Category: Fresh Expressions

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Arts Forest Church Lent 2022

Forest Church, Easter Sunday

This is a bit overdue! Here is a wee film to reflect on from our Easter Sunday Gathering.

Several aspects of the new Wordsmith Crafts C.I.C. overlapped this Easter Sunday.

Quartz was the lead project (#SensingSpirituality). We have been meeting as Forest Church for over a year now.

Cluaran (living breathing heritage) skills were used to tell the story of Jesus meeting his disciples on the beach and eating some fish with them, after he had risen from the dead. There was something special about informally gathering where the water meets the earth, smelling the fire, eating the food together, and retelling the old stories.

The Studio (Heritage crafts) held all the equipment and skills we needed to make it happen. Look out for more interesting things this year – although we need a dedicated film crew to catch all the action!

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Forest Church Fresh Expressions Thought of the Day

May!

It’s been a busy start to May.

There was a full weekend at Allanton. We were working with Cluaran and many others using heritage crafts, storytelling, and the experience of fire to help people find peace. On the Sunday we prayed for peace worldwide, and joined with people worldwide via the internet.

There was a lot of packing, unpacking, and sorting too, of course.

A wee snapshot! More to follow…

Today I’ve been working on some “Calling Cards” for the St Johns contemporary service. We will be thinking about vocation. This has a specific meaning in the church setting, but is also an experience that shapes human being in general.

Something to keep in your phone case to remind you…

The Quartz Christian Life Community will meet again on Monday evening. So if you found the Lent group helpful this is a chance to continue the habit of meeting together. Everyone is welcome!

Keep an eye out for forest church, the teddy bear festival, and other developments as the summer opens up before us.

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Creative Worship Forest Church Fresh Expressions Lent 2022 Outerweave

Easter Sunday

As the culmination of our Lent journey we invite you to join us to cook fish by the water, and meet the risen Christ.

This is the start of a journey as well as the end of one. We have chosen this place to meet partly because of the connection some of the group have with Lincluden Abbey, and also out of sensitivity to the preservation of information buried in the soil. This means that we are meeting on the other side of the river where our fire will not disturb the scheduled monument.

To what extent did the disciples know what to expect when they left those times they met Jesus on a beach and ate fish with him? They would have many memories to fall back one – several of which involved eating bread and fish! But also the filling of their hunger for #SensingSpirituality . They had seen the dead raised back to life, blind people able to see, and also the quickening of downtrodden women and slaves in ways which humbled the authorities (and scared them) .

They had walked through towns and villages doing these things. Feeling the good news flow through their fingers.

When we meet we remember the history of what has happened. Reenact the events to re-member abstract thought in physical experience – both smokey taste and spiritual reality. We also have the opportunity to prepare for and dream up our path for the coming year.

All are welcome!

17th April – Easter Sunday BBQ – meet outside St Johns at 2pm to walk along the riverside to a beach opposite Lincluden Abbey – or 2.45 meet at the Nunholm car park. (Bring things to BBQ) We will have fire.

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Forest Church

Tree Trail

As Quartz Forest Church we are spending a year exploring the Chrichton Estate in Dumfries. For many of us, even though we live in Dumfries, the grounds around the university are not a familiar place.

We started in autumn, and are seeing signs of spring now. We have also been meeting some of the other people who inhabit this space. Some are ‘residents’ like the veterans garden, others passing through and walking their dogs.

An important theme in forest church is getting to know the natural environment. Which is why this trail in particular looks interesting.

Click to view The trail website

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Fresh Expressions Lent 2022

Where to next?

In the Quartz lent group we have been thinking about the wilderness and testing our experiences.

Where are you on this diagram though? Or perhaps more importantly, where would you like to be ?

As we near the end of our lenten journey it is time to consider where we are going next.

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Arts Creative Worship Fresh Expressions

Hear me, Smith of the Heavens

This beauty has been created by a band called Árstíðir

It’s title is “Heyr himna smiður” Which can be translated as “Hear me Smith of the Heavens”. More info on it can be found here.

I’m posting it here in order to use it as part of a discussion about pioneer ministry on Saturday. In some moments I am reminded that if humans were silent the stones would sing the good news of their creation – smithing.

Listening to this is one of those moments.

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Angel Cloud Forest Church Outerweave

Forest Church at Allanton

We held the March Forest Church meeting at Allanton Peace Sanctuary. This was part of one of the eight seasonal festivals they are planning for this year. These festivals recognise the changing seasons in what is sometimes called the wheel of the year.

We had a particular focus on peace in Ukraine and Russia, but also were very aware of all the conflict taking place worldwide. We pray for peace in all continents and between all people.

Angel Cloud

You can find out more about Allanton here

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Forest Church Fresh Expressions

Praying for Peace

Forest Church 20/3/2022

It is our custom to meet as Forest Church on the third Sunday in the Month. We have chosen to meet on the Crichton estate for a whole year, so that we can get to know it and experience the changes in the seasons.

However, this particular Sunday we have chosen to accept an invitation to meet at Allanton Peace Sanctuary. They are observing the cycle of seasons in the year as well, with gatherings at the eight traditional points. From the earliest times humans, whether Jewish or the early church, or those who create their own thing from day to day, humans have noticed the change in seasons and chosen to use this to explore spiritual change. Reconnecting with this is a desire we share as Forest Church. We also share a desire for peace and a willingness to pray for it, as well as a belief that prayer changes things.

There will be a blended online and physical component to the day.

Walkabout

 2.50 in Peace Pole Henge

 3.00 people can join in online (e-mail Quartz for the link)

Explanation of what we are doing

We will pray for each continent, then hold a special meditation for Russia and Ukraine, at the Peace Poles for each country, sending our light and love to the  greater pool of consciousness, available to each and every one of us.

Paper Angels:  Simon –  tells the story behind the folding of the The Angel Cloud

Invitation to continue discussion over tea and cake, and folding your own Angel

Simon will invite the Forest Church and anyone else to participate in closing blessing.

You can find Allanton at this address

Allanton Peace Sanctuary
Auldgirth
Dumfries, DG2 0RY
Scotland, UK

Go to Google Maps

This post is not the place for detailed discussions about authenticity, dating and etymology – but for those who are interested: Connections between Church “Easter” and “Ostera” can be traced back to Bede in 8th century Northumbria, and like many topics from that era has undergone much new study in the last century, much of which has yet to become common knowledge. There is a brief introduction here, and deeper discussion is available in other places online.

In what ways can we draw on the heritage we have inherited, and use it to create a peaceful future for all?

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Fresh Expressions Lent 2022

Dare to dream

 What do you dare to dream, but doubt the wisdom of trying?

What are the wild dreams of your youth? Perhaps you remember with nostalgia the idea of becoming a rock star, or going on pilgrimage to proclaim the Word of God on street corners.

It is said that vertigo is both/and the fear of falling, and the desire to jump.

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
    and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Matthew 4: 5-7

Learning discernment is a very appropriate task for lent. Part of discernment is becoming aware of your desires. Without winter, how would we become aware of the joy of the spring which is budding around me as I write this. Fasting reminds us of the joy of eating. What about sensing the hunger for the things which make life worth living though?

This evening our task is to become aware of the desires, ambitions, and (perhaps crazy) dreams that lie dormant within us. Which of them are genuine outpourings of faith, and which of them dare God to prove our vision of reality?

Jesus chose not to jump off the temple, but he did walk on water. He also turned water into copious quantities of wine. How was he able to know which to do, and what can we learn from him? We often think of the story from the perspective of the disciples and our need to be saved. However, we are also called to be imitators of Christ…

If you are able to meet up this evening (Monday the 14th of March) then I look forward to discussing dreams. Even if you are reading this from another time and place, please take the opportunity to use the comments as a place to write them down. Dream in the daytime and in public.

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Forest Church

20th Feb Forest Church

I bind unto myself today the hardy resilience of Scots in storm swept straths.

We started by sharing the peace of Christ outside the Crichton chapel as usual. Then, as the flooding river was topmost in our minds we followed it down to watch the tide.

A sculpture returned to the earth
Foliage sculpted in stone
The Nith at the Shoogly Bridge
Watching the wind

We also read two sections from St Patricks breastplate, but in a new arrangement which brought new insights.

I bind unto myself today

I bind unto myself today

The virtues of the starlit heaven

The power of God to hold and lead

The glorious suns life giving ray

His eye to watch his might to stay

The whiteness of the moon at even

His ear to hearken to my need

The flashing of the lightning free

The wisdom of my God to teach

The whirling tempestuous shocks

His hand to guide his shield to ward

The stable solid earth, the deep salt sea

The word of God to give me speech

Around the old eternal rocks.

His heavenly host to be my guard

And by then the flooding had gone down and there was blue sky. We said the Grace together and went on, having harvested the raw material of reality to smith new spiritual mantles.