The Church Of The Holy Rood      --      Wool, Dorset, U.K.

Connect 2010

Sir Tom Lees (left), part of the Post Green Christian Community holding camps on this site 40 years ago, praying with Revd Rob Richards for God's blessing on Connect 2010

Connect 2010 was a five-day teaching and worship event, held at Holton Lee from Wednesday 14th July to Sunday 18th July 2010, where hundreds of people of all ages could connect and grow together in Word and Spirit. The last three days included family camping and a change of flavour as many young families invaded the site.

More than 30 South Dorset churches were involved (including our own Holy Rood and our friends from Wool Methodist Church) in what turned out to be a huge event. It was held at Holton Lee (between Poole and Wareham), just a few minutes walk from the sea in Poole Harbour and with its own stunning heathland walks in its 350 acres.

The programme was varied and packed with possibility: days and evenings were filled with teaching and worship sessions (all were optional and all were popular!) interspersed with walks and craft activities. As time did not permit doing them all, some difficult choices had to be made.

The family weekend (July 16, 17, 18) included a full programme of children’s activities in their own separate marquee, a chill out zone on Saturday evening for 13's to 17's plus a variety of fun family events throughout the weekend.

The event was a great source of both blessing and challenge to all of us who went. There will be some more details on a separate page shortly.

Most of the comments we heard included sooner or later the phrase, ". . . I do hope we can do this again next year!".

So - if you agree, (or if you wish you had gone but just couldn't manage it) now would be a great time to begin to pray. We'll need a real desire genuinely sent from God, and his gifts of vision, good health and energy in the organisers, to enable Connect 2011 to happen.

And thank you to all those who helped this initiative from God to become a reality. Those who had the vision all those months ago, those who prayed, and all the heroes who worked so hard from all those churches, fellowships and denominations - you all make an amazing team.

Talks and pictures - updated 31st July 2010

The Connect website now has a selection of official pictures to see, and some talks to download.

Connect 2010 Diary

These are just a few personal jotted down thoughts and recollections with some later added references. If I've got something wrong please do tell me! - especially if you are the speaker and you never said anything like what I'm thinking you did.

If you do email me (webmaster address please) I will assume you don't mind your email being quoted here unless you specifically say otherwise.

The camping was fun and all part of the event. (God speaks to you through things like that too . . .)

Chris Irwin

Tuesday 13th July 2010

Arrived in the afternoon to set up the tent (in a moderate breeze - shades of things to come!).

The whole place was a hive of activity and there were already plenty of signs to direct us up the long drive, (easy to find where to register) and even two guides to take us to our camping pitch and answer any questions.

Registration was simple and we were given all the details together with an up to date programme apiece. Loos and showers are clearly not modern nor of high quality but have been freshly painted, really clean, and the organisers have made the best job possible in the circumstances. This has the feel of a very well-organised event – clearly some people have been working very hard indeed for a long time to achieve this. No meetings tonight for us, which is welcome as we are glad of the chance to relax and go for a walk in this beautiful setting.

And there will be hot meals available using local produce from Purbeck Game and Cedar Organic, from a camp kitchen - delicious.

Wednesday 14th

Theme for the day: Our personal identity in Christ

Good night (although as we thought the camping pitch is a bit windy). We have a beautiful view over Poole Harbour and enjoyed wonderful sounds of the water birds roosting on two nearby islands as we went to sleep. The male shower was hot and worked very well, my wife Gren’s was cold (not so excellent!) I gathered – but hers was fixed the next day.

10:00am Worship and Bible reading: “Our inheritance and identity in Christ” (Stephen Coles)

Being as it was all a bit new, I didn’t make any notes on this one. (I do remember it was very good despite not being able to write a coherent report!)

11:45am “For such a time as this” (Rob Richards)

The quote is from the book of Esther and the theme was around it being a new season in God’s work in this area of South Dorset –

Lunchtime and the first of many difficult choices (see programme)

2.30 Connecting with culture” (Part 1 – Brian Draper)

Lots to think about in both his talks, and the second one (that we both attended) appealed both to my wife and to me (a considerable achievement for any speaker!). The quotes don't do it justice (so much worth recording but he speaks faster than I can write):

“Christians have a highly disproportionate influence for good.”

“What cultures are you a part of outside our separate Christian culture?”

4.30 “One new man” (The team from the Middle East)

Fascinating insight into the joys and sorrows of Christian faith in a region where Judaism and Islam co-exist, and not always happily. This is apparently quite a sensitive speaker combination.

7:30 Celebration (Canon Andrew White, ‘Vicar of Baghdad’)

Too riveting to waste time on writing notes for this one either (I was hooked and just wanted to listen) but for the curious he has written a book or three, and been on TV.

Amazon book reference: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-White/e/B001JS6B2I/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

See the Wikipedia article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_White_(clergyman)

A documentary about his work (ITV 2008) at: http://www.frrme.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=117&Itemid=48

9.00 Close

Thursday 15th

Last night was one of those memorable camping nights when the rain and the strong wind was bashing us hard through the tent walls, eventually loosening the fabric around 3.30am when we both woke up and did some emergency tent-salvaging. It got light about 5am, so after a few more repairs we eventually secured everything as well as possible, noting the way the wind had bent several steel tent pegs into a right angle.

(The first two pictures are not of our tent - these are unoccupied, fortunately!)

Theme for the day: Our corporate identity in the church

10:00 Worship and Bible reading: “Marks of community” (Andy Perry)

“Don’t travel alone” Andy Perry advised, illustrating the point using the example of the Trinity, Old and New Testaments, the disciples, and the early Church. Barriers a-plenty to travelling at all - including those in us (fear of hurt, personality factors, apathy, envy, pride . . .); those in our churches (“everyone is normal until you get to know them”, “we need to be courteous and big-hearted”, “God does not deal with respectability; He deals only with reality” – Festo Kivengere); and the barriers in our culture (“My rights, my choices”, and the suggestion we are called to be cultural; architects. Andy suggested the marks of Christian community in our churches are when we are:

11:45 “Corporate living as the body of Christ” (David Rowe, Warden of Lee Abbey, and a team from there)

This was a very visual and pictorial session including drama, stories, and illustrations that still pop back back at odd moments since. Like the rest of the day, it's difficult to summarise on paper, but was really excellent.

2.30 More with the Lee Abbey team in the Main Tent

4.30 One new man (The team from the Middle East)

7.30 Celebration: “From rags to riches” (David Rowe and Lee Abbey)

9:00 Close

Friday 16th

More wind (some said stronger!) but the night was peaceful.

This was a day off so we went home for an hour to pick produce and deal with post and buy some extra tent pegs.

We also went for a walk and enjoyed Holton Lee

7:30 Celebration

“The key to evangelism of the Moslem community is love”

“Don’t allow wounds and disappointments to keep you out of the game. They happen - but you do not stay there, you go through.”

“All sunshine and no rain makes a desert” – Arab proverb

9.00 Close

Saturday 17th

10:00 “Church without walls” (Andy Bowerman)

It is not possible to do justice to this either (as with most of the above) so here are a few more snapshots:

Tale of 2 pubs – one where the church moved into the pub and it became a church building (the church in question deciding this means without alcohol - but with services!). The church essentially stayed the same as before and the customers more or less left. Contrasted with the Cock & Bottle in Bradford of which the Independent commented “The Rev Robin Gamble, a Bradford vicar whose tipple is a pint of traditional bitter, said: ‘After much prayer we feel called to be where the needy people really are.’” (Apparently, the only people complaining this had happened were the Christians.)

Andy Bowerman described himself as "the only Leeds commuter who never went anywhere" (he travelled both ways just to be able to talk to people). Asking commuters what they thought of the Church (not much, apparently – bigoted, judgemental, negative . . .) and what they thought of Jesus (wisely, they reportedly opted for a far better set of reviews).

We do not attract people by installing electric guitars and projectors, but by moving into their midst and being Jesus to them.

Do we educate children to be quiet in church because it’s a sacred space? Full of old things and ancient artefacts . . . so if God isn’t actually dead yet, he must be really really old?

Not missionaries but tour guides.

And a great story, new to me, about a skylark, some worms, and a feather or two – which can be read here: http://www.christianrecoveryministries.com/forums/showthread.php?p=42221   Are we getting fatter just feeding ourselves while we lose the ability to fly?

2.30 “Connecting with culture” (Part 2 – Brian Draper)

The snapshots and quotes following give a general flavour -

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and asks "What the hell is water?”. The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

“Christ within you, the hope of glory”

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver, http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/133.html

“Let's put it another way. If we're to be more than just shrink-wrapped souls awaiting shipment to heaven from this earthly warehouse called church, how do we live as if we really mean it?” – Brian Draper, in ‘Spiritual Intelligence’, quoted in Philo magazine –http://issuu.com/philotrust/docs/winter09_magazine_web

He quoted Bono from U2 with lyrics such as: “My body is a begging bowl, and I'm begging to get back to the rhythm of my soul, to the rhythm of my unconsciousness” http://localeye.blogspot.com/2009/10/concert-of-lifetime-part-3.html

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly" (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message).

"Two years ago, I had the great privilege of interviewing one of my heroes – the Irish poet, priest and mystic John O’Donohue. This was a man who was full of life; when I met him over breakfast, he was nursing a hangover. “We drank a beautiful bottle of single malt whisky last night,” he told me, “which didn’t die without proper spiritual necessity.” In that interview, John spoke a curious phrase into being. We struggle to flourish, in today’s world, he suggested, because we rarely stop “to overhear ourselves”. – Brian Draper, talking about his book “Spiritual Intelligence”

“Even in our synthetic, egocentric society, the soul stirs in our subterranean depths, endlessly calling, pushing up like a flower through the cracks in the concrete pavement of our lives.” – Bill Plotkin, in “Nature and the Human Soul” http://natureandthehumansoul.com/newbook/chapter2_sc.htm

What is the pavement in our lives – and what is the flower? “The soul is dangerous – it will not let you rest happily in mediocrity”

– and much more

2.30    Market Place - Introduced by Robert McLeish

Topics about local initiatives – each lasting 15 minutes

Healing On The Streets, Ministering to the lonely, Besom, Ebenezer, Impact, ‘Messy Church’ and our own Revd Rhona Floate on our church’s “Revive!” initiative (a talk which I hear was very good).

2.30 Activities

 - my choice being “Walking the Labyrinth” with Brian Draper

This was an excellent session. Brian has written a very good, beautifully illustrated, thoughtful, and inexpensive hardback book called 'Labyrinth' and available from him (www.spiritualintelligence.com) or from booksellers. A book by a Christian author and a book with potential for much wider appeal.

7.30 Celebration, testimonies and worship. (Speakers’ Team)

9.00 Close

Sunday 18th

Sun and dry weather to pack – thank you Lord – and a quiet night, the high winds abating at last.

10:00 “Connecting the generations” (Phil Read)

God has always commanded his people to tell the next generation – we build on this, layer by layer. Jean Darnall’s vision (see link to a similar video to that shown): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXnLICx-UwA

11:30 All age worship in the Main tent

“Kids’ Club” joined the rest of us after coffee at 11:30 with some great songs and a meaningful time at the end much likes by us all as the young ones made a long line which we adults walked between, being prayed for and blessed by them.

4:00 Final Celebration & Communion led by members of the Speakers’ Team

Inspired and inspiring talk by Rob Richards with the recurring theme, supported by numerous scripture references: “The process of reconciliation is ultimately sealed with a meal”.

It was too enthralling to take notes. The 10 minutes we spent out of our seats mingling with all the people we had met, and more importantly so many we hadn’t met, hearing of one another’s experiences at Connect and in our various churches, was really important and a great way to come to the Communion table.

And like everyone else fortunate enough to have this feast on our doorstep - yes - I do hope Connect can be there next year too.

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Last modified: Monday, 02 August 2010