny of Big Brother in the fame hungry whirlwind of a land where Mr Nobody is never safe. You look different, even to yourself when you look in the mirror. You try to remember who you are. My libido does not work anymore. Perhaps I need some Mazondo and herbs from the nanga or witchdoctor back home. Or some Viagra , maybe? Who knows. - .I think it’s a result of the diluted sunshine and lack of maize porridge and okra that grandmother cooked with peanut butter and pumpkin leaf too. We have Mcdonalds here.

Unlike in Harare, you have the right to remain silent. In fact, people never ask you anything. You even have the right to say Mugabe is an idiot. But you can never go home. So this is how it is, my friends; from fear of the one kind of stasi, the Central Intelligence Organisation to fear of the debt collectors and the fact that no longer is there a family to support you or talk with, you barter yourself.

Pray to the unknown gods of the Lotto who never answer. Put your head in at the betting shops and find what the German government calls the “Arbeitlos”, or here those on benefits, as long as you are legitimate or English, the acceptable unemployed and dispossessed. So, you want a loan. OK – fine, you want to start a new life. Your credit rating? What is that? How many cows do you own? - No. It means, brother, you bank balance, your mortgages, your property and your higher income in the reaches of the upper echelons you will never know. Ever heard of Whitehall. Being black, it is not the place for you, I guess. A bit like a white boy from Africa in ZANU PF Headquarters. It doesn’t exist unless for interrogation. But no-one asks you anything anyway. In fact, everybody in Golders Green looks down at their shoes as they walk on the pavement, not at the sky or the horizon of which there is none, and on the Tube from Leicester Square, only the tourists really laugh and talk. They give you papers to hide your face behind, free newspapers, can you imagine, Aunt of mine? Everyone can have a paper of their own, every day. Not one that is passed around secretly a hundred times like a rare copy of The Zimbabwean in Highfield to try and stay informed. Everywhere, people cover their faces with someone famous on the front page rather than show their own image.

I’m sure, my sister, you would have noticed. Perhaps you would have also noticed the best time to buy buns is about half-past four in Tesco or Sommerfield when the yellow labels of the reduced prices come down to 20p. You can even find the 20p on the street if you walk along for a few hours as people throw away their bad luck sometimes for the poor to collect. Mostly, the gutter coins are pennies but sometimes you get lucky. At least we have our daily bread, unlike in Zimbabwe where the millers have been bankrupted by the price control measures of the Mugabe government and the lack of supply of wheat for baking in our agricultural land of non-productive farming where so many army generals and ministers of the ruling party may sit and survey the tranquil scenery at sunset without the need to grow food for the masses.

Public transport is really good here and the workers are even allowed to strike and then, of course, it is not so good to try and keep your job and get to work on time, especially if you are cleaning for more than one household in different areas on the same day, no questions asked, no tax, no papers or national ID necessary as an asylum seeker maybe, but anyway, at least as I was saying, the workers are the moving parts of this machine called London. They keep moving but never sit in their castles like Buckingham palace because they will never own such a thing nor any space between dwellings as is the case back home in Africa.

We have wall-to-wall people here. No room for snakes . No thorn trees either. No sounds of crickets at night or frogs or fruit bats or nightjars or owls. No Mujanje trees to steal fruit from, although apples may be found hanging over the wall of someone from a different class.

The pace of peace? I guess it’s a question of forgetting who you were once and moving on. After all, my dear ancestors, I will never return to the land that rejected me in the first place.

A pity I can’t win the Lotto. I would like to be as rich as Mugabe also. Or any of the other fat cats and chefs like Mbeki and the rest of the AU ministers who meet for breakfast.

Samuel Bartley's Education Panel Review 30th October - Inclusive Social Justice

2007-09-07T13:35:00.001+01:00

Thanks to everyone who has donated money, offered their services and support of Samuel and the Bartley family.

Jonathan asked me to convey the thanks of the family.

They are now gearing up for the panel hearing - there is still time to donate financial contributions to the £3K the family have had to raise to fight the tribunal hearing.

If you still want to donate - send to Ian at St Matthews made payable to Jonathan Bartley.

Otherwise lets keep praying and supporting Samuel and his family at this difficult time.

To see a copy of the report the national paper click here

Blogged with Flock

Thomas Merton Quotes - Pt. 3

2007-09-07T06:12:00.000+01:00

This quote is interesting in that Merton wrote it in 1961: Around the time of the Vietnam war/end of the Korean War. However, its astounding how pertinent it is to today's situation:

"It is not only our hatred of others that is dangerous but also and above all our hatred of ourselves: particularly that hatred of ourselves which is too deep and too powerful to be consciously faced. For it is this which makes us see our own evil in others, and unable to see it in ourselves.

When we see crime in others, we try to correct it by destroying them or at least putting them out of sight. It is easy to identify the sin with the sinner when he is someone other than our own self. In ourselves, it is the other way round; we see the sin, but we have great difficulty in shouldering the responsibility for it. We find it very hard to identify our will and our own malice. On the contrary, we naturally tend to interpret our immoral act as an involuntary mistake, or as the malice of a spirit in us that is other than ourself. Yet at the same time we are fully aware that others do not make this convenient distinction for us. The acts that have been done by us are, in their eyes, "our' acts and they hold us fully responsible.

What is more, we tend unconsciously to ease ourselves still more of the burden of guilt that is in us, by passing it on to somebody else. When I have done wrong, and have excused myself by attributing the wrong to another who is unaccountably "in me," my conscience is not yet satisfied... The temptation is, then, to account for my fault by seeing an equivalent amount of evil in someone else. Hence I minimise my owns sins and compensate for doing so by exaggerating the faults of others.

As if this were not enough, we make the situation much worse by artificially intensifying our sense of evil, and by increasing our propensity to feel guilt even for things which are not in themselves wrong. In all these ways we build up such an obsession with evil, both in ourselves and in others, that we waste all our mental energy trying to account for this evil, to punish it, excuse it, or to get rid of it in any way we can. We drive ourselves mad with our preoccupation, and in the end there is no outlet left, but violence. We have to destroy something or someone. By that time, we have created for ourselves a suitable enemy, a scapegoat in whom we have invested all the evil in the world. He is the cause of every wrong. He is the fomenter of all conflict. If he can only be destroyed, conflict will cease, evil will be done with, there will be no more war.

This fictional thinking is especially dangerous when it is supported by a whole elaborate pseudo-scientific structure of myths, like those which Marxists have adopted as their ersatz for their religion. But it is certainly no less dangerous when it operates in the vague, fluid, confused and unprincipled opportunism which substitutes in the West for religion, for philosophy and even for mature thought."

technorati tags:moot, community, trappist, thomas merton, catholic, christian, kentucky, new seeds of contemplation, contemplative, monk

Wrath & Patience - Sins & Virtues

2007-09-05T10:33:00.000+01:00

This month we continue with our theme of Deadly Sins and Spiritual Virtues, with the theme of wrath and patience.

We will reflect on these themes for the month - in services and discussions.

Remember, we shift from Tuesdays to Wednesday evenings.

So see you then.

For a full list of the events for this terms click here

Thomas Merton Quotes - Pt. 2

2007-09-05T07:24:00.000+01:00

This is the second in a series of quotes I'm posting from Thomas Merton's "New Seeds of Contemplation", possibly his best work. (First quote is below). This quote, when I read it, was so incisive, it really doesn't need any exposition from me:

"Mere living in the midst of others does not guarantee that we live in communion with them, or even in communication with them. Who has less to the communicate than the mass-man? Very often it is the solitary who has the most to say; not that he uses many words, but what he says is new, substantial, unique. It is his own. Even though he says very little, he has something to communicate, something personal which he is able to share with others. He has something real to give, because he himself is real.

Where people live huddled together without true communication, there seems to be sharing, and a more genuine communion. But this is not communion, only immersion in the general meaninglessness of countless slogans and clichés repeated over and over again so that in the end one listens without hearing and responds without thinking. The constant din of empty words and machine noises, the endless booming of loudspeakers end by making true communication and true communion almost impossible. Each individual in the mass is insulated by thick layers of insensibility. He doesn't care, he doesn't hear, he doesn't think. He doesn't act, he is pushed. He doesn't talk, he produces conventional sounds when stimulated by the appropriate noises. He does not think, he secretes clichés.

Mere living alone does not isolate a person, mere living together does not bring one into communion. The common life can either make one more of a person or less of a person, depending whether it is truly common life or merely life in a crowd. To live in communion, in genuine dialogue with others is absolutely necessary if one is to remain human. But to live in the midst of others, sharing nothing with them but the common noise and general distraction, isolates a person in the worst way, separates a person from others and from one's true self."

technorati tags:moot, community, trappist, thomas merton, catholic, christian, kentucky, new seeds of contemplation, contemplative, monk

Thomas Merton

2007-09-03T08:40:00.000+01:00

I have recently been reading "New Seeds of Contemplation" by Thomas Merton.

It's a great book, full of depth, at times quite complicated. However, some of the quotes have been so obviously powerful to me, I thought it would be good to share some of them with you in a short series.

Here's the first, to kick-start your week:

"Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny. We are free beings and children of God. This means to say that we should not passively exist, but actively participate in His creative freedom, in our own lives, and in the lives of others by choosing the truth. To put it better, we are even called to share with God the work of creating the truth of our identity. We can evade this responsibility by playing with masks, and this pleases us because it can appear at times to be a free and creative way of living. It is quite easy, it seems, to please everyone. But in the long run, the cost and sorrow come very high. To work out our identity in God, which the Bible calls "working out our salvation," is a labour that requires sacrifice and anguish, risk and many tears. It demands close attention to reality at every moment, and great fidelity to God, as God reveals Godsself, obscurely, in the mystery of each new situation."

Have a good week.

technorati tags:moot, community, trappist, thomas merton, catholic, christian, kentucky, new seeds of contemplation, contemplative, monk

Commissioned Trinitarian Ikon for the Moot Community

2007-08-31T12:11:00.000+01:00

Some have asked what is happening regarding the commissioning of a Trinitarian Ikon for Moot. Pleased to say it is coming along well - and we will seek to get it blessed and used in services once it is finished. To see an update of what is happening - click here
There is an image of what it is at present, and it looks great.

SILENCE by Shasaku Endo

2007-08-31T11:27:00.001+01:00

Having been Inspired by the premier performance of his composition on the same novel, James MacMillan has caused me to finally read Silence by Shusaku Endo.

A reluctant and unresolved Japanese Catholic, Endo tells the story of two seventeenth-century missionaries attempting to shore up the oppressed Japanese Christian movement. Father Rodrigues has come to Japan to find the truth behind unthinkable rumours that his famous teacher Ferreira has renounced his faith. But after his arrival he discovers that the only way to help the brutally persecuted Christians may be to apostatize himself.

Following in a similar vain to Graham Greene’s stunning ’Power and Glory’, this novel is a profound and moving meditation on the Silence of G-d in the face of extreme persecution. It explores the deeper motivations of self-preservation, faith, martyrdom and sacrifice. It raises questions about the motivations of priesthood and challenges squarely the nature of G-d, unearthing the divine as far more mysterious, intriguing, and beguiling than any comforted western mind could comprehend.

This novel, although not trying to ‘do theology’ inevitably reveals the challenges of living out faith in a distinctly different culture, and how the whole notion of faith expression are resolved. To use Endo’s repeated analogy - how does the Sapling of a Hellenistic Christianity survive in the swamp of Japan, with a totally different worldview?

This is a particularly pertinent question, (although obviously different context), for the emerging church. It ultimately asks the same questions about the evolution, or re-storying, of faith for a new cultural milieu.

Intriguingly too, (following a bit of historical research), I was fascinated by the true story of this brutally oppressed church in Japan. And how, after centuries of being underground, many small pockets of ‘Kakure Kirishitan’, (HiddenChristians), finally emerged with a faith far different from an orthodox understanding. They still practice a hidden religion where all symbol and ritual is disguised, and where liturgies now contain a mix of Latin, Portugese, Japanese and made-up words that no-one understands. The faith represents a syncretism of Christian, Buddhist, Shinto and Animist thinking. It’s a poignant and moving situation to think that the desire to retain a faith of integrity in the midst of such persecution has caused the emergence of something quite different from where it began.

It’s an excellent book – unflinching and honest… and it’s uniquely ‘other’ perspective on a weakened and broken Christ is challenging, humbling and profound.

Up and Coming

2007-08-30T09:12:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone!

We're all ready and raring to go post-Greenbelt. Here's but just a brief reminder of how the next week will pan out.

Sunday 2nd September. 6.30pm Our first event of the term will be a nice simple compline in the Lady Chapel at St. Matthew's, Westminster. This will be lead by Greg, one of the new pastoral assistants - a chance to meet and get to know him, and a good way to ease yourself into the new week.

Next up - The Community Meeting (pictured) on 5th September. 7pm

This will be quite a biggie, as we set the tone for next few months in the run up to the end of the year. The community meeting is open to all, and commences at 7pm in St. Matthew's , Westminster. If you're new to the group, and keen to get stuck in and involved, then you're our ideal person! You will be most welcome. If you feel that you want a bit more time to get used to the group, and a community planning meeting is a bit full-on, we understand, and we'll see you after that at the next service proper on the 9th September.

Agenda for the Community meeting on the 5th September is here. Wiki-users have until tomorrow at 5pm to submit items, when it will then be tidied up and circulated for everyone to pray over.

Programme for the new term is here.

See you all soon!

Moot at Greenbelt 2007

2007-08-28T21:55:00.001+01:00

So, Greenbelt has come and gone for another year. We hope our blog readers all enjoyed it as much as moot did, and particularly hope that you enjoyed our service.

Big "thank-you"s go to everyone who helped set up the service.

Big thanks to those who helped by volunteering with the café, too - names too numerous to mention. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! We couldn't have done without your chirpy smiles, and willingness. If you're ever in London, do drop in to see us, we'd love to catch up.

I've uploaded the video that we made for prayers at the end of our service. Doubtless, other videos and photos will follow from other mooters...

Powerlessness and the fascinations of fundamentalism

2007-08-21T22:55:00.000+01:00

Wise beyond all words,
Light beyond all light,
Joy beyond all joy
Ache beyond all aching.

G-d inspires the smallest and the largest moment of life in a single instant that lasts an eternity’s blushing kiss.

Beyond you there is only more of you. Within you there is still the fullness of you. We whirl and dance, held in your thrall. You are everything to us and yet so beyond our knowing. You are no-thing to us and in your no-thing-ness you remind us of the hopes and fears, the limits and frustrations of the human place in creation.

Blinded and yet seeing, we are yours forever. And you are ours. Your life is our life. Our knowledge is your knowledge, your time is our life, and our lives are your gift.

Moot Activities Sept-Dec 07

2007-08-21T17:06:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the delay in posting up our plans for Sept-Dec 07. A term sheet has been given out at the Leavers Agape meal, and the new term will go up onto the website at the beginning of September. We still need volunteers for services - Mooters see the wiki site, but here rthe starting things for you to put in your diaries....

Sun Sept 2nd - There is a Moot Compline at 7pm - which will be led by Greg, one of the new St Matthews Pastoral Assistants.

Weds 5th Sept - Now on Weds - Moot Community Meeting - 7.30pm in the Moot Tower Room, this will be chaired by Mike. This is an opportunity for the Moot community to catch up and also to plans stuff.

Sun 9th Sept - Moot Little Service - St Matthews Westminster 6.30pm for 67pm in St Matthews Church

Update on the Mobster

2007-08-20T10:29:00.000+01:00

Pleased to say been to hospital again - and am now allowed to go to Greenbelt as long as I don't rough it - so I am being a lightweight and staying in a B&B hotel. Sorry - but the Dr was very keen for me not to do the tent thing. So tests show that I am still ill - but much better - so I am going to go but not go mad - and look after myself somewhat. So - hooraahh I am coming - although wont be fully myself.

best of...

2007-08-17T19:18:00.000+01:00

Well the time is nearly here for me to say goodbye London living, after nearly ten years in the big smoke Cambridge beckons. So I thought after all that time I would compile my little 'best of' London.

Feel free to agee/disagree or add your own 'best of London' in the comments...

best place to live...
the Southbank - its central, and I can get to see all my friends in about 20 minutes :-)

best pub...
Its a close call between the Jerusalem Tavern and The Dovetail

best bar...
LAB for great cocktails in the heart of Soho.

best restaurant...
Arbutus for a posh night out (although if you go for their pre theatre menu its incredible value). Satsumas for great value Japanese noodles and sushi - way better than Wagamamas.

best club...
Got to be the the Turnmills on a saturday night back in the day - well 2001-4. I still remember when Fatboy slim DJ'd and I had invited down several of my more conservative Christian friends, he started with "Fayboy slim is fucking in heaven" and they all just stood there refusing to dance to such scandalous lyrics whilst the crowd went mad... That and the Chemical Brothers when I danced on the bar with a few other crazy people :-)

best coffee shop (for coffee)...
Well you'll all know who this is - Monmouth it has to be, and preferably the single seater in Convent Garden reading the paper on a dreary Saturday morning.

best coffee shop (for ambience)...
Well its obviously the scooter café. Nuff said.

best walk...
From Tower Bridge to Waterloo along the Southbank at any time between 12-2am. Great views, fab lighting, no traffic, mad people, and plenty of music filling the air from the buskers. I still remember coming back from the dawn Easter Mass at St Matthew's at just gone 6am and hearing a lady playing Michael W Smiths Agnus Dei on the piano - surreal.

best park...
Greenwich for the amazing views over London, and its location next to the Thames. Also where Phillipa and I had our first date - aahhhh.

best hidden getaway...
Little Venice - tonic in the form of canal walks and space for a nice picnic - helps to get the big smoke out of your head.

best gallery...
Ummm hard one - either the Tate Modern (well with the Turbine hall its hard to beat) or the White Cube. Although when they used the Battersea Power Station for an exhibition on China it was amazing.

best cinema...
The Electric Cinema in Notting Hill for more left field stuff - or the Vue at the Greenwich O2, screen 9. It's the largest screen in Europe, sitting half way back you still have to move you head from side to side. Good for that big budget hollywood sort of film but it isn't going to be showing much else.

Well thats all I can think of so please add you own...

Unwell Mobster

2007-08-15T18:39:00.001+01:00

Just wanted Mooters to know that since around the time of moving into my flat a couple of weeks ago - I became unwell and had to start taking some nasty medication. To make matters worse on Monday I became violently allergic to this medication - and have had 4 serious anaphalaxis moments - which I will spare you the details - but are severe life threatening events. I have had to therefore stop everything to do with work - as my body is under severe stress. It is probable at the moment - that I will not be allowed to go to Greenbelt - my Doc at the moment is dead against this unless I make considerable recovery by Monday. If I do go - I am told I am not allowed to tent - and need to at least be in a B&B as my body will not cope.

So Mooters I would value your prayers & leading group - could do with you sorting the services and activities for next term on the wiki & Moot Greenbelt team - you may need to count me out of it. I am very sorry - but there is not much i can do about this...... Ian

Moot Evanglise:Me Western Marble Arch Synagogue

2007-08-14T23:09:00.001+01:00

Its now a little time since members of the Moot Community visited the Western Marble Arch Synagogue, and we haven't really had an opportunity to discuss our reflections regarding how it impacted us - going to a pretty Conservative and Zionist Orthodox Synagogue - challenged my own faith and also about the connections and differences between Judaism and Christianity. So people who were there - please do add your comments and reflections.

Ian's thoughts....
There is much I could say on the positive side which has stayed with me since we attended.
Firstly - that in Judaism - there is no original sin - just the acceptance that badness and evil exist in the universe - but this cannot seperate us from the love of God unless we choose this to be so. I like this idea a lot - and have always struggled with the doctrine of original sin. So Judaism does not say that God's salvific purposes are prevented by an overly redemptive understanding of the role of Christ. The second really important thing for me - was a small note in the prayer book recently updated by the Chief Rabbi in the United Kingdom. It said - that though Judaism believed in the one true God following the great Shemah prayer. This same God had three distinct attributes of being and I quote "Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer". So if this is true to Judaism - then the whole Trintarian Christian understanding does authentically find its roots in Judaism.

The main things that troubled me were around the Zionism. The readings of the day were all about genocide and clearing the land in an original form of ethnic clensing justified for religious purposes. It was tough to hear these readings. But what worried me most was the connection made in the sermon between these readings and the plight of the West Bank and Gaza. The Rabbi really did say the land was Israel's, and that the texts were used to justify bad treatment of 'terrorists'. As a Christian I found this difficult to hear let alone accept. As Christians we must remember that there are Palestinian Christians and sorts of other ethnicities who are really suffering under economic and political oppression - which must not be watered down. So I came away blessed by most of what we had interacted with - except the readings and the sermon

Anthony H Wilson

2007-08-13T12:02:00.001+01:00

There are a few famous people (very few) in life that, whenever I know that they are going to be on TV, or publish something, I make a special effort to see or hear them, because what they have to say is always funny, fascinating and thought-provoking.

This morning on the radio I heard the sad news that one of those people, Tony Wilson, died last Friday.

For those of you who don't know, he was a Manchester-based entreprenuer responsible for the likes of Joy Division/New Order, the Haçienda nightclub, and Factory Records.

The film "24 Hour Party People" was made about his life starring Steve Coogan.

Excerpts from his last interview are here.

Perichoresis - The Divine Dance of God

2007-08-13T08:01:00.000+01:00

Heads bowing, hands sharing, hearts racing
Feet poised suspended in the support of the other.
Holy Three yet one, laugh, cry, celebrate and lament their co-creativity.

Time burst out as the by-product of a hurling helix
of mystical presence
swaying through the dance.
Life and all things became real
Out of the dynamic of joy and love expressed in movement.

The Creator led the dance from sumation to incarnation,
The Redeemer led the dance from incarnation to Pentecost
The Companion leads the dance now from the time of the church
to the consumation.
But Holy dance,
don't slow down,
don't wait on us inattentive humanity.

Free us Holy Three in one to learn the dance
Teach us to be free from our selfishness and greed
Let us relearn how to dance spiritually
And be a blessing to the Cosmos
And be the spiritual community
The dancing God calls us to be
Amen

By Ian Mobsby

Congratulations to Trine & Martin

2007-08-13T07:15:00.001+01:00

Congrats to Trine and Martin who are now married. A number of us Mooters came across the North Sea to be in Jutland for the wedding. Carey and Phillipa led the prayers and Ian assisted Carsten, Trine's friend and presiding Lutheran Minister in the wedding. Ian gave the homily - not normally part of Danish wedding custom. The service was a fusion of Danish and English elements. The reception was most definately according to Danish custom - many stories to be told!! Sim, Fiona and Stan did there first family air trip - Sim and Fiona were definately the most stylish Mooters present. Sorry to Graham and Bethan that you could not be there last minute - as Tellula had a fever - great shame. Mike, Gareth and Ian took pics which are on flickr - and added to the Moot shared pictures - see link on the left bar of this blog.

Gareth, Phillipa, Mike, Carey, Ivy and I stayed on for a week in an idyllic summer house by the sea. Loved it. First holiday I have had a for a while - it is nice to feel human!!

Moot Agape Leavers Service July 2007

2007-07-30T16:48:00.000+01:00

It is with great sadness that we in Moot loose Kat, Pete, Phillipa, Gareth and Jonathan of our community to train in the Church of England in Oxford and Cambridge as they leave London from September. We couldn't let the moment pass without giving out some trainee dog collars with leads for their partners to keep them in control. In case you are getting confused - Sara going out with Dan is ASSISTING Jonathan only fit the important new symbolism of his role. Thanks for the photos from Lisa Martell. Add yours below if you have more!! Click on pics to see the detail!

For a copy of the liturgy see here:
a%20liturgy%20of%20leaving%5B1%5D.doc

Gareth, Kat, Philippa, Jonathan

2007-07-29T23:37:00.001+01:00

A short video clip from tonight's service..

Benny Hill Vs Eminem With out Me

2007-07-28T09:58:00.001+01:00

For amusement only.

There is a tradition of bootlegging here in the UK - mixing unusual things together for amusement.

This one is a mix of "Without Me" by Eminem, with the theme tune to Benny Hill.

Watch it and cry with laughter.

Moot Needs You

2007-07-25T08:48:00.000+01:00

!! MOOT NEEDS YOU !!

From Sept to Dec 07 - we need volunteers for involvement in our Small, Big, Scream and Eucharist Services....

See our wiki - of where we need people here

Otherwise please contact/speak to the following about getting involved....

Small & Big Services - James & Trine
Scream Services - Carey
Eucharist Services - Ian