An Update

Hello all,

I just wanted to write something of an update of what is happening with the anthology and to thank everyone who have got in contact and submitted poems.

I feel truly humbled that people have gotten behind it and understood what I am trying to do with it and it is starting to feel like it will be something really great and unique and different - which has got be a good when we think about fresh ways of meeting with God and expressing how we feel and understand and appreciate who God is. The poems that I have received have been wonderful and varied and amazing and people have been so glad to get involved which is exactly what I hoped for.

I met with a friend last week who is a great artist who is going to help design a cover and it all feels like it is starting to come together.

It feels kind of odd to be putting the anthology together sometimes and strange that it has now becoming a thing rather than just a concept I had in my mind. I have always liked to have a project but this feels like the biggest that I have taken on and the most important as it is not just my writing that I am responsible for and so whilst it is exciting it is now becoming daunting.

I would like to ask for prayer for a few things if I may. I don't want to loose sight of the heart behind this and so I feel that it is important that I put my prayer requests out there. I feel like this anthology brings the writers and readers together as a kind of unique community and so in that spirit I share the following in the hope that you will also pray with me for these things.

1. It is just over 2 months to the deadline and I am still just under half way with the amount of poems that I want to include. I would like to include as many great writers as possible and so pray that the poems will keep coming and that I will be able to include as many great poems as possible.

2. I am leaving my current job and starting a new job next week. I work at the local hospital and have been looking for a new job for a while and a few weeks back I was offered what seems to be a great job. I thank God for it and that the new job involves the minimum amount of disruption as it is still in the building where I work and I have been lucky enough to meet some of my new colleagues. But I pray that I will be able to settle into this new job and give my best to it but also give my best to the anthology and that I will have the time to do both of these.

3. And finally I pray that the focus of the anthology will continue to be  of worship and pointing towards God and that God will bless the work I am doing and those who are contributing.

Thanks all.

Until next time.

Dan

Name

I have been thinking for a while about what to call this anthology. I wanted a name with imagery and intrigue, something that wasn’t a cliché or cheesy or hackneyed, and something that summed up what the anthology was somehow. I have been batting around a few ideas and also discussing artwork with a friend of mine who is going to help with that and so have been putting together inspirational images for that. Thinking about that has also influenced what I have been thinking about the name. Also speaking to the poets who have already contributed has helped and given me a lot of ideas. One of the poets Tami who was one of the first people to submit sent a poem called Song of The Sea which I really liked as a title. I had been thinking about Song of …. Something as I really like the titles Songs of Innocence and Experience (William Blake), Songs of Ascent (from Psalms) and Songs of Faith and Devotion (Depeche Mode album)  but  in the end the idea of song in the title of a collection of poems seemed a little confusing.

But the idea of the sea stuck.

I really like the idea of the sea. The mystery of it. And a few years back I was leading a bible study and asked the question “When you think of God, what image do you think of?”. To which one of my friends answered “the ocean”. I love that image, it was so unexpected but it was perfect, The power, the mystery, the stillness, the might, the unquantifiableness of the ocean. I loved it!

I was talking with one of the other poets recently over email about some of the Orthodox Christian themes I had noticed in his work. Trevor writes poems and hymns that weave together ideas within faith and science which are such huge subjects. He was talking about some of his artwork, paintings of Nebula and about the mystery within the universe and we were talking about the sense of mystery that plays a part in Orthodox Christianity and how our own Anglican/charismatic traditions don’t really deal with mystery.

I really value mystery within faith and I personally find it helpful that I don’t have to all of theology sorted in my head, I now like that it isn’t all tidy and ordered. I prefer not to have God in a box that I can understand, I like that God is the ocean, that there are bits that make sense that you can see and be in awe at and appreciate the beauty of but there are also bits that are completely mysterious and unpredictable and that inspire a different kind of awe.

And so I guess that this idea fits with what this anthology is. This isn’t going to be the comprehensive Anglican, Methodist, Nazarene, Baptist, Adventist, Quaker, etc, anthology. But it is going to be a collection of poems by people who love poetry and love to worship and are offering the best we have in worship and praise.

The final piece to the name puzzle is that I wrote a poem that was kind of about this idea. It isn’t going to be in the anthology because it is too long and so it is going to go onto an album of recorded poetry but the poem talks about mystery and awe before God, as us being grains of sand before the ocean and I think I also like that image as a starting point when it comes to worship.

And so the name is…. drum roll…

Stones before the Ocean

I think the title sums up what this anthology is and I like the idea of that stance when it comes worship. That we stand before a powerful immense, uncontainable entirety  but that as we stand there we are present and we meet and engage with that force, and that the waves that wash over the stones are moved and smoothed, engulfed and washed by the rushing waters. And I also like that it presents a different image, Christian art I fear too often revolves around sunsets, mountain ranges, soft focus pastel colours, doves, which are all fine by the way. But as poets I think it is worth looking for new images, fresh metaphors, and I hope that the poems in this book will resonate with that.

Facing the fear

This post follows on from Steve's post below - so if you want a but of context then check that out first.

 

I forget how lucky I am. 

 

In a lot of ways.

 

But particularly when it comes to creativity withing the Church.

 

I think that most of the churches I have been part of have embraced creativity to some extent and I think that a lot of churches are generally open to creative expression. But some aren't and I know that perhaps for some the idea of using poetry in Worship may be a little out there, and consequently this whole project would seem pointless perhaps.

 

I say that I am lucky because the church I am part of focuses a great deal on creativity. People are encouraged to bring songs, spoken word, pictures, we use drama and dance and poetry and art in church services, and we encourage each other in our creativity. A group of us meet every month to share what we are doing creatively, to workshop ideas, to bounce ideas around, to learn more about our craft.

 

And that is what I have never had before in a church. And I feel immensely blessed to have this. But I know that for some it is a struggle.

 

The church I was in growing up in was quite conservative. Worship was hymns sung from books with yellowing pages and archaic print and the music was just piano. As a child I always felt it was quite dreary, especially as it was quite a youthful church, a lot of families. Then when I was about 13 I discovered indie rock music, Oasis, Pulp, Manic Street Preachers and I learned how to play guitar and one of the girls in our youth group played drums and we wanted to put on a youth service, where we played some of the modern worship songs and had a 'band'. And we had to fight for it. And then the next week it was business as usual with piano and hymns. I suppose it isn't too uncommon a story but remembering that makes me feel lucky that I can now experience different types of worship. Because i think that different types of worship help us to bring our praise to God in different ways. God is a creator and God didn't just create one thing or one form of art. In the Old Testament people worship God in all manner of creative ways - singing, poems, art, embroidery, carving, metal work, all sorts.

 

I while back I was going through the bible in a year which meant going though all the tortuously boring bits about building tabernacles and temples and all the details of dimensions and everything and then realising how much creativity is going on within these passages, all of it going towards the glory of God and the people documenting it in the best way that they can - and it made me think about it differently and wonder more about creativity in worship.

 

I don't really where I am heading to in terms of a point... I guess it's just to say that God endorses our creativity and invites God's people to be creative in our worship of God and that we should be open to expression and even if we don't necessarily "get it", it is worthwhile if we accept these expressions as acts to glorify our God. Even if we don't understand them or they make us feel strange or they are too loud or long or abstract. 

We can still learn something of God from them and who knows - art can touch us in the most unexpected ways.

Worship Poetry Anthology ideas

Putting down some of my own ideas for the Worship Poetry Anthology.

If you write and are interested in getting involved find out more at http://worshippoetry.weebly.com/