You Dig the Tunnel, I'll Hide the Soil

This morning I had the good fortune to be invited to the White Cube Gallery to hear an introduction of the current exhibition (as above) by the Director of the Gallery.

They currently have a group exhibition in the gallery and the new basement of Shoreditch Town Hall. The exhbition draws on the work of Edgar Poe - who I remember from my teens. His writings are very dark, drawing on mythic imagery of the shadow-side of life.

The Gallery exhibition had this to say....

Poe is now recognised as an artist far ahead of his time, particularly for the charged psychological facets of his work, which seemed to foretell psychoanalysis, pre-dating Freud by more than half a century. His famous detective, Dupin, became the blueprint for many future detectives, including Sherlock Holmes, Poirot and Miss Marple, and he is also a pioneer of what we now know as science fiction, influencing such writers as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. However, Miller felt that Poe had become synonymous with whatever is merely gothic or dark, a misconception that he wanted to address by curating this exhibition. ‘There’s a real distinction here’, says Miller. ‘It was really telling when we’d approach people and they’d say, “Oh yeah, I’ve got this painting which is nearly all black!” That was really disappointing.’ Miller sought to address this glib association by selecting a dozen of Poe’s stories that seemed to lend themselves most to a more contemporary interpretation. Wherever he noticed a connection to an artist’s existing work, life or practice, he approached them to read the stories and asked them to respond in any manner they saw fit and to interpret the story with a new work.

This exhibition has got me thinking, and I love the new labyrinth rooms in the town hall.

Read All about it

Just to let you know, our very own Clare Catford is in the Daily Mail today.

There's a link to the article online here.

Don't forget her new book "Addicted to Love" is also out, which you can buy from Amazon through the search facility on the right of this page.

technorati tags:clare catford, darton longman todd, addiction, addicted to love, 12 steps, love addiction

Family, Community and Friends

"You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family." Yet we are far more intensely close to our family than to our friends. So where does community fit, in this three-way balance?

You might think that community is like friends. We are not (usually) born into a community; we join one. It has to have something to it that attracts us, or we would not begin to get involved.

We do not have friends we dislike - indeed, we only have friends we like. If we find someone a pain, we do not stay friends long. If they become a drain on us, if they irritate or depress us, that friendship ends. Friends strike a chord, fill a gap, meet a need, in us.

And at the start that's a fair analogy with a community. Yet as time goes by a true community entails more than just meeting our needs. If it is truly a community, our membership of it not only brings us benefits but also incurs for us obligations. We find that within the community are people we don't like, or tasks we don't want, or duties we resent. A community that never imposes on us is likely to be pretty transient.

If that's right, we should expect a community to be more like a family - we're in it, and though we can always walk away it has deep bonds and entails inconvenient commitments. We accept them because of the ties, the shared-ness, and the core that we all hold on to. Something like "a dog is for life, not just for Christmas"?

Augustine originally thought that a wise man would live alone with his mind. He learnt that we are not like that; we exist in community. Indeed, God is in community from the beginning of time. There are truths we can only discover, depths of our inmost spirit that we can only reach, in community; in communal worship, in communal debate, in communal obligation.

So perhaps the core of our search in moot for Christian community in the city is a search for what makes us ready to incur those obligations, ready to meet the inconvenient commitments, ready to discharge the resentable duties. I suspect it's in the shared journey, the learning together in prayer, the collective exploration of the life of the Companion Spirit.

Nest step, I guess, is to work out how as moot we can be that for one another ...

Spirituality for MissionSpirituality for Mission

Its not very often that you find a gathering for practitioners of Emerging & Fresh Expressions of Church, who are particularly interested in seeking an authentic spirituality behind mission in the Twenty First Century. For those who know me, I consider this to be a very key issue. All to often, churches are unaware of how many in our culture are on a spiritual search for meaning, enchantment and substance, but not through traditional routes, or through the logic of modernity.

This 48 hour retreat is for practitioners who feel that this need connects with something of a calling to mission through an authentic spirituality. I am pleased to see it is being facilitated by Nick Helm of Soul Sparks and Colin Brown of Fresh Expressions & Arts as mission.

For more info, click here

Australian "Sorry" comes to London

I've an old frind called Bond, initial J.
His phone number was 701 007.

It's all true, and he's speaking in London on Tuesday 15 May. But it's not about Her Majesty's Secret Service. It's about something much more radical.

John was one of those who launched the National Sorry Day campaign in Australia. This sought to repaid the damage from the "Stolen Generation" - remember the film Rabbit-Proof Fence? This year the new Prime Minister apologised publicly on behalf of all Australians for the pain caused to so many.

A fascinating chance to to explore what it has meant for one person to relate his faith to a challenging aspect of national culture. You'll need to book; e-mail reception@london.iofc.org as places are limited.

24 Greencoat Place (where moot meets on one Wednesday each month); light refreshments from 18:30. See you there.

Peter

Panama Kings

Hello Moot.

My brother's band, Panama Kings are coming to London this weekend!


Come along and join the party:

Saturday 26th, The Windmill, Brixton, 8pm.

"God save the Panama Kings. Long may they deliver their tremendously twisted songs. Sometimes you're thinking of Modest Mouse and their intense ways. Elsewhere there's a joyful discord that recalls Wayne Coyne...There are celebrations on many levels and a sense that we can happily bow before the new regents of alternative quirk-soul."

Stuart Bailie, BBC ATL

i've met my match....

Ahoy there! well i'm back in Britain. A proper blog will follow about what i learned on my trip to seattle and can bring back to enrich the Moot community etc. But first the important story of Patrick the cat whisperer and Bucky one of his six rescue cats! What you cannot quite see in the photo is that Patrick is wearing a hat with ears! This might be the secret of his powers, as he can get Bucky to give him Hi Fives, and other tricks. I met Patrick and Bucky on my last day in Seattle down at Pike Place Market; and where as i felt i learned lots from Karen and the Cota community etc etc, really i wonder if my time would have been better spent hanging out with Patrick learning how to Hi Five cats? just a thought....
(last animal related blog from me i promise ;))

Affluenza

I've just hit page 47, and there was something really good on most pages so far. I would recommend this book to anyone. In my opinion is should be read on a nice sunny morning in your back garden with a massive cup of tea and a pack of chocolate digestives, listening to the sound of dutch birds singing and neighbours chatting over the fence to each other.

Breathing Space St Lukes

Some Mooters will remember that a while ago, I was on placement with St Lukes Church in North London, where I worked with Dave Tomlinson and others, to get their vision going for 'breathing space', for the church space to be used to promote Christian Spirituality.

Both Moot at Breathing Space are trying to address the issue of promoting Christian Spirituality to a post-Christian culture that is interested in spirituality rather than religion. I am really pleased to hear that things are progressing at Breathing Space.

As part of their events, Rob Pepper is running a monthly spirituality and art session as a form of meditation - at the cost of £5. So if you are in North London and around on the 16th April at 7.30pm to 9.30pm, look them up. Mooters please note this clashes with our preparations for the Mind Body & Spirit Festival where we need all hands on deck. I am posting this more for those who read this blog not connected to Moot. For more info on the Drawing Space event click the picture below

one for the Dawgs....

just to balance the pro cat vibe i've initiated. here is a picture of myself and Gunner the 'baby' bull mastif. Gunner's owner Paige sorted me out with some snowboarding on Mount Baker. Thanks to her, Eric, paul and matt! Off to conference tomorrow with Karen, and then Cota in afternoon. Went to Church of The Beloved on Thursday and met their minister Ryan. Really enjoyed the service. So, all good stuff. much love and peace out! Tim

Clare's new book

click on pic to read info...

Sharing Wifi in your neighbourhood through Fon

Not sure if everyone has seen this yet, but Gareth Powell gave the heads up on Fon. If you have wifi, Fon enables you to make it available securely to others in your neighbourhood, and then to be able to use other peoples wifi in other places all around the world.

I like this idea of sharing in a form of global co-operative. Not only does it share resources generously with others, but it also will save you money if you need access to wifi abroad. For some providers - you can subscribe to this and make some money back by charging for people's use. This seems quite stingy to me. If you have a BT broadband service, then you can register through them for Fon, and then people can access your wifi through BT Openzone with no exposure to your wifi settings or security....

I am going to the States and Canada in June, so we will see if it works, I am hoping so....

kurts not dead but punkin probably is....

sooooo…….having a great time. Cota folk are extremely hospitable and fun. Staying in one of their community houses with Matt, Corry and Pete, and they are looking after me admirably, also Karen keeps taking me out for cocktails and food, so no complaints.

Generally I’m just talking to folk about Cota, seeing how they do things, what their struggles are etc. Fremont, where Cota is based, is fantastic. It’s incredibly arty and accepting and Cota compliments the town very well - Providing a ‘Third Space’ with the Abbey for arts and community functions, as well as a church. As an arts venue – they have an event called ‘In The Round’. It was excellent, with last years Slam Poetry Champion – danny (see: myspace.com/metadanny) we need to get him at a cabaret when he makes it over to Britain.

Seattle is a great city. You feel the nearness of the mountains (which occasionally peek through the clouds), and I’ve already seen three eagles! Also it has an Erotic Bakery, so I’ll try and get along there and bring back some snacks for the next community meeting!

Ok. Best go. I want to work on some ‘video ikons’ for the Abbey today. Also I’m buzzing of the coffee I’ve just had. (If I didn’t have an addiction problem with Coffee before, I certainly do now!)

Much love to all.

Tim x

Oh, photo is of the sad story of Punkin the cat. Missing since August. Still missing in March…Personally, I’m not sure he’s coming back, but if you do see him, at least you know what to call him as the owner has helpfully underlined his name!