We are just in after a our sky lantern launch.
It was lovely.
We have been passing out lanterns to community groups, and selling others for charity, and invited people to decorate them with prayers and hopes.
Here are a few pictures-
I have decided to change the word ‘advent’ into an adjective rather than a verb.
Then, rather than being merely a calendic description, it might become a spiritual practice.
Instead of being a commercial break before the main consumption, it might then become a period of reflective anticipation.
Instead of being something to rush headlong past towards a glittering destination, we might start to savour the journey.
So tomorrow, the first Sunday of Advent- always on or around St Andrews day- I am going to begin…
…adventing.
Aoradh are planning a massed sky lantern launch on the banks of the river Clyde as a way of celebrating the season of Advent.
In doing this, we pray that we can learn how to wait in hope for the coming of light into darkness.
This is a repeat of an event we did last year- some photos of which are here.
We will be using lanterns made from 100% biodegradable materials- with no wire that can be of potential risk to any animals.
We will be selling the lanterns at a local shop, and making others available free for schools and community groups. And profit will go to a Christmas charity.
Here is the poster-
If you are fairly local it is well worth coming to join us- the spectacle is wonderful.
And the process of making prayers that float upwards is very moving.
This is the blurb that we include with the lanterns-
The light keeps shining in the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out…
As part of our Advent festivities, Aoradh invite you to be part of a celebration of light.
Each year, we are plunged into a whirl of busyness around Christmas- all the presents we buy, the cards we send, the pressure of making ready for a feast. All these things are good, but it is so easy to lose sight of the Christ-child. We wanted to encourage one another to step aside, and reflect…
Our intention is to use these paper sky lantern as carriers of our hopes, expectations and prayers in this season of waiting, and so make our deliberate preparation for the coming Christmas.
You are invited to write prayers and thoughts on the lantern, and to be part of a MASS SKY LANTERN LAUNCH from the West Bay Dunoon, on Sunday the 12th of December, from 5.00 pm– weather permitting.
(NB We will need fairly calm, dry conditions for the mass launch to take place. If we are not able to launch on the Sunday, then we will go for 5.00 on Monday- then Tuesday and so on.)
The spectacle of a large number of sky lanterns rising over the Clyde together is something that we hope will live in our memories, as a visual reminder of the rising possibility of hope.
And of light flickering in the darkness…
Be careful as you write on the lanterns- they are fragile!
We are back in this evening after another day spent out on Dunoons West Bay, serving mulled wine, mince pies, and having lots of good conversations with folk as the came to collect Christmas trees.
We had also set up some meditation things, did some music (oh my fingers!) and were selling Sky lanterns with the intention of inviting people to write prayers/thoughts on them, and participate in a massed sky lantern launch.
Why did we do it?
And it was great!
We had a mixed blessing with the weather- it was calm, dry, but the Clyde was masked in freezing fog, and echoing with the mournful fog horns as ships passed out to sea.
However, the sight of the lanterns going off up into the mist was wonderful- eery, moving and affecting.
What was even better was the numbers of people who came and took part this evening- from schools, community projects, families, individuals.
Michaela described one family who lit the lantern, then stood together around it as it warmed up, arms around one another in silence. Then they let the lantern rise up into the night sky. Whatever their prayers were, may they be blessed…
Here are the promised photos- Andy took some more, so I will hopefully get to post a few of his soon.
Just back from a day out in the cold celebrating Advent whilst people buy Christmas trees. Tired but happy…
Here are a few pics-
Winter can be cruel
The darkness cover us, and cold winds close us off from one another
December comes, and the trees are bare
The hillsides become an impassable sponge, soaking up the rain that never seems to be far away
Where once a thousand bluebells blazed, it is now almost impossible to believe that anything can ever live again.
And into this time, comes the season of Advent
A time of waiting
A time to dare once again to hope
A time to re imagine the coming
Of a King
Who might yet
Light up everything
In brand new spring
As part of our Advent Festival event next weekend (12th and 13th December) you are invited to participate in a BIG sing, at 2PM on both Saturday and Sunday.
Come along and sing! If you have an instrument and want to play along- send me a line, as it would be great to have a few more instruments too.
This is the blurb from the Christian Aid website
From 11 – 13 December, people from all across the UK will be singing for Christian Aid to raise more than £100,000 for people living in poverty around the world.Whether you are used to singing along to the radio at home, raising the roof with massed choirs, or joining in old favourites at the school concert, we can show you how to make your voice count in the fight against poverty.
If you can’t make it, then there is another very important way that you may be able to help- and that is by giving money!
You can make a credit card donation to the Aoradh page on the Christian Aid website here.
I know it is Christmas, a high spend time of year, and there are lots of other charities after your money, but I would be very grateful for any support you can give to this important cause.
Christian Aid have a particular appeal to support the people of Palestine. Grinding poverty, lack of running water, refugee camps where despair is the only available currency. Christian Aid are working to bring hope.
As part of our BIG SING, I re-wrote a famous carol-
Be interesting to see if we manage to carry it off…
As previously mentioned, Aoradh are doing a thing in Dunoon’s west bay next weekend- the 13th and 14th of December.
This will take the form of a partnership with some other community groups- the forestry commission, guides etc. The event was suggested by CLAN as a way of raising money/awareness for the development of the play park on the west bay. The forestry commission will be selling Christmas trees too.
Our bits will include an alternative worship thing, poetry, a Christian Aid BIG SING, mediation walk, and a mass sky lantern launch- this is the flier that we are including in the sky lantern pack-
The light keeps shining in the darkness, and the darkness can never put it out…
As part of our Advent festivities, Aoradh invite you to be part of a celebration of light.
Each year, we are plunged into a whirl of busyness around Christmas- all the presents we buy, the cards we send, the pressure of making ready for a feast. All these things are good, but it is so easy to lose sight of the Christ-child. We wanted to encourage one another to step aside, and reflect…
Our intention is to use these paper sky lantern as carriers of our hopes, expectations and prayers in this season of waiting, and so make our deliberate preparation for the coming Christmas.
You are invited to write prayers and thoughts on the lantern, and to be part of a MASS SKY LANTERN LAUNCH from the West Bay Dunoon, on Sunday the 13th of December, from 5.00 pm– weather permitting.
(NB We will need fairly calm, dry conditions for the mass launch to take place. If we are not able to launch on the Sunday, then we will go for 5.00 on Monday- then Tuesday and so on.)
The spectacle of a large number of sky lanterns rising over the Clyde together is something that we hope will live in our memories, as a visual reminder of the rising possibility of hope.
And of light flickering in the darkness…
Be careful as you write on the lanterns- they are fragile!
If you are wondering what a sky lantern is, or have never seen them launched, here is a clip. Imagine them rising up as prayers- powerful stuff!
So, today is the first day of Advent.
It is also Emily’s birthday! (More on that later!)
As part of my journey through Advent, I am going to use a comic-book-calendar version of the nativity, by the wonderful Si Smith (see here for 40, more of his art.)
The calendar is available for download from Proost- here, along with all sorts of other advent materials. Go on- it’s worth it!
Here is number one, to wet the appetite…
A storm rattled the old house through the night, and the skirl and howl of the winter wind took away sleep. Or perhaps it was rather the swirl of stuff in my head- but either way, the grey of the dawn brought a headache and a developing awareness of the inevitable head cold gifted no doubt by William, who has been stretched out on the sofa for a few days.
But today is a Saturday, and Saturdays are special.
They offer the possibility of all sorts of meeting and greeting and adventuring. But above all, they offer time away from the worries of work and school, and I can share them with my wife and kids. There is nothing better in this life I reckon.
Having said that, perhaps because of the fallen nature of this wonderful but flawed world, things are rarely as easy as this. Saturdays are often stolen by a thousand obligations.
Michaela, bless her, will often introduce the subject of another ‘task’ obliquely. Or perhaps it just seems that way as I was not listening properly. But she knows that every second filled with tasks, no matter how blessed, I easily resent…
Today was a case in point. A day filled with DIY, trips to the tip and the collecting of kids and then a trip to fetch a Christmas tree… which turned out to be an absolute joy.
It began with a drive in the early winter dusk as the mingling air misted at the level of the lower branches.
Past Loch Eck, a glassy smooth reflector of the mountains lined with bones of snow.
And a friendly man at the Glenbranter forest station who helped us pick out a tree with humour and a genuine warmth with the kids.
Crunching over the muddy ground half concreted still by insulated ice.
Then a tea and mince pie in the ranger station, whilst the kids were drawn like iron filings to the magnet of the piles of ploughed surviving snow- too hard now to compact into balls, but magical just the same.
And I walk out on my own for a moment, in the middle of Argyll Forest in the gathering dark. Mist still hanging in the trees, but just enough light to make out the white of the mountain tops beyond.
And rejoice.
A suitable advent moment- all the better for being unexpected, in the press of a curmudgeonly day.
this fragile tent 