The Gospel according to ...

I Can't Cry Hard Enough

RHS Garden Hyde Hall

RHS Garden Hyde Hall is surely one of the finest gardens in the East of England, its location among rolling hills and fantastic panoramic views can often surprise the visitor to Essex. This 145-hectare (360-acre) estate is constantly evolving, as the gardening team strive to retain the original intimacy and charm of this horticultural gem, while at the same time aiming to restore much of the estate to its former rural glory, including its historic hedgerows and woodland.

Biodiversity has been embraced by the team, which is evident in the brown hare population that inhabits the site, along with the butterflies and birds that are abundant at Hyde Hall.

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Van Morrison - In The Garden.

St Martin-in-the-Fields: Confirmation, Ascension, Chinese Art, Pentecost, Climate Change, Architecture

There are lots of significant events and services happening in the coming weeks either at St Martin-in-the-Fields or where we are playing a part. These include:

Confirmation
Wednesday 29 May, 6.30pm

We are delighted that the Bishop of London, Rt Revd and Rt Hon Sarah Mullally, will be with us to confirm members of our English-speaking and Chinese-speaking congregations.


BBC Radio 4 Ascension Day Eucharist
Thursday 30 May, 8pm, BBC Radio 4

We are delighted to welcome as our preacher the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford. The music includes the premiere of Bob Chilcott's Samba Mass, and is sung by the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service Singers and St Martin's Voices, directed by Bob Chilcott. The service will be led by Revd Dr Sam Wells. Congregational admission is by ticket available from the vergers after services or from the Box Office. Please arrive in plenty of time for the service (doors open 7.00pm) and be seated in church by 7.40pm or tune into BBC Radio 4 at 8pm.


Pots and thrones: ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties
Thursday 6 June 2019 6.30pm
St Martin’s Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JH

Talk (in English) followed by drinks reception. Yi Chen will speak on ‘Pots and thrones: ritual bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties’. Free tickets here or phone Jonathan Evens on 020-7766-1127 and leave your name and phone number.

This is the fourth lecture in our occasional series of art talks focusing on aspects of Chinese Art. Yi Chen is Curator: Early Chinese Collections at the British Museum.

Thy Kingdom Come
Sunday 9 June, Trafalgar Square

After the very first Ascension Day the disciples gathered with Mary, constantly devoting themselves to prayer while they waited for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. During the 11 days of Thy Kingdom Come.Through events including 24-7 prayer rooms, prayer days, prayer walks and half nights of prayer it is hoped that everyone who takes part will deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ, pray for God’s spirit to work in the lives of those they know and come to realise that every aspect of their life is the stuff of prayer. Thy Kingdom Come will culminate in a special Beacon Event in Trafalgar Square on Pentecost Sunday. This free, fun, family festival and Service is an event for Christians of all denominations. Be sure to register your interest now.

• 12noon to 3.30pm: At the top of the square there will be marquees in which different groups will be offering a rolling programme of prayer. In the main square there will be a gospel choir, an escapologist, a dance troop, steel band, Salvation Army band and other activities to join in with from jugglers, face painters, magicians and artists. Can I encourage you to come along to celebrate the gift of prayer in the joy of the Holy Spirit.
• 3.30pm to 4.00pm: The Kingdom Choir will take to the stage.
• 4.00pm to 6.00pm: The Pentecost Service will be hosted by Dan Walker and Lady T. Matt Redman is leading worship and there will be contributors including Pastor Agu, Archbishop Angaelos, Cardinal Nichols, Jonathan Bryan, Bishop Sarah Mullally and Archbishop Justin will be preaching.

Then, at St Martin’s, we will hold a service at 6.30pm with the Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir and the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields reflecting on Pentecost through traditional choral, and gospel, music.


The Time Is Now
26th June, Westminster

In Westminster on 26th June, as part of TCC (The Climate Coalition), Christian Aid is organising The Time Is Now, a huge event where we can celebrate our faith in action, lobby our political representatives, pray together and energise one another for the challenges to come. It’s an opportunity to tell MPs that it’s time to act on climate change and to put a net zero greenhouse gases target by 2045 into law, now.

To take part you need to sign up at www.thetimeisnowfaithevents.eventbrite.com for workshops held at St Martin’s and a speaker event at Church House, plus sign up for the lobby at https://www.thetimeisnowmap.co.uk. There is a lobby guide available which includes FAQs. When you sign up your MP will be e-mailed directly inviting her/him to meet you on the day. The MP may give a specific time but expect to be waiting around as the lobby is between 1-4pm.


London Festival of Architecture panel and building tour
St Martin’s Hall on 26th June, 6.30- 8.00pm

Today the more transient nature of cities and how we are now occupying public space and buildings, is allowing places to be inhabited more fluidly, creatively and imaginatively – the boundary between spaces and places is being released. How are public places evolving and responding to the changing nature of how people are inhabiting them?

A talk and panel discussion in St Martin’s Hall on 26th June, 6.30- 8.00pm, around the important of releasing these boundaries through considered, creative and imaginative design will be presented with the following participants:

• Revd Jonathan Evens (SMITF)
• Christopher Burton and Robert Kennett (EPA)
• Kathryn Harris (PCC)
• Vicky Wagner (Publica)
• Ruchi Chakravarty (Westminster)
• Chair – Andrew Caspari

A building and walking tour after the panel discussion, will focus on St Martin-in-the Fields and could expand to include the Strand, Aldywch and St Mary le Strand (the two James Gibbs churches within one parish). Free tickets/booking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/st-martin-in-the-fields-10-years-on-releasing-of-boundaries-tickets-62046989215?aff=ebdssbdestsearch. 

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Al Green - People Get Ready.

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on churches in Little Walsingham:

'The Guild Chantry Chapel of St. Michael and the Holy Souls, designed by Laurence King in 1965, is the most modern of the worship spaces at the Anglican Shrine. The chapel has abstract glass, a crucifix carved in wood by Siegfried Pietsch, and a low-relief fibreglass sculpture by John Hayward depicting St. Michael defeating Satan. Both Pietsch and Hayward worked with the Faith Craft organization, which was based at one time in the Abbey Mill in the city of St. Albans. “For over 50 years Faith Craft artists and designers produced stained glass, vestments, statues and other carvings, liturgical furniture, sacred vessels and other ornaments for the beautification of God’s worship”.

Hayward also designed and executed the east window at St. Mary and All Saints Little Walsingham. His complex design includes saints to which the church is dedicated, other sites of pilgrimage, founders of monastic orders associated with Walsingham, the story of Walsingham, and the fire that devastated this church in 1961. The window was installed for the re-consecration of the church in 1964.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

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Van Morrison - Hymns To The Silence. 

Artlyst - RIFT Unites 17 Art and Science MA Graduates At Central St Martins

My latest piece for Artlyst focuses on several pieces in RIFT, the MA Art and Science degree show at Central Saint Martins, and finds religion within the merging of art and science:

'the group of which these students are part is characterised by the kinds of enquiry which cannot be understood from a fixed perspective and by questions that defy categorisation. By melding personal imagery with elements of science and religion, we are taken into liminal spaces in which compelling beauty and uncomfortable challenge combine.'

My other Artlyst articles and interviews are:

• Visionary Cities: Michael Takeo Magruder – British Library
• Van Gogh’s Religious Journey Around London
• William Congdon Holy Sites And The Kettle’s Yard Connection
• Mark Dean Premieres Pastiche Mass At Banqueting Hall Chelsea College of Arts
• John Kirby: The Torment Underlying The Civilised Facade
• Curating Spiritual Sensibilities In Changing Times
• Ken Currie: Protest Defeat And Victory
• Bosco Sodi: A Moment Of Genesis
• Bill Viola And The Art Of Contemplation
• Art In Churches 2018: Spiritual Combinations Explored
• Sister Wendy Beckett – A Reminiscence
• Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker On The Legacy Of ArtWay
• Guido Guidi: Per Strada Flowers Gallery London
• Peter Howson Artlyst Interview
• Peter Howson: The play is over – Flowers Gallery
• Camille Henrot: Scientific History And Creation Story Mash Up
• Nicola Green Explores Recent And Contemporary Religious Leaders – St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Art And The Consequences Of War Explored In Two Exhibitions
• Helaine Blumenfeld Translating Her Vision
• Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
• Sacred Noise: Explores Religion, Faith And Divinity
• Bill Viola: Quiet Contemplative Video Installation St Cuthbert’s Church Edinburgh
• The ground-breaking work of Sister Corita Kent
• Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
• Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
• Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
• Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
• Michael Takeo Magruder: De / coding the Apocalypse – Panacea Museum
• Giorgio Griffa: The Golden Ratio And Inexplicable Knowledge
• Arabella Dorman Unveils New Installation At St James Church Piccadilly
• Can Art Transform Society?
• Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
• Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
• The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
• Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
• Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
• Polish Art In Britain Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
• Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields;
• Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar;
• Refugee Artists Learning from The Lives Of Others;
• The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg;
• The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement;
• Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition;
• Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation;
• The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields; and
• Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?

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Arcade Fire - Signs Of Life.

commission4mission Summer Newsletter

commission4mission's Summer Newsletter is out with news of exhibitions and commissions by Christopher Clack, Harvey Bradley, Tim Harrold, Rodney Munday and Clorinda Goodman:

'Following our successful 'Reconciliation' exhibition during Lent at Coventry Cathedral, we are now planning towards our autumn exhibition at All Hallows by the Tower in the City of London. This exhibition will be titled 'Creation' and we anticipate our artists exploring creation in terms of the Genesis and other biblical stories, the natural world, ideas and making, among other possibilities. All Hallows by the Tower are kindly hosting our autumn exhibition from 15 to 26 October 2019, with a Private View on 14 October and our AGM on 27 October.

We have recently held our third creative retreat with the Othona Community at Bradwell-on-Sea and, thanks to our Chairperson, Mark Lewis, who organised the retreat, once again enjoyed a marvellous time of reflection, creativity and fellowship.'

Click here to read the newsletter.

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Aretha Franklin - Walk In The Light.

Matter Matters

The exhibition Matter Matters involves twelve artists, four from the UK, and runs until 3 June at the Czech Chinese Contemporary Art Museum in Beijing. The exhibition explores themes around the environment and its protection. Among the UK-based artists taking part are Deborah Tompsett, winner of Chaiya Art Awards 2018, and Alastair Gordon. My interview with Alastair for Artlyst is being reprinted in the exhibition catalogue.

Yuerong Wu wrote the following description for the project:

'“We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.” Laudato Si'

Today, all our lives are affected by the ongoing ecological crisis and climate change. Oceans and continents have suffered as a result of human activity over the last millennia, a process greatly accelerated during the past few decades. Some people are trying to mitigate the ecological crisis using a technological or economic approach. However, the benefits of these solutions are minimal, with new technologies prone to continue to pollute our social and natural environment. What matters need to matter today? Our contention is that by going back to the original source of our created matter we can rediscover our responsibility to all of God’s creation, nature, environment and human life alike!

According to the Bible all matter originates from the Creator. The Author of the extravagance of creation is also the One who is generous in giving it away for care and protection. In the Creator’s plan, every creature has an intrinsic value and He entrusts all this to the beings created in His own image – human begins. The Bible also tells us about the fall of human beings and how His creatures’ sin now reflects upon the suffering of all created matter. The anguished groaning of the environment reflects the human sinfulness and suffering. This is the message that the Bible can bring to the global communities now affected by the social and environmental crisis. The visual art project Matter Matters has as its purpose to establish an important dialogue about environmental protection through artistic expressions. We want to bring the biblical concept of stewardships into different cultural contexts where there’s an urgency with regards to issues of environment protection and protection of human life.

Arts offer a powerful language which can speak into one’s heart and generate deep reflection whether by watching a painting, listening to a piece of music, enjoying a dance performance, or reading a book. Nobel Prize laureate writer Saul Bellow once said: “Only art penetrates what pride, passion, intelligence and habit erect on all sides – the seeming realities of this world. There is another reality, the genuine one, which we lose sight of. This other reality is always sending us hints, which, without art, we can’t receive.”2 The project Matter Matters is an international visual art project that will include a launch exhibition, discussion forums which will provide a platform for conversations, and a catalogue which will include both art works prints and relevant articles on the topic of environment. The project asks the artists to seek and portray challenging realities through artistic expressions in order to stimulate participants and viewers to a conversation about the restoration of our human relationship with the natural environments.

The project Matter Matters will last for three years and will take place in various locations, in order to stimulate a meaningful dialogue about these important social and ecological dimensions of our societies, and how we should go about seeking reconciliation with ourselves and the created order. The project will be inaugurated in China in May 2019. We plan to hold the first exhibition in Beijing, followed by programmes in the coastal area in Hebei and in Kunming City. We have selected these locations because of their geographic importance in environmental terms but also because they are active hubs for contemporary Chinese artists. Beijing, as the capital city of China, plays an important role in terms of policies and decision-making fir the country and the world. Beijing area is also host to Songzhuang, the biggest artist village in the world. Having an exhibition launch and a discussion forum there is important because of the project’s purpose of generating a dialogue with fellow artists on these topics. In the coastal areas we find good examples of climate change, especially marine pollution. Kunming City is situated at the entrance point into the Mekong Region. The Mekong basin is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. The Mekong is one of the world’s longest rivers, accessed by several countries (China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam). Much of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic present on earth makes its way to the oceans. Ninety percent of plastic in the oceans is flushed there by just 10 rivers, and Mekong is one of them.'

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Bruce Cockburn - If A Tree Falls.

Windows on the world (447)

London, 2019

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Scott Stapp - Name.

Charles Filiger: Painter of the Absolute

Charles Filiger, who was associated with the Symbolist movement, spent time with Gauguin in Le Pouldu in 1989-90. They both chose to synthesize and stylize forms after experimenting with Pointillism for a short time. Filiger developed a very personal style in small paintings of Brittany landscapes and of religious subjects, informed by his love of early Italian painting. After looking at some of Gauguin’s paintings, he said to him, “You are Gauguin. You play with light. I am Filiger. I paint the Absolute.”

Filiger’s work was shown in Symbolist exhibitions beginning right after the birth of this new aesthetic, around 1890. They included the Exhibition of Impressionist and Symbolist Painters at the gallery Le Barc de Boutteville in Paris, the Salon de la Rose+Croix at the gallery Durand-Ruel, and the Salon des XX in Brussels. His work was quickly noticed by both the critics and his fellow artists, many of whom were influenced by him. He also became friends with writers associated with this new trend. In 1894, Alfred Jarry published the longest article ever devoted to an artist in Mercure de France, and Rémy de Gourmont asked him to illustrate several of his works. The art patron Antoine de la Rochefoucauld gave him financial support for several years.

After he left Le Pouldu in 1905, Filiger became something of a recluse, wandering around Brittany and living in hotels and hospices. He was finally taken in by a kind family in Plougastel-Daoulas. Although many thought he had died, he actually continued to work even in his isolation.

The gallery Malingue in Paris is currently holding an exhibition of works by Filiger, meaning that, for the first time in nearly 30 years, art lovers and all those who are curious about the artist are able to see a wide selection of his work. Nearly 80 works by Filiger are on show, along with publications illustrated by him, all of them from either private collections or museums (in France: in Albi, Quimper, Brest and Saint-Germain-en-Laye), including the magnificent The Last Judgment from the Josefowitz Collection, on loan from the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

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The Innocence Mission - You Chase The Light.

HeartEdge in Newcastle, Derby & Edinburgh

HeartEdge has two Introductory Days coming up which will explore approaches to mission, do theology, develop ideas and help build on the community of practice. We'll do this by referring to:

• Congregation: Liturgy, worship & new congregations
• Commerce: Being entrepreneurial, growing income via enterprise
• Compassion: Grow participation to address social need
• Culture: Art, music connecting with communities

We'll start with refreshments from 10am and a programme from 10.30am.

• All our contributors are practitioners - a community learning by experience.
• Programme will include panel discussion and practical ‘how to’ session.
• Lots of opportunity to build networks, make connections, with time to meet over lunch and refreshments. 

Practical, inspiring with lots to celebrate and take away - we hope you can join us:

• 11 June 'Newcastle HeartEdge Day' with Sam Wells and guests. A unique programme of theological reflection and local contributors. HeartEdge days focus around our HeartEdge 4 Cs with an emphasis on practical insight and ideas to take away. Book in here.

• 27 June 'Derby HeartEdge Day' with Sam Wells and guests - working across Derby and the surrounding area? Urban, suburban or rural? We would love you to join this practical one-day intensive introduction to HeartEdge with Sam Wells and guests. We're ecumenical and open to all. The day will explore approaches to mission, do theology, develop ideas and help build on the community of practice in Derby. Book in here.

The HeartEdge annual conference 'On Earth as it is in Heaven' will happen from 2 - 3 October in Edinburgh. The conference is a practical, two-day intensive of ideas, theology and connecting. It includes workshops on enterprise and commerce, launching cultural projects, developing congregations and sustaining community response. This year contributors include Winnie Varghese, Sally Hitchiner, Sam Wells, Mark Strange, Colin Sinclair, Sheena McDonald, Deborah Lewer, ID Campbell, Cormac Russell and many others.

2 & 3 October 2019 - Day 1 at The Parish Church of St Cuthbert, 5 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH1 2EP and Day 2 at St John's Church, Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4BJ. 

Further information from Revd Jonathan Evens, Associate Vicar HeartEdge, St Martin-in-the-Fields - Tel: 020 7766 1127, Email: jonathan.evens@smitf.org. To book in early-bird visit here.

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Arvo Pärt - Vater Unser.

No Neutral Ground

Last night I was at the launch of No Neutral Ground by Pete Portal, whose drug rehabilitation home in the slums of Cape Town has received prayer and financial support from St Martin-in-the-Fields.

'Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world – often described as a kind of heaven on earth. But for the majority of its inhabitants it is hell. Ghettoes are everywhere, and for those living in Manenberg – a coloured township on the Cape Flats, purpose-built by the apartheid government as part of its forced removal plan – life is just as marginal today as it was during apartheid. The main differences now are the rampant drug use and widespread gang presence.

No Neutral Ground is the gripping account of Pete Portal’s move from London to Manenberg, of addicts and gangsters meeting Jesus and being transformed, and how he went from living with a heroin addict to helping establish a church community – and all the heartbreak and failure along the way. This is a story of mighty works of God, as well as relapse, hopelessness and despair; the miraculous and the mundane, heaven and hell, all balanced on a knife edge.

Offering searing insight and an inspiring vision of faith, Pete asks why anyone would choose this way of life, if giving up our lives for others is worth it – and what the church could become if we were willing to risk it all to reach the forgotten and the lost.'

‘Honest, inspiring, heartbreakingly convicting, spirit-infused, humble and holy. This book reeks of Jesus and the invitation he still gives to lose our lives for something so much better.’ – Danielle Strickland

‘inspiring stories, wild faith and insightful challenge’ – Pete Greig

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Martin Smith - You Have Shown Us.

Windows on the world (446)

London, 2019

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Mazzy Star - Fade Into You.

commission4mission creative retreat 2019

Thanks are due once again to Mark Lewis for organising another creative retreat for commission4mission artists at the Othona Community, Bradwell-on-Sea.

As previously, this was time for reflection, creativity and fellowship combined with creative time. Services were in St Peter's Chapel Bradwell-on-Sea, and meals and accommodation with the Othona Community. Creative times included drawing, painting, photography, reading, writing, poetry and beach-combing etc.

Mark says, 'The Othona retreat seemed to go well. The weather was mixed, but it made for some dramatic skies. We took a lot of photographs.' The photographs above are from Susan Hitching and Harvey Bradley.

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Alison Krauss - Down In The River.

Amazing Grace, Gabriel's Dream, Devotion

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Aretha Franklin - Climbing Higher Mountains.

HeartEdge in Amsterdam, Bradford & Kendal

This is a busy week for HeartEdge. Most of the team have been in Amsterdam where an excellent HeartEdge Introductory Day with the Protestant Church of the Netherlands was preceded by an evening event at which Sam Wells spoke on 'Improvisation'. I have been at the Greater Churches Network conference at which I spoke in Kendal Parish Church on 'Resourcing Innovative Mission', giving examples drawn from HeartEdge churches and speaking of the way missional networks provide resource while highlighting the extent to the HeartEdge model of mission comes with resourcing inbuilt. Today we are involved with and looking forward to a Bishop's Study Day in Bradford.

Future HeartEdge events include:

• 11 June 'Newcastle HeartEdge Day' with Sam Wells and guests. A unique programme of theological reflection and local contributors. HeartEdge days focus around our HeartEdge 4 Cs with an emphasis on practical insight and ideas to take away. Book in here.
• 27 June 'Derby HeartEdge Day' with Sam Wells and guests - working across Derby and the surrounding area? Urban, suburban or rural? We would love you to join this practical one-day intensive introduction to HeartEdge with Sam Wells and guests. We're ecumenical and open to all. The day will explore approaches to mission, do theology, develop ideas and help build on the community of practice in Derby. Book in here.
• 2 - 3 October, Edinburgh. The HeartEdge annual conference: 'On Earth as it is in Heaven' - a practical, two-day intensive of ideas, theology and connecting. Includes workshops on enterprise and commerce, launching cultural projects, developing congregations and sustaining community response. This year contributors include Sam Wells, Cormac Russell and Winnie Varghese. To book in early-bird visit here.

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Sofia Gubaidulina - Repentance.

Windows on the world (445)

Coggeshall, 2019

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Aretha Franklin - Climbing Higher Mountains.

Installation of 150 baby grows

An installation of 150 baby grows is on display at St Martin-in-the-Fields until 18 May.

The display illustrates the stark reality that a woman is 150 times more likely to die in childbirth in Sierra Leone than in the UK.

The installation raises awareness of the shocking maternal death rate as part of Christian Aid Week (12-18 May 2019).

The baby grows have been donated by mums from all walks of life including MPs Luciana Berger, Jo Swinson, Seema Kennedy and Alison Thewliss, BBC broadcasters Emma Barnett and Kate Bottley, ITN newsreader Romilly Weeks and actress Jemma Powell.



Pre-loved baby grows on display as a symbol of solidarity with mums in Sierra Leone – the world's most dangerous place to give birth.

During Christian Aid Week supporters in churches across Britain and Ireland will volunteer their time, coming together to raise much-needed funds to provide much-needed healthcare in poor communities around the world.

Following the installation at St Martin’s the baby grows will be donated to a UK charity working with families in need.

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Ben & Ellen Harper - Born To Love You.

Re-inhabiting and re-interpreting wrongs

Here is my sermon from this morning's Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

‘The Singing Detective’ is a TV drama serial by Dennis Potter that was first shown in the 1980s. The story concerns Philip Marlow, a writer of detective novelettes in the style of Raymond Chandler including one also called ‘The Singing Detective’. At the beginning of the series Philip is confined to a hospital bed because of psoriasis, the skin and joint disease, which has affected every part of his body.

Philip’s childhood beliefs and commitments to God and to his parents have been betrayed through key incidents such as his seeing his mother’s adultery and his allowing another schoolboy, Mark, to be punished for something that Philip himself had done; a particularly unpleasant present left by him for their teacher and, for which, Mark is unjustly punished. His inability to face these betrayals led him into a lifestyle where he abuses and betrays those he loves and it is only as he is stripped by his illness that he can begin to face these memories, come to accept who he is and move beyond these abusive relationships. Potter’s drama shows us how this happens.

The story is about the way in which Philip faces up to the key events in his past. Essentially, he has to re-inhabit his past and re-live it in order that he comes to feel sorrow for the way in which he betrayed Mark. This begins as he lies in his hospital bed, his body incapacitated but his mind on over-drive. Memories from his past and scenes from his books are brought to mind and fuse with fevered imaginings of present events. In his confusion he seeks support from a psychiatrist who journeys with him through his memories and imaginings until he is at the point that he can re-live the experience of betraying Mark and feel sorrow for what he did.

The incapacity that he has experienced throughout the drama, despite the very real pain of psoriasis, is revealed to be psychosomatic and, as a result, by re-inhabiting his past he begins to know change in the present and is able to get up from his bed and walk once again. Philip’s needs – his experience of near-breakdown – are the seedbed for the healing and new life that he eventual experiences. As we watch this drama, we may be challenged to live Easter by allowing the Holy Spirit to take us back into those aspects of our lives that we have abandoned or covered over.

What Philip experiences in ‘The Singing Detective’ gives an insight into what Peter experiences in our Gospel reading (John 21. 12-19). Like Philip, Peter is haunted by his own act of betrayal. When Peter meets Jesus by Lake Tiberias, Jesus forces Peter to re-live that experience of denial. That is why Jesus asks Peter three times, ‘Do you love me?’ These three questions mirror Peter’s three denials and take him back into that experience. Like Philip, Peter has to re-inhabit his past in order to be forgiven and let it go. As Jesus questions Peter, his sense of remorse for what he had done must have been immense.

Peter denied Jesus three times. So Jesus asks Peter three times, ‘Do you love me?’ When they have finished re-living the experience of his denial, Peter finds that he has three affirmations that counter-balance his three denials. By taking him back into the experience of denial Jesus turns Peter’s denials into affirmations. He also turns Peter’s memory of the denial from a negative memory into a positive one. It’s as if Peter has been curled up in a ball of regret and guilt, and Jesus uncoils him and lets him walk again. The denial happened, Peter would never have forgotten that, but now his primary memory is of affirming his love for Jesus. By helping Peter re-inhabit his experience of denial, Jesus enables him to re-tell and re-interpret the experience transforming its meaning from a negative to a positive. The experience still happened but the significance of it is changed enabling him to live for Christ in the present.

Like Peter and like Philip, we, too, can carry around with us the memory of bad events that have happened to us – things that we did to others or things that others did to us. Easter is about facing up to such troubling events from the past that burden us in just the same way as Peter and Philip are burdened. The way of release from the harm and hurt of these memories can be, with the help of others, to go back into them. To re-live them in order to feel sorrow for the wrong that we did or that was done to us. Then to find positive ways in which we can show sorrow or repair hurt, whether done by us or to us.

A few weeks ago, a few of us involved in the Artists and Craftspersons’ group set up an exhibition, ‘Leaves for Healing,' in the foyer downstairs. We took our inspiration from Ezekiel 47:1-12, a vision of a transformed desert landscape, with the two halves of the exhibition reflecting the transition from wilderness to fertile land. As we reflected on the passage we saw that the temple, the place where God’s presence was very real, was seen as the source of new life with water flowing out and into the landscape, transforming the barren, empty desert into incredibly fertile land. Then the passage finished with a wonderful vision of the fruit from the trees that grow being food and the leaves used for healing. Some of our artists took the opportunity provided by this passage to begin the exhibition with an artwork that reflected wilderness and then transform that same artwork to reflect change, fertility and growth.

One piece that does so is by Lois Bentley. Lois started by creating photographic collages on triangular pieces of sheet steel. Then, for the first half of the exhibition, she decided to hang them as three triangular steel sheets strung out in a line alongside each other with the points of each triangle facing down. In this configuration they remind us of the three crosses on Calvary, the central triangle showing imagery related to its title, ‘Bruised’. For the second part of the exhibition Lois chose to re-shape and re-organise the piece. It is now called ‘Re-United’ and the principal change is that she has hung the middle triangle point upwards to indicate that Jesus’ work on the cross is finished and the Trinity are restored to their coherent whole. She says that she was inspired to do this by Jesus asking Peter for the third time - do you love me?

In this piece, Lois demonstrates how the incarnation and crucifixion come together for our salvation. The incarnation tells us that the fundamental issues of human existence cannot be resolved or addressed from the outside; instead God has to be become one with humanity in order to open up to possibility of change on a continuing basis. In Jesus, God plunges headlong into the mess of betrayal, denial and scapegoating that causes violence and torture in our world and emerges on the other side to re-interpret those experiences and bring new meaning and direction.

Philip and Peter were perhaps surprised to find that salvation involved facing their betrayals not running from them. Jesus’ death does not eradicate or remove the original wrongs in human experience but, by experiencing wrong and the pain it involves, Jesus re-shapes and re-orders our experience of it in order to create a new story with new meaning and direction. So, instead of being overwhelmed by the world’s wrongs and our own, as Philip and Peter were initially, we can now follow the path first walked by Jesus of inhabiting and experiencing the world’s wrongs in order to re-shape and re-interpret our experience and understanding. The new story with new meaning that we inhabit is that of the Resurrection.

A further example from the ‘Leaves for Healing’ exhibition is of the two pieces shown by Ruth Hutchison. The first was called ‘Grieving for my Garden’ and reflected the sense of loss Ruth felt at no longer having ‘a beautiful garden with lots of everything including barbeques, family gatherings and places just to sit quietly, listen to trees blowing in the wind while the blackbird sings.’ Her garden had been the context for her creativity. Now art has become the outlet for her creativity. She combines this with her passion for recycling using art materials recycled from skips, charity shops and friends to create her second piece called ‘The Barbeque.’ This expresses in a different form the pleasure that she once found in the barbeques held in her garden. Her art enables her to express grief at her loss and also to express past pleasures in new forms.

That is the journey undertaken by Philip and Peter. It is the journey depicted for us by Lois and Ruth. It is the journey first walked by Jesus. It is incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection. It is Lent and Eastertide. Easter challenges us to face troubling events from the past that burden us in just the same way as Peter and Philip were burdened. Easter challenges us to inhabit and experience the world’s wrongs in order to live a new story with new meaning; that of resurrection.

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Max Harris & His Novelty Trio - Peg O' My Heart.

Windows on the world (444)

Coggeshall, 2019

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Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats - I Need Never Get Old.

Bread for the World: Leaves for Healing

Here's my reflection from last night's Bread for the World at St Martin-in-the-Fields, which took the 'Leaves for Healing' exhibition as its theme:

Ezekiel 47 is a vision of a transformed desert landscape with transformation beginning in the temple; a place where God’s presence was very real, an intersecting point of heaven and earth.

God’s presence in the Temple is the source of new life, seen as water flowing out and into the landscape, transforming the barren, empty desert into incredibly fertile land. Geographically Jerusalem (the location of the temple) is on very high ground and the Dead Sea is below sea level, meaning water can only flow into it. The water becomes stagnant and unsuitable for drinking or watering plants. So the vision here of life giving water, flowing into stagnant waters, turning it into fresh water and generating swarms of life, would have fired the imaginations of those who first heard these words.

The description of trees and fruit and flowing rivers evokes the creation story and suggests God is renewing and recreating the land, fulfilling his original creation purpose. Both sides of the river produce all kinds of trees for food and remarkably these trees are so fertile they produce fruit every month because of the incredible life flowing from the temple. The passage finishes with a wonderful vision of the fruit from these trees being food and the leaves used for healing.

This vision of life being released into the dry desert of Ezekiel’s time has fired the imaginations of the artists and craftspeople’s group at St Martin’s and encouraged us to imagine this life flowing into our 21st century context. The result has been the ‘Leaves for Healing’ exhibition in the foyer of the Crypt which began in Lent with Part 1 of the exhibition and is continuing now in Eastertide with Part 2 of the exhibition. Having the exhibition in two halves has enabled us to reflect the transition in the passage from wilderness to fertile land and to explore that transition in relation to Lent and Eastertide.

Some of the artists in the group took the opportunity this passage provides to begin the exhibition with an artwork that reflected wilderness and then transform that same artwork to reflect change, fertility and growth. Among the works that do so are pieces by Lois Bentley, Ruth Hutchison, Jonathan Kearney, Ali Lyon and Sarah Sikorski.

Lois created personal photographic collages on triangular pieces of sheet steel. In the first half of the exhibition she hung the three triangular steel sheets strung out in a line alongside each other with the points of each triangle facing down. In this configuration, which she called ‘Three hanging,’ they reminded us of the three crosses on Calvary, the central triangle showing imagery related to its title, ‘Bruised’. For the second part of the exhibition Lois has re-shaped and re-organised the piece. It is now called ‘Re-United’ and the principal change is that she has hung the middle triangle point upwards to indicate that Jesus’ work on the cross is finished and the Trinity are restored to their coherent whole. She says that she was inspired to do this by Jesus asking Peter for the third time - do you love me?

Ruth Hutchison’s first piece was called ‘Grieving for my Garden’ and reflected the sense of loss Ruth felt at no longer having ‘a beautiful garden with lots of everything including barbeques, family gatherings and places just to sit quietly, listen to trees blowing in the wind while the blackbird sings.’ Her garden had been a context for her creativity. Now art has become the outlet for her creativity. Following her passion for recycling, all her art materials are recycled from skips, charity shops and from friends, keeping in line with the theme of ‘your rubbish is my treasure’. Using these recycled materials her piece in the second part of the exhibition is entitled ‘The Barbeque’ and expresses in a different form the pleasure that she once found in the barbeques held in her garden. Her art enables her to express grief at her loss and also to express past pleasures in new forms.

Jonathan Kearney has prepared an abstract piece printed in colours that evoke the differing emotions of Lent and Eastertide. The first piece is sombre colours was called ‘Anticipation,’ while the second with more vibrant colouring is entitled ‘New Week.’

Ali Lyon’s piece is called ‘Down in the River to Pray’ and is made of hand-dyed fabric in deepening shades of blue, with some salt embellishment. Her piece follows the image of deepening water, the trees on the banks, and the salty water. The shores of plain green were unadorned for Lent and now, for Eastertide, are blossoming with a variety of hand-stitched leaves.

This is such a marvellously evocative passage using so much natural imagery – water, rivers, sea, swamps, marshes, fish, trees, fruit, leaves etc. – that our artists have been able to explore its imagery from a variety of very different perspectives. I’ve just given a taster tonight; an introduction that doesn’t refer to the majority of the pieces or the artists. Clearly, the best way to appreciate the exhibition is to view it yourself and to take time with each of the pieces in turn. The second best way to appreciate is to hear from the artists themselves and so Sarah Sikorski is now going to show us the two pieces she made for the exhibition and tell us a little about them.

Sarah told us briefly about screenprinting and the beauty of using repetition in imagery. The title of Sarah's Lenten piece, When the river empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh, is from Ezekiel 47 v 8. The theme of the work is pollution of the seas with plastic. The design is inspired by Tapa bark cloth made by indigenous peoples of the Pacific islands, in particular Tonga. Ancient rock paintings of fish from caves in the Northern Territories of Australia were another influence, as was the patterns found in the plastics in the oceans, and on our beaches. The Lenten question considered by the piece is about our need for fresh living water. Her current piece, Leaves for Healing, uses repeated imagery of leaves and incorporates the phrase: 'Every month the leaves with bear, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.'

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Rush - The Trees.