Wikio - Top Blogs - Religion and belief

Friday 30 November 2018

The micro and the macro

The micro and the macro can be contrasted through exhibitions of photography at the Large Glass and Flowers Galleries.

Guido Guidi: Per Strada is a selection of 27 prints by the Italian photographer, to coincide with the publication 'Per Strada’. These photographs were made by Guidi from 1980 to 1994, along the Via Emilia – an ancient Italian road connecting Milan with the Adriatic Sea, which passes close to his home in Cesena.

Guidi's métier is close observation of ordinary things - the peripheral, the overlooked and ordinary - and this is what constitutes beauty and life both on and around the via Emilia, as he explained in a recent interview:

"It is a way of bowing down before things. And that is the religious aspect, a respect for things, for the blade of grass and wanting to give back by means of a precise photograph, where the execution of the detail is perfect, absolute, with no grain. The photograph must be absolute, transparent and cannot be corrected and reviewed later. As Didi-Huberman says, for the ancient painters of the 1400s, the act of imitagere or copying nature was in itself an act of devotion. Not necessarily mastery or technical virtuosity but an act of devotion towards things, the “things which are nothing” as Pasolini says.”

For Guidi, as Charlotte Higgins has remarked, ‘his work is not about the decisive moment but the “provisional moment” – the idea that this moment is one of a procession of many.[i]’ Very often, his images ‘show some kind of aperture – a doorway, a window, the arches of a portico, even the edge of the lens itself.’ A photograph is a frame, he says, ‘and if you put a frame in the picture, you are suggesting that this is not the whole world, that there is something outside.’ As with his close observation of the peripheral and provisional, this device too has a religious aspect, as these photos
direct our attention to what is beyond.

By contrast, the images in Civilization are primarily of cityscapes and crowd scenes taken from height and capturing pattern and movement on the macro level. Visually epic, this exhibition includes: Edward Burtynsky’s images conveying both the sublime aesthetic qualities of the industrialised landscape and the unsettling reality of depleting resources on the planet, through a series of geometric compositions photographed from the air; Nadav Kander exploring the vestiges of the Cold War through the radioactive ruins of secret cities on the border between Kazakhstan and Russia; Robert Polidori creating meticulously detailed, large-scale colour photographs that capture the vestiges that evoke the essence of each setting and its particular meaning, as framed by economic, historical, geographic, political and social forces; Simon Roberts’ conflating the traditional genre of landscape with social documentary by positioning the camera at a deliberate distance and elevation from the most obvious scenic viewpoint, focusing instead on the sidelines or peripheral spaces; and Michael Wolf focusing on life in mega cities documenting the architecture and the vernacular culture of metropolises.

Our fast-changing world is seen from above revealing the complexity of our collective human enterprises which are perpetually evolving, morphing, building and demolishing, rethinking, reframing and reshaping of the world and the people within it. Never before in human history have so many people been so interconnected, and so dependent on one another.

As with the Guidi exhibition, Civilisation is presented to celebrate the launch of a new publication - Civilization, The Way We Live Now by William A. Ewing and Holly Roussell, published by Thames & Hudson.

These contrasting exhibitions show the differing values of close-up, which reveals ‘heaven in ordinarie’ and hints at the beyond, and also of the wide angle city or landscape, revealing the patterns forming the material and spiritual cultures that make up ‘civilization’.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Small Faces - Afterglow Of Your Love.

Thursday 29 November 2018

HeartEdge Mailer | November 2018

HeartEdge Mailer | November 2018

This month:

HeartEdge events in Hamilton, London and Edinburgh in 2019, plus:

Ann Morisy on mission, Jane Williams on Advent, Vanessa Herrick on vulnerability, Rosie Ward on meetings, Mike Pears on transgressing and Barbara Glasson on balance.

Plus making the café financially viable, a 'Street Wisdom' business, making community spaces work, 'start-up' grants and... Gin!

Also spotting & responding to domestic violence, the 'Edge Fund', How to Collaborate, Musicians Church & painting the divine.

Plus Sam Wells on being with other faiths and Sami Award on space for healing in Palestine.

The church is getting smaller. The church is getting narrower. HeartEdge asks, ‘How do you feel about that? What are you doing about it?’ – and provides ways to turn convictions into actions.

Churches that join HeartEdge collaborate and support each other. We work to become vibrant, welcoming and dynamic signs of hope and contributors to civil society. Together we share expertise on key areas of renewal:
  • Culture – hosting and participating in music, art, and performance 
  • Commerce – generating funds through business ventures, balancing profit with social impact
  • Congregation – staying broad and going deep
  • Compassion – meeting Christ in the stranger and being renewed by those on whom the world has turned its back
HeartEdge is a growing interdenominational movement of churches, offering models for renewal of the church. Join HeartEdge here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sarah Jarosz - Ring Them Bells.

Tuesday 27 November 2018

Artlyst interview: Peter Howson

A central member of the group of young artists to emerge from the Glasgow School of Art during the 1980s dubbed the New Glasgow Boys, Peter Howson has become one of his generation’s leading figurative painters. In his current exhibition with Flowers Gallery, Howson uses his apocalyptic vision of violence and inhumanity to explore his fears of contemporary radical right-wing politics.

Howson is unusual among mainstream artists in his unashamed use of traditional religious iconography and application of a Trinitarian framework to his artistic practice.

I have interviewed him for Artlyst and have also reviewed Acta Est Fabula, his current exhibition. The interview can be found here and the review here.

Howson says: 'I want my paintings to reveal to the onlooker the folly of believing in some kind of scientific utopia that we are all heading towards. We embraced death in the past, but cannot do it now. We knew the darkness in our hearts in times past, and we feared judgement.'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good Charlotte - We Believe.

Saturday 24 November 2018

Windows on the world (422)


Pollença, 2018

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Archie Shepp - Art Songs & Spirituals.

The end of the Church Year

Here is the Thought for the Week I've put together for the newsletter at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Advent, the beginning of which we celebrate next Sunday, marks the beginning of a journey that we undertake each year as we travel through the Church Year. That also means that this Sunday we have come to the end of that journey, as we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.

At the beginning of the Church Year we celebrate Christ’s coming into our world and all the ways in which he comes to us again. At the end of the Church Year, we celebrate Christ as past, present, and future King over all the earth, at the same time that we express our faith in a coming Kingdom where the world will once again fully reflect its creator.

On our journey through the Church Year, we follow in the steps of Jesus as he is born, ministers in Galilee, is crucified, and rises again. On that journey we also celebrate the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost and reflect both on the mission of the Church and what it means to be a disciple. By making this journey we remind ourselves who we are and whose we are.

We are reminded that God is with us, in Christ, throughout the year and through all the seasons of life. We are here because of Christ. We journey through the Church calendar because of him. We gather, ‘neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, slave or free’, because we are one in Christ. It is Christ who presides over his kingdom, his Church, our journey and the table where we share his supper – the Eucharist. Here, throughout the Church Year, we can all come freely week by week to experience and participate in the means of grace that visibly exhibit to us the heart and mind of Christ the King.

(Adapted from http://www.crivoice.org/christtheking.html)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir - Christ The King.

Thursday 22 November 2018

In the heavenly throne room

Here is my reflection from yesterday's Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields (based on material found here):

The Book of Revelation was written as the Early Church was beginning to experience persecution. Dr. Dennis E. Johnson notes that the ‘historical setting of the book of Revelation is that it is addressed to seven churches in the Roman province of Asia, which is on the west coast of what is now Turkey … It's a period where there is some violent persecution of the church by Roman governmental officials in some places in the empire — not consistent yet. There are also other types of violence, lawless violence, against Christians as well … a variety of churches facing a variety of challenges to their faith — some obvious, overt violence, some far more subtle.’ In Revelation the challenges faced by the Early Church are examined through apocalyptic imagery of a struggle between forces of good and evil, with the assurance given that Christ has won the victory and, therefore, his followers should persevere in the face of persecution.

Chapter 4 is where the story really starts. This is where John is given the ‘revelation’ that gives the book its title. Everything from this point on is part of the vision which is granted to him as he stands there in the heavenly throne room.’ Tom Wright suggests that ‘What we are witnessing in [chapter 4] … is not the final stage in God’s purposes. This is not a vision of the ultimate ‘heaven’, seen as the final resting place of God’s people. It is, rather, the admission of John into ‘heaven’ as it is at the moment. The scene in the heavenly throne room is the present reality; the vision John is given while he is there is a multiple vision of ‘what must take place after these things’ – not ‘the end of the world’ as such, but those terrible events which were going to engulf the world and cause all the suffering for God’s people about which the seven churches have just been so thoroughly warned.’

‘John is summoned into the throne room because, like some of the ancient Israelite prophets, he is privileged to stand in God’s council chamber and hear what is going on in order then to report it to his people back on earth ... The rainbow (verse 3) … takes us back to the story of Noah in Genesis 9, where the great bow in the sky was God’s visible promise of mercy, never again to destroy the earth with a flood.’ The 24 Elders may symbolise the 12 Tribes of Israel combined with the 12 Apostles; Christianity and Judaism linked together in God’s ultimate plan and purposes. The four living creatures have come to be associated with the Gospels and the Gospel writers, but are symbolic of the all-seeing nature of God. Finally, God is worshipped for his holiness, eternal nature, and creativity. In the following chapters we are introduced to Jesus as lion and lamb and then see that conflict ensues with the powers of evil until finally we reach the New Jerusalem in which heaven and earth are joined fully and forever.

The big theme of Revelation, as has been said, is that Jesus is Lord, and he has won, is winning, and will win. With that in mind, Wright says, ‘I have spoken of this scene so far in terms of God’s throne in heaven, and John’s appearing before it like an Old Testament prophet. But the idea of a throne room, with someone sitting on the throne surrounded by senior counsellors, would instantly remind John’s readers of a very different court: that of Caesar. We have already heard hints of the power struggle (the kingdom of God against the kingdoms of the world) in the opening three chapters. Now, by strong implication, we are being invited to see that the powers of the world are simply parodies, cheap imitation copies, of the one Power who really and truly rules in heaven and on earth.’

‘As John’s great vision unfolds, we … see how it is that these human kingdoms have acquired their wicked, cruel power, and how it is that God’s radically different sort of power will win the victory over them. This is the victory in which the seven letters were urging the churches to claim their share. We now discover how that victory comes about. It begins with the unveiling of reality. Behind the complex and messy confusions of church life in ancient Turkey; behind the challenges of the fake synagogues and the threatening rulers; behind the ambiguous struggles and difficulties of ordinary Christians – there stands the heavenly throne room in which the world’s creator and lord remains sovereign. Only by stopping on our tracks and contemplating this vision can we begin to glimpse the reality which not only makes sense of our own realities but enables us, too, to win the victory’.

That is the purpose of this book and John’s vision. In a world of turmoil and in times of persecution, we are called to stand firm and to hold on to the faith because Christ has won the victory. He calls us to live in the light of that victory and know it in our own lives even, or especially, in times of trouble.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leonard Cohen - The Future.

Saturday 17 November 2018

Guido Guidi, Per Strada & Windows on the world


My Windows on the world photographic series uses framing devices to create a view through to something beyond. I take these photos as a way of suggesting the existence of the divine glimpsed between the lines or on the periphery of our vision.

The Italian photographer Guido Guidi has a similar vision and practice. His métier is close observation of ordinary things - the peripheral, the overlooked and ordinary: He explains:

"It is a way of bowing down before things. And that is the religious aspect, a respect for things, for the blade of grass and wanting to give back by means of a precise photograph, where the execution of the detail is perfect, absolute, with no grain. The photograph must be absolute, transparent and cannot be corrected and reviewed later. As Didi-Huberman says, for the ancient painters of the 1400s, the act of imitagere or copying nature was in itself an act of devotion. Not necessarily mastery or technical virtuosity but an act of devotion towards things, the “things which are nothing” as Pasolini says.” 

For Guidi, as Charlotte Higgins has remarked, ‘his work is not about the decisive moment but the “provisional moment” – the idea that this moment is one of a procession of many.’ 

Very often, his images ‘show some kind of aperture – a doorway, a window, the arches of a portico, even the edge of the lens itself.’ A photograph is a frame, he says, ‘and if you put a frame in the picture, you are suggesting that this is not the whole world, that there is something outside.’ 

As with his close observation of the peripheral and provisional, this device has a religious aspect as these photos direct our attention to what is beyond.

Guidi's work can be seen Guido Guidi: Per Strada at Large Glass until 21 December.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ringo Starr - Photograph.

Windows on the world (421)


Kelveden Hatch, 2018

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sixpence None the Richer - The Lines Of My Earth.

Saturday 10 November 2018

Windows on the world (420)


London, 2018

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joan Baez - Diamonds And Rust.

Artlyst: Peter Howson - Acta Est Fabula

My latest piece for Artlyst is a review of Peter Howson's Acta Est Fabula at Flowers Gallery

'With this exhibition, we are immersed in scenes of degradation, imposed and sought out, within which occasional moments of self-realisation and awareness occur. This is common ground for Howson, whether in Glasgow, Bosnia or elsewhere; homo homini lupus (man is wolf to man) is consistently demonstrated throughout the world and throughout history. Howson stands with all those artists, such as Bosch, Goya, Dix and Rouault, who have sought to raise our gaze from the mire by painting the extent to which we are sinking in the mire. There is a strong apocalyptic strand to the images he is currently creating; apocalyptic imagery fuelled by the experience of Brexit and the wave of populism of which Brexit is a symptom and for which it was a catalyst.'

My other Artlyst articles and interviews are:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes.

Strange Days: Memories of the Future

“Strange Days: Memories of the Future” brings together video and film installations by twenty-one of today’s most radical image makers, all of whom have exhibited at the New Museum in the last ten years. Enigmatic and oracular, the works on view blend visuals and sound into polyphonic, dreamlike compositions that consider the power and fragility of images as the raw material of memory, reverie, and visions the future.

The works in “Strange Days” emphasize a fractured sense of time: history collides with the present, and future speculations are vexed by a distant past.

The exhibition includes Camille Henrot's Grosse Fatigue about which I have written for Artlyst:

'Camille Henrot’s single-channel video Grosse Fatigue blends together origin narratives from many cultures and disciplines combined with images of work, exhibits and spaces at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, where, as part of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, she was granted permission to film aspects of the collections. To these, she adds ‘images found on the internet and scenes filmed in locations as diverse as a pet store and a domestic interior that appear like pop-ups at the screen’s surface.

Henrot creatively layers origin accounts and imagery as a visual equivalent of the knowledge and wisdom juxtaposed within an Institute like the Smithsonian.'  

My review of "Strange Days" has been published in Church Times:

'Grosse Fatigue provides the perfect entry-point to an exhibition of 21 installations, which provide a dizzying more than 11 hours of filmed or videoed images. Just as Grosse Fatigue suggests that the universe and our human perceptions overwhelm and exceed our understanding, so the breadth of this exhibition replicates that experience.'

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Cockburn - Creation Dream.

Thursday 8 November 2018

Inspired to Follow: Art & the Bible Story - Advent Courses

‘Inspired to Follow: Art & the Bible Story’ is a free resource prepared by St Martin-in-the-Fields to help people explore the Christian faith, using paintings and Biblical story as the starting points. It’s been designed as a 22-week course over three terms (although the materials can be used for shorter courses too), and uses fine art paintings in the National Gallery’s collection, along with a theological reflection and a Biblical text, as a spring board for exploring these two questions: How can I deepen my faith in God? What does it mean to follow Jesus today? For more information, see
https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/life-st-martins/discipleship/inspired-to-follow/inspired-follow-course-materials/

This Autumn, we have added to the existing materials two Advent Courses of four sessions each. The first addresses the Last Things, the traditional Advent themes of Death, Judgement, Heaven & Hell, while the second covers the following Advent Characters: Elizabeth & Mary; Joseph; Zechariah & Elizabeth; and Herod.

As always with ‘Inspired to Follow: Art & the Bible Story’, these courses use fine art paintings in the National Gallery’s collection. The Last Things course includes: ‘The Lamentation over the Dead Christ’ – Rembrandt; ‘Saint Michael’ - Carlo Crivelli; ‘Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven; central predella panel’ - probably by Fra Angelico; and ‘The Rich Man being led to Hell’ - David Teniers the Younger. The Advent Characters course includes: ‘The Visitation of the Virgin to Saint Elizabeth’ - Workshop of Goossen van der Weyden; ‘The Dream of Saint Joseph’ - Philippe de Champaigne; ‘The Naming of Saint John the Baptist’ - Barent Fabritius; and ‘The Massacre of the Innocents with Herod’ - Gerolamo Mocetto. The materials are available to be downloaded via the link above, as with the existing materials.

We hope you will find these additions to ‘Inspired to Follow: Art & the Bible Story’ a helpful addition to the site and a useful resource in your churches or parishes.



At St Martin-in-the-Fields we began using ‘Inspired to Follow Advent Course - the Four Last Things: death, judgement, heaven and hell'. This new programme of hour-long gatherings over four Sundays explores the Four Last Things using the following passages and paintings:
  • 4 November Death - Mark 15:33-45 / ‘The Lamentation over the Dead Christ’ Rembrandt
  • 18 November Judgement - Revelation 12:7-17 / ‘Saint Michael’ Carlo Crivelli
  • 2 December Heaven - Revelation 21:1-5, 9-11, 22-27, 22:1-5 / ‘Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven; central predella panel’ probably by Fra Angelico
  • 16 December Hell - Luke 16:19-30 / ‘The Rich Man being led to Hell’ David Teniers the Younger 
All these sessions are at 12.00-1.00pm on Sundays, Austen Williams Room, 4 & 18 November, 2 & 16 December.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday 5 November 2018

The meaning of decoration on Chinese ceramics


St Martin-in-the-Fields, together with the Chinese Speaking Congregations of St Martin's, is organising an occasional series of art talks focusing on aspects of Chinese Art. The third lecture in this series will be on 'The meaning of decoration on Chinese Ceramics' and will be given by Rosemary Scott on Thursday 17 January 2019, 6.30pm in St Martin’s Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields. This will be an illustrated talk (in English).

Rosemary Scott took an honours degree in Chinese Art & Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where she went on to do postgraduate research. On leaving university she joined the Burrell Collection in Glasgow as Assistant Keeper for Oriental art. She became Deputy Keeper of the whole collection a year later. Her next appointment was as Curator of the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, SOAS, combining the running of the museum with undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research. In 1995 she became the first Head of the new Museums Department at SOAS, responsible for both the David Foundation and the new Brunei Gallery.

In 1997 she joined Christie's and is currently Senior International Academic Consultant to the Asian Art departments, undertaking research, publication, lecturing and training. She has curated a wide range of exhibitions, and has researched and written numerous books and articles on the Chinese decorative arts. She has travelled widely in East Asia, America and Europe lecturing and undertaking research. She is a former President of the Oriental Ceramic Society, London.

The talk will be held in St Martin's Hall, within the Crypt of St Martin's, and will begin at 6.30pm for one hour. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception in the Bishop Ho Ming Wah Association and Community Centre.

All are very welcome – for further information contact Jonathan Evens – t: 020 7766 1127, e: jonathan.evens@smitf.org.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Qu Xiao-Song - Drums of Xi.

Saturday 3 November 2018

ArtWay meditation: NIcola Green

In my latest Visual Meditation for ArtWay I reflect on the faceless portraits of global religious leaders by Nicola Green which can currently be seen at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

'Green has noted that all the religious leaders she has met share the feeling that no one takes much notice of them. Maybe her faceless portraits reflect this sense that they are overlooked and ignored. Many religions, however, encourage adherents to nurture humility in response to the divine. C.S. Lewis wrote that the humble are not thinking about humility, rather they are not thinking about themselves at all. It could be that Green’s religious leaders exemplify this understanding and that her faceless depictions reflect this.'

My other ArtWay meditations include work by María Inés Aguirre, Giampaolo Babetto, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Alexander de CadenetChristopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Antoni Gaudi, Maciej Hoffman, Giacomo Manzù, Michael Pendry, Maurice Novarina, Regan O'Callaghan, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Albert Servaes, Henry Shelton and Anna Sikorska.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows on the world (419)


London, 2018

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - Tangled Up In Blue.

Thursday 1 November 2018

Manchester: At the heart. On the edge.

























At the heart. On the edge. - Manchester

The latest HeartEdge Introductory Day was held at St Peter's House in Manchester on 31 October. The day had been assembled by an ecumenical group locally - with a wide range of contributors. It was an encouraging, useful, really inspiring day!

The HeartEdge movement is about making connections and, with others, giving and sharing practical resources and experience across four areas - congregation, culture, commerce and compassion. Therefore, HeartEdge Days are about ideas, connections, theology and mission. Everyone taking part is a practitioner, so people learn by doing and are experts by experience. There is lots to take away to encourage, inspire and equip as well as opportunities to share insights, learning, experience and ideas, building further useful links with colleagues – as this is what HeartEdge is all about!

The Archdeacon of Manchester Karen Lund and Baptist Minister Graham Sparkes led discussion of: growing a congregation in Prestwich with Chris Wedge; becoming a venue and running gigs in Salford with Andy Salmon; sharing food and hospitality in Reddish with Angie Stanton; and business, commerce and youthwork in Macclesfield with Rob Wardle. We also heard about Levenshulme Inspire Community Enterprises and cabarets organised at St John the Evangelist Old Trafford. Sam Wells and the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields led a Great Sacred Music on HeartEdge and the 4C's. Sam also began the day by talking about ways to move beyond reliance on benefactors and stewardship in funding mission and ministry.

Feedback from those who came included:
  • interesting and challenging day, thinking about doing and being church in innovative and contextual ways; 
  • at HeartEdge discussing ecumenical model of partnership, sharing ideas, making connections, doing theology and developing mission. This is our future and what we are - connected in our faith; 
  • brilliant and inspiring day today at the @HeartEdge_ Manchester conference. Thank you to all involved! 
  • thanks to the team @HeartEdge_ and @salfordrev for showing us that thoughtful input, sensory engagement and risk-taking are possible without PowerPoint!
Our next HeartEdge Introductory Day is in Inverness on 13 November - register here!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Over The Rhine - All My Favourite People.