Moot » alternative worship

Moot is moving to the Church of St Mary Aldermary in the City of London, our new home

ianmobsby — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 00:10:34 +0000

From the 8th of January 2011, Moot will be moving the community office from the Spirituality Centre on Lombard Street, and its Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday activities from the Church of St Mary Woolnoth, to the Church of St Mary Aldermary, Watling Street, City of London, EC4M 9BW. St Mary Aldermary will be Moot’s new home.

From historical sources, the Church of St Mary Aldermary (Old Mary) is the oldest of the church buildings attributed to St Mary in the City of London. It is likely that it was founded by Benedictine Monks from the Priory of Christchurch Canterbury, who previously held what is called ‘the gift of the Living’ regarding the appointment of Priests. Detailed records about these early times are now lost, with the first recorded Rector named as Ernest de Berket in 1233. More recently as a Guild Church, St Mary Aldermary has had responsibilities for furthering Christian Spirituality and the vocations to the religious life.

So we the New Monastic Community of Moot, are bringing a fresh expression of Monasticism to this foundation, contributing to this ongoing tradition which has continued for over 900 years.

For more information on the Church, its history, current services and activities please see here.

We will be holding a Compline Service on Sunday 2nd January 2011 as the last Moot Worship Service in St Mary Woolnoth at 6.30pm.
The Last Stressed In the City Meditation Group will be on Weds 5th January 2011 again at 6.30pm in St Mary Woolnoth. This will be followed at 7.30pm by the last of the Enneagram workshops led by Dave Tomlinson, the third and final session.

So we hope to move the Moot Office and some of our equipment on the 8th January 2011, with services beginning on Sunday the 9th January 2011. The Moot Eucharist Service will occur at 6.30pm. We are still awaiting information about access to the church to work out if we can proceed with the former Moot Morning Service which will shift back to its old time of 3pm, but this is still needing to be confirmed because an Asian Syrian Orthodox Church use the Church building Sunday mornings and early afternoons.

The first Moot Meditation Group will begin in St Mary Aldermary on Weds 12th January 2011 at 6.30pm.
Serum will move from the Crosse Keys Pub to the Ye Olde Watling Pub right next to the Church on Weds 12th of January 2011 at 7.30pm.

The Church currently has two lunch time Eucharist Services on Mondays (1662 Book of Common Prayer) and Thursdays (Common Worship) at 1.10pm, and we are exploring the possibility of starting up Contemplative Morning and Evening Prayer, which will be open to the public we hope from the first week in February 2011.

So this is all very exciting!! There will be a special service to celebrate this new beginning, with the Archdeacon of London as the new Guild Church Vicar, myself as the new Mission Priest, and the Moot Community recommitting to its Rhythm of Life in its new home before the Bishop of London. This is likely to happen in the Spiring 2011.

So if you are in the Moot Community, we really need your participation in sustaining our worship, mission and community activities in the next stage of our life, and if you are outside Moot, please pray for us as we seek to develop the next stage of the community’s vision.

The need for non-monarchial language for God

admin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Have you ever noticed how often the word “Lord” is used in Church. We Christians use it heavily for naming God. The problem is, that it is, as a word, quite anachronistic to modern parlance. For many Lord and King, creates a sense of an outdated approach to governance, a hierarchical approach to social organisation. In our brave new post-secular culture, we need to be careful not to be lazy about our language for God, and the importance to seek out constantly changing language as a metaphor for God.

I have just met up for a coffee with Padraig, who talked about an indigenous South African word for God as the ‘Big Big’. I like that as a metaphor, as it is saying that God is bigger than the biggest thing you can imagine, so the God that is outside of our imagination… so encourages the sense of transcendence without imposing majestic androcentric understandings onto God the Creator. He also named another metaphor used by a friend of his for God, as ‘The Bigest’ I like that too.

On Sunday, Jemma Allen, our friendly New Zealand Priest continues her unpacking of a theology of friendship, to talk about the Kin-dom rather than the Kingdom, which again reconstructions an understanding of friendship as the locus of God’s purposes to draw all things back into restored relationships with the divine.

The meditation from last night as a couple of people asked it get put here

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:38:00 +0000

I have a bit of a thing about party debris. I love empty bottles and cans lining mantelpieces, burnt out tea lights, wet fag ends, redundant corks. The crashed out bodies of last night’s revellers in duvets around a house, resisting the morning light. The dregs of drinks in hungover cups along bookshelves, the glass distorting the titles on the spines of my books.

I love cleaning it all up – it’s not particularly unselfish, it’s just the most evocative kind of cleaning. I like it. I probably feel cool doing it.

This morning in someone else’s kitchen, picking over bottle tops and soggy cupcake papers, I thought, – I’ve had a thing about the debris for a while but I’d not thought about what I liked about it much – and this morning I thought, it’s coz we were alive last night, – I look at the shrapnel and I know we had fun. – I’m not dead. I’m not going quietly. It’s a relief. My limbs work. My blood isn’t thin.

The Thames in the Fire Sermon carries no party debris. “The river bears no empty bottles, –/ Silk handkerchiefs, cigarette ends /Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed. /And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors; /Departed, have left no addresses”. No party debris, and the people we knew or didn’t know, who populated our line of vision, have left; and it feels hollow.

I usually go excited to parties; usually like London. Like Tower Bridge, scaffolding on one tower last time I saw it; like the lanterns along More London, the tiny beach at the South Bank, the ferry boats, the spines of Charing Cross Bridge, Westminster all gold and dusty, Battersea Power Station.

Sometimes my God rattles through my city air and my sinews and cartilage and the tube tunnels I’m shunted through daily.

Sometimes I want mundane, I want dead, I want mediocre quiet. Sometimes I’m hardly alive, and I hardly care; I’m in absence and everyone’s not here, and there’s no sign they have been, and God is in the everybody.

Building Ecclesial Communities out of Contextual Mission

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:23:00 +0000

I am pleased to say that the Fresh Expressions International Share Site has published a short item I wrote on their blogspace. See here

Moot Rhythm of Life Service, St Pauls Cathedral April 2009

admin — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:57:00 +0000

On Easter Saturday 2009, Moot held its third Rhythm of Life Service before the Bishop of London in the Crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral. This service was a combination of an alternative worship service and Holy Communion. The above film was used in the service to explore the theme of ‘Living with Hope in a culture of uncertainty’. Copies of the new Moot Pocket Liturgy book were given out with Chrome maps of the underground symbolising a commitment to the City. We were grateful for the support of a number of Moot friends who were involved in the intercessions. Ian Adams representing the mayBE community in Oxford, Jonny Baker representing the Grace Community and Vanessa Elston representing a number of alt worship networks and friends. Photos of the event in Moot’s flickr group, along with a copy of the liturgy (to go up soon).

To see other Moot Community youTube videos click here

Reflection on the Trinity using Rublev’s Ikon

admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:30:00 +0000

For those who are interested, the Bishop of London has written a short but indepth reflection on the Trinity drawing on Rublev’s ikon. So if you want to explore using this extremely important image as a point of worship, explore it here

Reflection on the Trinity using Rublev's Ikon

admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:30:00 +0000

Moot Pocket Liturgy Book

admin — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:57:00 +0000

Pleased to say that the Moot Pocket liturgy book with new and old versions of our Little Service, Complines and contemplative elements, has now been published by Proost. For those coming to the ROL Service at St Paul’s, please do not rush out and buy one, as we will be giving you one as a resource for the next year.

if you are not going to be at the ROL Service on Easter Saturday, then please do consider buying a copy through the mootique, details to be available soon (when I get the time to sort it out).

If you are desperate to get hold of it before a weeks time, then do order it directly from Proost. For more details on the book from Jonny, click here

Looking for something alternative in the Woking mid-surrey area?

admin — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:19:00 +0000

My good friend Bryony Davis, who has not had shall we say, not the best experience of the Church of England, is looking to find kindred spirits in the Woking/Mid-Surrey area in England UK, to look at developing something of a low key alternative gathering/Spirited Exchanges. At present she is seeking out if there is anyone out there who would be interested in meeting up.

If you know anyone who may be interested in this, which also may be you – please do contact Bryony by clicking here

Saints: Strength from weakness

admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:15:00 +0000

For October, Moot is exploring the theme of Saints. I was really moved by a service our sister community Grace completed on the idea of wounds and brokenness. It sounded a really profound service. Inspired by this, Moot explored the issue of Saints: strength in weakness in our Alt Eucharist service last night.

For those who missed it, we did record the homily in a podcast, click here to get hold of it. Alternatively you may want to subscribe to the Moot podcasts by I-tunes here for free.