Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2024

 

New Blog

For those who are interested, my blog has moved to http://blog.timnorwood.name/

New Blog

I've moved my blog to a new address so that I can start again. This blog will remain live for a while.

New Year so far

This week 2011 began properly with the whole family back to work/school. I've had two full days work during which I've hit the ground running a bit... Which isn't always the best thing to do, I know...

Having said that, it's been a good start to the year. I managed to get my end of quarter fees and expenses done - never one of my favourite jobs! And finished a second (and a third) draft of an application form for a new URC Special Category Minister - and been given an offer of housing for the post. A long session with Mike Sanderson on Thursday afternoon was really useful in finishing this off.

On Thursday morning I joined the Cornerstone Team for an away morning at UCMK which was very positive. It was good to be part of a team again and talk about work together...

There is a pile of work still to do (of course) and I haven't touched my thesis this week - although I did manage to visit the OU library and get a couple of books on emergence. Really must find time for study this week.

I also need to finish off the work on my licensing service - which is proving to be more complicated than I would have hoped... Still, I think we're nearly there and it's really just music and invites now...

On the whole a good first 'week' back - however short. The only fly in the ointment is the fact that I'm still feeling fairly ill - a combination of asthmatic and IBS symptoms which are fairly irritating - and interconnected. It would really be nice to be feeling better - but sometimes you just have to be patient...

Yesterday I moved all the Christmas decorations and 'stuff' up to the loft - so the spare room is now free again - and the exercise machines have been excavated - so we should be able to start moving again which will undoubtedly help on the health front.

This blog is also a new start - not sure where it's going to go, but I do feel the need to write a journal/blog again. I really miss it - it seems to me that the life hasn't been the same since I stopped.

The Missing Cross

Here's the painting for Good Friday - conspicuously missing from my series of Lent paintings... a special request for Harvey.

Conservatives and Liberals

Finally, the Conservatives and Lib Dems campaigns reach the Norwoods.
The Conservative flier is addressed to Isla - I guess they've given up on me... Their flier is on more expensive paper but the first thing that hit me were the words: left, right and above. I'm wondering if their policies are socialist, conservative or theological... Apparently Iain Stewart has the same NSPCC half marathon T-shirt as me...
The LibDem flier is fairly trad and cheap looking but stronger on content. Makes Peter Jones look like a potential MP.
I'd love to see some local poll results - I wonder if the balance in MK South has shifted...


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Meeting App

This week's cartoon - how technology could make church meetings more enjoyable...

First Flier

I revieved my first political flier of the election campain today - a nice trifold from sitting MP Phyllis Starkey. She's obviously taking the election seriously and is not taking anything for granted. She seems determined to fight.

On the negative side, I'm already getting a bit tired of all the Labour Red...

Checked her web site and it crashed first time because of too much trafic - a good thing for her that people are visiting - but doesn't look good for visitors. The site is fairly pedestrian and would benefit from something more personal - a blog or Twitter feed - and I know Phyllis tweets so I'm not sure why there's nothing here....

All this aside, she's off to a quick start. Will the early bird catch the worm or will the other candidates have more tricks up their sleave?

Low Sunday Attendance

After seven weeks of painting, I've decided to do something different this week. It's been a while since I got my pens out and did a cartoon, but here's one for Low Sunday. Feel free to use it - but mention my name...

I was thinking about the fact that lots of people are on holiday and attendance is usually low. Not a good time therefore for a vicar to study statistics. How meaningful are our figures? When ministers boast about their congregations are they aware of seasonal factors?

On an aside, I'm beginning to wonder if social and cultural factors are more significant in church growth (and decline) than we clergy would like to admit. Is church growth an emergent property of social networks? If so, our 'growth strategies' may be little more than a way of tracking holiday habits...

iPhone apps for the Election

I've downloaded both the Labour and Conservative iPhone apps. The Conservative one is very pretty and I like the swingometer - although I do note you can't swing it in favour of Labour - can't think why...

They both give you options to get involved, ie phone friends or volunteer. They seem to be learning the lessons from the US election. The Conservative app has 420 votes so far, while the Labour app has 100 - which doesn't sound good for Gordon so far...

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Election Day One

The UK general election campaign began today. After a long 'phony war' we're finally off...

I've wished my various politician tweeps 'good luck'. I'm not neutral, if course, and have already decided (pretty much) how I will vote - although I am always open to persuasion...

What I will be watching during this election will be:

A) how the different political parties use the Internet and social media

B) what they have to say about peace, justice and environmental issues

C) how they play the persuasion game - I am particularly interested in how they manage to get people to vote

The next six weeks should be fun.

In the meantime, remember that your vote counts. As I was reading in 'Connected' the other day, one ordinary person who votes can (potentially) influence another hundred people. Your vote could make a real difference!

So let's think, pray, watch and vote...

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Marketing to the Social Web

I'm reading Marketing to the Social Web by Larry Webber. It's a good overview of the issues and options for people interested in using the internet for communications - particularly advertising.

I like his concept of seven steps:

1. Oberve: find out what people are already saying.
2. Recruit: identify a core group of collaborators who will engage in the process.
3. Evaluate platforms: work out what tools you will use.
4. Engage: build relationships by active dialogue.
5. Measure: evaluate the impact of your communications. Who are you talking to, and what are you talking about?
6. Promote: link to other social media and communities.
7. Improve: and so on...

I haven't finished the book yet, but have enjoyed it so far. It's given me a lot to think about.

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Easter Break

It's the first day of our post-Easter break today. We're looking forward to seeing Dave today. He's hoping to start a 22 mile pre-marathon run from our house.
In the meantime, we're taking it easy...


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Easter

Lent 6: Palm Sunday

This is a very simple painting. Jesus is both revealed and obscured by the pomp and circumstance of Palm Sunday. His figure is faintly visible through the archway created by the palms - in the midst of the crowd.

Lent 5: Feet

This week's reading was John 12:1-8 which got me thinking about feet. Jesus' feet are anointed with oil. Isaiah says, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news..."
I also had in my mind a talk by Archbishop Rowan Williams at which he talked about Jesus pressing his thumb into clay and church happening as the impression is created. He also said that church is what happens when Jesus makes his presence felt.
This is a rather simplistic painting of feet which attempts to express these images. The footprints of Jesus are a source of blessing - and are blessed - as they act as places of transformation. Within the outline of the feet, two images appear which represent structural or organic images of church - a temple made by living stones or fish.
It's a fairly contrived image but hopefully expresses some of my thoughts...

Lent 4: The Prodigal

The fourth Sunday of Lent is always a bit tricky because it is the traditional date of Mothering Sunday in the UK. This means that the Lenten theme is often supplanted by local plans. I wondered which way to go with the reading this week...

I decided in the end to keep the Mothering Sunday theme in the back of my mind but focus on the lectionary readings. The Gospel reading for the week is Luke 15:1-3, 11b-end - The Prodigal Son.

Colour is important in this image, as it has been for me from the beginning of Lent. I've painted the son, weary and broken - nearly on the point of return. The son is red - which could be good or bad - his fate hangs in the balance... but even before the decision is made, he is surrounded by the loving embrace of the parent. Grace precedes decision.

The embracing arms of love are blue. I've consciously echoed the traditional association of blue with Mary - hopefully indicating the motherhood of God...

Lent 3: Grace

From Isaiah 55:1-9 and Luke 13:1-9

This weeks readings pick up the theme of blessing and curse, life and death, repentance or destruction. The image of the fig tree is a powerful one. The owner wants to dig it up because it hasn't produced fruit, but the farm worker wants to give it one more chance...

I have been struck over the past two weeks by the way I have unconsciously used the same colour to represent contradictory ideas. For example, in week one, I used red to represent love, while in week two, red was used to indicate a threat. This got me thinking about the fine line between ideas or the way contradictions can be held closely together.

In this picture I have attempted to use the same colours on right and left, but on the left they are about death, while on the right the same colours indicate life. Red can be a threatening fire or sign of fruitfulness. Blue can be clear skies or storm clouds; living water or dead soil. Brown can be good soil or desert.

Here are the half images mirrored so you can see the effect of only one colour system:

 

I like to think that this painting says something about the way circumstances can change very rapidly. Despair can be transformed into hope in the flip of an image. I am reminded of the fall of the Berlin Wall or the end of Apartheid. Isaiah says, Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.' (Isaiah 55:6-7)

Lent 2: Jerusalem

At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you."
He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.' In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' " (Luke 13:31-end TNIV)

In this painting I've picked up the image of the protective mother hen protecting her nest from circling foxes. I wanted to avoid the gentle and more pastoral image that I suspect this metaphor usually suggests. The hen is upright with wings outstretched, hopefully suggesting anger, desperation, hopelessness or outrage. The nest is empty - desolate or fragmented. There is nothing there to protect. The foxes represent Herod - or any circling threat.
I didn't intend it initially, but I did become conscious as I worked that the hen was forming a cruciform posture - perhaps helping link the stance of the mother hen to the sacrifice of the Cross.
I have given the picture the title, 'Jerusalem', but it could take other slightly tongue-in-cheek possibilities - 'The Passion of the Hen' for example...
This was a relatively rapid work given limited time this week but it should fit into the sequence started by 'Temptation' last week.

Lent 1: Temptation

This picture is based on the story of the Temptation in Luke 4:1-13. My starting point was hunger, which is why the focus of the painting is a black hole which is distorting the world around it. The experience of physical hunger is used by the devil as a lure to draw Jesus from his path. Jesus has a hunger for order or wholeness and the devil offers him a 'quick fix' through political, military or economic domination. Satisfying these hungers would produce chaos and then oblivion. The ultimate risk is that love itself, symbolised by the blood-red colour on the left could be sucked into the chaos and disappear. Meanwhile, evil, represented at the top right, is hoping to manipulate all this from the edges, while heaven, on the top left, is standing at a distance, waiting but not interfering...

This was a quick and fun painting to produce and I'm relatively pleased with the end result. My intention is to produce a series of paintings during Lent 2010 based on the lectionary readings for each week. I would like the pictures to work together as a single piece so I may continue to use a semi-abstract approach.