Pole barn coming soon
Tom and I have spent an amazing day celebrating at the Mustard Seed Village on Camano Island a couple of weeks ago. A team of 11 volunteers raised and bolted 8×32′ beams to the fir poles already planted as foundations for our first building. But we need your help to complete it.
Listen to Graham Kerr as he shares his enthusiasm for this project.
My wife, Treena, and I have had multiple seeds sown in our spiritual lives, several of these were MUSTARD SEEDS.
Has this been the case for you?
We are close personal friends of Tom and Christine Sine. We have known them for almost as long as we have been Christians and that is now well over 30 years. Time and time and time again both Tom and Christine have blessed our lives with their multiple ways of serving the Body of Christ worldwide through Mustard Seed Associates.
If you find yourself with a similar harvest we want you to know that there is a way to save some of the seeds and to re-sow them in a very special piece of land. Read the rest of Graham’s invitation and consider how you can join the Party
Llynnon Mill – the only working mill on Anglesey today. Adam’s Mill would have looked similar to this one in 1904.
Today’s post in the series Creating a Sacred Space comes from Dyfed Wyn Roberts. Dyfed is a native of the island of Anglesey in north Wales, UK. I love the story of how God created a sacred space in a windmill – not something that any of us would have thought of.
Dyfed is a student of Welsh Revival history and has a PhD from the University of Wales on the effects of Charles Finney’s revivalism upon the Welsh Revival of 1859. He blogs regularly at www.dyfedwynroberts.org.uk and has recently published an eBook on the aftermath of the 1904-05 Revival in Wales. He works as a freelance writer and theologian and conducts some services. His wife Helen runs the village post office.
The thud created by John Williams’s head hitting the low beam was noticeable to many in the room. That he himself had failed to notice the beam was surely down to the enthusiasm of the moment, but if he had felt any pain Williams ignored it and continued to praise his Saviour until the end of the meeting. Revival was breaking out all over Wales and now it had reached the northern most part of the country. Rather than begin in a traditional chapel, however, in the town of Amlwch on the island of Anglesey, revival began in a low ceilinged windmill.
The Welsh Revival of 1904-1905 is considered by the evangelical/Pentecostal stream to be one of the major outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon the church. The events deeply affected the churches and chapels of Wales with tens of thousands of individuals either coming to faith for the first time or having their relationship with God stirred by a burning passion. Further afield the effects were also felt, with some claiming that the Azusa Street Revival in the US had been sparked by what had happened in Wales.
The story of how the revival began is well documented – in a young people’s prayer meeting in a Methodist Chapel in west Wales a young man called Evan Roberts was touched to his core by what he believed to be God’s hand upon him. From there in the autumn of 1904 he carried the flames of revival to his home church in Moriah Chapel, Loughor, and he became the revival’s main figure for the next 18 months. But the revival’s spread was not reliant on Roberts, for quite independently of him other localities the length and breadth of Wales began to experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The town of Amlwch is perched on the north east Anglesey coastline. Today it is a rather depressed, run-down place but at the turn of the twentieth century it still enjoyed the success of the little port nearby and the previous wealth that came from the Parys Mountain copper mine was also in evidence. Like most Welsh communities it had a number of large nonconformist chapels, the largest being Bethesda – known locally as y Capel Mawr (the large chapel) due to its seating capacity of some 800 people. Revival meetings with Evan Roberts in attendance would indeed be held here in early June 1905 – with tickets being sold to those who wanted to attend! But there is little doubt that the revival itself was already well under way before this time.
On the outskirts of the town there is a small community called Pentre Felin (the Village of the Mill) with its own Calvinistic Methodist chapel, Capel Llaethdy. Early in 1904 the members had decided they needed a new and larger school room for the many activities they had in their church. In order to complete this task the original chapel had also to be demolished – thus ensuring that a new chapel as well as a new schoolroom was built. While this building work was being undertaken the members held their weekly services in the loft of the local windmill – Melin Adda (Adam’s Mill). These small windmills (as pictured above) were a very common feature on Anglesey at the time – a necessary power source to ground flour in a county rich with grain-growing land.
The small loft was full of people during these meetings – though there are no actual numbers available. On the third Sunday in November 1904 – with news of revival in other parts of Wales in the air – the congregation was larger than usual, with more people turning up late. Among the late arrivals was a minister, Rev H. Williams. Having sensed a different atmosphere, he stood in the middle of the congregation and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘My goodness me it is like Pentecost here’. Many began to pray out loud and others began to weep uncontrollably. Among them was John Williams who hit his head on a low beam as he stood to pray. Naturally the room was not designed for a large crowd and certainly not for a church meeting, but for the people of Pentre Felin that Sunday morning it became the closest place to heaven.
My own assessment of the Welsh Revival is that it was a missed opportunity. However many individual lives were changed it also offered the prospect of reforming the church. Revival meetings were noted for the young people who took part, women also, and the far more democratic aspect of the whole congregation involved rather than just the minister from the pulpit. All of this was a break from the rather staid and safe nature of chapel meetings before the revival. Unfortunately, once the revival fires had died down the church returned to its normal state and the opportunity for reform was lost.
Maybe what happened in Adam’s Mill in November 1904 was another aspect of that potential for change. God was not confined to the grand chapels of Welsh nonconformity. He could break through into people’s lives wherever they were – even in a working windmill.
————————
Check out the other posts in this series
Creating Sacred Space Do We Really Need Churches
Every Garden Needs A Sacred Space
Reclaiming a Sacred Space – Cheasty Greenspace: A Place of Goodness and Grace by Mary De Jong
Creating a Sacred Space – Stir the Senses
A Garden of Inspiration – A Story of Leo Tolstoy
Symbols and Elements that Weave Together a Sacred Space
Why Being Spiritual may be More Important Than Being Religious by Rob Rynders
Celtic Spirituality – What Is The Attraction?
In the Barren Places: Finding Sacred Space for the First Time – James Rempt
A Tree My Most Sacred Space by Ryan Harrison
Sacred Buildings by Lynne Baab
Sacred Space – Listening to the Trees by Richard Dahlstrom
Sharing a Sacred Space by Daniel Simons
Return to Our Senses – front cover
I am delighted to be able to share with you the review that Austen Sandifer just wrote for Englewood Review of Books on Return to Our Senses: Reimagining How We Pray. I am delighted with the response this book continues to receive and the interest it has raised. If the book has impacted you I would love to hear from you too.
It was with the thought of bridging the rhetoric of mindfulness and prayer that I picked up Christine Sine’s new book, Return to Our Senses: Re-Imagining How We Pray. I expected it to be about engaging our senses in full awareness of the omnipresence of God in creation and in our daily moments. I was not disappointed; this volume is filled with prayer techniques that focus on honing such mindfulness and wonder. Indeed, many of the methods that Sine suggests are ways to increase awareness of our spiritual journeys and the presence of God through the visceral experiences of our bodies. In a book that is accessible to a wide audience, Sine clearly explains and mixes traditional contemplative prayer methods, like Ignatius of Loyola’s Awareness Examen, with Christian mindfulness techniques, like breathing as a practice of engaging both breath and spirit (the Hebrew word ruah and Greek pneuma are single words indicating both meanings), with love and generative aspects of God consciously made part of every breath-cycle. Read the entire review.
This afternoon Tom and I head to Australia to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday. I have never looked forward to a trip with so much excitement and anticipation. Part of my excitement has been fueled by the memories book I have compiled for her. I know she will be delighted, but what has surprised me is my own reaction. I have loved sharing with my friends, even posted the shutterfly link on Facebook.
Mum’s family boat
Mum – early family photo
The photos go right back to mother’s childhood.
Myself with brothers Nick, Rod and Greg
Mum and Dad with myself and brothers Nick and Rod
They embrace my own childhood.
Aroney family wedding
And they include photos of all my brothers and their families.
Myself age 9
And of course there is my signature photo on Facebook
So why has it been important for me to share? Partly I think because this is a part of my past that few people know much about. It is 30 years since I lived in Australia. Most of my friends have never met my family. Yet they are an important part of who I am. Without them I am not whole. They draw me close to my family, to the friends with whom I share and to the God who has created all of us.
Family memories are important for all of us. They shape our lives and they shape our faith. And they created a sacred space that is as precious as any other place in which we meet with God. Like any sacred space, they should not be kept to ourselves. Memories of our family and upbringing are important to share – even the painful ones – for it is often in this sharing that we find the wholeness God desires for us.
——————————————————-
Check out the other posts in this series:
Creating Sacred Space Do We Really Need Churches
Every Garden Needs A Sacred Space
Reclaiming a Sacred Space – Cheasty Greenspace: A Place of Goodness and Grace by Mary De Jong
Creating a Sacred Space – Stir the Senses
A Garden of Inspiration – A Story of Leo Tolstoy
Symbols and Elements that Weave Together a Sacred Space
Why Being Spiritual may be More Important Than Being Religious by Rob Rynders
Celtic Spirituality – What Is The Attraction?
In the Barren Places: Finding Sacred Space for the First Time – James Rempt
A Tree My Most Sacred Space by Ryan Harrison
Sacred Buildings by Lynne Baab
This week’s Facebook prayers have all revolved, at least for me around the stress of getting ready for an international trip while going through huge transitions in Mustard Seed Associates (More of that next week)
Celtic Cross
Lord Jesus Christ
To you I lift my hands,
To you I sing my song,
To you I give my heart.
May your life be evident in me.
May your love shine where darkness once reigned,
May your promises bring hope and joy and peace.
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
Who is there like you,
God of mercy and grace
who loves us as you do?
Who knows and understands
our actions as you do?
Who hears the thoughts and words
of our heart as you do?
Who knows our joys and sorrows
and shares them as you do?
Who feels the pain we endure
and comforts us as you do?
Who hears as we confess our sins
and forgives as you do?
Who takes a broken heart
and makes it whole as you do?
Who finds a life that’s lost
and welcomes it home as you do?
Who is there like you,
God of mercy and grace
who loves us as you do?
(http://www.facebook.com/faithandworship?ref=hl)
May our hearts be a Christ like fragrance
rising up to God.
May we spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere
like a sweet perfume.
Let it lavish the hungry with abundance,
And touch the grieving with compassion.
Let it bless the oppressed with justice,
And release the bondage of the prisoners.
Let it anoint the sick with healing,
And bring joy to those who doubt.
So that the fragrance of Christ wafts throughout the world,
Bringing refreshment, renewal and new life.
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
O Christ, the Master Carpenter
who, at the last, through wood and nails
purchased our whole salvation:
Wield well your tools
in the workshop of your world,
so that we,
who come rough-hewn to your bench,
may here be fashioned
to a truer beauty of your hand.
Amen.
Arthur Gray Butler ( 1831-1909)
Forgive us, Lord
our need to be in control,
the pattern for each day
written by human hands,
each moment mapped out,
presented to you
for approval.
Grant us, Lord
the confidence to let go,
hand our days over to you,
follow where you might lead,
each moment lived out
in humble service
and gratitude.
(Faithandworship.com)
God in you all life is born,
In your promises all hope is found,
In your love all creation finds its purpose.
We sit in awe,
We drink in your mercy,
We are filled with your faithfulness.
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
Love comes to us
fragile
as a tiny seed
which can
germinate and grow
into the tallest of trees,
or wither
and die
if left carelessly around.
Love comes to us
fragile
as a tiny child
who is
salvation and grace
for sinners wanting release,
or judgement
for hearts
that offer just stony ground.
(http://www.facebook.com/faithandworship?ref=hl)
The Lord is my light and my salvation,
Why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my strength and shield,
I trust him with all my heart.
The Lord leads me with faithfulness and love,
He helps me through storms and dangers,
And my heart is filled with joy.
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
(inspired by reading of Psalm 26-28)
Sophia Rising by Monette Chilson
Is yoga an acceptable Christian spiritual practice? That is one of the questions that will arise for many of us as we read Monette Chilson’s new book Sophia Rising: Awakening Your Sacred Wisdom Through Yoga.
I love the way that Monette weaves her own faith journey through her exploration of yoga. Her choice of Sophia as the name of God she uses throughout the book will immediately send many outside their comfort zone. However she explains:
Most of us will pay lip service to the fact that God transcends gender, but our experience – because of the stigma associated with the feminine divine in Western religions – does not include prayers, images or words that let us express this truth. Whether the aversion to referring to God in feminine terms stems from patriarchal roots, a desire by early Christians to separate themselves from Goddess worhsip or to differentiate themselves from gnostic communities, the result has been a severing of the sacred feminine that has silenced voices that would pray to God our mother. Sophia embodies those missing pieces, giving us the prayers, images and words we need to complete our limited human perspective on who God is- and who God wants to be in our lives (13)
In the second chapter of Sophia Rising, dubbed The Heart of Yoga, Monette describe one of her favorite applications of pratyahara, the Benedictine practice of mindful eating. For those of us who love to garden, cook and eat it is a wonderful invitation.
“If you want to experience taste in a sacred context, try slowly and silently eating a bowl of soup on a cold night. Not only will you savor the taste of the soup as it moves over your tongue, but the warmth of it will move through your body, extending the experience beyond that of a meal where we eat and move on to another bite, another thought, another activity before the food is even down our throats.
While soup is soothing and a great way to ease into mindful eating, you can expand your experience into a seasonal rhythm. Soup is perfect for a winter practice. A salad full of the first greens of spring can usher in the warming winds of the season, awakening our taste buds to the delicate treats ahead. Juicy strawberries and peaches, dripping from our chins, call us to the informality of summer, while crunching into a crisp apple is the perfect way to transition our taste buds to back to the routine that fall brings with it. Who would have thought that yoga could be so delicious?!”
As Monette explains, it is an interesting paradox that in narrowing our focus, we expand our awareness. By restricting our intake of stimuli, we actually increase our consciousness of God’s presence in any given moment through acts as simple and mundane as eating.
Sophia Rising disturbed, enriched and challenged me. It’s provocative and well researched content stretched my views of spiritual practices and Christian faith in a healthy and inspiring way. I do not currently practice yoga but this book definitely tempted me to begin. And for the many of my Christian friends who do practice yoga and yet have never been sure how to integrate the practice with their faith, this is a must read book.
Today’s post in the series Creating Sacred Space Do We Need Churches? is contributed by The. Rev. Daniel Simons, Priest and Director of Liturgy, Hospitality, and Pilgrimage for Trinity Wall Street. He can be contacted at dsimons@trinitywallstreet.org.
Trinity Wall Street via http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/
We worship in the architectural decisions of those who came before.
One of the great heritages that a church passes on is its buildings. Yet how we inherit the worship space of a particular time, make it our own, and hand it on to others is a delicate question. If we are mere preservationists then worship can be frozen, becoming itself an object of worship, which is idolatry and the death of lively spirituality. On the other hand, if we forget that we are just a tick of the clock’s hand in time and rebuild to suit the fad of the moment, we can mangle the coherence of a particular age’s architectural voice or leave behind a dated legacy that can’t speak beyond its generation (many churches are still cleaning up liturgical spaces designed in the ’50s and ’60s).
Trinity Wall Street is not exempt from these considerations. Our church (meaning the people of God) is housed in two spectacular edifices: Trinity Church, the third building on the site and now dwarfed by the elegant old skyscrapers of early Manhattan, but for many years the tallest building on the island; and St. Paul’s Chapel, a city treasure that is New York’s oldest public building in continuous use.
One of the tributes to the architects who designed Trinity and St. Paul’s Chapel is that the buildings have needed so little redesign over the centuries. Every time we put St. Paul’s to another use the founders would have never considered, we discover what perfectly designed proportions we’re working with. We have had dinners, concerts, dances, and classes there, and after 9/11 it was a clinic and a kitchen and a dormitory. And then, of course, we have worshipped in so many different styles there, and it all works harmoniously because those who built it were listening deeply to the poetry of the space.
But that doesn’t mean we haven’t radically changed those spaces. Somewhere along the line at St. Paul’s, the pew boxes that had kept people warm in winter became charming but impractical, and all but two, including George Washington’s, were removed. And then, about six years ago, the pews were removed entirely. Having experienced the capacity of the chapel to be something much more than a church, Trinity’s leadership listened deeply to the need of the moment and decided that the bones of the building could withstand, and even incorporate, that radical decision. In the years since, that choice has proved itself to be a good one, and once-skeptics now comment on what a new range the chapel has.
I’m not making a case for removing pews; I’m making a case for listening deeply both to a building’s heritage and its call to mission in the moment. There are often ways of having both. This year we are beginning to consider a master plan to renew the interior of Trinity Church. Much of it is the boring but important stuff: heating/cooling/sound/light. Some of it goes into that deeper stewardship of prayer: shall we make some of the pews moveable so that we increase the flexible use of the space? How does the altar area relate to the people, and is there a one-sizefits- all solution, or do we want flexibility there too? How do we make the rear of the church more welcoming to visitors—more porous to the outside world while maintaining its coherence and integrity?
As the architects work on these questions, we are all wrestling with this tension: any change we make affects those who come after us. In the same way that our architects gave us such good bones to work with in these buildings, our work has to be thoughtful and careful enough to be appreciated by our spiritual descendants, who will have different concerns from ours that we cannot yet see.
Tradition is the process of handing on the past to the future. In that process we inevitably leave our own mark. In every age the call is faithfulness to the Gospel as we hear it, the call to follow Jesus in our own time.
Sidebar: Our mark in some ages calls for great reform, in some ages holding steady, and sometimes we are even called to leave the building entirely. Look at your building—what does it say about the community that built it? How has it shaped you and how have you shaped it? How does it help or hinder you in living out the Gospel now? What do you think God is calling your community to do or be in this next chapter of mission, and how will that be reflected and enhanced by what you do with your building?
——————————————-
Check out the other posts in this series:
Creating Sacred Space Do We Really Need Churches
Every Garden Needs A Sacred Space
Reclaiming a Sacred Space – Cheasty Greenspace: A Place of Goodness and Grace by Mary De Jong
Creating a Sacred Space – Stir the Senses
A Garden of Inspiration – A Story of Leo Tolstoy
Symbols and Elements that Weave Together a Sacred Space
Why Being Spiritual may be More Important Than Being Religious by Rob Rynders
Celtic Spirituality – What Is The Attraction?
In the Barren Places: Finding Sacred Space for the First Time – James Rempt
A Tree My Most Sacred Space by Ryan Harrison
Sacred Buildings by Lynne Baab
Sacred Space – Listening to the Trees by Richard Dahlstrom
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!