Remembering: passion, betrayal, resurrection and ... painting

Today I taught KT on my own and turned up to spend time with the young people with some paint brushes and a clear idea that we would read the passion narrative together.

We began by doing about half an hour of remembering the passion story. To help with this I put on the table some branches of hazel - a bowl, a towel, a jug of water, one of the communion chalices and the communion patten. The more I use the remembered Bible method the more I realise how affiriming of people's inner Bibles it is. It was great with the young people today because the two less academic ones actually know the Bible stories much better. One thing that struck me as we were remembering together was how time is concertina-d - you go forwards backwards and sideways - and of course you're dealing with four gospels at the same time too so there's lots going on and amazing how details get remembered - one girl today remembered the ear being chopped off.

After our remembering we started reading Luke's gospel, aloud, sitting peaceably around the table. We began with the entry into Jerusalem - the branches on the table were to prompt thoughts of this. Palm Sunday is called "branches Sunday" in French. It is branches rather than palm crosses which are blessed and taken home from Roman Catholic churches. We ended with Jesus being laid in the tomb. It was qutie extraordinary sitting there on a wonderful sunny spring day with a group of adolescents remembering and reading the Bible. After reading we wrote prayers of thanksgiving for Christ's witness for the way he had chosen. Each of us tried to focus on three things. All of us wrote powerful words. I could tell that the group were completely engaged with the story. We also read the footwashing from John's gospel ... and we talked about prisoners of conscience and the work of Amnesty International and Christian Action Against Torture, and we prayed. We talked about violence, their experiences of it at school and in daily life.

After lunch we read the story of the resurrection in Luke's gospel, the Emmaus story right on through to the ascension. And we talked about hope and life, the meaning and gift of resurrection. And then we painted and they just took over and the act of painting became part of our remembering and understanding. They created a sort of Jackson Pollock like fabulous mess in the centre of the paper, then surrounded it with images of flowers and smiley faces hearts and points of colour and their names and words of hope. What was brilliant was listening to how they came to an agreement about what to do and then seeing their pure glee in all starting to paint together and throw the paint around. Wonderful energy. I think I was moved that they wanted to put their own names as part of the resurrection framework for the painting.
Now I just have to hope that they become friends with me on Facebook so that I get to see the photos of our work of art - yes I took my paintbrushes but forgot to take my camera so we'll have to wait a while for some pictures.

Remembering the Bible in stolen early morning time

All last week at morning prayer we remembered the Bible. From Tuesday to Friday we had no Bible reading but rather we worked with the stories of the Bible that we actually already know in our hearts and heads, written with the words of our memories, with our feelings and more besides.

After we had done a bit of remembering we went off and looked at one or other of the wonderful textiles hanging in the chapel as part of our Stitching Peace exhibition.
We began with the calming of the storm and Christ walking on the water, we ended with the woman who annointed Jesus with perfume "In memory of her". We also remembered the 10 plagues of Israel and the healing of the woman bent double.

It was interesting that we never really did get around to trying to list the 10 plagues but instead we got "side-tracked" by one person saying, "the thing that always struck me was Pharaoh's stubborness". We were looking at an "arpillera" made at the time of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile and very present in our minds were the images and news from Libya. The plagues the people suffer as the result of one person's intransigence - how much time does it take to understand, what kind of macho posturing is this that takes no account of the human cost of confrontation?

It was wonderful to remember the Bible, it felt like stolen time somehow - early in the morning subversive prayer. It was fun and good and powerful - and interestingly days later now I can still remember all of the readings. If we had read the passages I suspect that might not be the case.

Remembering the Bible - stubbornly

The Ecumenical Centre chapel is housing the wonderful Stitching Peace exhibition until March 18 - here is a picture of the amazing Roberta Bacic who curated the exhibition for the WCC, showing some of the young stewards from central committee around the exhibtion. I'll be writing more about that in coming weeks.

Each morning this week we have remembered a Bible text at morning prayer and then gone and visited one of the pieces of textile art hanging in the chapel.
Yesterday morning we remembered the plagues of Israel and then went and looked at an arpillera which showed how a village responded when under Pinochet the water to the houses was cut off - by coming together and making sure their village looked well kept for despite the terribly added pressure of not having water.
As we tried together to remember the plagues one person said that the thing that she was thinking most about was the stubbornness of Pharaoh. Insistent at holding on to power. In the end only able to forge fowards to destruction of himself and his army because of that - how much pain and suffering could have been avoided if he had allowed compassion and understanding into his heart. We never did manage to remember together the ten plagues of Israel but somehow we did remember this essence of the story ...

Remembering the Emmaus Road

I had never done the Emmaus road story as remembered Bible until yesterday and I found it very moving and enlightening.
I wanted three sessions with the group that fitted together but where the "fit" would only really become clear as each of us was on our homeward journey.
The whole point of beginning with a first session on the labyrinth and daring to speak deeply of joys and pain that motivate and hold us back on life's sometimes tortuous journey, was that we should begin to experience more consciously the iterative nature of understanding and discernment, that things are not cut and dried or easy very often but processes which are in various stages of becoming.
So we started with this:
If a man

wishes to be sure

of the road he travels on,

he must close his eyes

and walk in the dark.

If a woman

wishes to be sure

of the road she travels on,

she must close her eyes

and walk in the dark.

(St John of the Cross)

I also spoke a bit about how hard it is to pick up the threads and also shared some of the story of our friend Suzanne. We sang the wonderful Iona chant I learnt at the Kirchentag "Come Holy Spirit" and ended that session by simply reading aloud the kennings that I had prepared, as we reflected on our paths and the way our stories are part of God's story, how Jesus' story becomes part of our story. The kennings simply evoked that, without (I hope) imposing particular stories or interpretations on people.
Compline fitted in beautifully after that first session, and it was good to have a night to sleep on things - and time in the bar to chat about things!
For the second and third sessions I wanted to take up the themes of pain and joy on the journey more clearly. So I chose Christ's arrest, betrayal and passion and wanted a resurrection story to go with that.
Janet had spoken to me about how she had once taken a small barbecue to church to try to prompt rememberings on the cooked fish resurrection story (this was the origin of my kenning "fish barbecuer"). However, I decided I wanted to go with the Emmaus road and see how that worked.
I started that final session by reading Danny Abse's poem about paint and blood. The pain is still part of the joy as we move towards resurrection. Then we began simply remembering biblical stories about bread, gradually moving through to the Emmaus story ... it became clear to me just how much the story itself is about how events are remembered and interpreted. The two were going "home", they thought they knew where they were going - but actually their destination changed because of their encounter with the risen one in the breaking of the bread. Emmaus is a story of iteration, of missed understanding and new insight.

I particularly liked the fact that some people shared experiences around the story from their church and pastoral work. Clearly somehow links were being made between our story and the story of the kingdom. All our stories are one.

Kennings - for fun, for reflection, for getting to know ourselves and God more deeply

So here are some of our Kennings from this morning's session here at the British Army's Church House in Lübbecke where the CAECG were having one of their twice yearly Council meetings.
The idea for writing kennings came from Janet Lees and you can read a rather more focused method than the one I used today on the Vision4Life website here.
Today had a much broader brief to try and write kennings particularly about God and Jesus but also to write kennings about any other biblical story that came to mind. i did this just as a way to free up people's minds and open them up to the idea, so folk didn't get too hung up about not being able to think of a kenning about God.
On the morning I arrived I also sat down and wrote around 50 kennings on small cards, most about God and Jesus but there are also some characters from the Hebrew scriptures you may recognise (not all of them have found their way back to me so there's just some here). My kennings are at the end in italics and we used those twice, reading them aloud around the group in two sessions before we dared to write our own and read them out to everyone. This was a really fun session and I was so happy it worked well for people.
Later talking with a former colleague and fellow linguist we realised that this process actually turns the original reason for kennings being used on its head. In old Norse poetry kennings evolved as a way of trying to show respect for a person or thing, describing it differently to get appropriate distance, to make something more noble, less attainable. However, what this method tries to do is use the writing of kennings to gain new insights and intimacy - intimacy with God and Jesus, insights into the stories and understanding of what is going on within us at our time of remembering - how we are interpreting the story. The etymological root of kenning is from the verb to know, so these easy little phrases are about new ways of knowing as well.
A very powerful simple little tool and such fun too - great for tweeting!

God wrestler
Blessing stealer
name changer
soul lover
whole maker
shame atoner
hope holder
pallet lowerer
Bible preacher
lone giver
peace bringer
soul healer
sleep giver
silence holder
truth teller
people lover
path leader
live giver
wounds healer
mosaic maker
wave wader
hand holder
tension holder
relationship healer
life delighter
city destroyer
sin forgiver
sick lover
gospel proclaimer
demon conqueror
faith shower
sin taker
heart warmer
darkness teaser
parable puzzler
hem toucher
world maker
love giver
sin forgiver
world lover
promise maker
son sender
dead raiser
life giver
manna dropper
humble raiser
pride pricker
Dawkins lover
marmite sender
crowd feeder
praise provoker
eternal forgiver
faithful helper
patient listener
constant lover
eye opener
Unity maker
Rule breaker
Free setter
Freedom giver
One maker
Blessing bestower
all things new maker
constant encourager
open-armed includer
ever-present challenger
Incarnated new-life giver
Road accompanier,
sun lighter
idea giver
heart opener
joy giver
neighbour lover
purse opener
warmth giver
light giver
support giver
Demon driver
word sender
God bearer
Crowd feeder
dream interpreter
wine multiplier
life giver
peace bringer
faith giver
grace giver
peace giver
sorrow taker
worship receiver
dream giver
darkness bearer
soul befriender
comfort giver
hate disperser
life changer
wisdom teacher
balloon burster
Angry preacher
sad weeper
meaning reaper
feisty teacher
soldier saver
beloved brother
peace maker
picture painter
dream treasurer
life adviser
water vinifier

thirst quencher
storm calmer
stone dropper
bread breaker
God lover
sheep finder
flock waterer
darkness divider
seed setter
law giver
animal pairer
dove releaser
breath breather
story teller
footware remover
plate filler
fish mulplier
death defier
water walker
fish barbecuer
child lover
way giver
love maker
cup giver
man lover
foot washer
Zaccheus befriender
manna finder
temple cleanser
woman lover
whip wielder
family leaver
parent deserter
temple preacher
olive-branch receiver
blood stopper
hem toucher
lamp lighter
apple eater?
earth former
water seeker
wood worker
cross bearer
fruit stealer
brother killer
serpent talker
kingly philanderer
tear crier
oil provider
tomb quitter
tomb opener
sea parter
whale whiler
desperate sufferer
ark builder
wave strider
jonathan lover
beatitude talker
bush burner
wind calmer
desert wanderer
satan rejecter
cave shelterer
tambourine dancer

Kennings and labyrinths for a retreat of the Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches in Germany

On Thursday evening I caught the night train to Germany to come and spend the weekend with folk from the Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches in Germany.
I was privileged to be able to sit in on their business sessions yesterday - I have to admit that I really must be a bit of a sad case ecumenical bureaucrat to find business meetings interesting. However this was less a business meeting and more a news of the local congregations' life. There were also a couple of opportunites to talk about the WCC's work on environmental issues and the current time for creation, and in terms of ecumenism in Germany through the ACK and involvement in the Ecumenical and Protestant Kirchentag.
However, the real reason I was with this group is that in a moment of weakness (also known as the well-known stranz inability to say no) I agreed to be a retreat leader for three "input" sessions. It's always strange to have a completely free hand with a group and it was wonderful for my brain to try to piece together something that I hoped might be both useful and meaningful for them (and of course for me!).
So, based on the ideas of my friend Janet Lees in Word of Mouth and on the Vision4Life website, I decided to try and do Bible Study without Bibles, and encourage them to allow themselves some time to see how much their story crosses with Jesus' story.
In the first evening session I did a bit of story telling, about myself and where I "come from" to try to empower them to do some deep talking about their own journeys. Then I gave each of them an A4 photocopy of a chartres labyrinth to trace with their fingers or a pen, both inwards and outwards and encouraged them to talk in groups of three and dare to name where they thought they might be going ... and perhaps even acknowledge where they might be coming from.
At the end of that session I distributed some "kennings" that I'd prepared on small pieces of card and we read them aloud around the room as a way of trying to sense where God's story and each of our stories were crossing, how we could pick up the thread.
This morning we began by remembering the labyrinth, thinking about the difference between labyrinths and mazes Then I got everyone to write some kennings - which was fun and the results were brilliant - I'll type them in later.
The main part of that session we then spent in remembering in the large group Christ's passion and betrayal. Our remembering was a powerful time of words and silence, of promptings and saying. It became clear to me just how good a tool Remembered Bible is - we were interpreting and telling at the same time, adding ourselves, our feelings into the story, But today I also felt very much how meditative and emotional remembering the Bible can be.
In the third session we moved to remembering resurrection and the Emmaus story. I had never done this before with a group and as the "remembrance teaser" told them the text we were going to remember together was about bread. so we remembered lots of bread stories before I moved them on to Emmaus. Remembering Emmaus really showed me how much the Bible itself is a remembered story, all about anamnesis. More about the content of our remembering in a later post.
To close I gave the group another labyrinth - this time the Peace Convocation logo - just a black and white version rather than the colourful one pictured here. We prayed and then moved to the chapel for our eucharist where our remembrance became real in the taste of the broken bread.
By the end I felt we had all walked a fair way together, seeing how our paths and God's were crossing and intertwined, how even seemingly dead ends might hold the opportunity for new life and challenge.

Noah's Ark and Advent liturgy for creation justice

My friend Marie Martel is doing scrapbooking and I told her my only experience of doing scrapbooking was with Remembered Bible earlier this year in Windermere. This gave her an idea and she's just done her first "Bible et scrap" on Noah's Ark. I must ask her for an electronic copy of the text she's used here.
Her scrapbook reminded me that one of the British initiatives for climate justice within the churches is called operation Noah - they're having some financial problems at the moment and need all the support you can give them, but they are still doing excellent work as are the Christian Ecology Link.
At our morning service in the ecumenical centre today we used the 350 drum beats liturgy with prayers from the different regions of the world. It worked very well, weaving a rainbow while listening to the drum beats and praying the Advent antiphones. Towards the end of the service after saying aloud the promise God makes to Noah and lighting the first candle on the Advent wreath, we kept silence, hoping that there would be no more drum beats and that the world would not go beyond the 350 parts per million of carbon.
As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.’ Gen. 8.22

Remembered Bible at morning prayer

At morning prayer today Manoj Kurian invited us to share rememberings of stories of the risen Christ.
The first image that came to my mind was grilled fish and how it's not at all really one of my favourite breakfast foods and yet this is what Jesus cooks for the disciples in one of the stories of the resurrection! We brought our mundane and personal questions to the stories of the resurrection, our enjoyment of gardens or focus on a particular detail. Not just fish but also bread was broken as the scales fell from our eyes and our remembering of the Risen One began to take on form and meaning. We wove our own stories into the stories of Christ's resurrection appearances, we remembered the women who human history and the church have been so keen to forget.

Then I realised that actually the resurrection story I still go back to has no appearance by the Risen One. Just the empty tomb, fear and silence. That silent emptiness speaks to me of resurrection and is also the text I chose to preach on at my father's and Alain Blancy's funerals.

At the end of the day I give thanks for those gentle early morning rememberings as I watched the beauty of the light shining through the stained glass and the wonderful wooden cladding cracked as it expanded in the morning light.