Rewind…

Great post over at shauninmann.com in regards to a passage from Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five:

It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:

American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.

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CafePraxis how many lattes is too many?

Hi Guys
I have been asked about being on some panels and running cafepraxis at UNOH’s Surrender in July 18-20, 2008 at Belgrave Heights. (BTW- UNOH=urban neighbours of hope)

But I wonder how many events do we want to run the cafe at this year? Here is a possible list.

• Grassroots (sacred space, cafe & workshops/action) - April
• SYG (Urban Seed’s sacred space, cafe & biblestudy/chat) - June
• Surrender(cafe venue & action info, part of the panels), - July
• Praxis08 (so wee have good coffee at our gathering ) - Sept
• maybe a venue at NCYC09???maybe not? (Cafe space and panels????) - Jan

Is this too many places. It feels like a lot. I want it to be a fun and different way to chat about justice and discipleship and not a pain for volunteers.

Other motivation is that profits go into our praxis08 gathering to help people afford it.

Ideas? Thoughts?

Age’s Angels

Just imagine some cheesy theme music for a sec…..

“Hello Angels….. Your mission today is to freeze in Fed square, dockland, southbank, flinders steps with stop the traffik flyers - people should not be bought and sold. Age”

You may have notice a new widget on the side bar. “Age’s Angels”

It connects you to a site call twitter that bounces messages to web spaces and mobile phones from people - in this case me.

Rus was talking to me about twitter and the case below of an activist being able to alert his friends and lawyer when he was arrested in Egypt. The conversation flowed into doing flash mobbing styled protest ‘properly’ with large numbers like the “stop the traffik” one I led a couple of weeks back. Then the chat flowed to keeping morepraxis friends up to date with what actions and events etc are going on and this led to wondering about playing crowd games during NCYC09. So this was enough of a strange mix and fun conversation to convince me to give it a try. This is where you can sign up http://twitter.com/agegreenwood

My current concerns are around not wanting to spam peoples phones with amazing update insights into my life such as ‘drinking a coffee’, ‘playing with my kids’ etc. It is all a bit more ‘me’ focused than I really like so I am interested in other thoughts about how we could use this tool. Others experiences of it?

You will see on the side bar what I am currently thinking about posting - opportunities, updates and actions - plus a bit of fun in a large crowd or two. (Tap the arrow down to see past texts)

During large actions and weeks like NCYC when I may have fun with say 150-200 angels in the 2000 strong crowd I will pre warn other angels to turn off their phone updates. It is good to see that twitter allows you to choose when and if you receive messages to your phone or not.

So I am just starting to find out about what we can do with this. Feel free to influence me

Age

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Sorry

Well it happened!!!!  It seems a weird mix of emotions that saying ’sorry’ wells in me the need to celebrate.

I’m sure most have seen it but just in case.

Links and a full transcript here

Questions/wonderings from praxis07

Here are the few questions or ideas that people would like to chat about that appeared on the butchers paper around the space from our weekend away. (Raw and in no particular order other than down the page )

Feel free to post about an idea or make comment or give a link …. go for it!

• Life after ‘Mission’ - returning to the heartland of consumer culture
• On being the worlds wealthiest 10%
• The jock culture alive and well in the Radical Discipleship scene - where do women of faith fit (or not fit)
• Life stage discipleship - singles, couples, parenting (with all the consumer issues around kids)
• How much do we really need? (do I need a fridge?)
• What do I hide from others I journey with?
• What does it mean to honour God’s environment in our communities?

any other ponders that didn’t make it to the butchers paper…

Kids ‘liberation’ Nativity

Last year our kids set up our nativity in a few different ways. This year their play and my pondering continues.

This year it appears we again have a focus on the animals but they are in chains. When asked about the chains Chloé said “they can’t get out” Perhaps its a comment on animal liberation, live cattle exports or battery hens???? Liberation and Salvation are good Chrissy themes….

So RU coming 2 Praxis?

Well praxis07 is only 2weeks away!

Time to think of all the cool stories about your year, grab your propaganda and to look forward to hanging with our tribe at the lodge. I’m getting excited about drinking/making coffee and talking about life and the universe with everyone, and the campsite pool is looking good. Maybe a bit of aquatic theology?

So it looks like about 40 people are coming to praxis07. This includes a fair number of people who are yet to put in their rego forms and pay…. If you think that is you then you would be right (Campsite need info Tues)

We have a few families, some couples and individuals so a good mix really. Also a fair mix of different contexts and perspectives. I think this will be a good crowd for our first gathering like this.

Musicians consider yourselves invited to bring your instrument as there is a stage with a time slot for you. I’m expecting JB3 crossed with Jack Johnson and fused with world music from around da globe. Also, if you have music/songs that you use in church about justice, faith and hope then Jas’s elective would love to see them.

Kids and kids at heart may like to bring a few photos of family, community, where they live and play for use in the art elective (so not photos you expect back in same condition

draft program

Generous Revolution

As many of you know I consider generousity, creativity and hospitality to be very subversive practices. They each imagine and transform our world of self interests into a shared spaces of possibility.

Theologically I think this Generous Revolution is based (at least for the Christians) in the counter cultural stance and teaching of Jesus. I am thinking of teachings like
“lose your life to gain it” (Mk 8:35),
“give to those who can not repay you”(Lk 6:34),
“Give to those that ask” (Mt 5:42-6:3)
“give to all who ask of you”, Go sell all you have and it to the poor” (Lk 18:22)
“When you have a party don’t invite your friends who can invite you in return… invite the homeless and the outcast”(Lk 14:12-14),
“Zaccheaus the tax collector giving half his property away and repaying four times what he ripped off”(Lk 19:8),
The early church sharing all they had (Acts 4:32-35)
The great socialist parable of the vineyard workers who all get paid the days wage no matter how long they work (Mt 20:1-16)…this ends with “what business is it of you if I want to be generous”
Plus more - I’m sure.

A while ago I was hearing about the “gift” culture of traditional New Zealand and how it contrasts the “acquisition” culture of the consumer/capitalist world view. (Hey Manu or Graham if want to unpack how this works…feel free to jump in.) Since then I have been wondering about Give Way signs. And how they could be played with to encourage thoughts about giving and generousity…. So hear are a few ideas.

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So what happened to Friar Tuck?

I have been watching and enjoying the new Robin Hood series on ABC. I really like the play and references to “the war of terror” waged by the Sheriff against Hood. I like the merry men and Maid Marian is strong and cute…. but where is friar tuck? It seems to me that with the playful bent against the powers of greed he would fit nicely. You know, like in the Disney version, the Christian minister who helps aid with the redistribution of wealth, affirms the civil disobedience of hood’s action and is actively part of the liberation movement for the people. It seems like Marian has taken most of these roles in the new series without the spiritual/chaplain angle.

While thinking about other ‘Tucks’ it seems that beer/drunk or at least jolly is the key part of the character. Think of Tuck in the prince of thieves, a moderate figure whose main passion was for beer and ended up killing the other corrupt Christian minister. A far cry from the Disney Friar who was outspoken about the plight of the poor and the evil of the taxes. Of course Tucks protests for the poor were dismissed and told to save the sermons for Sunday.

I guess I’m wondering why miss such a rich character? Is it just that Christian figures are unpopular? Or is he in season two and I have jumped the gun. Thoughts?

BTW - I was chatting with Lynd about the lack of Tuck in the ABC show and mentioned that in the Disney version he was more like what I expected even sword fighting the sheriff being arrested for treason. Then James (7yrs) said (while jumping around the house demonstrating the scene), “Tuck didn’t sword flight he use a stick and shouted at them “I’ll give you taxes!!!” they were going to hang him you know” My kids make me laugh.

Anyone interested in a morepraxis Bible study?

Hi morepraxis buddies

I am playing with the idea of starting a Bible Study sort of thing on morepraxis. We seem to be good at posting lots of actions and political stuff and I thought a bible study would be good in the mix. I was thinking about grabbing key texts that bother me or have been important in my spirituality or just working through a book or two by chapters. Current format I am thinking being: the text, a quick thought plus a few starter questions to begin the discussion.

Wondering….
1. If others out there would be keen to post their texts that bother or have been important to their spirituality. We could schedule them in to appear as we want. (This would be a good way to have different points of view and easier on me ☺ )
2. How often? Weekly? Fortnightly? Monthly?
3. Should it also have a set time(s) that the conversations could happen in real time? (This part could be weekly even if the new postings happen less. It would mean you have a couple of chances to join in with people online)
4. Would it be good to vod cast for people to use in their own spaces. Or is a pfd of the Bible Study enough/better?
5. And most importantly …. would anyone be interested the doing this at all or think it a handy resource?

So I’m looking for a bit of direction with this.
Age

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