PENTECOST GRID BLOG ::(1) Don't try this at home, children

... or how I nearly blew myself up in the garden.

We have an alternative -ish service planned for Sunday night here at Robinson Chapel (6pm, map here - visitors welcome). A kind of mix of the most beautiful of the ancient hymns and music, with some contemporary interpretations of Lecto Divina, video and power point film stuff, visual prayers...

the central visual idea was (according to my plans) to be a huge flame right in the middle of Chapel. Ever since I read about this meths-burning exercise last year I have been musing on whether I could get away with doing the same here. I thought we might. I researched the possibilities. I got the advice from a couple of scientifically minded students who explained all kinds of stuff to me like the volatility of meths, the absorbency of different kinds of stone, etc. etc. And we had the pictures of e~mergent kiwi's amazing burning pumice stone to prove it works.

So I dragged a friend off to the out of town stores and got all the kit I needed. But naturally you don't do this kind of thing without having a trial run first. So I did my trial run in the garden yesterday. And fortunately I remembered what my Dad taught me - stand well back after you've lit the fireworks. A big bang and a couple of exploded tins and flowerpots later I decided to stick with candles after all.

What is it with me and science and technology? I followed the instructions, I swear. I am not a brainless "blonde" (I'm not even a natural one!). Yet when I do this stuff it either looks more like art than science (good result) or goes horribly wrong, as yesterday's inferno demonstrates. Does God just sneakily change the rules when he sees me about to try stuff? Humph

Comments

[niallm]

maggie, im a teacher in cambridge... really enjoying following your blog... do you still have the alternative service at robinson? i go to a loud church and am searching a spot of quiet-ish contemplation!! when's it on?

[maggi]

this sunday, 6pm, robinson chapel (robinson college is in grange road). you're welcome to join us! there will be plenty of quiet bits interspersed with lovely music

[rob]

in the interests of science experiments in cambridge...
(don't try this at home children and this wan't me so don't report me to the police)

when i was an undergraduate, some friends of mine took an old coke bottle (2 litres) and drank the coke. they then filled it wuth six inches of stones and two inches of liquid nitrogen from the chemistry labs and threw it in the river cam just by the railway bridge. it sank, the liquid nitrogen became gas again and the bottle exploded. There was a HUGE plume of water about 10m high and then they ran away...

R

[Peter]

Reminds me of the time I was teaching a Sunday school class and wanted to do a demonstration of Elijah and the sacrifice he soaked in water. The idea was to have some petrol in the can befor I poured the water in. Fortunately my wife persuaded me to do a trial in th egarden first! It's amazing how little petrol you need for a blazing inferno. I'm a science graduate, my wife has no science qualifications whatsoever, yet she prevented me from burning the building down. Feminine common sense wins every time, just be glad you have enough of it to make you experiment first!

[-ash]

you could go get a "silk flame" effect from an electrical-gadget type shop... just a sheet of silk that gets blown upward by an internal fan, and lit up with flame-coloured lights. makes it look vaguely like a flame.

or you could use a different alcohol on a concrete slab. just pour it on, set light, and it SHOULD burn away cleanly. (i read it on a "how to heat up your $1 a night youth-hostel in deepest darkest peru" type site... not sure anyone minds if such buildings inadvertantly get burned away... )

[Mark]

Whoops; heheheh.

[maggi]

thanks all! If my church were one of those tumbledown old warehouse arrangements I would be alot oess cautious. But I am responsible for a fantastically beautiful and well furnished building, so smoke stains and singed bits are really not an option. And yes, I'm afraid I am Captain Sensible deep down...

[Caroline]

let your words, others' words, silence and somebody called the Holy Spirit do the fireworks Maggi!

it will, I'm sure be a memorable occasion

[Bob C]

that is just so classic

[D. C.]

Rob, it's good your friends with the LN2 Coke bottle didn't end up like the unfortunate author of this Darwin Award self-report: http://www.darwinawards.com/personal/personal2002-21.html.

[Serena]

Oh dear ... am quite glad I didn't volunteer to come and help with the trial run, being also of an arty, rather than sensible, frame of mind ...! Lee was telling us at dinner that the whole OHMANPLUMESOFFIRE! thing was off ...

... *snigger* would've been quite funny to see it though ...

[Lorna]

Oh wonderful :)

[Matt Stone]

Well, Ive always said we need to take a blow torch to the church. I've never meant in literally but this Meths burning game of yours sounds positively inspired.

[Kathryn]

I've long felt there was an opening for a Diocesan Arsonist. Could this be the next stage in your journey, maggi? :-)

[maggi]

OK. Scinetific friend has sussed it. I got air mixed in with it, apparently, and it was the air that popped and banged.

I'm planning to try again now I've found the right sort of stones... pentecost 2006, maybe???

[dave paisley]

I'll be looking for the headline next year then:

"Instead of Peace at Chapel, Congregation Gets Pieces of Chapel."

[Chris]

Thanks for the idea: I used cat litter and meths and it worked - EIG not informed and church wrdn twitchy but everyone else very taken with the image!

[Lynfa Davies]

Maggi - hello. This is not a comment on any particular part of your blog though I have been reading it avidly for a while now and really enjoying it. Rather, it's more of a question. Hope it doesn't sound too weird... Anyhow, I think I have a calling and want to "come back" to the Anglican church. Mine is a bit too happy clappy. Feeling quite lost about this new though not so sudden train of thought - would you be able to suggest any study etc or do you know of any approachable Anglicans (!), possibly women, based in or around Sussex? I would come to Robinson if I were nearer...Lynfa

[Greg the Explorer]

We did this at our Pentecost service last Sunday and trhe trick is to put the pumice stone (we used lot's of little ones) inot a container and then fill it up until all the pumice is covered by metho and let it soak for some time until all the air bubbles cease flowing up.

We then sat all the pumice stones ontop of volcanic rocks (the kind you get for the grill part of a BBQ - not coasl or fire lighters - volcanic rocks) and lit the lot with a taper - excellent and noone got hurt!