Hour at the Cross

Some years ago I used to curate an alternative hour at the cross, based at Holy Trinity, Nailsea. The hour consisted of three or four pieces of music, three readings, three prayers and three periods of silence. I enjoyed doing it greatly.  It was one of the things I have done in the course of my ministry that proved most divisive. I received comments that the silence was too long, the music inappropriate and my favourite ’Did anyone else see the Holy Spirit walk out?’ I also received an equal number of appreciative comments. Marmite worship, I guess.

The whole point was to answer the question, ‘Would you wait and pray with me for an hour?’ Despite any feelings you may have about the music. I almost hoped that people would not like one or two of the pieces. In any case, some of the juxtapositions were meant to grate a little.

But it occurs to me that we’re all volunteers in cyber space so here is another hour at the cross. You can take an hour, a day or twenty minutes over it. I’ll never know. The music links are from Spotify. An account costs £9.99 a month. A free account is available but you’ll have to listen to an advert every third track.

Hour at the Cross 2020

First Reading: Matthew 16:21-26

Opening Prayer

We adore and magnify you, O Lord our God, that in Christ crucified you reveal that the very essence of your nature is a love that will go to the uttermost lengths for everyone: for the lost, the lowest, and the least; for each and every one of us here as we kneel at the door of the cross today. Amen.
(Frank Colquhoun, New Parish Prayers - adapted)

Music: Hayes and Cahill - The Windswept Hill of Tulla 

Silence

Second Reading: Matthew 22:23-40

Second Prayer

Eternal God,

in the cross of Jesus

we see the cost of sin

and the depth of your love:

in humble hope and fear

may we place at his feet

all that we have and all that we are,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Church of England- Common Worship)

Music: Daughter - Made of Stone

Silence

Third Reading: Matthew 27:45-56

Third Prayer
Lord God,
you are attentive to the voice
of our pleading.
Let us find in your Son
comfort in our sadness,
certainty in our doubt,
and courage to live through this hour.
Make our faith strong
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

(Nursebuff)

Music: Dusted - Under the Sun

Silence

‘Build a shrine to credibility and then bow.’

Well?

Do you?

Wait and See.

Music: The Faith Brothers - Secret Heart

Slow Down

Saying Morning Prayer (some call it 'The Office') has been an increasing blessing to me. It began as a curse. The wrong time to leave a woman with two small sons alone.

It grew to informality. I'd pray with people but not follow the set service. Last thirteen years or so I have been back to the beginning:

O Lord open our lips

And our mouth shall proclaim your praise

The words of my college doctrine tutor and tutor-group leader in year two, the late Tom Smail, come back to me from time to time. 'How wonderful not to have to be spontaneous at 8 o'clock in the morning.' And he was the man who, almost single-handedly, reinjected the Church of England with Holy Spirit Theology in the 1970s.

I start the liturgy (in my little church I am blessed with the company of two or three others most days) and my favourite bit is this:

The night has passed and the day lies open before us. Let us pray with one heart and mind.

(Silence may be kept)

As we rejoice in the gift of this new day, so may the light of your presence, o God, set our hearts on fire with love for you; now and for ever. Amen.

No matter how slowly I started, after the silence I continue slower. No matter what cares of the day I had woken with two hours earlier they begin to fall into line. I stack and rack as I take some control over the traffic of my life.

What reminds you that the day doesn't need to go as quickly as you think it does?

Abbey House Quiet Day

Got this message from Abbey House, Glastonbury today. Now nobody minds being given an unexpected  free day but if you fancy a day's peace and quiet in the company of Luke 15 then why not book in, if you're able to.

Monday 9th May - Quiet Day "Lost people matter to God" with Rev Steve Tilley

If I am being honest there are two reasons why I want to ask you to consider coming to the above Quiet Day at Abbey House. Yes, one reason is that if we don't get quite a few more people booking we will have to cancel it, and I haven't cancelled a Quiet Day yet! But the second reason is just as true - if you don't come you will miss some great input from a very talented speaker and a chance to enjoy the very special peace of Abbey House and its gardens to recharge your batteries!

Steve Tilley's Twitter blurb says he has been "disorganising religion since 1975" and his blog describes him as "possibly the most or least normal vicar you will ever meet". Not convinced enough to come yet? Talking about the input for the Day he asks "Is God more like a partying shepherd, a dancing house-cleaner or a bad dad light on discipline?"

Why not come and debate this with Steve or just enjoy the peaceful surroundings of Abbey House and the great lunches we provide?

Book by calling 01458 831112 or emailing info@abbeyhouse.org

Yours sincerely

Rob Norman
Director

Fresh Expressions in and around Nailsea

Here is my news to the local churches:







Can I report to you and give you some dates of things coming up under this heading of my job. I would love a bit of publicity around the Local Ministry group for this stuff.






Jono Peatman performing at Cafe Create






Cafe Create is this Friday at Holy Trinity and then November 15th in the Tithe Barn 7.30 - 11.00. It consists of a fair-trade cafe bar with live entertainment. It runs on the third Friday every other month and will be carrying on through 2014. Although the best venues are in the Holy Trinity complex this is not a Holy Trinity event but a Local Ministry Group one.








On October 18th, again at Holy Trinity at 7.30 will be our second experiment at Cafe Congregate. The atmosphere and ethos will be exactly as Cafe Create but the live performance slot will include some presentation with overtly Christian content, some video presentations to get people thinking about God and some opportunity to engage with prayer.





After this event we will review and see if it is to become a regular part of the fixture list. Contributions to this discussion welcome.





Quiet Days at 29 Vynes Way are an opportunity for those who need some space to have a day in silence to read, pray, think, or even work on something. They run on the last Thursday of every month from 10.00 - 4.00. Each time there is some input from the Bible to ponder, a meal provided for a donation, and a chance to share prayer needs if required. Up to 12 people are welcome each time. They have been running, successfully, for the last six years.





Dates for the rest of this year are:





26/9






Quiet Day lunch



31/10




21/11 (a week early because of the clergy gathering at Swanwick the following week)





Helen Wills is now duplicating this work from her house in Backwell, if that is more convenient or my dates don't work. Ask me for details or the email.



Preachers Support Group is not strictly a fresh expression but a response to a felt need for those who preach to have a chance for input and to share. It is available to the whole LMG. We meet on a Monday evening twice a term at my house from 7.45 - 9.15. Next two dates are:



21/10


16/12





If any church would like to have a discussion with me about other ways that we could work together on any new way of being church please let me know. I love facilitating group discussions on this subject or offering time to any fledgling proposal and plan.





Having been away on the Pioneer Breakout gathering last week I am filled with new enthusiasm for this part of my work and want to develop it.





Thanks for reading and in anticipation of your support,

Quiet Days

I have been reflecting recently about quiet days. As many of you know, once a month I open my home to up to twelve guests. We gather over coffee then share a few words of introduction, look at the Bible together and then go into a long period of quiet - almost two hours. We share lunch and chat, then repeat the morning programme ending with tea.

I have done about sixty of these, monthly over the last six years. This week, for the first time, after a chance encounter at my first and only training day on this subject, I led a quiet day for another group. The deanery chapter from Axbridge asked me to offer some input.

In their briefing they specifically requested I make sure the morning included an hour and a half of quiet at minimum. It had never occurred to me to offer any less. For me it seems that a prayer meeting should be largely about prayer and a quiet day largely about quiet.

I enjoyed doing the day and was thanked for a different style to that expected. Too many quiet days are full of words and activity.

But my reflection is this, building on one of my maxims that in meetings, events and gatherings as far possible the audience should set the mood. My quiet days are not regimented. The only thing that happens is that we remove noise. The guests (audience) are free to read, write, draw or even work. They can treat the house as a library or a monastery. Turning off the phone and any other noise sources removes one thing from life that normally distracts. Having it in someone else's house saves you noticing jobs that need doing. By you at any rate. It is a gift of silence and space. No more and no less.

Taking up quiet by spending a whole day in reflection without any stimulus is a bit like taking up climbing on The Matterhorn. You may reach its peak someday, but meantime find a wall on which to practise.

750 Words

People who follow me - @s1eve - on Twitter will be greeted, most days by a post such as today's:

I wrote 767 words in 21 minutes (3 day streak): http://750words.com/entries/share/2318875 …

I have explained a bit about this before. The idea of 'Morning Words', for that is what the exercise is, is that a brain dump of the first things you want to say without a great need to worry about style or typos will be of benefit. You can also try and capture your dreams.

If you follow the link to my stuff my sharing preferences will tell you things such as how many words I wrote, how long it took me, how many days in a row I have managed and a list of the most common words in each entry. I will not let you read my work and sometimes, if the list of words has a dead giveaway, I don't share at all. You would worry if my most common words one day were church, warden and brake-pipes. They aren't.

Having done a couple of months I have subtly tweaked how I use the tool. For years I have suffered that slight evangelical guilt that a daily 'Quiet Time' to read the Bible and pray is a good thing. I have never found it easy, or good. Indeed the more I read the Bible the less I found the necessity to read it every day as biblical.

So, as someone who spends a great chunk of his day with a Bible open, I don't need an extra ten minutes at the beginning of the day on an unconnected passage. I don't do that dualistic thinking that it is not quite Quiet Time if you are preparing something. And I find the Bible is enthusiastic for me to pray continually - to involve God, as I understand God, in all I do and say.

So I have decided to make my 750 word exercise my prayer. For what is prayer but blurting your heart out in faith? And in those gaps where I know not what to write? Well surely that is listening for the still small voice - inner or outer - to inspire me.

After many years I have made the connection between the ability to type fast and the desire to take time out at the start of the day to think, reflect and wait in hope.

And, of course, you can all know if I am keeping it up.

Works for me.

(That was post 2,500. Thanks for reading.)

Soundtracks

There's a line in one of our old Christmas news letters that goes:

Mummy is the dog being sick again?
No Jon, that's Daddy's new record.

So I guess I'm the last one to talk about the soundtrack of my life but this is about the music of my house. 'Your house makes funny noises' said a guest at today's Quiet Day.

Indeed it does. I noticed it when I moved in four and a bit years back but now it's just normal. The expansion and contraction of the various joints in the frame of the house as temperature changes. The whoosh of the heating system. The normal working noises of a fridge with a personality defect. The feet of birds on the conservatory roof, trying to get traction.

We all live in noise environments which are, to us, reassuring. Holiday cottages are often hard to sleep in because the background noise is unfamiliar. As soon as we recognise the soundtrack - that click was because the heating was meant to come on then - we feel comfortable.

Changing the noise makes our lives rattle.

I use music like a dog marks its territory. I like it to soak into the walls. But when the sound system goes to silent I find the cracking of my cooling bricks and mortar a comfort. The reassuring melody of normality which a quiet day reveals more clearly than others.

Quiet Days

It is quiet round here. No traffic during the day. Few casual callers. And everyone I meet is very busy, including me.

So the last Thursday of the month will be, starting today until Easter as an experiment, a quiet day. Fax and phone unplugged. Computer off.

I invited anyone who wanted to join me to come round for the middle part of the day for some peace. Six did.

In case people are wondering what happens, here is my briefing letter to today's guests:

Quiet Day January 2007
Welcome to the first of what I hope will be a series of quiet days here. As it is the first you are, to some intent, being experimented upon. Please let me have any feedback at the end which will help me improve it.

After the initial drinks feel free to help yourself to coffee, tea, juice, biscuits, fruit or cake at any time of the day. I suggest using the electric kettle rather than the hob one to avoid the whistle.

In the quiet times find yourself space in the house wherever you can. There are two bedrooms available upstairs for privacy (sleep if you want). I have left the doors closed on rooms I would prefer you not to use. If you use a bedroom just close the door to indicate it’s in use. Leave the door open when you leave. There is a toilet by the front door and another upstairs.

The front door will be on the latch all day. Go straight on down the road opposite to reach open countryside or wander the pavements and pathways. The programme will be as follows:

10.00 a.m. Coffee and chat
10.30 a.m. Introduction, Prayer, Bible Study
11.15 Quiet to think, pray, walk.
13.00 Lunch together
14.00 Bible Study and chance to share
14.30 Quiet
15.00 Tea and finish

I will indicate the end of quiet by putting some music on.

Please do not try to engage in conversation in the house during the quiet, however weird that may feel. You have permission to ignore each other. If two people feel they must talk then go for a walk together. I will be in my study (off the kitchen) in the quiet if you need anything. Talking to me is fine. Books and Bibles to borrow are on the conservatory table. I have no further appointments today. Stay to debrief if you wish.

Hope you enjoy it.

St

I decided to work through Mark's Gospel - the gospel of a man in a hurry we might sub-title it - and we did chapter one today.

Like the once a month dinner party idea I may throw it open wider than the Christian community to see if there is interest. I may also change the day of the week after Easter if I continue since some people may never be able to make Thursdays.

Let's see shall we.