Martin has just published The Sky’s Window. It will be good. Martin is a man whose judgement I trust, even when he’s talking about himself. So I believe what he says about it in his sales pitch (which gives me a nice little thrill of anticipation):

The Sky’s Window is the latest collection of readings from the London-based writer Martin Wroe. These ‘lines and lyrics in search of a numinous now’ offer a fresh take on the road of life, spotting the mysterious in the mundane, the sacramental in the apparently ordinary. From births to weddings, first love to last loss, some were commissioned for public reading, others are designed for quiet reflection. All try to offer a sideways glance, a fleeting glimpse, of the unseen love behind all things. They look at the ordinary ‘with a hunch that it contains more than itself’, with the hope that a prayer can become a poem and a poem can be read like prayer.

Meg designed the lovely cover and Martin published the book via Lulu, which more and more people are doing these days. Like blogging, why wait around for publishers to get your work out there when you can do it yourself online. Just to spread the word a bit more about this publishing revolution Martin wrote about the Lulu process for the Sunday Times last week, with the typically witty title, Publish and get instant gratification with the iTunes of literature.

[Blog entry copied in from www.johndavies.org]

This kind of thing is why I’m getting very excited about hearing James Alison speaking at Greenbelt. This extract from Faith Beyond Resentment also gives me the framework for this week’s sermon … and a whole lot else besides.

[Blog entry copied in from www.johndavies.org]

I love the comments I recieve for my blogs. I love them and I respect those who does give their opinion. I value them
Thank you AVA & CHARLES -(whom I haven’t met)
but we have touched through Greenbelt.

Well, I am glad and thankful for my life…..thankful to God….
Last time I criticised the church and the rules and regulations…
But don’t get me wrong there are a small bunch of priests who have principles in life and love to serve the human kind….I adore them….

But this time my experiences leads to something interesting. My sister is getting married next month…since we belong to a Anglican church…my sisters Fiancee is catholic –for the wedding to take place in the church my sister have to join the catholic church. (its a tradition that girl have to join the boys church). Well we didn’t had any prob nor the catholic church preist.

now the problem was with the church committee. They started interfearing.

The Church committee wants the last saying…..
Its so funny…it made me reflect back to bible story where the Church committe feels they are above God and King.

Yes…it happens …..also when the election comes they decide whom shall the church vote in the forth coming election.

Every thing leads to the dangerous word called - POWER

Well an interesting life here[….but I am grateful to God because I am still alive and enjoying his wonderful creation.
I read a book —half of it—-”tuesdays with Morrien”
Its the story of a old man and a young man….a professor and his student…
Morrie who is in his last stage of his life enjoying every single moment and how he sees the world and his situation.

there is a qoute ” what will happen if the bird sits on your shoulder & sing in the morning , today is your last day of your life”

But similar voice I heard in GB….If my life ends now…I will thank God and will say “God what a ride…WHAT A RIDE”….it was very touching…and the voice belonged to non other than mike Yacanelli….God bless is SOUL. A great and beautiful person

What can I say now…..I have a long way to go and I love the Road less travelled….I love the struggles….and I love God….Hope one day and I pray that God will give me a chance to say …..”thank you for the ride”

There are days I have nothing to do
There are times where i CRAVE FOR WORK
There are times where I wish I had little more time to finish my work.
But this is the time I love to wish all the beautiful humans beings who beleive in Jesus Christ - WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY EASTER.
God Bless

Manchester and passion are two words that sit quite well together. The music from Manchester’s fine pop heritage and the story of Easter are rather good bedfellows as well.

Albert Square is packed and the atmosphere is buzzing as this rather unique take on the passion play unfolds.

It really was rather good. A few naff bits aside (ie the interviews with people in the cross procession – “so you’re a punk and a Christian then?”), the play itself is really well executed. There’s even a few nice lighter touches, Anthony H Wilson chatting to Peter and the guy behind the hot dog stall (and provider of last supper barm) reads the Da Vinci code as Jesus ponders his fate at the counter.

Occasionally the lyrics needed a very slight twist to fit, but generally the music was used really effectively. The last supper accompanied by Love will Tear us Apart and Judas and Jesus facing each other at the moment of betrayal with Blue Monday were really moving. Tim Booth even just about rescued the slight comedy moment when everyone realised his regret filled Judas character was breaking into Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Know.

The ending however was what made it great. Truly spectacular live, I’m not sure the power of the moment translated as well to TV.

Having just described the tortuous means of death by crucifixion and having announced Jesus’ passing, Keith Allen appeared to wrap things up and it seemed things were ending on a Good Friday-esque down and anti-climatic note; suddenly a voice is heard singing out the classic Stone Roses line: “I am the resurrection and I am the light”. It takes the assembled crowd a second or two to work out where it’s coming from and then it spreads as face after face turns upwards and arms point. Right up on a balcony under the Town Hall clock face, the Jesus character has quite literally risen.

Quite a climax. Quite an event.

Hi friends,
I was surprised that the blog was been quite for a while. Hope everyone is safe and happy. Well its been a strange turn over for me, Almost five years ago I travelled to UK- a strange place with a diffrent culture and life style. But being and remaining has a christian was very challenging. Thanks to Greenbelt for helping me with my feelings and emotions in my struggles with my Faith.
I grow and still developing in my christain believes and faith a lot through GB. GB showed me an informal way of loving and serving God and the mankind.

Well coming back to India after 4 years, I felt very strange…..but all is good after all its a learning process…life here being a minority (christian) in this country…sometimes loses temper when you get in touch with the churches and its rules…. very strange…..sometimes feels like the churches and the priests are demons who are trying to sqeeze our neck. Its painful as I write this but doesn’t mean to hurt anyone.

Why the churches have to be formal???
Why they think that they have to control the lives of human beings???
Where did the old service oriented approach of the churches and the priests gone????

It feels like we are coming back to the past where the priests tend to govern the country and the people as they did durings the time of Jesus Christ.

The right word I am looking for is power!!!! POWER…
a strange word…..POWER when mixed with MONEY…..makes the christians greedy…..its a sad part that when india got independence the churches and the missionaries worked for the development and bettermend of the people.

Where as now runnign after money and trying to show their strenght and authority over human beings especially poor christians…

I am hurt…..feels like becoming a revolutionarian…..
But how ????
With whom????

Feels lonely…..but praying to God lifts my soul…..I love being a christain…. these struggles makes me more close to God…..

Feeling very strange and everyday I am experiencing different cultural shocks….but this is making my life interesting and worth living.

Thanks to GB and to the beautiful humans who touched my life.

This is the first part of a script written by Norman Kember for a ‘performance’ at Greenbelt in 2002; he delivered the lines while walking through a crowd of young people dressed as a devil.

“Welcome young and old devils to this refresher course in temptation techniques – not that most Christians need a devil to prompt them, they are all pretty good at working out excuses – the best of reasons – why they shouldn’t carry out the ideas the Great Enemy puts into their consciences to do.

“Now you might ask what’s a devil doing in the Peace Zone. The answer is simple – we like to be close to the heart of things in Christianity. Why bother to cause mischief on the fringe when we can cause mischief close to the centre. It’s no great shakes to take common human failings like greed and turn them into an accounting fraud. That’s basic temptation technique, any junior devil can do that.

“But to take the best of human qualities – loyalty, courage, comradeship, endurance, sacrifice – and turn them into the satanic enterprise called war – now that takes real skill. In war we can make quite ordinary decent human beings carry out all manner of inhumanities. So there’s nothing so satisfying for us as twisting good aims for bad ends.”

And this is an extract from the recent London Review of Books article by Eliot Weinberger, What I heard about Iraq in 2005:

*

I heard that a human rights organisation, Christian Peacemaker Teams, was distributing a questionnaire to inmates released from Iraqi prisons. Those surveyed were asked to check ‘yes’ or ‘no’ after each question:

Stripped of your clothing (nude)?
Beaten by hand (punches)?
Beaten by stick or rod?
Beaten by cables, wires or belts?
Held at gunpoint?
Hooded?
Had cold water poured on you?
Had a rope tied to your genitalia?
Called names, insults?
Threatened or touched by dogs?
Dragged by rope or belt?
Denied prayer or wudhu [ablution]?
Forced to perform sexual acts?
Were you raped or sodomised?
Did someone improperly touch your genitalia?
Did you witness any sexual acts while in detention?
Did you witness any rapes of men, women or children?
Urinated on or made to touch faeces, or had faeces thrown at you?
Denied sleep?
Denied food?
Witnessed any deaths?
Did you witness any torture or mistreatment to others?
Forced to wear woman’s clothes? [Question for men only]
Were you burned or exposed to extreme heat?
Exposed to severe cold?
Subjected to electric shock?
Forced to act like a dog?
Forced in uncomfortable positions for a lengthy period of time?
Forced to stand or sit in a painful manner for lengthy periods of time?
Lose consciousness?
Forced to hit others?
Hung by feet?
Hung by hands or arms?
Threatened to have family killed?
Family members detained?
Witnessed family members tortured?
Forced to sign anything?
Photographed?

I heard a man who had been in Abu Ghraib prison say: ‘The Americans brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my house.’

*

The predecessor to this piece, What I heard about Iraq, featured in the London Review of Books in February 2005. I am keenly considering taking part in the worldwide reading of this text on March 20th, third anniversary of the invasion - perhaps you’ll join me?

Hello Everyone,
Its Richard Back on line after a long gap. Its great to be back…..
Hope all are doing well in UK and abroad….
In India…I am doing good…Got lost little bit and now trying to work myself forward…making friends…..reaching out for the people who is in need..and a bit basketball in between just to control my weight…
Well friends…I am so happy that I am back on the blog and I finally remembered my password…
Yes ..I am excited….will be in touch…
Richard reporting back to Greenbelters from Sunny India.

today i had a day of meetings (most of which were of course at the scooter cafe)…

it was great to finally meet bryce and fellow traveller from fusefactory, who create soundscapes and VJ in clubs and festivals across europe. we talked about them playing/mixing/performing at greenbelt this year. it’s by no means in the bag but they are keen and we are keen so it’ll probably happen which would be great. the alt worship venue new forms has had plenty of visual projections and so on but it’s time there was some more of that spilling out across the festival… was also good to catch up with shannon.

This came through Jonny’s blog and I can’t contain my excitement about it - thanks Jonny for exposing it: downloads of Sufjan Stevens‘ Hark! Songs For Christmas. They are so beautiful I am nearly crying with delight.