Last night at Theology by the Glass the conversation veered into the subject of Hipster Christianity. Apparently there is a book out on the subject along with a excellent website and a quiz so you can determine if you are a Christian hipster.

Since I need to admit that I was at a distinctly hipster-ish event last night and attend what could be considered Winnipeg's hipster church, I decided that I should take the test. In honour of MySpace, here are my results:

Your Christian Hipster Quotient: 55 / 120

Low CHQ. You probably belong to the purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, Hawaiian shirt-wearing Christian establishment, even though you are open to some of the "rethinking Christianity" stuff. You seem to like edginess in some measure but become uneasy when your idea of Christian orthodoxy is challenged by some renegade young visionary who claims the virgin birth isn't necessary.

While I most certainly do not belong to the purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, Hawaiian shirt-wearing Christian establishment, I am slightly comforted that I have a low Christian Hipster Quotient. The only problem is that as I go through the "Anatomy of a Christian Hipster" section of the website, it is clear that I should have scored higher on the test than I did.

Notice to the readers of my blog: Your homework for today is to take the quiz and post your results in the comments below. Don't worry, I won't make fun of you.

Last night Mark and I saw Crazy Heart as part of Theology in the Dark. Overall I was very impressed by the film so it deserves a bit more mention.

I won't go into a summary of the plot since you can find that anywhere, but what really impressed me was the smaller elements. I enjoyed that many events in the film were seemingly understated by Hollywood standards.

For example, at one point in the movie a car crash occurs. I liked the way it was portrayed since it wasn't needlessly violent, and like everything else in the film you could see it coming. The driver falls asleep at the wheel, you know its coming, the car goes off the road into a field then rolls a few times but stops upright. You could say this is symbolic of how the main character will regain his footing in life, but I appreciate the way the crash was shown. You don't need a lot of shock and surprise to get a point across.

After the film the group of us went to Boston Pizza to discuss what we saw, but at the end I found I didn't have much to say. There were so many conflicting emotions it was hard to come out with a strong opinion one way or the other. This may be because the film while not having a good ending, had the right ending.

Lord I denied You
mocked and despised You
cried "crucify him"
left You forsaken
in Your hour of need

Jesus I saw You
suffering in silence
no pleas for mercy
only submission
in Your time of need

Jesus remember
me in Your kingdom
I want to be there
with You in glory
You are all I need

Lord in your mercy
hear my confession
I crucified You
left You forsaken
In Your time of need

I crucified You
I crucified You
I crucified You
I crucified You
In Your time of need

Last night was the official launch of the Book of Hours at McNally Robinson. The cafe was packed for live music, readings, and a few speeches. It was a great event.

I must say that I am completely impressed with the finished product.

Now, this is the first time I've spoken of the Book of Hours here, so it deserves some explanation. A Book of Hours was a prayer book which brought the prayers of the monasteries outside into the community.

The book centers around seven seasons in the church calendar (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost and Ordinary Time) and the seven times of prayer (Vigils, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers and Compline). All together there are 49 sections to the book and each has a piece of writing, art, and/or music to illuminate it.

I must confess that I think this is a really neat idea and it has been brilliant in its execution. This is a book made by small community featuring content from almost 50 of its members. Its nice to be a part of a community that values art in this context and provides ways of sharing it with others.

If you want to learn more, visit the book's website. There are also music samples from the included CD and details of how it can be purchased.

This fall saint benedict's table is bringing Jonathon Wilson-Hartgrove to Winnipeg for a series of lectures around the new monastic movement. Attempting to learn more about him, I visited his site and found this list of practical things to do to make the world a better place.

I find the list interesting in how obvious everything is. You read it and generally think "Of course that is the right thing to do", but its not like we ever do it. I thus theorize that the concept of new monasticism can be defined simply as doing what we know we should, but never do. The list is framed within the context of Christianity, but many ideas may also appeal to most people with a strong desire for social justice.

Anyway, for the sake of stimulating you a bit, here are

50 Ways to be the Answer to Your Prayers

1. Fast for the 2 billion people who live on less than a dollar a day.
2. Contact your local crisis pregnancy center and invite a pregnant woman to live with your family.
3. Ask your pastor if someone on your church’s sick list would like a visit.
4. Join an open AA meeting and befriend someone there.
5. Adopt a child.
6. Mow your neighbor’s grass.
7. Volunteer to tutor a kid at your local elementary school. (Try to get to know the kid’s family.)
8. Grow your own tomatoes–and share them.
9. Ask a small group in your community to meet regularly for intercessory prayer.
10. Build a wheel chair ramp for someone who is homebound.

11. Read the newspaper to someone at your local nursing home.
12. Plant a tree.
13. Look up the closest registered sex offender in your neighborhood and try to befriend him.
14. Throw a birthday party for a prostitute.
15. When you pay your water bill, pay your neighbor’s too (they’ll let you… really).
16. Invest money in a micro-lending bank.
17. Ask the next person who asks you to spare some change to join you for dinner.
18. Leave a random tip for someone who’s cleaning the streets or a public restroom.
19. Write one CEO a month this year. Affirm or critique the ethics of their company (you may need to do a little research first).
20. Start tithing (giving 10%) of all your income directly to the poor.
21. Connect with a group of migrant workers or farmers who grow your food and visit their farm. Maybe even pick some veggies with them. Ask what they get paid.
22. Give your winter coat away to someone who is colder than you and go to a thrift store to get a new one.
23. Write only paper letters (by hand) for a month. Try writing someone who needs encouragement or who you should say “I’m sorry” to.
24. Go TV free for a year. Or turn your TV into a pot where flowers grow.
25. Laugh at advertisements, especially ones that teach you that you can by happiness.
26. Organize a prayer vigil for peace outside a weapons manufacturer such as Lockheed Martin. Read the Sermon on the Mount out loud. For extra credit, do it every week for a year.
27. Go down a line of parked cars and pay for the meters that are expired. Leave a little note of niceness.
28. Write to one social justice organizer or leader each month just to encourage them.
29. Go through a local thrift store and drop $1 bills in random pockets of the clothing being sold.
30. Experiment with creation-care by going fuel free for a week–ride a bike, carpool, or walk.
31. Try only reading books written by females or people of color for a year.
32. Go to an elderly home and get a list of folks who don´t get any visitors. Visit them each week and tell stories, read the bible together, or play board games.
33. Track to its source one item of food you eat regularly. Then, each time you eat that food, pray for those folks who helped make it possible for you to eat it.
34. Create a Jubilee fund in your Church congregation, matching dollar for dollar every dollar you spend internally with a dollar externally. If you have a building fund, create a fund to match it to give away and buy mosquito nets or dig wells for folks dying in poverty.
35. Become a pen-pal with someone in prison.
36. Give your car away to a stranger.
37. Convert your car to run off waste vegetable oil.
38. Try recycling your water from the washer or sink to flush your toilet. Remember the 1.2 billion folks who don´t have clean water.
39. Wash your clothes by hand, or dry them by hanging to remember those without electricity or running water. Remember the 1.6 billion people who do not have electricity.
40. Buy only used clothes for a year.
41. Cover up all brand names, or at least the ones that do not reflect the upside-down economics of God’s Kingdom. Commit to only being branded by the cross.
42. Learn to sew or start making your own clothes to remember the invisible faces behind what we wear. Take your kids to pick cotton so they can see what that is like (and then read James).
43. Eat only a bowl of rice a day for a week to remember those who do that for most of their life (take a multivitamin). Remember the 30,000 people who die each day of poverty and malnutrition.
44. Begin creating a scholarship fund so that for every one of your own children you send to college you can create a scholarship for an at-risk youth. Get to know their family and learn from each other.
45. Visit a worship service where you will be a minority. Invite someone to dinner at your house or have dinner with someone there if they invite you.
46. Help your church congregation create a Peacemaker Scholarship and give it away to a young person trying to avoid the economic draft, who would like to go to college but sees no other way than the military.
47. Eat with someone who does not look like you. Learn from them.
48. Confess something you have done wrong to someone and ask them to pray for you.
49. Serve in a homeless shelter. For extra credit, go back and eat or sleep in the shelter and allow yourself to be served.
50. Join a Yokefellows ministry at a prison close to you. Remember that Jesus said he would meet you there (Matt. 25).

Saturday was a good day, I finally scored my first goal playing broomball. I can now scratch that off of the list of things I need to do before I die. Now I know what you're thinking, but I don't suck - I just normally play defence.

It was a wonderful day to play, around three or four degrees and sunny. I really liked being able to play in a t-shirt as opposed to a heavy jacket, although the ice turned into slush during the game. This warm weather is great, spring is still isn't here yet and when I go outside it feels like summer to me.

Score winning goal at a church retreat broomball game

This weekend I went out to Camp Cedarwood for the saint benedict's table winter retreat. I had a relaxing weekend, and I actually got the chance to take some pictures. It felt so good to get out and take some pictures again since it is something I don't do very regularly these days.

I shall call this one 'Busted Stuff' or 'All the instruments you need for a TCT concert'. I even found a matching oven nearby.

The Celebration and Blessing of the Marriage
of
Emily Anne Blunden
and
Sean William Carney

August 9, 2008
saint benedict's table

The Gathering of the Community

Processional

Officiant

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
be with you all.

People

And also with you.

Officiant

We have come together to ask God’s blessing on Emily and Sean, to witness their marriage and to bring them our love and support.

I ask you now to pray for them; and not just to pray today or only in this place but to pray in your hearts continually and over the years.

Eternal love never fails; our love needs to forgive and be forgiven. As we pray and forgive we minister reconciliation. Those who marry are God’s ministers to each other of reconciliation and change. As they grow together, wife and husband foster one another’s strengths, they provide each other with the reassurance and love needed to overcome their weaknesses.

From this beginning God draws them now to a completely new life. They become awake to each other, aware of each other, sensitive to each other’s needs.

Emily and Sean, you are welcome here.
Pray that God will uphold and bless your life together,
that your promises be honoured, your words true,
now in time to come. Amen.

May God’s grace surround you and keep you,
The peace of God, which is beyond our understanding
keep guard over your thoughts and hearts.
God keep you friends with one another,
forgiving one another in kindness.
May hope keep you joyful.
Stand firm in trouble.
Be strong in your commitments.
May God make you compassionate and brave.
May there always be love
to bind and keep your whole.

The Proclamation of the Word

Song of Solomon 2:10-13

A reading from the Song of Solomon

My beloved speaks and says to me:

‘Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle-dove
is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

John 15:9-12

A reading from the Gospel according to John:

Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Poetry

Homily

Music

The Wedding

The giving and receiving of consent

Officiant

Sean will you give yourself to Emily to be her husband: to love her, comfort her, honour and protect her; and forsaking all others, to be faithful to her so long as you both shall live?

I will.

Officiant

Emily will you give yourself to Sean to be his wife: to love him, comfort him, honour and protect him; and forsaking all others, to be faithful to him so long as you both shall live?

I will.

Officiant

Do you, members of the families of Emily and Sean, give your blessing to this marriage?

Answer

We do.

Officiant

You are the witnesses to these vows now being made. Will you do all in your power to support and uphold this marriage?

Answer

We will.

Officiant

Jesus, do for Sean and Emily
as you did in Cana of Galilee.
Take the old water, their busy individual lives,
and turn them into new wine.

The Vows

I Sean take you Emily, to be my wife. All that I have I offer you; what you have to give I gladly receive; wherever you go I will go. You are my friend; you are my love. God keep me true to you always and you to me.

I Emily take you Sean, to be my husband. All that I have I offer you; what you have to give I gladly receive; wherever you go I will go. You are my friend; you are my love. God keep me true to you always and you to me.

The Blessing and Exchange of Rings

I give you this ring,
as a symbol of my vow.
With all that I am and all that I have,
I honour you in the name of God.

Officiant

Emily and Sean have joined themselves to each other by solemn vows, signified by the joining of hands and the giving and receiving of rings. I declare that they are husband and wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder.

People

Amen.

The Signing of the Register

Music

The Prayers of the People

Let us pray.

Almighty God, in whom we live and move and have our being, look graciously upon the world which you have made and for which your Son gave his life, and especially on all whom you make to be one flesh in holy marriage.
May their lives together be a sacrament of your love to this broken world, so that unity may overcome estrangement, forgiveness heal guilt, and joy overcome despair.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

May Emily and Sean so live together that the strength of their love may enrich our common life and become a sign of your faithfulness.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

May they receive the gift and heritage of children and the grace to bring them up to know and love you.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

May their home be a place of truth, security, and love; and their lives an example of concern for others.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

May we who have witnessed these vows find our lives strengthened and our loyalties confirmed.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.

The Communion

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

This is the body of Christ:
behold what you are;
become what you receive. Amen.

The gifts of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.

After Emily and Sean have shared in communion, the gathered community is welcome to come forward to receive. Everyone is most welcome to participate, though no one should feel any obligation.

Music during communion

The Blessing of the Marriage

The Peace

The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.

The Recessional

Officiant: Jamie Howison
Music: Lyndon James
Communion Assistants: Helen Manfield, Sean and Emily
Readers: Rachel Blunden and Laura Blunden
Poetry Reading: Sarah Blunden
Prayers: Sara Matyas

Much to the amazement of myself and others I have returned from the pits of despair the Grand Canyon. It was a great trip and I'll be posting some pictures and such as I find time this week. For now, here is a song that really spoke to me at church this evening;

O Woman, You are not forgotten
Take up your harp
Play your song often.

O Man, You have forgotten
Your love is strong
Forget this wasteland.

I am coming for you.
I am coming for you.
You will see me in this town someday.

And the meal will fill you.
And the wine will calm you.
And the company will remind you
That I see you

And the meal will fill you.
And the wine will calm your nerves.
And the company will remind you
You are alive and well.