Between: afghanistan

Showing posts with label afghanistan. Show all posts

Sunday, 25 April 2021

Artlyst - George Gittoes: Equal parts artist and warrior

My latest article for Artlyst is a preview of 'George Gittoes: on being there' at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. Australian artist and documentary filmmaker, George Gittoes is an artist willing to create in the face of chaos and potential destruction:

'George Gittoes: on being there gives privileged access to his process through his personal visual diaries, field drawings, photography and film. Through these forms, we experience an amazing human journey that holds out the hopeful power of creativity in the face of prejudice and fear. This is a magnificent visual record of how Gittoes not only survives but creates in the face of forces that would seek to repress the human imagination.

Gittoes has learned that documenting frontline action is not enough; he wants to use art to bring about change. He wants, as Pattenden writes, ‘to pull us into these narratives and for us to consider what matters most when we talk about what life means and the nature of survival and human thriving.’'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Articles -

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Bruce Cockburn - Call It Democracy.

Tuesday, 3 April 2012

New banner for St Michael's Church Camp Bastion

A new banner created for St Michael's Church at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, was dedicated at St John's Seven Kings on Palm Sunday. The banner, which was the work of the Banners group at St John's, depicts St Michael and includes the phrase 'The Lord is my strength and shield.'

Work on the banner was led by Mrs Maria Wright, whose son Peter Wright is currently serving in Afghanistan as a member of the Territorial Army. It was Peter who requested that our Banners group create the new banner for St Michael's Church as an addition to the small number of banners already in the church.

The St John's banner group meet monthly and have created banners for both the church and parish centre as well as an altar frontal, lectern and pulpit covers.

Our strong links with the Ilford Branch of the Royal British Legion - the Vicar of St John's is Padre to the branch - mean that we are involved in both the civic remembrance, on Remembrance Sunday, of those in the armed forces who have given their lives in the service of others and, on Armed Forces Day, in praying for those currently serving in the armed forces. We are therefore very pleased to have had this additional opportunity to support those serving their country on active service.

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Ottorini Respighi - St Michael the Archangel.

Sunday, 1 April 2012

Palm Sunday procession

St John's Seven Kings and St Paul's Goodmayes held our annual Palm Sunday procession and service today with approximately 180 people attending (our largest attendance to date). This year the procession began at St John's Seven Kings, where both congregations gathered and where we dedicated at banner made by the St John's Banner Group which will be sent out to St Michael's at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan. We then processed along Meads Lane led by Gordon the donkey (on which children took it in turns to ride), crucifer, robed choir and clergy. At Westwood Recreation Ground we read the Gospel and blessed our palm crosses before processing along Atholl Road to St Paul's Goodmayes where our service ended with communion.

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Graham Kendrick - Make Way, Make Way.

Sunday, 8 November 2009

Jesus' wartime stories

Jesus told wartime stories. You can find them in Matthew 25. 1-13 and the other stories which are recorded for us in Chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew’s Gospel. That seems an odd thing to say about a story that is to do with a wedding and which does not mention war but the context in which Jesus told these stories to his disciples was one of trying to prepare them for a coming conflict.

Throughout the teaching recorded for us in Matthew 24, Jesus is telling his disciples about a coming crisis for which he needs them to be ready. This crisis will culminate in an invading army marching into Jerusalem’s Temple and laying it to waste. The wartime scenario that Jesus was describing here actually occurred about 40 years after his death and resurrection in AD70 with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the occupying Roman army.

What Jesus was doing through his teaching and through these stories was to try to get his disciples ready for that coming crisis so that they would respond appropriately. As loyal Jews their natural tendency might well have been to stay and fight but Jesus makes it clear to them that they must get out and run. As a result of Jesus’ disciples fleeing Jerusalem, the message of the Gospel spread around the world. Their message was that all that Jesus did and said was true and that this was confirmed by the coming to pass of his prophecy about the Temple.

How prepared are we, I wonder, for the crises that we face in our day and time and are we ready to use them as opportunities to share and show the good news of Jesus? That is ultimately, the challenge of this story for us.

We can, in a sense, lay this story like a template across the crises that we remember and face and use it to assess whether we are more like the wise or foolish women in our response. Ultimately, in relation to the Second World War we would probably want to say that the country responded more like the wise than the foolish women. Whether we are talking about those who were on the front line or those supporting the war effort from home, the country was prepared to accept and make sacrifices in order that the war would eventually be won.

But that is not always the case in situations of conflict. We could, for example, ask the same question of the current conflict in Afghanistan. If it is true, as senior people in the Forces have suggested, that our troops there do not have the equipment they need for the task they have been sent to do, then it may be that our Government has acted more like the foolish women in the story than those that were wise.

We can apply this story too to crises that are not to do with warfare such as the current credit crunch. The way in which banks have been prepared to lend money to those who have no means of repaying those loans, for example, suggests that they too have behaved more like the foolish women in the story than the wise.

In the background of the credit crunch crisis are the twin crises of climate change and the peaking of oil supplies. Experts tell us that as a human race we have only a short number of years in which to address these issues before these crises hit us full on and it will be too late to respond. As in Jesus’ story, the question is, how will we respond? Will our response be wise or foolish? Will we be prepared or unprepared for the crises that are to come?

For Christians the question of how we respond is also a question of how prepared we are to share the good news of Jesus in the face of the crises that we face now and those still to come. What have we to say as Christians about conflict within our world? About the credit crunch? About climate change and peak oil? Jesus’ call is clear we are to be ready to face the crisis and prepared to share his good news. As we look back this month to honour those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus’ question needs to echo and re-echo in our lives and world; are we ready?

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Monsters of Folk - His Master's Voice.