No strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet

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

A central aspect of God's experience as a human being in the person of Jesus Christ was that of rejection. Jesus was, in the words of Isaiah 53, ‘despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account’ (Isaiah 53. 3). We see that rejection here, in this story (Mark 6. 1 – 6), set in his home town at the beginning of his ministry, just as we see it more violently worked out at the end of his ministry when he is crucified.

Rejection is a human experience which we all understand because each us will have experienced rejection at one time or another. It is an experience that God has also shared and therefore understands as we go through our personal experiences of rejection.

But rejection is a human experience which we all understand because it is also something to which each of us is party. As in this story, we find it easy, as human beings, to find reasons to reject other people. It is not so long ago in the history of this country that there were appalling signs in windows saying, 'No Irish, no Blacks, no Dogs'. In our lifetime we have seen whole societies built around the separation of people on the basis of colour, with the Civil Rights and anti-apartheid movements, thankfully, having brought some significant change to those situations of rejection.

Yet, although we have seen change, we continue to see particular groups of people in society demonised, scapegoated and rejected. In the Church today, it is the LGBTI community who have that experience while in society generally, it is migrants, whether refugees or asylum seekers, that are the focus of significant rejection.

When Jesus is rejected, as in our Gospel reading, God is rejected. God, in Jesus, enters in to our experience, as human beings, of rejection. He does so in order to bring to light our constant scapegoating and rejection of others by exposing us to the futility of that way of life. Rejection of others ties us into a cycle of revenge and recrimination locking us in to spirals of violence.

Yet, when we have, as human beings, scapegoated and rejected God himself, what more can we do by way of rejection? The way to free ourselves from these negative cycles is by rejecting the impulse to reject or scapegoat others, in other words by following in the footsteps of Jesus who freely laid down his life for others. It is this to which Christ’s death as a scapegoat on the cross calls us.

Today, while we may not literally see signs saying 'No Irish, no Blacks, no Dogs', similar signs are nevertheless still there is our words and actions although applied to different groups of people at this different time. 'No economic migrants,' even 'No migrants', would seem to be the current cry, while in the Anglican Communion we persist in rejecting people on the basis of their sexuality. For those who follow a God who was scapegoated, reviled and rejected, there can be no scapegoating of others. For those who follow a God who laid down this own life for love of others, there must be a similar breaking of cycles of rejection through our own attitudes, speech and actions.

Instead of being those who reject, we need to become those who invite. The opposite of rejection is not simple acceptance, but active engagement; the invitation to participate in community. The goal of those who are great inviters is “to have everyone participating, giving and receiving gifts.” Abundant community involves welcoming “those on the margins”, “which is the heart of hospitality.” As William Butler Yeats was credited with saying, “There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet.” May it be so with each one of us. Amen.

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Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Prayer.

The secret of the world’s power of meaning

Here's the sermon I shared in the Candlemas Eucharist at St Mary Magdalene Great Burstead this morning:

“Why are we waiting? We are suffocating. Why, oh, why are we waiting?” Did you ever sing that as a child? Maybe you sang some variant lyrics, but we won’t go into that here!

The majority of Americans say they would not wait in line longer than 15 minutes. 50% of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn't load in 10 seconds. 3 out of 5 won't return to that site. 1 in 4 people abandon a web page that takes more than 4 seconds to load. T-shirt slogans say, “I want instant gratification and I want it now” and “Instant gratification takes too long.”

The advertising slogan once used by the credit card Access – "take the waiting out of wanting" – illustrates how many people want to possess things the minute they decide they want them, whereas waiting is seen as passive and boring. At the time it was first used, that slogan would have seemed perfectly acceptable. Now, it seems to sum up all that has gone wrong with a culture built on credit.

Simeon (Luke 2. 22 - 40) had been waiting throughout his life to see Lord’s promised Messiah, as the Holy Spirit had assured him that he would not die before the promised event occurred. His wait had been and it must have felt to him like a long time. He was tired from waiting and so ready for death that, as soon as he had seen Jesus, he prayed, “Now, Lord, you have kept your promise, and you may let your servant go in peace.”

Why are we waiting? We don’t like it and we can’t see the point? And yet the Bible is full of waiting. Abraham is promised that he will be the father of a great nation and that promise is fulfilled but only many years after Abraham himself has died. The children of Israel spend 40 years waiting and wandering in the wilderness before they enter the Promised Land. Later they spend 70 years in exile in Babylon waiting to return to Jerusalem. There were approximately 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New, with the birth of Jesus. Why so much waiting?

Anna was in the Temple every day looking and listening for all that God would reveal to her. Simeon, too, was alert to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who led him into the Temple to see Jesus. As we wait for God, are we looking and listening for all that God wants us to see and hear while we wait?

W. H. Vanstone wrote a wonderful book called The Stature of Waiting in which he argued that it is only to human beings as we wait that “the world discloses its power of meaning” and we become “the sharer with God of a secret – the secret of the world’s power of meaning.” For many of us because we don’t stop and reflect the world exists for us simply as a “mere succession of images recorded and registered in the brain” but when we do stop, wait, look and listen then we “no longer merely exist” but understand, appreciate, welcome, fear and feel.

Waiting can also grow the virtue of patience in us as to wait is a test of our patience and an opportunity to build patience. We would like God to solve all our problems right now, but our patience and perseverance is often tested before we find answers to our prayers. How would we actually practice patience if there were not times when we were called to wait upon the Lord?

Patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and involves the ability to accept delay or disappointment graciously, to remain steadfast under strain continuing to press on and the showing of tolerance and fortitude toward others, even accepting difficult situations from them, and God, without making demands or conditions. Patience allows us to endure a less than desirable situation to make us better and more useful and even optimistic and prudent. Hence, its other name is longsuffering. It allows us to put up with others who get on our nerves, without losing other characteristics of grace.

We all know the saying that good things come to those who wait. Waiting can sharpen our sense of anticipation and also our sense of relief and appreciation when we receive that for which we have been waiting. We can sense something of this in Simeon’s prayer:

“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,
and you may let your servant go in peace.
With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:
A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles
and bring glory to your people Israel.”

When the Bible mentions waiting, patience, perseverance or longsuffering, it is often in connection with trusting in God. Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

Waiting reinforces for us that what is achieved is achieved through God and not primarily through our own ability. As a result, we learn to trust fully in him. If we will not wait, we will inevitably trust in someone or something other than God - usually our own abilities or righteousness.

We see this in today’s Gospel reading in Simeon’s emphasis on the work of God in and through the life and ministry of Jesus: “This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel. He will be a sign from God …” Ultimately, all that Jesus is and does is the work of God.

I imagine all these to be thoughts and insights which became part of Simeon’s experience, as they can also be for us. I also imagine him finally saying something like this:

I have passed my days in expectation,
anticipation of a time which has not come.
Not yet come. Through long years of watching,
waiting, I have questioned my vocation,
understanding, calling, yet patience has formed
itself in me a virtue and I have been sustained.
And now in wintertime when the seed of life itself
seemed buried, my feet standing in my grave,
at the last moment, when hope had faded,
then you come; a new born life as mine is failing -
now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace.
Hope, when hope was dashed. Wonder, where
cynicism reigned. Spring buds in winter snow.
Patience rewarded. Divine trust renewed.

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Colin Burns - I Wait For You.

A life of significance in God's kingdom work

Here's the sermon that I shared in the 8.00 am BCP Eucharist at St Mary Magdalene, Great Burstead this morning (The Sunday called Septuagesima):

Chichele Road in Cricklewood has been known as Job Street, where economic migrants line up to be hired from the back of a van, no questions asked. Dozens of men in jeans and anoraks would be found hanging around from 6.30am to discover whether they will be working that day. A car would stop, a negotiation would take place, a deal might be struck. Typically, the men would be whisked off to a building site or a house in the process of renovation. They would be paid £20 to £40 for a long, arduous day's work: no tax, no national insurance, no questions asked.

That’s essentially the scenario for today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 20. 1 - 16). The social situation in Jesus’ day was that many small farmers were being forced off their land because of debt they incurred to pay Roman taxes. Consequently, large pools of unemployed men gathered each morning, hoping to be hired for the day. They were the displaced, unemployed, and underemployed workers of their day. Those still waiting at five o'clock would have had little chance of earning enough to buy food for their families that day. Yet the vineyard owner pays even them a full day’s wage. The owner in the parable ensures that all the workers are paid enough to support their families, as a denarius was a full day’s pay for a skilled worker.

So, unlike those exploited illegal workers or gig economy workers earning less than the minimum wage, the employer in this story is concerned that those he employs are paid a living wage. The standard thing for an employer in Jesus’ day to do would be to send one of his employees to the marketplace to pick up a few extra workers for the day. But this employer goes to the marketplace himself. In fact, he goes repeatedly to seek workers and clearly cares about their predicament seeking to lift them out of their despair by providing work that meets their needs and the needs of those who depend on them. If God is like the owner of the vineyard then he cares about our hopeless situation as human beings. He comes looking for us. He goes on an all-out search to find workers for his vineyard. He longs to provide us with a life of significance in his kingdom work.

As N. T. Wright has said, God’s grace, in short, is not the sort of thing you can bargain with or try to store up. It isn’t the sort of thing that one person can have a lot of and someone else only a little. The point of the story is that what people get from having served God and his kingdom is not, actually, a ‘wage’ at all. It’s not, strictly, a reward for work done. God doesn’t make contracts with us, as if we could bargain or negotiate for a better deal. He makes covenants, in which he promises us everything and asks of us everything in return. When he keeps his promises, he is not rewarding us for effort, but doing what comes naturally to his overflowingly generous nature.

Michael Green says of this story: Length of service and long hours of toil in the heat of the day constitute no claim on God and provide no reason why he should not be generous to those who have done less. All human merit shrivels before his burning, self-giving love. Grace, amazing grace, is the burden of this story. All are equally undeserving of so large a sum as a denarius a day. All are given it by the generosity of the employer. All are on the same level. The poor disciples, fishermen and tax collectors as they are, are welcomed by God along with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. There are no rankings in the kingdom of God. Nobody can claim deserved membership of the kingdom. There is no place for personal pride, for contempt or jealousy, for there is no ground for any to question how this generous God handles the utterly undeserving. He is good. He sees that the one-hour workers would have no money for supper if they got paid for only one hour. In generosity he gives them what they need. Who is to complain at that?

Yet there is always a danger that we do get cross with God over this. People who work or move in church circles can easily assume that they are the special ones, God’s inner circle. In reality, as we have seen, God is out in the marketplace, looking for the people everybody else tried to ignore, welcoming them on the same terms, surprising them (and everybody else) with his generous grace. In Ephesians 2:8-10 Paul says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Is there anywhere in today’s church, I wonder, that doesn’t need to be reminded of that message?

The parable is also a message of hope to everyone struggling to find adequate employment. In God’s kingdom, it suggests, we will all find work that meets our needs. The parable is, therefore, also a challenge to all those who have a hand in shaping the structures of work in today’s society. What can we do, as Christians, to advance this aspect of God’s kingdom right now?

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Supertramp - Lord Is It Mine.

Windows on the world (461)

 London, 2024

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Van Halen - One I Want.

Open Mic Night, Parish Study Day & Holocaust Memorial Day

Last night we began the Unveiled programme for 2024 with a very enjoyable Open Mic Night at St Andrew's Wickford. Our thanks to John Rogers for organising the event. We had a great variety of performances with a number of excellent original songs as well as covers. Among the performers was Fraser Morgan, a rapidly up-and-coming Acoustic-Folk-Punk artist and avid gigger who’s known for their relentless gigging and brings to the stage high levels of passion, energy, and showmanship.

The next Unveiled event is on Friday 9 February at 7.00 pm at St Andrew's Wickford – Who Tells Your Story? Who Tells Your Future? View this exhibition and hear the artist Maciej Hoffman speak about his work. ‘I choose themes that pervade everyday life, our constant battle with problems which we inevitably face. But also issues which haunt us for years, shaping our perspective on the world and building us as humans.’

Today, we had an excellent Parish Study Day on HeartEdge led by Olivia Maxfield-Coote. HeartEdge's mission is to help us discover what God is doing in our church and community and equip us to develop our plans to be a transforming presence for good. Our reflections on the 4 Cs and Being With enabled us to do that. The day was much appreciated and the feedback received was great.

Then, in the afternoon we have a Holocaust Memorial Day reflection, as part of which I shared the following:

We gather to reflect on Holocaust Memorial Day in the context of Maciej Hoffman’s exhibition. Maciej chooses “themes that pervade everyday life, our constant battle with problems which we inevitably face … issues which haunt us for years, shaping our perspective on the world and building us as humans”. He seeks: “contrasts between imagination and reality. Our expectations and our anticipations are never what we finally meet in real life … whether it’s beauty and ugliness, order or chaos - the point is, how it’s reflected in the mirror of my interpretation … I am moved by people’s stories with all their misfortunes and moments of happiness. It seems like one is always part of the other.”

We have also unveiled for this exhibition, David Folley’s ‘The Descent from the Cross’ depicting the effect of torture, persecution, and execution while pointing towards new life and resurrection. I, therefore, encourage you to view these paintings before you leave in the light of our prayers and reflections.

In 2014 I was fortunate, through my sabbatical visits and through the Tour of the Holy Land organised by the East London Three Faiths Forum, to see a wide variety of artwork in churches and synagogues by the Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall. Chagall was controversial as a Jewish artist for painting images of Christ’s crucifixion.

Chagall’s church commissions were created, ‘In the name of the freedom of all religions’ while, for him, ‘Christ ... always symbolized the true type of the Jewish martyr.’ He depicted this perception most famously in White Crucifixion painted in 1938 in response to the persecution of Jews by the Nazis, including Kristallnacht. Central to this painting, among scenes of anti-Jewish violence which included the torching of a synagogue, is Jesus on the cross with a tallit, the Jewish prayer shawl, draped around him as a loin cloth. For Chagall, ‘Jesus on the cross represented the painful predicament of all Jews, harried, branded, and violently victimized in an apparently God-forsaken world.’

A similar perception is described by Elie Wiesel, an Auschwitz survivor, in his book Night. There he writes: ‘The SS hanged two Jewish men and a youth in front of the whole camp. The men died quickly, but the death throes of the youth lasted for half an hour. "Where is God? Where is he?" someone asked behind me. As the youth still hung in torment in the noose after a long time, I heard the man call again, "Where is God now?" And I heard a voice in myself answer: "Where is he? He is here. He is hanging there on the gallows.’

Seen by Elie Wiesel in the context of Judaism and of the humiliation of God in going with Israel into exile and suffering, for Christians this moving story has a striking resonance because of the crucifixion. For Jews and Christians alike, the face of desolation wears another aspect, that of the presence and providence of God.

In Christian vocabulary this could be described as the prayer of incarnation. This is a prayer of presence; a prayer which recognizes that God shares our pain, frailty and brokenness. We pray acknowledging that God suffers with us. From Christ’s life, Christians also recognise two other types of prayer: the prayer of resurrection in which we pray for a miracle; and the prayer of transfiguration where, as Sam Wells has written, ‘we see a whole reality within and beneath and beyond what we thought we understood.’ In times of bewilderment and confusion we pray that God might reshape our reality, to give us a new and right spirit to trust that even in the midst of suffering and hardship, truth can still be experienced and shared.

At Yad Vashem, on the East London Three Faiths Forum Tour of the Holy Land, I saw examples of this prayer in the words of Aharon Appelfeld who said, ‘From among the horror grew another morality, another love, another compassion. These grew wild – no one gave them a name.’ Similarly, on the Yad Vashem website I read of survivors, ‘dazed, emaciated, bereaved beyond measure,’ who ‘gathered the remnants of their vitality and the remaining sparks of their humanity, and rebuilt.’ ‘They never meted out justice to their tormentors – for what justice could ever be achieved after such a crime? Rather, they turned to rebuilding: new families forever under the shadow of those absent; new life stories, forever warped by the wounds; new communities, forever haunted by the loss.’

I also saw pages from the illustrated Bible which self-taught artist Carol Deutsch loving crafted in 1941 in Antwerp, during the turmoil of the Second World War, as a gift for his daughter’s second birthday. Carol Deutsch and his wife Fela were informed upon and murdered in the extermination camps. However, their daughter Ingrid, who was hidden with a Catholic family in the countryside, survived, as did the Bible, which miraculously remained intact. Deutsch, who died in Buchenwald, left behind a vital estate - a stalwart resistance to everything the Nazis had attempted to obliterate.

Finally, for those who are Christians, Karen Sue Smith has noted that ‘Chagall’s genius was to use Jesus’ crucifixion to address Christians, to alert them by means of their own symbol system to the systematic cruelty taking place in the Holocaust.’ For Christians then, our response should, I think, be in line with the words of Pope Francis from an interview in 2013. There he spoke of his admiration for White Crucifixion praising Jews for keeping their faith despite the Holocaust and other “terrible trials” throughout history (by implication, including those for which the Church is cupable), reaffirmed Judaism as the “holy root” of Christianity saying that, where this understood and affirmed, a Christian should not ever be an anti-Semite because “to be a good Christian it is necessary to understand Jewish history and traditions.”

I pray that this will be so for my own faith community and that God might reshape our reality, to give us a new and right spirit to trust that even in the midst of suffering and hardship, truth can still be experienced and shared.

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Azamra - Shuvi Nafshi.

Seen and Unseen: How the incomer’s eye sees identity

My latest article for Seen & Unseen is 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' in which I explain how curating an exhibition for Ben Uri Online gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues:

'The combination of images and texts I selected from the Ben Uri Collection enabled a range of different reflections, relationships and disjunctions to be explored. These include the aesthetic, anthropological, devotional, historical, sociological and theological. The result is that significant synergies can be found between the ancient texts and current issues. In this way, stories and images which may, at first, appear to be describing or defining specific religious doctrines can be seen to take on a shared applicability by exploring or revealing the challenges and changes bound up in the age-old experience of migration. This was important in writing for an audience including people of all faiths and none, and in writing for an organisation which seeks to surpass ethnic, cultural and religious obstacles to engagement within the arts sector.'

To see 'Exodus & Exile: Migration Themes in Biblical Images' click here, to read my related essay 'Debt Owed to Jewish Refugee Art' click here, for my post about the exhibition and essay click here, and for more on the Ben Uri Gallery click here.

My first article for Seen and 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.

My second article 'Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey' explores inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith.

My third article was an interview with musician and priest Rev Simpkins in which we discussed how music is an expression of humanity and his faith.

My fourth article was a guide to the Christmas season’s art, past and present. Traditionally at this time of year “great art comes tumbling through your letterbox” so, in this article, I explore the historic and contemporary art of Christmas.

My fifth article was 'Finding the human amid the wreckage of migration'. In this article I interviewed Shezad Dawood about his multimedia Leviathan exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral where personal objects recovered from ocean depths tell a story of modern and ancient migrations.

My sixth article was 'The visionary artists finding heaven down here' in which I explored a tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds.

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Kansas - Dust In The Wind.

Planting the life of Jesus in the world

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Andrew’s Wickford this morning:

Most of the Bible was originally written to those living in an agrarian society, people familiar with working the land, managing livestock, and raising crops. Many of Jesus’ parables involve the farming life. Not surprisingly, then, the Bible contains many references to sowing and reaping.

At the beginning of a New Year, we can look forward to the seedtime in the Spring, when the earth is warm enough and moist enough from the early rains to best guarantee the "sprouting" of the seed once it is planted in the ground, and also to the Harvest, when we reap what has been sown. The Bible encourages us, when it comes to our giving, that the more seed that is planted, the more fruit will be harvested. In other words, those who sow generously will reap more than those who don’t. But Jesus also speaks of multiplication; of seed sown that brings forth “a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” A single grain produces many grains, the smallest seed grows into the largest tree, and the seeds which fell in good soil bore one hundred grains each. We are to sow generously and trust to God to bring about the multiplication.

Jesus said in Matthew 17. 20, “if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” When we face a lack of harvest, and that is what the mountain here represents, our first reaction is often to look at the lack. We think about the lack, rehearse the lack, talk about the lack, sometimes at great length. Jesus says, in effect, ‘don’t start with the lack, instead start with the seed'. Imagine a farmer needs a thousand bushels of corn. He does not start with what he doesn’t have. He starts by sowing seed in the field, because the corn he wants will grow from the seed he plants.

When we face a lack of harvest in some area of life, instead of first trying to deal with the lack, consider first planting the seed. If, for example, we were lacking friendship would it help to lament the fact of being alone? It would be much better to try planting a seed of a smile or a helping hand.

What is the seed that we plant? Jesus said that many of his parables involving sowing and reaping were told to show us what the Kingdom of God is like. The most famous of his parables involving sowing and reaping is the Parable of the Sower in which Jesus identifies the seed as being the word of God (Mark 4.1-20). This is usually interpreted as meaning either the Bible or the Gospel but, if we take account of Jesus’ own identification of himself as the seed (John 12. 20 - 26), we can see that this also makes sense of the Parable of the Sower too as John 1 tells us that Jesus is the Word of God. On this basis God the Father is the farmer who sows Jesus, his Son, into the world as the seed which is buried before bringing into being the Kingdom of God. So, what is sown is life; the life of Jesus.

The great American writer Frederick Buechner has written about this focus on the life of Jesus. He notes that when Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life," “he does not say the church is the way”: “He does not say his teachings are the way, or what people for centuries have taught about him. He does not say religion is the way, not even the religion that bears his name. He says he himself is the way. And he says that the truth is not words, neither his words nor anyone else's words. It is the truth of being truly human as he was truly human and thus at the same time truly God's. And the life we are dazzled by in him, haunted by in him, nourished by in him is a life so full of aliveness and light that not even the darkness of death could prevail against it.”

Jesus lived a life of generosity by living life for others and, ultimately, by dying for others. Jesus offered himself, his life, to come alive in hundreds and then in thousands and then in millions of others. His words were a prophecy in His death his life “will burst forth, and grow up, and multiply itself in the great spiritual harvest of the world.” “The history of all that is best, and truest, and noblest in the life of eighteen centuries comes to us as the fulfilment. Hearts hardened, sinful, dead, that have been led to think of His death, and in thoughts of it have felt germs of life springing up and bursting the husks of their former prison, and growing up into living powers which have changed their whole being” (Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers). But first he had to die and if we, his followers, are going to pass on his life then we too will have to learn the pattern of life through death. The Jesus way is what we are called to emulate. That is what we are to plant, the life of Jesus in the world, because it is what God the Father originally planted in order to bring the Kingdom of God into being.

Sowing seeds of God in the world is not primarily about teachings or words, instead it is primarily about living life the Jesus way - the truth of being truly human as Jesus was truly human and thus at the same time truly God's. Think of it like this, if God the Father gave for a specific harvest by sowing Jesus into our world, who are we to do any different. Jesus said in John 5:19 “the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” We can do no better than Jesus. He did as He saw the Father do, and we should now do the same. (http://wayofpeace.net/newsletter/it-is-a-seed-we-sow/)

So, the seed that we plant is our self; our life lived the Jesus way. Jesus lived a life of self-sacrifice, of service, and of love. That is what we should seek to sow, as generously as possible, through our lives. Jesus came to give a new view of life. "We look on glory as conquest, the acquisition of power, the right to rule. He looked on it as a cross. He taught us three amazing paradoxes: that only by death comes life; that only by spending life do we retain it; that only by service comes greatness. And the extraordinary thing is that when we come to think of it, Christ’s paradoxes are nothing other than the truth of common sense; the truth of the natural cycle of seedtime and harvest.”

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Amazing Blondel - Safety In God Alone.

'From Hong Kong to Wickford' artists

The autumn exhibition at St Andrew's Wickford was 'From Hong Kong to Wickford', a multifaceted pictorial display featuring composer and creator/director of combined-art works and projects Ho Wai-On's lifetime of interaction with UK and Hong Kong based artists/people that have resulted in many creative works. Click here to see a talk Wai-On gave at St Andrew's Wickford about her work.

This post provides additional information and links to some of those who contributed work to this unique exhibition and to some of their work:

Marcus West

Marcus West is a Cardiff based digital artist who utilises CAD software to create abstract artwork. He first began exhibiting his artwork in the early 1970’s at the University College Cardiff and has since gone on to exhibit a range of his projects at institutions across the UK, including London’s Victoria and Albert museum. Historic Tech have an excellent article giving an extensive summary of his career together with many examples of his work. 

Marcus writes: "I first exhibited in the early 1970's at University College Cardiff, as it then was: the exhibition consisted of a collection of geometrical images created with a mainframe computer controlling a plotting device - essentially a ball-point pen moving over the surface of a sheet of paper. 3 of my works dating from this era are in the Digital Art collection in London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

My work from the last decade has been particularly influenced by the artists Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley. Unlike them, however, I create my work with the assistance of a computer, hence my description of my work as “computer-assisted art”. I imagine a form, express it in terms of the mathematical processes appropriate to create such a form, and I write a computer program to utilise these mathematical processes to place millions of carefully-selected points of colour upon a kind of virtual canvas within the computer‘s memory. Thus the images emerge from mathematical and geometrical first principles, entirely within the computer - I don't typically import photographs into the computer for subsequent manipulation. Finally, the images are transferred from this virtual to the tangible world by printing them using archive-quality inks and paper.

Since devising these techniques, working in this way has become something of an obsession, and I have created many families of works, each embodying a core theme which is then expressed in dozens or scores of carefully-crafted variants. Frequently, of course, this process of exploration will give rise to variants that go well beyond my initial imaginings, which is particularly satisfying.

One of my works 'Fibonacci Image with blue cells emerging from an orange background', was among the 25 shortlisted works in the 2015 Lumen Prize, an international competition for Digital Art.

More recently I have started to make more reference to real-world objects and have moved away somewhat from works that derive from pure geometry."

Marcus’ recent projects have been based around geometric images created using FreeCAD, an open-source general-purpose parametric 3D CAD modeller and building information modelling software with finite-element method support. His process is as follows: "I imagine a form, express it in terms of the mathematical processes appropriate to create such a form, and I write a computer programme to utilise these mathematical processes to place millions of carefully selected points of colour upon a kind of virtual canvas within the computer memory."

To go to his secure store where you can buy framed or unframed prints, and some other merchandise (cards, mugs etc) with his artwork on click here.

Juliet Chenery-Robson

Juliet Chenery-Robson is a visual artist and academic researcher with a strong interest in exploring the terrain that juxtaposes the visual arts and medical science. In 2015 she completed an AHRC funded, practice-led Photography PhD that focused on the visual representation of the invisible illness ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis). Adopting a participatory action research methodology, Juliet worked with ME sufferers to create visual and textual portrayals of sufferers’ illness experience. Since completing her PhD she has secured research and development funding, via EngageFMS (Patient & Public Engagement & Involvement), to explore the visualisation of chronic illness as part of an arts and medical science collaboration with Newcastle University’s Medical and Creative Arts departments. 

Background to her ME research: The chronically ill ME sufferer experiences invisibility on four interlinked fronts: physical, social, medical, and political invisibility. The main aim of the project was therefore to create work, in participation with ME sufferers, that could be used as a tool to raise awareness of ME’s invisibility and communicate an understanding of ME to public, art, and medical audiences. By exploring the many layers that constitute ME and by incorporating the personal view of ME sufferers—through a combination of photography, text, audio, SenseCam, family album photographs, and Google Earth images—the research tested different methods of using metaphor to visually represent ME’s invisibility. It has also helped provide ME sufferers with a ‘voice’ by which to communicate the many problems they face as they try to cope with a life that is disabled by ME.

Polly Hope

Polly Hope was a British artist, designer and author. Hope created artworks in a variety of mediums, including paintings, portraits, sculpture, textiles and ceramics. Examples of her artworks are in the permanent collection of the V&A.

Bryan Robertson wrote that: "Polly Hope works consistently as a figurative artist with a keen appreciation of abstract principles and she likes to move freely from one medium to another, from drawing to painting, from printmaking to photography, from making sculpture to designing and executing murals and other decorative commissions. She excels as an artist in all these disciplines and sometimes likes to blur the edges herself between different techniques ... 

Polly Hope has a strong decorative flair and in recent years she has completed some large-scale schemes: painted murals at the Barbican Centre London, ceramic murals and sculptures for the new Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London, as well as a fountain in Switzerland. The range and variety of her work is part of her strength - she has also recently completed all the drawings for a half-hour animated film and made a perfect sequence of vistas in watercolour of Hong Kong's islands and waterways - but it means that her identity as an artist sometimes eludes conventional assessment. For some years, for instance, she created a long sequence of stuffed soft sculptures, bringing whole aspects of classical sculpture, religious iconography and folk-art to new life with three dimensional stuffed, sewn, appliquèd, coloured and patterned figures: scenes and situations of tremendous wit and poetic verve, one of them neither a scene nor a situation but a richly detailed portrait of a well known English museum director with a love of gardening and cats: the man in his world."

In Wickford we showed Hope's portrait of Wai-On, which can be seen by clicking here.

Benson Wong

Belford Jewellery was first established in 1977 by Leung Kwok Ching and her brother-in-law Benson Wong. Belford started off as a passionate hobby of two art-loving owners commissioning designs for good friends and valued clients. Benson, being the youngest sibling in his family, had a natural talent in design at a very young age and a strong passion for all things beautiful. A fashion designer by training, he first gained exposure to the jewellery industry from spending time at his brother’s diamond wholesale company, and was captivated by the dazzling universe of diamonds and gemstones. He realized the endless possibilities he could create by combining the design skills he garnered during his studies in England with the colourful treasures of nature, thus began his love for jewellery design.

Throughout the years, Belford has endeavoured to unite functional art with quality craftsmanship, and with Benson as the forefront, their design team has won numerous awards for their inspiring jewellery designs, and the company has become an established brand name in the industry.

For 'From Hong Kong to Wickford', Benson provided prints of designs from his work in fashion to his jewellery designs. This included the “cyclic group” symbol he used to create a movable diamond pendant - see here.

Albert Tang

Albert Tang is an actor and model who has also trained in architecture and music. Wai-On writes: "I met Albert Tang during my first year at the Royal Academy of Music, At the time he studied piano privately with Peter Katin. He is multi-talented and we have a lot of common interests. When I had the idea for this multi-media work, 'Metamorphosis', I asked Albert to be the artistic director."

In the exhibition, we displayed Tang's 'Metamorphosis' designs and examples of his art works.

Ruth Cutler

Ruth Cutler has been described as Thanet’s greatest living-here artist. Her Sea Garden project in Ramsgate was crafted from local stones and plants and transformed a piece of wasteland.

We displayed prints of work by Ruth Cutler previously displayed in Wai-On's InterArtes events.

 

The exhibition also included poetry from David Tong, photographs of the Buddha by Kitty Kwan at Leshan Giant Buddha, Dazu Rock Carvings and Longmen Grottoes, photographs of Moon Festival Celebrations in London's China Town by Roy Reed, photographs of Hong Kong birds, photographs of Hong Kong by Clark Ainsworth, images by Wai-On's fellow students from , photographs by Ben Rector and Martin Singleton used in music videos created by Wai-On, and 'Blessed', a music video made on the retirement of a former Team Rector of the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry using imagery from St Andrew's Wickford.

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Ho Wai-On - Blessed.

The fundamental human problem is isolation

Here's the sermon that I shared in tonight's Healing Eucharist at St Andrew’s Wickford:

A group of people brought a paralyzed man lying on a bed to Jesus and Jesus responded to their faith (Matthew 9. 1 – 8). We often read of Jesus responding to people’s faith when he heals and also of Jesus limiting his healing in places like Nazareth where a lack of faith was shown. A lack of faith would have meant that people simply didn’t ask Jesus to help them. Faith, by contrast, opened up the possibility of change, of something new or different occurring. In Hebrews we read that without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Those who brought this man to Jesus believed and were rewarded but not initially in the way they anticipated. They came to Jesus hoping for healing but Jesus responded by forgiving the man’s sins. At the time illness and sin were often equated those who were ill were accused of being punished by God for their sins. Jesus, however, on another occasion, specifically rejected that argument. As a result, we can be sure that Jesus is not making that connection here.

Instead, he could be saying that, for each of us, addressing our sinfulness is of more importance than any other issue or aspect of lives. Whatever the presenting issue in our lives, even something as significant as total paralysis, each pales into insignificance compared to the issue of sin which ultimately cuts us off from relationship with God. Sin is fundamentally living without God. It is being in that place where we don’t have faith, don’t believe and therefore close off the possibility of relationship. Sin means we cannot know we are with God because we don’t believe, and without God we are ultimately cut off from all that is good. Paralysis is an appropriate metaphor for this experience because, when you are paralyzed, you cannot go to be with anyone else. Paralysis is, therefore, an isolating experience unless others come to you or, as in this instance, bring you to others.

Maciej Hoffman’s new exhibition in St Andrew’s shows us what this experience of isolation from God leads to, in the experiences of trauma and conflict that he depicts so powerfully. His paintings confront people with the reality of sin in human life. Alongside his paintings, we have also unveiled David Folley’s equally powerful descent from the cross, which shows what Jesus needed to endure as he entered into to the full reality of a sinful world in order to bring change and healing.

Jesus’ whole life was geared around reversing sin and the isolation it causes. Through his incarnation and nativity he became one of us, moving into our neighbourhood to be Emmanuel, ‘God with us.’ As Sam Wells has stated, “Jesus gives everything that he is for the cause of being with us, for the cause of embracing us within the essence of God’s being.” Ultimately, on the cross, he takes our sin and isolation onto himself to the extent that he loses his own being with God the Father. When he cries out on the cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,’ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, was choosing between being with the Father or being with us. Here is astonishing good news; at the central moment in history, Jesus chose us. “That is the epicentre of the Christian faith and our very definition of love.”

As a result, Jesus can forgive and overcome sin and isolation for each one of us. He can restore us to relationship with God, because he has broken down every barrier that stood between ourselves and God. His incarnation, death and resurrection give him authority to restore relationship with God for all who are separated from God. That is what he offers to the paralyzed man, that is what he debates with the scribes, and that is what he demonstrates by returning to the paralyzed man the ability to overcome isolation by proactively going to be with others.

“If the fundamental human problem is isolation,” Sam Wells argues, “then the solutions we are looking for do not lie in the laboratory or the hospital or the frontiers of human knowledge or experience. Instead the solutions lie in things we already have — most of all, in one another.” Instead of needing others to be with him, the previously paralyzed man can now: be “with” people in poverty and distress even when there is nothing he can do “for” them; be “with” people in grief and sadness and loss even when there is nothing to say; be “with” and listen to and walk with those he finds most difficult rather than trying to fob them off with a gift or a face-saving gesture.

In other words, he can bring the kingdom of heaven to others. That is a heaven which is worth aspiring to, “as it is a rejoining of relationship, of community, of partnership, a sense of being in the presence of another in which there is neither a folding of identities that loses their difference nor a sharpening of difference that leads to hostility, but an enjoyment of the other that evokes cherishing and relishing.” “The theological word for this is communion.” That is what the previously paralyzed man has been enabled to achieve.

To what extent, I wonder, is that something to which we aspire or seek? Does sin paralyze and isolate us or are we freed up to be with others in relationship?

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Moral Support - Sin.

Events in the Wickford & Runwell Team Ministry

Who Tells Your Story? Who Tells Your Future?
An exhibition of paintings by Maciej Hoffman
23 January – 29 March 2024
St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN

‘I choose themes that pervade everyday life, our constant battle with problems which we inevitably face. But also issues which haunt us for years, shaping our perspective on the world and building us as humans. I try to capture the moments of tension, the climax, and the spark before ignition.’
Holocaust Memorial Day reflection – 27 January, 3.00 pm.
Hear Maciej speak about his work at ‘Unveiled’ – the arts & performance evening in St Andrew’s Wickford - Friday 9 February, 7.00 pm.St Andrew’s is usually open: Sat 9am-12.30pm; Sun 9.30am-12 noon; Mon 2-3.45pm; Tue 1-4.30pm; Wed 10am-12 noon; Fri 10am-1pm. https://wickfordandrunwellparish.org.uk/whats-on.html

Maciej Hoffman was born in Wrocław, Poland in 1964, the son of artist parents, growing up under Poland's communist regime; after studying philosophy at the School of Theology in Wrocław, he graduated in Painting and Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Art in 1992. Becoming fascinated with web art and new graphic technologies, he then worked for 15 years in one of Poland's largest advertising agencies until a watershed moment in 2003, when he returned fulltime to the studio and to oil painting. He moved to England in 2012, in search of new artistic and life opportunities, and continues to paint, teach and exhibit in the UK and abroad.

Here he became involved in leading art workshops for school students, encouraging self-expression through art therapy for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, or coping with mental health issues and trauma. He also contributed artworks to exhibitions dealing with conflict and resolution, including two marking Holocaust Memorial Days in 2012 and 2018 respectively. Maciej Hoffman's work has been exhibited in the UK on numerous occasions, including at Chelmsford Cathedral; Barry Gallery Central; Polish Social and Cultural Association (POSK) Gallery and Willesden Gallery (both London), and at the Warwick Art Centre.

‘Painting begins with a spark, an idea, an impulse. Sometimes it seems as though the painting creates itself, intuition guides me during the process … In trivialities as well as in big events I seek contrasts between imagination and reality. Our expectations and our anticipations are never what we finally meet in real life. This constant collision fascinates me. It’s irrelevant whether it’s beauty and ugliness, order or chaos - the point is, how it’s reflected in the mirror of my interpretation … I am moved by people’s stories with all their misfortunes and moments of happiness. It seems like one is always part of the other.’

https://www.maciej-hoffman.com/ https://www.buru.org.uk/record.php?id=1443

Unveiled – a wide range of artist and performers from Essex and wider, including Open Mic nights (come and have a go!).

Unveiled – view our hidden painting by acclaimed artist David Folley, plus a range of other exhibitions.

Spring Programme 2024

• 26 January – Open Mic Night organised with John Rogers. Everybody is welcome to come along and play, read, sing or just spectate. See you there for a great evening of live performance!
• 9 February – Who Tells Your Story? Who Tells Your Future? View this exhibition and hear the artist Maciej Hoffman speak about his work. ‘I choose themes that pervade everyday life, our constant battle with problems which we inevitably face. But also issues which haunt us for years, shaping our perspective on the world and building us as humans.’
• 23 February – Tryin’ to throw your arms around the world. Jonathan Evens talks about the spirituality of the rock band U2. This talk sets out the main characteristics of U2’s spirituality, examines their roots, makes links between their spirituality and themes in contemporary theology and, considers three reasons why U2’s spirituality has connected with popular culture.
• 8 March – Dave Crawford in concert. Popular local musician, Dave Crawford writes engaging/melodic songs in Americana/Alt-Rock/Indie-Folk. He has performed at the Leigh Folk Festival, Pin Drop Sessions, and Music for Mind together with Kev Butler. He was recently included on The Open Mic Show Album, Vol. 1 from SoSlam. We have enjoyed Dave’s powerful vocals and guitar here when he has performed previously at our Open Mic Nights.
• 22 March – An evening with the Ladygate Scribblers. Hear poetry and prose from a long-established Wickford-based writers group.

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.

Parish Study Day: Becoming a HeartEdge Community
Saturday 27 Janurary, 9:30 a.m. - 2.00 p.m., St Andrew's Wickford

Our PCC recently agreed that the Wickford and Runwell Parish would join the HeartEdge network of churches that are creating new ways of being church in a changing world; churches at the heart of their communities, while being with those on the edge. This half day plus lunch aims to help us all understand more about how HeartEdge works, and will be led by Revd Olivia Maxfield-Coote and our own Revd Jonathan. There will be plenty of time for discussion and questions, and a light lunch will be provided. Please sign up to come using the sign-up sheets at our three churches.

Quiz Night!
Saturday 3rd February, 7.00pm
St Andrews Church Hall, SS12 OAN

Back by popular demand, Join us for a fun general knowledge quiz.
Teams of up to 8. £5 per person
Bring your own snacks & drinks
(Tea and Coffee available)

To book a table contact Caroline or Marjorie S
email CarolineWheeler@live.co.uk

Pancake Party
St Catherine’s Hall
Tuesday 13th February

Drop in between 2pm and 4pm or stay all afternoon and help raise funds for St Catherine’s tower restoration.
£4 to include 2 pancakes and unlimited tea or coffee
Gluten free available on request

Sign-up sheet at the back of the church
Names before 11th February please

Lent 2024: Exploring the Stations of the Cross
Tuesday evening and Thursday afternoon and evening, starting the week of 19th February

This year the Ministry Team will once again be writing our own Lent Course, which will be looking more deeply into the Stations of the Cross which we use during Holy Week, including images, readings, reflection and prayer. These will be offered on Tuesday evening and Thursday afternoon and evening, depending on numbers, starting the week of 19th February. We also have the opportunity to share these sessions with Christchurch, giving additional days and times. Please think about whether you would like to join or even host a group. Sign up sheets available now.

Take Note in concert

Saturday 20 April, 3.00 pm

St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN

Take Note are an all-male a Cappella group of up to 12 singers formed in 2015. They sing many genres of music across many eras in four-part harmony. Their wide-ranging repertoire includes traditional male voice choir numbers, popular songs from the 50s and 60s sung in close harmony doo wop style, comedy items and other a Cappella arrangements that they think will appeal to their audiences.

This concert is a fundraiser for St Andrew’s Church. No tickets required. Donations requested on the day.

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Dave Crawford - The Unwritten Story.