This video was made in 2017. It shows a range of things which have been carried out in partnership with St Johns church in Dumfries which involve visual arts.
What will you be inspired to seek out where you are?
Category: Creative Worship
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Kingdom or Earworm?
A busker sets up on the high street. Some people nod and keep walking, some pause to listen, some start dancing. Still more record and share on their phones, or go home and find some piping. Others find some string and a box, or spoons, or even click on a digital tip jar.
The music can linger in your mind like an “earworm”. There are, of course, also those who hurriedly cross the street and mutter about “proper music” or “noise polution”.
If the music is divine potential placed in the pipes waiting to be revealed, where are you in the story?
Interested? Pray about it.
Or you could read some more
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Knowing Jesus
Lent – 2021 Quartz Lent group
How can we help each other journey to Easter in these strange times?
Collectively, and in our households.
You are invited to join our Lent study group from the 17th of February to Sunday the 4th of April. We will use the “Knowing Jesus” material available online from the Jesuits in Scotland. This starts on Ash Wednesday, but our first meeting is on the Sunday.
We will be meeting as Quartz too! Every Sunday between 3 and 4 PM. This will be online at first, but if Covid precautions allow we will meet outdoors as well.
During our retreat you are invited to pray and reflect over the man Jesus as you see him in the Scriptures and allow Him to reveal God to you.
Trust what you see will be what you need to grow deeper into knowing, loving and serving God and those around you.
… more on their website
Their page has daily prayer based on a Scripture, pictures and music. You can sign up to be sent a reminder and access their guidance with ways of praying. They also have groups you could choose to join in with.
BBC radio4 are linking their Sunday Worship and Daily Worship to programmes to this course as well, under the title of “Pathways to God”
When we meet on the Sundays, we will discuss what we have learned – whether you have had the opportunity to take time to reflect daily, or if you just manage to make it to a group meeting when you can. As worshiping in and with the natural environment is important for the way Quartz practices #SensingSpirituality if you want to contribute photos, comments, or other media to the discussion each week then we will work out ways to make that possible.
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Something for Epiphany
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December 2nd Sunday Liturgy
Welcome to the 2nd Sunday creative worship service in December. It’s the 3rd Sunday in Advent! Pink Candles, St Lucia and much more!
Whether you are avoiding #Whamageddon or are a #Whamhunter please join us in taking some time out to use this at your convenience or meet us online at 3.
(No in person meeting today)
https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kebGFZBsh4
Meeting ID: 816 9536 5641
Passcode: 289878
You are not in this alone, and we have the heritage of the Church spread throughout time and space to draw on. Take time to become aware of your feelings, your thoughts, your breathing, and may the peace of God be with you.
I. Third Sunday of Advent Anticipation
V O God, make speed to save us;
R O Lord, make haste to help us.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning is now, and shall be for ever.
Amen.
II. Reading and Psalms
Luke 1 : 46b – 55 and Psalm 126
Time for Reflection Activities
Today we are remembering Mary singing a song. This song links to the words of the prophets in her tradition, and has inspired generations who follow after her.
Each person, community, generation …ethnos, takes what they value and expresses it. We also learn to sense value through immersion in this stuff of culture. If this is done with respect then the transition between generations can flow smoothly. Times of technological advance, scarcity, famine, and other crises can threaten this natural growth however and the 20th century has seen massive change.
One such change is the rise of social media. With it has come the rise in popularity of things like visual memes. Perhaps they are a bit like the hit songs of the 60’s. They help define subcultures, and people to express their thoughts and feelings. This time for reflection will help you make some of your own.
The first thing to notice is that they are never simply a picture of text. Even if they are a picture of text.
By combining text with an image (or lack of one) they attract the viewer’s attention and evoke a response. Successful memes invite you to use them to express your identity, establish your boundaries by incuding other people. To be a little provocative, but perhaps in a way which makes people laugh, then think, then laugh again.
Some memes simply state an opinion. Draw attention to what looks like a fact of life.
Other memes build on people’s experience of the type of meme to make simple statements about quite complicated issues.
Look at the passage or psalm we started with. Mull it over in the context of prayer. Talk with someone if that helps you both! Find somewhere quiet if that is your thing.
Are there any words of phrases which stand out?
Are there any pictures which come to mind or reinforce your thoughts?
Does it remind you of a good joke?
Express yourself. You could write it as a simple piece of text or a memory verse. You could add graphics or paint a picture. Using technology you could take the words and overlay them on a photo – or find a meme already in use and adapt it.
There are even resources online to help you make your own memes
(like Imageflip but look around for one which you are comfortable using, and remember to ask if you are not paying to use it – what other costs are involved?)
Finally.
Worship and prayer can happen wherever people are, at any time, and whether they are alone or with others. But Liturgy is the structured and shared worship that Christians engage in when they are together – as Jesus said, ‘where two or three are gathered in my name.’
What is Liturgy? (S.E.C. explanation)
The last year has seen many people move online for shopping, work, socialising and to maintain their relationships and community. For some it has been like moving to another country. For some, especially those under 50 it is the country they have grown up in. If meeting and sharing is core to liturgy, then having visited this ‘new online world’ by learning the skills like creating memes you have made, adapting to accommodate this form of expression, we can help grow a Church which is less ‘alien’ for many people.
Magnificat
1. My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord:
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;
2. for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant:
from this day all generations will call me blessed;
3. the Almighty has done great things for me:
and holy is his name.
4. He has mercy on those who fear him:
in every generation.
5. He has shown the strength of his arm:
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
6. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones:
and has lifted up the lowly.
7. He has filled the hungry with good things:
and the rich he has sent away empty.
8. He has come to the help of his servant Israel:
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
9. the promise he made to our fathers:
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning is now, and shall be for ever. Amen.
Silence or words
Kyrie
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Do not bring us to the time of trial
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory
are yours, now and for ever. Amen.
Collect
Stir up our prayers, Lord, and hear us:
that they who are sorrowful and suffering
may rejoice at the Advent of your only-begotten Son;
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end.
Lord God almighty, come and dispel the darkness from our hearts, that in the radiance of your brightness we may know you, the only unfading light, glorious in all eternity.
Amen.
Let us bless the Lord:
Thanks be to God!
The God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing:
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Please send in photos of your responses! :
- e-mail quartz@wordsmithcrafts.co.uk and we will collate them for display online
- Comment using the link at the top
- Get in touch or sign up to the Quartz mailing list!
And if you were wondering about the Saint Lucia reference:
https://www.facebook.com/QuartzInStJohnsDumfries/posts/3517208631702797
Creative Worship for the 3rd Sunday in Advent (the 13th of December)
Firstly, my appologies if you thought this was happening this weekend. A bit of a calendar clash – 2nd Sunday in December is the 3rd in Advent.
The texts linked to above are taken from the readings The Scottish Episcopal Church will be exploring as part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Read them in your prefered translation, if you follow the links you can read them in a multitude of translations and paraphrase though. Pray and let the Holy Spirit breathe through the looseness of language. Think critically and check your thoughts with the measuring rods of tradition and reason.
On the 2nd Sunday we will be thinking creatively and taking inspiration from the text to work out some everyday mantras. Short things to mull in your mind while you wait in a queue 2m apart from people. Prayers for putting on your mask. Habit forming phrases to help infuse your life with the flavour of God. Prayers we can work on together that will weave inner and outerwear to build Christlike minds and bodies which are ready for any apocalypse.
Please use the comments to suggest anything you find in advance. Trawl through your meme stash and see what is fitting to offer.
As usual, the liturgy for the evening will be available online – we will have a zoom link and a chance to meet in person- use the registration form.
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Beyond analogy
We live in a beautiful and fascinating world.
But what has this to do with analogy or creative worship?
If we allow ourselves time to experience wonder, and put into practice the belief that God is generous, then we can train ourselves to notice the goodness in everything.
This video uses timelapse to speed up the process of crystals forming. Where did the idea to do this come from though? Perhaps someone had to spend a day without timelapse noticing the beauty – they then became able to draw everyone’s attention to what they noticed, with the aid of timelapse.
Water is referred to a lot in the gospels. We learn to understand Jesus with an analogy of being thirsty and needing a drink. This is then developed to imagining a type of water that if you drink then you will never be thirsty again. Some people react to the experience of dissatisfaction or continuing spiritual thirst, after they have chosen Jesus, by thinking that “life giving water” is just an analogy and the reality will be encountered in full when we pass through death into eternal life.
Learning to delay gratification is an essential life skill! However, doesn’t Jesus also stress the presence of the fullness of God in life now?
If we spend time watching ripples, experiencing the way light sparkles, the different sensations of taste then we can enjoy the reality of water now. Not just so that we can write blog posts, or make better analogies, but because in living we learn to live and enjoy life.
Art, Scientific method, even suffering can then become cups that hold the living water. If we can encounter and explore reality through them, then religion, worship, can help us express and explain what we encounter as a community. If we practice the presence of God, then we learn to taste the presence of God in something as common as water. Or in the physical and chemical properties of tin.
This page is collecting poems, reflections and examples of the myriad of ways in which people express the good they see in celebration.
Check it out, send in tour thoughts….
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Harvest 2020
For the last few weeks I have been working on an online celebration of Harvest.
People would usually provide worship in the church building by filling it with a blaze of flowering beauty. This hasn’t stopped, but it is restricted this year.
So I made a digital harvest. I have been sent poems, spinning, papermaking, as well as more traditional harvest content that is food and flower related!
I have even been sent an insight into the machinery which brought in the harvest, and the wonder and joy that exploring the history of technology brings.
Some episcopal churches celebrated harvest last week. This means that I’ve been able to harvest some of their celebration and feature it too. “Though we are many, we are one body”.
You can view the finished project on the St Johns website, on social media, and here: Harvest 2020 (will open in a new tab).
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Sunday the 10th of May
Creative Worship on Sunday the 10th of May
Use the resources here in your own time. Join us online between 7 and 8 pm on Sunday evening to discuss the theme of “How can we describe a relationship with God”. We may even have some musical worship too.
How to do this will be published on the facebook page (which shows up on this page). Or Email us quartz(AT)wordsmithcrafts.co.uk to be sent an invitation by e-mail.
Resources
These resources can be used just as they are, or might help you reflect on themes which feature in the book “The Shack” and the film of the book. These are themes like: suffering, the ups and downs of a personal relationship with God, how do we imagine “The Trinity” as three persons, and one being?
They will all benefit from taking time to do them, either before or after the meetup online for a discussion, so don’t feel pressured to rush.
Reflect
Joan Osborne wrote a song called “What if God Was One of Us”. This link will take you to a YouTube video, with the lyrics listed.
Listen to the song, watch the video.
Some questions to help you reflect:
* How does thinking of God as “one of us” make you feel?
* Read Philipians ch 2 vs 1-11 and listen to the song again. If God is close, in everyday life, does this tarnish our image of God or does it elevate the ordinary as an antidote to idolatry?
Discuss
Online! with a group of us using jitsi The name of the meeting is QuartzCreativeWorship.
The song we will be using can be found on YouTube https://youtu.be/6fak-h9_o4w
Create
Art is frustrating! The process of producing works of art takes skill and effort. Your perceived lack of success, especially if you invest yourself in the process, can completely undermine your self confidence. However, to not create can be just as bad. You may appear to be successful and conform to everyone’s expectations, but at the expense of suppressing your inner being. The author of “The Shack” uses his imagination to describe his relationship with God in strong images from his culture.
Here is a guide to some activities you could use to explore and express your relationship. Or you could just play with some clay and work through the meanings in Isaiah 45 5 – 13
Learn
What does the word “Theodicy” mean? If you enjoy using your reason to wrestle with complicated thoughts and discover #SensingMeaningfulness then it’s time for some theological research.
*An introductory essay to “Theodicy” can be found here “What is Theodicy”
*A broader discussion can be found here “Theodicy – A Brief Overview”