Sunday

Went to MK village this morning to lead worship at All Saints'. Had a great time with them. They were really friendly and seem to be developing some good ideas. I look forward to working with them again!

While I was there I popped round to look at Broughton Church - it's surprisingly big! Can't quite get my head around the fact we're not using it. The notice in the porch says it's not needed for public worship, which I think is unfortunate. All the evidence I see seems to point to the fact that we need a large number of small worshipping communities which are as local as possible... but I'm sure there was logic in the decision to close it...

In the evening I had the second of four sessions with the second batch of worship leaders from St Mary's. There are four of them and we had a good session reflecting on worship that they had observed. My last run of worship training didn't go so well - largely because I tried to fit it in around my sabbatical. This group is thriving - possibly because they all come from the same church and are working on the same service...

From a personal point of view I feel I'm learning a lot about the dynamics of local training. I begin to feel that it is really important to offer something that is a) locally delivered, b) appropriate to immediate needs, c) limited in scope, and d) based on relationships. It therefore works better to offer training for a group of people from the same church for a very specific service that they need to be able to lead than to attempt a more open worship leading course. The more open ended comprehensive course is better offered on a wider area basis for those who are willing to give time to be more exploratory.

On the other hand, it may also be helpful to offer some nuggets of ideas that could be built on... Since MSI has been cancelled I may use some of those dates to offer something on this basis...

Perpetual Dawn

I attended an evening alt.worship event organised by Moot on the theme of perpetual dawn - dawn/night/new day...

This was a phenomenally high quality event - too high for the average congregation to attain: ten projectors with rolling animations, original poems and a work of art created as we watched. Having said this, it did work very effectively, demonstrating what can be done with multi-media and some careful thought. I was particularly impressed with the way they had produced a piece of quality reflective worship without depending on familiar clichés or asking for two much audience participation. It was possible to be present and to allow the event to wash over me.

I also liked the way each member had brought something to contribute; be it art, words or a song. This put me in mind of quaker worship or Paul's advice in 1 Corinthians. This was clearly alt.worship created through a collective process and it worked very well.

Multi Sensory Evensong

I went to a multi sensory evensong put on by Visions. They had decided to put on a 1662 evensong with contemporary alt.worship music. It was a bit of a curates egg - good in parts. At its best it was very interesting - if not moving.

The best bits were the psalms, canticles and responses set to ambient or trance backing tracks - this (very nearly) worked very well... but could have done with a bit more punch when it came to delivery. I was quite taken by the way anglican chant seemed to fit with contemporary dance music. This could be worth exploring...

Overall this was a good try and I very much liked what they were trying to do, but I think this service suffered from a lack of confidence and overall slickness. Greenbelt can be a different venue for alternative worship so it would be unfair to be too critical.

I think this service could have been improved by a few more videos and visuals and a bit more thought about how to use Cramner's text. It would also have been good to see a bit more thought about space and movement. I was left wanting more...