London, 2026
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Joseph Arthur - Thank You Is My Mantra.
Sunday, 26 April 2026
St Catherine's Wickford - £162,000 to raise through 150th Anniversary
This year St Catherine’s church in Wickford is 150 years old (https://www.wickfordandrunwellparish.org.uk/st-catherines.html & https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/church/wickford-st-catherine).
150th Anniversary events for St Catherine’s Church, Wickford:
- Saturday 9 May, 2.00 - 4.00 pm, St Catherine's Church - Art workshop.
- Saturday 30 May, 7.30 pm, St Andrew’s Church – Ladybirds Singing Group – Fundraising concert for St Catherine’s.
- Sunday 31 May, 10.30 am, St Catherine’s – Joint Eucharist for 150th Anniversary. Preacher: The Ven. David Lowman.
- Saturday 6 June, St Catherine’s – Flower Festival with Coffee Morning and Cream Tea Afternoon.
- Sunday 7 June, 11.00 am, St Catherine’s. Anniversary Eucharist led by Archdeacon of Southend.
- Saturday 13 June, 2.00 pm, The Rectory – Parish Garden Party.
- Saturday 20 June, 3.00 pm, St Catherine’s – Rumatica - Fundraising concert.
Help us to celebrate 150 years of St Catherine's Church in Wickford as part of Bas-Arts-Index upcoming Art& series of events through May.
9th May 2-4pm at St Catherine's which is on Southend Road in Wickford.
The event will start with a workshop about the history of the church, encompassing your thoughts, feelings and memories. We'll then move on to an activity where you can create a stained glass window collage.
Bring yourself, your thoughts, your memories and your feelings. You can also bring anything you think might be interesting for us to see regarding the church herself, or her history. Weddings. Baptisms. Funerals. Celebrations of any and all types. All are welcome. We look forward to seeing you there.
No booking required, just turn up.
Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult
Ladybirds Song Group in concert
Saturday 30 May 2026, 7.30 pm
St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN
We are celebrating the 150th Anniversary of St Catherine’s Wickford with a fundraising concert as subsidence has caused cracks in the walls requiring underpinning - a retiring collection will be taken.
The Ladybirds Song Group are a voluntary community group spreading joy through music, performing in care homes, clubs, and other local venues.
Flower Festival. 6th & 7th June.
Featuring local clubs. schools & the community.
St Catherine's Church 150 Years.
Donate a pew end in memory of a loved one £10.00.
Saturday all day. Refreshments and stalls in the
church hall.
Contact: Caroline: 07821195388.
Rumatica in concert
St Catherine’s Church Wickford
Saturday 20th June 3pm
A Ukulele Band with a Difference! Playing a wide range of Rock, Pop, Country, Swing, Indie, Blues and Folk Music
https://www.rumatica.co.uk/
We are celebrating the 150th Anniversary of St Catherine’s Wickford with a fundraising concert as subsidence has caused cracks in the walls requiring underpinning - a retiring collection will be taken.
Fundraising Campaign - St Catherine’s Church, Wickford
Due to the long dry summer of 2022, the foundations of the NW corner of St Catherine’s Church subsided. This caused large cracks to appear in the walls. In 2023, we completed Phase 1 of our campaign involving safety and weather protection work costing £20,000, with funds raised by donations, events and grants. In 2024 we began Phase 2 involving groundwork investigations and design of an underpinning solution. This cost £13,560 and is essential to design a long-term solution. Phase 3, for which we are now raising funds, will cost £162,500.00 + VAT and will enable the NW corner of the church to be underpinned.
If you wish to contribute, please go to https://givealittle.co/c/CXlEMNUoerIeTUtbQmvYS to donate online.
Send cheques to Wickford and Runwell PCC to The Rectory, 120 Southend Road, Wickford SS11 8EB or phone 07803 562329 / email jonathan.evens@btinternet.com for bank details for a transfer.
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U2 - Resurrection Song.
Launch of the 3 R's history trail
Each church is unique with its own history and we welcome you to come and find out more. Visit our churches and see for yourself.
Launch of the 3 R’s history trail with Open Days at St Nicholas Rawreth, All Saints Rettendon, and St Mary’s Runwell on Saturday 16 May from 10am - 4pm.
Visit all three churches, discover their history, see heritage displays, and enjoy refreshments.
Rawreth Church (St Nicholas)
The parish of Rawreth has a list of Rectors going back to before 1361. It retains a 13th century tower, but the present church was rebuilt in 1882. The tower, arch and west wall of the north aisle remain from 1450, the rest has been rebuilt in 1882 to designs of Ernest Geldart, rector of Little Braxted.
The family of Lancelot Andrewes lived in Rawreth and St Nicholas Church was their family church. Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the Authorized Version (or King James Version) of the Bible.
- Church organ - one of the smallest church organs in the country, built c.1860-1870 by Bryceson and Ellis
- Bells - over 700 years old and made by John Hadham C. 1320, making them amongst the oldest bells in Essex
- Chancel screen, reredos and pulpit - designed by the architect, the Reverend Geldart in 1862
- Memorial - to Edmund Tyrell and his wife of Beeches manor dated 1576
Runwell Church (St Mary's)
St. Mary’s Church is a beautiful Grade I* listed building, a magnificent mediaeval building which boasts an interesting and mixed history. The church is often described by both visitors and regular worshippers as a powerful sacred space to which they have been drawn.
This powerful impact comes in part from the art and architecture in the space. From the modern rood screen to the beautiful stained glass windows, St Mary’s is a must on any history trail. Its two churchyards (one linked to Runwell Hospital) also provide green space in which to walk and reflect. The church and churchyards are often used for contemplative Quiet Days. The Running Well, which may have given Runwell its name, is one mile from the Church.
- Prioress' tomb - tomb of the last Prioress at the Nunnery by the Running Well
- Runwell cross - original and contemporary versions of this unique cross design
- Devil's Claw - marks on a door, said to have been made by the Devil whilst chasing a curate
- Murals - medieval-style mural designs and interior decoration
- Painting - 'The Baptism of Christ' by Walsingham artist Enid Chadwick
- Squints - enabling those outside to see in.
Rettendon Church (All Saints)
The village of Rettendon is blessed with an old and beautiful Grade 1 listed church, with many unique aspects of its history.
The church stands on high ground, its 15th century ragstone tower acting as a landmark for the area. All Saints stands on high ground and from its lofty tower, over 100 feet high, there is an extensive view. To the east one can see the Crouch estuary, to the south the hills of Rayleigh stand out boldly, to the west, the round hilltops of the Langdon Hills are a notable landmark.
- Memorial - marble and alabaster memorial to Edmund Humfrye dating from the early 18th century, one of the best of its type in the country
- Anchorite Cell - the upstairs room over the vestry may have been used by an anchorite linked to the Nunnery at the Running Well, as evidenced by the window there which overlooks the altar
- Memorial brasses - to the Canon family, whose charity fund is available to villagers in need to this day
- Choir stalls - with 15th century medieval wood carvings on the nine bench ends
- Piscina and Sedilia - the Piscina, a stone basin, is dated 1220 while the double Sedilia also dates from the 13th century and consists of two bays with trefoiled heads and moulded labels
Open every day between 09:00—16:00
St Mary's Church, Runwell Road, Runwell, Essex SS11 7HS
St Mary's is open by prior arrangement only. Please contact the churchwarden to arrange a time to visit:
Tel: 01268 765360
Email: alanvictorjones20@gmail.com
All Saints Church, Church Chase, Rettendon, Chelmsford CM3 8DP
Open Friday 10:00—12:00 or by prior arrangement only.
For further details on our history trail please contact:
Rev'd Jonathan Evens - jonathan.evens@btinternet.com | 07803 562329
Rev’d Steve Lissenden - revsteveliss@gmail.com | 07944 959300
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Michael Kiwanuka - Small Changes.
The in's and out's of Church
Here's the sermon that I shared this morning at St Andrew’s Wickford:
For Easter 2017 the church I was at in the City of London, St Stephen Walbrook, we were involved in a two-part art work based on the Stations of the Cross and the Stations of the Resurrection. The first part of this project involved the artist Mark Dean in projecting filmed Stations of the Cross onto the central, circular Henry Moore altar at St Stephen Walbrook throughout the night on Easter Eve.
Mark Dean’s videos were not literal depictions of the Stations of the Cross, instead he appropriated a few frames of iconic film footage together with extracts of popular music and then slowed down, reversed, looped or otherwise altered these so that the images he selected were amplified through their repetition. In this way he brought images from outside church into church and made them central to the Easter Vigil by projecting them onto an altar which had been designed for people to gather as a community around the place where God can be found; the Eucharist, the central act of Christian worship, the re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice.
In St Paul’s Cathedral for the second part of the project, the staging was inverted as the dancers performed in the central space under the dome, whilst Dean’s video was played on television monitors placed around the edge of this circular space. Five dancers emerged from the shadows around the edge of the stage and started to navigate the space, sometimes individually and sometimes in groups, to form tableaux which were visually reminiscent of the acts of protecting, comforting and carrying each other. The dancers regularly perforated the boundary, moving out beyond the stage and the audience, before returning to the centre and reconnecting in different configurations. As a result, the on-lookers found themselves within the action of these movements.
Among the themes that these projections and performances explored therefore were notions of being in and out with the crucifixion as an internal interior focus and the resurrection leading to an outward focus. Similar notions of in and out also inform Jesus’ teaching about the shepherd and the sheep (John 10. 1 - 10), which have traditionally been interpreted as being about the in’s and out’s of salvation meaning that the sheepfold has been seen as representing heaven. Being locked in to a sheepfold overnight seems a strange way of picturing heaven and so I want to explore the imagery of the sheepfold instead in terms of understandings of church.
One part of the role of the shepherd mentioned in Jesus’ teaching is to bring the sheep in to the sheepfold at the end of the day. Thieves and bandits are able to use the cover of night to attack the sheep if outside or not adequately protected in the fold. Jesus says that he is the gate which provides access to this safe space. Those who enter through Jesus are those who are legitimately in the sheepfold, whether sheep or shepherd.
This imagery pictures church as safe space in which rest, recuperation and healing can occur because we are sheltered for a time from the challenges and opportunities – the activity – of the daylight hours. Mark Dean’s decision to project his Passion films onto the central altar at Walbrook, the place of Communion, is in line with this teaching about church, as Christ’s Passion and the Eucharist which re-enacts that Passion is our source of renewal and restoration. Having said that, we also need to acknowledge that there are those for whom church has not been a safe space and hear those valid voices while seeking to build safe spaces in the churches of which we are part.
Gates, however, are two-way. They are entries and exits, because we do not experience fullness of life by being shut up in places of safety; if that is our only experience then we are in prison. The life that Jesus envisions here is one of protection during the darkness when thieves are at large combined with freedom to graze outside of the sheepfold in the light of day. Interestingly in Jesus’ teaching here, finding pasture, finding food, growing and developing, are all things that happen outside of the sheepfold. Jesus’ flock find safety in the fold but they find food outside the fold. This focus differs from the traditional way in which the in and out dimensions of church have been thought about in Ecclesiology, thinking about the nature and structure of church. The IN dimension of church has often been thought of as being about fellowship and community while the OUT dimension is generally seen as involving mission.
On this basis, the IN dimension of church is described as being about fellowship and building community. Jesus prayed that believers would be one. This was a prayer for more than unity; it was a prayer for deep fellowship like that between the Father and the Son – may they be one just as you are in me and I am in you (John 17.21). Believers are to invite each other into their lives. The first Christians modelled this as we heard in our New Testament reading: All who believed were together and had all things in common (Acts 2.44). Church at its best keeps this tradition alive. In the Eucharist, for example, we are reminded that we belong to one another by sharing a common meal.
The OUT dimension of church is then seen as being about mission in its broadest sense. This mission, summed up in the phrase 'kingdom of God', is about bringing wholeness to the entire creation. Its sweep is therefore breathtaking! The mission of the church is seen in this wide context. The church is not the kingdom of God and we must not reduce the horizons of God's mission to the horizons of God's church. But the church is called to share in God's mission.
Although this thinking about the IN and OUT dimensions of Church has validity, as we have already noted, it does not completely accord with Jesus’ teaching here. This is, in part, because the Church has sometimes made an unfortunate separation between time together in the fold and time out in the world. When this has happened, churches have tried to get Christians to spend as much time together in the fold as possible and have therefore focused primarily on church as the place when God is seen and heard.
Such thinking overlooks the fact that Jesus’ parables are stories of everyday life, often of working life. They are stories of the kingdom of God being seen and experienced and that happens most clearly in our everyday lives rather than in church. When we gather together in the fold, in church, we expect to hear from and experience God, so it is when we then scatter to our homes, workplaces and communities that the real test comes. Do we also encounter and feed on God in those places too; in our homes, workplaces and communities? If we do, then we are experiencing and revealing God in the reality of our lives and that is what actually forms a real and eloquent witness to the reality of God in our lives and world. That is why mission is part of the OUT dimension of church.
Then, like Mark Dean bringing images from outside the church into the church to inform our reflection on crucifixion and resurrection, we, too, can bring back stories of encountering the reality of God in the reality of our lives into our gathering together in church to encourage one another that God is to be found both in church and also in the world he has made.
That thought can also help us with another concern that is rightly raised when there is talk of being in and out in relation to church or salvation; that is an understandable and right concern for those who are or who think themselves to be on the outside. Despite the language of in and out, Jesus’ teaching here is inclusive. The sheepfolds he used as his illustrations were communal. Everyone in the village who had sheep brought their sheep to the communal fold overnight. That is why Jesus talks of other flocks and of the sheep recognising the voice of their shepherd. Metaphorically he is referring to the Jews as one folk and the Gentiles as another to say that in God all will ultimately form one flock. Additionally, as we have seen, the boundary separating those on the inside from those on the outside is only for the creation of a temporary safe space and is then breached as the flock go back into the wider world during daylight hours.
The job of the shepherd – the role that Jesus says he plays - is not to keep the flock cooped up together in the sheepfold but to lead them out to find pasture because the sheep are to experience life in all its fullness and find God in this fullness. We see an example of this happening in practice when we look at the reading from Acts 2. 42 - 47 that we heard earlier. There, the early disciples spent time together in their homes, sharing what they had with each other – possessions, money, food – and learning together from their shepherds, the apostles. But they also left the safety of their own gatherings and went out into the city to the Temple and met and taught there too. So, in their practice there was the same pattern of coming in and going out that we have found in Jesus’ teaching. There was also the fullness of life that Jesus spoke about – we can sense the energy, excitement and enthusiasm of these people as they responded to all that Jesus had done for them by talking about him and sharing what they had with others. They had really come alive, their lives had meaning and purpose, their joy was to share all that they had.
We need this same pattern within our lives too; times of joining together with other Christians and with those who teach and lead us and times of being out in the world, in our families, communities and workplaces. Both are essential to us as Christians. If we are just out in the world without the support of times together in the fold, we are likely to become lost like the sheep for which the shepherd had to search. If we just remain in the fold then we do not experience life in all its fullness and do not reveal the reality of God in the reality of our lives. When we leave the fold - the gathering of God’s people – we do not go out on our own, the good Shepherd, Jesus, leads us out and goes with us that we may experience life in all its fullness, finding God in the reality of our lives.
May we, like the dancers at St Paul’s, learn to navigate the spaces of church and world, coming together for protection and comfort then perforating the boundary and moving out, before returning to the centre and reconnecting in different configurations and, as a result, enabling others to find themselves caught up within the action of these movements.
For Easter 2017 the church I was at in the City of London, St Stephen Walbrook, we were involved in a two-part art work based on the Stations of the Cross and the Stations of the Resurrection. The first part of this project involved the artist Mark Dean in projecting filmed Stations of the Cross onto the central, circular Henry Moore altar at St Stephen Walbrook throughout the night on Easter Eve.
Mark Dean’s videos were not literal depictions of the Stations of the Cross, instead he appropriated a few frames of iconic film footage together with extracts of popular music and then slowed down, reversed, looped or otherwise altered these so that the images he selected were amplified through their repetition. In this way he brought images from outside church into church and made them central to the Easter Vigil by projecting them onto an altar which had been designed for people to gather as a community around the place where God can be found; the Eucharist, the central act of Christian worship, the re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice.
In St Paul’s Cathedral for the second part of the project, the staging was inverted as the dancers performed in the central space under the dome, whilst Dean’s video was played on television monitors placed around the edge of this circular space. Five dancers emerged from the shadows around the edge of the stage and started to navigate the space, sometimes individually and sometimes in groups, to form tableaux which were visually reminiscent of the acts of protecting, comforting and carrying each other. The dancers regularly perforated the boundary, moving out beyond the stage and the audience, before returning to the centre and reconnecting in different configurations. As a result, the on-lookers found themselves within the action of these movements.
Among the themes that these projections and performances explored therefore were notions of being in and out with the crucifixion as an internal interior focus and the resurrection leading to an outward focus. Similar notions of in and out also inform Jesus’ teaching about the shepherd and the sheep (John 10. 1 - 10), which have traditionally been interpreted as being about the in’s and out’s of salvation meaning that the sheepfold has been seen as representing heaven. Being locked in to a sheepfold overnight seems a strange way of picturing heaven and so I want to explore the imagery of the sheepfold instead in terms of understandings of church.
One part of the role of the shepherd mentioned in Jesus’ teaching is to bring the sheep in to the sheepfold at the end of the day. Thieves and bandits are able to use the cover of night to attack the sheep if outside or not adequately protected in the fold. Jesus says that he is the gate which provides access to this safe space. Those who enter through Jesus are those who are legitimately in the sheepfold, whether sheep or shepherd.
This imagery pictures church as safe space in which rest, recuperation and healing can occur because we are sheltered for a time from the challenges and opportunities – the activity – of the daylight hours. Mark Dean’s decision to project his Passion films onto the central altar at Walbrook, the place of Communion, is in line with this teaching about church, as Christ’s Passion and the Eucharist which re-enacts that Passion is our source of renewal and restoration. Having said that, we also need to acknowledge that there are those for whom church has not been a safe space and hear those valid voices while seeking to build safe spaces in the churches of which we are part.
Gates, however, are two-way. They are entries and exits, because we do not experience fullness of life by being shut up in places of safety; if that is our only experience then we are in prison. The life that Jesus envisions here is one of protection during the darkness when thieves are at large combined with freedom to graze outside of the sheepfold in the light of day. Interestingly in Jesus’ teaching here, finding pasture, finding food, growing and developing, are all things that happen outside of the sheepfold. Jesus’ flock find safety in the fold but they find food outside the fold. This focus differs from the traditional way in which the in and out dimensions of church have been thought about in Ecclesiology, thinking about the nature and structure of church. The IN dimension of church has often been thought of as being about fellowship and community while the OUT dimension is generally seen as involving mission.
On this basis, the IN dimension of church is described as being about fellowship and building community. Jesus prayed that believers would be one. This was a prayer for more than unity; it was a prayer for deep fellowship like that between the Father and the Son – may they be one just as you are in me and I am in you (John 17.21). Believers are to invite each other into their lives. The first Christians modelled this as we heard in our New Testament reading: All who believed were together and had all things in common (Acts 2.44). Church at its best keeps this tradition alive. In the Eucharist, for example, we are reminded that we belong to one another by sharing a common meal.
The OUT dimension of church is then seen as being about mission in its broadest sense. This mission, summed up in the phrase 'kingdom of God', is about bringing wholeness to the entire creation. Its sweep is therefore breathtaking! The mission of the church is seen in this wide context. The church is not the kingdom of God and we must not reduce the horizons of God's mission to the horizons of God's church. But the church is called to share in God's mission.
Although this thinking about the IN and OUT dimensions of Church has validity, as we have already noted, it does not completely accord with Jesus’ teaching here. This is, in part, because the Church has sometimes made an unfortunate separation between time together in the fold and time out in the world. When this has happened, churches have tried to get Christians to spend as much time together in the fold as possible and have therefore focused primarily on church as the place when God is seen and heard.
Such thinking overlooks the fact that Jesus’ parables are stories of everyday life, often of working life. They are stories of the kingdom of God being seen and experienced and that happens most clearly in our everyday lives rather than in church. When we gather together in the fold, in church, we expect to hear from and experience God, so it is when we then scatter to our homes, workplaces and communities that the real test comes. Do we also encounter and feed on God in those places too; in our homes, workplaces and communities? If we do, then we are experiencing and revealing God in the reality of our lives and that is what actually forms a real and eloquent witness to the reality of God in our lives and world. That is why mission is part of the OUT dimension of church.
Then, like Mark Dean bringing images from outside the church into the church to inform our reflection on crucifixion and resurrection, we, too, can bring back stories of encountering the reality of God in the reality of our lives into our gathering together in church to encourage one another that God is to be found both in church and also in the world he has made.
That thought can also help us with another concern that is rightly raised when there is talk of being in and out in relation to church or salvation; that is an understandable and right concern for those who are or who think themselves to be on the outside. Despite the language of in and out, Jesus’ teaching here is inclusive. The sheepfolds he used as his illustrations were communal. Everyone in the village who had sheep brought their sheep to the communal fold overnight. That is why Jesus talks of other flocks and of the sheep recognising the voice of their shepherd. Metaphorically he is referring to the Jews as one folk and the Gentiles as another to say that in God all will ultimately form one flock. Additionally, as we have seen, the boundary separating those on the inside from those on the outside is only for the creation of a temporary safe space and is then breached as the flock go back into the wider world during daylight hours.
The job of the shepherd – the role that Jesus says he plays - is not to keep the flock cooped up together in the sheepfold but to lead them out to find pasture because the sheep are to experience life in all its fullness and find God in this fullness. We see an example of this happening in practice when we look at the reading from Acts 2. 42 - 47 that we heard earlier. There, the early disciples spent time together in their homes, sharing what they had with each other – possessions, money, food – and learning together from their shepherds, the apostles. But they also left the safety of their own gatherings and went out into the city to the Temple and met and taught there too. So, in their practice there was the same pattern of coming in and going out that we have found in Jesus’ teaching. There was also the fullness of life that Jesus spoke about – we can sense the energy, excitement and enthusiasm of these people as they responded to all that Jesus had done for them by talking about him and sharing what they had with others. They had really come alive, their lives had meaning and purpose, their joy was to share all that they had.
We need this same pattern within our lives too; times of joining together with other Christians and with those who teach and lead us and times of being out in the world, in our families, communities and workplaces. Both are essential to us as Christians. If we are just out in the world without the support of times together in the fold, we are likely to become lost like the sheep for which the shepherd had to search. If we just remain in the fold then we do not experience life in all its fullness and do not reveal the reality of God in the reality of our lives. When we leave the fold - the gathering of God’s people – we do not go out on our own, the good Shepherd, Jesus, leads us out and goes with us that we may experience life in all its fullness, finding God in the reality of our lives.
May we, like the dancers at St Paul’s, learn to navigate the spaces of church and world, coming together for protection and comfort then perforating the boundary and moving out, before returning to the centre and reconnecting in different configurations and, as a result, enabling others to find themselves caught up within the action of these movements.
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Strawbs - Is It Today, Lord?
Saturday, 25 April 2026
Ho Wai-On R.I.P. and Memorial Service
In the face of adversity Wai-On found happiness through creativity. She lived in London for most of her life, but spent her earlier years in Hong Kong. Being bi-lingual and bicultural, it was easy for her to extend her boundaries, to
increase her knowledge and pleasure in things artistic
and cultural and this was an asset to her creative work. Find out more here and here.
This video was completed before Wai-On passed away and is published at her request.
This video was completed before Wai-On passed away and is published at her request.
From Hong Kong to Wickford, was a multifaceted pictorial display featuring works from Wai-On's lifetime of interaction with UK and Hong Kong based artists and other people. It was staged from 25 Sep to 16 Dec 2023 at St. Andrew’s Church, Wickford.
It featured works by:
This video includes an overview of the displays accompanied by Song & Dance by Ho Wai-On played by Julian Jacobson on Piano.
This video includes an overview of the displays accompanied by Song & Dance by Ho Wai-On played by Julian Jacobson on Piano.
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Monday, 20 April 2026
Bas-Arts-Index: Art & Series
Bas-Arts-Index have a set of 5 events titled Art & Series taking place over May. Each event focuses on a different town in the borough and responds to the area's locale through various themes:
- Wickford: Art & Religion on Saturday 9th May
- Langdon Hills: Art & Nature on Monday 11th May
- Billericay: Art & Creative Business on Saturday 16th May
- Pitsea: Art & Smell on Saturday 23rd May
- Basildon: Art & Public Space on Saturday 30th May
You can find full descriptions of the events below, with timings and locations, and for the events with booking, please do book to secure a space.
ART & SERIES
Wickford: Art & Religion
Saturday 9th May
2pm to 4pm
Location: St Catherine's Church, 120 Southend Rd, Wickford
Lead by Maxine Newell and Katie Carter-Leay
No booked required
Participants create a collaged artwork about a specific, meaningful memory, a significant personal moment in response to the church or a response to the story of St Catherine's.
St Catherine’s is a place to come and sit in peace and quiet, to have a look around at the beautiful building and create artwork that responds to the church’s uniqueness.
Langdon Hills: Art & Nature
Monday 11th May
11am to 2pm
Location: Essex Wildlife Trust Langdon Nature Discovery Centre
Lead by Maxine Newell and Sylak Ravenspine
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-nature-tickets-1987306807157?aff=ebdsoporgprofile&_gl=1*1ylszpd*_up*MQ..*_ga*NDY1MTY2OTQ4LjE3NzYxODU1Nzk.*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*czE3NzYxODU1NzkkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzYxODU1NzkkajYwJGwwJGgw
Join local artists Maxine Newell and Sylak Ravenspine to assist you in connection with the textural nature of our environment. Our event draws us all to engage through touch as much as through sight, and making physical contact with the fabric of the land creates deeper bonds with the landscape. Enjoy bookbinding with recycled items, making impression clay for printmaking and a print-gathering walk around the Plotlands area of the park.
Billericay: Art & Creative Business
Saturday 16th May
11am to 1pm
Location: Billericay Train Station
Lead by Shaun Badham and Cien Butler
Book a ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-creative-business-tickets-1987384533639?aff=ebdsoporgprofile&_gl=1*1ylszpd*_up*MQ..*_ga*NDY1MTY2OTQ4LjE3NzYxODU1Nzk.*_ga_TQVES5V6SH*czE3NzYxODU1NzkkbzEkZzAkdDE3NzYxODU1NzkkajYwJGwwJGgw
Are you curious about how a cultural business is run, or what it takes to run a premises? Join in this walking workshop to find out more!
Fancy a chat with those who run/organise these kinds of spaces and what the pros and cons are? Or simply fancy a walk with like minded creatives to explore numerous cultural venue/spaces that you might want to experience or get involved with in the future?
If so, then this guided walking tour through Billericay High Street will be for you.
Pitsea: Art & Smell
Saturday 23rd May
2pm to 4:30pm
Location: The Range, Pitsea market
Lead by Laura Whiting and Katie Carter-Leay
Book a ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-smell-registration-1987307773046?aff=erellivmlt
Join Katie and Laura for a facilitated Smell Walk to understand the world through a different sense. The session will start with an introduction to Smell Walks, inspired by the work of Dr Kate McLean as our foundation, and learning some drawing tips from Katie on mark making. Then we will venture around the market and to document our perceptions. The session will conclude with sharing how our investigations went and combining our findings onto a smell map of the market.
Basildon: Art & Public Space
Saturday 30th May
11am onwards
Location: Basildon Town Centre
Lead by Tony Marriage and Paul Rix Clancy
No booking required
This workshop explores emotional geography, the idea that people experience places through memory, identity and personal stories. Participants will contribute to a collaborative artwork that maps how Basildon’s public spaces are experienced by those who live, work and spend time in the town. By collecting reflections, stories and photographs connected to Basildon town centre and Gloucester Park, the project creates an evolving portrait of the town through the voices of its community.
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Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence.
Saturday, 18 April 2026
Modern Irish Artists and Theology
My visit to the National Gallery of Ireland on Wednesday to review William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy (click here for my International Times review) also served to remind me of Theology and Modern Irish Art by Gesa E. Thiessen which explores central issues in the dialogue between theology and art, paying special attention to the spiritual aspects of a number of modern Irish painters.
These include several on show in the NGI's collection including Mainie Jellett, Colin Middleton, Louis le Brocquy, Patrick Collins and Patrick Scott. Click here for my Airbrushed from Art History post on Theology and Modern Irish Art.
I first visited the NGI last year to see their excellent exhibition Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone. The Art of Friendship (click here to read my review). I included this exhibition as one of my three standout exhibitions for 2025 in an Artlyst article which can be read here.
The NGI's collection includes work by Hone as well as Jellett. Additionally, their stained glass room also has work by the wonderful Harry Clarke. For more on my earlier visit to Dublin including photographs of work by Hone and Patrick Pye, see here,
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U2 - Lights Of Home.
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