72 hours or more...

This is all loosely based on my last 72 hours… All or some of which deserve a blog piece of their own but I wanted to note them here for now anyway.

1 – Gardening, it’s great. I NEVER thought I’d type those words. But it’s whole new experience – putting plants in pots on our tiny 3m x 3m terrace – looking out the window the whole time at them, willing them to grow, checking their ok, and so on. Amazing.

2 – i-Pods. Specifically the 30G i-Pod Photo that arrived this week for me and mine to play with. Yum. Listening to U2 last night in the kitchen for the first time, I burnt the dinner. That’s how wow.

3 – For those who have asked… no, my walk to work is no more spiritually loaded now than when I wrote that piece. I thought that writing it would make me look more for stuff and thus it would become meaningful (good link with Ecclesiastes that we were looking at last night). I can see the superficial stuff but it doesn’t catch me the same way – a bar called The Font, a piece of graffiti that reads “Respect as a religion”. But for now, it’s just not clicking...

4 – Three brilliant films. Etre et Avoir – can’t really just be about kids going to school in rural France, right? American Beauty - all those reds in every scene, and Kevin Spacey. Billy Elliot – grabs me, gets me hooked, and makes me weep every time.

5 – The resurrection. My response? Incredulity.

6 - Martha Wainwright. Just great.

So that’s my tiny update. But right now, it’s back to work… (sigh)

more flash...

Now I'm getting really into flash...this is something that i produced/hacked for tonights easter service. We were exploring some of the disciples responses to the resurrection and this is the flash piece for Thomas. It's quite large, so only view it if you're on broadband.

uncertainty.swf

it is finished

I've been trying to learn flash over the past few weeks,heres something that i've done. Flash is kinda complex and this animation is really simple but we all have to start somewhere...itisfinished.swf

Reel Spirituality - Etre et Avoir

Reel Spirituality: watching films, discussing faith
This is the next in our series of three films around a theme of topics leading up to the impending General Election – looking at immigration, education and health.

This month: “ETRE ET AVOIR” (“To Be and To Have”)

Starring: George Lopes and the children of a primary school in the Auvergne, France
Director: Nicolas Philibert
Certificate: U
Run time: 104 mins

Date: Friday 1st April
Screening start time: 7pm prompt (arrive from 6:30 - bring drinks/snacks and cash if you want to pick up pizza from the corner pizzeria)Where: Sacred Trinity, Chapel Street just outside of city centre - follow Market Street all the way down over the bridge and it’s on the corner

Film synopsis:
Schoolmaster Georges Lopes is in charge of pupils ranging from nursery-age to final-year of primary education, all from the same village. In a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ docu-style, the film is at once intimate and deceptively simple, recording the development of the students – both personally and academically – and the interaction between the ages and between teacher and pupils, at the same time offering a portrait of a small French farming community.

Themes:
What is the purpose of education? How does it differ from learning or teaching? Are schools simply places of learning for students? What labels do we pick up at school that stick with us - the tough kid, the one who is lagging behind, the funny one? And can a “fly-on-the-wall” documentary ever really be what it seems – objective and removed?

ADVANCE NOTICE
Films coming soon to Reel Spirituality:
Friday 6th May – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind


Etre et Avoir flyer

Sanctus1 Service - Life in abundance

This Sunday, Easter Day, we have our next Sanctus1 service. 'Life in Abundance' - It will be a celebration of life, the life that we receive in Christ and the life that we can give to others.

It starts at 8 pm at Sacred Trinity, Salford.

A Cry from the Depths

A Cry from the Depths is the art exhibition at Sacred Trinity this week that some members from Sanctus1 have contribited to. It's open everyday weekday (12 -2) and on wednesday night for Sanctus1, 6-9. On weds some of the artists will be at sanctus talking about their pieces of work.

"Arms industry to make vases & picnic tables"...

Hey, everyone, I know we've been trying to detox and make poverty history and have big dresses and change the church and save the children and everything...

...but it's all going to be okay! Look! Click! Clicky click!

Saturday April 9th 2005, 10am - 3.30pm
Manchester one day conference for the North - the road to Edinburgh starts
here...

This one day conference will tell you all need to know about Make Poverty
History and the Edinburgh mobilisation for the G8 Summit, and will be the
biggest regional event of its kind.



Guest speaker: Tony Robinson (actor and presenter) plus international
speakers on trade, debt and aid
Venue: New Century Hall, New Century House, Corporation Street, Manchester,
M60 4ES
Cost: £5/£3 (low income), lunch provided

Visit www.tjm-manchester.org.uk for details of how to register.

Agencies involved: Cafod, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam,
Salford Diocese, Tearfund, SPEAK and WDM.

The Big Dress

I thought people might like to see the Big Dress. This picture was taken before it snowed!

Blah...manchester

Probes: getting under the skin of the emerging church

We are delighted that Jonny Baker is joining us for the first blah... manchester. Jonny works with CMS encouraging mission amongst young people and the emerging church. He will present Probes, short provocations designed to get under the skin of the emerging church, provoke thinking, reflection and conversation on mission in the emerging culture. What do martial arts, the big chill, parkour, shakespeare, flea circus and networks have to teach the emerging church? Jonny blogs at http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/

blah...manchester is a series of conversations hosted by CMS in partnership with The Church Army and Manchester Diocesan Board of Education in 2005 on mission, worship, church and Christianity in today’s rapidly changing culture. It’s a time to keep listening, chatting and reflecting as God beckons us into the future.

Tuesday 19 April 6:30-8:30pm Drinks and refreshments provided Admission free

Venue: Church House, Fourth Floor, 90 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2GH.

(For directions see www.multimap.com or email blah@sanctus1.co.uk)


It would help us to know numbers in advance so if you're coming please e-mail Ben Edson on: blah@sanctus1.co.uk

walk on

This concerns my walk to work, both my old one and my current one. Now although I truly believe that if we just look we can see God anywhere in the world, my old walk to work from Piccadilly Gardens up Tib St and into Ancoats/ Angel Meadow was a particular route loaded with spiritual overtones. From the ritual of walking in "the gutter but looking at the stars" to the names of the shops (Love Saves the Day, Glorious Clothing, etc), there was much to make me see God. And there's the spiritual art and culture too - a mosaic reading "And on the sixth day God made MANchester", a graffiti tag of Jesus saying "Sorry I'm late, did I miss much?", and a neon sign in Cafe Pop's window that simply reads "Come and worship".

I miss that route to my old flat from my old office.


Tib St Manchester

For Lent, I am following the Detox book that we're mirroring in Sanctus at the mo, and it's been engaging me with topics such as living in the now and celebrating where we are and being ambassadors for God in the world where we live/ work/ socialise/ etc. My current route from my new flat to my new office is far less spiritually loaded to me most days (a fairly normal busy car-loaded route quite near the university). But today I glanced down into an otherwise normal muddy puddle, I saw the blue sky and clouds reflecting the glory of God's world back to me. I still miss that old route, but maybe this is the start of a meaningful new ritual...