On Sunday 30th October, All Saint’s Day, we shared a Service of the Word liturgy of “Thanksgiving for Moot” – looking back at where we’ve come from as well as ahead to the future. Tim Dendy (Moot veteran and churchwarden) shared his look back at Moot and how we’ve arrived where we are now. We hope you enjoy listening to an abbreviated version of the Moot story!
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In this presentation, Ian Mobsby explores a central theme of his new book ‘God Unknown: The Trinity in contemporary Spirituality and Mission’. The Holy Trinity is the central reality and concept that makes Christianity a distinct faith and not a jewish cult. As such God is a missionary God that challenges the Church and all Christians to participate in this mission and ministry of reconciliation, as God seeks to restore all things into renewed relationship with the divine. In our increasingly post-secular context where people are more interested in spirituality than religion, it is the reality of the Trinity that gives us hope and opens up the spiritual landscape of the faith to those who are un-or-dechurched.
To download slides associated with the address in Manchester and London click here
To see or order the book in the UK see here
To see or order the book in the USA see here
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In this podcast recorded at the Moot Sunday Evening Eucharist at the Guild Church of St Mary Aldermary, Ian Mobsby explores the meaning of sacraments and the eucharist.
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In this podcast Ian Mobsby, priest, speaker, writer and new monastic explores the theme of ‘The Trinity as Christian Spirituality and forms of the church’. This address was recorded at the national conference exploring the place of contemplative expressions of church, contemporary mission and fresh expressions of the church at the London Centre for Spirituality on Monday 16th May 2011.
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In 2009, some will know that the Fresh Expressions initiative in the UK sponsored a Symposium day to explore New Monasticism. This gathered a number of participants from traditional and new monastic communities. The papers presented on that day are about so to be published by Canterbury Press in the second of a series called Ancient Faith Future Mission, which will explore Fresh Expressions and New Monasticism.
Additionally, after discussions with a number of different parties, we have agreed to fund a New Monastics Network Ning for a year, to help build up the network of new monastics in the UK, and promote a number of new events and gatherings planned for 2011. So we are now encouraging people who are involved or interested in new monastic models of missional communities, to join with this Ning group – so follow the link and participate in what seems to be a growing and interesting new movement of the Spirit. Click here to go to the site, and join with what seems to be bubbling up. Let’s see what will happen. Mooters – you are more than welcome to get involved in the Ning site.
In this the final of four podcasts recorded at the Moot spiritual retreat in May 2010, Mark Berry explores the theme of the nature of God concerning participation and being sent. Drawing on Gospel texts, Mark explores how Christian communities are drawn into this same nature – of participation and being sent, so that the church is called also to be a missional community.
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Some of us from Moot are helping out at the Dekhomai stand at Body, Mind, Spirit Fair running from Wednesday to Monday in London this week. I have just done two stints on Wednesday and Thursday and wanted to share some thoughts on what it means to practice hospitality and mission in this kind of public space. The ethos of Dekhomai (which means welcoming place) is to be Christ’s presence, to listen to people, to offer hospitality, to offer everything as gift (we don’t charge unlike most of the other stands). On the stall we offer various practices from the Christian Tradition of spirituality: healing prayer, blessing prayer, making prayer beads, Jesus deck, massage for foot and hand, and some beautiful post cards on practices like ‘the examen, the jesus prayer, forgiveness etc. I did this last year and was very encouraged by some of the interactions I had with people and this year my confidence in this kind of practice of mission has increased. I have experienced forms of mission where the emphasis often feels like ‘trying to get a message across through a particular formula of words’, where both parties often feel uncomfortable and forced. My experience at Dekhomai was very different and I felt completely relaxed and trusting in the Holy Spirit, which often means not saying too much! When we offer hospitality our attention is turned to the other person, to hear their story and share something of our own, it is an exchange which enriches both parties, where differences as well as similarities are acknowledged and respected.
What came home to me was how the church of God is much bigger than we think. Two examples of conversations I had that illustrate this:
Discussing the practice of healing prayer with a man who is a healer in a spiritualist church: his practice was to ‘reach out to the cosmic energy of the universe’ for the other person, sometimes praying ‘in the name of Christ’ in his heart. His wisdom was that people don’t get everything they ask for but they often receive what they need, that it does not work like a slot machine, that he felt that there is often too much pressure for healing to occur in pentecostal style services where results are pushed to the extent of being false. His experience of the church was going to a Christian Union as a young man at university but being turned off when he found out that a group were praying for his conversion ‘behind his back’.
Another conversation was with an older woman who quoted the Kings James Bible: ‘fret not thyself because of evil doers’ and how hard she finds it to love those who are not loving or good. She shared how an agonizing and crippling fall had caused her to pray in earnest and trust God in a much deeper way. She was so pleased to find us doing the stall ‘for love’ and not for money.
Reflecting on the train coming home I realise that when I am at the stall I am open to God and others in an intentional way, that I step into the Kingdom of God in a way that is life enhancing, giving and receiving. I reflect that I need to step into this kind of space with others as an ‘intentional practice’ at least once a week – in order to carry it with me into the rest of life.
I realise how much I want the arts cafe lounge to happen so that I can know more of this life and blessing.
Ian Mobsby will be facilitating a one-day training event on Thursday 10 June on the subject of how all forms of church engage with mission and evangelism in the twenty-first century. This event for Ordinands, Clergy, Readers, Licensed Lay Ministers, Youth and Church workers aims to provide some social analysis, exploring the presenting spiritual needs to then explore possible approaches of engagement, drawing on the growing experience of new and old forms of church. To book a place, please email Dee Bennett. For more information, please James.
