Orchestra Unwrapped

Theres more excitement and noise than you'd expect then as the lights dim they cheer eagerly as the musicians enter.. Its not the usually audiance in DMH nor the welcome for a orchrister. Today that welcomed Philharmonia Orchestra. The auditorium was packed with children from all over leicester. I went along with Scraptoft Valley Primary School 

so what is it all about 

Orchestra Unwrapped is a uniquely ambitious project, offering every 7-11 year old child in Leicester the opportunity to hear the world-class Philharmonia Orchestra. The project will offer children, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, access to music education through a dynamic programme of interactive schools concerts, bespoke educational materials for the classroom, and online learning guides, all adhering to the National Curriculum.

This project is a national first, because it will reach every Key Stage 2 child in the City, and as Resident Orchestra at De Montfort Hall the Philharmonia is launching this initiative in Leicester.  We hope that will make a real difference to children across the City.

Throughout the performance everything is explained how the music works, the names for different styles and ways of playing.

the large screen and video images show the musicians and conductor close up. 

As part of the project the children had been learning Merlin, and so to that we turned as the story narrated from the stage a little symbol appears on the screen and everyone stand we are the choir. and it sounded wonderful. 

They clapped in the wrong places and and giggled and laughed there way through the concert and it was fantastic. 

Holy Island

Last week I had the opportunity to go on retreat to Holy Island. A place I've wanted to visit for a while now. Living on the island you are bound by seasons bound by the rhythm of the tide. For a short time each day when at low tide you can walk and drive across the sea bed to the island. each day pilgrims and visitors make the journey. 

on the oppersite side of the Island to where most of the tourists stay is a pebble beach. ten's of little piles of rocks mark the way like the one above. Evidence of pilgrims  past   show us the way forward along the path. a connection with the saints of old lay scattered on the side of the path as wind, rain and tide displace the pile that once stood.

Throughout history these markers have been built to represent promise, hope and encounter with God, a way of remembering.

a question echoed on the incoming waves how do you mark the good things that God has done in your life, those markers that guide and remind of HIS faithfulness Grace and Love .....

exploring My Patch

Yesterday I managed to get out and explore a new part of my Patch and wandered off towards the feilds I walk past most days. What i love about being here more than anything is the differences. Stand at the top of the hill outside the church and look one way, you see the houses of the two estates and down towards the village. Turn and look the other and theres fields.  Walk through the estate and the noise of traffic and life being lived in its many forms can be heard and smelt. But walk the other way the very different sound and smell of life takes shape. 

Yesterday was cool but nice perfect exploring weather.. There was part of me that began remember the time a group of us would head off to explore the local woods as kids. Walking through the quite was great. exploring the different tracks that cut back and circled going nowhere at times It didn't matter.

WALSINGHAM YOUTH PILGRIMAGE 2012

50/55Phone a friend or ask the audience they are the choices ( life lines) when playing the game who wants to be a millionaire.  They are also the choices that went with the question leading up to the summer holidays. For the first time we planned to take a group of 10 young people to the youth pilgrimage at Walsingham. There's nothing new in taking a group of young people camping or on a camp durring the summer holidays. leading upto the week away I'd used all my life lines on just one question how will they find they week,  - answer at the bottom of the post :)

“More than Gold or Silver” was the theme of the week building on the olympics that were taking place. 

on a bright monday morning saw Y@AS (Youth@All Saints) heading off for the first time to the Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage. And  Joining up with around 700 other young people from the UK and much further afield.

The week was one of many firsts,  as a group it was our first major event. This was a time of many firsts.As leaders it was the first time of being away together.The first time of being a leader.For some it was the first time of campingIt was a first in number of ways: putting up tents  for most ( two of the girls managed to have 3 tents and not manage to put any of them up!) The week was mix with fun and laughter and seriousness. We celebrated Mass in a Big Top and we had Supper with Bishop Lindsay. 

Midway through the week there was a washing-up mutiny ( due to the priests group seeing Him doing the washing up and doing a runner 20 mins later and a run round the site they finally turned up to help) and also a trip to the beach. There was  VERY late first-night/early morning (you know who you were who wen to bed at 2:30am and were up again by 4am)and I did get my own back on them :) . We walked the Holy Mile together, finishing at the Shrine as the day slowly drew to a close – it was a powerful experience for all, as was the all-night Vigil.

Within the week was also a opportunity to just be together and get to know each other in stronger ways.

How best to really sum up the week the words of two of the young people:

 ”Walsingham; life changing, memorable amazing.”  Mollie

 ”My week away at walsingham was memorable, dramatic, and life changing! I wish to go again next year: D “  Maisie

I need not have worried by midway through the week they were all plotting/ planning how to come back next year :)

looking back, moving Forward

It's hard to believe that at the end of this week I'll have been in post as the Youth Missioner in this patch for a year...  There's been so much happening in what seem to be all to short a time. Two MA papers submitted and passed with great grades. Moved house again. started a Youth group, a weeks youth pilgrimage, 2 baptisms and 4 taking communion for the first time, a house group started. two holiday clubs planned one completed and one starts in the morning. Trips to olympic warm up games ( we saw Mexico the Gold medalist play). and a weekend brake to Turin. There plenty more I've missed I'm sure of that.

Theres been learning curves some steep, laughter and pain.  whats for the coming year. that together in this little patch in a corner of Leicester we continue to build on the foundations of this year. that we continue to press on together...

None of what has happened this year could have happened in our own strength.  One of the passages that has been a constant this year was psalm 37: 3-7

Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 
⁴ Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this:
⁶ He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, 
    your vindication like the noonday sun.

⁷ Be still before the Lord
    and wait patiently for him;

It's so easy to have plans and ideas that we think are great or good. If we are not seeking after Gods will and vision for the place that we are called to it's like building on sand with no foundation. yet when we seek him and those plans are ideas come from HIM then those projects and plans will move forward not always with amazing here and now celebrations. rather with the laying of seeds in the lives of others.

MA

My patch has bee quiet again recently, One of the last things I've wanted to do is spend time writing. Why well, the third paper for my MA has been the paper from hell.. The essay title I had chosen was and is something that I'm interested in.  The paper and research just wouldn't come together.  The paper was handed in at the end of June and last week it wasn't as bad as I had Thought..


One more paper and the dissertation to go and thats it the long wait for the final marks and then..  Hopefully Graduation...

Interesting

I was telling the Godly Play Holy family today at Kids Club we got to the time of wondering

Me: I wonder which of these you could remove and the story still work.
Kid 1: grown up Jesus..
Kid 2: if you remove grown up Jesus then take away baby Jesus too. There would be no need for Him. You need both.




Love the way these young lives question and think...

click here for answers

If only it was as simple as that, 

I don't know if you remember there was a real crazy several years ago for those 8balls you asked it a question it gave you a answer. That sorta fitted your question.  

Yesterday during the youth time before we rejoined the service for a baptism and the Communion. We and a interesting time of question and discussion. We're using the UCB word4u2day as a ay of introducing daily time with God and getting them to read the bible in small steps. It's a challenge to for me to make sure I am reading the notes they have. The notes from yesterday we did together.  During the week the questions or things that they want to talk about or share from there reading they make a note off and bring with them on a sunday or Thursday and we loo at them together. The questions are getting back to basics things we would take for granted. The simplest question this week was, Why are capitals used for He Him and  His when theres no full stop.  The answer the group came up with well is a written way of kneeling or  standing to show  respect and honour .   I like that don't know about you :). What I truly love about this group is they come as they are, they ask questions, they think about  they share and expect that back from each other...  and from whoever is leading... Asking questions is learning. Not every question thats asked will get a press here response, but working out the answer together weighing cup different ways of thinking and making it their own as they grapple with the questions they own. 

Godly Play

I've spent today playing... Theres different sides to leading Godly Play. One of the things that I really like is finding and building the stories.

I've always liked arts and crafts so this really leaps out for me.  Theres always a story behind a picture a painting a statue or carving. Each person who comes to look at it contemplate it adds to the story.

That is very true in Godly play each story we ask I wonder, theres no right no wrong as we enter into the story and journey together.  And I mean together in a real tangible way.

The stories are used in two ways, occasionally as part of the sunday morning, and mainly in our monthly Kids Club we all come together leaders and clubbers. As we ask I wonder there is a look that comes over the whole group, as they play through the story in there imagination...

Today's story makes 6 we now have..

Advent

Good Shepherd

Good Samaritan

Mustard Seed

Holy Family

Mystery of Pentecost

And the parable of the sower in a work in progress.

The latest Box ready 

Mystery of Pentecost

There's a song we sing from time to time. It goes something like this in part....

Brother let me be your servant let me be as Christ to you

It is easier for us to serve another. To be there to give a lift take a meal offer a place to stay. To care, but. E able to not do anything. It is far harder to be the person on the receiving end of that care. So much harder to be the one who is allowing the other to be as Christ and serve. Why is that, that we would never see it as putting ourselves out to be there for another, yet we feel a burden in the way so often

What brings this thought, in part the maunday Thursday service as the Priest kneels to wash the feet of parishioners. The same way in which Jesus knelt to was the disciples feet.

Partly as this week I've not felt well, now this isn't fun I don't like not being able to do things. I'm deffinatly the worst patient ESP when doctors and tests are involved. The dummy doesnt just get thrown out its sent into orbit. That happened a few times this week (hangs head)

Let me serve you from offers of a room so as not to be alone, and SMS and calls those word of the song from others has been so real.

The real challenge is the words LET ME BE AS we I have to allow others to come alongside to be Jesus with skin on..... and definitely need a dose of grace to do that.

Tough lessons for each of us to learn.

And thankful that even in the impression of a teenager throwing out the dummy some. Ery special people carried on being just that Jesus with skin on.

Expedition Force

ASK!! and Y@AS for a week this week.. well a four day week.  Today was the first day of our holiday club. A club for those who attend our Kids club once a month on a saturday.. that's until some of the youth club asked if they could come... and so today we had 17 4-13's in church,crafts, games,drama song,story and fun. 

It wasn't the usual type of holiday club because of the mix.. two boys came along and they had a great time with a pair of secateurs and branches i'm not sure the trees did :). As they helped prepare for the easter garden.

a few minuets of quite after a game was the moment that was for me the moment of the day to day as we sat together with a box of plastic eggs in a box.. Resurrection eggs - each day we choose three eggs, in each of the eggs has a bible passage and a little something. Today the three eggs chosen were

   5. Piece of rope, twine, or thick string (a scourge) 
“Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he    set Barabbas free for
them. Then he had Jesus whipped and handed Him over to be
crucified.” Mark 15:15

11. Rock 
“Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a new linen sheet, and
placed it in his own new tomb, which he had just recently dug
out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the
entrance to the tomb and went away.” Matthew 27:59-60

12. Nothing (the tomb is empty)
“He is not here. He has risen just as He said.” Matthew 28:6

before we opened the folded paper I wonder what the thing inside your egg has to do with the story..Hands shot up..  as the first egg was opened. A rock - " it's just a guess but could it have any thing to do with the stone and the grave. The next was empty lots of ideas as to why it might be a empty egg. 

In a simple way today we started a new expedition together. and we journey through Holy week. 

palm sunday

Palm sunday has to be one of the days of the year for me that I look forward too. Here in the new patch there lots of firsts and today was another of these. There was no little white stallion leading the procession or causing church wardens a near heart attack when the vicar brought him right into the church. Walking the short walk from the village hall to the church in the cool but sunny spring morning. 

 two of the young people joined us this morning and it was their first time so a lot of excitement and questions and parts of the gospel story falling into place. they came out this week with the best description of a disciple I've heard in a while at house group on Thursday. 

those people you know the ones that were with Jesus they just followed him his footsteps like and learnt things then past them on so we can do it...

such a simple but wonderful way to explain what we so often over complicate. Today there were more great moments of laughter and excited comments on the front row as they turned and commented about recognising parts of the service from the gospel story we have been looking at over lent. 

too rich to die to poor to live

In the near future. You don't age past 25. Life is paid out a minute at a time. The rich can live forever. The poor die young.

As many people know My patch and reading don't go all that well. So movies tend to be my patch's time out. I do read but it takes time. Thursday night the young adults choose to watch in time as the movie. It has a very challenging story line as wel as many of the conversations. 

see the official trailer  

"Please take me home. I can't do that. Why? To keep me alive. How can you live with yourself watching people die right next to you. You don't watch. You close your eyes."

How oftern do we do just this close our eyes to whats going on in the world turn the page of the news paper, flick over the tv when a appeal advert comes on or the news shows shomtehing disterbing. thats if we actually even notice it..

what do we close our eyes too in the communities we live in. 

we are called to be Jesus with skin on to be HIS hand and HIS feet how can we do that if our eyes are closed.....

silent week

After the recent move things to slowly be coming together and stuff from boxes are finding homes. But there won\t be much blogging while I get settled in.. Though it's good to have tv and internet back... The few days last week without hearing or seeing what was going on not just in the world but in the local news was really strange... so it was great to get the odd bit of snail mail even if it was mainly junk...  But thinking back with so much information at our fingertips on demand. The latest updates to our smart phones, just how much do we really take in about whats happening. Why are we so interested is it just a new kind of voyeurism? 

are we becoming immune to the struggles? 

a fast food culture to being in contact we expect instant responces on bbm or email.. how many time a minute do we check our phones ? getting upset if someone doesn't reply in the time we expect...

do we treat prayer in the same way? guilty as charged maybe?. do we give up all to easy if the response isn't there straight away, impatience creeping in. 

A friend once challenged in a sermon is God saying to you what the iceberg said to the titanic. Stop slow down? 

Time and again God tells us to stop and wait on him, to be still and know  Isaiah tells us that the Lord..

He gives strength to the weary
   and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
   and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint.

(Isaiah 40:29-31)

Just a thought from a week without any news...

  is it time you let a snail over take you.......

Lent already.......

can I find my way back?

O God, where did I go wrong?
How can I find my way back?
I am weighed down by this feeling
that I have failed – you, other people, myself.
My life is a mess.

Kyrie eleison (sung or said)

You know my weakness.
You know much better than me:

I can’t hide it from you.
How can I bear to face it too?

Kyrie eleison (sung or said)

Guilty as charged –
however much I argue my case.
It’s your laws I have broken;
it’s your way I have lost;
it’s your word I have chosen not to hear
over and over again.

Kyrie eleison (sung or said)

O God, where did I go wrong?
How can I find my way back?

Eggs and Ashes

(Book) 

by Ruth Burgess and Chris Polhill

Practical & liturgical resources for Lent and Holy Week

I came across this a couple of years ago when a colleague who is part of the Iona community used another meditation about judas.  It made me think then, in this time of refocusing of examining will i will each of us be honesty and real with ourselves about who we are and where we stand with God. it's easy to kid ourselves to stick our heads in the sand and hide. but what part of our character what parts of our lives needs to come under the shadow of the cross

It's Oh SO Quiet......

It's Oh SO Quiet...... Well at least Blogging wise it has been for my patch.... 


 Last week I was back at Cliff College for a intensive lecture week towards a MA and what was to turn out to be my last full lecture week, my final paper before my dissertation will be a independent research study. 


Tuesday night was the college celebration the fortnightly service. 


The preacher that night asked what image of Jesus what image of God do you carry. that may seem like a simple and easy question but its far from it. I Like many others have been watching the New ITV series Eternal law, the story about a group of angles who work among us these ones are lawyers. Not most peoples idea when describing lawyers but for those of  us who have a different opinion then there a fallen angel who tries to work against them. The salvation story runs through so do the themes of hope, reconciliation and peace. One of the images that comes through in the programme is that of the God who punisishs as one episode brings this with the idea that Mr Mountjoy (God) seems almost determined to destroy the world if the angels fail to save everyone. This misses the love and reaching out to the world that took place when Mountjoy Jr (Jesus) came into the world. the image of God that we carry shapes our actions and views.  

We can easily slip into a wrong image of God, the preacher that night gave the image of Jesus found in the gospels ( matthew, mark, Luke and John..) the question Do you have this image of Jesus. 

My answer wasn't the answer I had thought it would be... whats yours

meetings where minuets are kept.....

I had a book I don't remember the title or who the author was which is unlike me. It was a book that had silly comments in it about life those of you who no me will get the type of thing I mean and why it amused me. I remember so of the comments in it, things like 

out of bounds = a tired kangaroo

vestry = where the Vicar keeps their vests

and then the meaning of meeting = where minutes are kept and hours wasted :) 

I'm Not much for meetings I like doing, not sitting and talking about doing especially when it leads to the above statement. I do plan and prepare and think and pray things through but not normally while sat in a room or behind my desk. How I do that comes in a variety of ways.. sometimes it's in a room with others a lot of the time it's while doing other things little thoughts come together then they go down on sticky notes that cover different surfaces. My tutor taught us a away of doing this to see the vision come through from pre conception conception birth and then through to maturity. Funny he still uses this method and posted a photo on his facebook just this last week....

The two meeting this week were community meetings one I'm still not sure what it was about- the other was great 5 of us where there a parent two teachers myself and another member of the community and a member of Leicester council.. 

What both meetings did have was new contacts two from the first meeting and much more from the second... 

I came away from the first meeting a little disappointed, even though at the end two brief conversations added to the network of possible contacts in the area.

today one of those contacts was put into place in the second meeting.. and look forward to seeing how things work out in the coming months.

New Home....

My patch is on the move again .... I'm moving just down the road to a new house. 

This wasn't what I was expecting to be doing for a while yet.And definitely not in at the end of february  . I was told just a week ago that the landlord would have to sell the house :(. It wasn't a call they wanted to make nor the one that I was expecting. The call I was expecting was to say they were on the way to come fix the fence that came down in the recent storms.... So it was a bit of a shock and saddening I'd made this little house home. Friends had helped in the garden and little things around the house. Gutted is the closest I can find to how it felt. 


The afternoon I got the call I went for a walk just to see what was in the local area I wanted to stay close by. I have always felt that I wanted to live and work in the same community. One of the comments that cemented this was by one of the youth group a few years ago who commented miss your one of us arn't you, you live on .......... street. 


well I found a house just 5 mins away.. I rang up and monday evening viewed it... tuesday morning i camped outside the estate agents with all the paperwork i thought i may need to fill in a application for the house. then the wait to find out... well lunch time today I got the call that my application was successful and i can rent the house...

Covenant

The Methodist Covent Service I have a copy of the covent prayer on my office wall. I've had a copy of it for a long time now, this one I picked up from Wesley's House. It's never a easy prayer to say. Wesley would have classes about it to help people think through just what was being said during the covent.  This year it was even harder after a difficult year... 

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

If your like me right now the words you just read the word that comes to mind is ouch... 

the prayer strips away the very core of the thing that we take so strongly our RIGHTS.. To say this prayer is to deny they very thing that drives our world. That last line I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. 

The first service of January in Baslow I joined friends as we came together to join together in renewing this covent with God.

Just Another Bear!!

Earlier this week I posted the photo below on my photo blog. The day I saw it walking the dog it really stopped me. It really isn't something you expect to see. One of the things this blog was about was seeing God in the little patch that I live and work in. To see God in the everyday in the ordinary of life. This image has stayed in my thoughts all week. one comment left saw 'peace offering'. I don't no the story behind why this was done a joke or a remembrance of a accident. So what was the photo 

Bear behind barbed wire on the top of a wall. So many of those who live next door or down the road to. Those who are our neighbours and even yes even each of us can be just like this bear at times that wanting to be loved, cared for love me lots. Yet there are hugh sharp barriers around keeping us in and others,  and hurting ourselves and others out.

The amnesty international symbol also came to mind with this picture 

 

Hope and light in a dark place in the candle and wire, love and peace comfort behind wire in the image of the bear in both these images is what our communities need.

Today another image spoke to me that of Holy Saturday that saturday between Good Friday and Easter day. Esther  De Waal writes about a image of what took place on this day something that artist struggle to show. yet on a font in a English church 

 is a dramatic and dynamic scene, portrayed with extra- ordinary vigour and richness. Christ is dragging Adam out of a limbo of twisted knots, rather like clinging tentacles. (An antiquarian brochure, written by someone who had no idea of the context, described it as a man being pulled out of a thorny hedge, and somehow I always felt that this homely interpretation was no bad way of catching something of the difficulty and discomfort of how entangled we become and how we need the help of a strong hand to drag us upward.)  Seeking Life.p.14-15

The bear at the end of the road here a daily reminder of the mystery and grace of Easter that there is nothing not even a barb wire fence that will stop the Love and grace of God reaching out to His creation. Not matter what the darkness in life may be His light will shine through and the comforter will be there alongside by His Spirit and by His People being Jesus with skin on.