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!
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Category: Fresh Expressions
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FC feb 23
This Sunday we were blown further afield than usual by the wind. We revisited the wood on the crag behind the Crichton. The wind had a slight chill to it, laden with water, but the sun shone on us giving moments of warmth.
We look at the Horizon but it isn’t there, not really, it is just the furthest we can see. We know that there is something beyond it, and sometimes this mixture of knowing and not knowing is what draws us on beyond our present experience.
As usual we enjoyed a mixture of silent appreciation, discussion, and shared thoughts.
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February Forest Church
#SensingSpirituality outdoors
We will be meeting up as Forest Church this Sunday.
We meet outside the Crichton chapel at 2pm. We will greet each other in Christs peace, then take some time out to explore and practice #SensingSpirituality.
Please dress according to the weather, bring a folding chair if you are worried about standing up for too long. The Crichton isn’t a physically challenging landscape, and we usually end up sharing a snack and a drink together in the central cafe afterwards.
This Sunday will be a relaxed and informal event, but those who have taken part regularly have found the rythm of meeting and actively developing a spiritual discipline very helpful. This year we will also focus on a few big events, starting with Easter.
See you on Sunday, or get in touch for more details!
How the digital world can help us worship
at 6pm on Sunday the 29th of January we will be gathering in St Johns to use digital technology to worship together, and also explore ways in which access to the digital world can help us live out the Missio Dei, the mission of God.
In the beginning…
One of the first ways I experimented with using the internet as a place to develop ways of being digital church, about sixteen years ago, can be found here https://www.wordsmithcrafts.co.uk/cyberculdee/cyberpilgrim1.html
I was living in a farmhouse without a car and several hours walk outside town, but with broadband I could keep in touch with what was happening on the other side of the Atlantic. I just had to switch on my PC and I opened a door to a space where I could learn, pray, and be challenged and inspired. Here is one of the videos from that first pilgrimage into the online world.
The online world has developed considerably since then, and people who were born on the day I made that webpage are now sixteen and adults in Scots law. They have grown up in a world where having an online digital presence is more normal than reading newspapers and where they often communicate with their peers through digital media more frequently than in person.
Can anything good come from the internet?
As people realised that Covid was not something that would be over by Christmas they changed from hunkering down to shelter in a blizzard and started to adapt to prolonged lockdown. For many this opened their eyes to ways in which digital technology could provide ways to overcome the isolation of lockdown, and perhaps grudgingly at first they learned.
It will take a while to understand the impact of those years. This article describes a sequence of adapting to enable people who were isolated by lockdown, extending practices to involve them, and starts to ask questions about how the new normal might disrupt previous assumptions. This one explores similar issues at greater depth and lists some of the challenges to traditional church structures as a result of what was deemed possible and beneficial.
For those comfortable with digital resident behaviour when worshiping lockdown might have been a very positive experience. Prevented from the ability to attend a place they were geographically committed to, they found online spaces to gather and participate with others as Church.
Online spaces like this have existed for a long time, but congregations were swift to adopt video conferencing technology to provide a range of solutions. They used a mixture of interactive gatherings, live transmissions, and pre-recorded liturgies presented at a set time for people to participate in together from their own homes.
St Johns primarily used a combination of webpage and zoom coffee to adapt the 11 O’clock service. As Quartz we used a mixture of online and blended activities, and developed our use of technology to the form you are experiencing today.
A quick taster of what to expect…
Musical worship
We will be using Spotify to sing together. The karaoke setting provides lyrics and a playlist can be pre-selected or made collaborative from the app on peoples smart phones. This is a more social way to use the app than just using it to create a soundscape like the Candlemass one below.
Meditative prayer
Several members of the Quartz team use the “Pray as you Go” app. This is a chance to talk about that.
Intercession
Reading
The SEC gospel reading for the day can be found on the SEC digital calendar which can be viewed on a browser, or downloaded to the calendar app you use on your phone.
Or you could read it in many different translations at Bible Gateway Mark 1:21-28
and if you want to read, and be guided in contemplating the passage, here is something provided by the Jesuits in Ireland
https://www.sacredspace.ie/content/mark-121-28
What do you recommend?
Please bring your ideas, and any examples of ways in which access to the internet has helped you.
Digital Divide
We recognise, and understand, that if you have been working all week in front of a screen you might not want to spend your Sunday evening doing the same! The evening is a chance to meet in person, and converse.
A digital divide exists as well. In Scotland we have a high level of access to digital technology, but lockdown showed that there are rural families who rely on a satellite, and families where all the children needed to share the same device to access school. Please take a moment to look at these projects which work to improve access to appropriate technologies.
Digital Participation in Scotland
https://digitalparticipation.scot/
For further research and thought about this topic
Access to theology and worldwide academic research
To what extent can digital Church be Gods instrument for mission, or will those who engage with the divine online remain a marginalised community? This paper discusses online pilgrimage and some of the issues.
An introduction to another academic paper. I’ve not requested the paper yet, but it sounds interesting!
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…with prayer
The view from the Crichton QFC on January the 15th, 2023
It had been a drich few days before we met. Record flooding levels in Dumfries saw businesses washed out, some perhaps beyond their ability to recover. I wasn’t sure if some of our proposed activities (follow the link to see the plan) would work out.
However, we were greeted by a clear sky. It is the winter so the weather was brisk, but when you stand in the sun you are warm. Once we had gathered, we moved to a place where we could look through the trees and over the Solway.
One of the things which stood out was the Alder tree. More about Alder here. We moved between activity together as a group and individual exploration. Each of us found space to pray and time to share what we discovered to build up the group as a whole.
We eventually gravitated towards the central café. It is warm enough now to sit outside in the veranda, to share refreshment together and and watch as the sun sets.
Sunset is often used to communicate romantic situations. There is a fire there which warms us. What happens when you step beyond the romance though, and find the secret fire? Will it burn hot enough to carry you into places where you stand out to hold back the floods, and at what cost?
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#SensingMystery
Experiences of awe, wonder and mystery about the natural world. Often also sensed when contemplating human achievement and for some divinity.
Galloway Hoard. Balmaghie. Castle Douglas, Dumfries.
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Praying with…
Meet outside Crichton chapel at 2pm on January the 15th, 2023
“Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I’d do. I’d go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I’d look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I’d just feel a prayer.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
There are many ways to pray, and prayer is inspired in many forms. This Sunday we will meet up outdoors and in the company of the trees, birds, and growing things we will explore praying with them. Before I describe the plan for meeting on Sunday in more detail, and especially for those reading this online who will be unable to join us, I have this YouTube clip.
The Hymn is Icelandic, and as one who smiths it particularly resonates with me. Whether surrounded by the green, or industry in a railway station, or in a building built to glorify the Divine, I suspect that the beginning of inheriting the richness of prayer is to stop and sense a changed quality of awareness.
If the above link doesn’t work, try this one.
The plan for Sunday the 15th
Peace
We meet in Jesus name. Whether you consider yourself a close friend or are just curious, we meet in Christs peace. Peace be with you.
Share a sign of peace
Reading the text
“At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place. Listen, listen to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. Under the whole heaven he lets it loose, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings[a] when his voice is heard. God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth’; and the shower of rain, his heavy shower of rain, serves as a sign on everyone’s hand, so that all whom he has made may know it.[b]
Then the animals go into their lairs and remain in their dens. From its chamber comes the whirlwind and cold from the scattering winds. By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. They turn round and round by his guidance to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen …
Job 37 1- 13 NRSV
7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because[a] the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister abides in the light, and in such a person[b] there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates a brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.
1 John 2:7-11
Invocation
Trees drink through deep roots and hidden networks, then cast their seeds widely on the wind and to the ground. We slow down in winter, and tend to burrow in warm places. Even the cold frost plays it’s part in bringing about a release from dormancy though when the time is right for seeds to germinate*.
With the firmness of the trees and the trust of creatures, we look to you, Creator of life, to sustain and keep us.
Reading Creation
Today we are focusing on prayer. Try working with one of the following, or listen and respond as you feel led.
Simply take a moment to stand and sense, and be aware of sensing.
Start by becoming aware of your feet on the ground, the air surrounding you and the wind in your hair.
Listen.
Allow your awareness to stretch out to the furthest thing you can hear, or see.
Then draw your attention back slowly to your body and what surrounds it.
What were you aware of, what response does this invite?
Find a tree to stand next to, or lean against. Contemplate the ways in which trees draw nutrients up from the ground and produce leaves, and transform CO2 with light into chemical energy and water. This then allows roots to grow.
As you lean on the tree with your feet on earth and your head in heaven, what are you inspired to “Carry up” to heaven? What does your heart desire to bring down into earth?
Take time to intercede, aware of both the bitter and the sweet.
Look for signs of nourishment and growth
Great Light, we are aware of the darkness of this season, but we are also aware the the natural light will increase from here on. Help us to walk in your ways so that we can play our p[art in righteous living, as you work within us to increase the light to its full brightness. Amen
David Cole, The Celtic Year, p39
Explore the broken things which surround you.
We are surrounded by temporary things, and even human creations that impress us by their antiquity are fleeting moments in geological terms. But even broken things bring new life.
Stone broken from bedrock become buildings, organic matter rots down to enrich the soil.
Creator of light and life, you stepped into the world as one of us. your incarnation made you physically one with the world which you created. Through your humanity and divinity you reconciled all creation back to you. May I live a life which reflects this understanding of total reconciliation. Amen
David Cole, The Celtic Year, p37
Gather
We gather together again. Perhaps a song, or chant, will be relevant. If anyone has been inspired with something that will be of benefit to the gathering, this is a time to share it.
Grace
May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.
Now and evermore,
Amen
Coffee and cake, or alternative …
We often end up at the central café (occasionally we have a picnic or use a Kelly kettle instead). This is an opportunity to share refreshment and chat about our experiences.
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QFC
Quartz Forest Church, December 2022
It has been a busy, and traumatic, time for some in Quartz, so this forest church is going to take it easy. It might even become a “cafe church” where we can work on more mirrors for the “Christmas Light” installation. We will enjoy the wonderful surroundings of the estate though, perhaps in the snow!
The meeting point is still the Crichton chapel, but if you miss us – look for the Crichton central cafe!
Phase 1 of “Christmas Light” is installed in the St Johns building. It uses the light in the building to explore the way in which the contributors recieved light and become lights in the world. Their contributions shape that which was already there adding to something bigger than themselves. The building is usually open between 10.30 and 4 if you are able to drop in and experience it.
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Midwinter
We are choosing to work in relationship with the natural environment when we meet as Forest Church. We are taking a chilled out approach to this though. This means that our midwinter meeting is on a Sunday close to the solstice but not the day of it.
We will meet outside the Crichton chapel as usual. We have started exploring using words from liturgy which draws directly on the earliest church practice in these islands – often called “Celtic Christianity”.
Have you ever taken time to think about the way in which Christianity holds in tension the importance of history down to the details of where a baby is born and the cosmic awesomeness of a God who created and sustains all things in being?
This attention to detail and physical reality emerges time and time again as cultures go through a “Celtic Revival” that delights in locality, a sense of place, and meaningfulness connected with nature. (perhaps seen in books like Carmena Gadelica)
During the Golden age of Celtic Christianity brilliant minds pursued obscure truths and mysteries that academics of all era have struggled to grapple with though. Take for example the poetic work of “The Altus Prosator” where St Columba grapples with the concepts of Trinity and the cosmic order of things.
So on the 18th we will make an effort to become mindful of the moments we live in. We will also remember the connection we have with the creator of the cosmos who calls us out of our present to meet in eternity. Hopefully we will respond to the call of Wisdom as she stands at the highest point along the way where the paths meet.
It makes me smile when I think that one of the things which early Christians in these isles are remembered for is illuminated manuscripts. The grin gets broader when I compare the ready appreciation of this art with the slowness with which “youthwork for adults” has been accepted in many worshiping communities. The Manga gospels seem to be tolerated to try and ‘hook’ the youth and draw them in, but the acceptance of contemporary arts is slow.
Even in those congregations where the arts are an integral part of Sunday worship this tends to gravitate towards a particular congregation and their niche culture. Something has driven a wedge between the Church and the wider community and this has been driven deeper during my lifetime. To some I suspect this feels like the country (or union of countries!) is slipping away from church control into paganism. To many in my generation however we watch as despite our best efforts the institution seems slow to adapt and to cling to the mindset that underlies colonialism as well as economics that de-humanise people and will consume our environment.
Why is this relevant to the arts? Those who positively identify with the term pagan are often the leaders in environmental action. Back in the 80’s and 90’s they were building car henges. Drawing on the deep prehistoric past to express ethical idignation through contemporary art with the prophetic style of an old testament prophet. Not everyone is called to participate in such works of prophetic art, but has innovation been relegated to youthwork with the false expectation that people will grow out of it when they become adults?
Whilst a wild meadow of flourishing spirituality is blooming in many small gestures of artistic expression outside church meetings, inside we have a culture struggling to come to terms with digital projector screens let alone the theological implications of shifting from a clockwork understanding of spacetime to one which involves quantum uncertainty and the ‘spooky effect’.
So, I grin when someone thinks that a manga gospel is a new idea. They were too little, too late, and inexpertly executed, but a valuable attempt. After all, the shape that the light of the gospel took for centuries before printing presses was in the glorious colours of illuminated manuscripts. Experimenting with the best technology available, to variable levels of achievement. The church can provide #SensingSpirituality and #sensingmeaningfulness but it will need to escape the vice of the recent past to inherit awareness of the dynamic eternal truth. Like all living organisms it will need to seek out and undergo change in order to preserve its substance.
If we can do this in our Christian communities, and can embrace creative acts like the fusion of illumination from the late iron age combined with manga, then we make the way smooth and open new paths for exploration. Not using art functionally as a hook to lure the unwashed in, but as a celebration of the Way flourishing in fields we did not sow. Then perhaps the wedge will disappear, although what our gatherings will look like is unknown. In the C8th monasteries what did they imagine worship would look like now?
More of this artists work can be seen on the Scribal Styles website