gathering, praying, singing, remembering

Rina and Sarah both used the prayers and music of Trisha Watts, from Sanctuary (available from MediaCom, among other retailers). 

Gathering participants also asked about prayers from our Eucharist celebration on Sunday morning.

'Before we pray' is by Cheryl Lawrie, and is published in Hold this Space (available through proost); 'Welcome' is from Mark Berry and the Safe Space community, available in the Navigatio pocket liturgy from proost; and this is the liturgy for the Eucharist that I wrote for the occasion:

Eucharist

those who gather at this table have chosen to follow a story

the story of God, who loves

who, from an eternal well of love,

created all that lives – created humans for love,

and invited us into a relationship for life: full, rich, life.

The story is a story of human turning away, and returning,

of prophets calling, men and women singing,

God forgiving and restoring, again and again.

The story of this table, this meal,

is the story of Jesus, who we follow;

who was born under a special star,

inhabited by the Sacred Spirit.

Jesus looked at women and welcomed, men, and healed,

children, and delighted.

The story of Jesus is a story of love,

of peace and justice and courage.

On the night when he was betrayed –

for not all understood, or accepted –

he took the bread they were to eat, gave thanks and broke it.

He looked at his friends and said, this is my body, breaking for you

Eat, and whenever you eat, remember me.

At the end of the meal he took a cup and gave thanks.

He said, this cup is a new covenant made through the spilling of my blood.

drink, and whenever you drink, remember me.

We pray that the Spirit, ever present, will bless this bread and this wine,

will bless us, making these gifts the body of Christ in us.

break bread, distribute

The story is told again and again with this reenacting at tables all over the world.

It is a world still yearning for justice,

for courage, peace and love.

May the story we have enacted here shape our living beyond this moment;

May the Christ we have remembered be our Wisdom Guide,

may the Creator scatter seeds and birth ever new, renewing, life,

and may the Spirit breathe in us and through us, peace, deep peace. Amen.

(Sarah Agnew)  

gathering, inspiring, telling, breathing

Obviously, after Friday, the gathering picked up intensity, and I didn't find any time for blogging.

Saturday was full of stories and insights from Megan, as she took us deep into the Gospel according to John and its chiastic / parallel structure, the centrality of the story of Lazarus and our place with Lazarus as the beloved disciple, and challenged, moved and inspired us with her invitation into story worlds.

Megan's current tour Down Under includes some work in New Zealand - and she has provided some resources that we are also welcome to access from the Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington.

Saturday also included our epic telling of portions from the Gospel according to John, and so together we entered into the story of Jesus through the poetry and imagery of this gospel account.

In between all this, when there were moments to spare, we enjoyed the labyrinth, sweeping lawns, and warm sunshine at Santa Theresa Spirituality Centre, Ormiston, Brisbane.

gathering, hearing, shattering

The gospels hit us like a hammer shattering rock. At a public address in Mt Cravatt Megan told us a story of a baker a rabbi and sharing bread, meeting God in our neighbour. She introduced us anew to the gospel according to Luke, with his focus on food and Jesus' breaking open of cultural boundaries to welcome all and teach the disciples. 

What did we hear? What did we feel? 

The meaning is in the hearing. 

So we heard the story again. 

and how the gospels shatter us with the challenge to share what we have beyond enough ... 

a story to finish reminded us that many of the people who pick the resources that make our food never taste it ... 

gathering, going deeper

rain stick shiver, music, silence, nature's beauty. a prayerful pause from which to launch into our gathering.
welcomes and introductions, orientation and explanation. enter the space as you feel comfortable.

the first two workshops invited us to explore how we use senses to learn and share stories, and how we engage with the Holy Spirit.

stories have been shared in the intervening time as we get to know many new friends, and reconnect with old friends.

we are about to eat our dinner - quickly - before heading off site for a public address by our speaker, for which we are to be joined by another 80 or 90 people!

the gathering, the beginning

well, folks, the Network of Biblical Storytellers Australia / New Zealand Gathering is kicking off tomorrow (Friday). The board members arrived early and discussed structural and administrative matters, including finishing the meeting not as a board, but as a Network Council! And of course, we enjoyed catching up on our stories, as it's been a while since we were all in the same room together!

The venue is great - a Catholic retreat centre in Brisbane, on the water - stillness, beauty, and gorgeous weather (it's winter down here, and it was cold and rainy last weekend, so fine and mild is very welcome).

We are very much looking forward to embracing old friends, welcoming new friends, sharing the stories, and hearing from Megan McKenna.

In the morning, the people will gather: let the stories begin!

From our keynote speaker, Megan McKenna

Here is what Megan is planning to explore with us at the gathering on the weekend of 5 - 7 July, in Brisbane, Queensland: let her thoughts whet your appetite and inspire your fingers to fill out those registration forms and book those flights for a weekend of immersion in our Sacred Story.

Saturday, I'm thinking of doing John 4 (parts of the chapter) and connections with word / water / scriptures ... and I would hopefully invite the people to experience the connections / relationships between the gospel / Scriptures and storytelling by heart (not memorisation).

I thought for the workshop we could either explore parables – specifically as religious / sacred stories that are meant to 'interrupt' our lives and turn us upside down and inside out ...  or storytelling and scripture – on words  and their power to convert, make peace, do justice, etc.

And then the closing on Sunday morning I thought I would do something on making stories come true – dreaming and telling them into becoming reality and actually happening.

I don't know about you, but I find Megan's thoughts are enticing, and can't wait to explore the Gospels, storytelling, and living into and out of the story with Megan and fellow storytellers. See you there!!

In the beginning was the word ... pass it on: 2013 National Biblical Storytellers' Gathering

Here it is - the registration information for the 

2013 National Gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers Australia

Brisbane, 5 – 7 July 

Click on this front page to access the full flier with registration form. 

See you there! 

US Festival Gathering

This year, three Australians - Annette, Gillian & Robyn - made the trek over to North Carolina for the International Festival Gathering of the Network of Biblical Storytellers.
They had good intentions of blogging the experience as they went, but it really is such a full-on engagement of your being - in other words, they were having so much fun - that there just wasn't time. So our travellers promise to offer us their reflections on the gathering when they return to Oz this week. Stay tuned!

International Festival Gathering - first snapshots

view of accommodation suites

While the international festival gathering of the network of biblical storytellers is predominantly a gathering for the USA network, it is an international event, with tellers from Canada, the UK, Australia and Italy, and quite a focus on the international storytelling mission of the network and members of the network with other organisations, into places like the Gambia, Papua New Guinea and South East Asia. Later this year, the first festival gathering for Canada will be held, which is a cause for some excitement, as is a gathering for 140 pastors and their partners in Cambodia, made possible by considerable fundraising efforts of the network in the USA. For the network in Australia, we are excited by emerging partnerships with Indigenous Australian storytellers and storytellers in Indonesia, and it was good to be able to share this news with our friends here, sharing the gifts we have to encourage the gift of storytelling we share with our neighbours all over the world.
One of the highlights for me this week was the telling of the story of the young David by Matteo, from Italy. Not only is he obviously a gifted storyteller who can weave music into the telling to great effect, but his telling was all the more remarkable for being carried out in a second language, struggling to find the right word very very rarely. As a young man, Matteo conveyed well the internal struggles of boys yearning to be men already and brought humour and insight into the story I had not encountered before. I have a deeper understanding of the story; can see it from David's point of view more clearly now, because of Matteo's telling.
Another story that has new images for me is the story of the man brought by friends on a mat to Jesus for healing. First, Zac told the story in worship, using a big stick - it's like a hiker's pole I guess, light wood, and engraved. Zac says it was a gift from a friend that sat in the garage until he discovered storytelling, and found it a help to sway in and out of characters, as he can't do this with his voice. In this story, Zac used the stick to 'dig' a hole in the roof - a subtle but I found very effective gesture that brought the story to life in a new way for me. Second, we used this story in a workshop on bibliodrama, that introduced to me a way of exporing biblical stories friends had mentioned to me but that I had yet to encounter. When I tell stories, I will often invite listeners to 'wonder' about the story, voicing the questions we have of the text, characters, time and place. Bibliodrama invites listeners to pause at various points in the story and imagine themselves into the story - you are the people carrying the mat, tell us who you are, why you are here, what you are feeling when the crowd won't let you through to the house. Some of the insights were unexpected - even one I voiced was something new. As we were exploring the man's response when he was healed, and moving out through the crowd, I had him thinking 'now you move' of the crowd ...

our conference building at Ridgecrest Conference Centre,
Asheville, North Carolina USA

The other lingering thought for me at this point is the last workshop I did this morning, with Rabbi Rachmiel Tobesman. We were exploring the pursuer of peace, how hard it is to work for peace, costly, and certainly not a passive inaction. And as we did, I was struck by how the Rabbi's presence with us here at this Christian gathering was itself an act of peace making, as many Jews are still guided by fear and mistrust in their relations with Christians, who have been the instigators of so much suffering for the Jewish poeple throughout history. It must take much courage to be here, and to continue in relationships with Christians in this way in the face of misunderstanding and criticism from his community. I am grateful for his model, as much as for his stories and his words.