Living God's Future Now - January 2021

'Living God’s Future Now’ is the HeartEdge mini online festival of theology, ideas and practice.

We’ve developed this in response to the pandemic and our changing world. The church is changing too, and - as we improvise and experiment - we can learn and support each other.

This is 'Living God’s Future Now’ - talks, workshops and discussion - hosted by HeartEdge. Created to equip, encourage and energise churches - from leaders to volunteers and enquirers - at the heart and on the edge.

The focal event in ‘Living God’s Future Now’ is a monthly conversation where Sam Wells explores what it means to improvise on God’s kingdom with a leading theologian or practitioner.

The online programme includes:

• Regular weekly workshops: Biblical Studies (Mondays), Sermon Preparation (Tuesdays) and Community of Practitioners (Wednesdays)
• One-off workshops on topics relevant to lockdown such as ‘Growing online communities’ and ‘Grief, Loss & Remembering’
• Monthly HeartEdge dialogue featuring Sam Wells in conversation with a noted theologian or practitioner

Find earlier Living God’s Future Now sessions at https://www.facebook.com/pg/theHeartEdge/videos/?ref=page_internal.

'Thank you for all you are supporting and enabling - I absolutely love everything that comes out of HeartEdge.' The Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester

January 2021

Theology Reading Group: Sunday 10 January, 19:00 GMT, zoom – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/st-martin-in-the-fields-heartedge-theology-reading-group-tickets-125865341625. The Reading Group will discuss 'Jack' by Marilynne Robinson. Marilynne Robinson is an American award winning novelist and essayist; Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the 2016 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. Also in 2016, Robinson appeared on Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people. ‘Jack’ is Marilynne Robinson’s latest book, it is a love story set in postwar St. Louis. Love, shame, guilt, segregation, risk and redemption; are a just a few themes that follow the relationship between Jack and Della. 'Grace and intelligence . . . [her work] defines universal truths about what it means to be human' Barack Obama.

Biblical Studies class: Monday 11 January, 19:30-21:00 (GMT), Zoom meeting. Register in advance: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMrcOmgrTgsHt2ceY7LepLhQYqQxS1G1ix9. Join Simon Woodman to explore the New Testament Epistles.

The Tawney Dialogue - David Lammy MP, Rev Dr Sam Wells, Dawn Foster - Families or Factions? Monday 11 January, 19:30 PM (GMT). Register at https://www.facebook.com/events/zoom/the-tawney-dialogue-david-lammy-mp-rev-dr-sam-wells-dawn-foster-families-or-fact/902388756833003/. In this world of polar-opposites, divisions and binary choices, are we cultivating community or harming harmony? Chaired by journalist and writer Dawn Foster, our two speakers bring their perspectives on whether our groupings and allegiances look more like families or factions... and what can we do about it? Featuring David Lammy MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Rev Dr Sam Wells of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Chaired by Dawn Foster (Guardian, Independent, Tribune, Jacobin Magazine).

Sermon Preparation Workshop: Tuesday 12 January, 16:30 (GMT), livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/theHeartEdge/. Discussion of preaching and the lectionary readings for the coming Sunday with Sam Wells and Sally Hitchiner.

Community of Practitioners workshop: Wednesday 13 January, 16:30 (GMT), Zoom meeting. Email jonathan.evens@smitf.org to register. A gathering for church leaders, lay and ordained, with opportunities for reflection on experience and theology.

Leadership skills for the next 10 years: Wednesday 13 January, 15:00 ET (20:00 GMT), zoom webinar – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/trytank-presents-leadership-skills-for-the-next-ten-years-registration-115755687377. For almost 20 years, beginning just after 9/11, futurist Bob Johansen has been wrestling with the question of leadership profiles that will be required to thrive in the VUCA World (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous). He wrote a trilogy of books that share the profile he's convinced will work to help us get ready for the next future shock. The profile includes: Ten skills (think competencies) introduced in Leaders Make the Future; Five literacies (think disciplines or practices) introduced in The New Leadership Literacies; and One mindset (think worldview) introduced in Full-Spectrum Thinking. Join for an impactful webinar with Dr. Johansen as he covers his leadership trilogy, with a special emphasis on the skills required to thrive in the coming decade.

‘Living God’s Future Now’ - HeartEdge monthly dialogue: Thursday 14 January, 18:00 (GMT), Zoom meeting - https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/living-gods-future-now-conversation-presiding-bishop-michael-curry-tickets-132832608909. Sam Wells and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will be in conversation to discuss how to improvise on the kingdom. The Most Rev. Michael Bruce Curry is Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church. He is the Chief Pastor and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer, and as Chair of the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church. The descendant of enslaved Africans brought to North America by way of the trans-Atlantic slave routes, his father was an Episcopal priest and his mother a devout Episcopalian. Presiding Bishop Curry maintains a national preaching and teaching ministry and has authored five books: Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Time (2020); The Power of Love (2018); Following the Way of Jesus: Church's Teachings in a Changing World (2017); Songs My Grandma Sang (2015); and Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus (2013).

Book Launch: Towards a Theology of Same-Sex Marriage – Friday 15 January, 16:30 (GMT), zoom - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launch-towards-a-theology-of-same-sex-marriage-tickets-131505206613. Towards a Theology of Same-Sex Marriage: Squaring the Circle is a transformative exploration of queer theology and the debate around same-sex marriage within the Church. In this book Clare Herbert draws on her experience as a priest within the Church of England in a committed same-sex relationship and considers the questions that have shaped religious debate for many years. Interweaving stories from Christians struggling to reconcile their faith with their sexuality alongside wider queer theology and the theology of marriage, Clare explores the unique understanding of God provided by the experience of committed same-sex love, and lays the groundwork for redefining the traditional definition of marriage. Joining her for this discussion are: Dr Philomena Cullen: Researcher working on domestic social justice issues with UK faith- based charities; Charlie Bell: Fellow in Medicine at Girton College Cambridge, and ordinand at St Augustine's College of Theology; and The Very Revd David Monteith (Doctor of Laws), Dean of Leicester.

Reconciling Mission: Joining in God’s Work - Monday 18 January, 16:00-17:30 GMT, Zoom - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/reconciling-mission-joining-in-gods-work-tickets-131913377463. How might we understand Christian mission as joining in with God’s reconciling work in the world? What are the implications of such an understanding for how local churches approach their missional outreach to a local neighbourhood? And how might this understanding envision and re-energise lay people for sharing God’s good news in their community? Speakers: Alastair McKay, director, Reconciliation Initiatives; Tricia Hillas, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and trustee of Reconciliation Initiatives; Martin Anderson, vicar of Norton, Stockton-on Tees, Diocese of Durham; and Sarah Hills, vicar of Holy Island, Diocese of Newcastle (and former Canon for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral, and former trustee of RI).

The Church and the Clitoris: Monday 18 January, 18:00-19:30 GMT, zoom - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-church-and-the-clitoris-tickets-133863987791. Drawing on some nineteenth-century claims about the clitoris, this lecture shows how science and religion may interact not just to ignore female sexuality but also to damage women’s bodies. A lecture and Q&A with Helen King, a member of the History Working Group of the Living in Love and Faith project. Part of the St Brides, Liverpool series of occasional lectures, with HeartEdge and the 'Living God's Future Now' festival of theology, ideas and practice.

Biblical Studies class: Monday 18 January, 19:30-21:00 (GMT), Zoom meeting. Register in advance: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMrcOmgrTgsHt2ceY7LepLhQYqQxS1G1ix9. Join Simon Woodman to explore the New Testament Epistles.

Sermon Preparation Workshop: Tuesday 19 January, 16:30 (GMT), livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/theHeartEdge/. Discussion of preaching and the lectionary readings for the coming Sunday with Sam Wells and Sally Hitchiner.

Community of Practitioners workshop: Wednesday 20 January, 16:30 (GMT), Zoom meeting. Email jonathan.evens@smitf.org to register. A gathering for church leaders, lay and ordained, with opportunities for reflection on experience and theology.

Theology Group: Sunday 24 January, 18:00 (GMT), zoom - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/st-martin-in-the-fields-heartedge-theology-group-tickets-130240413583. An opportunity to reflect theologically on issues of today and questions of forever with Sam Wells, who will be responding to questions from David Jones, a member of the congregation of St Martin-in-the-Fields. David will also chair the session and encourage your comments and questions.

Biblical Studies class: Monday 25 January, 19:30-21:00 (GMT), Zoom meeting. Register in advance: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMrcOmgrTgsHt2ceY7LepLhQYqQxS1G1ix9. Join Simon Woodman to explore the New Testament Epistles.

Art and social impact: Tuesday 26 January, 14:30 GMT, zoom - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-and-social-impact-tickets-134763030853. This workshop is a conversation with artists whose work has a social impact dimension in order to explore the relationship between art and social change. There will be discussion of personal journeys in addressing issues of social concern, approaches used, and expectations in terms of impact. The session will also explore ways in which churches can engage with such art and use it for exploring issues with congregations and beyond. Jonathan Evens will be in conversation with André Daughtry (http://www.andredaughtrystudio.com/), Micah Purnell (https://micahpurnell.com/), Nicola Ravenscroft (https://nicolaravenscroft.com/) and Hannah Rose Thomas (http://hannahrosethomas.com/).

Sermon Preparation Workshop: Tuesday 26 January, 16:30 (GMT), livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/theHeartEdge/. Discussion of preaching and the lectionary readings for the coming Sunday with Sam Wells and Sally Hitchiner.

Community of Practitioners workshop: Wednesday 27 January, 16:30 (GMT), Zoom meeting. Email jonathan.evens@smitf.org to register. A gathering for church leaders, lay and ordained, with opportunities for reflection on experience and theology.

CEEP/HeartEdge transatlantic conversation on Homelessness: Thursday 28 January, 8.00 pm GMT, zoom webinar - link TBA. US panellists TBC. UK panellists include: Pam Orchard and Fr Dominic Robinson. Pam Orchard joined The Connection at St Martins as their CEO in April 2017. She has worked in the charity sector for over 25 years, including 17 years based in Edinburgh. She was the Training Programmes Manager at YMCA Scotland, Deputy CEO at Edinburgh Cyrenians and the CEO at Providence Row, a homelessness charity based in Shoreditch. Pam specialises in organisational innovation and change, and has worked closely across the public, private and voluntary sectors to achieve this. Rev Dr Dominic Robinson SJ is Vice Chair of the Society for Ecumenical Studies and Parish Priest of the Immaculate Conception, better known as Farm Street Church in Mayfair, London. At Farm Street he leads a Jesuit and lay team serving a city centre ministry which attracts a large and very diverse group of people. As the Jesuit church in the heart of London they hope and pray that their faith in Jesus Christ truly present in all things inspires them to grow as a community of welcome to all at the service of others.

How to Rage: Saturday 30 January, 10:00 – 15:30 GMT, £10 full/£5 unwaged. Register at https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/events. Think about the links between activism, theology and the church. With: Jarel Robinson-Brown: Prophetic Rage: Fire Shut Up in My Bones; Andrew Graystone: How to Rage (With a Smile); Samantha Lindo: Songs and Poems – Why we are Here & Naming the Water; Hannah Malcolm (and panel) – Raging with the Earth; Azariah France-Williams – Raging against Institutions; Ellen Loudon – Tools for Raging.

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Blessid Union of Souls - I Believe.

Jake Lever - Do The Little Things

Jake Lever is a Birmingham-based artist who had an exhibition of Soul Boats at Birmingham Cathedral -  - for which he won an award for art in a religious context . I wrote a piece about the awards for Artlyst. and have made use of  Touching the Sacred: Creative Prayer Outlines for Worship and Reflection by Chris Thorpe and Jake Lever.

Jake Lever's 'Do the Little Things', a pandemic project is described here: 

‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things.’ St David 589 AD

Through the pandemic, I have wanted to connect with people I care about, but have often found myself lost for words, unsure what to say. Instead, I turned to making tiny golden boats, sending them to people as a kind of silent, wordless communication, heart to heart.

Some boats have symbolised my sadness at not being able to be physically present with people when they are facing challenges like illness and isolation. Some boats have expressed my wish to reach out ‘from a distance’ to people celebrating births, weddings and other joyful events. Other boats have been posted simply as a way of treasuring my friendships.

These small gestures - ‘little things’ - have started to form a web stretching far and wide, a visual expression of our universal human need for belonging and connection.

An invitation to join in: If you wish to be able to connect with those you care about by sending them a boat, I would be very happy to collaborate with you. By sending someone a handmade gilded boat (for whatever reason), you will be participating in 'Do the Little Things', a slowly evolving communal artwork. In time, these journeys will be anonymously charted as lines on an illuminated map of the world, a record of precious human relating.

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The Innocence Mission  - This Boat.

Rediscoveries and new discoveries

In a week of rest I've been taking time to enjoy the following:

Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus say they: 

'have always been concerned with the sacred or — perhaps more accurately — the loss of the sacred. We are searching for its echoes and traces which are scattered and hidden in surprising and forgotten places.

We have spoken in the past about the theology of Icons in the Eastern Church. They are fragments of a restored creation; elements of nature that have been transfigured to create images of heavenly glory. We are not claiming that our music in any way realizes this ideal, but it is an idea that has influenced us almost from the inception of RAIJ. It has been an even more explicit inspiration for this album and its title, Beauty Will Save the World, which is a quote from Dostoevsky, a writer steeped in the Orthodox tradition.

In the Western tradition, art is illustrative and beauty is an aesthetic concept whereas to the Eastern Church art is sacramental and beauty is the pursuit of divine truth, so questions about the sacred and the beautiful necessarily converge.' (NPR)

'Victoria Williams - Happy Come Home' is a film by D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus of the storytelling, improvising, tree-hugging, spellbinding talent that is Victoria Williams.

Pennebaker explains that: 'David Geffen asked us to make a short video portrait of Victoria Williams, whose first record he was about to release. He wanted radio stations to see what she looked like. So we took her back home to Louisiana and made a half-hour film with her that we loved.'

The remainder of the film can be found here, here and here.

Grant Alden writes in 'No Depression' that: 'Victoria’s records and concerts are like one imagines church should be. They are open and honest and celebratory, full of delight and respect, able to sweep black clouds to the side with a soft breath.' 

Long Hot Summers - The Story Of The Style Council: Documentary about the band that Paul Weller formed after The Jam split up in 1982, with insight from key members, collaborators and fans. 'When Paul Weller announced The Style Council's arrival in March 1983, he'd come a very long way. In fact, at the age of just 24, he was already a musical veteran with six albums and nine Top 10 singles under his belt with The Jam. As their leader he had become a deity-like figure and for his fans, The Jam's split was unimaginable. But creatively restless and of inquisitive mind, Paul jettisoned them at their height to form a collective with an eventual core line-up of Paul with Mick Talbot, Dee C Lee and Steve White. Over four albums and 17 singles, The Style Council made a stand and became the standard bearers of progressive soulful pop and social comment. This is their story.'

Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right - In 1981, emboldened by Ronald Reagan's election, a group of some fifty Republican operatives, evangelicals, oil barons, and gun lobbyists met in a Washington suburb to coordinate their attack on civil liberties and the social safety net. These men and women called their coalition the Council for National Policy. Over four decades, this elite club has become a strategic nerve center for channeling money and mobilizing votes behind the scenes. Its secretive membership rolls represent a high-powered roster of fundamentalists, oligarchs, and their allies, from Oliver North, Ed Meese, and Tim LaHaye in the Council's early days to Kellyanne Conway, Ralph Reed, Tony Perkins, and the DeVos and Mercer families today.

In Shadow Network, award-winning author and media analyst Anne Nelson chronicles this astonishing history and illuminates the coalition's key figures and their tactics. She traces how the collapse of American local journalism laid the foundation for the Council for National Policy's information war and listens in on the hardline broadcasting its members control. And she reveals how the group has collaborated with the Koch brothers to outfit Radical Right organizations with state-of-the-art apps and a shared pool of captured voter data - outmaneuvering the Democratic Party in a digital arms race. In a time of stark and growing threats to our most valued institutions and democratic freedoms, Shadow Network is essential reading.

Our Lady Peace: When Mark Van Doren, the American poet and teacher, wrote his famous work, "Our Lady Peace" in 1943, he couldn't have imagined the concept of rock'n'roll, let alone that a Canadian rock group would adopt his title for their name. 'Our Lady Peace were one of the quintessential bands of the 1990s alternative boom. The group shared qualities with many of its guitar-driven contemporaries, such as angsty power chords and propulsive beats. But front person Raine Maida's iconic jolts from chest voice to falsetto singing and enigmatic, labyrinthine lyrics helped set the group apart from the pack.'

Some of the above are rediscoveries and others new discoveries.

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The Revolutionary Army of The Infant Jesus - Bright Field.

Top Ten 2020

This is the music, in no particular order, that I've most enjoyed listening to in 2020:

Bruce Springsteen - Letter To You: '... you just need to turn it up really loud on a long, fast drive through a heartbroken summer night to hear Springsteen for the damaged hero he is. But that ensemble euphoria does work best live, when the bass is rattling through the blood and bones of hundreds of collected humans. The live recording of this record really helps deliver that communal feeling. They feel so present and close that listeners might feel they’re violating the pandemic rules. They rollick through the “Janey Needs a Shooter” and the Dylanesque “Song for Orphans”, both of which Springsteen wrote back in 1973. But it’s the new material that really catches fire. The band blaze through “Ghosts” and “Last Man Standing”, with “House of a Thousand Guitars” soaring above the lot. Driven by the supple rise and fall of a hymnal piano melody, the song is a commentary on songwriting. Springsteen, who’s been wonderfully frank about his lifelong struggle with depression, expresses solidarity with other writers “bitter and bored” who “wake in search of the lost chord”. As the champion of the working Americans who’ve been sold out by the Trump presidency, he delivers a verse on “the criminal clown” who has “stolen the throne”. But he offers the communion of music as a way to rise above and beyond material misery.'

Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways: '“I sing the songs of experience like William Blake,” Bob Dylan growls, introducing his 39th epistle on the follies, frustrations and secret strengths of a species at war with itself, “I’ve got no apologies to make.” He’s the rebel poet, approaching twilight, laying out generations of hard-earned wisdoms with no punches pulled and no regrets. At 79, following a trio of covers albums of American standards largely associated with Sinatra, you might expect Dylan to make a world-worn and contemplative sort of record, but one that had little left to say. Instead, with ‘Rough And Rowdy Ways’, he’s produced arguably his grandest poetic statement yet, a sweeping panorama of culture, history and philosophy peering back through assassinations, world wars, the births of nations, crusades and Biblical myths in order to plot his place in the great eternal scheme. Rough? Perhaps, but it certainly has the warmth and lustre of the intimate and home-made. And rowdy? Dylan’s sure been rowdier ... Instead he requires of his band just a series of soft and simple canvasses, woven largely from gentle spiritual, lustrous country, Southern blues or gothic Americana – often resembling enclosed, traditionally structured atmospheres rather than songs – onto which he can project his sprawling literary visions of death, degradation and the horrors of history.'

Deacon Blue - City Of Love: 'They continue to conjure anthems that celebrate love, work, faith, hope, going out, and coming home ... we find Ricky Ross writing from a more personal – and maybe more vulnerable – viewpoint than before. City of Love seeks out the quiet moments, far from the bombast. From the solace of shared candle-light (the glorious, Fleetwood Mac-invoking 'In Our Room') to the solitude of nature (the gospel-rock of 'A Walk In The Woods'), it is poignant, pensive, yet never maudlin. If 'Intervals' stunning, astral pop reminds us of the ticking clock ('so little time'), then the swoon-inducing soul of 'Come On In' urges us to make the most of our days, and nights.'

Sufjan Stevens - The Ascension: Stevens 'felt inspired to create a whole record that examined the world he was living in, questioning it when it felt wrong and “exterminating all bullshit“. The sprawling results of this personal interrogation, which play out over a glitchy 80 minutes, serve as a powerful dissection of modern humanity. Filled with universal anguish and anxieties, ‘The Ascension’ ... takes a weary look at the outside world and out comes a deep sigh ... anxious instrumentals echo the album’s uneasy outlook and fear of the future, and when they combine forces it often makes for an astonishing listen. The world is pretty shitty at the moment and it’s easy to feel helpless, but as the horror show that is 2020 continues to rumble on, ‘The Ascension’ is yet another ample soundtrack to rage-dance to.'

Gregory Porter - All Rise: 'It’s not all just about that great voice. Gregory Porter also has a mighty generosity of spirit, plus empathy, warmth and optimism. And he has gathered a superb team around him to make a strong album with plenty of scale and depth ... All these contributions weave around Porter himself and strengthen what he does. The singer has written of “Revival Song”, written in memory of Freddie Gray, the 25-year old who died in police custody in Baliimore in 2015: “It’s about finding your source of strength to bring you back to seeing who you truly are so that you can be restored to the giant that you are.” That is what Gregory Porter, with help from some fine musicians has achieved with All Rise in 2020.'

Michael McDermott - What In The World: 'Chicago born McDermott’s poetic reflections on the parlous predicament of American politics and humanity in general always repay closer investigation, and “What in the World..” must rank as his most compelling offering to date. The Dylanesque title track points an accusing finger at the inhumanities perpetrated by the Trump regime via a tumbling flood of memorable lyrical images, contrasting beautifully with the much more low key charms of “Positively Central Park” and “New York,Texas,” a subdued gem strongly reminiscent of “Nebraska” era Springsteen at his brilliant best.'

Scott Stapp - The Space Between the Shadows: 'This album is powerful, it is beautiful and I can guarantee that every person reading this will be able to relate to the lyrical content throughout…we have all fought our demons to one extent or another but Scott has laid his soul bare and I am sure he is a very different man from the one prior to writing and recording The Space Between the Shadows. The album title tells a story of its own and although this is as dark as hell it is also full of light, hope and redemption. Scott Stapp is back and I lay odds he is better, stronger and much wiser than before.'

Bill Fay - Countless Branches - 'Countless Branches is the third of Fay's later-period albums, following Life Is People (2012) and Who Is the Sender? (2015). It might just be the best, too. It's palatable and concise, comprising ten tracks with bonuses pushing the total to 17. An incorrigible grouch might bridle at these guileless, gently philosophical songs, but they're delivered with such obvious sincerity that the rest of us will be charmed. As ever, Fay focuses on the search for meaning and substance in everyday life.'

Buddy & Judy Miller - 'Breakdown on 20th Avenue South': '... out of the ashes of loss, abandonment and melancholy, the songwriter has emerged like a phoenix for the sizzling Breakdown on 20th Ave. South (New West Records), the couple’s first duet record since 2009’s Written in Chalk. As much a testament to faith and forgiveness as it is a pulsating chronicle of a marriage beset by physical and emotional challenges, the album, which takes its name from the Music Row-adjacent street on which the couple resides in Nashville, ranks among the year’s finest.' 

The Innocence Misson - 'See You Tomorrow': Don Peris says, “There is a longing there to be transformed and a hopeful expectation that it is possible,” he explains. “I find joy, or a similar type of joy, in all of the songs,” he concludes. “A humble recognition of challenges and hardships, the acknowledgment and comfort in knowing that they are both personal and universal, and the expression of light and hope.” 'Focusing on the world that exists within our own heartbeats, The Innocence Mission has created a disc that finds truth in the connections binding us to each other. See You Tomorrow radiates a sense of love and warmth to help us through moments when those same commodities may be in short supply.'

My previous Top Ten's can be found here - 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012.

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Bill Fay - Filled With Wonder Once Again.

Music from a tumultuous year

Music from a tumultuous year - some sourced from 'Best music of the worst year':

Mavis Staples shared a new collaboration with Jeff Tweedy, “All in It Together,” with all proceeds from the track going to charity. “The song speaks to what we’re going through now — everyone is in this together, whether you like it or not,” Staples said in a statement. “It doesn’t matter how much money you have, what race or sex you are, where you live…it can still touch you. It’s hit so many people in our country and around the world in such a horrible way and I just hope this song can bring a little light to the darkness. We will get through this but, we’re going to have to do it together. If this song is able to bring any happiness or relief to anyone out there in even the smallest way, I wanted to make sure that I helped to do that.”

On Lockdown Songs Nashville heroes Buddy and Julie Miller collected nine topical songs, beginning with Public Service Song #1: Stay Home, that they wrote and recorded during the tumultuous year that has consumed all our lives. This collection includes the beautiful The Last Bridge You Will Cross (For John Lewis).

Michael McDermott's What In The World delivers a propulsive punch that reflects anger and passion hurtles out of the starting gate as Subterranean Homesick Blues meets We Didn’t Start The Fire. He rattles off lyrics about a new world order with “walls along the border/Kids in cages/Executive orders/Welfare for billionaires/People hungry everywhere”, dropping in references to James Joyce, Paul Revere, the President and Iron Eyes Cody, as he presciently declares “Dark days coming for the U.S.A.”.

H.E.R., "I Can't Breathe." Backed by a spare beat and atmospheric choir, the 23-year-old R&B star sings with a soulfully aching, yearning voice and adds potent spoken-word passages about generations of pain, fear and anxiety.

Sounds of Blackness, "Sick and Tired." After five decades of preaching positivity, the Twin Cities ensemble got fired up post-George Floyd, adapting civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer's classic 1964 refrain into the fiercest, most powerful song in their repertoire. This horn-blasted, gospel-infused call to action is the perfect sound coming from Minneapolis in 2020.

Mickey Guyton, "Black Like Me." Sonically, this piano ballad could fit seamlessly on contemporary country radio. Her heartbreak is about being different in a small town and in Nashville. "If you think we live in the land of the free," the Black country vocalist croons with pain in her voice, "you should try to be Black like me."

Rosanne Cash, "Crawl Into the Promised Land." The oft-outspoken singer-songwriter serves up a haunting, hopeful, swampy acoustic blues anthem. "Deliver me from tweets and lies/ and purify me in the sun," she sings.

Lucinda Williams, "Man Without a Soul." With its warbly, slashing guitar, this slow-burn blues tears into a certain president without mentioning his name. The song has more dignity and soul than its target.

Jim White made a video for The Divided States of America, the final song from his new album, Misfit's Jubilee: "I'm typically not the political type but these times we're riding out here, they're anything but typical. At this moment in our collective history it makes sense that voices normally content to remain silent should be lifted in outrage, howling, exhorting our minds and hearts to focus on a singular goal---higher ground for all, not just the rich folks."

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Jim White - The Divided States Of America.. 

Windows on the world (308)

London, 2019

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Graham Kendrick - The Candle Song.

Steve Hawley and 'Waiting at the Station'

I encountered the work of Steve Hawley through a profile in Image Journal and have recently re-connected with his work through his 2016 book 'Waiting at the Station'. 

Since the 1970s Hawley has been exhibiting paintings widely throughout the United States and abroad. His paintings are in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the De Cordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, among many others. His work is featured in a number of important books including American Realism (Abrams, 1994); The Crucifixion In American Art (McFarland, 2003); Who's Who In American Art (Bowker, 1986), Art Today (Phaidon, 1999); Descent: New Testament Series (Phaidon, 2000); 100 Boston Painters (Schiffer, 2012).

He has been the recipient of the Alternate Fullbright-Hays Full Grant in Painting to Italy, the Individual Artist Grant (Artists Foundation), and grants from the Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation. His work has been written about widely in publications such as the New York Times, American Art Now, the Japan Times, and elsewhere.

Born in Brooklyn in 1950, Hawley received his diploma and graduate diploma from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. After graduation, he went on to become an instructor at the Museum School as well as an instructor in painting and drawing at Tufts University. He was also a visiting artist at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He now lives and works in Newburyport, MA. He draws upon his extensive art education from various institutions. His first-hand lessons from influential figures such as Henry Schwartz and his deep religious faith further help him create stunning works of art from still lifes to landscapes.He has forged an enduring life informed by the arts, ethics, independence, and religion.

Hawley developed a unique painting technique by using very thin layers of oil paint, wax, and alkyd resin to create detailed, glowing images. He spends many months on one painting, building up layers of color and glaze to create images that show mysterious and often haunting worlds. 

He creates expressive still lifes and interiors, and often incorporates images of his own paintings and sketches into the compositions. He has said that: “The paintings within paintings represent the multiple stages of reality. I’m fascinated with the interplay of the physical and the spiritual, the classical and the abstract, the past and the present.” An example is Root of Jesse, which has a jagged piece of paper showing a crucifix appearing taped to the wall behind a table of fruit. Hawley does not consider his work to be devotional, but uses symbols like the crucifix to ​“explore and resolve” his personal questions about Christianity. The detailed image of the fruit reflected in the shiny tabletop creates a sense of stillness that contrasts with the passion and vigor expressed by the painting in the background.

In 2018 'Steve Hawley: Studio Light' was the first survey of his work with a museum. 37 paintings curated by Katherine French were shown at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. A fully illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition. Michael Mansfield, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Ogunquit Museum of American Art, said that: "Hawley is a remarkably skilled painter. I've been fortunate to work with both the artist and our guest curator to bring together his finest works from across the country." The exhibition reunited a series of studio paintings of immense personal significance, a remarkable array of still lifes, and an inspired grouping of abstract seascapes, each ranging from the 1980s to the present. 

The Stations of the Cross are well known but in 1991 Pope John Paul II initiated a revised version of The Stations of the Cross using only biblical texts. He called this new version “The Way of the Cross". 
Based on “The Way of the Cross” Hawley, and Michael Kelly Blanchard collaborated on a visual/aural contemplative experience, called 'Waiting at the Station'. Hawley painted 14 canvases and Blanchard wrote 14 songs, one for each of the “stations”. 'Waiting at the Station' is intended as a spiritual springboard, allowing song and visual art to help expand the timeless soul benefits of remembering our Lord’s passion.

Released during the Jubilee Year of Mercy 2016, this artful and inspiring 52-page, full-color book is well-summarized by its sub-title: Meditations on the Mysteries of the Stations of the Cross. The essence of each of these original fourteen meditations is captured in the words offered by Pope John Paul II when he led the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday in the year 2000: '... we are convinced that the Way of the Cross of the Son of God was not simply a journey to the place of execution. We believe that every step of the Condemned Christ, every action and every word, as well as everything felt and done by those who took part in this tragic drama, continues to speak to us.'

First offered as a book with beautiful renditions of the paintings, texts and song lyrics, a DVD has also been created so the songs can be heard and the paintings explored in a deeper and almost magical way.

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'Waiting at the Station' - Station 4: I Told Myself.

Hope is love stretched into the future

Here's the Christmas message I have shared from Churches Together in Westminster:

I recently came across the phrase, 'hope is love stretched into the future' and used it for some Christmas intercessions. I prayed for a future where we can live free from fear of the Covid-19 pandemic because of the development and rollout of effective vaccines. These intercessions asked that God lead and guide all involved in developing, testing, approving and using the different vaccines and be with all who currently have the virus and all who are providing care and treatment; may his love be shown now in care and be stretched into a future that is free from of current restrictions.

As well as giving cause to pray into this time of pandemic, the God of hope also creates hope in us that we might see his love stretched into a future where his kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. Let us place our hope in the God of hope, the one whose love stretches into the future, and make that our prayer this Christmastide:

God of hope, we pray for a future where the good news of Christmas – of God with us – is experienced in every community throughout the world. May our experience of a Christmas in which we are only able to be with others in small numbers and for a short time make us hunger and thirst for depth of community and greater love of all. May your love in coming to be with us be stretched into a future where we reflect your love by being with those who are alone, marginalised, despised or rejected. Amen.

Happy Christmas from all at Churches Together in Westminster.

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Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir - The Prayer.

And a little child shall lead them

Here's my sermon for Midnight Mass at St Martin-in-the-Fields: 

This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.

What does Christmas look like today? Artist Nicola Ravenscroft has given us a vivid portrayal in her installation ‘With the Heart of a Child.’ It's on display below us in our crypt. The crypt is currently closed, so I'm going to describe the sculpture to you. It shows us seven life-size bronze children - one from every continent on Earth. Each one is simply dressed in soft silk. Each is leaning forward hopefully as if poised to dive into the future. Their eyes are closed as if they are dreaming into their future, anticipating things unseen.

Nicola writes that, as mother, and artist, she has agonised at the sight of our fractured society, our impending climate catastrophe, and our collective fear. She sees a desperate need for creativity and togetherness to arrest this. Her belief is that children can quietly lead us into recognising the truth of our ‘universal ONENESS, our oneness with each other and our oneness with the Earth’. So, her response to the challenges we currently face, especially this Christmas, has been to create this international group of little leaders pointing us towards understanding and TOGETHERNESS. They are an encouragement ‘to do whatever it takes to find solutions, to heal our broken planet, and so, to save our future.’

The prophet Isaiah promised a child born for us who would establish endless peace upheld with justice and righteousness: ‘For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.’ Isaiah also told of a little child who shall lead. He described a time when the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

Isaiah's vision of the peaceable kingdom was centred on a child born to be the Prince of Peace. When that promised child came among us, he said: ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs’, ‘Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’, ‘Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’ and ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.’

So, the child born for us in Bethlehem leads us to become like children. Why is this so? I want to suggest two reasons. The first is about a vulnerability revealing the interdependence of which Nicola speaks and the second, a way of looking revealing our connection with creation.

First, vulnerability. The Christmas story is that the God we think of as an all-powerful protector chose to become wholly dependent on human beings for his own protection. As a human baby God was wholly dependent on other human beings, primarily Mary and Joseph, for his protection and, as we hear regularly on the news, human beings don’t actually have a very good track record when it comes to treating children well. God was willing to take the risk of coming into our world; a world in which genocides occur and in which innocent children are abused and die - as happened with the massacre of the innocents in Bethlehem and beyond, a world in which he, though innocent, was tortured as a criminal and strung up on a cross to die:

“And the word became … / Wordless / Flesh / A baby with no words / And the voice of the maker became a hungry voice / A cry for food / A cry for milk / The voice that made gravity cried out for fear of falling / The voice that made women cries for a woman’s breast and screams with disappointment when it is denied …

Then now God is this small thing / Is a baby / Is a baby that can be dropped or hurt or left unfed, left unchanged, left wet and smelly / Or be child-abused.” (‘Image of the Invisible,’ Late, Late Service)

That was the reality of the incarnation and of the Christmas story. That is what it meant for Jesus to be born. It is the ultimate identification. God became flesh and blood and moved into our neighbourhood with all that that involves, not just at the beginning of his life but throughout. Why does this matter? It is when we are vulnerable that we are most aware of our need of others; that intrinsic interdependence that Nicola suggests is revealed to us by our experience of birth and childhood.

The sense of vulnerability engendered by the pandemic originally brought us a sense of community like never before as neighbours left notes offering help to those in their streets, as food banks supplied those in need, as we stood on our streets to applaud NHS and care workers, and as those same workers give sacrificially to care for those in need. If we follow the little child who leads we will see more community connection because, if we develop the heart of a child, our sense of vulnerability will reveal our interdependence and need one of another.

The second path to connection through childlikeness is about looking. As a baby Jesus was wholly dependent on others, as a child he began to explore the world around him using his sight, because sight precedes speech. We know from his parables and teaching that his learning was firmly rooted in the natural cycles of sowing, growing and reaping combined with deep appreciation for the beauty of the natural world, including the lilies of the field, and the value of each creature, including sparrows that cannot fall without God knowing. This understanding and appreciation derived from the attention he paid as a child to the natural world around him.

Artist and nun Sister Corita Kent once described a child’s journey from the front of the house to the back to illustrate the way children see the world, the attention they pay to it, and the wonder that they find. That short journey would ‘be full of pauses, circling, touching and picking up in order to smell, shake, taste, rub, and scrape’, ‘every object along the path will be a new discovery’ because ‘the child treats the situation with the open curiosity and attention that it deserves.’

Sister Corita went on to argue that through practice adults can learn once again to see as children do. She suggested that the kind slow looking practised by children, like prayer and art, enables us to view life without being distracted and allows us to put all our attention on a special area for a time. As would have been the case for the child Jesus, when we slow ourselves and focus our attention in this way we begin to receive what the world around has to show us; we notice things that others don’t and come to see that ordinary things are wondrous. The art historian John Ruskin claimed that the power of seeing in this way is ‘the teaching of all things,’ and that ‘To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion – all in one.’

This is a form of prayer taking us to a place and space full of delight and wonder; prayer, poetry and prophecy. In this prayerful space and attitude we see the peaceable kingdom into which the child born in Bethlehem wishes to lead us. For many of us that was part of our original lockdown experience, as we walked in green spaces and, in the silence, heard the birds sing like never before.

Children naturally see that peaceable kingdom through the attention that they pay to the world around them, until we, as adults, teach them otherwise. That is why the children are our future and can lead the way into a better future. Like the poet Thomas Traherne, we need to unlearn the dirty devices of this world in order to become, as it were, a little child again that we may enter into the Kingdom of God.

Nicola Ravenscroft intuitively understands these truths and, as a maternal sculptor, creates children that through their connection to nature grant us a vision of the peaceable kingdom toward which they wish to lead us. In words taken from the novelist Joseph Conrad, her urgent prayer is that the children she has sculpted, ‘shall awaken in the hearts of the beholders, that feeling of unavoidable solidarity: of the solidarity in mysterious origin, in toil, in joy, in hope, in uncertain fate, which binds all to each other, and all humankind to the visible world.’

These are the children the adult Jesus called us to welcome, the children we are to become, the children to whom the peaceable kingdom belongs. They stand together peacefully in our Crypt as friends, vulnerable and strong, silently singing out their call to change. These little bronze children lead with trusting feet, plump and bare. The Prince of Peace is with them and calls us to let them lead the way saying the kingdom of heaven belongs to children, and anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. 

Our world with its current catastrophes, fractures in society, and collective fears is crying out for change and hope. The baby born at Bethlehem remains the sign that we, too, need to be born again if our world is to know new life and fresh hope. That is the Christmas we need today and so, together with Nicola, my prayer is that we let the baby wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger lead us to become like children ourselves; open to vulnerability, embracing interdependence, paying prayerful attention to the world and thereby entering Christ’s peaceable kingdom.

I will be continuing to explore the themes of the sermon in a new series of posts called 'Seeing is receiving: The art of contemplation', the first of which will follow this post. Click here to read the first post in this new series.

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Randall Thompson - The Peaceable Kingdom.

Seeing is Receiving: The art of contemplation (1)

Today I'm beginning a new series exploring the art of contemplation. This post introduces the series and I'll post the remainder of the series on a weekly basis.

Introduction - Seeing

This is a book about prayer. But it is not a book about prayer like any you will have read. Most books about prayer are about the words we should speak or, if they are books of prayers, give us the words we are to speak. This is a book using words to bring us to silence.

Why? Because when we fall silent is when we begin to see. All we do and all we stop doing begins and ends in silence. Silence wraps itself around our lives through birth and death but also all our activity and speech within life.

This is perhaps most evident when music is played. Music fills the spaces in which it is performed for the duration of the performance but there is silence before and after. It may even be that the purpose of the sounds is that when they end we notice the silence more acutely than before. That is the movement – lyrically and musically – of Van Morrison’s ‘Summertime in England’ – one of the most meditative pieces created within the canon of noise that is rock music. It may also be why – in his most famous work – John Cage gave us 4 minutes 33 seconds of silence structured as a musical composition. Morrison takes us on a lyrical journey from the Lake District through Bristol to Glastonbury picking up on the literary and spiritual references as we travel to reveal that what we find in nature, literature and religion is the opportunity to rest, to experience, to be, to see, in silence.

We are led into silence in order to see because seeing is foundational to understanding. Seeing precedes speech. That is the sequence of human development, one that we ignore at our peril. It is also the sequence of the foundational story in the book of Genesis where Adam names the animals. Naming is a key human speech-act. Describing and defining is a tool for navigating existence and is the basis of scientific discovery, but it begins with seeing.

In order to accurately describe or define or map, you have first to see what is there. That is the sequence within this story. God brings animals to Adam. He looks at each one and then describes or defines each by naming it. Names in ancient times described the essence of the creature or object so named. That is what Adam does in this story. He looks for the essence of each creature and then names that essence.

With God the sequence is the same but on a cosmic scale, as God is creator. The account of creation in Genesis 1 begins with the Spirit hovering over the waters. We do not know how long this state lasted - it was a time out of time, as time did not yet exist – but it is clearly a preparatory time without speech. God then speaks and the world comes into existence. But then God looks. God looks, and sees that it is good. Then he rests; in silence. The end of speech is silence. The end of creation is rest. That is where our co-creation with God begins, in contemplation.

The Bible is full of words and speech and action but we are told that God continues to look. He sees us in the womb; Psalm 139.15-16 tells us that our frames were not hidden from God when we were being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. God’s eyes beheld our unformed substance there. God saw into the hearts of Jesse’s sons - as also with each one of us - selecting David as the one after his own heart. He saw Jonah as he tried to evade God’s call on his life, he sees every hair upon our head to the extent that they can each be numbered, and he sees and numbers every sparrow that falls. The stories that Jesus told are often stories in which the central characters look for what is lost or hidden. The point of these stories is that we find by seeing what is lost, hidden or over-looked. The point is that we see, as God sees.

As seeing is fundamental to creativity, this book suggests that art and artists can teach us how to see. The inspiration for this book is an insight expressed by the art historian, critic and curator Daniel Siedell. He suggested that attending to details, ‘looking closely is a useful discipline for us as Christians, who are supposed to see Christ everywhere, especially in the faces of all people.’ He then argued that, if ‘we dismiss artwork that is strange, unfamiliar, unconventional, if we are inattentive to visual details, how can we be attentive to those around us?’[i]

Similarly, the philosopher Simone Weil said that attention - the kind of close contemplative looking that is fundamental to our experience of art – when ‘taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer’. That is because it ‘presupposes faith and love’. Therefore, ‘absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.’[ii]

To explore this connection between contemplative looking and contemplative prayer I’m going to take us on two journeys. The first is an exploration of 7 S’s which aid our ability to genuinely pay attention in the way Weil suggests. We are aided in contemplative seeing by slowing down, sustained looking, surrendering ourselves to art through our immersion within it, staying with the silence inherent in much art, study of sources, the sharing of experiences, and openness to inspiration, the sparking of the Spirit. Many of these aids to seeing are practices shared by those who pray contemplatively. In particular, there are significant parallels to the rule of life practised by the Nazareth Community at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the members of which each shape a personal rule of life, containing individual and communal activities, using the practices of Silence, Scripture, Sacrament, Service, Sharing, Sabbath, and Staying With.

Be Still was a visual arts trail that was a wonderful example of the 7 S’s being surfaced and used. In 2016, Be Still celebrated Lent through the mindful reflection of art in six of Manchester’s most iconic venues. Contemporary installations, paintings, sculpture and live performances by internationally renowned and local artists uncovered moments where the sacred inhabits the ordinary. Each art work in the trail was accompanied by a reflection to help viewers engage spiritually and practically with stillness, prayer and mindfulness.

In the accompanying booklet Lesley Sutton, the Director of PassionArt, summarised the gift that artists offer to use in regard to attentive looking and contemplative prayer:

‘The gift the artist offers is to share with us is the mindful and prayerful act of seeing, for, in order to make material from their thoughts and ideas, they have to spend time noticing, looking intently and making careful observation of the minutiae of things; the negative spaces between objects, the expression and emotion of faces, the effect of light and shadow, shades of colour, the variety of texture, shape and form. This act of seeing slows us down and invites us to pay attention to the moment, to be still, not to rush and only take a quick glance but instead to come into a relationship with that which you are seeing, to understand it and make sense of its relationship with the world around it. This is a form of prayer where we become detached from our own limited perspective and make way for a wider more compassionate understanding of ourselves, others and the world we inhabit.’[iii]

The second journey is one to view some of the art commissioned by churches in the period since modern art began. For a significant part of its history the Church in the West was the major patron for visual arts. In that period, content ruled for the Church as art illustrated Biblical narratives and the lives of the Saints for teaching the faith, inspiring praxis, and facilitating prayer. But by the time Impressionism initiated modern art, art had already freed itself in many ways from the patronage of the Church and, as form not content became its primary focus, the developments of modern art led to an increasingly strained relationship between the Church and the visual arts.

The story of modern art has often been told with little or no reference to Christianity and yet, as Daniel Siedell has noted, an alternative history and theory of the development of modern art exists ‘revealing that Christianity has always been present with modern art, nourishing as well as haunting it, and that modern art cannot be understood without understanding its religious and spiritual components and aspirations.’[iv]

Seeing art commissioned for churches as part of the twentieth century renewal of religious art in Europe, as I did as a Sacred Art Pilgrimage in 2014, enables reflection on the ways in which artworks in churches facilitate contemplation and prayer. On my pilgrimage I visited churches in Belgium, England, France and Switzerland and I’ll take you back to some of those churches in the pages that follow. The majority were connected in some way with the encouragement to commission contemporary for churches given by George Bell, Marie-Alain Couturier, Maurice Denis, Albert Gleizes, Walter Hussey and Jacques Maritain.

Near the beginning of the pilgrimage I sat in St Giles Cripplegate on a balmy summer’s evening in July. I was there to listen to The Revd. Dr. Samuel Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, speak about ‘Art and the renewal of St Martins’. I didn’t know it then, but within a year I would join the team at St Martin’s and become a colleague of The Revd. Dr.

I was nearing the end of one journey whilst being at the beginning of several others. At that point I was a Vicar in East London with a significant interest in the Arts and their connections to faith; more than that, an interest in faith connecting with the whole of life. Engaging with the Arts, with workplaces, with community life and social action; these had all been key motivations on my journey into ordained ministry and of my ministry in East London since ordination in 2003.

Sam’s talk, part of an International Conference organised by Art & Christianity Enquiry, was scene-setting for a journey that was part pilgrimage, part art trail; while wholly concerned with seeing and contemplating the connections between art and faith. After initial remarks on the theme of art as a plurality of possibility showing what could be by using form, media and idea for creation, appreciation and interpretation, he took John Calvin’s threefold office of Christ as a frame for speaking about art, St Martins and art at St Martins.

In speaking about the Prophet, he said that art holds up a mirror to society and asks, ‘Are you proud of what you see?’ Art can create a dream of society fulfilled and thereby the painful gap between the ideal and reality. Prophets often shock and some prophetic acts are shocking. The priestly dimension of it that it enables us to see beyond the stars; we can “heaven espie” through art and it can, therefore, be a sacrament. Through the arts the ordinary stuff of life speaks or sings of the divine. Artists are the high priests of creation. Finally, using the kingly dimension, art can show what humanity can be when we reach our full potential. Kingly art stretches us and is about glory, as with a road sweeper he had encountered who spoke of his love of opera as being “his glory.” Artists construct acts of worship. God is the great artist and each human life is an interpretation and improvisation on the creativity of God.

These were the exciting aspirations on which I reflected as I set out on my journey of discovery through an art pilgrimage. I hope they also excite you as we set out on our shared journey through the 7 S’s of contemplative looking in order to discover the place of silence where we see with prayerful attention.

Every journey needs to include points at which we rest, recuperate and reflect before moving on further. As such, each chapter on our journey ends with options to Explore, Wonder, Pray, and undertake a Spiritual Exercise or an Art Action. Explore is information enabling further exploration of the theme, usually through related artworks. Wonderings are open-ended while relevant to the theme of the chapter and the reader's experience. They are intended to move in the direction of entering the content of the chapter and your own lived experience more deeply. There are no right or wrong responses to wonderings. The prayers included seek to channel the main themes of the chapter into personal prayers. Alternatively, you may wish to write or pray your own. The spiritual exercises seek to suggest an activity to enable prayerful reflection on the themes in ways that could enhance your own spirituality. Finally, the Art Actions provide links to some of the artworks or art activities mentioned in the chapter.

Our journey together begins and ends with poetry:

Attend, attend, pay attention, contemplate.
Open eyes of faith to days, minutes,
moments of miracle and marvel; there is wildness
and wonder wherever you go, present
in moments that never repeat, running free,
never coming again. Savour, savour the present –
small things, dull moments, dry prayers –
sacraments of presence, sense of wonder,
daily divine depth in the here and now.
There is only here, there is only now,
these are the days, this is the fiery vision,
awe and wildness, miracle and flame. Take off
your shoes, stand in the holy fire; sacrament
of the burning, always consumed, never repeating
present moment, knowing the time is now.

[i] D. Siedell - https://imagejournal.org/artist/daniel-siedell/
[ii] S. Weil, Gravity and Grace, Routledge, 2004, p. 117
[iii] L. Sutton in Be Still: PassionArt Trail 2016, PassionArt, 2016, p. 38
[iv] D. A. Siedell, God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art, BakerAcademic, 2008

See also 'And a little child shall lead them' which explores similar themes.

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Van Morrison - Summertime In England.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God

A Solidarity Sunday resource booklet has been prepared by Churches Together in Westminster to help churches focus on those in developing countries who are suffering from the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is hoped this will encourage congregations to engage actively with Christian organisations worldwide in their work with vulnerable communities. This should surely be a part of our response to the universal gift of God that we remember and celebrate in Christmastide.

The booklet has been arranged as a series of daily readings around key themes:

• Day One Impact of coronavirus on people in fragile countries
• Day Two Health, shelter and survival
• Day Three Poverty and livelihoods
• Day Four Education and children
• Day Five Violence against women and girls, and gender inequality
• Day Six Impact on those with disabilities
• Day Seven Loss of rights and freedoms
• Day Eight Impact on peace processes and conflict

CTiW encourage churches to make the booklet available to their congregations and consider holding a Solidarity Sunday service to introduce the booklet and encourage support for the organisations listed in the booklet’s appendix. Solidarity Sunday is about reminding ourselves and each other that there is so much good we can do - through giving, through prayer and through powerful demonstrations of unity.

The booklet is available from http://ctiw.london/2020/coronavirus-solidarity-booklet-letter/

I have written the reflection on peace processes and conflict:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5.9)

When, in a festive spirit of munificence, Peter Kennard and Neville Brody collaborated to produce a new artwork for our troubled times entitled ‘Peace on Earth’, they reached for Christian imagery. Based on a painting from the National Gallery of the Virgin Mary praying, ‘Peace on Earth’ replaced the Virgin’s halo with the CND Peace symbol and her face with planet Earth.

A New Year gift in 2016, the image was made available as a free download, the idea being to give something back at that time of year, and as a designer; with that something being an image to make people think, that wasn’t too horrific for them to put on a wall.

Kennard said:

‘At the heart of mobilising positive, peaceful activism is a radical, subversive generosity on the part of artists and designers, which runs counter to any social structure that privileges the ‘I’ over the ‘we’, and refutes the unfestive – but nonetheless accurate – observation that we may no longer know how to give without counting the cost.

Giving breaks the cycle of greed, and encourages people to be generous, community-minded and constructive. It’s about doing something for the sake of change, for the common good – which is what the original peace symbol was about. There’s a refreshing positivity to giving freely, which runs counter to one’s normal transactions in the world.

Anyone who’s been involved in the best bits of peaceful activism knows that mobilising positive human energy is life affirming. Like singing in a Christmas choir, one of the reasons to go on a march is to be there in a group of people who believe the human race isn’t doomed after all.

As artist Jimmy Durham says, ‘Humanity is not a completed project,’ meaning both that we are still here and that we need to try harder. Artists and designers have a long tradition of bending the tools of their trade to that cause, beating swords into aesthetic ploughshares.’[i]

In these thoughts and in this image Kennard draws deeply on scripture and Christian imagery to describe the prayerful, generous, incarnational, transformational (instruments of war into implements of peace), community-building and environmentally-focused peace-making which Jesus said can be named as characteristic of God’s children. Our dual challenge is to become involved in such peace-making ourselves – particularly in this time of increasing nationalism – and also to name such peace-making and the peacemakers themselves as being part of God’s peaceable kingdom yet to come in full; on earth as it is in heaven.

[i] https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/rca-stories/peace-on-earth/

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John & Yoko Plastic Ono Band + Harlem Community Choir - Happy Xmas (War Is Over).

CTiW Solidarity Resources booklet

Churches Together in Westminster has prepared a Solidarity Resources booklet for churches. Here is my letter introducing the booklet to our members:

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of all people across the globe. We, in the wealthy countries of the G20, need to recognise and take responsibility for the fact that our progress, quality and way of life is at the expense of the people of the least developed countries.

The coronavirus pandemic is not a great equaliser as some have claimed. This pandemic has reminded us that we are all connected, and that to be well and healthy we depend on others, and on our communities. In fact, unequal systems of power double down in a crisis.

The danger is that, even with a vaccine, for some time to come our focus in the UK will shift almost entirely to domestic issues and to our own recovery. This will not be a quick process but has already led to claims that we cannot afford to support the most vulnerable countries at the level we did before, thus casting them adrift.

Pope Francis has said, ‘We exist only in relationships: with God the Creator, with our brothers and sisters as members of a common family, and with all of God’s creatures within our common home.’ As a global Christian family we need to embody Pope Francis’ prophetic words as we unite to
pray and take action for our common home during this season of global pandemic.

Lucy Olofinjana writes for Churches Together in England & Wales that we need to:

‘Unite with Christians from all continents to ask for a coronavirus response that embraces sharing, not plundering. Learn the importance of living out Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 12, ‘If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness.’ Let’s seek to make this a reality as we go about life as part of God’s family. Let’s ‘rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn’ (Romans 12:15) – being real and honest with one another, and truly being there for each other, in the good times and the bad. Because, after all, we are family.’

This resource booklet has been prepared by Churches Together in Westminster to help our members focus on those in developing countries who are suffering from the COVID-19 Pandemic. We hope we will all encourage our congregations to engage actively with Christian organisations worldwide in their work with vulnerable communities. This should surely be a part of our response to the universal gift of God that we remember and celebrate in Christmastide.

This booklet has been arranged as a series of daily readings around key themes:

• Day One Impact of coronavirus on people in fragile countries
• Day Two Health, shelter and survival
• Day Three Poverty and livelihoods
• Day Four Education and children
• Day Five Violence against women and girls, and gender inequality
• Day Six Impact on those with disabilities
• Day Seven Loss of rights and freedoms
• Day Eight Impact on peace processes and conflict

We encourage you to make the booklet available to your congregations and consider holding a Solidarity Sunday service to introduce the booklet and encourage support for the organisations listed in the booklet’s appendix. Solidarity Sunday is about reminding ourselves and each other that there is so much good we can do - through giving, through prayer and through powerful demonstrations of unity.

A celebration of solidarity organised by Farm Street Church with CTiW can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=XvJ4mE5C3AY. The service includes a sermon preached by Revd Tricia Hillas, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, testimony and readings from homeless guests of the Central London Catholic Churches service at Farm Street, and prayers from Churches Together in Westminster.

We hope you will organise your own Solidarity Sunday service and will be happy to provide any support, ideas or advice that would assist.

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World Day of the Poor 2020 - Churches Together in Westminster.