Greenbelt "alpha testing"

Team GB met again. We did an early run-through of the plans to see how it felt. And it felt good! A few new ideas and lots of volunteering to take bits on left us with the following even more exciting, updated plan. Look out for a beta test coming to a community Sunday near you soon!

Visuals

• Rach is going to make canopy decorations using similar materials as before. Emma is up for helping.
• Rich has made "Still life in motion" videos of South Park and Port Meadow, to "bring our outside cathedral in".
• Jim and Jon (mechanic) to make other projections, including key words from readings, and possibly the Lamb song. Also our contact details (see below) for at the end.

Sounds and music

• JohnK will lead putting a suitable sound track together, including the Lamb song.
• Rich will make recording of crowd noises.

Opening/arrival

• Crowd voices sound-scape volume increases as more people come in, then shut it off suddenly to signal the start; relative stillness.
• People welcomed at the door by community members and given a hazelnut (in its shell -- you'll see why later) and hand out resource sheets.
• Tracey will source hazelnuts (in their shells)
• ChrisW will make nut allergy signs!
• JohnK will make beautiful resources (not typed, decorated). Rich can colour-photo-copy.

Welcome voice

• Tell people what will happen, who we are (a community [from Oxford] exploring creative, simple, engaged playful living in the way of Christ).
• Introduce theme:
  • stepping back [from the pace of fashion]
  • mention stillness in the eternal moment
  • smallness/held-ness; hope of moving from fear to freedom in this.
• Rich will write this.

Call & response

• Use our Christ is coming - keeping the rhythm of our regular community life.
• Emma will adapt this.

Chant: come Holy Spirit...

• Jim wants to lead the singing on the day!

Wisdom

Read by different community members around the room (microphones allowing). These are all about scale (vastness, depth, eternity...).

• Vastness: Psalm 8 (Message remix?) macro skies... micro self... Why does God bother with us tiny things? [yet God does].
• Eternity: John 1, 14-18 ish (eternal presence of God,“He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” John 1 v15)
• Depth: Julian of Norwich: In this vision he showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, and it was round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought "What may this be?" And it was generally answered thus: "It is all that is made." I marvelled how it might last, for it seemed it might suddenly have sunk into nothing because of its littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: "It lasts and ever shall, because God loves it."

Chant: Gloria, Gloria, Gloria...

Reflection space

• Community voice introduces. Rachel will write this, based on her similar improvisation with the clover leaves that we did on Angel & Grayhound meadow.
• We will use Lamb song "Small" (see the YouTube video but we won't use the video at GB) we'll let this play through to time the meditation.

Mingling/improvisation

• Community voice encourages people to say "Hi" to the people near them, and share something of their thoughts.
• Tell people that we do this sort of thing quite a lot and sometimes we just turn to each other and talk about our day: it's a space to share, saying something profound is optional!
• Possibly using inviting people to put their hazelnut on a circle marked-out on a bit of paper.
• Provides relief for people who like to share after all that reflection!
• Jim will write this.

Lead-in to sacred act

• Towards the end of the mingling/chatting/sharing, we'll turn up the crowd noises again, then cut it dead and community voices will read pre-prepared statements of people expressing how they feel about being so small.
• We'll do a run through of this "service" at a mayBe Sunday soon, and ask community members to write their thoughts for this. We want to select a range of different views.

Sacred act

• Invite everyone to bring their hazelnut to the middle and place it along an infinity symbol ? which will be marked out.
• symbolism: you are held; you have a place in God's eternity.
• visually nice.
• We will also invite people, if they would like to, to go to one of five(?) community members stationed around the room to receive a blessing (possibly anointing with oil).
• We thought we would ask people for their name, and use it in the blessing.
• Andrea will write what to say, how to mark out the ?, and words for the blessing.

Bye byes

• blessing Emma will write this
• invite people to find their nut and take it with! [for a laugh]
• keep in touch: cards with mayBe details on? (ChrisW will design these. Possibly use moo.com?) should include
  • website maybe.org.uk
  • twitter.com/mayBeCommunity
  • hellomaybe@maybe.org.uk
  • 07870 988 904
• community members clearly around to be chatted to.ChrisW will design and print badges.

And spontaneously...

Sam is planning our spontaneous act of worship! Do talk to her if you have ideas or want to help. All comments welcome!