Good Ground and Come, Lord Jesus, Come

A new Christian devotional app for smart phones called Good Ground has been launched in Canada and the US. 

It features rich Christian content with a focus on spiritual formation for people seeking to deepen their faith. Content is curated around weekly themes and features daily Bible readings, devotions, prayer, and suggestions on spiritual formation practices. The app also uses various multi-media sources such as music, poetry, art, audio readings, video interviews, etc. to provide a deep spiritual experience. You can learn more about the app at https://www.goodgroundapp.com.

My 'Come, Lord Jesus, come' meditation is among the material that has been scheduled to appear on the app during Advent. 

This week's Visual meditation for ArtWay also connects to this same meditation. It is written by Victoria Emily Jones and originally appeared in 2016 in the self-published Advent devotional booklet Come, Lord Jesus, Come, available for free download from ArtandTheology.org. The meditation focuses on 'Procession' by one of Ecuador’s most famous artists, Eduardo Kingman who was committed to exposing the poverty and toil of indigenous populations in his native country and abroad.

'Come, Lord Jesus, Come' is an Advent devotional (booklet & slideshow) by Victoria based on an Advent meditation written by myself. Each line of the meditation focuses on one aspect of Christ’s coming. To promote deeper reflection on all these aspects, Victoria has selected twenty-four art images to lead the way in stoking our imaginations and to provide entry points into prayer. She has taken special care to present art from around the world and, where possible, by modern or contemporary artists so that we will be stretched beyond the familiar imagery of the season.

Victoria writes: 'Art is a great way to open yourself up to the mysteries of God, to sit in the pocket of them as you gaze and ponder. “Blessed are your eyes because they see,” Jesus said. Theologians in their own right, artists are committed to helping us see what was and what is and what could be. Here I’ve taken special care to select images by artists from around the world, not just the West, and ones that go beyond the familiar fare. You’ll see, for example, the Holy Spirit depositing the divine seed into Mary’s womb; Mary with a baby bump, and then with midwives; an outback birth with kangaroos, emus, and lizards in attendance; Jesus as a Filipino slum dweller; and Quaker history married to Isaiah’s vision of the Peaceable Kingdom.'

Through 'Come, Lord Jesus, Come' you are invited to consider what it meant for Jesus to be born of woman—coming as seed and fetus and birthed son; the poverty Jesus shared with children around the world; culturally specific bodies of Christ, like a dancing body and a yogic body; how we are called to bear God into the world today; and more.

Victoria writes: 'Advent takes us back and brings us forward. In preparing us to celebrate Christ’s first coming, it places us alongside the ancient prophets, who awaited with aching intensity the fulfilled promise of a messiah, and Joseph and Mary, whose pregnancy made the expectation all the more palpable; it also strengthens our longing for Christ’s second coming, when he will return to fully and finally establish his kingdom on earth ... May God bless you this Advent season as you ponder the amazing truth of the Incarnation.'

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Malcolm Guite - Waiting On The Word.

St Martin-in-the-Fields: App and Exhibitions

If you are looking for things to do this Bank holiday weekend, then why not come into town and explore the parish – guided by our newly launched 'Beating the Bounds' app for St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Beating the bounds is an ancient custom, still observed in parts of the country, in which the clergy lead their parishioners on a walk around the boundary of their parish to instil in them the knowledge of its reach. St Martin’s has records from as early as the 1500s describing the annual beating the bounds procession here, led by the clergy, with the children of the parish in tow. The tradition died out in the twentieth century but with London now easing out of lockdown, beating the bounds of St Martin’s is a great way to re explore this most central and historic part of London. The app guides the walker on a tour of the parish boundary, stopping at key points to listen to some of the stories of the parish as well as some of the music inspired by this most central part of London.

The walk will take you about an hour and forty minutes, starting and finishing at St Martin’s. It leads you along the Embankment, through St James’s Park and Green Park, past Buckingham Palace and St James’s Palace as well as the site of the old Palace of Whitehall and guides you through areas as contrasting as Covent Garden and St James’s.

The app guides you back to St Martin’s, where you can pop into the foyer to see a new map of the parish, created by the artist Adam Dant to mark the 300th anniversary of James Gibb’s design for the current church building. Dant’s 'Novel Map of the Parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields' forms the centre piece of an exhibition of his drawings and original prints celebrating Central London with all its quirks and foibles.

The Courtyard Café will be open all weekend for refreshments as well as the shop, which will be stocking a new range of gifts created by Adam Dant using his 'Novel Map of St Martin-in-the-Fields'.

You can download the app from our website, or you can use the QR code in the foyer.

From 1 - 8 May, the Adam Dant Exhibition and Courtyard Café will be open everyday from 12 – 5 pm. Click here to visit our website. (After 8 May, please double check website for opening times)

Also in the Foyer is ‘With the Heart of a Child’ by Nicola Ravenscroft which sees seven life-size bronze children, one from every continent on Earth, simply dressed in soft silk tulle, hesitate in time, leaning forward, hopeful, poised to dive, eyes closed, dreaming into their future, anticipating things unseen.

Nicola Ravenscroft writes that, ‘As an artist, I am visionary, sculptor, mother to many, and grandmother to even more’, she breathes life into life taking ‘clay, dirt and stardust, shaped and twisted torn smoothed and broken lost, found and moulded wax and singing molten bronze through white-hot crucible-refining fire, Earth’s own core breathing life into revealing-truth, a giving-birth to energy.’

The result is this installation of eco-earthling-warrior-mudcubs – children intimately connected to the earth – reminding us of our duty of care to life, to love, to planet Earth.

Nicola has recently been commissioned to create a memorial to honour the bravery of front-line NHS and care workers in the fight against Covid. The project has the backing of Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock and members of the public are currently being asked to propose a fitting name for the memorial. Her work has consistently inspired musicians, including her husband saxophonist Raphael Ravenscroft (‘A little child shall lead them’) and, most recently, Tim Watts, assistant director of music at St. John’s College Cambridge, who is composing a piece in response to bas sculpture reliefs on paper titled ‘Among the Words of Trees’. Examples of work from each of these projects are included in this exhibition in addition to ‘With the Heart of a Child’.

The ‘fifth plinth’, in the Courtyard at St Martin’s, currently features an exhibition that has featured on the BBC News, Evening Standard, Metro, and in several publications internationally. 'Out of Home' is a project telling a story of what life was like for a group of people without a home, during the time we were all told to stay at home.

The photographs were taken by Carly, Darren Fairbrass, Craig, Joe Pengelly, Andre and Kelly, using disposable cameras.

Loose guidelines were agreed with each, to allow them creative control:

• Try to take photographs in the day if possible, when there is light, but if not possible night is fine
• Take photographs of things you find interesting, or would like to photograph
• For each camera, you’ll be paid £20, with ideally a maximum of 1 camera per day, but flexible where it could help
• Try to spend less than 1 hour 45 taking photos in any given day, meaning that the work was paid at London Living Wage

The photographers retain copyright of the images, and any book and print sale profits go to them, with a smaller percentage to St Martin-in-the-Fields. Over lockdown, the project resulted in thousands of photographs, showing the ‘capital of the world’, at a unique time in its life, and from the unique perspective of some of those who were out of home, during the time we were all told to stay at home.

The Out of Home exhibition is also running in memory of Kelly Francis, one of the photographers, who sadly died during the project. The exhibition is open each day in the Courtyard, with its own outdoor café. Outdoors, and free, to be as accessible as possible.

The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Cultural Recovery Fund, St Martin-in-the-Fields and by Panos Pictures.

Further information on the exhibition is available on our website. Further information on the project, and its participants, including sales of books and limited edition prints, is available at: www.outofhome.org.uk.

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ChoralCast - The Lord's My Shepherd.

City of London in Your Pocket: A Workers Guide to Rest and Play in the Square Mile

Start:Stop at St Stephen Walbrook features in a new workers guide to rest and play in the Square Mile entitled City of London in Your Pocket.

Make the most of the City around you. It’s easy to get from station to office to sandwich bar to office and home again without really getting the most out of what’s around you. From peaceful City gardens to free art galleries, historic pubs to chic cocktail bars, yoga classes to free lectures, discover new, favourite places to eat, shop and relax throughout your working week.

Visit the City Information Centre next to St Paul's Cathedral to pick up a free copy, or download the ‘City of London Guide’ app for Android andiPhone .

Keep your guide handy for inspiration and in its pages, look for special recommendations from project partners.

For bulk orders (subject to availability, postage/delivery to be met by requester) email visit@cityoflondon.gov.uk.

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Saint Etienne - London Belongs To Me.

The Secret Chord: Update

The Secret Chord is now available as a paperback from Amazon, as well as via Lulu. This means that purchase options are now as follows:

• Paperback: Lulu - http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/peter-banks-and-jonathan-evens/the-secret-chord/paperback/product-20492394.html; Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Secret-Chord-Peter-Banks/dp/1291083790/; and ATF - http://www.80f.co.uk/shop/index.cfm/fa/shopdetails/Product_ID/160;
• Kindle: Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Secret-Chord-ebook/dp/B009OG5790/ref=tmm_kin_title_0. 

The paperback and Kindle versions can found on several international Amazon sites including: United States; Canada; Germany; France; Italy; Spain; Japan; and Brazil.

Even if you do not have an actual Kindle you can download free viewing Apps for PC, Apple Mac, iPad, iPhone and Android devices including smartphones here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_ipad_mkt_lnd?docId=1000425503

The Secret Chord, co-authored with Peter Banks, is an impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life, written through the prism of Christian belief. Covering a range of musical styles and influences, from gospel music to X Factor, The Secret Chord conveys enthusiasm for music and its transformative powers.

A sample chapter can be read by clicking here, look inside the book by clicking here, reviews can be found by clicking here.

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David Peaston, Fontella and Martha Bass - God Has Smiled On Me.