The prayer of transfiguration

Here's the sermon that I shared during today's Eucharist at St Andrew's Wickford: 

The dictionary definition of transfiguration is: a change in form or appearance or an exalting, glorifying, or spiritual change. Those aspects of transfiguration can be seen in our Gospel reading (Luke 9.28-36), but the story defines the word best.

Sam Wells, the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, puts it like this: “There’s glory – the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. There’s the pattern of God’s story in Israel and the church, a story that finds its most poignant moments in the midst of suffering and exile. There’s the loving, tender, presence and heavenly voice of God the Father – a voice that for the only time in their lives, the disciples hear and understand. And there’s the extraordinary realisation that, even though all this could have gone on without them, the disciples have been caught up in the life of the Trinity, the mystery of salvation, the unfolding of God’s heart, the beauty of holiness.”

The way he describes it, transfiguration involves the glory of seeing a person or event in the bigger story of God’s loving purposes for the world. Up until this point, “the disciples know Jesus does plenty of amazing and wonderful things and says many beautiful and true things, but they still assume he’s basically the same as them.” It’s only as they go up the mountain with him that the veil slips and they’re invited in to a whole other world. A world in which “Jesus is completely at home,” “even when the Father’s voice thunders from above.” “And more remarkably still, it seems there’s a place for them in it, hanging out with the likes of Moses and Elijah. They’ve been given a glimpse of glory. It’s a glory that’s faithful to the story of Israel, a glory that has Jesus at the centre of it, a glory that has God speaking words of love, a glory that has a place for them in it, however stumbling and clumsy they are, and finally a glory in which Jesus touches them tenderly in their fear.“

Sam Wells suggests that this experience, this glimpse of glory, can shape the way we pray by giving our prayers the same extra dimension. In fact, he details three different ways to pray. The first involves Resurrection. “Resurrection prayer is a prayer calling for a miracle. It is prayer of faithful risk. We look to the heavens with tightened fist and say, ‘Sweet Jesus, if you’re alive, make your presence known!’”

The second way to pray is Incarnation. This is “a prayer of presence. It is, perhaps, more silent than a prayer of Resurrection. It is a prayer which recognizes that, yes, Jesus was raised, but that it happened through brokenness. Through Christ, God shares our pain and our frailty. So we pray acknowledging that God suffers with us.”

The third way to pray is Transfiguration. Sam writes, “God, in your son’s transfiguration we see a whole reality within and beneath and beyond what we thought we understood; in … times of bewilderment and confusion, show … father your glory, that [we] may find a deeper truth to … life than [we] ever knew, make firmer friends than [we] ever had, discover reasons for living beyond what [we’d] ever imagined, and be folded into your grace like never before.” “In other words, it is a prayer that, in whatever circumstance, asks God to 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.”

“On the mountain, the disciples discovered that Christ was part of a conversation with Israel and God and was dwelling in glory in a way that they had no idea of and could hardly grasp and yet it put everything on a different plane.”

As a result, the prayer of Transfiguration is a different kind of a prayer. “The prayer of resurrection has a certain defiance about it – in the face of what seem to be all the known facts, it calls on God to produce the goods and turn the situation round. It has courage and hope but there’s always that fear that it has a bit of fantasy as well. The prayer of incarnation is honest and unflinching about the present and the future, but you could say it’s a little too much swathed in tragedy … it’s so concerned to face … reality … that there’s always that fear that it’s never going to discover the glory of what lies above.”

The prayer of Transfiguration is different. “Not so much, ‘Fix this and take it off my desk!’ Nor even, ‘Be with me and share in my struggle, now and always.’ But something more like, ‘Make this trial and tragedy, this problem and pain, a glimpse of your glory, a window into your world, when I can see your face, sense the mystery in all things, and walk with angels and saints. Bring me closer to you in this crisis than I ever have been in calmer times. Make this a moment of truth, and when I cower in fear and feel alone, touch me, raise me, and make me alive like never before.’”

Maybe you would like to make the prayer of transfiguration your prayer for yourself at this time, “in the midst of whatever it is you’re wrestling with today.”

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John David - Closer To Thee.

A positive legacy for future generations

Here's the sermon that I shared at St Mary’s Langdon Hills this morning and will share later at St Peter's Nevendon:

In Jewish society, land belonged first and foremost to God. The land in which the Jews lived was the Promised Land given to them by God when they were a nomadic people. Ultimately, the land was not theirs but God’s. In a sense, they held it in trust.

This is a positive attitude for all of us to have towards our possessions. Ultimately, our home, our money, our savings, our possessions are gifted to us by God and we are stewards of them. If we think like that then, instead of thinking how can I spend what I have on myself, we start thinking how can I use what I have been given for the glory of God. If we start asking ourselves that question then we are on the way to being good stewards of our resources.

When the people of Israel entered the Promised Land, the land itself had been divided up between the twelve tribes down to the level of households. In that patriarchal society the father was head of the household and ownership of the land passed from the father to the eldest son. But the land was held and used for benefit of the whole family and that was one of the reasons why it was not supposed to be sub-divided between younger members of the family. If the land was continually sub-divided eventually it would no longer support family life.

This is perhaps why Jesus was angry with the request of the man in the crowd that we read about in verse 13 (Luke 12. 13-21). He views it as a greedy request because the man wants the property for himself and that will be to the detriment of the wider family. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the father does divide the property between both sons. The younger son squanders his half meaning that when he returns everyone has to live on half the property; whereas before they had benefited from the whole property. When you understand that, you understand why the elder brother of the Prodigal Son is so angry with him.

The story that Jesus then tells is a story about greed and living selfishly. The rich man in the story has so much that he can store all he has, stop farming and comfortably live off all he has until the end of his life. This is self-centred because he has decided to do nothing else but to take live easy, eat, drink and enjoy himself. But it is also selfish because he is using up and squandering the inheritance that he should be leaving to his wider family. How will they live in future when he has squandered all his resources on himself and there is no longer a working farm?

Jesus’ punchline then is not just that the rich man will not enjoy his wealth because he will die that night. This parable is a reminder to us of the brevity and uncertainty of life but it is also about the man thinking he can have it all in defiance of the legacy he should leave to his family and then finding because he suddenly dies that the legacy he should have left but didn’t is actually the legacy that his wider family receive. “Who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?” God asks the rich man in the story. The answer is the wider family who should rightfully have received then anyway.

So God is concerned about the legacy that we leave as stewards of all that he has given to us. There are at least two broad implications of these lessons for us in the West where each person consumes about 100 times as much commercially produced energy as an average Bangladeshi and where, in terms of impact on the planet, rich countries are far more overpopulated than poor ones.

The first, is that as good stewards we have a responsibility to share our abundance more equitably with others. The second, is that we need to leave a positive legacy to future generations.

John V. Taylor, a former Bishop of Winchester, published in 1975 Enough is Enough, a book which kickstarted the simple lifestyle movement with its slogan of ‘Live simply, that others may simply live.’ The time since has not yet led us to the point of collectively owning the lifestyle changes we need to make to make a difference. The prophetic cry, from those like Taylor for a greater simplicity of lifestyle, whether from moral choice or economic necessity, is one that has been effectively sidelined during our past prosperity but is one that we, as church and culture, desperately need to hear as we face a global race to exploit scarce resources.

If we were to genuinely hear and respond to their cry for the abandonment of over consumption and the adoption on an ongoing basis of a simpler lifestyle then not only could we learn not to repeat the issues raised by our over consumption but we would be also be returning to Jesus’ command to the Rich Young Ruler that we should use our wealth for the benefit of others.

That statement that, in the light of his coming kingdom, we should sell our belongings and give to the poor comes hot on the heels of this story about the rich man who piled up his riches for himself without reckoning on the crisis of his imminent demise. Just like Jesus’ disciples, we too face a coming crisis which necessitates the adoption of a simpler lifestyle.

If we hear these prophetic cries, if we learn lessons from the over consumption of our Western prosperity, if we take on board the plain meaning of Jesus’ words then, with John V. Taylor, we will say that “enough is enough!” and will seek to turn a temporary to a permanently simpler lifestyle; living simply that others may simply live.

The picture is, of course, by no means, wholly negative. Much of what happens at the grassroots of church life is actually a real challenge to the public perceptions of what Church is about. Many congregations are genuinely seeking to engage with environmental concerns and offer help in living more simply but much more still remains to be done.

The responsibility that Jesus places on us in this passage is not to store up our resources for ourselves and to leave a positive legacy for future generations. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Three special Essex locations for retreats and contemplation

 

I have been reflecting this week that we are very fortunate to have in Essex three wonderfully unique and very different locations for retreats and contemplation in the Pleshey Retreat House, the Othona Community at Bradwell, and the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist at Tolleshunt Knights. Each is well worth exploring and visiting.

Pleshey was the first Diocesan Retreat House to be established in the country. Amongst the list of Retreat conductors is Evelyn Underhill. Arguably the most distinguished Conductor of that time, it is largely due to Underhill that the Retreat house became so popular. When you come to the Retreat House in Pleshey you sense an atmosphere created by six hundred years of prayer.

My poem called 'Pleshey', which was published by Amethyst Review, celebrates the Diocesan Retreat House at Pleshey and the legacy of Evelyn Underhill as a retreat director. The poem is part of a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford which is called 'Five Trios'. The five poems in the series are: 'Barking'; 'Bradwell'; 'Broomfield'; 'Pleshey'; and 'Runwell'. 

The Othona Community began as an experiment in Christian community back in 1946. Its founder, Norman Motley, was a Church of England priest who served as a young chaplain in the RAF during World War II. Othona is now an open and inclusive Community rooted in the Christian faith and drawing on a wealth of other inspirations. They welcome people of all ages, abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs to their two Centres on the quiet coasts of Essex and Dorset. Through sharing in the daily rhythm of work, worship, study, and play, they seek personal renewal and glimpses of the sacred. In community they explore the relationship between faith and life and encourage one another in caring for the world and its people.

The fourth poem in 'Five Trios', which was published by International Times, is called 'Bradwell' and is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places.

The Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, (also known as Community of Saint John the Baptist) is a monastic community which was founded in 1959 by Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov (1896-1993). On 27 November 2019, Archimandrite Sophrony was added to the list of Saints by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. His Feast Day is on the day of his repose, the 11 of July. The Monastery is situated in Tolleshunt Knights near Tiptree, in the United Kingdom. It belongs to the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, and is under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople.

During the first decades after the community had moved to England, the building and decorating of the churches of the monastery required much of his prayer and attention. After having abandoned painting for many years, he began to paint icons and frescos for the new places of worship. He strove to express the Face of Christ which had been revealed to him in the Light. However, he was never satisfied with his work and often adjusted and repainted the icons of Christ he had created.

Sister Gabriela joined the Community of Saint John the Baptist in 1983 after studying iconography in Paris on Saint Sophrony’s insistence. She was part of the team which was painting the murals of Saint Silouan’s Chapel and worked closely with the saint. After the mural work, Saint Sophrony continued to teach her the art of icon painting, and she assisted him in some larger works. Since Saint Sophrony’s repose, to the extent that she has been able to understand them, Sister Gabriela has tried to further his vision and ideas in various artistic projects. This includes painting the icons and murals for the round chapel which was completed earlier this year.

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Denison Witmer - Lost In My Head.

Windows on the world (530)

 

Cambridge, 2025

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The Lees of Memory - There Is Love Everywhere.

The Monastery of Saint John the Baptist

It was a joy to visit The Monastery of Saint John the Baptist today together with my friend Tim Harrold. We were grateful to Fr Andrew for his hospitality and information as we were shown around.

The Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, (also known as Community of Saint John the Baptist) is a monastic community which was founded in 1959 by Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov (1896-1993). On 27 November 2019, Archimandrite Sophrony was added to the list of Saints by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. His Feast Day is on the day of his repose, the 11 of July. The Monastery is situated in Tolleshunt Knights near Tiptree, in the United Kingdom. It belongs to the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, and is under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople.

During the first decades after the community had moved to England, the building and decorating of the churches of the monastery required much of his prayer and attention. After having abandoned painting for many years, he began to paint icons and frescos for the new places of worship. He strove to express the Face of Christ which had been revealed to him in the Light. However, he was never satisfied with his work and often adjusted and repainted the icons of Christ he had created.

Art has the ability to touch that inner part of man and convey directly a creative experience and response difficult to express in words. It was the life long vocation of Saint Sophrony to offer this living experience through art. His artistic training had its roots in both Imperial and Soviet Russia where as a young student, he was influenced by the writings of Kandinsky on the spiritual in art. It was the spiritual life that called him ever more strongly and after working as a portrait and landscape artist in Paris, Father Sophrony abandoned his painting to become a monk on Mount Athos.

Sister Gabriela joined the Community of Saint John the Baptist in 1983 after studying iconography in Paris on Saint Sophrony’s insistence. She was part of the team which was painting the murals of Saint Silouan’s Chapel and worked closely with the saint. After the mural work, Saint Sophrony continued to teach her the art of icon painting, and she assisted him in some larger works. Her work includes a series of large icons created for Chelmsford Cathedral.

On the 3rd of December 1985, while Sister Gabriela and Father Sophrony were working on the murals in the chapel of St Silouan, Father Sophrony told her: “Later, you have to write a book about our experiences; which colours were used, the mistakes you made and so on.” Thirty three years later she set herself to the task and dealt with the time of her apprenticeship as a story, copied out from her notes and adding a few explanatory notes. Failures & Discoveries: Notes from an icon workshop is the book she wrote.

Since Saint Sophrony’s repose, to the extent that she has been able to understand them, Sister Gabriela has tried to further his vision and ideas in various artistic projects. This includes painting the icons and murals for the round chapel which was completed earlier this year. 

As Saint Sophrony’s mind was always very creative, he had many ideas about how to create a space for the celebration of the Liturgy. In 1992, he made a plan to build a round chapel and supervised the construction of a model which specified all the various dimensions as well as the exact location. Whilst at the time it was not possible to fulfil the project, its realisation came thirty years later. Initially, Saint Sophrony had wanted to dedicate the chapel to the Holy Trinity; but when he himself was numbered amongst the saints, it was decided to change the plan and name the chapel after our founding Father. 

The Monastery has not written a history, but the books written by Saint Sophrony and members of his Community provide an insight into the spiritual basis of its life. These books are on sale at the Monastery’s bookshop in Tolleshunt Knights, as well as online.

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John Tavener - Ikon Of Light.

Body Piercing Saved My Life

I've recently read Body Piercing Saved My Life, Andrew Beaujon's journalistic investigation into a subculture so large that it's erroneous to even call it a subculture: Christian rock. 

At the time his book was written (2006) Christian rock culture was booming, not only with bands but with extreme teen Bibles, skateboarding ministries, Christian tattoo parlors, paintball parks, coffeehouses, and nightclubs,encouraging kids to form their own communities apart from the mainstream. Profiling such successful Christian rock bands as P. O. D. , Switchfoot, Creed, Evanescence, and Sixpence None the Richer, as well as the phenomenally successful Seattle Christian record label Tooth & Nail, enormous Christian rock festivals, and more. 

Spin journalist Andrew Beaujon lifted the veil on a thriving scene that operated beneath the secular world's radar. Revealing, sympathetic, and groundbreaking, Body Piercing Saved My Life (named for a popular Christian rock T-shirt depicting Christ's wounds) is a fascinating look into the hearts and minds of then enormous, and growing, youth culture.

Matt Fink notes that the book is 'Part autobiographical travelogue, part journalistic investigation' and that 'what Beaujon finds consistently challenges his expectations'. After an effective potted history of Christian Rock or Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), his experiences enable him to explore the difference between Christian rockers and rockers who are Christians, the move CCM made from an outward focus on evangelism to an inward focus on worship, and the conservatism of mainstream CCM. 

He works with a distinction found in Jay Howard and John Streck's book Apostles of Rock: The Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music: Separationist; Integrationist; and Transformational. Seperationist artists 'create Christian music primarily for other Christians', Integrationist artists 'try to translate their faith into mainstream music or, at the very least, offer a wholesome alternative to what's in stores and on the radio', and Transformational artists are those 'who struggle with their faith but still attempt to bring "salt and light" to the world'. Although he explores all three expressions of CCM, Beaujon's interest tends towards the latter category. 

Among the performers he mentions that were new (or newish) to me are:

David Bazan: Danielle Dietze writes that 'For thirty years, David Bazan has been writing about what it means to believe in something-and what it means when those beliefs fray. When Pedro the Lion released It’s Hard to Find a Friend in 1998, Bazan was already a keen observer of moral and existential conflict, capturing minor human disappointments with devastating attention. By the time Control came out, his writing had sharpened, slicing through suburban politeness and the American dream with pinpoint precision. For over a decade, he built Pedro the Lion into one of indie rock’s most quietly radical projects, chronicling doubt, faith, guilt, and the messy pursuit of grace in a way that felt both deeply personal and universally resonant. Then, in 2006, he retired the Pedro the Lion moniker, as if setting down an old burden. Bazan kept writing, releasing the synth project Headphones and five solo albums that were blunt and revelatory in their own right, but the decision to retire the name felt definitive. Until, suddenly, it wasn’t. In 2017, after being dormant for more than a decade, Pedro the Lion was back. The deeply autobiographical albums to follow, Phoenix, Havasu and Santa Cruz, marked a return to the places that shaped him literally and metaphorically, tracing the lines of the past to understand the shape of the present.'

John Davis: John Davis has been in a constant state of record production since 1994. He is founding member of Superdrag, The Lees Of Memory, The Rectangle Shades & Epic Ditch. He is also 1/4 of astronaut pushers. He walked away from Superdrag in 2003 but has remained prolific across myriad Bandcamp-abetted projects, including his shoegaze-oriented outfit the Lees Of Memory, the psych-country combo Rectangle Shades, and a handful of Christian-themed releases under his own name. David Zahl writes that 'John Davis found in the Gospel the permission to go deeper, rock harder, sing prettier – freedom in other words – and we’re all the better for it'. Astronaut Pushers, the one-time Nashville supergroup, consists of Sam Ashworth (Grammy and Academy Award-nominated songwriter), John Davis (Superdrag, The Lees Of Memory), Lindsay Jamieson (Ben Folds, Departure Lounge) and Matt Slocum (Sixpence None the Richer). Their four-song EP, originally self-released as a CD on a limited basis, showcases a wide diversity of styles performed by musicians at the top of their creative game. It was reissued on vinyl by Lost In Ohio in 2022.

The Ocean Blue: Getting their start as teenagers in the late ‘80s in Hershey, PA, The Ocean Blue released their self-titled debut on the famed Sire Records label that launched many of their most beloved bands in the U.S., including the Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Pretenders. Embraced by alternative radio and MTV, the band quickly made their mark with early singles “Between Something And Nothing,” “Drifting, Falling” and “Ballerina Out of Control,” each Top Ten hits on U.S. college and Billboard’s Modern Rock Radio charts. Early success set in motion a run of four major label albums— The Ocean Blue (1989 Sire), Cerulean (1991 Sire), Beneath the Rhythm and Sound (1993 Sire), and See The Ocean Blue (1996 Mercury). The band continued with string of independent releases in the 2000s, including Davy Jones Locker (2000 March), Waterworks (2003 W.A.R.), Ultramarine (2013 Korda) and Kings and Queens/Knaves and Thieves (2019 Korda). With eight albums and several EPs under their belt, the band continues to perform and record around the world, with work underway on a new album, and shows in cities throughout the U.S. in 2025.

Poor Old Lu: Poor Old Lu was a pioneering alternative Christian band based in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Their name was taken out of the first book in C.S.Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe. The band experimented with a variety of sounds and genres, particularly grunge, funk and psychedelic rock. Poor Old Lu put out four full-length records and an EP before breaking up in 1996; they reunited for a well-received comeback album, The Waiting Room, in 2002; since that time, they have released only a single song, “The Great Unwound,” in 2013. The band evolved from a funky/jangly alternative sound early on into a much moodier, refined indie rock powerhouse fully realized on their magnum opus Picture of the Eighth Wonder. They hit at the height of the Christian indie scene in the 1990s, and formed a core unit of alternative rock bands that included The Prayer Chain, Plankeye, Starflyer 59 and a handful of others. Hailing from the Seattle area, the band also had close ties with others in the scene like Pedro the Lion, Damien Jurado, Blenderhead, and even Sunny Day Real Estate (vocalist Jeremy Enigk provided guest vocals on one POL track).

The Psalters:The Psalters are a genre unto themselves, defying easy categorization. A Philadelphia Weekly writer describes them thus: 'I’m…watching the Psalters celebrate rootlessness and internationalism, mixing radical Christian propaganda with multiethnic polyrhythms and neo-Dickensian refugee ragamuffin chic. The woman next to me wears a full-on Middle Eastern burka, from which protrude long, electric green dreadlocks…The tall dude at the sound desk in the leather pants and the crazy pirate-looking mother in the front row are all members of the…Psalters–the crusty-punk, multiethnic, radical Christian equivalent of the anarchist Chumbawamba: part traveling circus, part live-by-example anti-patriotic slap in the face to the ticky-tacky Christianity peddled by millionaire preachers obsessed with their congregation’s genitalia.' The Atlantic says “Psalters mounts an ululating, multi-drum offensive against the capitalist hegemony. They dress the part, too—if you saw this lot coming on a dark night, you’d run.” They’re a communal NGO, partnering with refugee populations and indigenous groups in the work of radical justice through the art of worship. Vocalist Scott Krueger’s view is that “our Christian walk is supposed to affect every aspect of our lives. So as artists, we want to have that shape our art.”

Marsha Stevens: 'If Larry Norman is to be called the father of Christian Rock, then Marsha Stevens certainly deserves to be known as the mother of contemporary Christian music, a title that Christian Century and others have bestowed upon her. She was the leader of what is considered to be the world's first contemporary Christian music group, Children of the Day, and she has continued as a solo artist to produce albums of worship-oriented and edifying adult contemporary pop. As such, she remains the progenitor of what, by 2002, would become the single most popular genre in the contemporary Christian music market… Stevens became the first (and as of 2002, the only) major singer in the contemporary Christian music subculture to identify herself publicly as a lesbian…Christian Century Magazine has said that Stevens became “conservative Christianity's worst nightmare - a Jesus-loving, Bible-believing, God-fearing lesbian Christian.' - Excerpt from "The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music", Sept. 2002. Marsha, alongside her spouse, Cindy, are working between tours to continue their music ministry training school for those in Christian outreach to the GLBT community. An outreach of Balm Ministries (Born Again Lesbian Music), the program is called upBeat!. They have produced a Praise and Worship album with 14 singers and 10 songwriters.

Derek Webb: Musician Derek Webb, who started out with the band Caedmon’s Call in the 1990s, has “spent a career gnawing on the hand that feeds me in the evangelical Christian world,” as he told Sojourners. Caedmon's Call was a contemporary Christian band which fused traditional folk with world music and alternative rock. From his time in Caedmon’s Call to his work as a solo artist for the past 20 years, Webb has outlined a winding and vulnerable journey of doubt, love, grief, and freedom. Most recently, Webb has been reckoning with his evangelical past, writing what he calls his “first Christian and Gospel album in a decade.” In his April [2023] album, The Jesus Hypothesis, Webb demonstrates his ever introspective and thoughtfully provocative lyricism with lines like, “Maybe black sheep are not lost oh, they’re just pioneers / Just brave enough to wander off and find what’s past our fears.”

Brian Welch: When Brian "Head" Welch stepped away from Korn in 2005, he began a solo career, releasing Save Me From Myself in 2008. His autobiography, also titled Save Me From Myself, tells the incredible story of a controversial rock star, his secret addiction to methamphetamines, and his miraculous salvation through Jesus Christ. In 2013 he re-branded his solo project as Love and Death and released Between Here and Lost. Love and Death harness soaring melodies and crushing riffs, weaponizing them like a supernaturaldagger to strike at the blackened heart of disillusionment from both within and without. With an instantly recognizable relatability, for anyone who has felt discarded or without value, the band crafts invigorating anthems filled with earnest pleas for mercy and certainty amidst the chaos of an uncertain world. This is heavy music to vigorously confront depression, heartbreak, and pain. Their latest album Perfectly Preserved, is driven by the spiritual resilience inherent in the first record, combined with an even starker depiction of real-life struggle. Welch is featured on the song "Fall On Your Knees" by HolyName, a metal worship project fronted by Tommy Green. Welch also performed live with HolyName during their "Initiation" live recording in Chicago, which was released in 2023. HolyName’s most recent album is essentially a love letter to Christ and a tribute to the history of eastern orthodoxy. 

Denison Whitmer:Denison Witmer is an American singer-songwriter who has been crafting introspective folk music for over two decades. Born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he began his journey in recorded music at the age of 19 with his first album, My Luck, My Love - recorded originally as a high school English project and released on 250 cassettes. His official debut album, Safe Away, followed in 1998, setting the foundation for a prolific career. Over the years, Witmer has released a series of acclaimed albums, including Of Joy and Sorrow (2001), Philadelphia Songs (2002), and Are You a Dreamer? (2005), with the latter, produced by Don Peris and featuring Sufjan Stevens, earning critical praise from outlets such as Pitchfork and Entertainment Weekly. Witmer's discography continued to expand with Carry the Weight in 2008, followed by his first release on Sufjan Stevens' Asthmatic Kitty Records, The Ones Who Wait (2012). His subsequent albums, the self-titled Denison Witmer (2013) and American Foursquare (2020), also released on Asthmatic Kitty, continued to showcase his evolving artistry.

For more on music and faith see my co-authored book 'The Secret Chord'.

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HolyName - Fall On Your Knees (feat. Brian Head Welch & Brook Reeves).

The Ocean Blue, Denison Whitmer, Innocence Mission and Sufjan Stevens

Having just discovered The Ocean Blue and Denison Whitmer, I've also been interested to find out about their connections to the very wonderful Innocence Mission, connections which for Whitmer and Innocence Mission have also led to links with Sufjan Stevens.

Getting their start as teenagers in the late ‘80s in Hershey, PA, The Ocean Blue released their self-titled debut on the famed Sire Records label that launched many of their most beloved bands in the U.S., including the Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Pretenders. Embraced by alternative radio and MTV, the band quickly made their mark with early singles “Between Something And Nothing,” “Drifting, Falling” and “Ballerina Out of Control,” each Top Ten hits on U.S. college and Billboard’s Modern Rock Radio charts. Early success set in motion a run of four major label albums— The Ocean Blue (1989 Sire), Cerulean (1991 Sire), Beneath the Rhythm and Sound (1993 Sire), and See The Ocean Blue (1996 Mercury). The band continued with string of independent releases in the 2000s, including Davy Jones Locker (2000 March), Waterworks (2003 W.A.R.), Ultramarine (2013 Korda) and Kings and Queens/Knaves and Thieves (2019 Korda). With eight albums and several EPs under their belt, the band continues to perform and record around the world, with work underway on a new album, and shows in cities throughout the U.S. in 2025.

Denison Witmer is an American singer-songwriter who has been crafting introspective folk music for over two decades. Born and raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, he began his journey in recorded music at the age of 19 with his first album, My Luck, My Love - recorded originally as a high school English project and released on 250 cassettes. His official debut album, Safe Away, followed in 1998, setting the foundation for a prolific career. Over the years, Witmer has released a series of acclaimed albums, including Of Joy and Sorrow (2001), Philadelphia Songs (2002), and Are You a Dreamer? (2005), with the latter, produced by Don Peris and featuring Sufjan Stevens, earning critical praise from outlets such as Pitchfork and Entertainment Weekly. Witmer's discography continued to expand with Carry the Weight in 2008, followed by his first release on Sufjan Stevens' Asthmatic Kitty Records, The Ones Who Wait (2012). His subsequent albums, the self-titled Denison Witmer (2013) and American Foursquare (2020), also released on Asthmatic Kitty, continued to showcase his evolving artistry.

For listeners of the innocence mission, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania trio are beyond a favourite band, more like a beloved companion, such is their intensity and fragility of their sound and vision, spearheaded by Karen Peris’ heartbreaking, breathtaking voice. Those fans include Sufjan Stevens and Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), who have both covered innocence mission songs, and in whose company the trio deserve to be bracketed.1999’s Birds Of My Neighborhood kickstarted the innocence mission as we know them today, following three albums as a quartet that drew comparisons to The Sundays and 10,000 Maniacs. But when drummer Steve Brown left to become a chef, Karen Peris (guitars, piano, pump organ, accordion, voice), husband Don (guitars, drums, voice) and Mike Bitts (upright bass) forged ahead with an orchestral, at times cinematic, folk pop sound which they felt was truer to their real nature in any case, a sound rich in atmosphere, innately sad, but ultimately hopeful. 

Sufjan Stevens is a singer, songwriter and composer currently living in New York. His preoccupation with epic concepts has motivated two state records (Michigan and Illinois), a collection of sacred and biblical songs (Seven Swans), an electronic album for the animals of the Chinese zodiac (Enjoy Your Rabbit), a full length partly inspired by the outsider artist Royal Robertson (The Age of Adz), a masterwork memorializing and investigating his relationship with his late mother (Carrie & Lowell), and two Christmas box sets (Songs for Christmas, vol. 1-5 and Silver & Gold, vol. 6-10). In 2020 he shared Aporia, a collaborative new age album made with his stepfather Lowell Brams, and his eighth studio album The Ascension, a reflection on the state of humanity in freefall and a call for total transformation of consciousness. In early 2021 he released Convocations, a five-volume, two and a half hour requiem mass for present times, and then A Beginner’s Mind, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Angelo De Augustine featuring songs inspired in part by popular films. In October 2023, Stevens released his tenth solo studio project, Javelin, which pairs musical sweep with emotional breadth in a way only Stevens can, weaving an entire lifetime of feeling into 42-minutes. 

The members of the Ocean Blue first met in junior high school. They cut a series of demos while in high school, with Scott Stouffer sitting in on drums. They managed to get two of these earliest recordings, "On Growing Up" and "Wounds of a Friend", included on a local radio station compilation in late 1986. The compilation also included very early work from noted local artists the Innocence Mission, who were friends and mentors of the Ocean Blue.

"Do You Still Remember" on Davy Jones' Locker (1999) by The Ocean Blue (song recorded by Don Peris; entire album mastered by Don). Don was credited as the mastering engineer for two EPs released by The Ocean Blue: Denmark (2000) and Ayn (2001).

Korda Records is a Minneapolis based record label cooperative launched in late 2012 by a number of artists including David Schelzel of The Ocean Blue. The label say of The Innocence Mission: "We are proud to have our friends The Innocence Mission a part of Korda and their 2015 release Hello I Feel the Same (Korda 014) on the label. The guys in The Ocean Blue have a long and deep friendship with Don & Karen of The Innocence Mission that goes back to some of each band’s first shows in Pennsylvania and their major label debut records on Sire and A&M."

Don Peris has worked extensively with Lancaster-based singer-songwriter Denison Witmer, and was first credited as an engineer on his debut release, 1995's My Luck, My Love. After buying his first guitar, Denison sought the teachings of Don Peris. Peris, however, ended up playing a much bigger role in Witmer's career later in life. Peris has gone on to produce several of Witmer's albums, including Safe Away (1998) and Are You a Dreamer? (2005), 'Carry The Weight' (2008), as well as the 1999 EP River Bends. He also engineered the LPs Of Sorrow and Joy (2001) and Recovered (2003), and mixed The '80s EP (2000) and Philadelphia Songs (2004). The latter album additionally features background vocals from Karen, on the song "Rock Run". Karen also assisted with production of Are You A Dreamer? The album also featured Sufjan Stevens.

2011's 'The Ones Who Wait' was originally released under the Mono vs Stereo label but was re-released in 2012 by Asthmatic Kitty, the label owned by renowned singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens. Denison's 10th album was self-titled and was again released under the Asthmatic Kitty banner (2013). It was produced by Don and Karen Peris, who also feature on the album. American Foursquare (2020) included “Birds of Virginia” which features Karen and Don Peris. Witmer’s latest album, Anything At All, was released on Asthmatic Kitty Records on February 14 2025 and showcases his enduring collaboration with Sufjan Stevens, who produced the record.

Speaking of his cover of The Innocence Mission's "Lakes of Canada", Stevens said:“I’m in awe of big songs, national anthems, rock opera, the Broadway musical, but what I always come back to, after the din and drum roll, is the small song that makes careful observations about everyday life. This is what makes the music by The Innocence Mission so moving and profound. ‘Lakes of Canada’ creates an environment both terrifying and familiar using sensory language: incandescent bulbs and rowboats are made palpable by careful rhythms, unobtrusive rhyme schemes, and specificity of language.”

When speaking of Karen Peris, it’s clear to see the admiration Stevens holds for her: “What is so remarkable about Karen Peris’ lyrics are the economy of words, concrete nouns - fish, flashlight, laughing man - which come to life with melodies that dance around the scale like sea creatures. Panic and joy, a terrible sense of awe, the dark indentations of memory all come together at once, accompanied by the joyful strum of an acoustic guitar. This is a song in which everyday objects begin to have tremendous meaning.”

For more on music and faith see my co-authored book 'The Secret Chord'.

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Denison Whitmer - Birds Of Virginia.