Past Life - Present Mission (5.1)

The Open Gate

"As long as we are alive, we are on the move. To become static is to stagnate ... life is meant to be an adventure ... In Celtic folk-tales a curse that could happen to a person was to enter a field and not be able to get out of it. To be stuck in that place forever ... The Open Gate is the call to explore new areas of yourself and the world around you." (The Open Gate, David Adam, Triangle 1994). David Adam suggests that the open gate is the choice that God is always placing before us and that we "should look upon the open gate as a way to extend ourselves and our vision ... it may take a great deal of discipline to get off the old familiar track and to break with old habits, but, in return, it offers the excitement of new ground and new vistas ..."

"Every now and again our eyes are opened and we see beyond the narrowness of our day to day vision ..." into new spiritual dimensions of awareness and experience. I was privileged to have two such experiences whilst on Celtic pilgrimage. The first, whilst staying for a few days in a remote cottage on the Island of Lismore where I had an overwhelming experience of the awesomeness of God's presence together with an anointing that led to a great rejoicing in Jesus. The second was during my 'Celtic Pilgrimage of Discovery' when I experienced a new relationship with God and his physical creation.

For us, living in the inner city, some new gates may open at a point of crisis in our lives. When we are suddenly and unexpectedly bereaved, or made redundant, or "where we are having what the world calls a breakdown". Such events make us more aware of change because they have dislocated us. Pain, brokenness and loneliness may be involved in walking through that new gate.

At St. Edmund’s at that time we seemed to be moving into a spiritual field where there were new gates before us. Inevitably there was also a variety of responses. To some, the Lord was acting as a heavenly potter bringing change and re-moulding which involved brokenness, inner healing and a move through the gate marked spiritual renewal. To others, it included dislocating experiences that re-directed that person's pilgrimage. To others again, it was a gate of deepening awareness of the plans that the Lord had for that person.


Spirituality exercises

At St Edmund’s we encouraged people to reflect on spirituality with several ‘spiritual exercises’. Here is one that you might like to try:

• STAGE 1: Get a blank sheet of paper and write at the top of it this statement on Spirituality – “Spirituality means ... the real, the effective understanding of Christian truth and experience from within our own human awareness (or consciousness). It's ... understanding ... it's experience of God's Holy Spirit Presence ... It's an inner awareness of The Lord; and the realness (reality of) Christian faith from within the person that is YOU. It is often surrounded by or part of prayer and it's a vital part of our personal commitment to Christ. It includes our understanding of ourselves in relation to the religious and moral values we believe and/or practice!”
• STAGE 2: Write down what you've made of it. Add anything else you think it means and especially note if you think it's left out anything that's part of it ...
• STAGE 3: Over the next three weeks add anything else that happens to you that is within you ... your thoughts, feelings, responses to being a follower of Jesus that day ... any awareness you had of the actual presence of God. Especially, how you became aware of His presence. Put it down on your spirituality sheet. If you are a housegroup member why not have a 'chin wag' about it together, and weld it together with prayer.
• STAGE 4: Return your sheet so that all the replies can be looked at to see if something comes out that all can share in.

As part of all that, try praying to the Lord, say at the start of the day, in a way that starts to invite Him to make you aware of His lovely presence. Or, you never know, it might be a slightly different awareness!! In my case, who knows, God (in spite of His lovely presence) may need to give a bit of a 'kick on the ankle' over something or other!


The Tysley Prayer Vigil

At our Prayer Vigil in St Edmund's, on the day the UN deadline for the first Gulf war was reached, our burden was that war should be avoided. As we moved toward the end of the Vigil, the Lord spoke to us strongly in two ways. First, He brought to our notice, through the reading of Daniel 10: 1 - 18 and Ephesians 6: 10 - 18, that the Gulf War is part of a great cosmic struggle going on between the forces of evil in conflict with the forces of light. Second, one of our ladies shared with us something that had happened to her the previous night. She was unable to sleep and as she spoke with the Lord, He gave her a message which was to 'Prepare the Way'. All of us in the Vigil then sought the Lord to ask Him to share with us what He was now saying to us as a Church, how to prepare the way. Various ones then shared the following: That the Lord was saying to us, here in Tysley, that we needed to move into a time of preparing for the Way of the Lord. That the Gulf crisis, and our legitimate concern about it, shouldn't stop us from committing ourselves as a Church to earnestly seek the Lord's face that His Spirit might start to prepare us for His work here, in the days ahead. That God was also preparing the way nationally, and internationally, for His work and will to be done, even from within the war. Preparation was what we had been told to focus upon. A new commitment to prayer seemed to be at the heart of it. The Lord had spoken to us whilst we had been in a trough. He had all sorts of plans for Tysley and local people, and we were a part of that. He wanted us to share in that, even though we were a small congregation. The example of Gideon was relevant (Judges 6 - 8). God doesn't always need masses of people to be His local commando troop but He does require those who are prepared, when it comes down to 'brass tacks', to put Him first.

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David Fitzgerald & Dave Bainbridge - Though The Dawn Breaks.

Past Life - Present Mission (5)

Chapter 3: Christian life and mission in the light of Celtic Christianity (continued)

Spirituality: a target for growth in UPA Churches

Celtic Spirituality is filled with a great sense of spiritual presence, of Christ being present in all things, of an awareness of His immanence, of a spirituality rooted in a poor world where oppression, illness and danger were linked to fear and a poverty of spirit. In Christ the reality could be faced and the natural world was affirmed. There was a command to redeem the whole world. Joy and celebration in the Holy Spirit abounded, together with means through prayer for protection. This was the substance of the Celtic Spirituality provided through the ‘Woven Cord’ programme and the backcloth to the ‘Woven Cord’ programme supported that overall spiritual content.

The evaluation of key themes that resonated or did not resonate showed that Category 1 participants had absorbed the Celtic sense of spirituality. Such spirituality involves both body and soul, but is of a nature that links to all the realities, problems and joys of the real world of people, including that of Tyseley as an UPA.

Mission in UPAs: the Celtic Christian background

Patrick and Columba’s ministry was characterised by mission to established Christians and missionary evangelism to others, leading to conversion and Christian commitment. Their approach became a model for the wider work of Celtic Saints and countless monks who, within the practice of peregrinatio, integrated mission and evangelism. Hillgarth established that evangelisation in Ireland was carried on after Patrick’s death by ‘holy men’ who lived a life alternating between living as hermits or wandering preachers, teaching and evangelising. Patrick’s approach also involved a willingness to engage in open debate and opposition to Druidism. Thus, the Celtic Saints practised both mission and evangelism.

Nora Chadwick discusses this within the 4th-6th century context. She refers to the fact that Celtic monks, as part of their commitment to Peregrinatio, engaged either in missionary work or mission. Columba illustrates the difference between the two concepts. When Columba visited King Brude of the Picts, or when his monks subsequently worked among them, this was regarded as missionary work. It involved, in Chadwick’s view, a primary evangelistic introduction to them of the Christian faith. Whereas when Columba and fellow monks ministered to the Scotti, i.e. the Irish invaders who were colonising what is now Argyll in Scotland, they were engaging in mission. In Chadwick’s view the Scotti were already within the embrace of Christianity. Peregrinatio was the ascetic discipline behind such mission and missionary evangelism. In practice any distinction between Celtic mission and evangelistic mission as meaning missionary work is really quite tenuous.

In the context of this study, I have used an applied definition of mission and evangelism. The definition is closely based on Nora Chadwick’s explanation about Celtic mission and missionary evangelism during the 4th-7th centuries AD. The setting of this applied definition was strictly within Tyseley as a ‘deprived’ neighbourhood, defined nationally as an ‘Urban Priority Area:

• Mission: Contemporary Christian work amongst established believers to encourage them in the growth of spirituality as expressed in daily Christian living within their UPA. This I regarded as a pre-requisite for the second aim to occur. 
• Evangelism: To prepare and send out Christians into their neighbourhood and among those they ‘rub shoulders with day by day’, sharing the good news about the Gospel of Jesus. 

A contemporary definition of mission by Andrew Kirk is, “Christian believers being sent out into the world to witness in word and deed to Jesus Christ.” In many ways Nora Chadwick’s discussion of Celtic mission and missionary evangelistic activity in contrast, seemed more relevant to Tyseley and its people. The definition and approach to ‘mission’ in this study linked input to established Christians with the hope it would eventually lead to evangelistic/missionary outreach into the local area.

Mission and pre-Evangelism

While the ‘Woven Cord’ programme did not, within its time scale, prove to be a major pre-requisite for evangelism in Tyseley two new actions that involved direct outreach into the local neighbourhood were achieved.

The first involved undertaking a community survey to find out how local people saw the neighbourhood’s main ‘needs’. Members of the congregation took out a questionnaire to be completed at three key places within the streets of Tyseley: outside the Primary School; outside Tyseley Post Office; and outside St. Edmund’s Church. Members of the congregation who shared in this task in small groups, came back thrilled at the interest and response. The survey meant Church people were actively consulting Tyseley residents and publicising the work and future hopes about Stedicare and its wide ranging Christian outreach into the parish. This was a clear example of a move into pre-evangelism.

The second related to ‘The Tyseley Prayer Vigil’. This linked regular group prayer with direct outreach into the locality. During the ‘Woven Cord’ programme the Vigil group started praying specifically for each street in Tyseley, and any known situation that needed prayer and for its residents. This pattern continued and subsequently led to ‘Prayer Walks’ in a few streets.

Mission and Evangelism in UPAs

The Church of England, due to its commitment to a parish system, has always had direct involvement in disadvantaged urban areas. At times, some of its approaches have been particularly successful, as with the Anglo-Catholic ‘Slum Ministry’ early last century. Other Christian denominations at times have successfully maintained active ministry in UPAs’ such as the Salvation Army, built upon the challenge of General Booth’s 1899 book In Darkest England and the Way Out. The 1985 Faith in the City report compares with Booth’s book but updated to urban realities in the mid 1980’s. Following that report I surveyed UPA clergy in Birmingham and published a book illustrating the multi-facetted ways that front-line clergy in Birmingham were using creative ideas and initiatives to effectively minister in UPA parishes. Yet, it also brought to light that there was much despair and absence of hope in many UPA parishes. This piece of action research provides one example of a programme that addresses absence of hope in UPA parishes.

Whilst the Fieldwork Programme at St. Edmund’s was not epoch making, it did result in building up in the faith a small group of the Lord’s people who live in a UPA, with its marginalisation from affluent society around. Christian believers from the lower social classes were thereby helped to reflect and be strengthened in the living out of their faith using the Celtic Christian model of spirituality. Their perception and awareness of the possibilities of Christian living as something distinctive, in which they were no longer pushed into the mould of the world around them, was strengthened. It is my view, that for such programmes within this type of urban context, “small is beautiful”.

The Tyseley study as a starter programme needs to be further assessed, built upon and remoulded into the type of mission programme that would resonate with other UPA Christians. I feel confident that there is a place in deprived urban areas for such small, intimate, mission programmes built around blueprints of spirituality, of which the Celtic is an excellent example. There may be others worth identifying and considering. Whatever is chosen would need to be grounded upon prayer, in association with a group of committed believers ready to commit eighteen months or so of their lives to such a programme and to such a UPA area.

A significant but unheralded happening at the end of the ‘Woven Cord’ programme that related to the transfer of Celtic Christian principles to the practice of Christian living at St. Edmund’s was the ending of a concentration, within the fellowship’s worshipping life, on ‘thing’s Celtic’! The Celtic resource material and the ways in which individuals had been strengthened through an in-depth sharing of the Celtic Biblical themes had been effectively applied into the context of the participants’ own urban world. The individuals who had gained through the mission programme and the Church’s own growth in spirituality had been transposed into being a spirituality for believers living in Tyseley. It was now part of their shared experience, and in a holistic manner they owned ‘it’. We no longer referred to these matters as ‘Celtic’.

Conclusion

Wynton Marsalis, an American musician made a moving statement that I will use as an ending to this study, with the hope it may encourage others ministering in UPAs:

“I say to the kids in the schools, make sure you play a solo, all of you, and whatever you play, do it like it’s the last thing you’re ever going to play. Even if its sad, play it. But just don’t play too long! That’s my belief and the music is a reflection of that. Being in the process, that’s what counts. You might not be there at the end of what’s being worked out. Look at the cats who built those big cathedrals, put down the first stones. They weren’t going to see the thing finished, but they were putting those stones down with a certain vibration.”

Perhaps this study could become a tune for some sad and lonely UPA Church to re-discover ‘hope’ in Christ, and become established like a Celtic island ‘Inis’, an island base of Christian warmth, belonging and service to others, created within the hope of a new beginning. A place where believers could be sent out to re-establish a people for the forgotten God from among the dusty, noisy, stressful streets.

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Wynton Marsalis, Taj Mahal & Eric Clapton - Just A Closer Walk With Thee.

Past Life - Present Mission (1)

In the latter part of his ministry my Dad, Phil Evens, began to explore and utilise in ministry the riches of the UK’s Celtic Christian heritage. This discovery complemented and assisted the exploration of spirituality already underway at St Edmund's, Tyesley where he was Vicar from 1989 - 1999. 

Celtic-based materials seemed to communicate well in an urban context and a project to study the use of such materials in an urban setting developed, resulting in an M.Phil that was completed during his retirement. He undertook two personal pilgrimages, first, to the island of Lismore and second, a six week ‘pilgrimage of discovery’ which started at Iona, finished at Holy Island and involved travelling and camping in a small diesel van. The Woven Cord programme that he introduced in Tysley saw people respond positively to the principles and practice of Celtic Christianity and transfer to their life style much of its approach to spirituality.

Past Life - Present Mission is a booklet I prepared summarising my Dad's M.Phil exploring the relevance of Celtic Christianity to urban mission. The M.Phil was his final major piece of writing and, as a family, we were thrilled that the Community of Aidan and Hilda (of which he was a friend) for a time were able to made Past Life - Present Mission available as a download from their website. As it is no longer available from that source, I will serialise it here. 

Introduction

This booklet considers how the past can inform the present by describing how principles and practices of Celtic Christianity were applied in the Birmingham parish of St Edmunds Tyseley during the ten-year period when I was its vicar (1989-1999).

Why we started

There were three main reasons why we came to apply aspects of Celtic Christianity to this disadvantaged urban parish. The first was my lifelong involvement in working class communities. Second, was the approach to ministry at St Edmunds, that of an extended Christian family committed to being a church for their community. This concern was expressed through an experimental Neighbourhood Project that we called StEdicare – Tyseley. StEdicare created an environment where, by the mid 1990s, we were motivated to search for a fresh and relevant set of Christian mission principles that applied both to our own lifestyle and were relevant to the local community. Third, in my own spiritual journey I had begun to explore Celtic Christianity.

Roots

In ‘Wholeness through Christ’ prayer counselling a focus on my Christian radicalism emerged, which linked it to a deep sense of loss of land in my family history. Our sense was that this related to Celtic and Highland forbears and to the Highland land clearances. The reasons for this sense of loss had been forgotten over time but the radical attitude it implanted remained across the generations. This link between a personal Celtic heritage and my current Christian practice led me to undertake two personal pilgrimages. Firstly, to the island of Lismore where I discovered the opportunity for reflection and dialogue with God afforded by Celtic Christian sites. Secondly, a six week ‘pilgrimage of discovery’ which started at Iona, finished at Holy Island and involved travelling and camping in a small diesel van. This personal journey of discovering Celtic Christian sites became linked to my parish ministry and Christian radicalism in Urban Priority Areas through the ‘Woven Cord’ programme that is outlined in this booklet. Coupled with this were a series of visions, regular Bible teaching, social action in Tysley, and academic study of Celtic Christianity. It has been an immense privilege to minister among those who the Celtic Christians would have seen as the “hewers of wood and drawers of water” and who I view as the ‘salt of the earth’.

What we did

Fourteen Principles of Celtic Christianity were identified through Michael Mitton’s Restoring the Woven Cord: Strands of Celtic Christianity for the Church Today. These were checked for authenticity through a critique of Celtic Christian literature and historical examination of the Christian life style of three 4th-6th century Celtic Saints and of the evolving 6th century structures of monasticism and wandering pilgrimage (peregrinatio).

These principles were then studied by various groups within St Edmunds and their responses analysed. The ‘Woven Cord’ programme aimed to act as a prerequisite for mission within Tyseley by encouraging the growth of participants’ spirituality. The results showed that 80% of the people in these groups responded positively to the principles and practice of Celtic Christianity and transferred to their life style much of its approach to spirituality. This booklet looks at how and why that happened.

It is my hope that this can provide a blueprint for using Celtic Christianity within urban mission in a way that enables the past to bring the present to life.

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Iona - Edge Of The World.

Drawing the Line 2

"The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes but in seeing with new eyes" Marcel Proust

Drawing the Line 2 at the Frederick Parker Gallery is an exhibition of digitised and original sketchbooks which represent a visual mark-making narrative of the train journey that has been undertaken weekly by Mark Lewis from London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill (and vice versa) on the Chiltern Mainline since April 2011. Mark’s working methods on these journeys are expressed through an extensive range of graphical media and drawing strategies including the use of an iPad. Mark's sketchbook journals are a response to the urban and rural landscape observed on the train journeys. Drawing from a moving train he attempts to establish a form of visual intimacy with a continually changing landscape viewed at different times of the day in all seasons

The exhibition, which follows a first Drawing the Line at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, explores the relationship between visual perception and mark-making and the way in which new ways of seeing are encouraged by working spontaneously under self-imposed pressure. Semi-abstract visual metaphors capture landscape gestures, hidden structures, energies and patterns. These are representations or ‘visual cues’ which have the potential to tease out the truth of a landscape viewed at speed.

For the exhibition related sequences of pages from Mark's sketchbooks have been collaged together to create larger abstract images composed of many semi-abstract landscapes. In this practice his work can be compared with that of John Virtue, who "never makes direct transcriptions of his subjects, but rather uses the hundreds of drawings in his sketchbooks as a starting point for imagined or remembered landscapes." He is interested in making exciting abstractions from what he perceives.

In the 1980s Virtue exhibited large landscape paintings, "assembled from as many as 200 separate drawings placed on abutting panels in a grid formation." Andrew Graham-Dixon wrote of these images: "Each panel in a Virtue is different; this is not nature on the production line, but a potent image of the world's unknowability." In these works "the eye becomes lost in the labyrinth of forms established by the juxtaposition of different panels." Virtue stated, "I wanted to find a means of expression that tallied with my experience of being in the landscape, of being mobile in the landscape." In these images repetition and familiarity do not breed contempt, instead it "breeds a deeper and deeper love; a spiritual experience."

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Bruce Cockburn - Night Train.

Windows on the world (266)

 

Birmingham, 2013

 

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Iona - And The Angels Dance.

Metropolis: Reflections on the modern city

The Ikon Gallery, in partnership with Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and The New Art Gallery Walsall, aim to establish a new and ambitious international collection of contemporary art for Birmingham and the West Midlands region, using the theme ‘Metropolis: reflections on the modern city’.

Metropolis, which is currently on show at the Gas Hall in Birmingham,  presents visions of life in modern cities around the world. With approximately 50 works in various media including digital projection, painting, sculpture, photographic installation and video art, it considers themes such as architecture, movement and consumerism, as well as the marginalised people and places of the metropolis.

 

Metropolis is the largest public exhibition of this nationally significant collection which includes work by 25 major artists from India, China, Europe and the USA such as Miao Xiaochun, Zhang Enli and Grazia Toderi. ARTicle 14 by internationally renowned West African artist Romuald Hazoumè is on display as is Mohamed Bourouissa’s powerful and significant Périphérique series – translated from the French as both ‘peripheral’ and ‘ring road’ – which offers a cast of young, mostly male, characters, each scene reflecting a carefully staged moment of physical or emotional tension set in the bleak housing estates that encircle Paris. In addition, German artist, Christiane Baumgartner has been commissioned to make new work, specifically about the urban landscape of Birmingham.

 

As Emma Crichton-Miller has written in Prospects, "There is a strong emphasis on photography and film, perhaps because these forms are particularly adapted to the fleeting, elusive life of cities, where significant events can erupt in moments and innumerable human interactions take place daily against a backdrop of mute architecture." This is particularly so with Baumgartner’s diptych Ladywood inspired by reflections of a railway bridge onto the canal and Nicolas Provost's hypnotically beautiful Storyteller which scans and merges views of Las Vegas.

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Kraftwerk - Metropolis.

Art in the Heart

Birmingham and the West Midlands have quietly been making their mark on the contemporary arts map. Art in the Heart is a celebration of the diverse and exciting exhibitions taking place across the West Midlands during 2013.

From May to December you can see work by amazing artists from Botticelli and Rembrandt to Damien Hirst and Quentin Blake in a variety of venues, from Jacobean and Georgian mansions to contemporary art galleries and even a Planetarium! Running alongside this calendar of exhibitions is a specially commissioned poetry programme, containing a series of public workshops led by Poet in Residence Philip Monks.

The Art in the Heart site gives an easy reference guide to all of the 23 venues taking part and a glimpse of some of the amazing exhibitions you can see.

It highlights the strengths of the region’s world class art collections and its innovative contemporary programmes, many underpinned by national and international partnerships to bring art of the highest quality to the Heart of England.

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The Moody Blues - Dawning Is The Day.

Sarehole Mill

Sarehole Mill was a childhood haunt of J.R.R. Tolkien. Born in South Africa in 1892, his family moved to Birmingham in 1896 and lived close to the mill for four years. Tolkien and his brother spent many hours playing around the mill. This and other local settings such as the Moseley Bog provided inspiration for 'Hobbitton' and 'The Shire' in his books The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Tolkien contributed to the restoration of the Mill in the 1960s. Sarehole Mill is part of the Tolkien Trail, which follows the childhood footsteps of the author and the places that influenced his writing. Download the Tolkien Trail leaflet (PDF).

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Far Over The Misty Mountains Cold.

Windows on the world (210)

Birmingham, 2012

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Deacon Blue - The Hipsters.

Windows on the world (209)

Birmingham, 2012

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Van Morrison - Song Of Being A Child.

Windows on the world (204)

Birmingham 2012

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Moody Blues - Question.

The Pugin Trail

My piece on Birmingham's Pugin Trail has been published in the current edition of the Church Times.

One strand of the Trail explores prints as an important vehicle by which Christianity was extended to and received by the wider community. Pugin used the work of Dürer, seem by him via prints, as inspiration for his own architectural and interior designs including furniture, tiles, wallpaper, and stained-glass windows.The influence that prints could have was also demonstrated by Pugin's own influence as his own name was made with the publication in 1836 of Contrasts, a book of satirical “before and now” etchings, through which he contrasted the glories of medieval architecture and its civilised society with the tired classical constructions that were the product of the degraded modern industrial city.

Rosemary Hill's God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain provides an excellent introduction to the man and his work. The BBC documentary Pugin: God's Own Architect can currently be seen in i-player.

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Bobby Womack - Deep River.

Trailing Pugin in Birmingham

Over the last couple of days I've been following part of the Pugin Trail around Birmingham, taking in other sites along the way. 2012 marks the bicentenary of Augustus Welby Pugin (1/3/1812 – 14/9/1852), arguably the greatest British architect, designer and writer of the nineteenth century. A specially designed trail, highlighting the connections of Pugin and his friend John Hardman with Birmingham, is available from Birmingham's tourist information offices, museums and libraries as well as other key venues including St Chad’s Cathedral.

The Cathedral and Bishop’s House (originally opposite), and their interiors, were designed by Pugin. The cathedral is an internationally significant building, being the first Catholic cathedral to be built in the UK since the Reformation. The cathedral was built by George Myers (‘Pugin’s Builder’) and the original internal decorations and fittings were made by craftsmen who re-introduced medieval techniques of production: William Warrington, the chancel windows, 1841; John Hardman junior, the plate and, after 1845, several splendid windows; Herbert Minton, the floor tiles. Pugin’s magnificent rood screen was removed in a re-ordering, in 1967. The vestments were made by Lucy Powell and colleagues, to Pugin’s designs, many surviving to this day. Pugin, a collector of antiquities, also provided the Cathedral with some fine original medieval furnishings, acquired on his continental journeys, including the 15th century German Canons’ stalls and the pulpit. Beneath the Cathedral is a spacious Romanesque-style crypt containing several chantry chapels.

A delightful print display and trail ‘Pugin, Dürer and The Gothic’ runs at the BarberInstitute of Fine Arts until 24 June. Exhibits are from the Barber’s own collection and include a late medieval Brussels wood carving of Joachim and Anna, once owned by John Bernard Hardman; an early Netherlandish triptych of the Deposition, once owned by Pugin; a collection of eight prints and one drawing by Dürer, widely recognised as the greatest German Renaissance artist and a prime inspiration to Pugin, and a Pugin octagonal table on loan from King Edward’s School.

In 1838, Pugin persuaded his friend, John Hardman (1811-1867), to turn his Birmingham button-making business to making metalwork and later stained glass for his new churches.  The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter features a number Hardman pieces in its displays, and most of the techniques and processes demonstrated on the fascinating factory tour are exactly the same as used in the 19th Century by Hardman and similar metalworking firms. For the Pugin Bicentenary the museum is mounting a special exhibition on Pugin and Hardman which runs until January 2013.

Winterbourne House, also on the Pugin Trail is a rare surviving example of an early 20th century suburban villa and garden. The house was built in 1903 for John and Margaret Nettlefold, of Guest, Keen & Nettlefold. Designed as a small country estate the house boasted rustic outbuildings and large gardens. Both the house and garden follow the style of the Arts and Crafts movement with examples of local craftsmanship throughout.

I also visited the Ikon Gallery and was intrigued by Postcards From Japan - A Message From Tohoku Artists, a touring exhibition of A5 works by 22 artists from North East Japan marking the first anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit north east Japan on 11th March 2011. In the aftermath of the disaster, electronic means of communication largely failed, making the use of landlines, mobile phones and the Internet extremely difficult. The post office, however, was quickly up and running and in many cases the first opportunity to report news of survival to loved ones was by postcard. The exhibition is curated by Kate Thomson and Hironori Katagiri, who were working in Tohoku when the earthquake struck. Together the pair have voluntarily organised international exhibitions and projects to support recovery in Tohoku, encouraging local artists and their communities, and developing international cultural links. For more information visit  http://www.postcardproject.org/.

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Bruce Cockburn - Tokyo.

Windows on the world (177)

Birmingham, 2011

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Switchfoot - Vice Verses.

On the Movement of the Fried Egg and Other Astronomical Bodies

Three superimposed slow motion images of an egg frying in a pan coalescing gradually into one combined image sound as though the films of João Maria Gusmão and Pedro Paiva, showing in On the Movement of the Fried Egg and Other Astronomical Bodies at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery, are likely to live up to the stereotype of contemporary art as superficial comedy. Instead, the visitor paying careful (even prayerful) attention will be surprised and rewarded because that selfsame careful attention is what Gusmão and Paiva have shown in the creation of their art.

Their film of frying eggs reveals the beauty in a process of change which is often only viewed pragmatically. This is the commonplace becoming extraordinary or, in George Herbert’s memorable phrase, ‘heaven in ordinary’. Their choice of three superimposed images also provides the frisson of a trinity of eggs coalescing into one substance. That this connotation is not unintended is hinted at through the description of their films as “poetic philosophical fiction” and an accompanying artist’s book, which is an anthology of texts sourced from thinkers, poets and theologians presenting a range of ideas focused around the existence of God. What can be found then in these wonder-full films is the combination of contemplative meditations on ordinary objects with philosophical explorations of the nature of belief.

Their work exudes a playful inventiveness that makes us look again because they have originally looked at their subjects with real attention. Such attention is, to my mind, an aspect of prayer. 'Experiment with Effluvium' shows the splash and ripples of a skimming stone on water. Their slow-mo technique and the framing of the shots reveal the beauty of chaos evolving into symmetry. Slow motion is used as a means of creating meditative space and features again in a film exploring the shapes and substance of water flowing down a pane of glass. Another film shows a blown egg revolving while lit from one side; the soft glint and glimmer of the egg’s shell being firstly spotlit and then erased as its revolution brings it into eclipse.

'The Great Drinking Bout' is film of a group of men carrying a large pitcher of drink into the woods and enacting bizarre rituals around their consumption of the pitcher’s fluid. As this surreal narrative unfolds however it develops into a meditation on trust with the group initially following their leader and then leading him as he places the now empty pitcher on his head at the film’s conclusion.

Gusmão and Paiva were Portugal’s representatives at the last Venice Biennale and are exhibiting here for the first time in the UK. Inspired by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa who wrote only in pseudonyms to present differing worldviews, they too revel in the creative energy engendered by contradictory philosophical ideas and express this energy through a humorous sense of wonder. Their sense of the profound comedy encountered through alternative perspectives is summed up in 'Astronomy of the End of the Boot' where a man observes the splendour of the sky through a hole in his shoe.

On the Movement of the Fried Egg and Other Astronomical Bodies, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, ends 21 March 2010.

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The Blue Aeroplanes - You (Are Loved).

Baptism of fire

November last year was the 10th Anniversary of my brother's death and on a family weekend to remember Nick, his father-in-law reminded me that I hadn't read Andy McNab's autobiography Seven Troop. Military memoirs are not my preferred reading but the interest with this book is that Seven Troop, the Troop to which McNab was assigned on joining the SAS, included Frank Collins who, once he had left the SAS and become an Anglican minister, became a great friend of Nick.

They met, I think, when Nick contacted Frank after he had read an article about Frank in The Mirror. They had their army backgrounds in common and shared interests in outward bound activities and Christian ministry. These all came together in 1998 when Nick set up the first expedition by the Aston Community Youth Project to Uganda. Frank was also part of the team that went on the expedition and enabled 17 young people from Birmingham to visit Uganda and climb Mount Elgon. The expedition was a life-changing experience for many of those young people and also led to the establishment of the charity now known as Rejuvenate Worldwide.

Frank was an great encourager of the young people, as one of the young people said at the time, "I want to thank Frank Collins for pushing me on each day when I wanted to just stop ... He's a great guy. You can have great fun with him and he can be serious too." This quality of Frank's can also be sensed in one of the short speeches that he gave as the group were climbing Mount Elgon: "It's been a great time. A time to talk and learn from one other. A time to grow. We're all learning. We're learning as we go. None of us are experts. We're all finding out as we go along. A real broadening experience. We're all learning from it."

"Let's keep on climbing mountains guys. The rest of our lives right, all the way up," was his comment as the group celebrated reaching the summit of Mount Elgon.

Frank's autobiography Baptism of Fire had come out the year before and had changed his life in more ways than anyone realised at the time. Writing the book meant that Frank had to leave his role as chaplain to 5 Airborne Brigade leaving him without a clear sense of direction. Then, as McNab notes in Seven Troop, "Not a day went by without a flood of fan mail and more requests to speak about his experiences than he knew how to handle." The pressure of high profile Christian ministry can be immense because you are expected by those contacting you to respond to all their requests (if you don't, you are letting down your Lord) and because of expectations that you maintain high standards in your personal and family life as that is what is considered honouring to the Lord. When Frank felt that he was possibly in danger of failing in relation to these things he ended his life, commiting suicide on 16th June 1999.

McNab has said that as "7 Troop, was never more than 12-strong, so we knew each other very well. Frank Collins and Nish Bruce were a bit older than me and they became my heroes." This, despite Frank's regular attempts to convert McNab to Christianity. McNab writes that he admired Frank for "getting himself involved in a lot of kids' suport groups" where "He would take them canoeing or walking in the hills, anything to show them there was more to life than nicking cars or frightening old ladies."

Ultimately, however, he thought that none of this filled the vacuum in Frank's life that resulted from leaving the SAS. He looked around at the "weird collection of people" at his funeral - "friends from his evangelical, happy-clappy days, from the clergy college, prayer groups, the cathedral lads down the road, the kids and youth groups he'd helped - and listens to "speaker after speaker say great things about him," but all he could think was, 'what a waste'; "The Church had never filled the vacuum."

McNab puts the suicide of Collins (and Nish Bruce), two of his closest friends, to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Dr Gordon Turnbull, then an RAF psychiatrist, and now one of the world's leading experts on PTSD, explains it very simply: a normal reaction to an abnormal experience. Symptoms include flashbacks, nightmares, high anxiety, severe mood swings, hyper-alertness, violent and aggressive outbursts, lack of concentration, sexual dysfunction and depression, and an inability to readjust to ordinary life.

McNab's explanation understandably highlights the military experience which is familiar to him and plays down the significance of the Christian experience to which he does not relate. Frank's life and death were complex and PTSD was no doubt a part of what led to his suicide. However, the pressure that he must have felt as he suddenly became a high profile Christian with a personal life that he felt was disintegrating must also have been a significant factor in the choices he made and leaves the Church with questions to be answered that are, as yet, essentially unexplored.

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Violent Femmes - Used To Be.

The Springfield Project

Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit the excellent Springfield Project based at St. Christopher's Church which provides services to children and their families in the local community of Springfield in south east Birmingham.

On Saturday 15th November 2008, The Springfield Centre was opened by the Archbishop of Canterbury who said: "The Springfield Centre is a further example of the Church of England's Presence & Engagement programme, which emphasises the positive contribution of parish churches in multi religious neighbourhoods."

The new £2m Centre was primarily financed and built by Birmingham City Council as the home of the Springfield Children's Centre, a 'one stop shop' provision for families with children under the age of five.

The Archbishop referred to his visit to the Project in his New Year message saying: "One of the most damning things you could say about any society is that it's failing its children. That's why I was really encouraged recently to be invited to open a project in Springfield in Birmingham – a church-based initiative supporting children and their parents from across the whole community. Here the church community took the brave decision to open up their church building for work with local families and to seek funding for further buildings and resources from the local authority. What's more, they've worked throughout in close collaboration with the local mosque and have a joint programme with them for young people. There's a community with its eye unmistakeably on its real treasure."

The Springfield Project are also fortunate to have excellent Interfaith parters who contribute to the interfaith work carried out in Springfield and beyond. Their current partners are:

• Youth Encounter (see Youth Encounter website) which is run by Andrew Smith, a member of St. Christopher's Church. It is a Scripture Union project which exists to help Christian young people in Britain live out their faith amongst Muslims. This is done in two distinct ways: running Faith and Young People Events that bring together Christian and Muslim young people for dialogue; and providing training and resources to help churches equip Christian young people to live out their faith confidently and humbly amongst their Muslim friends. Youth Encounter also provides training for churches and Christian organisations working with Muslim young people.
• Faith to Faith - Richard Sudworth is a CMS mission partner with responsibility for helping churches and especially young adults in their engagement with other faiths. See Richard's website which is named 'Distinctly Welcoming' after his book of the same title.
• Toby Howarth - Interfaith Advisor to the Bishop of Birmingham: Revd. Dr. Toby Howarth is Priest in Charge at St. Christopher's Church (the home of The Springfield Project) and is also the Interfaith Advisor to the Bishop of Birmingham (Anglican Dicoese). Toby is involved in many interfaith initiatives in Birmingham and these can sometimes involve The Springfield Project.

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Duke Special - Freewheel.