This presentation at the Cathedral was on the Twentieth of May and can be heard here. It is certainly worth spending the time to listen.
There was much to admire in his talk where he continued his exploration of the scriptures looking for the stories that lead us to truth. He emphasised the root metaphor of the Bible being that of journey. Journey implies a dislocation, a wrench and pain – God is a dislocating God. He explored why narrative is such a powerful tool for us to find hope in tragedy through locating ourselves in story. The stories are necessarily provisional and unfinished, hence our reliance on lived tradition.
Would the Cathedral have collapsed if he took it the next obvious step and observed that that makes the life of the Church of necessity relativistic? He has four more sessions to get there but I’m not holding my breath.
Numbers were down a little but he is still pulling a powerful crowd and is now simulcast around the world apparently.
This time the music and support was provided by Ignite Youth, which I always worry is an imperative. They played “Where the Spirit of the Lord Is”, a Hillsong Live song and a better song from local church Citipointe called “Presence Power Glory”. They had the words of Roby Curtis’s song “We Are The Body” on their handout, but didn’t get a chance to sing that.
The text for “Where the Spirit of the Lord Is” is here. The song is by Ben Fielding and manages every P&W cliche before going completely OTT. It was a good choice for this series as the line “we are slaves no more” is an important part of the Archbishop’s story. The sheet music is available all over the web in various arrangements and keys including musicnotes and brentwoodbenson.
My backing is in G.
“Presence Power Glory” is by Joel and Savannah Ramsay of Citipointe, a church in Brisbane I hadn’t heard of, and the chords at least are available in a free download of their music book “The Wildfire Music Book”. With no lead sheet anywhere it was back the the uke and spending some time with the song, so my backing may be approximate. The text is here.
Just so you know this song goes introx2/versex2/prechorus/chorus/ introx1/versex1/prechorus/chorusx2/Instrumentalx2/Bridgex4/chorusx1/Bridgex2.
The bridge and the chorus are designed to be able to be sung consecutively and then together.
My backing is in G.
Citipointe quiet:
Citipointe louder: