communitea

Scottish artist Sarah Griffiths has put together a cool experiment in social space that involves drinking a lot of tea. (Sounds like what I do with bsmucalgary!) Having fashioned a mobile tea trolly, she sets up in spots about the city of Dundee where tea mightn’t normally be imbibed, brews a pot, invites passersby to join her for a cuppa and engages them in conversation about what it means to be in community. The combined experiences are turned into line drawings with quotes like the one above. Put the kettle on and check it out here.

It makes me wonder what would happen if we could somehow condense the batcave to a cart and push it around uCalgary giving out Pocky. Of course, we don’t do this, because letting nomnom out loose would only lead to disaster, but it serves as a good metaphor for what we actually do. Creating meaningful space is an art and a spiritual discipline. Creating space in the world, in places that are shared and not owned, or in places where one is a guest, is harder than creating space behind cathedral doors, but it’s the only way to be like Jesus, the incarnate God living amongst us, refusing to be confined to a steepled building on the proper day, but breaking out into the world to meet people in places they do not expect Him.

(ht: tea appreciation society)