Dear friends

After exploring the options for the next steps for The Esther Project over the past few months, the decision has been made to rename and relocate The Esther Project.

In November 2010 I accepted a call to be Minister at Belair Uniting Church, 0.5.

Since then we have explored the option for The Esther Project to stay with Christ Church, our host congregation for the first 18 months of our life as an emerging church community.

This community’s gift of space and support for me as leader, particularly during my field education placement as part of my studies for ordination, has been a valued gift.

We felt very much like 26 King William Road was our home.

However, much has changed – not least of all the core vision for what The Esther Project would be and do.

We began with a dream for producing a theatre event for the 2010 Fringe Festival.

This dream was not realised, making way for the emerging vision for a community of storytelling and storytellers.

By the end of 2010 we were sure of our vision and our mission – to be a community of faith, creativity and sacred story, providing space for stories that lead us into life.

We are committed to creating spaces in which people can encounter the Sacred Story of the Christian faith tradition, and also safe spaces in which people’s own stories can be told and heard. For we believe that through story we encounter God; through our stories being heard, we discover healing and wholeness.

This change in vision has led to the decision to change our name to more clearly reflect who we believe we are as a community.

The core Esther Project group have agreed to rename our community as The League of Extraordinary Storytellers – because we all have an extraordinary story to tell.

Our activities will continue to include regular alternative worship shaped around deep encounter with the Judeo-Christian story, and offering space for creative responses to that story.

We will also aim to hold storytelling events in pubs and cafes, at which we will gather for drinks, nibbles and music, then hear from 10 people a story from their life on a particular theme, and continue with supper and informal sharing of stories.

We feel that helping the church to tell the Christian story is also important, and will hold workshop events that take a story from the lectionary and invite creative engagement with the story to imagine ways to tell these biblical stories as an act of mission to, with, and through our gathered communities.

Other workshops and short courses may also be offered in reading the Bible aloud, public speaking and Biblical Storytelling.

We will need people to help make these events and activities happen – if your imagination is sparked by any of what is mentioned above, and you would like to be involved in the planning and producing of these events, please do let me know – I would love to hear from you!

There are more possibilities for storytelling spaces and events, and we would be delighted to hear from you if you have ideas that you would like to pursue with the support of The League of Extraordinary Storytellers.

We will be seeking to collaborate with other groups also supporting and promoting the arts and spirituality. Such groups include The Operating Theatre Project and The Centre for Music Liturgy and the Arts.

I also mentioned a change of location.

As I am engaged in ministry with the congregation of Belair Uniting, and following enthusiastic support for my storytelling ministry through the Esther Project – now the League of Extraordinary Storytellers – The League will be based at Belair Uniting Church – 18 Sheoak Road Belair.

Many of you will know that this does not solve one problem – that of a further 0.5 stipend / income for me. I would appreciate your continued prayers as I seek a (very much needed, and soon) solution to this issue.

We will in time launch a new website and email (with a new logo) but the esther project website and email will continue to operate in the meantime, and my email address and phone number remain the same.

Thank you all for your participation in The Esther Project over the past couple of years, whether it has been as a supporter receiving emails, a member of the facebook group, or through our various gatherings since August 2009. Whatever your role has been, you have been important to this emerging community, and so valued by me as its leader, as I and we together have stepped off the edge of the map to explore a fresh way to be a community of faith in the Christian tradition in our time and place.

Please let me know if you no longer wish to receive communication from The League of Extraordinary Storytellers (formerly The Esther Project).

May your story be told well, and may it be heard.

Sarah

Rev Sarah Agnew

The League of Extraordinary Storytellers / The Esther Project

community – creativity – sacred story

0408 087 754

sarahagnew@adam.com.au

www.estherproject.unitingchurch.org.au

Do you like to write liturgy, prayers for worship? Are you a songwriter?

The Centre for Music Liturgy and the Arts is holding gatherings for you!

An Evening for Liturgists

The Centre for Music, Liturgy and the Arts invites you to join a conversation with people who are writing liturgy. Tuesday, 15 February from 7.30pm at 12 Te Anau Avenue, Prospect. Bring some of your liturgy to share. Share the joys, the struggles and the creative energies. Everyone is welcome. Convened by Sean Gilbert, hosted by Jenni and John Hughes. Supper provided.

RSVP: Jenni Hughes, jennifer@cmla.org.au, 0422 539 028.

An Evening for Songwriters

The Centre for Music, Liturgy and the Arts invites you to join a conversation with people who are writing music. Wednesday, 16 February from 7.30pm at 31 Huntingdon Drive, Glenalta. You’re welcome to bring some of your compositions to share. Hosted by Glenyce Durdin. RSVP: Jenni Hughes, jennifer@cmla.org.au, 0422 539 028.

Please note that though the automatic calendar dates suggest otherwise, The Esther Project will not be meeting in January.

Stay tuned for confirmation of details for our next gathering – here or email us to join the mailing list and receive regular updates.

Red – by Mairi

Starry night – by Mairi

the sky at night while camping – by Mairi

cocooned in loving arms – by Beryl

Home – by Michelle

love licks – by Sarah

Tonight in our final Advent contemplative space

we wait for love

we wonder about love

we confess with love

we pray love

‘Unfolding love, open and free, lavishly given, yielding mystery’ (Trish Watts)

I hope to see you there.

26 King William Road, Wayville, 7.30 pm.

For those who cannot make it, stay in touch with our contemplating and wondering through the website, and may you all be enfolded by hope, peace, joy and love this Christmas and in the year to come.

Dates for 2011 gatherings are as yet to be confirmed, though we will take a break over January.

This evening joy overflowed at The Esther Project – beginning with our five first time Esther Project participants. Such a delight to welcome these friends.

Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s joyful response and Mary’s song of joy was our story this evening. We began by hearing ‘Breath of Heaven / Mary’s song’, another call from Dorothy McRae-McMahon, and the story.

Our contemplation spaces were

Waiting – there is a time

Wondering – sometimes I am happy

Confessing – God chooses us

Praying – for angel messages of promise and joy

Our sharing revealed the joy of seeing our own face smiling back at us in a mirror (confessing), the cascading discoveries of one thing after another in our life that makes us happy, and poems that made us smile.

May joy burst forth through this Advent week of waiting …

And may God come quickly to save you;

May Christ Jesus give you everlasting joy and gladness;

And may the Holy Spirit strengthen your hearts

and lead you on God’s holy way.

Nathan Nettleton, www.laughinbird.net

Last night we gathered for the second Advent contemplative space.

Gathering words were from Dorothy McRae McMahon – ‘…turn around and find the surprising presence of kindness, / inviting truth without judgement, / frail as a child and strong as all goodness …’ (Liturgy for High Days)

Then the time-old song ‘Happy Christmas (War is Over)’ settled us into a longing for peace.

Isaiah 11:1-10Isaiah 11:1-10
English: World English Bible - WEB
11 ¹ A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, And a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. ² The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him: The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and might, The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh. ³ His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, Neither decide by the hearing of his ears; ⁴ But with righteousness he will judge the poor, And decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; And with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked. ⁵ Righteousness will be the belt of his waist, And faithfulness the belt of his waist. ⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat; The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; And a little child will lead them. ⁷ The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. ⁸ The nursing child will play near a cobra's hole, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. ⁹ They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; For the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, As the waters cover the sea. ¹⁰ It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.
WP-Bible plugin was our story, told with a looped animation from Proost (’9′ – 9 lessons of Christmas) playing as a meditative aid.

They will not hurt or destroy / on all my holy mountain; / for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord / as the waters cover the sea.

And then we entered the stations of wondering, confessing, waiting and praying (for others). An invitation to contemplate God’s coming reign of peace, for which we wait.

Cheryl Lawrie’s words (Hold this Space, a Proost pocket liturgy) invited us to wait with prophets and peace-makers of recent times – Aung San Suu Kyi, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Mother Theresa. Another waiting space station from Hold this Space gave shape to our confessing station, where we were invited to acknowledge our humanness before God, that we haven’t always been bearers of peace, and would like to be …

Chris Goan’s words (Listing, another Proost pocket liturgy) invited us to wonder about peace, and mandalas were offered as an aid to contemplation.

Stories from Light of the World (Peter Millar & Neil Paynter, Iona/Wild Goose Publications) gave focus to our prayers for others.

As we shared there emerged a remarkable synergy between much of the contemplation and wondering that had been taking place – wondering about who peace is and what peace looks like and how we participate in peace, rather than any abstract theoretical reflection on what peace is. And that peace isn’t merely the absence of war – we are yearning for and praying for peace in the lives of those we meet every day.

We closed our contemplative space with a sending out from Nathan Nettleton: ‘… welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you … may Christ Jesus fill you with joy and peace in believing … ‘. Amen.

Gathering

When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens. [Anne Lamott]

Listening

Matt 24:36Matt 24:36
English: World English Bible - WEB
36 But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
WP-Bible plugin–44 – watchfulness

Contemplating

Waiting – amidst the mess and in spite of it, we wait (station by Cheryl Lawrie, from the proost pocket liturgy Hold this space, poem from Cheryl Lawrie’s blog)

Wondering – what are we waiting for? (more poetry from Cheryl Lawrie’s pocket liturgy book – ‘Advent prayer’, ‘Take hold of hope’)

Confessing – remembering how to wait, be still (reflections for 28/11 and 29/11 from Hear my cry, Ruth Burgess)

Praying – waiting with hope for signs of light (stories from Light of the World, Peter Millar & Neil Paynter)

Sending

Do not delay.

The day of the coming of the Christ is every day.

Let us walk forward in Christ’s way.

And may the Christ be seen when we look behind us,

the Spirit be found walking ahead within our hopes,

and the eyes of God the Creator look with love over all creation.

[Dorothy McRae-McMahon Liturgies for High Days]

as has been the case all year, the invitation to enter the stories of our tradition of Christian spirituality has evoked much in the way of profound discovery and moving creativity. words and pictures and feelings were shared, were heard, with real joy this evening, joy and delight in each others’ reflections … what a community!

and over supper, the conversation came back to the apocalyptic reading from Matthew (and the parallel in Luke), and how difficult it is to comprehend so much removed from the first century from which these very real hopes for the return of the Messiah come to us. we didn’t reach any conclusions, but wondered …

you are invited to enter advent contemplative spaces on Mondays 6, 13 and 20 December, 7.30 – 8.30, with supper to follow. next week’s gathering will be shaped around ‘watching, waiting for the peaceful kingdom and its king’ with stories from Matt 2:1Matt 2:1
English: World English Bible - WEB
2 ¹ Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men The word for “wise men” can also mean teachers, priests, physicians, astrologers, seers, interpreters of dreams, or sorcerers. from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,
WP-Bible plugin–2 and Isa 11:1Isa 11:1
English: World English Bible - WEB
11 ¹ A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, And a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
WP-Bible plugin–10.

Conversations are being held to explore the possibilities of incorporating The Esther Project community into The Effective Living Centre, through its Sacred and Creative task group. These possibilities are exciting, as we feel that The Effective Living Centre can give some support, particularly with administration, but also in other ways, to this still very new storytelling faith community; we also feel that this alternative church community can breathe some new life into and help to implement some dreams for ELC.

Sacred and Creative at present is expressed mostly through the annual Artist in Residence program, which is so energising and creative and profoundly moving for so many, and Poets Corner, which grows from strength to strength as a community of poets who are encouraged in their own writing and offer support and encouragement to many local poets whose work is featured at the gatherings.

The synergy between Sacred and Creative and The Esther Project is remarkable, as each event / community seeks to explore and engage with the mysterious connection between the arts and spirituality.

Poets Corner have just launched their first anthology – Season of a New Heart – and what a joy it is that three members of the Esther Project community have poems included in this book. Congratulations to Michelle Coram, Bob Macintosh and Sarah Agnew on this achievement.

I have reflected on the launch itself on my other blog – you can read it here.

I continue to be delighted and moved at the poetry that emerges from the Esther Project gatherings, from our deep encounter with the sacred story of the Christian tradition and its weaving through our own stories. What remarkable spaces of creativity, of sacred story, of faith, will we discover and create through the partnership with Poets Corner and the ELC community. Truly this is a new season – a season of a new heart.

This poem emerged from the contemplative gathering last Monday, exploring stories in which Jesus used images of mustard seeds:

A tree

A tree: a carbon sink to some,

an adventure playground,

a home to birds and small creatures,

a giant of the vegetable kingdom: a source of food,

or firewood or timber – or wood-chips.

A tree is all of these and more:

a symbol, a metaphor, a living treasure –

reaching arms of love to all in need.

Surely God is in a tree.

Words © Bob Macintosh 2010