St Martin-in-the-Fields: Community Art Project

 

At the Parish Day for St Martin-in-the-Fields in 2020 we began a Community Art Project involving construction of geometric stars. All the stars were to form part of a large wall hanging based on Giotto’s fresco of stars on the ceiling of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. All of the stars varied in size and complexity adding to the overall mesmeric and spatial pattern.

Stars are a symbol of truth, spirit and hope and are seen as something beautiful, good and positive. Stars can also be a symbol that embodies the notion of spiritual revelation in each of us.

The hanging is now complete thanks to Andrew Carter and was displayed in church on Easter Day. We hope that the finished piece looks beautiful and positive and a sign of hope for us all. Much thanks to everyone who took part and especially to Andrew Carter.

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Bruce Cockburn - Lord Of The Starfields.

Josefina de Vasconcellos: Kendal Parish Church & Cartmel Priory

Josefina de Vasconcellos was active as a sculptor from the early 1920s. As an artist she followed her own individual path, always believing that sculpture had a role to play as an inspirational force in society. In her extraordinary life she faced many challenges and disappointments, yet, sustained by her sincere Christian beliefs, managed to continue working into great old age. Versions of her best-known work Reconciliation now stand outside Coventry Cathedral, in the Hiroshima Peace Park, at the site of the Berlin Wall and in the grounds of Stormont Castle, Belfast. Many of her other works are in churches, cathedrals and private homes throughout the UK and overseas. More information about her extraordinary life and art can be found in Josefina de Vasconcellos, Her Life and Art.

De Vasconcellos had a lengthy association with Cumbria following her marriage to the artist Delmar Banner. They adopted two boys, and the family settled in a farmhouse at The Bield in Little Langdale at the heart of the Lakes.She carved in an outhouse at the farm while Delmar painted dramatic landscapes from the summits of the Lakeland fells. 

Banner was also an Anglican lay priest, and he led her to be baptised into the Anglican church, a faith that has run through much of her artistic work. Among her works outside Cumbria are ‘Reconciliation’ at Coventry Cathedral and Bradford University, ‘Holy Family’ at Liverpool Cathedral and Gloucester Cathedral, ‘Mary and Child’ at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, ‘Nativity’ (at Christmas) at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in Trafalgar Square, London (now destroyed), and many more.

In Cumbria she received commissions for 13 different locations, many of which were churches. I have recently seen sculptures by de Vasconcellos at Kendal Parish Church and Cartmel Priory. 

The Family of Man is in the South Aisle at Kendal Parish Church. The setting for this sculpture is a contemporary Refugee Camp in the Middle East. Huddled together, under an old blanket are Mary, Jesus and three children representing the African, European and Oriental peoples of the world. Although it has the appearance of stone the sculpture, like much of de Vasconcellos' work, is made of fibreglass. As a result, it is sometimes moved elsewhere in the church.

At Cartmel Priory, on entering the charming little chapel known as the town choir, de Vasconcellos' sculpture of St Michael the Archangel battling his way through the jaws of the dragon is powerfully evident. In the sedilla in the wall opposite is 'The True Vine' depicting the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus. 'The Young Martyr' in the North Transept commemorates the four canons and ten laymen executed in 1537 for resisting the closure of Cartmel Priory during the dissolution of the monasteries, and for all martyrs who have died for their faith. On one of the sides the names of the Martyrs of Cartmel from 1537 are carved into the stone. Within the base of a solid stone plinth is a lighted candle in a red glass holder. Topping the sculpture is a head behind solid bars. 'They fled by night – Mary and Joseph and the Holy Child' is a very tactile statue being only a few feet high and made of solid resin bronze so, as many before you have done, you can pass your hands over the work easily without risk of damage. De Vasconcellos has captured a moment when the holy family rested in the desert on their flight into Egypt. St Michael 

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Norman Nicholson - Silecroft Shore.

Advent update

Advent to date at St John's Seven Kings has included Advent Reflections, Tamil Carols, Brownies Got Talent, Christingle Service and Nine Lessons and Carols by Candlelight. Today added the Christmas Party for the Downshall Pre-School Playgroup plus Carol Singing around the Parish. Later in the week Downshall Primary School will come for their Christmas Assemblies. We have raised funds for The Children's Society through our Christingle Service and for Haven House Hospice through our Carol Singing. 

The choirs of St John's and St Peter's Aldborough Hatch have led our worship in the Advent Service for the Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches and also at our Service of Nine Lessons and Carols by Candlelight. The two choirs will join forces again this Sunday evening for a Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at St Peters.

The latest creation of our banner group - a cover for our organ with a text from Psalm 57 - was dedicated during our Christingle Service. The dedication prayer we used was:  We dedicate this organ cover to the glory of God in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the gift of music, the abilities of musicians and singers and of those who make and maintain the instruments we use in worship. May this organ cover be both a protection to our organ and a reminder to all of the contribution which music and musicians make to our worship. Amen.

Our church website is currently part way through a significant upgrade. The new format is in place and the next stage is to update the content. We are very grateful to Doug Feather who has maintained our website over a number of years and helped transition to the new format. Also to Senthur Balaji and colleagues for their work in redesigning the look of the site. 

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Sufjan Stevens - O come, O come Emmanuel.

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.

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.

Prayer - Banner dedication

We dedicate this banner to the glory of God in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May it be a sign visible to all who come to this church of our commitment to live by the wisdom from above which is pure, peaceful, gentle, friendly, compassionate, good, free from prejudice and hypocrisy, and produces a harvest of good deeds. So, we also dedicate ourselves, as individuals and as a church, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by becoming peacemakers who plant in peace in order to produce a harvest of goodness. We ask this in the name of the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Ain't Nothing Wrong With That.

Exhibition round-up

At Tate Britain today I saw Fiona Banner's Duveen Commission where she has placed recently decommissioned fighter planes in the incongruous setting of the Duveen Galleries. The suspended Sea Harrier transforms machine into captive bird, the markings tattooing its surface evoking its namesake the Harrier Hawk. A Jaguar lies belly up on the floor, its posture suggestive of a submissive animal. Stripped and polished, its surface functions as a shifting mirror, exposing the audience to its own reactions. Harrier and Jaguar remain ambiguous objects implying both captured beast and fallen trophy.

Rachel Whiteread's collages and drawings provide a fascinating and intimate insight into the creative process behind her work. While her sculptures are often large-scale and involve a team of fabricators, these paper works provide a more personal, mobile counterpoint. Nevertheless, they also share many of the themes familiar from her public commissions: texture and surface; void and presence; and the subtle observation of human traces in everyday life.

To enter Mike Nelson's The Coral Reef is to enter a parallel world. Rooms, doors, passageways, all bear traces of habitation and decay. Different, often conflicting, ideologies or belief systems are presented through these traces. The implied occupants of Nelson's world appear to be detached from the political and economic centre, left to exist at the margins of globalised, capitalist society. The work's title alludes to this collection of complex, fragile belief systems that form an obscured layer - a coral reef - beneath the 'ocean surface' of prevailing orthodoxies. Nelson's absent protagonists occupy positions of resistance in the face of dominant ideologies. However, Nelson perhaps conveys a sense of inevitable futility about such resistance. In his words, he wants the spectator to feel 'lost in a world of lost people'.

Using vintage Coca-cola and Pepsi advertising signs as his canvas, Pakpoom Silaphan creates portraits of influential people using collage and illustration with marker pen and emulsion. High-profile figures including John Lennon, Che Guevera and The Queen populate the signs at the Scream Gallery, making a clear connection between icons and the advertising industry. Silaphan takes Warhol's elevation of everyday brands to high art, and combines it with his adoration of famous figures. The power of advertising and corporate branding is demonstrated by the infiltration of Coca-Cola, Pepsi etc. to countries outside Western culture. "Celebrity is really just a word. The people who not only find fame, but also learn the power of influence, and in doing so, make a huge impact on our culture - these are the icons to me." Pakpoom Silaphan, July 2010

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Robert Plant - Angel Dance.