Peace Church

This weekend in Birmingham is the first weekend of the new year of Workshop, the course for 'inclusive Christian learning in today’s diverse world.'

The first weekend is called Spirituality - living under an open heaven, and the great news is there's still time to book up!

This is what the weekend is going to look at …

I've been thinking about having an en masse weekend away in Summer 2008 for anyone anywhere who's connected up with the notion of peace church somehow - a weekend for people from all over to get together and say hello to other people in other places who're similarly walking their faith journey off the beaten track. I've talked the idea with several people here in Brum and had a generally positive response, so now it's time to ask the question to others...

Fancy meeting up with other people who're connecting with peace church in some way? Up for a weekend camping in the country somewhere, playing frisbee, barbequing anything that doesn't move quick enough? Would you be interested in coming along?

A couple of years ago we here in Birmingham had a weekend away together in the Wyre Forest. It was a great weekend, but we didn't manage to do it again either last year or this.

21 September is designated by the UN as International Peace Day. Have a look at www.peacechurch.org.uk/blog/joe/060921 and www.peaceoneday.org for more info on the day itself.

Back by popular demand (from Phoebe), we're going on our 4th pilgrimage walk to Hailes Abbey, near Cheltenham, this Sunday, 15 July 2007.

We did this pilgrimage walk before, back on 12 November 2006, but of course it was out of season and Hailes Abbey was closed. Phoebe asked if we could go back when it was open, so that's exactly what we're doing this Sunday.

Anyone is welcome to join us!

Well, there were no apparent objections to my previous proposal that we have some Lenten meditations on the theme of lament so that's just what we're going to do.

This is something that Sarah and I are keen on. There is no demand on anyone to be involved or attend anything, but we're going to do it anyway and if you'd like to be part of these evenings of meditation and reflection then you're very, very welcome.

We'll do them every Sunday evening during Lent (dates below), with the exception of this Wednesday, 21 February, Ash Wednesday, for which I'm going to upload to the website in advance a short meditation for you to download if you want to, to do in your own space, in your own time.

Each evening will start at 8.30pm and we will aim for it to be over by 9.30 pm.

So, the dates and themes for each meditation are:

Wednesday 21 February, Ash Wednesday
The Hidden Face of God
The lost language of lament
[UPDATED] Meditation notes now available for download. Click the link above to go to the download page.

Sunday 25 February
Human Tears are Older Than the Rain
Loving Kindness, Presence and Lament in the Garden of Eden
[UPDATED] Meditation notes now available for download. Click the link above to go to the download page.

Sunday 4 March
How Long, O Lord?
Songs, poems and Psalms of lament
[UPDATED] Meditation notes now available for download. Click the link above to go to the download page.

Sunday 11 March
We Have Become Orphans
Deserted, forgotten, suffering: Lamentations of loss
[UPDATED] Meditation notes now available for download. Click the link above to go to the download page.

Sunday 18 March
To a Broken God
Jesus Wept
[UPDATED] Meditation notes now available for download. Click the link above to go to the download page.

Sunday 25 March
O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
The Death of God, the Death of Dreams
[UPDATED] Meditation notes now available for download. Click the link above to go to the download page.

Sunday 1 April
My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
The God-Forsaken God
[UPDATED] Meditation notes now available for download. Click the link above to go to the download page.

Sunday 8 April, Easter Sunday
Come Lift Up Your Sorrows
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep
[UPDATED] Meditation notes now available for download. Click the link above to go to the download page.

Last night we had the second of our evenings exploring the roots and routes of Anabaptism. Previously we looked at the question 'Who were the Anabaptists?'. Last night's session was discovering some of the stories of the early Anabaptists, their lives, their impact and their deaths, frequently as martyrs.

Many of the stories are taken from Martyrs Mirror, an astonishing book that is a remembrance of the godly lives and staggering deaths of Anabaptist martyrs between 1524 and 1660 and thousands of other early Christians. Martyrs Mirror records the lives of both well known and anonymous martyrs, many of whom are merely listed as one of a number who died on a given day, nothing more.

We looked at the lives of some of the key figures in the birth and growth of Anabaptism, such as Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, Michael Sattler, my personal hero Balthasar Hübmaier, Menno Simons (who gave his name to the Mennoites) and Jacob Hutter (I would have loved to have looked at others, such as Pilgram Marpeck, Dirk Philips, Hans Denck, Jakob Ammann (who gave his name to the Amish) and more - but there's never enough time!) And we also read some of the brief summaries of the lives and deaths of less well known Anabaptist Martyrs (taken fom the From Anabaptist Seed section of the Third Way Café site).

Anyway, as before, I've uploaded to this page the PowerPoint version of the Keynote slides I used for the evening, and I've created a clickable QuickTime of the Keynote slides. And there's notes below, too.

Last night we had a Thursday evening gathering exploring the roots and routes of Anabaptism. I suggested doing this because, from time to time, I've slipped into conversation something about an Anabaptist perspective without really saying how why Anabaptism is important to me or indeed what Anabaptism really is or who the Anabaptists were and are still.

This evening was the first of three (also on 22/02/07 - 'Anabaptist Lives' - and 01/03/07 - 'Why I Am an Anabaptist'), and I thought I'd put here on the site a QuickTime and a Powerpoint of the Keynote slides I used last night. The QuickTime is an interactive movie, so you need to click on the slides to make them progress. Obviously these are only bullet points and I narrated much more detail for each slide than is presented. I'll try and put some indicators below.

A new peace church community has recently sprung up in Plymouth, UK. More precisely, they're in Eggbuckland, so if you're in the area I'm sure they'd love you to make contact.

You may like to visit their own website, www.peacechurchplymouth.moonfruit.com to find out more about them.

Here's their description of who they are and what they're about...

What are we like? We are just ordinary people who believe in living our faith in a natural way which does not involve programmes and missions but rely on authentic friendships to show Gods love to others.

JESUS
Peace Church is about being centred on Jesus: utterly committed to Jesus being the centre of our faith, not as a set of theological principles but as a living person, longing to be in harmony with the character and the person of Jesus – Jesus at the centre of our faith, our hope, our understandings, our reaching out to others, our relations with all believers, our salvation, our behaviour, our reasoning, our understanding of salvation, our politics and economics, families and communities.

So, in the light of the last post on The Hidden Face of God, I propose that our Lent meditations this year are based around the theme of lament.

Deep Memory.

Exhuberant Hope.

We're going to host a Sunday evening reflection each week through lent, with some readings from the Bible, some poetry, and some songs.

Stay posted for more details. I'll try to post any helpful materials we produce on the website, in advance of the date where possible, for you to use also if you'd like.

I've recently been reading a wonderful book by Walter Brueggemann called 'Deep Memory, Exuberant Hope: Contested Truth in a Post-Christian World'. I've never read any Brueggemann before, never had the opportunity I guess, but when a friend on the Advanced Workshop course spluttered over his coffee on hearing that I'd never read him, I thought I'd give it a go. So, I went for a Brueggemann overdose with some birthday money and got four books in one go, of which this is the first one that I've read (more from the others in due course, I'm sure).

The book is sublime, and I heartily recommend it to anyone! It's a collection of essays by Brueggemann on the theme of the meaning of Scripture in today's post-Christian society. Each essay stands alone, but there is a thread that moves through them all, that being the heart of creativity and imagination rooted in the story of Yahweh.