Quartz at St Johns DumfriesThese posts are submitted by the Quartz community
A story of St Francis
Have you seen this film? I was introduced to it recently and thought it was beautiful in so many ways.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0069824/
It is an artists impression of a life rather than a historians, but for more information about his life you could start here:
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-francis-of-assisi/
After all the hustle and bustle of the Scottish festive season as currently experienced, there is a lull while the weather is still cold and the chill mists still cling.
So here is a post from another blog that I thought might be relevant! A picture and a poem (and a reading as well if you prefer).
Join us for a #SensingSpirituality walk starting at 1pm outside St Johns Church in Dumfries. We will walk along the river until we meet up with the sight of fish warming over coals by the water.
OR
Gather opposite Lincluden Abbey on the beach from 1.30 There is a car park at the end of the Nunholm road, then walk downstream.
Read more here:
RSPV
This came in from Kate.
Have you ever read “The Vision” poem? Here is an opportunity:
What inspires you?
Does anything worry you?
Write, draw, sing, or dance your response!
The theme for the 6pm service last Sunday was forgiveness (12th of Feb).
Kate talked about the woman who poured perfume on Jesus feet, and the issues of shame, guilt, forgiveness, and Love which that story involves. It is often too easy to focus on a simple dynamic of a judge giving forgiveness to someone who confesses that they were wrong. We don’t know the details of the life of this woman, but the story of her prophetic act has spread throughout the world through the ages. Much like the scent of the perfume would have lingered in the house to remind the proud host of his need for forgiveness. The kingdom of heaven is close, and might smell more like freshly baked bread served with kindness that the most lavish religious ceremony in the land.
Then as a creative response people were given three options.
They could look at the newspapers, and pick something that stood out in need of prayer. By cutting it out and sticking it to a board they could intercede for forgiveness and healing to be shown.
Going deeper into the news stories they could cut the words of the story up and re-edit them into a prayer. Perhaps a lament for something wrong in the world, or to highlight awareness of good news by rewriting the article. The finished cards looked like ransom notes! A reminder that our ransom is paid.
The third response offered was for people to use sticky letters and stamps to make a card to keep or give. These cards had messages to remind ourselves, or others, that we are forgiven. Perhaps that is a better thing to wake up to than BBC headlines on your phone!
Contemporary services are held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays in the month at 6pm on St Johns. Please come and experience a blend of guitar led worship, prayer, bible readings, and a reflection on them that usually has opportunities for a creative response.
Remember that this Sunday will be the third in the Month. We will be meeting outside the Crichton memorial church at 2pm. More details will be posted on this site soon!
Selected by human rather than algorithm, here is a memory of what was going on in Quartz three or four years ago! I wonder what is quietly germinating in the ground this winter ready to burst out in the next three of four years!
Are you drawn towards these things? Set aside some time to reflect on them in this talk.
The new testament collection of books is a record of the working out in practice of the idea that when religious institutions are silent or distracted, God is still moving and inspiring. Or perhaps at this time of year, Jesus would say that the harvest is plentiful but those who work at harvesting are too few. *
Why is that in our place and time? I love history and heritage, but compare the ceremonies that accompanied the olympics in London or the commonwealth games in Glasgow with how the church of England presented itself at the Queens funeral. There was evidence of spiritual growth keeping pace with history unfolding, but it was hidden behind King James’s translations and victorian showmanship that Monty Python ineffectually satirised when I was a child.
Do you love God’s earth? While we sing harvest hymns, people are gluing themselves to things as an act of passive resistance protesting against the systematic exploitation of the environment by the privileged few.
Do you have a heart for the lost? Some church elders and vestries are still discussing the moral appropriateness of what consenting, committed, adults call marriage. Meanwhile hate mail is being pushed through LGBT+ letter boxes and community groups are sewing blankets to keep pensioners warm in beds left cold by politicians wedded to profiteering from carbon fuels.
Whilst church congregations are striving to preserve their experience of comfort and normality, artists, social entrepreneurs, and those who live in the fringes, are seeking radical creative solutions.
Our christian tradition spans centuries of change. We have access to the heritage of recording God at work, creating, that reaches back even further into pre history. This should be fertile soil to nourish the roots of creative solutions. What is preventing people from taking root?
Do you recognise the prophesy, healing, and freedom from captivity in my introductory list?
In what ways are you working as the invisible church, and where do you see God’s spirit at work outside the building s and communities we call church?
Do you want the congregation you come from to grow, or to see “The kingdom come” through new language, practices, and in places foreign to you?
What does an invisible harvest look like?
*(Various reasons for the current scarcity of workers in UK fields have been proposed: the consequence of farmers betraying locals by employing cheap international labour, persecution of traveller communities, Brexit blocking European migration for work, locals unwilling to work long hours for low pay, cheap imports of fruit by supermarkets from places with less protection for workers – meanwhile the fruit rots in the fields while people queue at food banks).
Words
Drawing out
Bringing awareness and form
To the beauty which lies within.
Photos of books made by Alison Fair-Bixler
A quick look at the Labyrinth we made for the recent St Johns Dumfries Teddy Bear festival.
As part of the much larger gathering of teddy bears, Quartz contributed some hanging platforms and a labyrinth. The Labyrinth offered time for reflection – and in the centre a colloquoy of Cathbad’s (some more bear-like that others) discussed deep issues.
Here are some pictures of the whole event.
