Desperately seeking me...

Just returned from Greenbelt and utterly inspired but not entirely sure what to do with all that inspiration. I wish I could know who I am. I don't seem to fit into any neat category. I'm really interested in all of the alternative worship stuff that is happening at the moment. The really interesting thing is that we in the Catholic church have always done the art and symbolism stuff but it is being rediscovered by the new movements who have their roots in the Protestant tradition (I'm sure they must be ostracised by the hardliners). Perhaps we can pick up on some of this to give our worship a new twist. Purely by chance I discovered a great blog by a guy called Jonny Baker who is involved with Grace (who were at Greenbelt), an emerging church in London. Also turns out he is heavily involved with the worship at Greenbelt. Also turns out he is married to one Jenny Baker who gave a talk on prayer at Spring Harvest when I was there a few years back (2002, I think). It was a double header with Pete Greig of 24-7 Prayer.

Sadly, though, being a Catholic does not give you much opporunity to use all this stuff. We just don't have that flexibility to muck about with the liturgy. Plus, we have to be careful of the 'thought police', that particular brand of sad wierdo who actually believes that God is interested in phariseeic (is that a word?) 'i' dotting and 't' crossing - and if they don't get any joy from God they will think nothing of escalating the matter to the Bishop or even the Holy Father himself! Surely it was for individuals such as these that the phrase 'Get a life!' was coined!

I'm thinking of approaching people in some of the other churches locally to see if we could do some non-denominational worship services which could incorporate some of this stuff. If only God will let me have an extra few hours in a day! I get what little energy that I have from my interactions with Christians from many different traditions. If I were to isolate myself in a Catholic bubble I would dry up spiritually. Keeping the lines of communication up with friends in other churches is my way of living out Christ's call to unity. I'm too dumb to understand the finer points of theology, but I do know that when we all work together, the vibe is great.

God Bless.