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Arts Creative Worship

Messy/Muddy Church

Creative Church Building Here are some thoughts reflecting on the experience of running messy and muddy church activities in a seaside Scottish town. Our speaker couldn’t make it on the day, but she sent her thoughts for people to read. You can download some sample running orders for the sessions here: What are your aims? […]

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Arts Creative Worship

Building Church Creativity

Sharing experiences of God in creation and creating A way to encourage creativity in people is to create an environment where it is normal to express yourself creatively. This might seem like a simple statement, but how many people stop making art after bad experiences in childhood, or as adults don’t feel that their creativity […]

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Creative Worship

Reflection

Around three years ago I started to move from “Quartz” posts on various social media platforms to our own online “Home”. This was very useful during lockdown! It also means that there are three years of records of activity available online. You can search using categories and #tags to find examples of acts of worship, […]

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#SensingSpirituality Creative Worship

WOW

Creative Church Building Our gathering on Saturday the 18th was uplifting. Members of St Johns were joined by people from around Dumfries and Galloway. Participants described it as “encouraging”, “insightful”, and are planning events to build up the Body of Christ as we move onwards after Pentecost. This post will have a few images from […]

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Creative Worship CW resources Forest Church

Muddy Church

Do you get stuck when you try to think of things to do?Fans of Forest Church activities, or simply those who want to “wander and wonder” might find these Muddy Church resources handy. https://www.muddychurch.co.uk/resources They are free at point of access, but please support the artists by using their Ko-Fi link on the page.

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Creative Worship

Glorious things

I met Diana Greenfield over 10 years ago, at a conference where I first learned about the “Forest Church” name. It was a delight to hear this interview with her, and so here is the opportunity for you to listen as well. https://www.gloriousthingspodcast.com/podcast/episode/25a9760d/30-fairy-goth-vicar She is building the Church creatively and holding spaces open for discussions.

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#SensingSpirituality Creative Worship CW resources Thought of the Day

Ikigai

Where do you find value and joy in life? Christians sometimes talk of being “born again” or “Metanoia” moments. The examples used of this are often ones where a persons life is caught up in extreme behaviour. It was, however, when someone so concerned about preserving his good reputation that he chose to visit Jesus […]

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#SensingSpirituality Creative Worship Easter2024 Forest Church

Easter 2024

Quartz Holy Saturday Pilgrimage and Easter Sunday Forest Church BBQ (30th and 31st of March) Holy Saturday On Saturday the 30th we are planning a pilgrimage. We will gather outside St Johns building and then travel to Lincluden Abbey. After a pause for reflection there we will continue on, and thousands of years back in […]

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Arts Creative Worship Forest Church Fresh Expressions

Psalter of the Birds

Here is a discussion about a new book by Author Justin Coutts on YouTube:. The conversation ranges from poetry which was composed in late antiquity to current mysticism online. So take a moment to slow down and recreate your mind. It is described as a collection of historical poetry and other texts from Ireland, Wales, […]

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#SensingSpirituality Creative Worship

Symbolist Art

Paint what you can to see what you can’t The word used to describe artists like Mucha takes its meaning from broken pottery! In Ancient Greece a treaty could be recorded using pottery. Each city state held a broken fragment of the whole. If you have ever tried to glue a mug back together you […]