We are surrounded by music and image, and our everyday lives are permeated with words - both spoken and written. Creativity - our own and that of others - fills the space around us all the time.
This year’s Exploring Spirituality Day in the Diocese of St Albans, offers space and time to explore and ponder and wonder at all that surrounds us and all that fills us - calling us to respond with hearts and hands and voices.
You may recognise the phrase which forms the title of this year’s Exploring Spirituality Day from the hymn, Now thank we all our God, written by Martin Rinkart and translated by Katherine Winkworth. It is a wonderful hymn that recognises God’s wondrous works, calls us to praise His name, and prays for God to be with us through life in all its various ways.
The Workshops on this day will provide space to find new ways of exploring the Creative Arts and how we might pray and worship with and through them. Looking across the range of the Creative Arts, at the end of the day, the aim is that people to go away with tools for the journey that will inform and enhance the spiritual journey - the journey with God.
Doctor Nicholas Cranfield is keynote speaker. Nicholas is a parish priest in South East London (Diocese of Southwark) and for the past fifteen years he has contributed regular art reviews to the Church Times and led gallery tours and exhibition visits. He is a member of the Southwark Diocesan Advisory Committee for the care of churches (DAC) and is currently Hon Secretary of the British Section of the UNESCO body the International Association of Art Critics (AICA UK). He is writing a book on Roman Art from 1600 to 1610.
Workshop 1 : What can you see? What does Jesus show us? This workshop will explore how the Incarnation can inform what we deem as Christian Art and will suggest contexts for exploring this, drawing from the churches and experiences of participants. The Rev’d Nicholas Cranfield is Vicar of Blackheath and Arts Correspondent for The Church Times.
Workshop 2 : Writing the blues The Psalms for our own age. The Psalms have been, through the years, the ‘back bone’ of Christian worship: many hymns and prayers call upon their imagery and language. How might we respond to them today and, more importantly, how might we create our own? The Rev’d Jonathan Evens is Vicar of St. John’s, Seven Kings. He is also a published author, poet and artist.
Workshop 3 : "Touch me and see" An invitation to prayer using all our senses. Words of Jesus to his disciples as they grasped at the truth of the Resurrection. Words which remind us that the journey of faith involves all of our being and not just our powers of thought. This workshop invites us to experience and explore how we might pray through quiet corners and sacred spaces, and through the use of all of our senses. The Rev’d Ruth Pyke is the Children’s Work Advisor for Bedfordshire and Priest-in-Charge of All Saints, Caddington.
Workshop 4 : To be in your presence... Movement to speak the presence of God. Let the body speak: listen to it; learn from it. An opportunity to explore how, by developing greater body awareness, both in movement and stillness, we may find a way deeper into the presence of God. The Rev’d Carole Selby is Team Vicar with responsibility for St James, Goffs Oak, within the Cheshunt Team Ministry.
Workshop 5 : Images or Idols Exploring the use of images in worship. This workshop will explore the way in which images (Icons) are used in worship and how they contribute to the spirituality of the Eastern Church, where the interiors of Church buildings are richly decorated. Participants will have the opportunity to explore the tradition of icon painting by creating their own icon. No previous experience is required. The Rev’d David Ridgeway is Vicar of St. Stephen’s, St Albans.
Workshop 6 : Sing your heart out Singing the passion and emotion of faith. ‘They who sing, pray twice’, said St Augustine. Sometimes music can unlock passions and desires and heartfelt yearnings after God that we didn’t even realise were there. Come with some experience of singing or none - come with an ear to listen and a heart to be ‘strangely warmed’, and see what you might discover. The Rev’d Deborah Snowball is Priest-in-Charge of St. Mary the Virgin, Rickmansworth.
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Van Morrison - Hymns To The Silence.
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