6 Responses to “advent mania”

1. 1
   Lionfish Says:
   December 12th, 2006 at 3:09 pm

   What sort of worship event would you create?

   Keep it simple. keep it joyful. keep it uncommercial. Best at night.

   Reflect on its meaning. This is the time when the SAVIOUR was born! God with us…God cam down incarnationally, with us in the trenches, lived with us in the slums, in our hardships.

   Very busy too!

2. 2
   signposts.org.au » Blog Archive » my christmas present Says:
   December 13th, 2006 at 9:19 am

   […] Seriously, one comment on ideas for advent!  Take a long, hard look at yourselves, signposters. […]

3. 3
   Greg the explorer Says:
   December 14th, 2006 at 3:04 pm

   http://www.freshworship.org/node/232 you could try a version of the 9 readings/9tunes/9surprises that Grace community did…courtesy of Jonny Baker http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnybaker/318462023/

   you could use thisreflection and draw some of your 9 surprises from it your readings could be advent poetry interspersed with some from the advent bible readings. Some poetry I have found really good can be found here

   1

   poems for Christmas: mary’s song
   Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
   keep warm this small hot naked star
   fallen to my arms. (Rest …
   you who have had so far to come.)
   Now nearness satisfies
   the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
   whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps
   whose eyelids have not closed before.
   His breath (so slight it seems
   no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
   to sprout a world. Charmed by doves’ voices,
   the whisper of straw, he dreams,
   hearing no music from his other spheres.
   Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
   he is curtailed who overflowed all skies,
   all years. Older than eternity, now he
   is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
   to my poor planet, caught
   that I might be free, blind in my womb
   to know my darkness ended,
   brought to this birth for me to be new-born,
   and for him to see me mended
   I must see him torn.

   This poem by T S Eliot was written in 1927. It is believed to reflect his own journey from agnosticism to faith.

   2

   The journey of the Magi

   A cold coming we had of it,
   Just the worst time of the year
   For the journey, and such a long journey:
   The ways deep and the weather sharp,
   The very dead of winter.’
   And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
   Lying down in the melting snow.
   There were times we regretted
   The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
   And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
   Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
   And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
   And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
   And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
   And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
   A hard time we had of it.

   At the end we preferred to travel all night,
   Sleeping in snatches,
   With the voices singing in our ears, saying
   That this was all folly.
   Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
   Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
   With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
   And three trees on the low sky,
   And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

   Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
   Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
   And feet kicking the empty wine-skins,
   But there was no information, and so we continued
   And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
   Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory
   All this was a long time ago, I remember,
   And I would do it again, but set down
   This set down
   This: were we led all that way for
   Birth or Death?
   There was a Birth, certainly,
   We had evidence and no doubt.
   I had seen birth and death,
   But had thought they were different; this Birth was
   Hard and bitter agony for us, like
   Death, our death,
   We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
   But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
   With an alien people clutching their gods.
   I should be glad of another death.

   3

   the angel and the girl are met
   The angel and the girl are met
   Earth was the only meeting place.
   For the embodied never yet
   Travelled beyond the shore of space.
   The eternal spirits in freedom go.

   See, they have come together, see,
   While the destroying minutes flow,
   Each reflects the other’s face
   Till heaven in hers and earth in his
   Shine steady there. He’s come to her
   From far beyond the farthest star,
   Feathered through time. Immediacy
   Of strangest strangeness is the bliss
   That from their limbs all movement takes.
   Yet the increasing rapture brings
   So great a wonder that it makess
   Each feather tremble on his wings

   Outside the window footsteps fall
   Into the ordinary day
   And with the sun along the wall
   Pursue their unreturning way
   Sound’s perpetual roundabout
   Rolls its numbered octaves out
   And hoarsely grinds its battered tune
   But through the endless afternoon
   These neither speak nor movement make.
   But stare into their deepening trance
   As if their grace would never break.

   Edwin Muir (1887-1959)

   4

   The Slip
   this poem by Wendell Berry seems especially suitable for Advent:

   The river takes the land, and leaves nothing.
   Where the great slip gave way in the bank
   and an acre disappeared, all human plans
   dissolve. An awful clarification occurs
   where a place was. Its memory breaks
   from what is known now, begins to drift.
   Where cattle grazed and trees stood, emptiness
   widens the air for birdflight, wind, and rain.
   As before the beginning, nothing is there.
   Human wrong is in the cause, human
   ruin in the effect–but no matter;
   all will be lost, no matter the reason.
   Nothing, having arrived, will stay.
   The earth, even, is like a flower, so soon
   passeth it away. And yet this nothing
   is the seed of all–the clear eye
   of Heaven, where all the worlds appear.
   Where the imperfect has departed, the perfect
   begins its struggle to return. The good gift
   begins again its descent. The maker moves
   in the unmade, stirring the water until
   it clouds, dark beneath the surface,
   stirring and darkening the soul until pain
   perceives new possibility. There is nothing
   to do but learn and wait, return to work
   on what remains. Seed will sprout in the scar.
   Though death is in the healing, it will heal.

   The rest, as they say…is up to you

4. 4
   Greg the explorer Says:
   December 14th, 2006 at 5:47 pm

   Advent music
   I love this Album anyway but, there is a track on Adem’s ‘Love and other Planets’ (iTunes Store link) that just strikes me as perfect for the season of Advent… “Something’s Going to Come”… we are using it this evening

   Something’s going to come
   Don’t look so forlorn
   ‘Cause something’s going to come
   I don’t know where from.
   I don’t know where
   Don’t you look so sad
   ‘Cause something’s going to come
   I don’t know where from,
   I don’t know where
   Don’t you look at me
   Like things aren’t going to be
   The way we thought they’d be
   ‘Cause we’ve got love,
   Always
   Love always.
   La La La-La La La-La La
   Stop.

   Don’t you turn around
   Have faith in what you chose
   ‘Cause life can sense your attitude
   I don’t know how
   You’ve got to realise
   That hope looks in your eyes
   If you look away it flies
   Let’s look forward
   If you still believe
   That things are going to be
   Like we hoped they’d be
   Then we’ll have love
   Always
   Love always
   La La La-La La La-La La

5. 5
   Greg the explorer Says:
   December 14th, 2006 at 5:54 pm

   from Jonny Baker ad relating to above:

   Embracing Worship 2.0 – an Architecture of Participation

   We’ve developed a tradition for Advent at Grace, an alternative worship community in Ealing – Nine. It’s a very simple idea for a service (feel free to use it). We take the traditional nine lessons and carols framework and give it our own twist. We find nine volunteers willing to take part who are given one of the readings. They then have to choose a piece of music and do something to reflect/relate to the reading - this might be a piece of art, a ritual, a meditation, a thought, an audio-visual piece. At the service the nine readings are read from the bible and after each one the person does their piece and play their chosen piece of music. Followed of course by mulled wine and mince pies. It’s highly participative and creative. People produce amazing things. On reflection I think it might be an example of Worship 2.0 …?

6. 6
   Greg the explorer Says:
   December 14th, 2006 at 5:57 pm

   http://davepaisley.typepad.com/disaster_area/2004/11/waiting_in_the_.html

   Waiting In The Starlight
   After spending the last few months being intrigued by the myriad facets of alternative worship (thanks Adam Cleaveland) and experimenting with a few things here and there, we (myself and our youth director) decided we should go for it and put together an alt worship Advent event. We’ve roped in a few other people to help with stuff and this is what we came up with…

   First, reading the Advent section of Jonny Baker and Doug Gay’s Alternative Worship book (awesome, by the way - buy it now!) the theme of starlight struck me. I mentioned it to D (she’s the artsy one, I’m the musical one) and she married it to the waiting theme of Advent. So we had a title.

   From there it quickly morphed to the notion of a star labyrinth - 8 points/stations, with an empty manger in the center. One of the creeds from the Alt Worship book seemed like a natural, so I set that to a background of 50 NASA pictures from space - various parts of the earth, planets, moons, solar flares, so that’s one station. Another station will be “light” prayers (with candle lighting, of course) - a lot of them from Evening Prayer. Throw in a Jesse tree, a scripture station and you’re almost set. One other station will be a set of 24 black and white photos to ponder and meditate and the last station will be a payer wall prompted by the question “what are you waiting for?”.

   Musically we’ll start with about 20 minutes of live music. So far I’ve got Tim Hughes’ Here I Am To Worship (which could be an official Advent song with a different bridge…), O Come Emmanuel, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus, and maybe (if I can get the music in time) a Maggi Dawn song Into the Darkness and some other stuff I’ll figure out this weekend. Once that’s over I’ve put together a mostly instrumental mix while people interact with the stations. Now, having lots of Enya and Vangelis CDs I’ll confess to a weakness for going with what I’ve got. I also resisted the temptation to use some of my more favorite tracks that are just too overpowering for this. I did, however, stick with Delerium/Sarah McLachlan, even though it gets fairly intense and the vocals are potentially intrusive. But whatever… sometimes you just have to put in stuff you think works. All this stuff just feels right for “starlight”…

   Here’s the track listing (all nicely cross-faded with Nero - I love their software…) (let’s see how the formatting works - not, I bet)

   Name - Artist - Album
   A Day Without Rain - Enya - A Day Without Rain
   The Oracle Of Apollo - Vangelis - Direct
   Shepherd Moons - Enya - Shepherd Moons
   Raincry (Submerged) - God Within - Plastic Compilation Volume 1
   First Approach - Vangelis - Direct
   ‘S fagaim mo bhaile - Enya - Oíche Chiún [EP]
   Silence (Michael Woods Remix) - Delerium/Sarah McLachlan - Chillout/A Nettwerk Escape
   To The Unknown Man - Vangelis - Portraits
   No Holly for Miss Quinn - Enya - Shepherd Moons
   Alpha - Vangelis - Portraits
   Pulstar - Vangelis - Portraits
   Storms In Africa - Enya - Watermark
   Sauvage Et Beau - Vangelis - Portraits
   The Memory of Trees - Enya - The Memory Of Trees
   Hymn - Vangelis - Portraits
   Oíche Chiún (Silent Night) - Enya - Oíche Chiún [EP]

   The goal is to start quiet, crank up the intensity in the middle a bit (Alpha & Pulstar) and then wind it back down, starting with the driving but lighter Storms in Africa. Oh, and it’s all a nice 75 minute track on my iPod now, too.

   So I’m pretty psyched about this. I can’t wait (hah!) to see how it works out. And for once, the musicians can actually participate…