Tim Abbott

CO1 Youth Café

The CO1 Youth Cafe opened recently in Colchester in the redundant Holy Trinity Church right in the centre of the town. It's a triumph of faith in a vision and persistence in implementation as it's taken over ten years to get to this stage, but finally the doors are open.

It's now our venue of choice for meeting people in town and, athough slightly biased, I can heartily recommend it. The obvious sense of space and natural light give it an ambience that no other cafe can match and there are also tables and chairs outside, under the shade of the ancient yew trees and overloked by the splendid Saxon tower.

We (CYO) are looking forward to working with CO1 as the project develops over the next few months.

For history buffs, Holy Trinity Church is one of the oldest buildings in the town, parts of which date back to about 1000AD.

 

Oak Tree Coffee House

Oak Tree Coffee House is a Community Interest Company set up by our church, St. Luke's, in Colchester. It's across the road from the community centre where the church meets on a Sunday and is intended to be a resource for the community and a focal point for a range of community and outreach activities as well as a meeting place for the church mid week. It's in a perfect location by the main bus stops and on a busy pedestrian crossroads near to Tesco, small shops and the local Primary School.

The Coffee House opened on Saturday and was well patronised for most of the day. I made my first visit on Monday for a meeting about Street Pastors with a friend and was really impressed with the design and the standard of work. The big picture windows at the front, and the fact that they've resisted the temptation to pack too many chairs and tables in, gives the Coffee House a spacious feel and offers a wide range of seating options.

I was back in on Tuesday evening for the first meeting of a group of us planning community and outreach activities based in the Coffee House.

Then on Wednesday I needed to meet a local youth worker for a conversation about Chaplaincy in a local school and the obvious venue was, well, the Coffee House! We arrived during a slight lull, but by 3:30pm the place was packed again with mums and children, small groups and several girls from the local secondary school. The Coffee House has already become a focal point for many in the Highwoods area. We're excited by the opportunities it creates for new ways of engaging with the local community and making the gospel accessible to the people of Highwoods.

More photos on Flickr

Heart to Drum 2010

On Saturday 170 drummers, percussionists and dancers gathered for Heart to Drum 2010, a day of inspiring input and workshops from some top musicians, organised by Colchester Psalm Drummers and held at Kingsland Church.

The programme for the day included workshops on samba, drum tuning, djembe playing, dance and worship leading interspersed with plenary showcase presentations through the day in the main hall.  After a time of worship with Henry George (Ichthus), Raul D’Oliveira (Elton John, Wham!, Mike Oldfield, Graham Kendrick) set the tone for the day bringing wise words from scripture.

After playing bass for Henry in the morning I spent the rest of the day photographing the event and generally helping out with stage change overs. I also managed to get round to bits of the workshops and seminars which were all packed with people getting totaly involved! Highlights for me were the afternoon showcase by Ed Freitas in his incarnation as Cyba-X combining drums, trigger pads and samples to produce live drum 'n' bass, the powerful dance of Andy Au and Kirsty Hallett from Movement in Worship, and the guys from Worship Central who led the evening celebration.

The whole day worked perfectly thanks to the calm efficiency of the Kingsland Church PA and Café team, the quality of the contributors and the organisational skills of Michelle and Dan who are part of the national Psalm Drummers leadership team and leaders of Colchester Psalm Drummers.

There's a photo set on Flickr here

Heart to Drum 2010

On the 9th October drummers, dancers and musicians from Psalm Drummers, Movement in Worship and Worship Central will be taking part in Heart to Drum 2010; Luke Hellebronth (Worship Central) will be leading the evening worship session along with a fantastic line up of names from the Christian and main stream music scene. The evening worship will be the culmination of a full day of drumming, dancing, masterclasses, pro demos and inspirational teaching. 
 
The event includes masterclasses in kit drumming, hand percussion & prophetic dance as well as inspirational teaching and showcases from some of the UK's top drummers. Taking part are:
Stew Smith (Delirious?)
Ed Freitas (Cyba-X, International Session Artist, Drummerbuzz, WFD-UK World Record Holder)
Raul D’Oliveira (Elton John, Wham!, Mike Oldfield, Graham Kendrick)
Henry George (Ichthus, Godfrey Birtill, Graham Kendrick)
Tim Cooke (Worship Central, Ben Cantalon)
Andy Au (Movement in Worship)

Michelle Tennens, co-leader of Psalm Drummers in Colchester writes;

"Come, play, pray and let’s worship our God together! You are invited to bring your djembe or hand percussion, floor tom or snare and practice pads to be part of this exciting interactive day of workshops, pro demos and worship."

Heart to Drum 2010 is on Saturday 9th October from 11am to 10pm at Kingsland Church, Colchester. Tickets are just £20 per person (concessions available) and can be purchased online at Kingswayshop.com.
Tickets are also available for the evening worship (8pm – 10pm) at £5 each. To reserve tickets please email dan.abbott@psalmdrummers.org

Godfrey Birtill at 'Levites'

On Monday night Godfrey Birtill was in Colchester leading worship and teaching as part of a weekly training evening called “Levites” run throughout June by Kingsland Church.

Godfrey has a distinctive worship style that, it would be fair to say, seems to divide opinion. At the very least he is unique, passionate and prophetic. Prior to hearing him in person, I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye. Theologically he stands firmly with the Celtic saints in his approach to the word, the land, the spirit and the challenging road of following Christ, writing his own songs in his own style, as well as refreshing great hymns, once forgotten, with new tunes.

After leading an energetic time of worship, which included 10 or 12 minutes of peace, simply waiting in God’s presence, Godfrey taught for a while on worship. Here, in not particularly elegant form, are my recollections of some of his key points.

• You are the worship team. It’s not about the band. You can’t go home and say “that was a terrible time of worship” - you’re part of it.We’re fed a diet of worship by an industry that is concerned to remain safe in the pursuit of sales.

Here are some styles of worship that seem to be missing from the worship life of our churches.

• The dread of God - Sometimes we need reminding of the fear of God. Dread - meaning to create awe. (When he produced his album ‘dread God’ executives from the music industry told him they couldn’t release it because of the title - it wasn’t safe enough.)

• War songs - there is a spiritual battle. You don’t have to be a Christian very long to realise we’re in a battle.

• Lament - it may not be a season for that now - need a season of Joy to produce a different sound in a nation that’s suffering from financial insecurity and worry. But sometimes we need songs of lament to bring before God.

• Prophetic songs - songs that speak to the land. Scripture speaks about the land. Is 40:9 “Say to the city, this is your God.” Jesus wept over the city. Sometimes our worship is too nice. The prophetic can be a little off the wall and we need to make room for that, without going to extremes.

There’s a caution about  overdoing it on any of these, but they all need to be in the worship toolkit.

• The songs aren’t in a resource pack, they’re in you. Indigenous songs - where are the songs that reflect your locality and issues? Godfrey appealed to young song writers - a lot of songs put out by the industry are like Coke - it’s the same everywhere. “I like Coke, but there’s too much fast food and fizzy pop - pop music - in worship today. The Lord wants to release the new wine.” Don’t write another Tim Hughes song. Don’t write something that’s the same as what we’ve already got. Wine comes from an area - there’s a uniqueness about it.

• Recapture the mystical in worship. It’s not the occult. Don’t reject things because of an old mindset. Godfrey spoke glowingly of the depth of worship among Catholic groups he’s been working with.

• There have been many critics of revival - but you’ve never heard of them. But you’ve heard of Wesley and other leaders of revival. Some people appoint themselves as spiritual policemen - we need to make sure we're not part of it.

• It’s not about being professional - “The church should be more amateur than professional” Henri Nouwen. Amateurs have passion. Amateur doesn’t mean substandard - it means, a lover (from the French, amour). Pursue amateurism, keep that fire, that passion. Leave room for the Holy Spirit - it’s part of the adventure.

I gained a huge respect for Godfrey. He really is a unique voice in a crowded and often clone like worship culture. If you get a chance to hear him, take it.

Do whatever is good... show true humility

This evening I gave a presentation to a group of Colchester Borough councillors about the work of Street Pastors in our town. Also there was Debbie speaking about the SOS Bus project she heads up with whom we have a great working partnership. Let me put on record... we love these guys and the work they do. We love it that we can work in partnership with them and that dozens of ordinary people volunteer to give up an evening to help others in the town centre.

There is a genuine appreciation for the work of Street Pastors from the public and also from the councillors we met this evening. But there was one question that bugged me.

One of the councillors asked me to comment on something someone had said to him - that Street Pastors somehow saw themselves as having a monopoly on the role of caring for people on the streets at night. We know this isn't something that's been said by any of our team, and it's certainly not the reaction we get from people we meet on a Friday or Saturday night who are generally really comfortable with the fact that we're Christians.

What bugs me isn't that someone might suspect such exclusivist nonsense of us. It's the worrying realisation that they feel they have grounds for such suspicion in the first place. How has the church behaved all these years if, as soon as it steps out to care unconditionally for others, it is suspected of doing so to claim some moral superiority over other people? (We know some of these other people - they turn out on Friday and Saturday nights too, not in the name of the church, but to care nevertheless and to help people through the work of the SOS bus.)

Of course, we weave for ourselves a mighty complex web if we attempt to answer all the shifting and unspoken assumptions of others. The world has its suspicions; sometimes it is right. By our actions, by loving the world as Christ did, we are perhaps earning again the right to be heard, even if some of our earnings are going to pay off a debt of suspicion. The councillor who raised the question (not a Christian) emphasised his enthusiastic endorsement of what Street Pastors do. We need to keep doing it.

As Paul said to Titus:

"Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men."

A really big conversation

 On Monday night we held our annual CYO Open Evening for supporters and others. The main focus of the evening was a "really big conversation" following the World Cafe Model.

Our aim was to enable people from around Colchester to engage in a conversation about four key issues:

• Connecting the whole gospel with the whole school
• Connecting churches, young people and youth leaders
• Colchester - becoming a disciple making town
• Connecting people with the life and work of CYO

The main area of the church building we were using had been set up with small tables covered with paper, each surrounded by six chairs. As people arrived they were greeted and served tea / coffee and nice cakey things and encouraged to sit at a table. After a brief introduction and explanation of the evening from Amy and me, people went to whichever table corresponded to the issue they were interested in and started chatting. People were encouraged to write ideas or draw diagrams and sketches on the paper. After about ten minutes we did a short interview with someone who had been impacted by our work and then got people to move around and get into a second conversation.

After another interview and another round of conversations we gave everyone ten minutes to mill around and take in what had been discussed over another coffee before inviting people to feedback any key thoughts. Everyone was then encouraged to write a few summary ideas in response to four questions.

Between 70 and 80 people came and joined in and it was wonderful to experience the passion and enthusiasm of so many - the breadth and creativity of their contributions was inspiring. The evening was not intended to provide a list of the top three things CYO should be doing, but was about mission to young people being at the heart of the church in Colchester. All of the ideas, questions and suggestions will therefore be published and made available to the whole town.

The evening concluded with prayer for the young people and the schools of Colchester and with a time of worship, committing ourselves to God's plans for our town.

The evening exceeded our hopes for the level of engagement of the people who came and for the obvious committment to mission from such a wide representation of churches. This is the first time we've done the World Cafe thing, but I highly recommend it as a way of really involving supporters in the quetions that shape our ministries.

Colchester Street Pastors on BBC East

Colchester Street Pastors were featured recently on a BBC East feature about the impact of recession. It includes a snippet of an interview with Alison Finch, who is Colchester Town Centre Chaplain and part of the local Street Pastors group.
I managed to avoid the camera, except for a walk on part at the beginning outside the now closed Woolworths and Zavvi stores!

Sanctum in the Sixth Form College

Since we got back from the Christmas holidays life in CYO-land has been dominated by preparations for another week of Sanctum, our prayer room for students, this time in Colchester Sixth Form College.

The college are really enthusiastic about it and have given us a wonderful drama studio/classroom to use. Planning for a week in a sixth form college has given us the welcome opportunity to develop new material for this older age group and we're still in the process of writing, designing, recording and producing as well as buying stuff. It feels a bit like doing it all for the first time again, which has to be a good thing. As before, I'll blog about the week as it unfolds.

Saint Helena, and a wedding anniversary

Today is the feast day of Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, who, on becoming Emperor, declared Rome a Christian city. Saint Helena is the patron saint of Colchester, so we marked the day with a morning communion service at the site of what is believed to be the earliest church building in Britain (320AD). After 1600 years, the church site is now bordered by a new police station and a roundabout.
Leaders from over 30 churches gathered in the morning sunshine, and we worshipped, prayed and shared bread and wine against a background of traffic noise and the siren of a police car weaving through rush hour traffic.
I'm glad to be a part of these things, but I sometimes wonder what they say to the watching world, especially in such a public place with people walking past on their way into town, police coming and going and drivers and passengers catching a glance on their way past.
Later I learned that when staff came to collect a man from the cells to take him to court they found him in tears. The sound of worship songs being sung outside had profoundly moved him and brought back past memories.

Diana and I were there partly because it seemed like an appropriately odd way to start the day of our 25th wedding anniversary! We spent the evening at a fabulous restaurant with friends and one of our sons, Dan, who paid the great sacrifice of missing the Man U / Chelsea Champions League match, though at the end of the meal he and a couple of friends popped into a local pub to watch the end of the match in extra time - he's a Man U supporter, so a good result.