Losing the will to live

Don't say I never do anything for you…

I've just spent almost three hours checking all the links on Dancing Scarecrow and making sure they work. I haven't finished yet - I started with the Dancing Stories, then checked through all the Genre, Theme and Season links. The Church Year links need a lot of work - I am aware that some of the pages haven't even been finished yet - and I do need to check all the rest. But quite honestly, I'm losing the will to live now, so I'm going to go and have my tea.

Oh, there are half a dozen new prayers as well, including one by Clive Roberts which has been waiting almost 18 months to be published. Sorry Clive.

Theopoetics

This afternoon, Clare and I have written perhaps our most off the wall eucharist yet. It will go up on Dancing Scarecrow in the next few days, when I have worked out how on earth to explain it. In the course of researching it, I discovered that there is a term to describe what we are trying to do with Dancing Scarecrow—theopoetics.

Anyway, in the half hour before starting to make tea, I offer you half a dozen new prayers as well.

New Prayers

One of the advantages of long train journeys is supposed to be that you have the opportunity to get on with some work. On the way back from the UE Teams Day in Bristol this week, I have so far had to change seats four times - and change trains once. I am typing this with my left arm wedged behind the back of the guy next to me. My knees are somewhere up around my navel and my right arm has gone to sleep.

In spite of this I have actually managed to upload another twenty prayers or so to www.dancingscarecrow.org.uk I've also created a "What's New?" page so that those of you who regularly use Dancing Scarecrow can easily find the alterations.
We have noticed that there are a number of links which seem to have got confused in moving the website from one computer to another to another. If you do come across a link which doesn't work, do, please, let us know so we (OK, I - Clare has never yet actually done any mechanics on the website ;-)) can fix it.

Not Dead Yet

Shamefully, it is almost a year since we posted anything to this blog - which probably means we haven't put anything new on Dancing Scarecrow in that time either.
But we haven't been sitting around doing nothing. In that time, as well as continuing our "Have Congregation, Will Travel" we have also started a monthly "Stories and Songs" session (for which we are very grateful to have received a grant from TrustGreenbelt) in the local SureStart Centre.
This month - usually it's the first Sunday of the month, if you want to come along - we looked at the theme of Pentecost - the Holy Spirit who brings peace and unites us.
Graham, Deborah and Rachel put together this amazing shadow play to tell the story of Sadako and the Peace Cranes.
Enjoy

More Dancing Stories

Just a very quick note to say that we have today posted some new Dancing Stories to Dancing Scarecrow, including the whole of the book of Job (!) and a telling of the Massacre of the Innocents for Remembrance Sunday.

Where's Wally?

So, today is Ascension Sunday.
Since the 1960s (and perhaps earlier) we seem to have got hung up on the historicity or otherwise of the Ascension story. Clearly the photographs of the earth from space have proved that there is no physical heaven beyond the clouds into which Jesus ascended.
We have, therefore, thrown out the baby with this bathwater.
It seems to me, rather, that the Ascension is more like a "Where's Wally" puzzle - or perhaps a "Where's Jesus."
The early church, having proclaimed the resurrection, now has the difficulty of explaining how the particular human being, Jesus of Nazareth, is now the divine Christ, universally present in people of faith. So the Ascension story sets the church free to be the Body of Christ on earth.

Christ is alive! Let Christians sing.
The cross stands empty to the sky.
Let streets and homes with praises ring.
Love, drowned in death, shall never die!

Christ is alive! No longer bound
to distant years in Palestine,
but saving, healing, here and now,
and touching every place and time.
     © Brian Wren (1936–)

So, this morning, we'll be playing Where's Wally.

I forgot the camera!

Sometimes you really wish you had remembered the camera!

Yesterday we were at St PJs, the local URC church where we worship on a monthly basis. They know - and tolerate us - very well. We were following the lectionary readings which didn't exactly inspire. The theme of sheep/ shepherds seems to come around at least twice a year and there isn't much more we can say on the subject. However, comparing and contrasting the Acts 2 reading about the disciples selling their possessions and sharing according to their needs with the problematic parable of Jesus as the gatekeeper to the sheepfold led us to some musings about the nature of community.

We discussed different types of community - groups (loose unaffiliated groupings); associations (groups which come together around a single interest) and clubs (formal, regulated associations with rules about who is in and who is out). We then contrasted this with the community of the church - and reflected on what makes the church different.

We invited the congregation to put their hands up if...
they were not vegetarian
they were over 60
they didn't watch the FA cup final

and so on.

We passed a ball of wool around the church, linking all those who agreed that they were part of a particular relationship. This, significantly, included both Clare and myself - and Colin, the pianist.

We then reflected on what makes for broken relationships and for our prayers of intercession symbolically cut some of the strands of wool. Then, despite Colin being tied up, we asked him to play the normally unsingable "Bind Us Together" as we prayed for the Holy Spirit to re-tie the cords which could not be broken.

There were tears of laughter - and, I suspect not a few sentimental tears too. And, I fear, there may have been a few tears at the quality - or lack thereof - of our singing!

If only I'd remembered the camera.

Here's Clare's opening prayer:

Inclusive Community Opening Prayer

Come from birthplaces in far off lands

Come from birthplaces round the corner

God is for you

Come from distant hills and suburbs

Come from local terraced streets

God is for you

Come with your toys and play-mats

Come with your walking sticks

God is for you

Come in your wheel chairs

Come with your glasses

God is for you

Come with your hearing aids

Come with your special interests

God is for you

Come by yourself

Come with your civil partner

God is for you

Come with your grandchildren

Come with your friend

God is for you

Come with your neighbour

Come with your foster family

God is for you

Come with your highs and obsessions

Come with your lows and depressive thoughts

God is for you

Come with your addictions

Come with your eating disorders

God is for you

Come with your joys and celebrations

Come with your hurts and disappointments

God is for you

Come with your questions and cynicism

Come with your ideas and creativity

God is for you

Come for it is God who calls you here

To create a wonderfully diverse, inclusive community

God is for us.

© Clare McBeath, 2011