blah|blether
on church, mission, worship + culture with Jonny Baker (CMS)
Friday 27th November – 5pm
The Crypt, Wellington Church, University Avenue, Glasgow

Jonny Baker is one of the best known Christian bloggers in the English speaking world. He brings a wealth of experience in Youth Work, Worship Leading/Curating, and Mission Support.

A prolific networker, over the years his blog has become a point of connection for many thousands of people involved in debates around emerging church, alternative worship and mission in the contemporary West.
This one-off blah/blether (named after similar events Jonny runs in England) begins with chat over curry + beer/irn bru, after which Jonny will speak and there will be time for responses and discussion.

All welcome, but booking essential by 26th Nov.
Cost £3 (£1 unwaged, £2 student) includes food – BYOB
Contact douggay@mac.com

This event is also on Facebook

I have it on good authority that the curry will be exquisite..! Hopefully see you there..!

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Looking for peoples interested in being involved in the Glasgow DIY festival to be held at the end of September. Either organising events, running events, or attending.
We will be putting on a range of events, from DIY music to talks on bicycle maintenance. (from gumtree)

Interested? Get in contact

A few wee ideas that popped into my head..
- diy phography/developing/processing
- diy music – spontaneous/imporvised music in groups
- diy spirituality – exploring spiritiualty/faith/celtic christianity outside the church
- diy medicine – looking at simple remedies for common things
- diy web – introductions to blogging/twitter, basic website creation

Quite an busy few weeks in terms of gigs .. last week we dropped into Oran Mor to catch Duke Special and Foreign Slippers (Gabrielle Fröd).
We walked in while Andy Knox finished off the last song of his supporting act, and a few minutes later were beautifully surprised by Foreign Slippers’ unique combination of an intricately handmade hat replete with bird and fast but delicate vibrato.

Duke Special was up to his usual theatrical tricks with lots of energy including a few songs based around the silent films of Hector Mann (although you’ll be hard pressed to find them in any archives, a Duke-style twist I only realised when trying to write this post!). There there were a few moments where you noticed was the final gig of the tour, but otherwise an brilliant evening with two excellent artists

currently listening to: duke special | foy vance | mumford and sons | laura marling | foreign slippers | van morrison (especially “Never Let the Spirit Die”| pedro the lion | oscar peterson | iain archer | dan lyth (although i’ve nearly had enough of all of them, i’m open to other suggestions..!)

Also.. Dan Lyth’s album is free to download on his site in exchange for your email address.. lots of luscious acoustic music to enjoy for the next wee while…

Twas the night before christmas,
And in every house,
Not a blogger was stirring,
w/neither keyboard nor mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimmney with care,
And the hush in blogosphere.
Went from here and to there…

Took my camera out today with me for the first time in ages.. popped along to Kelvingrove just in time to catch the Dumbartonshire Concert Band, had a quick look around again, popped into Montgomery’s for something to nibble on, and ended up watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” in the GFT.. a wonderful end to a beautiful day..

selected translations from the scribbles:

* riffing on the idea of reimagining the Kingdom of God (emmsy and stewart have lots on this..)
* we’re the translation that matters.
* we’ve seen the transition into the “emerging financial” market (although Brian didn’t extend the metaphor to any “crashes” that might happen!)
* Another slice to the pie or a ring on the tree?
* Interestingly the Catholic communities who took Vatican II seriously are probably some of the best placed people in this transition
* Doug Gay – Interesting to see the word “capitalism” itself re-entering the public domain – where previously the only people who used it were mostly hard-lefties.
* getting beyond growth. Development without growth – the idea that a developing economy could be measured in some terms other than continual expansion. Noting that divorce could be considered an economic growth for the economy – two house, two cars required, etc.
* “Post-denominational?” – Doug Gay notes that denominations are worked examples of power and decision making structures.
* being agents of the future – getting ahead of the pack, calling people forward to something, rather restraining them from going where we don’t want them to go.
* “Critical Mass in Scotland”
* Understatement – be more than it seems or seem more than it is (this in reaction for the search of the next big thing)

fragiletent , tractorgirl , mardibum , annedroid , 2churchmice (John & Olive Drane), headphonaught and wendy have all seen him at some point over the last weekend to and have thoughts worth reading too!

well worth being at.. and above all congrats to the EA for having the guts to invite him!

also in pdf format. Details for the events are available here… maybe see you there..

[Update] i’ve posted a few notes from the glasgow discussion here

A little bit of an unusual gig last night.. Beth Rowley headlining in Oran Mor, supported earlier in the evening by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Both were exceptional.. two amazing voices!

some little scribbles from my notepad:

different questions | having the same “grammar” but different content/meaning, it’s at that point that the christian and muslim paths diverge

some tentativel thinking about kenotic (emptying) love as something that differs between christian and muslim understandings of love

misunderstandings of “law” – loads of christians still think have the impression that jewish law is the big oppressor (i.e. keeping in the vein faith in NT vs works in OT) and not “law as the heartbeat of the universe

+++rowan using “imagination” as a core christian role/value.. liked that

+++rowan clarifying some remarks he made about marx – he liked marx’s critique of humans giving life to systems, so much so that they seem like autonomous beings or insurmountable. They should be reclaimed.. brought back to human transactions and relationships – getting out of the market mythology

repeated use of “the market mythology” – not that fact that it’s pretend (that’s be the market myth maybe?) but that the market is a whole enveloping market story (or metanarrative if you like that kinda word..)

when talking about the recent atheist bus adverts in London he comments that God isn’t really needing marketing that much.. (in the sense that God is a product that needs a good bit of selling.) perhaps another little invasion of that market idea

I’ll try and add some correct quotations when/if the transcript appears here. (Some more coherent thoughts appearing from David and probably from Brodie)

we’ve only just moved in and then this happens…