Wikio - Top Blogs - Religion and belief

Tuesday, 10 November 2026

Holy Trinity Church, Cookham
















On a recent trip to Cookham to review 'Stanley Spencer and Gary Bunt: What a Dream' at the Stanley Spencer Gallery, I also visited Holy Trinity Church, Cookham. The site has over 1,000 years of history, potentially originating from an 8th-century Saxon monastery associated with Queen Cynethryth, with the current stone structure beginning around 1140 and the Lady Chapel added in the late 12th century. The churchyard and surroundings famously inspired works by Spencer (such as The Resurrection, Cookham). The statue of an Angel which stands at the entrance to Cookham Churchyard inspired two paintings by Spencer. A copy of  'The Last Supper' and a print of 'Christ in the Wilderness: Rising from Sleep in the Morning', both by Spencer, can be seen in the church. 

One of Cookham's most famous sons was world famous artist, Sir Stanley Spencer (1891–1959). Much of his greatest work depicts biblical scenes, from miracles to Crucifixion happening not in the Holy Land but in Cookham, where he was born and spent most of his life. Spencer believed that the divine rested in all creation. He saw his home town of Cookham as a paradise in which everything is invested with mystical significance. He referred to Cookham as "a village in Heaven" fellow-villagers frequently stand in for their Gospel counterparts, lending Christian teachings an eerie immediacy.

James Dougall's hanging pyx for Holy Trinity Church was finished and installed in 2011. It is constructed from fabricated gilding metal and nickel-plated hot forged copper. The whole piece is 96 cm high and hangs 5 feet above the altar in the Lady Chapel at Holy Trinity. It works on a rise and fall mechanism located 8 metres up in the eaves of the roof, utilising 50 metres of 1.5 mm diameter stainless steel cabling. James Dougall (b. 1967, British) is a contemporary silversmith whose approach is based on an exploration of shape and form, combined with function.Major projects include the Hanging Pyx for Holy Trinity Church, Cookham, an altar cross for St. Michaels Church, Ightham Kent, a staff for Merton College Oxford and most recently a piece for the Officers Mess, Royal Marines, Poole.

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Steven Soles - Shake The Dust.

Seen and Unseen: Charlie Mackesy and the age of sanctuary literature

My latest article for Seen and Unseen is on  'Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse... and You' at Dulwich Picture Gallery:

'The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse is a reflective, contemplative book that emerges from a creative process which mirrors the emotional and spiritual journey undertaken by the characters in the book. Mackesy values mess and messy drawings because he believes that ‘Every mess you make can become something’. As a result, ‘the messy process of making art and expressing yourself – even for a few minutes – is good for you and your mental health’. This means that forgiveness, self-acceptance and self-understanding are key. As the Mole says, “Often the hardest person to forgive is yourself”.'

My first article for Seen and Unseen was 'Life is more important than art' which reviews the themes of recent art exhibitions that tackle life’s big questions and the roles creators take.

My second article 'Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey' explores inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith.

My third article was an interview with musician and priest Rev Simpkins in which we discussed how music is an expression of humanity and his faith.

My fourth article was a guide to the Christmas season’s art, past and present. Traditionally at this time of year “great art comes tumbling through your letterbox” so, in this article, I explore the historic and contemporary art of Christmas.

My fifth article was 'Finding the human amid the wreckage of migration'. In this article I interviewed Shezad Dawood about his multimedia Leviathan exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral where personal objects recovered from ocean depths tell a story of modern and ancient migrations.

My sixth article was 'The visionary artists finding heaven down here' in which I explored a tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds.

My seventh article was 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' in which I explain how curating an exhibition for Ben Uri Online gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues.

My eighth article was 'Infernal rebellion and the questions it asks' in which I interview the author Nicholas Papadopulos about his book The Infernal Word: Notes from a Rebel Angel.

My ninth article was 'A day, night and dawn with Nick Cave’s lyrics' in which I review Adam Steiner’s Darker With The Dawn — Nick Cave’s Songs Of Love And Death and explore whether Steiner's rappel into Cave’s art helps us understand its purpose.

My 10th article was 'Theresa Lola's poetical hope' about the death-haunted yet lyrical, joyful and moving poet for a new generation.

My 11th article was 'How to look at our world: Aaron Rosen interview', exploring themes from Rosen's book 'What Would Jesus See: Ways of Looking at a Disorienting World'.

My 12th article was 'Blake, imagination and the insight of God', exploring a new exhibition - 'William Blake's Universe at the Fitzwilliam Museum - which focuses on seekers of spiritual regeneration and national revival.

My 13th article 'Matthew Krishanu: painting childhood' was an interview with Matthew Krishanu on his exhibition 'The Bough Breaks' at Camden Art Centre.

My 14th article was entitled 'Art makes life worth living' and explored why society, and churches, need the Arts.

My 15th article was entitled 'The collective effervescence of sport's congregation' and explored some of the ways in which sport and religion have been intimately entwined throughout history

My 16th article was entitled 'Paradise cottage: Milton reimagin’d' and reviewed the ways in which artist Richard Kenton Webb is conversing with the blind poet in his former home (Milton's Cottage, Chalfont St Giles).

My 17th article was entitled 'Controversial art: how can the critic love their neighbour?'. It makes suggestions of what to do when confronted with contentious culture.

My 18th article was an interview entitled 'Art, AI and apocalypse: Michael Takeo Magruder addresses our fears and questions'. In the interview the digital artist talks about the possibilities and challenges of artificial intelligence.

My 19th article was entitled 'Dark, sweet and subtle: recovered music orientates us'. In the article I highlight alt-folk music seeking inspiration from forgotten hymns.

My 20th article was entitled 'Revisiting Amazing Grace inspires new songs'. In the article I highlight folk musicians capturing both the barbaric and the beautiful in the hymn Amazing Grace and Christianity's entanglement with the transatlantic slave trade more generally.

My 21st article was entitled 'James MacMillan’s music of tranquility and discord'. In the article I noted that the composer’s music contends both the secular and sacred.

My 22nd article was a book review on Nobody's Empire by Stuart Murdoch. 'Nobody's Empire: A Novel is the fictionalised account of how ... Murdoch, lead singer of indie band Belle and Sebastian, transfigured his experience of Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) through faith and music.'

My 23rd article was entitled 'Rock ‘n’ roll’s long dance with religion'. The article explores how popular music conjures sacred space.

My 24th article was an interview with Alastair Gordon on the artist’s attention which explores why the overlooked and everyday capture the creative gaze.

My 25th article was about Stanley Spencer’s seen and unseen world and the artist’s child-like sense of wonder as he saw heaven everywhere.

My 26th article was entitled 'The biblical undercurrent that the Bob Dylan biopics missed' and in it I argue that the best of Dylan’s work is a contemporary Pilgrim, Dante or Rimbaud on a compassionate journey.

My 27th article was entitled 'Heading Home: a pilgrimage that breaks out beauty along the way' and focuses on a film called 'Heading Home' which explores how we can learn a new language together as we travel.

My 28th article was entitled 'Annie Caldwell: “My family is my band”' and showcased a force of nature voice that comes from the soul.

My 29th article was entitled 'Why sculpt the face of Christ?' and explored how, in Nic Fiddian Green’s work, we feel pain, strength, fear and wisdom.

My 30th article was entitled 'How Mumford and friends explore life's instability' and explored how Mumford and Sons, together with similar bands, commune on fallibility, fear, grace, and love.

My 31st article was entitled 'The late Pope Francis was right – Antoni Gaudi truly was God’s architect' and explored how sanctity can indeed be found amongst scaffolding, as Gaudi’s Barcelona beauties amply demonstrate.

My 32nd article was entitled 'This gallery refresh adds drama to the story of art' and explored how rehanging the Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery revives the emotion of great art.

My 33rd article was an interview with Jonathan A. Anderson about the themes of his latest book 'The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art'.

My 34th article was an interview with 'Emily Young: the sculptor listening as the still stones speak'.

My 35th article was a profile of New York's expressionist devotional artist, 'Genesis Tramaine: the painter whose faces catch the spirit'.

My 36th article was a concert review of Natalie Bergman at Union Chapel - a soul-soaked set turned personal tragedy into communal celebration.

My 37th article was based on the exhibition series 'Can We Stop Killing Each Other?' at the Sainsbury Centre. In it I explore how art, theology, and moral imagination confront our oldest instinct.

My 38th article article was 'The dot and the dash: modern art’s quiet search for deeper meaning' in which I argue that Neo-Impressionism meets mysticism in a quietly radical exhibition at the National Gallery.

My 39th article was 'From Klee to Klein, Wenders to Botticelli: angels unveiled' in which I explore how, across war, wonder and nativity, artists show angels bridging earth and heaven.

My 40th article was 'When Henry Moore’s Madonna shocked Northampton' in which I explore how a modernist mother and child stirred outrage, then lasting wonder.

My 41st article was 'Turner and Constable: storms, salvation and the sublime' in which I discussed how Tate Britain reveals how rival visions shaped art and spirit.

My 42nd article was 'When converts cracked open the culture’s polished surface' in which I explored how faith’s outsiders disrupted the scene with unexpected force.

My 43rd article 'The Magdalene we rarely see' was about the painting 'Magdalene at the Base of the Cross' by Chris Gollon.

My 44th article was 'U2’s music shows surrender can still sound like joy' which explores the spirituality of U2.

My 45th article was 'Cathedrals, confessionals, and the strange allure of spiritual fiction' about the return of Susan Howatch.

My 46th article was on the exhibition 'Living by the Rule: Contemporary meets Medieval' at the Sainsbury Centre.

My 47th article was a profile of Andrew Rumsey, Andrew Rumsey and the particular places.

My 48th article was an exhibition review of Peter Howson's 'Salvation' exhibition at Flowers Gallery.

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Natalie Bergman - White Oak.

Sunday, 8 November 2026

Hope in a hopeless world

Here's the sermon that I preached this morning at St Mary's Runwell and shared in a pared-down form at the Act of Remembrance held at Wickford War Memorial today:

Jesus told a story about being as ready as we can for the unexpected (Matthew 25.1-13). His story is the set reading for this Remembrance Sunday. His story was about bridesmaids waiting for a bridegroom to light him to the wedding with their lamps. He was later than expected and some had not brought supplies of oil for their lamps. Those without had to go searching for oil and missed out on the wedding as a result. Those who prepared for the unexpected were ready to meet the bridegroom and go into the wedding.

With this story Jesus is asking us prepared we are for the unexpected? The bridesmaids who were prepared had rehearsed possible scenarios and were ready for those. They also had the right attitude, being ready to wait for the bridegroom’s arrival. As a result, they were able to take part in a wonderful celebration of unity and love. With this story, Jesus is also encouraging us to prepare for the unexpected recognising that we live in a world where conflict is regularly experienced at all levels of society.

While we can't prepare for the exact situation we might face, we can prepare for possible scenarios, prepare mentally and emotionally for difficult events, and practice peace ourselves in order to anticipate a peaceful society. That’s essentially what our armed forces regularly do. In peacetime they go on manoeuvres and take part in exercises in order to be ready for the moment when they are called to go to war while also acting as those who maintain the peace by preventing fresh conflict from developing.

That is also what our government has advised households to do to prepare for severe disruption, to stockpile canned food and drinking water, to strengthen our civic resilience and to plan for the possibility of war. It says we should be "alert - not alarmed."

The truth is that there are now more conflicts, more wars, than at any point since the end of the Second World War. The number of countries involved in external conflict has nearly doubled since 2008. The civil war in Sudan, the protracted conflict in Ukraine, and the ongoing conflict between Israel, the United States and Iran have left the world in a more fragile and militarised state than at any point since the cold war ended. The Chief of the Defence Staff, Sir Richard Knighton, said in September that the threat from Russia meant Britain was living through the "most dangerous" period of his 35-year career in the armed forces.

War in which we as a nation are more actively involved is not inevitable, but it is certainly not out of the question. And yet today I want to say something about hope. Now you might say, “Jonathan, there are no signs of hope. In fact it’s all looking pretty hopeless…” (https://www.chelmsford.anglican.org/uploads/files/Transcript_-_Weekly_Sermon_Remembrance.pdf)

Disasters are frequent occurrences in our world, “some natural, many more due to man’s ham-fisted neglect of the planet or our inability to get by without recourse to violence.” “The result is always the need for a new start, and how we respond and rebuild colours an uncertain future more than ever. Yet, for all the carnage and chaos that catastrophes bring, an odd truth is apparent: disasters do give us the chance to shape things differently.”

So, while this day is about honouring the dead who laid down the lives that we might be free, it can also be about our preparation for the future. We draw inspiration from those who have gone before and learn from their experiences in order that can be as ready as we can for what will come in the future and even shape that future. The key lesson to learn from past wars is the fundamental necessity of peace. Jesus taught his followers through his stories to anticipate a future where people come together in love to celebrate unity and he calls us to be those who anticipate and practice that future reality in the here and now.

As the band Widespread Panic once sang, we should go:

Looking for hope in a hopeless world
Try to find love in such hateful times
Try to stay strong but my mind is weak
Looking for hope in a hopeless world

That was what those at the heart of the Allied response in the Second World War did. Even in the darkest moments when the Dunkirk evacuation was needed, they did not give up hope and began planning for D-Day.

Hope is about a vision for a future that is different from the present; one which therefore requires imagination and vision. For Christians that vision is of the kingdom of God; which has begun to be realised but is still to come in its full reality. That is the kind of hope we need today when we think we are living in a hopeless world.

In his Theology of Hope the theologian Jürgen Moltmann argues that “Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present. If we had before our eyes only what we see, then we should cheerfully or reluctantly reconcile ourselves with things as they happen to be. That we do not reconcile ourselves, that there is no pleasant harmony between us and reality, is due to our unquenchable hope. This hope keeps man unreconciled, until the great day of the fulfilment of all the promises of God.

As a result, the Church is intended to be “the source of continual new impulses towards the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity here in the light of the promised future that is to come.” Our hope should “provide inexhaustible resources for the creative, inventive imagination of love.” It should constantly provoke and produce thinking of an anticipatory kind in love to humanity and the world, “in order to give shape to the newly dawning possibilities in the light of the promised future, in order as far as possible to create here the best that is possible, because what is promised is within the bounds of possibility.”

Today, as we remember the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for our freedom, may we commit ourselves to find and to be hope in a hopeless world. That is how we prepare ourselves for the unexpected, as did the wise bridesmaids in Jesus’ story. Amen.

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Widespread Panic - Hope In A Hopeless World.

Saturday, 7 November 2026

Windows on the world (593)


 Cookham, 2026

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Isobel Gathercole Quartet - Deep Night.

Thursday, 5 November 2026

St Thomas More Catholic Church, East Dulwich, and Newcastle Cathedral














On Tuesday, while in Dulwich to review the Charlie Mackesy exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery, I visited St Thomas More Catholic Church in East Dulwich to see their Patrick Pye window. Pye was Ireland’s leading religious artist of the second half of the twentieth century, and in addition to many works on canvas and paper, he created stained glass windows over a period of four decades. I saw several of his works when I visited Dublin in 2024. 

This window is his only overseas window. Pye titled it ‘An apparition of St Columba’ and inscribed it, ‘Presented to this church by the Knights of St Columba 26 XI 70’. (The Knights of St Columba, founded in 1919, is a fraternal organisation affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church in England, Scotland and Wales). ‘The theme of the window is taken from a story in St Adamnan’s ‘Life’. It tells how, every evening, the monks return from the work of the fields. One of the brothers is always struck by a sense of blessedness at the same point on the way home. All the fatigue of the day seems lifted from his shoulders. Then he finds that other monks experience the same sensation. Together they ask the oldest brother and he explains that this is the moment of the evening when St Columba retires to his chapel to pray for them.’ Pye treats all three lights and tracery as a single canvas; at the base the monks are depicted returning from the fields carrying their farming implements while the upper two-thirds is dominated by a patchwork of fields which merge into a dramatic sky. There is a sense of how small and insignificant humans are when compared with the awe-inspiring power of nature.

A few weeks ago I visited Newcastle to review Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Poetry at Laing Gallery. While in Newcastle I also visited the Cathedral which also has some interesting art. An interesting collection begins with a fine 15th century roundel set in the east window of St Margaret’s Chapel. Otherwise the cathedral mainly has late 19th century and 20th century glass. The former includes the east window, 1860, by the hugely successful local studio of William Wailes. The latter includes a fine example of the work of Caroline Townsend, on the theme of northern saints in the north choir aisle, 1907, and an abstract window by Stanley Scott Murray, north transept, 1971. A fine recent addition is the Danish window in the north wall of the chancel by Mike Davis, 2002. It commemorates the lives lost by Danish seamen based on Tyneside. It is a perfect complement to the adjacent window by Leonard Evetts, 1962, where the symbols of the Passion are set in clear glass with strong leadlines.

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Mavis Staples & Jeff Tweedy - You Are Not Alone.

Artlyst: The Art Diary November 2026

Here's my November Art Diary for Artlyst:

'In ‘Women, Art, God’, art historian and priest Ayla Lepine invites us to explore the relationship between faith and imagination. Across centuries, cultures, materials and subjects, women’s stories and works of art provide wisdom about the power of images. In this book, which I am currently reviewing, Lepine, through vibrant conversations about art, life and faith, enables us to glimpse God in the visions of artists including Frida Kahlo, Artemisia Gentileschi and Sonia Boyce. Women’s art and spirituality guide readers across centuries and continents, encouraging us to take religion’s importance in visual culture and creativity seriously. Women, Art, God provides a bold and fresh approach to feminist theology and art history.

For the November diary, I begin by staying with the question that Lepine explores in her book: How can art by women transform our experiences of spirituality and religion? Highlighted exhibitions include works by Edmonia Lewis, Ethelwynne M. Quail, Emma Kunz, Gabrielle Goliath, Cecilia Vicuña, and Yu Hong. This is followed by commissions and exhibitions involving Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, Maurice Denis, Stanley Spencer, Gary Bunt, Charlie Mackesy, and Mark Dunford. We then move through the centuries with exhibitions moving from Constantinople to the Renaissance and the Dutch Golden Age. I end with a series of relational group shows for European Cultural Centre Italy, Focal Point Gallery, NIKA Projects, The Minories, and Foundling Museum.'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -

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Michael Kiwanuka - Summer Clothes.