Eva's annual Christmas present list

If you click on the image it will get BIGGER...family members (and those thinking of getting Eva a present) please take note of this list! She is VERY serious about it!

and sew to bed

Please look at this website andsewtobed
70 years ago on 9th October John Lennon was born in Liverpool. 30 years ago on 9th December he was shot dead in New York City.

The West Everton Community Council (WECC) and One World Week alongside The Craftivist Collective is taking part in the Liverpool Bluecoat Bed-In to celebrate John Lennon’s 70th birthday. The Bluecoat event takes part from October 9 – December 9, 2010: our Bed-In is on December 1, 2010.

During our Bed-In we want to raise awareness of global issues in our own community and amongst the people of Merseyside. We may represent a specific community but we come with our global concerns to a bed in the bluecoat. We want to raise awareness of national and international inequality and demand change – we want to see an end to the social chasm between those who have and those who need. Ours is a peaceful protest that wishes to engage all people in crafty action: Craftivism! We will make lovely stuff and change the world by stealth and beauty.

We think that ‘all you need is love’ but unless you make an effort to share it out equally some people get more love than others. We want to demonstrate something of our love for the community we live in, the city we have been brought up with and the world that embraces us. We believe that that only way we can do this is to demand equality, justice and peace.

We will be engaging in craftivism activities in bed. We will knit, sew and stitch our way to peace. Before the bed-in we will offer craftivist kits to anyone who is prepared to stitch for us – we aim to gather stitchers from across the globe. These mini-protest-stitch-kits will be completed and put together to form a massive protest duvet during the bed-in. This duvet will then be filled with white feathers to symbolise our hope for peace.

WECC is a group of people who work toward justice and equality in an urban community – we are neighbours, activists, artists and friends. In recent times we have organised a fantastic series of events to celebrate our community called Out of The Blue – this is a festival of creativity that takes place in and around Everton Park

Craftivist Collective is a global community of people who marry craft processes to activist aims. Their purpose is to expose the scandal of poverty and human rights injustices through the power of craft and public art. This is always done through provocative, non-violent creative actions craftivism collective).

One World Week – One World Week is a Development Education Charity. Each year, “The Week” is an opportunity for people from diverse backgrounds to come together to learn about global justice, to spread that learning and to use it to take action for justice locally and globally (one world week).

To get involved email Ellen Loudon – ellen@ellenloudon.com

The People's Pageant

I am sorry to be absent for so long - but I am sure you are following me on Twitter (see right). I am still alive and though I don't have much time to blog I am still very active on the interweb...

Anyway, I am planning an exciting project for June with some schools in Everton - called The People's Pageant. For more info see the blog.

Do let me know if you'd like to be involved.

we need a hero

mac make a big mistake - a gadget with unfortunate name

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Happy Christmas

I am in a bit of daze over Christmas preparations. I have lots of services to do before I have my dinner and the house is full of people. So, I am sorry if this posting will be brief. I just wanted to say Happy Christmas dear reader and I do hope you have a peaceful season.

the death of popular culture

I have had a bit of a bonkers 10 days - full of Christmas cheer, popular culture and a viva that nearly tipped me over the edge.

I missed a lot of the run up to Christmas last year because I was caught up in jury service but this year I am getting the full hit of being a priest at Christmas-time. There is so much to do - and advent has been a lively spiritual challenge for me. I am loving the waiting for Christmas and all the lead up to it. That said there have been a few things that have been quite disturbing - The X-Factor for one. I am not sure I can express my disdain for it without rude words but I will have a go. I once thought it was as innocuous as karaoke but now think it is destructive. You know, dear reader, that I love popular culture and can usually find some worth in nearly any of it (even Miley Cyrus has her good points) but xfactor is a cruel twisted popular culture that is sucking the life out of everything that is good about music. It is a vampire draining the life-blood from young people's talent and leaving them with nice teeth, lovely hair, shining legs and a look of vanity. I want it to stop - with all my of my heart I want it to stop. I want our young people to come back and stop following the nasty child catchers into the little box. I want them to run free and make pop music that is about them and not about a strange middle aged man who likes everything to be pretty. So there...

I am a bit tense at the moment (can you tell). I had my PhD thesis viva last Friday and whilst I am not knocking my achievements I still have some more work to do on it...work that I am disappointed about really. They are asking me to shift my work away from my practice and more toward the theory that underpins it. Of course my theory is completely sound and the work they are asking me to do is perfectly reasonable but I am gutted that I didn't express the worth of the practice clearly enough to validate it. It's not the end of the world but I do have to spend some time digesting their comments and working out what my response will be in terms of the work. It shouldn't take me too long to sort it out but at the moment I am not sure where the time will come from. Some reflection and careful prayer about time management, stress and workloads will also need to be done.

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying advent and that your Christmas preparations are bringing you joy. Remember Jesus isn't just for Christmas and that when the heavens and the earth are reunited there will be salvation from xfactor and all bad things. Until then it is up to us to make this world a better place and fight against injustice (wherever we find it) and seek the Lord in all things good and worthy. Lets get to it.