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Sunday 29 January 2017

Update: Sophia Hub Redbridge

Ros Southern writes:

'Coming up this week
  • Tuesday 31st 7.30am - Chamber networking breakfast. £10. Open to all businesses. info here
  • Tuesday 31st 1-4pm - starting a business 3 hours workshop at Enterprise Desk. Booking essential. Free. Info here
  • Tuesday 31st 7-9pm - first of 4 week evening starting a business course at Redbridge Institute - info here
  • Sophia Hubs entrepreneurs' club Thursday 2ne 6.45. Post your first blog - booking essential to get a computer. A practical, working session. Info here
  • Thurs 2nd - Council's consultation with business re 2017/18 budget proposals info here 6pm
  • Saturday 4th - Save money - cut your building costs drastically - Eco Audit session/s at Vine Church by eco champion Peter Musgrave Info here
The following week
  • Weds 8th - Entrepreneurs' club. In the York Room, Ilford library 1-3. Speaker to be advised
  • Weds 8th - Twitter workshop with Lorraine Tapper. Stratford. Free. 6.30-8pm Info here
  • Saturday 11th - Ilford Green Pop Up market, cafe and Restart party (get your electricals mended) 10-2pm Info here
Other great news
  • JoAnne McConnell - leadership training start-up posts her first blog on good communication - do read and share! 
  • Sophia course has ended - announcing 3 new projects and a start-up business. Info here
And thanks so much to Nicola Millington for a really helpful entrepreneurs' club this week on marketing outside your comfort zone and usual circles

Have a great weekend,

Best wishes,

Ros Southern
Coordinator, Sophia Hubs'

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Ben Harper - Gold To Me.

Saturday 28 January 2017

Latest ArtWay visual meditation

For my latest Visual Meditation for ArtWay I reflect on the theme of light seen through cracks using the recent commission of candle holders for St Martin-in-the-Fields undertaken by Giampaolo Babetto:

"He says that in his work he is seeking to ‘find a form that you think will become a jewel.’ He says also that his work ‘is not made of appearances’ and that he would ‘like it to be something that comes from the inside, that expresses an inwardness.’ That aim has perhaps never been better realised than with these delicately material candleholders from which the light shines out through the crack of a cross."

An article giving more information about the art of St Martin's, including the Babetto commission, can be found at http://www.artlyst.com/features/the-art-of-st-martin-in-the-fields-by-revd-jonathan-evens/.

My other ArtWay meditations include work by María Inés Aguirre, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry FfyffeAntoni Gaudi, Maciej Hoffman, Giacomo Manzù, Maurice Novarina, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Albert Servaes and Henry Shelton.

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Maria McKee - A Good Heart.

Friday 27 January 2017

Faith - Russell Haines


Faith is a fine art exhibition by portrait artist Russell Haines. His vision is to create an art event that explores people who have faith and those who have none by focusing on their personal beliefs and stories. Essentially aiming to bring all cultures and faiths together to dispel myth, breakdown barriers and create unity. 

"Even as a person with no faith I find it fascinating to discover and explore the beliefs of others" Russell Haines 

This interfaith art exhibition and project consists of 35 large oil portraits, filmed personal interviews and film recordings of group discussions between people of many different faiths and none. The exhibition features portraits of people from the many diverse faiths that coexist in the communities that make up the City of Gloucester. It includes Christians from different denominations (Anglican and Catholic), Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikh, Rasta, Pagan, Buddhist, Wicca, Druids, Bahá'í and Atheists. The discussion events hosted to form part of the exhibition have already created a large amount of interest with people of all faiths and none. 

The exhibition is being shown in Gloucester Cathedral from 14 January - 26 February 2017 before moving on to other venues. The University of Gloucestershire’s Senior Lecturer in Film Production, Mike Parker, is putting together a television documentary about the project. After it’s time at Gloucester Cathedral the exhibition will move on to be a key part of The Christian Arts Festival based in Cheltenham and Gloucester in April, before moving again to the Gloucestershire College for one month.

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Violent Femmes - Faith.

Windows on the world (329)


Colchester, 2016

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Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren.

Thursday 26 January 2017

'Baptism- A Radical Act’

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'Baptism- A Radical Act’: An art exhibition featuring artwork produced by those who live with homelessness, and by other artists associated with Bloomsbury. It invites reflection on the theme of radical dissent within the religious and political sphere.

23-27 January, 10am-4pm, Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, 235 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8EP

An installation of artwork and photography will be on display daily, with further information on the history of the Baptist tradition of radical religious dissent, and the politics of water in the contemporary world.

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church has been working with the homeless and vulnerable of Central London for nearly 170 years, and has a philosophy of ‘inclusion’, where all are invited to participate in the community life of the church. Many of those who live with homelessness are artistic and creative, and the purpose of this exhibition is to display artwork by a diversity of artists.

This project is part of the ‘Still Reforming’ programme by the ‘Reformation’ churches of Central London, to mark 2017 as the 500th anniversary of the reformation. www.reformation500.uk. Find out more about these reformation events by downloading the brochure "Still Reforming".

https://www.facebook.com/BloomsburyBaptist/posts/1539525669410772

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Michael Kiwanuka - Always Waiting.

Circularity/Centrality & HeartEdge - At the Heart. On the Edge.

For the current edition of ArtReview a number of artists were asked to propose values they think will be useful to art in the coming year. Renata Lucas wrote the following:

'Circularity/Centrality

When you asked me to describe a value that would be important to art production in 2017, I spent a few days wondering how to name the interest of working with the surroundings to create certain consequences in the interior of a subject: working with the margins to produce an effect in the centre, or applying a force in the centre to create a change of direction in a given context (in the margins). What interests me is to work with this movement between the centre and periphery.'

Lucas' value has real synergy with the vision we have developed at St Martin-in-the-Fields: At the heart. On the edge. 


'... led by our Parochial Church Council, in conversation with the other parts of St Martin’s, we started to develop a vision that could encompass everything we do and stand for, in all our diverse activities and identities ... 

What we came up with, was agreed at the January PCC meeting, and subsequently endorsed by all the boards across the site, was this six-word, two-sentence vision: At the Heart. On the Edge. I want to explore with you what this vision means and what it says about what and who we are and where we’re going. 

Let’s start with At the Heart. This is saying something most obviously about geography and culture, but more subtly about faith and life. St Martin’s is, without question, at the heart of London. And, for all our identification with the outcast, it’s at the heart of the establishment: it was built by a king, sits half a mile from 10 Downing Street, three-quarters from Parliament, and a mile from Buckingham Palace. Members of the cabinet and the Royal Family visit almost every year, and countless famous people come here at some stage to celebrate, to honour, or to mourn. 

But more importantly ‘At the Heart’ refers implicitly to life, the universe and everything. For Christians, the heart of it all is God’s decision never to be except to be with us in Christ. That triggers creation, as a place for God to be with us, incarnation, the moment Christ becomes flesh amongst us, and heaven, the time and space in which God is with us forever. As a church, St Martin’s exists to celebrate, enjoy, and embody God being with us – the heart of it all. We’re not about a narcissistic notion that we are the heart – we rest on the conviction that God is the heart and we want to be with God. 

But in addition to indicating something central in relation to geography, culture and faith, the word ‘heart’ refers to feeling, humanity, passion, emotion. This means the arts, the creativity and joy that move us beyond ourselves, beyond rational thought, to a plane of hope and longing and desire and glory. It means companionship, from a meal maybe shared in the café or a gift for a friend perhaps bought in the shop. At the heart means not standing on the sidelines, telling the government what to do or waiting for the market to swing back to prosperity, but getting in the thick of the action, where honest mistakes are made but genuine good comes about, where new partners are found and social ideas take shape. But it also means genuine care. Not long after I came to this parish a national figure told me his mum, who lives 500 miles from London, sends an annual donation every year to St Martin-in-the-Fields. When he asked his mum why, she said, ‘St Martin’s cares about what matters.’ That’s what it means to be at the heart. It means practising and being known for compassion, understanding, love. Not walking away from people when life or the church or health or those close to them have let them down. 

And that brings us to the second half of our vision, On the edge. In just the same way this has both obvious and subtle connotations. Most evidently, St Martin’s is located on the edge of Trafalgar Square, looking over the splendour of the Gallery, the honour of Nelson’s column, and the majesty of the embassies, but also the commotion of tourist and trader and traveller and the pageant of protest and performance. But more generally, the word ‘edge’ speaks of the conviction at St Martin’s that God’s heart is on the edge of human society, with those who have been excluded or rejected or ignored. God looked on the Hebrews in slavery, looked on Israel in exile, looked on Christ on the cross, and walks with the oppressed today. St Martin’s isn’t about bringing those on the imagined ‘edge’ into the exalted ‘middle’; it’s about saying we want to be where God is, and God’s on the edge, so we want to be there too. A former archbishop said, ‘If you ever lose your sense of the intensity and urgency of faith, go and hang out with those who still have it – and the chances are they’re among those the world regards as the least, the last and the lost.’ That’s why we’re on the edge: because we want to discover that intensity and urgency for ourselves. 

Being ‘edgy’ is often associated with speaking out on behalf of the downtrodden. We don’t do a lot of that at St Martin’s, for one reason only: we want to walk alongside the downtrodden so that they can find the courage, the voice, and the opportunity to speak for themselves. We’re not about swapping persecution for paternalism. But being on the edge does mean facing the cost of being, at times, on the edge of the church. Some of the issues we care deeply about are not areas of consensus in the church. We aim to practise what we believe is a true gospel where we receive all the gifts God is giving us, especially the ones that the church has for so long despised or patronised. That may sometimes make us unpopular. Being on the edge doesn’t have to mean being relentlessly opinionated or impulsively impatient: we’re in the persuading business, not the railroading business. 

But the ‘edge’ doesn’t just refer to issues of exclusion and disadvantage and injustice. St Martin’s seeks to be on the leading edge, perhaps the cutting edge in a number of ways. We have a truly outstanding music programme, of voluntary and professional singers, free and commercial concerts, liturgical and performance events. It’s getting better all the time. We’re the greenest church in the diocese, and as well as seeking to embrace ecological concerns in everything we do we’re seeking a similar rigour and scrutiny and renewal around questions of disability. Most extensively, we have a commercial enterprise that’s integrated into the life of our church community and rather than simply being a source of funds is at the forefront of what we’re trying to achieve in London’s civil economy. As we’re trying to promote and share these commitments more broadly, we’re developing a sense of how St Martin’s isn’t just about central London, but about an ethos that is national and in some respects beyond; and we’re beginning to develop the appropriately named Heart-Edge Network to make these connections.'

‘At the Heart. On the Edge.’ is a conference to launch HeartEdge, the new network for churches growing practices and patterns of sustainable mission, initiated by St Martin-in-the-Fields. This conference is a day where we’ll be exploring mission by sharing ideas, uncovering solutions and finding support. Starting at 10.30 am (coffee from 10 am) on 8 February 2017 at St Stephen Walbrook, we’ll finish at 3.30pm. We are not charging for the event.

Sam Wells will be hosting the day with contributions from colleagues across England. Our focus will be on:
  • Congregation – approaches to liturgy, worship and day-to-day communal life
  • Commerce – activities generating finance and developing social enterprise
  • Charity – addressing social needs while retaining congregational participation
  • Culture – art, music and ideas to re-imagine the Christian narrative for the present moment
We’re working hard to ensure the day will inspire, resource and equip delegates. To book a place to attend this first conference colleagues can visit here >> https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/at-the-heart-on-the-edge-heartedge-conference-2017-tickets-29792821130. You can download the membership pack, which provides background and further information about how to join here.

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Bruce Cockburn - Free To Be.

Wednesday 25 January 2017

3 Mothers



Commissioned in 2007 by the Bishop of London commissioned Revd Regan O’Callaghan depicts three smiling women from the congregation of St John on Bethnal Green Church, seated around a table. The triptych was a commission on the theme of hospitality and 3 Mothers was blessed by the Bishop and installed in the reception of Diocesan House, London where they resided for a few years. After this they have been on the move and have been installed in different places which so far has included the Jewish Museum London, St James’s Piccadilly, St Paul’s Cathedral Melbourne and Lambeth Palace. They are 35 cm x 40 cm each, painted in egg tempera, gold leaf on gesso with a dark wooden frame. 

The women reflect the diverse nature of the congregation at St John’s as well as the local East End community. Each woman is a wife, mother, and grandmother, a person of faith and a committed hard working member of their church, something the artist wanted to celebrate. The three women also symbolise in part the important role of women – particularly older women – in the Church of England. The opened hand of Mother Pearl is held out to greet the viewer to the table, a place of fellowship and hospitality while Mother Becky and Mother Miriam look on. What offering do you the viewer bring to the table? The stars on the table cloth symbolise the many descendants of Abraham. The colours the three women wear represent the Christian liturgical seasons and the gold leaf a belief in the ‘sainthood of all believers and divine light.’ 

The triptych is understood as a contemporary religious icon which functions to instruct the faithful, theologically, spiritually and liturgically. An icon is believed a portal into the heavenly realm where the eternal light of God permeates all things and where no shadow is cast. The 3 Mothers thus represent the divine spark within all of us.

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John Tavener - Ikon Of Light.

Start:Stop - The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light


Bible Reading

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. (Isaiah 9. 2-4)

Meditation

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Following Homelessness Sunday this passage from Isaiah, which we have heard throughout Advent and Christmas, provides a paradigm through which we can consider our current experience of homelessness. It enables us to reflect on the journey that those leaving the streets make from darkness to light and to consider what the breaking of the yoke of oppression in a nation in order that all people experience abundance and joy might mean today for those who are homeless.

To be homeless is in a very real sense to walk in darkness. Those who are rough sleeping are exposed and vulnerable in the darkness of the night. It is difficult to avoid slipping into hopelessness and despair. In the dark you are invisible and that cloak of invisibility is what seems to cover people who embarrass society (us) with their need, their lack of a place to be, their unbelonging. The Christmas Appeal at St Martin-in-the-Fields told the story of Richard, whose story shows how quickly and easily people can move from relative stability and security into the dark place that is homelessness. Two and a half years ago Richard was a stay at home dad living in a nice apartment, in a nice complex in a very nice part of town. His relationship with his wife broke down and he started sleeping rough over the road from where he had been living so he could look after his children and take them to school. From that point onwards, he says, “Things started going downhill.”

When people are in this dark place it is very hard to then move back into the light. It has taken Richard over two years to get to the point where he is leaving the support of The Connection at St Martin’s in order to stand on his own two feet. With the help of staff at The Connection, Richard is now living in Building Prospects, af, affordable housing managed by The Connection in Westminster, where he sees his children regularly. He has also worked hard to gain skills to be able support himself in the future. Richard’s next step is to work as a trainee in a hostel for homeless women, putting into practice some of the skills he’s learnt while at The Connection.

Richard’s story shows how agencies like The Connection can make a real difference in helping those trying to leave the darkness of homelessness. Churches make a significant difference: "For example, there are 12,000 people working as volunteers in church-run winter shelters right now. We also have a great history of churches initiating housing associations and other responses to housing need." However, the paradigm provided by our passage from Isaiah suggests that by themselves these organisations and services are not enough to prevent homelessness occurring.

For that to happen, our society and our social and political structures need to be transformed in ways that prevent homelessness happening in the first place. The passage says that before a sense of abundance and joy in which all can share can be seen and felt within the nation, a yoke or rod of oppression has to be broken. That yoke or rod of oppression is the social and political structures which cause homelessness within our society. The extreme growth in the numbers rough sleeping across the UK and in London is not attributable simply to the individuals themselves but also to political policies that have left those individuals unable to remain in the security and stability of their homes.

Shelter recently claimed that two families in London are made homeless every hour. Their prediction, based on government homeless statistics, is that 1,260 families in the capital will lose their home in the next month and 7,370 over the next six months - the equivalent of a household every 34 and 35 minutes respectively. While political policies are not the only factor causing homelessness in the UK, the combined effect of welfare reforms, austerity cuts, immigration controls and a lack of affordable housing has come at a time when there has been a considerable increase in rough sleeping across the country and especially here in London. This combination of government policies acts as a yoke of oppression causing homelessness and making the journey back from darkness to light more difficult to achieve. As Isaiah states, the yoke of oppression must be broken before there is any widespread prospect for rough sleepers and sofa surfers to experience abundance or joy within our nation.

Churches and Christian charities are seeking assurances from the government over what they're describing as the "shame" and "political failure" of rising homelessness levels and are calling on the state to develop a "comprehensive, long-term" plan to wipe out homelessness. Were that to happen, we would see in our own day and time the light of hope, the lifting of burdens and the smashing of oppression of which Isaiah spoke. We would enable the journey, from darkness to light, that those sleeping rough, like Richard, have to travel, to become less burdensome and difficult.

Intercessions

Heavenly Father, we pray for the Government and all people who take decisions which affect the lives of people who are homeless. Guide them to follow your will and make decisions for the common good. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Loving God, encourage all people who work for and with homeless people. Give them the gifts and skills they need. May they be a listening ear and a witness of your presence. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Spirit of God, protect all people who are homeless. Shelter them from all that is harmful, enable them to seek out your face and build their lives anew. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Risen Lord, we pray for those services that support people who are homeless. Social services, health services, the benefits agency and the many voluntary groups and organisations including The Connection at St Martin’s and Church-run winter shelters. May they be professional, efficient and always have the needs of those they serve at the forefront of their work. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

The Blessing

May the blessing of light be on you, light without and light within. May the blessed sunshine shine on you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire, so that the stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a friend. Amen.

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Graham Kendrick - Beauty For Brokenness.

Monday 23 January 2017

Discover & explore: Thomas Watson (Preaching)



Today's Discover & explore service at St Stephen Walbrook, explored preaching through the teachings of the Puritan cleric, Thomas Watson. The service featured the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields singing If ye love me by Tallis, The Lord's Prayer by Tavener, The Beatitudes by Stopford and Bring us, O Lord God by Harris.

Next week's Discover & explore service is on Monday 30 January at 1.10pm when Revd Sally Muggeridge, together with the Choral Scholars, will explore the theme of drama through the career of Sir John Vanbrugh.

In my reflection today I said:

Thomas Watson was an English, Nonconformist, Puritan preacher and author. He was also vicar of St Stephen Walbrook, one of a long line of controversial clerics. Of which he may even have been the first.

‘He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was noted for remarkably intense study. In 1646 he commenced a sixteen-year pastorate at St. Stephen's, Walbrook. He showed strong Presbyterian views during the civil war, with, however, an attachment to the king, and in 1651 he was imprisoned briefly with some other ministers for his share in Christopher Love's plot to recall Charles II of England. He was released on 30 June 1652, and was formally reinstated as vicar of St. Stephen's Walbrook. He obtained great fame and popularity as a preacher until the Restoration, when he was ejected for Nonconformity. Notwithstanding the rigor of the acts against dissenters, Watson continued to exercise his ministry privately as he found opportunity. Upon the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672 he obtained a license to preach at the great hall in Crosby House. After preaching there for several years, his health gave way, and he retired to Barnston, Essex, where he died suddenly while praying in secret. He was buried on 28 July 1686.’

C.H. Spurgeon wrote that although Watson ‘issued several most valuable books, comparatively little is known of him … his writings are his best memorial; perhaps he needed no other, and therefore providence forbade the superfluity’: ‘Thomas Watson's Body of Practical Divinity is one of the most precious of the peerless works of the Puritans; and those best acquainted with it prize it most. Watson was one of the most concise, racy, illustrative, and suggestive of those eminent divines who made the Puritan age the Augustan period of evangelical literature. There is a happy union of sound doctrine, heart-searching experience and practical wisdom throughout all his works, and his Body of Divinity is, beyond all the rest, useful to the student and the minister.’ 

In his sermon entitled ‘How to Get the Most from Readingyour Bible’ Watson recommended making sure ‘to put yourself under a true ministry of the Word, faithfully and thoroughly expounding the Word, be earnest and eager in waiting on it.’ At St Stephen Walbrook he found a congregation willing to do this. Spurgeon says ‘the church was constantly filled, for the fame and popularity of the preacher were deservedly great.’ Watson remarked in the second of three farewell sermons, ‘I have with much comfort observed your reverent attention to the word preached; you rejoice in this light, not for a season, but to this day. I have observed your zeal against error in a critical time, your unity and amity.’

It is this that he commends in ‘A Preliminary DiscourseTo Catechising’ where he shares his thoughts on how we can ‘continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel’ (Colossians 1. 23). Among the advice that he gives, in his sermons, on the way in which we can profit from listening to sermons and from reading the Bible are these thoughts:

·         Read with seriousness. The Christian life is to be taken seriously since it requires striving and not falling short.
·         Persevere in remembering what you read. Don't let it be stolen from you. If it doesn't stay in your memory it is unlikely to be much benefit to you.
·         Meditate on what you read. The Hebrew word for meditate' means to be intense in the mind'. Meditation without reading is wrong and bound to err; reading without meditation is barren and fruitless. It means to stir the affections, to be warmed by the fire of meditation.
·         Read with a humble heart. Acknowledge that you are unworthy that God should reveal himself to you.
·         Don't stop reading the Bible until you find your heart warmed. Let it not only inform you but also inflame you.
·         Put into practice what you read.

Intercessions:

How are we capable of drawing near to you, O God, as by nature we stand in opposition to you, alienated and enemies? How then can we approach nigh to God? It is through a mediator. Jesus Christ is the screen between us and divine justice. As Joseph being so great at court, made way for all his brethren to draw near into the king's presence, so, Jesus, you are our Joseph, that doth make way for us by your blood, that we may now come near into God's presence. May we approach nigh and come near into your presence, O God. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Where should we draw near to you, O God? In the use of your ordinances and in the word, may we draw near to your Holy Oracle; in the sacrament may we draw near to your table. In your word may we hear your voice; at your table may we have your kiss. In a special manner may we draw near to you in prayer. Prayer is our soul's private converse and intercourse with you. Prayer whispers in your ears; in prayer may we draw so nigh to you that we ‘take hold of you. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

What is the manner of our drawing near to you, O God? Your special residence is in Heaven and we draw near to you, not by the feet of our bodies, but with our souls. The affections are the feet of the soul; by these may we move towards you. David drew nigh to God in his desires, praying ‘There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.’ Like him, may we shoot our hearts into Heaven by pious ejaculations and in our spirits have intercourse at a distance with you, O God. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

The Blessing

O God, you are the summum bonum, the chief good. There's enough in you to satisfy the immense desire of the angels. In you perfections are centered, wisdom, holiness, goodness: you have rivers of pleasure where the soul shall bathe itself forever with infinite delight. May we find here ground sufficient for our drawing near to you. O God, you are the chief good; may we, and everything around us, desire to approach to our happiness, and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Philip Stopford - The Beatitudes.

Sunday 22 January 2017

Sermon: Homelessness Sunday

Here is the sermon I preached today for Homelessness Sunday at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. This passage from Isaiah (9. 1 - 4) which we have heard throughout Advent and Christmas provides a paradigm through which we can consider our current experience of homelessness. It enables us to reflect on the journey that those leaving the streets make from darkness to light and to consider what the breaking of the yoke of oppression in a nation in order that all people experience abundance and joy might mean today for those who are homeless.

To be homeless is in a very real sense to walk in darkness. Those who are rough sleeping are exposed and vulnerable in the darkness of the night. It is difficult to avoid slipping into hopelessness and despair. In the dark you are invisible and that cloak of invisibility is what seems to cover people who embarrass society (us) with their need, their lack of a place to be, their unbelonging. Our Christmas Appeal told the story of Richard, whose story shows how quickly and easily people can move from relative stability and security into the dark place that is homelessness. Two and a half years ago Richard was a stay at home dad living in a nice apartment, in a nice complex in a very nice part of town. His relationship with his wife broke down and he started sleeping rough over the road from where he had been living so he could look after his children and take them to school. From that point onwards, he says, “Things started going downhill.”

When people are in this dark place it is very hard to then move back into the light. It has taken Richard over two to get to the point where he is leaving the support of The Connection at St Martin’s in order to stand on his own two feet. With the help of staff at The Connection, Richard is now living in Building Prospects, affordable housing managed by The Connection in Westminster, where he sees his children regularly. He has also worked hard to gain skills, completing the Build a Bike course, passing the European Computer Driving Licence and completing a year-long course in massage therapy – all to be able support himself in the future, as his eyesight declines. He has also sought solace by working in the Art Room, alongside Mark, Art Tutor at The Connection. “I do a lot of art,” he said, because “you have to do something which takes things out of your head… I now do it four mornings a week and it helps. It really does.” Richard’s next step is to work as a trainee in a hostel for homeless women, putting into practice some of the skills he’s learnt while at The Connection.

Richard’s story is of a slow but steady return from the darkness but the experience of trying to leave the darkness is not always so consistent. I recently talked and prayed with another homeless man who has had support from The Connection and from our church. He has had periods of getting clean from drugs and as a result being able to find accommodation and hold down jobs, as well as periods where he has relapsed and lost the positive progress he had earlier achieved. This man was very aware of how easy it is to relapse and of the extent to which he was in a situation where the temptation to relapse was very strong and surrounded him constantly. It was for that reason he had sought prayer and the support of a regular worshipping community.

Our reading from Isaiah promises the light of hope, the lifting of burdens and the smashing of oppression. Homeless individuals can be supported into new homes, as we have heard, and vulnerable people prevented from becoming homeless. That is a message which has been part of our history here at St Martin’s as well as being part of our ongoing ministry. Our worship on Homeless Sunday is an opportunity to celebrate work that tackles the problem of homelessness and the stories of people who are no longer struggling with their housing. Here, at St Martin’s, we particularly celebrate the work of The Connection, the Vicar’s Relief Fund and the Sunday International Group which is differing ways bring the light of hope into the lives of those who are their users and guests. The Connection helps by providing a range of specialist services, all under one roof, which enable people to address their homelessness and make the necessary steps away from the streets so they can re-enter society and live ‘normally’ again. The Vicar’s Relief Fund provides a rapid response service by awarding small but essential grants to help alleviate housing difficulties for vulnerable people in their time of need helping prevent homelessness happening in the first place and our Sunday International Group provides hospitality to those who have no recourse to public funds.

This means that our engagement here with homelessness is extensive and significant, but the paradigm provided by our passage from Isaiah suggests that by themselves these organisations and services are not enough to prevent homelessness occurring. For that to happen, our society and our social and political structures need to be transformed in ways that prevent homelessness happening in the first place. The passage says that before a sense of abundance and joy in which all can share can be seen and felt within the nation, a yoke or rod of oppression has to be broken. That yoke or rod of oppression is the social and political structures which cause homelessness within our society. The extreme growth in the numbers rough sleeping across the UK and in Westminster is not attributable simply to the individuals themselves but also to political policies that have left those individuals unable to remain in the security and stability of their homes.

Shelter recently claimed that two families in London are made homeless every hour. Their prediction, based on government homeless statistics, is that 1,260 families in the capital will lose their home in the next month and 7,370 over the next six months - the equivalent of a household every 34 and 35 minutes respectively. The number reported sleeping rough in England has more than doubled between 2010 and 2015. In 2015, the last year for we currently have figures, the increase was 30%. There was a time in the UK when rough sleeping seemed to have been nearly eradicated but we know, only too well, from our own experience here in Westminster that that is now far from being the case.

What has changed in that time? The government’s reforms surrounding Welfare have included caps to the local housing allowance, possible reductions in the amount paid to supported accommodation providers, individual sanctions and caps on the total amount of benefit for individual households. The effects of these Welfare reforms have been wide-ranging and impactful. While welfare reform is certainly a threat to increasing homelessness, cuts to revenue budgets in local authorities, with consequences for staffing levels in homelessness services, social work and related departments have also bitten hard. On Friday it was announced that Sunderland’s budget for homelessness services is facing a 100% cut. In the next round of austerity cuts other councils will be forced to take similar measures. The pressures of cuts in local authority budgets don’t just affect the homelessness service itself. They are being felt in lots of areas which meet (or should meet) the needs of homeless people, such as mental health care, substance abuse and recovery services, educational welfare services etc.

Welfare reforms and austerity cuts have been introduced at a time when we are not building enough new places for people to live: ‘Current rates of housebuilding in England are below half the level needed to meet existing and anticipated demand for new homes’. A further factor in this mix of government policies is the fact that migrants from the Eastern EU countries must first work for 12 months before they qualify for any state benefit. Should someone from one of those countries become unemployed, they are therefore at greater risk of becoming street homeless. This is reflected in the fact that 36% of rough sleepers came from one of those countries; a 188% increase since 2009/10.

While political policies are not the only factor causing homelessness in the UK, the combined effect of welfare reforms, austerity cuts, immigration controls and a lack of affordable housing has come at a time when there has been a considerable increase in rough sleeping across the country and especially here in Westminster. Therefore I do see this combination of government policies as a yoke of oppression causing homelessness and making the journey back from darkness to light more difficult to achieve. As Isaiah states, the yoke of oppression must be broken before there is any widespread prospect for rough sleepers and sofa surfers to experience abundance or joy within our nation.

Yet our reading insists that the light of hope remains. Where can that light be found in relation to our current political and social situation? Our worship on Homeless Sunday is intended as an opportunity to take our engagement with homelessness a step higher. How can we do that? Our newest initiative funded by our Christmas Appeal is the St Martin’s Frontline Network, through which we are seeking to find ways of transforming the social and political structures which cause the increase in rough sleeping that we see all around us.

The Frontline Network is the network of support workers who request grants from the Vicar’s Relief Fund on behalf of their clients. These support workers are on the frontline working with vulnerable housed people across the UK and they are, as a result, able to identify the issues and policies which cause homelessness to occur. The Frontline Network seeks to harness the ideas, energy and experience of those at the frontline working alongside homeless and vulnerably housed people in order to make a positive change in reducing homelessness in the UK. I wonder, therefore, whether we, at St Martin’s, can work together with the Frontline Network to build relationships, develop ideas and communicate the experience of the frontline to policy makers so that our social and political structures can be transformed in ways which prevent homelessness happening in the first place.

Were that to happen, we would see in our own day and time the light of hope, the lifting of burdens and the smashing of oppression of which Isaiah spoke. We would enable the journey, from darkness to light, that those sleeping rough, like Richard, have to travel, to become less burdensome and difficult. The story Richard told for the Christmas Appeal ended with him saying, that “in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be out of The Connection … [but] everything I’ve learned here, everything to get into work, everything for the skills is down to this place.” If the yoke of oppression caused by current government policies were to be broken, more rough sleepers would be able to say the same and the flow of people joining them on the streets would reduce. May that become our experience as we support not only The Connection, the VRF and the Sunday International Group but now also the Frontline Network too.

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Sinead O'Connor - Streets Of London.

Saturday 21 January 2017

Update: Sophia Hub Redbridge

Ros Southern writes:
Events coming up
  • Starting a business intro workshop - Ilford library - Tues 24 Jan 1-4pm. Enterprise Desk info here
  • Entrepreneurs' club with Nicola of FPComms - expand your marketing horizons - Weds 25 Jan 6pm info here
  • Redbridge Chamber networking breakfast - speaker Olive Hamilton Andrews - Tues 31st 7.30 am info here
  • Starting a business intro workshop - Ilford library - Tues 28 Feb 1-4pm. Enterprise Desk info here
Other great news
  • The second in our series of 'Biz tips by community groups for community groups' Vine Church on cutting costs through building eco audits. And an invite to a special make-Redbridge-buildings-low-carbon event on Saturday 4 Feb. Info here
Some of our social media posts this week
And thanks so much to Mike Loomey for a really helpful entrepreneurs' club this week on mindfulness in your business

Have a great weekend,

Best wishes,

Ros Southern
Coordinator, Sophia Hubs

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Nick Cave - To Be By Your Side.

Windows on the world (328)


Colchester, 2016

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Robert Plant And The Sensational Space Shifters – Embrace Another Fall.

Tuesday 17 January 2017

The 3 Mothers


Our current exhibition The Divine Image continues until Friday 20 January, with an evening opening until 7.00pm on Thursday 19 January. Then the exhibition's themes of welcome and hospitality will continue as the 3 Mothers will visit St Stephen Walbrook from Monday 23 January – Friday 3 February. See the 3 Mothers here: Mon – Fri, 10.00am – 4.00pm (Weds 11.00am – 3.00pm).

In 2007 the Bishop of London commissioned Revd Regan O’Callaghan to paint a triptych on the theme of hospitality and the 3 Mothers was the result.

They were blessed by the Bishop and installed in the reception of Diocesan House, London where they resided for a few years. After this they have been on the move and have been installed in different places including the Jewish Museum London, St James’s Piccadilly, St Paul’s Cathedral Melbourne and Lambeth Palace.

They are 35 cm x 40 cm each, painted in egg tempera, gold leaf on gesso with a dark wooden frame. This triptych written by Revd Regan O’Callaghan depicts three smiling women from the congregation of St John on Bethnal Green Church, seated around a table. The women reflect the diverse nature of the congregation at St John’s as well as the local East End community. Each woman is a wife, mother, and grandmother, a person of faith and a committed hard working member of their church, something the artist wanted to celebrate. The three women also symbolise in part the important role of women – particularly older women – in the Church of England. The opened hand of Mother Pearl is held out to greet the viewer to the table, a place of fellowship and hospitality while Mother Becky and Mother Miriam look on. What offering do you the viewer bring to the table? The stars on the table cloth symbolise the many descendants of Abraham. The colours the three women wear represent the Christian liturgical seasons and the gold leaf a belief in the ‘sainthood of all believers and divine light.’

The triptych is understood as a contemporary religious icon which functions to instruct the faithful, theologically, spiritually and liturgically. An icon is believed a portal into the heavenly realm where the eternal light of God permeates all things and where no shadow is cast. The 3 Mothers thus represent the divine spark within all of us.


Regan O'Callaghan will be leading an icon painting course starting January 2017. It will be held in the recently renovated Emmanuel Church West Hampstead. The class begins the 28th January 2017 and is for adults with any artistic ability or none! Cost is £250 with all materials included.

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Pink Floyd - Mother.

Discover & explore: Sir Christopher Wren (Architecture)



Yesterday's Discover & explore service at St Stephen Walbrook, led by Revd Sally Muggeridge, explored architecture and the achievements of Sir Christopher Wren. The service featured the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields singing Blessed is the man by Stainer, Cantate domino by Monteverdi, Locus iste by Bruckner and Nolo mortem peccatoris by Morley.

Next week's Discover & explore service is on Monday 23 January at 1.10pm when I, together with the Choral Scholars, will explore the theme of preaching through the teachings of the Puritan cleric, Thomas Watson.

Sally introduced yesterday's service by saying:

'It is perhaps understandable that buildings, and indeed cities, play a prominent role in the Bible. Indeed they play an important part in human development. Long before the industrial revolution, the invention of the internal combustion and jet engine, the motor car, the airplane and space travel building was the principal focus of man’s creativity. And not just two thousand years ago at the time of Jesus Christ, but right back in the book of Genesis we read ‘come let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly’. Even today a badly baked brick has no durability and strength. And buildings by their nature need careful planning, and must adhere to certain principles to ensure the safety of their occupants, and they must resist the extremes and variations of weather. So architecture, the planning and specification of buildings, is perhaps as old as man’s wish to build. But we also know we cannot look to any building, however majestic, for permanence. Buildings are by nature, like us, transitory, here today and gone tomorrow. In the search for true permanence and stability, in wishing to build Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land, we must look to God.'

The Service included a bible reading from 1 Kings 6:

Now it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. The porch in front of the nave of the house was twenty cubits in length, corresponding to the width of the house, and its depth along the front of the house was ten cubits. Now these are the foundations which Solomon laid for building the house of God. The length in cubits, according to the old standard was sixty cubits, and the width twenty cubits. The width of the entrance was ten cubits and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on each side. And he measured the length of the nave, forty cubits, and the width, twenty cubits. And the house which King Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was three score cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.

and the following extract from the acceptance speech of Thom Mayne as winner of the PritzkerPrize for Architecture:

'Architecture is a way of seeing, thinking and questioning our world and our place in it. It requires a natural inquisitiveness, an openess in our observations, and a will to act in affirmation. Like life, it is evolutionary, adapting, transforming, growing out of, but not enslaved by an over-investment in history.

The City is the most profound creation of humanity, continuously changing, evolving, mysterious and therefore in important ways unknowable - in its lack of fixity; in the unthinkable number of its random interactions, exchanges, encounters… in the sheer magnitude of the variety of intelligences. Here rests the potential of a true creativity where serendipity and spontaneous combustion take place. Our cities are the location of continuous regeneration, places of infinite possibilities, demanding from us an attitude of expansiveness. Yet we seem to find ourselves in this twenty-first century, infused by fear, immobilised by the complexity of the realities that come with living in the present… the now ... insisting instead on seeing our diverse society through a simplistic lens ... resistive to reality, demanding uniformity in the face of diversity.

And the refuge, as it has always been within these cycles, is in nostalgia—a desire for an illusion of order, consistency and safety, qualities we last enjoyed in childhood. But this is temporary. I’ve felt the intoxication that happens when an entire generation decides to stop looking backward for its direction. One needs to look to artists to remind us that we are all moving forward, empowered and able. I’m chasing an architecture that engages and demands inquiry. Architecture is not passive, not decorative. It is essential, it affects us directly and profoundly—it has the potential to impact behaviour and the quality of our everyday life.'

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Locus iste - Anton Bruckner.

Sunday 15 January 2017

The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement

My latest article for Artlyst is entitled 'The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement' and highlights the influence of Christian Science on the work of Paul Nash and Barbara Hepworth:

'Christian Science does not explain the work of Nash and Hepworth just as surely as their work does not illustrate Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Yet Christian Science and religion more broadly is a factor in their work and one, which if overlooked or disregarded, diminishes our understanding of and appreciation for their actual achievements. This is not the case simply for the religious beliefs of British Modernists, however, but also holds true whether it is, for example, the art of Rothko, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Thek, Serrano, Hirst, Ofili, Wallinger or de Waal that we are exploring.

Religion is a factor in the work of each of these artists; one which needs to be explored more than has often been the case in the past and which should be given substantive weight in understanding their work whilst also recognising that its significance does not exhaust the ways in which their work can be understood and appreciated.'

My other Artlyst articles are:
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Switchfoot - When We Come Alive.

Saturday 14 January 2017

Spring Newsletter: St Stephen Walbrook


The latest newsletter from St Stephen Walbrook can be viewed by clicking here. This newsletter includes the following:
  • The Three Mothers
  • Discover & explore / Start:Stop
  • The Divine Image
  • A Grateful Heart
  • +plus
  • Advent, Carols & Christmas 2016 events
  • Lent & Easter
  • London Internet Church / Using St Stephen Walbrook / Music at St Stephen Walbrook
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John Dunstable - Veni Creator Spiritus.

Christmas/Epiphany family-friendly session

Today we held our second family-friendly session at St Stephen Walbrook for families with young children.

Our theme was Christmas and Epiphany. We began with a star-themed Treasure Hunt exploring 'The Divine Image' exhibition and ending at our Crib. Then we enjoyed star-led craft activities including DIY constellation viewers and planispheres. Some lunch followed and we ended by telling the nativity and epiphany stories using our crib figures, singing 'Away in a manger' and praying the following prayer:

Loving Jesus, we come to you today because you came to us. God become human as a baby boy to share your love with us and know what our lives are like. We thank you for loving us enough to be one of us and we want to be one with you as a result. Amen.

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Anaïs Mitchell - Song of the Magi.

Windows on the world (327)


Colchester, 2016

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George Harrison - Beware Of Darkness.

Friday 13 January 2017

Subversion in the Cathedral?

My latest exhibition review for Church Times explores some of the reasons for the engagement with religious themes found in the work of Roger Hiorns, as well as paying particular attention to Untitled (a retrospective view of the pathway), 2016, his site-specific work with Birmingham Cathedral in June 2016, when the choir lay on the cathedral floor to sing evensong:

'Hiorns recognises that faith continues to have power and authority in many lives, and he seeks to explore and deconstruct aspects of this in his work. He does something similar in relation to the power of propulsion, symbolised by the jet engine. He has undertaken through his work a sustained assault on jet engines, adding to them brain matter and anti-depressants, having them prayed for by prayer groups, atomising them, mixing the engine with altar dust, and burying the aircraft that carried the engines. His aircraft pieces often become mementi mori for humanity: reminders of the ultimate end of us and our achievements, as in his final project for the Ikon Gallery, the burial of a Boeing 737 in Ladywood, Birmingham. Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.'

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Ikon Gallery - Roger Hiorns Interview.

Thursday 12 January 2017

Bless the creators, O God of creation



Yesterday I was privileged to be able to lead a Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Giles Waterfield at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Giles Waterfield was: an ever energetic and inspiring character with a towering knowledge that seemed to surpass any disciplinary bounds; a beloved teacher, who took a very personal interest in his students and their lives; a real pioneer in his museum studies; a kind, caring and hilarious friend; a great man of culture bridging the worlds of art history and architectural history; a talented writer and exhibition curator; a person of wit, charm, warmth and kindness.

St Martin's was filled to overflowing with Giles' family, friends, colleagues and students. As one tweet put it, it seemed as though 'every art historian alive was at St-Martin-in-the-fields to pay homage to the extraordinary, inspiring, kind Giles Waterfield.'

As well as a celebration of Giles' exceptional life, the service was, through the prayers, also a celebration of creativity and the contribution of artists more generally. The majority of the prayers used in the service were adapted from the following collection - http://artspastor.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/prayers-of-artists-prayers-for-artists.html. They included:

Almighty God, you love everything you have made, so we thank you because you made us in your own image and gave us gifts in mind, body and spirit. We thank you now for Giles and what he meant to each of us. As we honour his memory in this service, make us more aware that you are the one from whom comes every perfect gift, including the gift of creativity. As we honour his memory, his creativity and his support of the creativity of others, we remember and give thanks for those who pour their souls into music loud and soft, those who put pigment to surface, carve wood and stone and marble, who work base metals into beauty, those building upwards from the earth toward heaven, those who put thought to paper by computer and by pen; the poets who delve, the playwrights who analyze and proclaim, the dreamers-up of narrative, all those who work with the light and shadows of film, actors moved by Spirit and dancers moving through space. Lord, remember your artists. Have mercy upon them and remember with compassion all those that reflect the good, the ill, the strengths and the weaknesses of the human spirit. Amen.

Teach us, Lord, to use wisely the time which You have given us and to work well without wasting a second. Teach us to profit from our past mistakes without falling into a gnawing doubt. Teach us to anticipate our projects without worry and to imagine the work without despair if it should turn out differently. Teach us to unite haste and slowness, serenity and ardour, zeal and peace. Help us at the beginning of the work when we are weakest. Help us in the middle of the work when our attention must be sustained. In all the work of our hands, bestow Your Grace so that it can speak to others and our mistakes can speak to us alone. Keep us in the hope of perfection, without which we would lose heart, yet keep us from achieving perfection, for surely we would be lost in arrogance. Let me never forget that all knowledge is in vain unless there is work. And all work is empty unless there is love. And all love is hollow unless it binds us both to others and to You. Amen.

Bless the creators, O God of creation, who by their gifts make the world a more joyful and beautiful realm. Through their labours they teach us to see more clearly the truth around us. In their inspiration they call forth wonder and awe in our own living. In their hope and vision they remind us that life is holy. Bless all who create in your image, O God of creation. Pour your Spirit upon them that their hearts may sing and their works be fulfilling. Amen.

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Gabriel Faure - In Paradisum.

Ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out

Here is my sermon from yesterday's lunchtime Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Mark’s Gospel begins a little like an action movie. Before we have completed the first chapter John the Baptist has preached, Jesus has been baptised, tempted in the desert, called the disciples, and healed a man in the synagogue. The pace of action is breathtaking. Read it at home and see for yourself! We are still in the first chapter with today’s Gospel reading (Mark 1. 29 - 39) and, although that is the case, have here ten verses that show us the pattern of Jesus’ whole ministry. Mark tells us stories that sum up what the whole of Jesus’ mission and ministry were about, so that we can follow in Jesus’ footsteps by doing the same.

The first pattern that we see in this story is the balance been ministry and spirituality. Mark describes an intense period of ministry. Jesus returns from the synagogue where he has just healed a man to find that Simon’s mother-in-law is unwell. He heals her and then spends the evening healing many “who were sick with all kinds of diseases and drove out many demons.” We know how busy and exhausted we can feel through the ministry we do in our workplaces, homes, community, and here at St Martin’s. We can imagine how Jesus would have felt following this ministry.

In the morning, everyone is again looking for Jesus but he is nowhere to be found. Long before daylight he had got up, left the town and gone to a lonely place where he could pray. In order to pray effectively and well to needed to get away from the demands of ministry and away from his disciples. He needed to be alone with God in order to recharge his batteries for further ministry to come and this is his pattern throughout his ministry; active mission together with others combined with withdrawal for individual prayer and recuperation. It needs to be our pattern too.

The busyness of ministry here at St Martin’s and in our weekday lives cannot be sustained if it is not fed by regular times of withdrawal for prayer and recuperation. The two are clearly separated in Jesus’ life and ministry and he is prepared to disappoint people, as in this story, in order to ensure that he has the times of prayer and recuperation that he needs in our to sustain his active ministry. This is why prayer and spirituality is prioritised here at St Martin’s, as can be seen with our current adverts for the Silent Retreat and Lent Course; but also in many other ways.

The second pattern that we find in this story is that of ministry and moving on. Jesus has this time of active ministry with the people at Capernaum and then he moves on to preach in the other villages across the whole of Galilee. The people don’t want him to go. The disciples tell Jesus that everyone is looking for him. They want more of what he has already given them. But he refuses them and moves on to preach to others. There are two aspects to the pattern of Jesus’ ministry here. First, is his concern for all to hear. That is why he has come, he says, that he should bring God’s message to all. We need that same motivation. The message of salvation cannot stay wrapped up inside this building or our congregation but must go out from here. That is the motivation behind the HeartEdge network of churches we are currently building and other partnership and mission activities with which we are involved.

This also needs to happen for our own growth and development. We grow as Christians not by staying where we are and being ministered to but by getting up and following in Jesus’ footsteps ourselves; by becoming active ministers of the Gospel ourselves. That is why Jesus constantly challenges his hearers to take up their cross and follow him. It is not that he wants to condemn all of us to suffering and a hard life instead he wants us to become people who learn how to give more than we receive.

William Temple famously said, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” What he meant is that the Church is not about us members getting our needs and wants satisfied; it is instead about equipping and motivating us, the members, to bless others in the love of Christ. That is what Jesus sought to achieve by moving from town to town, village to village and challenging his disciples to go with him.

We need to mirror these patterns of ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out in our lives and our Church. St Martin’s is a society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members. As we follow Christ, we cannot simply be about getting our needs and wants satisfied but need to be about being equipped by God through times of prayer and recuperation to be signs of Christ outside of this building, outside of our congregation, out where it makes a difference, out in our community and workplaces.

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John Dunstable - Quam Pulchra Es.

Tuesday 10 January 2017

Top 10 2016

A bit later than usual and in no particular order, these are the albums I've most enjoyed listening to in 2016:

'You Want It Darker could be addressed to fans pining for a return to [Leonard] Cohen’s bleakest songwriting; or a lover, or a higher power. As befits a lifelong spiritual seeker, born into a storied Jewish family, but well versed in scripture and Buddhism, the love songs have religious overtones, and the spiritual passages pack a lover’s passion.'

'Featuring production by M. Ward and boasting songwriting credits from Nick Cave, Neko Case, Justin Vernon, and others, Mavis Staples' Livin' on a High Note is a happy record. Its beneficent energy is refreshing after the cloistered prayer of last year’s Your Good Fortune and two thoughtful Jeff Tweedy-produced records.'

Coulson, Dean, McGuiness, Flint - Lo and Behold: 'Cynical ("Open the Door Homer") and idealistic ("The Death of Emmett Till"), self-pitying ("Sign on the Cross") and self-reliant ("Let Me Die in My Footsteps"), but always tough and intelligent. And let us not forget funny.'

Violent Femmes - We Can Do Anything: 'This is an instantly familiar mix of anti-folk, post-punk, phantasmagorical country and alternative rock, delivered via an equally recognisable blend of raw acoustic guitars, thrumming acoustic bass and rattling snare, garnished with Gano’s petulant whine ... It’s classic Gano – simultaneously funny, transgressive and deeply unsettling.'

Gregory Porter - 'Take Me to the Alley sounds fantastic, but that’s down to the warm spontaneity of an album that seems to have been recorded in six days. His own compositions proudly display his gospel roots – not the first genre you’d think of flaunting were you desperate for mainstream success. The title track offers up a parable about the second coming of Christ, its sternness at odds with the pacific piano playing and Alicia Olatuja’s pillowy backing vocals; In Heaven undercuts the small hours loveliness of its muted trumpet with a lyric by Porter’s cousin about death and redemption.'

Van Morrison: 'In his 70th year, the singer has created an album that’s not only one of his most gorgeous, but also one of his most humble. Keep Me Singing glows with soft, quiet ballads, kissed by strings and lilting with keyboards. Hard blues, soul and R&B take a back seat to pop tunes with an elegant turn. Some of the lyrics may deal with the pain of pining but they’re delivered with unfiltered vulnerability.'

Low - Ones & Sixes: 'The spectre of apocalypse has often lingered on the fringes of Low’s music. Their 11th record sounds as if the cataclysm has finally been, leaving a reeling dystopia in its wake. “Gentle” opens with frayed industrial drums and profoundly deep synthetic bass, the effect conjuring an army trudging across a snowy wilderness. You’d imagine Trent Reznor or Tim Hecker to have produced. Similarly, “The Innocents” shudders gravely as Parker intones, “All you innocents better run for it.” Throughout, she and Sparhawk seem to turn their regrets and sacrifices into warnings for those who can still run.'

Michael McDermott - Willow Springs: 'It opens with the autobiographical and confessional six minute plus title track, McDermott in full alliteration-heavy early Dylan mode, before moving on to the uptempo strum, gospel handclaps and tumbling chords of These Last Few Days, an acknowledgement of his self-destructive past that manages to namecheck Judas, Godot and Sisyphus as he sings about having “a tourniquet around my heart to keep it from falling apart.”'

Deacon Blue - Believers: '[Ricky] Ross says, “This album is about the journey we all take into the dark. You come to that point in your life where – whatever you’ve been told, whatever the evidence you’ve been presented with – you just don’t know what the answer is. At which point you can only rely on instincts of your heart. You either take the leap or you don’t.”'

George Harrison - 'The heart of All Things Must Pass resides in its songs of spiritual acceptance. The title was thought to refer, among other things, to Harrison's former band, the likely subject also of the elegiac "Isn't It a Pity." The haunting "Beware of Darkness" suggests the inner fears -- "The hopelessness around you in the dead of night" -- that Harrison's religious searching was meant to calm. And "Awaiting on You All," the title track and "My Sweet Lord" (for which Harrison was successfully sued for "subconsciously" plagiarizing the Chiffons' "He's So Fine") capture the sweet satisfactions of faith.'

And here are the books I've most enjoyed reading:

The Blind Man with the Lamp, originally published in Greek in 1983, is the first English translation of a complete collection of poetry by [Tasos] Leivaditis. A pioneering book of prose-poems, Leivaditis here gives powerful voice to a post-war generation divested of ideologies and illusions, imbued with the pain of loss and mourning, while endlessly questing for something wholly other, indeed for the holy Other.

Born in the heart of Cornwall’s China Clay Country poet, Jack Clemo (1916-94) was one of the most extraordinary poets of the twentieth century. Luke Thompson has published the first full length biography of Jack Clemo, entitled Clay Phoenix. Luke’s biography reveals Clemo’s life and writing in a new light, showing how Clemo used the china clay mining country as a metaphor for his faith and his disease.

The Third Inkling by Grevel Lindop offers a fascinating and completely new view of the shadowy figure of poet, theologian, magician and, fantasy-writer Charles Williams. Charles Williams—novelist, poet, theologian, magician and guru—was the strangest, most multi-talented, and most controversial member of the Inklings.

A vibrant critical exchange between contemporary art and Christianity is being increasingly prompted by an expanding programme of art installations and commissions for ecclesiastical spaces. Rather than 'religious art' reflecting Christian ideology, current practices frequently initiate projects that question the values and traditions of the host space, or present objects and events that challenge its visual conventions. In the light of these developments, Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace Ecclesiastical Encounters with Contemporary Art by Jonathan Koestlé-Cate asks what conditions are favourable to enhancing and expanding the possibilities of church-based art, and how can these conditions be addressed?

Merton and Friends: A Joint Biography of Thomas Merton, Robert Lax and Edward Rice by James Harford. Thomas Merton, Robert Lax, and Edward Rice were college buddies who became life-long friends, literary innovators, and spiritual iconoclasts. Their friendship and collaboration began at Columbia College in the 1930s and reached its climax in the widely acclaimed magazine, which ran from 1953 to 1967, a year before Merton's death.

Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax tells the story of Merton's best friend and early spiritual inspiration. Written by a close friend of Lax, Pure Act gives an intimate view of a friendship and a life that affected Merton in profound ways. It was Lax, a daringly original poet himself, who encouraged Merton to begin writing poetry and Lax who told him he should desire to be a saint rather than just a Catholic. To the end of Merton's life, Lax was his spiritual touchstone and closest friend.

The Courage for Truth: The Letters of Thomas Merton - Famed Trappist monk Thomas Merton corresponded with an extraordinary range of writers, among them Evelyn Waugh, Henry Miller, Jacques Maritain, Walker Percy and William Carlos Williams. He spoke out boldly against political oppression, social injustice, racism and nuclear weapons, and expressed solidarity with Boris Pasternak, Czeslaw Milosz and James Baldwin. His letters to Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal and to Argentine feminist Victoria Ocampo reflect his deep love of Latin American culture. Spanning the years from 1948 to Merton's death in 1968, this fourth volume of his correspondence shows the crystallization of his belief that speaking the truth is an obligation which ultimately brings persons of integrity into confrontation with power structures and vested interests.

In Modern Art and the Life of Culture Anderson and Dyrness bring their different backgrounds together to argue that modernist art is underwritten by deeply religious concerns. They assert that there were actually strong religious impulses that positively shaped modern visual art. Instead of affirming a pattern of decline and growing antipathy towards faith, the authors contend that theological engagement and inquiry can be perceived across a wide range of modern art and through particular works by artists such as Gauguin, Picasso, David Jones, Caspar David Friedrich, van Gogh, Kandinsky, Warhol and many others.

An engaging, moving, and surprisingly light-hearted account of a life that had its share of sorrow, Lucky to Be an Artist by Unity Spencer is an account of an unconventional family and the birth of an artist, as well as the tale of a woman who refused to be held back by early trauma and insisted on forging her own artistic path.

I'll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the Music That Shaped the Civil Rights Era by Greg Kot is the untold story of living legend Mavis Staples—lead singer of the Staple Singers and a major figure in the music that shaped the civil rights era. One of the most enduring artists of popular music, Mavis and her talented family fused gospel, soul, folk, and rock to transcend racism and oppression through song. Honing her prodigious talent on the Southern gospel circuit of the 1950s, Mavis and the Staple Singers went on to sell more than 30 million records, with message-oriented soul music that became a soundtrack to the civil rights movement—inspiring Martin Luther King, Jr. himself.

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Violent Femmes - Holy Ghost.