Worship Idea – Pentecost Popcorn

Fr Simon Rundell published one of the best idea for Pentecost on his blog whilst I was on holiday. I found myself in a bar in Rhodes looking up popcorn machines on eBay. When the day of Pentecost had arrived, we were gathered in Holy Nativity Church with the scouts and a load of visitors when there was the sound of a violent air powered popcorn machine and the pop of corn all over the altar.

I hate watching videos of myself. If you want to see it done well, check out Simon doing it himself. He didn’t accuse the first followers of being small and round!

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The Raisin Exercise

The Church of England today launched its Lenten discipline with a fanfare.  It is a wonderful initiative to take look at the world around us and take it all in.  As a psychologist, Ruth has been using mindfulness techniques for years to improve people’s mental health.  We have actually used the raisin exercise in church on several occasions as a teaching tool about all of the things we miss in our busyness.  Take 10 minutes, a pack of raisins and a small group in a reflective service.  Here is the text:

Pick up a raisin and hold it in the palm of your hand. Look at it. Examine it. Describe the raisin. What does it look like? What color is it? How would you describe the texture? Now, feel the raisin in the palm of your hand. What does it feel like against your skin? Pick it up with your other hand. What does it feel like in your fingers? Is it slimy? Rough? Smooth? Soft? Hard? Squeeze it softly. What do you feel? Smell the raisin. Describe how it smells. Put the raisin in your mouth, but do not eat it. What does it feel like on your tongue? What does the texture feel like now? How does it taste? How does the taste compare to the way it smelled? Move it around in your mouth and notice every aspect of the raisin. Bite the raisin and think about what you taste. Now how does the raisin feel in your mouth? Finish chewing and eat the raisin. How did it taste?

Online 9 Lessons and Carols 2012

Some of you may remember that last year there was an Online Nine Lessons and Carols Service.  This year is no different and Metanoia are involved in it once again.  Check out all of the details over at Nine Lessons and Carols 2012!  Check out the hashtag #onlinecarols2012 too!

I also updated Metanoia’s facebook url so it matches every other online presence we have. Facebook’s original policy of never allowing you to change your name has been relaxed to “OK, we’ll let you change it but only once”.  If you have any links, they may need updating.

http://www.facebook.com/metanoiauk

Are You Gonna Go My Way?

One of the many things I need to do now that I am back online is sort through all of the tasks that have been backing up.  Here is one of the clips of The Rock Mass that I’ve managed to get off my computer and up to YouTube.  Thanks to Trash II Treasure for the shooting and editing.

Guess I’d better update Metanoia’s website.

The Creed

Thanks to Fr Simon for sharing this on Facebook earlier.

Greenbelt 2012 – U2charist

As you probably know, Ruth and I are involved in a couple of services at Greenbelt this year.  We’ve had details confirmed about when the U2charist will be happening.  It is going to be in the “InSense” venue at 5pm on Monday.  The worship is being organised by Luminous in Lincoln.  Metanoia will be leading the musical aspects of the service with a selection of U2 songs.

It’ll be great to see you there!

Metanoia at Greenbelt

Greenbelt 2012 is fast approaching and Metanoia are going to be involved in two of the services there.  Blesséd  are once again providing alternative sacramental worship and we have been asked to collaborate with Fr Simon and the team once more.  This year we are doing the opening act of worship in the Big Top at 5pm on Friday.  What the organisers were looking for was a ‘charismatic’ service of benediction.  Needless to say it will have a distinctive @metanoiauk feel to it.

There was also a request for a live band who would be able to help Luminous stage a U2charist.  Fr Simon suggested that we would be able to help out as we played a couple of U2 numbers in the big top last year.  Not quite sure which venue the U2charist is in yet or at what time but I’ll keep you up to date!

So who is coming then?

An Exercise in Collaboration – Daniel

On Tuesday Fr Simon posted on Facebook that he needed lots of different voices reading from Daniel.

I plugged a mic in to pro tools, grabbed a bible and read.  Dropped it into dropbox.  Lots of other people did the same and Simon did the rest.  Social media in action to create resources for God’s church.

 

Metanoia – Now The Green Blade Rises

Easter weekend was completely hectic and I totally forgot to post this.  It was part of the Stations of the Resurrection over at the Big Bible Blog organised by @vahva.

Here is Metanoia with Now The Green Blade Rises.  Why not follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or me on Soundcloud.

When I Survey the Wonderous Cross

Apologies for not posting yesterday.  As you can imagine, Good Friday is a very busy day!

Many of you will remember the online carol service last year that Metanoia recorded a song for.  Yesterday was the Online Stations of the Cross hosted over at Big Bible.  Metanoia recorded a subdued version of When I Survey for station number 11, The Soldiers Crucify Jesus.

As you can hear, it is a more subdued recording as befitting the occasion.  I dug out the massive Ugandan Drum that I brought back from Kampala and an acoustic guitar.  We tried to make the poignancy of the lyrics and the emotion in Ruth’s voice a feature and let the occasion speak for itself.  When we release that album we keep dreaming about it would have to be the secret track at the end!

Please feel free to download it and pass it around!  Just make sure it still says “Metanoia” on the MP3.

The version of the track was originally penned by the Northumbria Community.