Rach Warwick

So far this year has been all about Matilda. Roald Dahl's story about Matilda Wormwood, the child prodigy unnoticed by her family who reads entire libraries and can move things with her eyes. That one.

It started on 6th January when Dan and I went to see Matilda The Musical, having been given tickets as a Christmas present from my parents.

If, like me, you've been looking at the posters all over London and wondering whether or not to go, then you most definitely should. I've always loved Dahl's books even though on most recent reading, it seems I was pretty scathing about Matilda! I was a little concerned that this new rendition of the story might ruin it - always a danger when it comes to new versions of old favourites. And I've never been a fan of situations in which adult actors pretend to be children. Sorry, but that ruined Blood Brothers for me.

My fears were unfounded. Matilda is an energetic and magical show, carried almost entirely by a fantastic cast of children who almost don't need the few adults drafted in to support them. Aside, of course, from Matilda's parents and two teachers. Cleo Demetriou, who played Matilda when we saw it, was absolutely amazing. Pitch perfect with a voice that could match any of the adults on stage, and her storytelling skills were excellent. Miss Trunchbull, played by Bertie Cavell, was marvellous too. And Tim Minchin's music and lyrics really carry the whole thing. True genius (and I must be right, because ALW said so too!) I could go on - there wasn't much about the whole thing that I didn't absolutely love.

A couple of weeks later I took Power Up - the 5-10 year old kids church group at the Stable. It's a very mixed group of 12-15 kids, wide ranging in age and ability making it quite hard to plan a single programme that keeps everyone engaged and happy. So I decided not to try, instead planning a range of activities and letting the children choose for themselves which ones to do. We started off together, looking at some of Paul's travels in Acts 13-14 and then I explained the activities and let them explore.

(this is relevant to Matilda, honest. Stick with it!)

One of the activities was a drama challenge, focussing on Paul and Barnabas having to be brave in some of the cities where they were less well received. The drama was simply to think of a situation where someone had to be brave and show the rest of the group a short sketch about it. Apart from a couple of boys attacking each other with "swords" the activity wasn't so popular until I encouraged one of the other boys to try it.

He spent a long time standing pens up on their end, lined up along the table. I kept an eye on him from afar and to be honest I'd decided that he was just messing around and was planning to go and "refocus" him pretty soon. I was wrong.

The pens were an army. And the fat marker pen in the middle was Goliath, about to be taken on by the tiny but bold yellow pen lid stood facing the rest. I watched as the pens acted out the story and the boy told me all about how David (the yellow pen lid) had to be brave.

I asked him to set the army up again ready to show the rest of the group, and a couple of the other kids offered to help. So at the end of the session when we all gathered to watch I was surprised to see that the story had changed!

The pens weren't an army any more. They were school children. The marker pen had changed role too, and was now playing Miss Trunchbull. The little pen lid had become Matilda, accompanied by a purple pen - Lavender of course. And the story was told of Matilda and how she was a little girl who had to be brave. Just like David was a little boy who had to be brave.

I'd never made the comparison before, but there are definite similarities. I love how much I learn from working with the kids at church!

We bought bottled water in Chennai last night and found this on the bag:

I'm in Chennai, India again visiting the children on the Grassroots child sponsorship scheme.

News at the Grassroots blog

For Christmas this year, Dan's parents gave me a lovely piece of art by Louise Verity at Wall Envy Art I discovered Wall Envy quite by mistake a couple of months ago. I love typography so it was an instant hit with me, and the combination of one quote painted boldly onto a page of smaller text really works. It was hard to choose a favourite - perhaps we should just paper our flat with book pages and invite Louise to come and paint quotes all over it? In the end I chose a piece with a line from a poem which I think sums up Dan and I quite well. The poem in question is Arthur O'Shaughnessy's "Ode"

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;

World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

According to a report published the European Food Safety Agency in December 2011, the laxative qualities of prunes have no scientific basis and cannot be proven. As such, producers are no longer allowed to sell them as an aid to bowel function. (perhaps if the folks at the EFSA stopped talking out of their backsides for a while the prunes might have a chance?)

If that recent ruling wasn't preposterous enough, it followed hot on the heels of the November report, which brought the ground breaking news that water has no proven effect on dehydration. So convinced are the EFSA of this, that anyone selling water as a rehydration aid faces a 2 year prison sentence.

I'm all for the EU taking action to prevent unsubstantiated claims on food packaging, but things can go too far. I wonder what the EU would recommend as a remedy for dehydration? Have they not noticed the clue in the word? DeHYDRAtion. Hydra. A prefix of Greek origin, meaning water.

In the same week back in December, news reports were filled with the apparent scandalous revelation that some of the BBC's fine Frozen Planet series was, in fact, filmed in a Norwegian zoo. David Attenborough announced that beneath the snowy slopes, new polar bear lives were beginning as the images cut to scenes of the delivery of tiny bear cubs. According to newspapers, this was misleading, blatant deception.

Were viewers misled? Or blatantly deceived? Or were they treated to rare images of an extremely private event, filmed under conditions which meant that the mother bear didn't know the cameras were there and therefore had no desire to eat the crew as a post-labour snack?

Attenborough later defended the decision, reminding the angry viewers that he and his team were making a film and took the necessary actions to make sure that viewers saw the best possible scenes. Whilst the zoo location (and the circumstances of those snowflakes forming before your very eyes, and that weird thing with the furry caterpillar) wasn't made immediately clear in that episode, the availability of several "How we made this..." clips on the Frozen Planet website give clear information.

The EU's pontifications on prunes and water might be funny. And Mr Attenborough's apparent desire to mislead us all may well have fuelled many pub-table debates. But I think they also offer us a mirror on today's post modern desire for truth.

Yeah yeah, so postmodernism claims that there is no absolute truth (save for... blah blah blah) but postmodern society seems to have missed that briefing meeting and remains fixated on the quest for truth.

So much so, that truth is the most important thing, to be revealed at all costs. And there are many costs.

Continuing with these examples, the desire for absolute truth about prunes and water, mean that these remedies that millions have relied on anecdotally and experientially for many years are now dismissed, simply because science couldn't fully prove them infallible. I don't imagine prune sales figures changed much following the release of that report. Those who found them... err... moving, probably continue to be... err... moved. And those who don't continue to find other ways.

When it comes to polar bears, the desire for absolute truth means the death of any sort of magic in film making. Frozen Planet is a fantastic documentary series, with breathtaking footage of some of the most oblique places on earth. Including, in fact, the polar bear labour ward at a Norwegian zoo. It might not have been under the snow in the Arctic Circle. I've never been there, but I've never been to the zoo in Norway either, nor have I ever seen a polar bear give birth. What Frozen Planet showed were scenes that the majority of viewers would never otherwise have witnessed. Whether the new polar lives that Attenborough mentioned were the same ones we witnessed is irrelevant in the context of the documentary as a whole.

At times, it's necessary to suspend disbelief in order to fully engage with a film. That's obvious with fantasy, cartoons, fiction etc. And easier perhaps, knowing from the start that it isn't true. But sometimes it's the case with documentaries and factual material too. The birth of the polar bear (or growth of the snowflake, or cocooning of the hairy 17 year old caterpillar) were no less beautiful or captivating for being filmed in controlled circumstances. In fact, for the 45 minutes of each episode, it wasn't at all necessary to know where or how any of it was filmed. It was simply an opportunity to witness the awesome events of nature which happen in parts of the world I'll never visit. The insistence on immediate factual truth at a level of intimate detail is like the precocious kid at school who proudly announces in the playground that Santa doesn't exist. It might be true, but that doesn't mean his peers need to know. Not just yet.

I'm not saying that we should all just lie to each other for the sake of art, or that truth isn't important. Just that scientifically proven truth isn't always necessary. That having a right to know something isn't the same as actually needing to know.

Take, for example, the first episode of the new series of Sherlock. Aired on BBC 1 on Monday, the Daily Mail the next morning carried stories of complaints of excessive nudity... including pictures of said, apparently unnecessary nudity. If, as the Mail claimed, the scenes were so offensive, did readers really need to see them again?

Are we willing to sacrifice the magic of entertainment and the wisdom of common sense for the sake of absolute scientifically provable truth? And might it not also be true that some truths, perhaps the most important ones, are not scientifically provable?

[Edited to add that Seth Godin has blogged on a similar theme today. Thanks for pointing that out Phil]

I baked some banana cupcakes yesterday (same as my normal banana cake but in smaller cases!) and, being cupcakes, they needed some sort of icing.

I'd found a few recipes for honey cinnamon frosting so that was the plan. Most feedback seemed to suggest that the honey made it too sweet so I settled on a cinnamon buttercream. Unfortunately I'm not a detail person so discovered a little too late that we didn't have enough icing sugar. Fail!

The result was a brown gloop with floating lumps of butter in it. It should have been thrown away really, but I thought it'd be worth a rescue attempt first. I zapped it in the microwave to melt the butter, and then stirred in about 250g flour (50g self raising, 200g plain, don't ask why!) and about 1tsp bicarbonate of soda. Baked it for 30mins and...

March 2011 has been designated Celebrating RE Month. Schools have been encouraged to plan special events and activities to highlight the subject and to remind us all how valuable and interesting it is. It's all the more vital to be raising the profile of good Religious Education in light of the current proposals to remove RE from the baccalaureate curriculum.

Breathe and Orison (my two jobs) are both resources which support and feed into the RE curriculum for schools, as well as touching on aspects of citizenship, SMSC, SEAL, PSHE, sociology and so many other things. As a result, this next month is full, to say the least. I'll try and keep this updated throughout the month.

Celebrating RE Month, Day 1: Belief and Ethics Day, Robert Napier Sixth Form Centre, Gillingham
The year 12 and 13 students at Robert Gillingham had a two-part Belief and Ethics morning, with each group experiencing Breathe as well as using Bob Marley and U2 to open up discussion on how to express personal spirituality, writing mission statements to help apply this to life at school and globally as well as individually.

It's a privilege to be able to be part of students taking time to engage with the spiritual side of life. The personal reflective side of RE is important, taking it beyond learning history and fact and giving young people the skills and the time to engage with this stuff personally.

A glimpse of what we got up to...
This image shows one student's response to one of the activities, looking at uniqueness and individuality. Users select 6 adjectives to describe themselves, adding their own description in the middle of the ring. Without the student's own word, there are over 400 million potential combinations of words so the chances of any other student choosing exactly the same are small to say the least.

Reading through a few blogs over the weekend, I found that I'd been tagged by Tim to participate in a meme that's doing the rounds.

So here it is:

Please try to name ONE (I know, there are so many to choose from) CCM praise song that you find unbearable and at least 2-3 reasons why, pointing to specific lyrics if you must.

The spring term is always busy in schoolswork - the school has settled into it's rhythm after the disruption of new September and Christmas, and there aren't too many exams to get in the way of other stuff.

This year, the Religious Education Council of England and Wales have designated March as Celebrating RE Month and are encouraging schools to put on special events to show off the best of RE and remind us of its importance.

So what are Orison and breathe doing to celebrate RE this month? (Well, this term actually - a month is never enough!)

Breathe

I've been making cupcakes for my sister in law's 30th birthday party this afternoon. The whole process started with me googling for interesting cupcake recipes to suit the occasion. There are loads of fantastic cupcake recipes out there - I chose Chocolate Mud Cupcakes, Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes and Lemon Meringue Cupcakes, as well as the Caramel Macchiato Cupcakes here.

I've modified the recipe a little bit so I'm going to share it here. The original is on the My Buttery Fingers blog.

Coffee Cupcakes
313g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
180ml strongly brewed coffee, cooled to warm
60ml milk
1 tbsp Tia Maria
170g unsalted butter, softened
200g sugar
3 eggs
1 sachet Starbucks VIA instant coffee
Additional Tia Maria to add afterwards

1. Preheat oven to 170c
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Beat in eggs, one at a time
4. Mix in coffee, milk and Tia Maria
5. Add flour and baking powder and mix until fully integrated
6. Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 15-18 minutes
7. When cooked, remove from oven and allow to cool.
8. Once the cakes are cooled, make a small opening in the top of each one with a knife and gently pour half a teaspoon of Tia Maria into each one. This will enhance the coffee flavour, and give moist cakes.

Whipped Cream Topping
200g (around 1 cup) whipping cream
3 tbsp (40g) sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tsp Tia Maria
Caramel ice cream sauce

1. Beat cream and sugar together until soft peaks begin to form
2. Add vanilla extract and Tia Maria
3. Pipe or spoon onto the top of each cake
4. Drizzle caramel sauce over the top of the cakes.
5. Enjoy!

It's been an unbelievable 6 months since I last blogged. That's not because nothing blogworthy has happened. More that so much has happened I haven't had time to stop and blog it. I hope to blog more this year, about all sorts of things. I'm also hoping to read more so it seemed to make sense to start by blogging the first book I read this year...


An Imaginative Experience, by Mary Wesley

I'd never heard of Mary Wesley before and only read this book because mum passed it on after she'd finished it. I think she found it in a charity shop? I'm glad she did.

The story opens with a bizarre scene in which a woman pulls the emergency stop cord on a train, jumps off, helps a sheep stranded in a nearby field and then gets back on the train again. That event, and the reactions of two of the passengers on the train, set up the twisting course of the rest of the book.

Wesley's characters are well constructed. Believable human beings with a normal, day-to-day life into which her surprises and changes are thrown. The novel skips between their lives seamlessly, placing apparently random happenings alongside one another.

It's an easy read with a gripping storyline. A great blend of predictability and unexpected shifts in direction. I'll be looking for more Wesley novels this year. Now where's my library card?

Updates from the Orison room which has been at the Kings of Wessex School in Cheddar all week are on the Orison blog.

Find them here and here...

I spent some time with the young people at church this morning.

We had a quick game of Psalm Consequences to get us started. If you don't know what that is, there's an example here - it's a way of writing a psalm together, based on the old favourite party game, Consequences. I can't remember where we learnt it and neither can The Shiny Headed Prophet who blogs about it here!



After that, we had a few Orison activities set up in another room, mostly to give the young people some experience of creative prayer. We used the Fizzy Forgiveness and the Hand of God, as well as an intercessory video made by Ben Wilkes.

Back in the room, the young people got into small groups and chose a theme (Wow, thank you, sorry or please) and some objects to work with. Here's what they came up with.

Bin Your Sin
Write down a sin.
Look into the mirror
On the other side, write down what you see inside yourself (anger, jealousy, hate etc)
Scrunch up your slip and throw it in the bin (saying sorry)
Look into the mirror again and write the difference from what you saw before onto a fresh slip.
Light a candle and watch it burn a new light of forgiveness and read the verses around the candles.


Party Popper Forgiveness
Take a party popper and pull the string to release all the bad things you have done.
Take a wipe to clean yourself so you are fully free of sin.
Get a torch to show you the way to God properly.
Put your name down if a TV, DS, phone.... takes you away from God.



Pebble Reflection

Reflect on how amazing God is.
His awesomeness can come all at once and is shockingly amazing but also how God works over time. Think about how God wipes away the dirt and smoothens the rough edges like a pebble in the sea. He polishes us and perfects us. Take a pebble and tell God how amazing he is.








Party Popper Prayers
1. Take a party popper.
2. Think where you need GOD to work in your life or someone else's
3. Write the name of a person or thing on the top of your party popper as you are praying.
4. To send it off to God & put that thing in God's hands, pull the party popper.








Wow Prayers
Wow!
Please pray while looking at the cross and ask that he would WOW you.
Ask God for something you've been praying for or something that would amaze you. After praying pop a party popper defending on your prayer.

Green=something you've praying for that you want God to answer
Orange=something amazing in your life that you have never experienced
Red=Something that you want done in another persons life
Blue=other

Messages/prayers can be written on the cross!

The Hand of WOW
Our hands are used for many things. To comfort others, to hold precious objects and to write notes on them. Write a note of WOW to God. As you write the note, take a bookmark to remember God never forgets you.

Isaiah 49:16 "See I have written your name on the palm of my hands"

I have a new blog. It's been around for a while but I only just made it public.

It's nothing exciting - simply an online database-style space where I can store/link to things I find online which might be useful one day for planning creative worship, prayer meetings, prayer rooms, school resources, elements for services... anything really.

So far it's quite small but the plan is to keep adding things as they come up (and as I remember) in the hope that at least some of it will be useful to someone someday. It's for those moments when you know you've seen the perfect video for that session you're planning but you just can't remember what it was called or how you found it.

As it says on the blog, these resources aren't mine, nor am I claiming that they are. They are song lyrics, quotes, videos, images etc - all things which are around the internet. The blog simply links to them, categorises them and makes them easier to find.

If it's useful to you, great, enjoy!

http://resourcesforcreativeworshipandprayer.blogspot.com/
(catchy URL eh?!)

New blog templates today, here and on the resources blog, both thanks to the amazingly creative Lena at simplyfabulousbloggertemplates.com/

This one needs some work - I made 5 batches of this yesterday with varying density and texture.


Basic mixture:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
3/8 cup oil

Combine dry ingredients.
Add wet ingredients.
Bake at 200'c for 20 minutes or until done.


Carrot & Apple - Use half plain and half wholemeal flour. Add 1 cup grated carrot and half cup grated apple.

Banana, Honey & Oat - Add 1 large banana, half cup oats and 2tbsp honey

Blueberry - Add 1 cup fresh blueberries

Raspberry & White Chocolate - Add 1 cup fresh raspberries and 100g chopped white chocolate

Chocolate Cherry - Add 1 tin cherries in juice (drained), 2 tbsp cocoa and 1 tsp chilli powder

Since we started Orison almost a year ago, I've been blogging stories and photos here to keep an archive record of what's been happening and also as a place to share the stories with whoever's interested.

The exciting news is that the Orison website now has its very own blog space. At http://orisonschools.org.uk/news you'll find up to date stories of Orison prayer spaces in schools, information about available resources and anything else which might be relevant. There's also a space where you can read twitter updates tagged with #orison for brief news as it happens.