Love is the Meaning

Love is the Meaning is an international art exhibition in response to Julian of Norwich’s ‘shewings’ 650 years ago which is in Julian’s city from 18th October – 16th November.

Julian of Norwich's writing continues to surprise, baffle and delight. She thought it was worthwhile to ask God how He could possibly claim that ‘All shall be Well’ and the end response was ‘Love is the Meaning’.

To celebrate the 650th anniversary of Julian’s shewings in her home city, the Friends of Julian and the Julian Partnership wanted to focus on the pictures themselves, not only the words of this remarkable woman. So in March 2023 they challenged modern artists to think about Julian’s “shewings” and imagine what she actually saw.

Over forty artists from several different countries have responded, and the results are on show in three venues. The artists have used media from the traditional crafts of stained glass, stone carving, and weaving to conceptual art in sound and light. There is a podcast and interactive installations to spark the imagination and light up Julian’s words.

Often it takes years of living with a picture – a good picture – to see it all. And often we can’t put the reason it is so satisfying into words. Julian studied the pictures sent to her by God for over twenty years – because she wanted to understand them and she believed their meaning was important. It was a most dangerous act of faith in those years when it became illegal to read or write about God in English. For lay people like Julian, teaching theology – in English – was punishable by a most hideous death of burning at the stake in nearby Lollard’s Pit. In spite of the danger, Julian wrote the first book in English by a woman.

St Julian's, St John's Timberhill, and St Stephen's Rampant Horse Street in Norwich are all connected with Julian's life. The exhibition takes the form of an exciting pilgrimage walk and exploration of the art and history of these important churches. Special guided walks with Paul Dickson on some dates introduce visitors to Medieval Norwich to help visitors explore the medieval city that Julian would have known so well.

“Julian counselled people daily throughout her years as an anchoress, and we want to reawaken the conversation.” says Lucy Care, curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition exploring her pictures through the eyes of modern artists allows us to see her work with fresh eyes. Prepare to wonder, be confused, indignant or refilled with happiness as her conviction that Love is the meaning of God’s creation is made visible. That love resides in every being, every drop of water and every organic cell of the universe, just as the artist’s DNA can be found in every fibre of their own work.”

The exhibition is over three venues, St Julian’s in Julian Alley, St John the Baptist, Timberhill and St Stephen’s, Rampant Horse Street. The exhibition is planned to give a sense of pilgrimage as visitors walk the streets of medieval Norwich. All venues are open 10am – 3pm, seven days a week. Church services will also be happening from time to time.

For information on workshops and times of church services please look on the website: https://julianofnorwich.org/pages/love-is-the-meaning-an-exhibition-of-new-art-celebrating-the-words-and-shewings-of-julian-of-norwich#.

All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the Amethyst Press anthology of new poems for Julian of Norwich has also been prepared for the Anniversary and 20 of its poems are also displayed around Norwich, several being shown close to the exhibition venues.

'All Shall Be Well' is an anthology of new poems for Mother Julian, medieval mystic, anchoress, and the first woman to write a book in English. Lyrical, prayerful, vivid and insightful, these poems offer a poetic testament to Julian's enduring legacy of prayer and confidence in a merciful God who assured her that 'All Shall Be Well, and All Shall Be Well, and All Manner of Thing Shall Be Well.' The anthology has been edited by and comes with an introduction by Sarah Law, editor of Amethyst Review. Copies can be purchased here: Amazon US; Amazon UK; Amazon AU (plus other Amazon platforms).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sian Croose - All Shall Be Well.

Windows on the world (449)

 Norwich, 2023

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Dylan - Dignity.

Seen&Unseen: Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey

My second article for Seen&Unseen has just been published. In it, I explore inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith: 

"Black Rainbows represents a significant development in Bailey Rae's music and career. By turns angry and reflective, noisy and still, celebratory and keening, original and grounded, the album broadens her musical palette considerably through a marvellous melange of electronica, jazz and punk meshed with soul and R&B. The album ranges from righteous railing against the casual erasure of Black lives and memories to a vision of a world in which we dig our gardens and live, find work and time to dance, in a new utopia."

For more on Theaster Gates, a key inspiration for Black Rainbows, click here. For my reviews of exhibitions that explore similar themes click here, here, and here. 

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Corinne Bailey Rae - A Spell, A Prayer.

Preloved Metaphors

Preloved Metaphors is a collection of poems exploring the process and effects of language and writing. Loydell cites David J. Gunkel, in an epigraph, as saying, "Creativity is a matter of drawing on, reconfiguring, and repurposing remade materials that are already at hand an in circulation." The collection begins with the many ways in which we limit the potential of language; "We only look in order to see ourselves. We only read to borrow sentences." Yet, words pique our interest and "have the potential to elevate discourse to something which offers us new ways to think" while, ultimately, "All things need language to create them." As a result, he concludes, "The author is archivist, conservator, and above all, accomplice; language goes mostly unseen."

Humbly and realistically, this is "a collection of misses and mistakes", an attempt to record, reconfigure and remake the world around us before it disappears for good or becomes impossible to find. Even as the author tries to escape himself, time is one step ahead and somebody else has already re-used the secondhand words he has borrowed. Although "there is no way to catch those / brief moments spent blinking in the sun", Rupert Loydell – in league with the ghost of John Ashbery – does at least try.

In a recent, unpublished dialogue with Harvey Hix, Loydell writes: "My writing is very much a resistance to traditional ideas of authorship, particularly the lone genius relying on inspiration, but also about deconstructing texts (not just literary ones) to understand what they might be saying and how I can or might understand them. At times that may result in satire or comment, polemic or resistance, whatever the result I hope it regenerates the often dead language around us and shows the way language can be moulded, shaped, changed and (ab)used in creative ways."

Loydell grew up in London but has lived in South West England for several decades now. He currently teaches creative writing at Falmouth University, edits Stride magazine which he founded in 1982, paints small abstracts, and is a contributing editor to International Times. He has two previous solo Red Ceilings titles available, as well as a collaborative work, and other paperbacks such as his recent The Age of Destruction and Lies are available from Shearsman. He has co-authored and edited many other books, and also writes about post-punk music, pedagogy, poetry and film for academic journals and books. He is a widely published poet whose most recent poetry books are Dear Mary (Shearsman, 2017) and A Confusion of Marys (Shearsman, 2020). He has edited anthologies for Salt, Shearsman and KFS, written for academic journals such as Punk & Post-Punk (which he is on the editorial board of), New Writing, Revenant, The Journal of Visual Art Practice, Text, Axon, Musicology Research, Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, and contributed to Brian Eno. Oblique Music (Bloomsbury, 2016), Critical Essays on Twin Peaks: The Return (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Music in Twin Peaks: Listen to the Sounds (Routledge, 2021) and Bodies, Noise and Power in Industrial Music (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022). His paintings were first shown in Northern Young Contemporaries 1985, and since then he has had solo exhibitions in the UK, USA and Russia, and art in numerous group shows.

Other recent work by Loydell includes: 

• two poems up at Stride as part of a number of Cocaine Hippo poems by various authors: click here and here;
• 4 poems up at Squawk Back;
• a prose poem and 2 art works up at Futch;
• 3 prose texts at The Fortnightly Review;
• 3 poems at M58; and 
• a 4 poem sequence in the new print edition of Shearsman, who also published his book The Age of Destruction and Lies.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

T-Bone Burnett - Talk, Talk, Talk, Talk, Talk.

Unveiled - November and December

The next 'Unveiled' evening is 'Wickford Heroes': A talk by Steve Newman, 3 November 2023, 7.00 pm, St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN.

Hear Steve Newman of the Wickford War Memorial Association and author of ‘Wickford Heroes - The Wickford & Runwell Roll of Honour Book’ speak about the War Memorial & some of those from Wickford & Runwell who made the supreme sacrifice in the World Wars.

See also the 'Wickford Remembers' display at St Catherine's Wickford until 12 November. Archive photographs and stories of those who served in the two World Wars. Our thanks to Basildon Heritage for the display. See also the War Memorial and Commonwealth War Graves at St Catherine's.

Additionally, 'From Hong Kong to Wickford' is the autumn exhibition at St Andrew's Wickford. This exhibition is a Multifaceted Pictorial Display with Stories by Ho Wai-On (Ann-Kay) & Friends and is at the church from 26 September – 16 December 2023. St Andrew’s opening hours: Sat 9 am - 12.30 pm; Sun 9.30 am - 12 noon; Mon 2 – 3.45 pm; Tue 1 – 4.30 pm; Wed 10 am - 12 noon; Fri 10 am – 1 pm.

After 'Wickford Heroes' there are two further Unveiled events:

Rev Simpkins in concert, Friday 17 November, 7.00 pm
St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN
No ticket required – donations requested on the night

Rev Simpkins and Pissabed Prophet: Suffolk-Essex musician, Rev Simpkins, presents an evening of acoustic music of great imagination and charm, inspired by the history and geography of East Anglia.

The Rev will perform songs from his acclaimed folk albums Big Sea and Saltings, before his band Pissabed Prophet, formed with Dingus Khan’s Ben Brown and Nick Daldry, takes to the stage to play their first ever acoustic set.

The Rev’s sweeping melodies, rich harmonies, and fascinating lyrics have won him both a cult following and national acclaim.

This is a rare chance to experience the breadth of the Rev’s work in one evening.

"BIZARRE POST-PUNK MASTERY...LUDICROUSLY COOL" 8/10 Vive le Rock on Pissabed Prophet

"A MOST JOYOUS ALBUM...A WORK WITH AN OVER-ARCHING SENSE OF COMMUNITY, LIFE, LOVE, AND NATURE, WHILST ALSO MUSING ON THE CYCLICAL INEVITABILITY OF DEATH AND DECAY" Fatea Magazine on Pissabed Prophet

"ENERGETIC...GLORIOUS...A DANDELION FIELD FULL OF FRESH CUT GOODNESS" The Organ on Pissabed Prophet

Read my review of Pissabed Prophet here.

1 December – Mission to Seafarers evening including Sea Shanties: The Mission to Seafarers provides help and support to the 1.89 million crewmen and women who face danger every day to keep our global economy afloat. Hear more about their work from Paul Trathen, Port Development Manager. Also enjoy a selection of sea shanties from local singers led by John Rogers.

15 December – Film Night: It's a Wonderful Life. The story of dejected and desperate George Bailey, who's spent his whole life in the small town of Bedford Falls, but longs to explore the world. Reaching rock bottom, he starts to believe that everyone in his life would be better off if he had never been born. An angel shows him how important a role he's had in the lives of friends and family.

These events do not require tickets (just turn up on the night). There will be a retiring collection to cover artist and church costs. See http://wickfordandrunwellparish.org.uk/whats-on.html for fuller information.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pissabed Prophet - Evensong.

God with us like never before

Here's the sermon I shared at St Andrew’s Wickford yesterday:

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side … then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters” (Psalm 124). This is the Gospel in a nutshell.

To illustrate that statement, I want to share a story of one church in the pandemic. During the pandemic, I was at St Martin-in-the-Fields where, lockdown stopped our commercial activities overnight deleting two-thirds of the congregation’s income meaning that we had to shed three-quarters of our commercial and ministry staff. It was a devastating, depleting and distressing experience. Yet online, the congregation, its public ministry, and its music have found a reach, purpose, and dynamism like never before. All was made new. The musicians recorded music, weekly, for 4,000 churches across the land. HeartEdge seminars became a hub for innovation and evaluation. The Being With course drew participation from people far and wide, a good many of whom had been unable to attend services in a building before lockdown. Our national homeless charity had never been more in demand, or attracted more support, and worked fervidly to help people find secure accommodation.

Beautiful things happened – too many to recount - but it was also a complete nightmare, in which plans made and an institution crafted over generations were torn apart in ways a raging inferno couldn’t have achieved. And yet, like a ram in a thicket, something was always provided, or emerged, or suddenly changed. We were guided through the storm of these intense, distressing, but far from godless months, by some initial words from our Vicar, Sam Wells, who said:

“We come to church each Sunday, we pray and read our Bibles through the week, to prepare ourselves. Jesus grew up in Nazareth, travelled around Galilee to prepare himself for Jerusalem. In Jerusalem people discovered who he truly was, and what his words and actions really entailed. We’ve spent decades, many of us, preparing we knew not what for. Well, now we know. This is the moment when the world finds out whether being a Christian makes any difference or not.

In Britain, we say pray for a sunny day, but take an umbrella. I’m not saying in the face of the virus we don’t take sensible steps. We must follow public health advice. We do so not because others are a danger to us, but because we might, directly or indirectly, be a danger to them. We’re a community defined not by fear but by trust, not by scarcity but by plenty, not by anxiety but by communion. It’s time to show our true colours.

This is the moment to find ways to overcome isolation that don’t involve touch. We have this opportunity to explore the hinterland of the word with, that doesn’t always involve physical presence, but still means solidarity and kindness, generosity and love. We will limit our contact to protect the most vulnerable, but we still need to proclaim that there’s something more infectious than coronavirus – and that’s joy and peace, faithfulness and gentleness.

It was in its most bewildered hour that Israel in exile found who God truly was. This is our chance to discover what God being with us really means. None of us would for a moment have wished this crisis on anybody, let alone the whole world. But our faith teaches us that we only get to see resurrection through crucifixion; that we see God most clearly in our darkest hour.

Remember what Isaiah tells us. You shall cross the barren desert; but you shall not die of thirst. You shall wander far in safety – though you do not know the way. If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown. If you walk amid the burning flames, you shall not be harmed. If you stand before the power of hell and death is at your side, know that I am with you through it all. Be not afraid, says our God. I am with you like never before.

This is our faith.”

In a sermon from that same time, Sam also said: “God doesn’t spare us from the fire. God doesn’t rescue us from the fire … God is with us in the fire. ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me.’ ‘When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.’ That’s the gospel …

Jesus isn’t spared the cross. Jesus isn’t rescued from the cross. Jesus is with God on the cross. The bonds of the Trinity are stretched to the limit; but not ultimately, broken. When we see the cross we see that God is with us, however, whatever, wherever … forever. This is our faith.”

As a result, we can say with the Psalmist: “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side … then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us would have gone the raging waters.” May we know that truth in whatever difficulty we face currently. Amen.

(Adapted from 'Finding Abundance in Scarcity')

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

St Martin's Voices - All And More.

A third way, an alternative kingdom

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Nicholas Rawreth and All Saints Rettendon this morning: 

Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, was martyred by Roman authorities around AD 156, aged 86. When Polycarp was brought into the stadium at Smyrna to meet his fate the Roman proconsul tried to persuade him to deny Christ, saying, "Swear by the fortune of Caesar; repent, and say, Away with the Atheists." Instead, Polycarp declared, "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?"

Polycarp was martyred because he refused to deny Christ and swear by the fortune of Caesar. The two went together because the claim of the Caesar’s from the time of Jesus through to the time of Polycarp was a claim to divinity. In the Roman Empire, at that time, “Caesar was the king, the saviour, and demanded an oath by his ‘genius’.” “Polycarp declared that to call Caesar these things would be to commit blasphemy against [Christ], the true, divine king and saviour.” The message of Christianity, in its early phase, was in conflict with the political forces of its day because Christ’s divinity and rule was seen as central by the Church, not Caesar’s.

We see the same kind of conflict occurring in today's Gospel reading about Jesus and the payment of taxes (Matthew 22.15-22). Jesus is asked whether it is against the Law of Moses to pay taxes to the Romans. Before he answers, he asks his questioners to bring him one of the coins used to pay the tax. This coin would have had on it an image of the Emperor Tiberius and a superscription which would have said that Tiberius was the son of the divine Augustus. As all images were prohibited by the Law of Moses and as the superscription proclaimed Tiberius to be a son of a god, these coins were hot property as far as the Jews were concerned. From a strict Jewish perspective, the coins themselves were blasphemous and to have one was compromising.

The trap that had been set for Jesus was a neat one. If he takes the orthodox Jewish position he can be denounced to the Roman authorities as a revolutionary encouraging the Jews not to pay the tax. But if he says that the Jews should pay the tax, then the religious leaders can denounce him as someone who encourages blasphemy.

So how does he respond? Cleverly is the answer. And more cleverly than we have tended to realise in interpreting this story within the Church.

Firstly, he asks for the coin used to pay the tax. This means that those questioning him have to produce the coin. In other words, they have to reveal that they have with them, handle and use these blasphemous coins. By this simple action Jesus makes it much harder for them to then denounce him if he should recommend paying the tax.

Then he says, “pay back to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay God what belongs to God.” Now, this is an amazing statement because it is one statement that can be understood in two different ways.

The Church has traditionally understood Jesus to be talking about a difference between loyalty to a state and to God. In other words, that the state can make legitimate demands on its citizens like the payment of taxes and that it is right for Christians to meet those obligations. Always recognising, of course, that we have a greater and wider commitment to God that encompasses the whole of our lives and not just those parts to which a state can make a claim. That is one way of understanding what Jesus said and, on that basis, his hearers could have understood him to be that the tax should be paid.

But, with their knowledge of recent Jewish history, Jesus’ hearers would also have realised that his words could be understood in another much more revolutionary sense. “Pay back to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor” could also mean pay the Romans back for all that they have done in oppressing our people. While the second half, “pay God what belongs to God”, could be understood as meaning give to God alone the divine honour that has been blasphemously claimed by Caesar. So, Jesus’ words could be heard as a revolutionary call to arms.

But is that what they were? Well, his hearers couldn’t tell because the phrase he chose to use could be understood in either way. They were amazed, the story tells us, and well they might be because they couldn’t be sure which way his words were to be taken and, therefore, he had eluded their trap. Jesus told his followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves and he certainly modelled that approach here.

What can we learn from this? One thing we can see is that Jesus wasn’t trapped in the two camps of revolution or compromise that characterised the politics of his day. He was able to articulate a third way, an alternative kingdom, that countered oppression and that called for justice but which worked for these things through peaceful means. He calls us to do the same. To be people who challenge the oppressions and injustices of our day but with the tools of peace and not the weapons of war.

As a result of his approach, Jesus was a threat to all around him - to the Jewish zealots advocating violent uprising he was a threat because he called for peace; to the religious leaders working with the Roman oppressors, he was a threat because he challenged the hypocrisy of their position; and to the Roman authorities enforcing allegiance to Caesar, he was a threat because he called the Jewish people back to what should have been their sole allegiance, to God.

Because it is in the final part of Jesus’ phrase that we find the most radical of statements whichever way we interpret what he said. We are to pay God what belongs to God and, if God is the creator of all that we have including our lives themselves, then he is calling us to give everything to God. If God is God, then that means not just individual giving but corporate giving too, because everything that the state has has also been given to it by God. There is nothing that cannot be given back to God because everything that exists is ultimately a gift to us from God.

Everything that we have is a gift from God to be given back to him by being used, not for ourselves, but for others. What we have - our money, our time, our talents, our community, our environment - is entrusted to us by God to use wisely in countering injustice and caring for others and for our world. This principle applies to every aspect of stewardship - our time, our talents, our community involvement and our care of the environment. When we do so, like Jesus, we are wanting to see God honoured in thankful recognition of all that he has done in creating life and in countering injustice.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rev Simpkins - Sing Your Life.

Windows on the world (448)

 

Harlow, 2023

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sons of Joy - Old Time Religion.

ArtWay: “Form welcomes the formless home”

My latest interview for ArtWay is with noted UK poet, fiction writer, painter, and musician, David Miller. In this interview we discuss his work and the “interrelation, symbiosis and overlap” between writing and visual art:

"I know it’s a cliché, but the creative does have to be set over against the destructive. Always. Clichés are sometimes clichés for a good reason, they’re just plain right but have been said so often that people prefer ironies instead.

A human-centred view of things has left us with an estrangement from non-human animals as well as other earthly creatures, it has damaged our relations with the planet itself because of human greed and wilful ignorance. It has also separated us from the divine. We are now living with the dreadful consequences."

My review of Miller's 'Some Other Shadows' for Stride Magazine can be read here. In commending '(close)', I wrote that: "David Miller examines words and phrases as if they are displayed on a rotating stand enabling us to view them from a myriad of different perspectives. In his poetry, prose and prose poems, things are never simply what they seem; there is always something more, something deeper, something beyond. Whether creating expansive word collages or paring poems down to their constituent parts, he is a skilled craftsperson utilising concision, elision, contrast and paradox to open up meanings as one opens up Matryoshka Dolls. At the heart of his vision are pathways leading us to the experience of expanse."

My visual meditations for ArtWay include work by María Inés Aguirre, Giampaolo Babetto, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Alexander de Cadenet, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Jake Flood, Antoni Gaudi, Nicola Green, Maciej Hoffman, Gwen John, Lakwena Maciver, S. Billie Mandle, Giacomo Manzù, Sidney Nolan, Michael Pendry, Maurice Novarina, Regan O'Callaghan, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Nicola Ravenscroft, Albert Servaes, Henry Shelton, Anna Sikorska, Alan Stewart, Jan Toorop, Andrew Vessey, Edmund de Waal and Sane Wadu.

My Church of the Month reports include: All Saints Parish Church, Tudeley, Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Churches in Little Walsingham, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Metz Cathedral, 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, St Michael and All Angels Berwick 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.

Blogs for ArtWay include: Congruity and controversy: exploring issues for contemporary commissions; Ervin Bossanyi: A vision for unity and harmony; Georges Rouault and André Girard: Crucifixion and Resurrection, Penitence and Life Anew; Photographing Religious Practice; Spirituality and/in Modern Art; and The Spirituality of the Artist-Clown.

Interviews for ArtWay include: Sophie Hacker, Peter Koenig and Belinda Scarlett. I also interviewed ArtWay founder Marleen Hengelaar Rookmaaker for Artlyst.

I have reviewed: Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace, Kempe: The Life, Art and Legacy of Charles Eamer Kempe and Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals.

Other of my writings for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Church Times can be found here. Those for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Miller & SpiritWORK - Moments.

Artlyst - R B Kitaj And Philip Guston: Figurative Painting Celebrated

My latest exhibition review for Artlyst is on ‘R.B. Kitaj: London to Los Angeles’ at Piano Nobile with mention of 'Philip Guston' at Tate Modern:

'Painting has been declared dead many times as it has reeled under the double-barrelled attack of photography and conceptual art. Similarly, figurative art has at points been counted out in opposition to abstraction and art for art’s sake. Nevertheless, both have survived, enabling us to have our cake and eat it in an art world where conceptual art, digital art, installation art, painting (including figuration and abstraction), performance art, photography, sculpture, and video art all co-exist and interact.

Two artists whose dogged persistence with figurative art, in the face of more reductive critical perceptions of art, enabled us to reach this place of diversity are currently having major retrospectives in London: Philip Guston and R.B. Kitaj.'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

• Sean Scully A Humility Towards Nature
• Winslow Homer: American Passage An Interview With Biographer Bill Cross
• Grayson Perry Tapestries On Show At Salisbury Cathedral
• Sidney Nolan’s Africa: Interview With Andrew Turley
• Ilona Bossanyi: Tate’s Ervin Bossanyi Stained Glass Window Mothballed After 2011 Redevelopment
• Louis Carreon: Sampling Art History
• Modus Operandi - What Makes Successful Public Art: Vivien Lovell InterviewedGenesis Tramaine: A Queer Devotional Painter
• Lakwena Maciver: Review-Interview Hastings Contemporary
• Nicola Ravenscroft - Sculpture With A Peaceful Stillness
• Artist Hannah Rose Thomas – Tears of Gold – Interview
• Marcus Lyon: Human Atlas Explorations
• Elizabeth Kwant Interview
• Helaine Blumenfeld: Undulating Structures
• National Gallery Explores ‘Sin’ In New Exhibition – Interview Dr Joost Joustra Curator
• Betty Spackman: Posthumanism Debates
• Christopher Clack: Connecting The Material And Immaterial
• Peter Howson Artlyst Interview
• Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker On The Legacy Of ArtWay
• Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
• Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
• Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
• Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
• Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
• Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
• Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields
• Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar

Monthly diary articles -

• The Art Diary October 2023
• The Art Diary September 2023
• Jeremy Deller In Rennes And Brittany Post-Impressionism – August Diary
• The Art Diary July 2023
• The Art Diary June 2023
• The Art Diary May 2023
• The Art Diary April 2023
• The Art Diary March 2023
• The Art Diary February 2023
• Surveying New Exhibitions With A Spiritual Twist January 2023 Art Diary
• Christmas: The Art Of Faith December 2022 Diary
• Soulages And Strange Clay November 2022 Art Diary
• Alexander de Cadenet And Michael Forbes October 2022 Diary
• Spiritual Joseph Beuys Plus More: September Diary
• Holiday Snaps – End Of Summer Art Diary
• Art Search: August 2022 Diary
• Re-imagining Essex July 2022 Diary
• Art Illuminating spirituality June 2022 Diary
• Venice To London May 2022 Diary
• Jacob Epstein, Louis Carreon, Titus Kaphar, Betty Spackman – April 2022 Diary
• Audrey Flack Carlo Crivelli And Robert Indiana – March Diary
• My Art Diary And Other Thoughts February 2022
• And On An Art Note: End Of Year Diary 2021
• International Autumn Art Exhibition Reviews
• And On An Art Note: End Of Year Diary 2021

Articles/Reviews -

• Paula Rego And Lord Harries Respond To Art And Religion
• A World In Common: Contemporary African Photography Tate Modern
• Chris Ofili Exploring Sin At Victoria Miro
• Ai Weiwei - The Artist of Resistance - The Design Museum
• Saint Francis of Assisi A Timely Exhibition - National Gallery
• Why Critics Have A Problem With The Pre-Raphaelites?
• Religion and Spirituality in Post Impressionism National Gallery
• Black Artists From The American South Royal Academy
• Donatello: The Divine Fused With The Human V&A
• Lucian Freud And His Circle Surveyed In Two London Exhibitions
• A Question Of Clay: Strange Clay – Hayward Gallery
• William Kentridge: Merging Politics With Aesthetics – RA
• Winslow Homer: Beyond The Sea – National Gallery
• Hidden Depths: The Woman in the Window – Dulwich Picture Gallery
• Heavenly Visions: Churches As Spaces For Contemporary Art
• In The Black Fantastic London’s Best Summer Exhibition
• Hew Locke And The Christian Roots Of Carnival – Tate BritainLes Lalanne, Schütte And Gursky London Spring Exhibition Highlights
• Sensuous Sickert and Philpot Two Major UK Solo Exhibitions
• Raphael The Human And Divine – National Gallery
• Damien Hirst The Visceral Reality Of Death
• Ali Cherri: Artist in Residence National Gallery
• Surrealism Outside The Usual Story – Tate Modern
• Marcus Lyon Creates Fields of Vision At St Martin-in-the-Fields London
• Van Gogh Self Portraits The Infinite And The Ordinary
• Marvellous Icons: The London Jesuit Centre
• Albrecht Dürer Travels Of A Renaissance Artist – National Gallery London
• Diasporan Identities: Life Between Islands Caribbean British Art – Tate Britain
• Isamu Noguchi: Socially Engaged Art – Barbican Centre
• Pablo Bronstein: A This-World Vision Of Hell
• Bosco Sodi: In The Beginning Of Wisdom
• George Condo Lockdown Works Hauser & Wirth
• Theaster Gates Clay As A Profound Metaphor
• Mark Rothko: Mesmerising And Intimate Works On Paper
• Roger Cecil: A Once In A Generation Welsh Painter
• Tino Sehgal: Location, Nature And Pandemic – Blenheim Palace
• Michael Armitage And The Power Of Art – Royal Academy
• Marie Raymond And Post-War Avant Garde Painting In Paris
• Rachel Kneebone: A Complex Tableau Of Organic And Geometric Forms
• Rodin: Suffering And Conflict – Tate Modern
• Barbara Hepworth: Symbols Of Art & Life – Hepworth Wakefield
• 20th Century Women Artists Challenging Conventions In Britain
• Chaiya Art Awards 2021 Gallery OXO
• Marc Chagall’s Exquisite Stained Glass Window Commissions
• George Gittoes Equal parts artist and warrior
• Keith Haring: Personal Spiritual Imagery
• Sean Scully: Philosophical Poetic Pastoral The 12 / Dark Windows
• Arthur Jafa: The Art Of Cutting And Pasting
• Blackpentecostal Breath: Spirit-Led Movement Jumps From Music To Visual Art
• Made in USA Ed Ruscha An American Perspective
• Robert Smithson: The Archetypal Nature Of Things
• If Jesus Is A Man Of Colour Why Did We Make Him Aryan?
• Cosmic Patches And Quilts Five Exhibitions
• Everyday Heroes: Southbank Exhibition Celebrates Low-paid Key Workers
• Entwining Spiritualism And Art – Three Shows
• Of Church And The Visual Arts
• Has The Word Master Reached Its Sell-By Date?
• The People Behind Community Is Kindness Billboard Campaign
• André Daughtry: Art, Rebellion And Racial Justice
• Salisbury Cathedral 800 Years Of Art And Spirit
• Home Alone Together Twenty Five Artists
• Botanical Mind Online: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree
• Salvador Dalí The Enigma of Faith
• Art And Faith A Time For Seeing
• Andy Warhol: Catholicism His Work, Faith And Legacy
• Kiki Smith: Embodied Art
• Art and Christianity Awards A Positive New Millennium Legacy
• Arnulf Rainer: 90th Birthday Exhibition Celebrated At Albertina Museum
• A Belonging Project And Exiles Loss and Displacement
• Robert Polidori: Fra Angelico Opus Operantis
• Art, Faith, Church Patronage and Modernity
• Contemplating the Spiritual in Contemporary Art
• Mat Collishaw Challenges Faith Perspectives With Ushaw Installation
• Waterloo Festival Launches At St. John’s Waterloo
• John Bellany Alan Davie Spiritual Joy and Magic
• RIFT Unites 17 Art and Science MA Graduates At Central St Martins
• 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
• Homeless Highlighted: New Beau Exhibition At St Martin-in-the-Fields
• 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
• Guido Guidi: Per Strada Flowers Gallery London
• 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
• Sam Ivin: Physically Scratched Portraits Of Asylum Seekers Exhibited
• 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
• Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
• 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
• Polish Art In Britain: Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
• 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
• Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows.

Excuses, excuses!

Here's the sermon I shared at St Catherine's Wickford this morning: 

Excuses, excuses! There were certainly plenty of them in the story that Jesus told (Matthew 22. 1-14) and we hear plenty as we go about our daily lives too.

Have you heard about the notice that was on display in a works office which read: “All requests for leave of absence on account of bad colds, headaches, sick relatives, funerals, weddings etc. must be handed to the Head of Department before 10.00am on the morning of the match”?

Or what about the mother trying to get her son up and out of bed in time to go to church:

MOTHER: Son, it’s getting late. You must get up and go to church!
SON: I don’t want to go to church.
MOTHER: Give me two good reasons why you shouldn’t go to church.
SON: First, I don’t like the people. Second, the people don’t like me.
MOTHER: I don’t care. It’s getting late, now get up and go to church!
SON: Give me two good reasons why I should go.
MOTHER: First, you are 50 years old, and second, you are the vicar.

They say, don’t they, that there are always two reasons why we do things; the good reason and the real reason!

The people Jesus identified as making excuses in his story were the people of God; in his case the Israelite leaders and the many people who followed them. Tom Wright has described well what was going on in Jesus’ story. He says that Israel’s leaders in Jesus’ day and the many people who followed them were like guests invited to a wedding – God’s wedding party, the party he was throwing for his son. But they had refused to come to the party. Jesus had spent lots of time travelling around Galilee spreading the news about this invitation but, for the most part, people had refused to come. Now he was in Jerusalem and, again, people were refusing the invitation as well. God was planning the great party for which they had waited so long. The Messiah was here, and they didn’t want to know. They abused and killed the prophets who tried to tell them about it, and the result was that their city, Jerusalem, would be destroyed.

As a result, God was sending out new messengers to the wrong part of town to tell everyone and anyone to come to the party. And the good news was that they were coming in droves. We don’t have to look far in Matthew’s gospel to see who they were. The tax collectors, the prostitutes, the riff-raff, the nobodies, those who were blind or lame, the people who thought they had been forgotten by others and rejected by God. They were thrilled that God’s message was for them after all.

But there was a difference between this wide-open invitation and the message that many would like to hear today. Sometimes, we want to hear that we are all right exactly as we are; that God loves us as we are and doesn’t want us to change – that our behaviour and actions are excused. People often say this when they want to justify particular types of behaviour, but the argument doesn’t work. When those who were rejected by others came to Jesus, he didn’t simply say, ‘You’re all right as you are’. Instead, he forgave sins, healed people, and set them off on a new path. His love reached people where they were, but his love refused to let them stay as they were. Love wants the best for the beloved so their lives were transformed, healed, changed.

And that is the point of the end of the story, which is otherwise very puzzling. God’s kingdom is a kingdom of love, justice, truth, mercy and holiness. There are many places in the Bible where it speaks of us wearing dirty clothes, stained with blood and these being cleansed and washed clean by the blood of Christ, so that instead of standing in the shame we deserve we stand in the shining white garments of righteousness. These images are saying that it is Christ who makes the difference for us, who gives us garments of righteousness – which doesn’t simply mean that we are forgiven but also means that we now actively pursue love, justice, truth, mercy and holiness – but we still have to put these garments on and live in them. These are the clothes that we must put on if we are to be at the wedding party that God throws for his son. And if we come but refuse to put them on, then we are saying that we don’t really want to stay at the party at all. That is the reality and if we don’t acknowledge them then, once again, we are making excuses.

God cares about all people including those of us that do evil. But the point of God’s love and care is that he wants us to change. He hates what we do when we sin and the effect that that has on others too. That is why his love reaches us where we are but refuses to let us stay as we were. But if we accept the invitation and then don’t change, there is a problem and this story suggests that, if that is genuinely the case, the person who is refusing to change, refusing to put on the wedding clothes is saying that he or she does not wish to be a part of the party and will not be able to remain.

So, this story presents each of us with a challenge as we reflect on the extent to which our lives have changed as a result of responding to love of God that we have found in Jesus. Total change does not happen overnight and God understands the difficulty we experience in making fundamental changes to our lives. This story is not speaking about that situation. What it does speak about is our will, our intent. Are we seeking ongoing change in our lives, praying for it to come, reflecting on our failures and seeking to learn from them, being inspired by examples of love, justice, truth, mercy and holiness to want to act in these ways ourselves? If we are, then we are, at the very least, seeking to put on those wedding clothes and wishing to be at the party.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gungor - Please Be My Strength.