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Monday, 2 March 2026

Artlyst: Art Diary March 2026

For my March 2026 diary for Artlyst, I begin with several exhibitions and other events to visit this season. Lent is a season when churches often have a significant encounter with art. These include Southwark, Portsmouth and Winchester Cathedrals, St Mary’s Guildford, and Goldsmiths College. Exhibitions exploring the religious inspirations of artists, including Gwen John and Anna Ancher, can also be found at the National Museum Cardiff, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Compton Verney, and Grand Palais, Paris. Architectural inspirations can be found in exhibitions featuring John Piper, Antoni Gaudí, and Sir John Vanbrugh. I end with exhibitions exploring aspects of mental health, ordinary life, and our sources of wisdom at venues including Two Temple Place, Tache, and Centre for Contemporary Arts, Tashkent.

For more on Gwen John see here, here and here, on Sophie Hacker see here and here, on John Piper see here, on Antoni Gaudi see here and here, and on Neil Tye see here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Monthly diary articles -

Articles/Reviews -

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Robert Plant - Gospel Plough.

Sunday, 1 March 2026

God so loved that he gave

Here's the sermon on John 3. 1 – 21 that I shared at St Mary’s Runwell and St Catherine’s Wickford this morning:

God so loved - love is from God because God is love; pure love, the essence of all that love is and can be. Love that is patient, kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love that does not insist on its own way; is not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love that never ends.

God so loved the world - the heavens and the earth that God created in the beginning, the heavens which declare the glory of God and the sky that displays what his hands have made, humankind that God created in his own image. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. God so loved he world that he created in the beginning.

God so loved the world that he gave – true love involves giving; in fact, true love is giving. Our love is often less than this. We speak of those we love as being everything we need or as soul mates who complete us, but rarely talk in terms of giving all we have to others. Yet that is the nature of God’s love, he gives all he has to us.

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son – the Father gives us his Son and the Son gives his life, his whole life, even unto death. Yet, because Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, this is a way of saying that what God gives to us is himself, everything he has and is. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life – God gives himself to us in order that we can become part of him and enter the very life of God himself. Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it to the full. Eternal life is the life of love that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share within the Godhead and in to which we are called to come and share by the ever-giving love that God the Father shows to us through God the Son.

God’s love has been revealed among us in this way, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. We live in the light of this love which reveals all that we can potentially be and become as human beings. God so loved the world that he gave. How do we unwrap the gifts he has given?

God gave us the world in which we live, including the life that we enjoy now and the life that we will enjoy into eternity. One of the ways in which we unwrap those gifts is by means of appreciation. Taking a break to get outside and enjoy God’s creation or counting our blessings by beginning a list of all the things we’re grateful to God for including all areas of our lives - family, work, sport, food, sleep etc.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Jesus is God’s greatest gift to us. We unwrap the gift of Jesus as we admit to our need for salvation and change. We receive Jesus through the gift of his Spirit, who enables us to change by focusing our thoughts and lives on Jesus. At every moment of every day, we can ask ourselves ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ and allow the Spirit to answer that question by guiding our actions and words.

To support us in living as followers of Christ we have been given the gifts of the Bible (with its story of God’s dealings with the world he created and of Jesus’ sacrifice of himself for that same world), prayer (which brings us into conversation with God), the Church (the group of people locally who are seeking to go deeper into God and, together, to reveal God to their local community), and the gifts of the Spirit (talents and abilities given, not personal benefit, but for the benefit of others).

These are among God’s greatest gifts to us for which we should be truly grateful. We are used to the idea of saying grace (thank you) before enjoying the food we eat. In the same way, we could say grace before reading the Bible, conversing with God in prayer, coming to church, and using the gifts of the Spirit which have been given to us.

Lewis Hyde writes that ‘a gift that cannot be given away ceases to be a gift’ and ‘the spirit of a gift is kept alive by its constant donation.’ Leo Buscaglia said, 'Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.’ St Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12 that ‘the Spirit's presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.’ He follows his chapter on the gifts of the Spirit by sharing, in 1 Corinthians 13, the best way of all; that of love. God so loved the world that he gave; as God’s children and followers of Jesus, we too are to love the world by giving.

In Lent, as we reflect on all that Jesus has given for us and to us, it is also helpful to reflect on all that we can give back to God in thanks for his overwhelming generosity. Stewardship is about the ongoing contribution we make as Christian disciples; when it comes to the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take.

We live in the light of Jesus’ love which reveals all that we can potentially be and become as human beings. In Lent, particularly, we come into the light of Christ by comparing our lives to his. As we do so, inevitably we find that we fall short; that our capacity to do what pleases him (by living out goodness, righteousness and truth) is less than his capacity for these things. Jesus, through his life and death, showed us the depth of love of which human beings are really capable and, on the basis of that comparison, we are challenged to become generous in the way that God is generous towards us.

God is love. Love is gift.
God so loved that he gave;
gave life, bringing the world into being.
Life is gift. The world is gift.
God so loved that he gave;
gave his one and only Son.
Of his own free will the Son
gave up all he had
and walked the path of obedience
all the way to death -
his death on the cross -
that we might have the gift of life.
Life is gift and giving.
Life without giving
cannot be living.
God so loved that he gave.
Love is unmerited gift,
to be given freely, willingly,
without expectation.
We do not love to be loved;
we love to love.
Love is the gift.
God so loved that he gave.
Love grows by giving.
The love we give away
is the only love we keep.
God so loved that he gave.

As his love resulted in his giving himself to us and for us, so our response to him should be the same. God so loved the world that he gave – true love involves giving; in fact, true love is giving. As God’s love resulted in his giving himself to us and for us, so our response to him should be the same. May we use the opportunity of this Lent to reflect together on the love that God gives to us to also reflect on the contributions we make as Christian disciples, thinking about the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contributions we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take. Amen.

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Victoria Williams - Love.

Saturday, 28 February 2026

Windows on the world (560)

Compton, 2026

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Mumford and Sons - The Banjo Song.

Peter Rodulfo: Waiting for a Bite

'Peter Rodulfo: Waiting for a bite' opened today at Chappel Galleries. It was good to meet Peter Rodulfo there and to see his wonderful paintings.

Peter was born in Washington D.C, USA, in 1958. His early years were spent in Australia and India before coming to England in the mid sixties. He was educated in Suffolk, before going to study painting at Norwich School of Art 1975 – 1979. Since leaving art school he has exhibited all over the world in both solo, group and open shows. Rodulfo has a prolific output in many different mediums, such as oil paint, watercolour, etching, bronze sculpture and assemblages. His work can be found in both private and public collections.

The alluring mystery of everyday life is contemplated in his work and this exhibition for which I have written the catalogue essay:

‘Watching and waiting also characterises the work of the artist in creation. Rodulfo writes of casting a line out and waiting for a bite, not knowing which creature will take the bait, because he suspects that something surprising may be lurking under the surface of his image as it emerges and coheres. Through the patient watching and waiting that the artist undertakes for that emergent something in the work, his images entice, tease and challenge us, as viewers, to pay attention to what is revealed through the interplay between the patterns of form and colour within which our interactions in creation and in community occur. The patterns of shadows, reflections, and echoes seen in these works then evoke memories from different times and places in our own lives. Life is an alluring mystery which changes and passes too quickly for us to apprehend fully. Rodulfo’s images still a moment in time, enabling us to stop, wait, and see by paying attention to the emergent something his art has revealed. What will bite, what will surface, what will emerge, what will you notice, as you watch and wait and see?’

See here for information about my catalogue essay on Alan Caine and here for information about an essay on Damien Hirst, originally written to be a catalogue essay.

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Lucinda Williams - The World's Gone Wrong.

Wednesday, 25 February 2026

Art Trail: Bishop of Chelmsford's Lent and Holy Week Pilgrimage

This year, Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani is walking the Barking Area Art Trail for her Lent and Holy Week Pilgrimage. The Pilgrimage is taking place on six days across Lent and Holy Week, starting on 25 February and concluding on 31 March.

This year's Pilgrimage started on Thursday 25 February with a 5 mile walk, starting at St Paul's Stratford and ending at St Bartholomew's East Ham, via St Michael & All Angels' Manor Park and St Barnabas Little Ilford.

At St Paul's Stratford, the pilgrims are gathered in front of a striking wooden cross and matching altar front from the 1950s (both unattributed). From St Paul's, the pilgrims walked to St Michael and All Angels' Manor Park where they saw a sculpture of St Michael subduing the Devil, by Robert Crutchley, 1990. Onwards they went to St Barnabas Little Ilford to see the 1954 stained glass East Window, which has an image of Christ in Glory at its centre. The final stop of day 1 was St Bartholomew's East Ham. A stone cross (2007) on the exterior angled wall is by Nicholas Mynheer and represents St Bart's diverse congregation and community. They also saw John Bridgeman's sculpture 'The Family' (1983) which is situated on the south exterior wall of St Bartholomew's.

The Lent and Holy Week Pilgrimage resumes in Barking Deanery on 12 March.

The aim of the Barking Area Art Trail was to raise awareness of the rich and diverse range of modern and contemporary arts and crafts from the last 100 years which can be found within churches and, in particular, the 36 churches featured on the Trail. The significant works of art in these churches, taken collectively, represent a major contribution to the legacy of the church as an important commissioner of art.

These include past contributions by significant artists such as Eric Gill, Hans Feibusch, John Hutton and John Piper. In more recent years, churches continued to commission work by many important artists such as Mark Cazalet, Jane Quail and Henry Shelton together with other emerging artists who are now coming to prominence.

Work on the Art Trail was initiated by commission4mission, an arts organisation that encouraged churches to commission contemporary art, with the hope of increasing interest and stimulating engagement with the visual arts in the service of contemporary Christian faith.

A leaflet documenting the Art Trail, which was researched and developed by commission4mission member, artist and Fine Arts lecturer, Mark Lewis, publicised the Trail and provides information about the featured artists and churches. The leaflet included a map showing the churches featured on the Trail together with contact details, so that visits to one or more churches could be planned in advance.

Mark Lewis’ brief was to research commissioned art and craft in the Episcopal Area from the past 100 years. While stained glass is the dominant Ecclesiastical art form, he was also concerned to show a diversity and variety of media and styles within the selections made. He highlighted works such as the significant mosaic by John Piper at St Paul’s Harlow and the striking ‘Spencer-esque’ mural byFyffe Christie at St Margaret’s Standford Rivers. Churches with particularly fine collections of artworks included: St Albans, Romford; St Andrew’s Leytonstone; St Barnabas Walthamstow; St Margaret’s Barking; St Mary’s South Woodford;; and, the church chosen as the location for the launch event, St Paul’s Goodmayes.

The Trail was launched at St Pauls Goodmayes on Thursday 17th February by the Bishops of Chelmsford and Barking. At the launch event, The Rt. Revd. Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford, said: “I do not know what other art form could convey and hold the possibility of converging in so many layers. Not just do the visual arts comment on biblical narrative, but they illuminate it in a way that written or spoken forms cannot, being linear forms. Art opens windows on a set of concepts and ideas and brings them together. These windows offer a fresh perspective onto the faith we share, that other forms simply cannot.”

The Bishop of Barking stated that: “Our inspiration for understanding Christianity comes from the visual arts … The visual arts continue to be an important way of communicating our faith. Words are not enough to express the breadth, depth and height of what we want to communicate. It’s then that the visual arts express what we want to communicate.

God knew that: for centuries he relied on the words of the prophets and then he realized that he needed to send his Son to communicate in ways that words could not, the breadth, depth and height of his love. The word became flesh: the most beautiful living sculpture ever created – Jesus Christ.”

There are many interesting artworks to be found in the Diocese of Chelmsford; a fact I have been involved in highlighting previously through art trails in the Barking Episcopal Area - see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Most recently, I have included a listing of artworks to be found in the Basildon Deanery here and the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry here and here. See also my post about artists in Broomfield - here. On the back of these and other sources of information, here is a partial listing of artists with work which can be found in churches within the Diocese of Chelmsford can be found here.

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Van Morrison - Hymns to the Silence.

Letting go and letting God

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Steve Turner’s poem ‘History Lesson’ is simple, short and blunt:

History repeats itself.
Has to.
No-one listens.

Why is conflict so much a part of our human existence? Why, despite the devastation and loss of life that we saw in two World Wars, does it still seem that we are so far from the ability to live in peace with one another? I want to suggest a partial answer to us using the story of Jonah (Jonah 3).

The story is both well-known and relatively simple. Jonah is tasked by God with preaching to the Ninevites but instead turns tail and takes a ship heading in the opposite direction. A violent storm leads the sailors to throw Jonah overboard. The storm then calms and Jonah is swallowed by a great fish. Inside the fish Jonah repents and, once spewed out onto dry land, travels to Ninevah where he delivers the message God gave him. The Ninevites hear him, repent and are saved from disaster. Jonah is angry with God because the Ninevites are the enemies of the people of Israel and so he wanted them destroyed.

That hatred of the Ninevites was the reason why Jonah rejected God’s call on his life and took a ship in the opposite direction to the place God had wanted him to go. Protection of his people - the people of Israel - by the destruction of their enemies - the Ninevites - was more important to him than doing God’s will. Jonah was angry with God because he thought God should only be on the side of and care for his people and, therefore, he wanted to try to frustrate God’s plans to save their enemies from disaster. He was angry with God because he wanted to possess God by keeping him only as the personal God of his people.

Jonah had actually completely misunderstood God’s relationship with the people of Israel and the reason for it. The choosing of the people of Israel as God’s chosen people and the gift to them of the promised land was not so that they would be protected by their own personal God in a land that was theirs to own. Instead of being their property, the promised land was a gift from God which enabled them to be a light revealing God to the nations around them. So, whenever they thought about themselves and the protection of their own possessions, they were actually wandering away from God’s will for their lives.

When Jonah did this, his lack of surrender to God’s will and God’s way caused disturbance - the storm - in his life which also affected the people around him. It was only when Jonah recognised that the storm - the disturbance in and around him - was directly connected to his lack of surrender to God’s will that the storm died down and he had time and space in which to repent and return to God’s way.

It is the same for us. When we are concerned with what we think of as ours - when we are saying this is mine, my property, my church, my nation - we are automatically anxious, worried and fearful because we are in defensive mode and we experience disturbance; disturbance which affects others because we are trying to protect what we think of as ours from those we think will take it from us. By contrast, Jesus calls us to give up our lives and let go of our possessions by handing them over to him - to let go and let God. When we genuinely do this, we find we are at peace because whatever we have and wherever we are and whatever we do is then in God’s hands - everything is his and his gift to us. We experience contentment with what we have and where we are and what we do because it is all God’s gift to us.

We read in the Letter to the Philippians, ‘I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.' (Philippians 4.11-13)

Conflict and disturbance arise in our lives and in our world whenever we, like Jonah, have not surrendered to God’s will. Again, like Jonah, this occurs whenever we want to possess or protect things for ourselves, our group or our people. Instead, God calls us to let go and let God; to simply acknowledge that we own nothing, that all is God’s creation and gift. When we let go of our claim on the things around us, including our own lives, we start to genuinely trust God and learn the secret of being content in any and every situation. In this state, there is no disturbance or conflict because there is nothing to possess or protect and, therefore, we can know and share peace with others.

Jesus shows us how to do this by laying down his life for the sake of others and his resurrection reveals the new life that results. Just as he called his first disciples, so he calls us to follow in his footsteps by taking up our cross and losing our lives for his sake; letting go and letting God.

Will we be like Jonah and resist the call of God which leads to turmoil and disturbance in our lives and our world or will we be like Jesus’ disciples who gave up everything to follow him? Before deciding, we should reflect that to follow him is the way that leads to abundant, peaceful, contented and eternal life. It is as we surrender to God and to his will for our lives that we come to know his peace in our lives and are enabled to share that peace with others.

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Moby - Le Vide.

Sunday, 22 February 2026

Windows on the world (559)

Compton, 2026

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U2 - The Tears Of Things.