All Saints Goodmayes: Stations of the Cross

All Saints Goodmayes, which has a set of Stations of the Cross by the artist Henry Shelton, has prepared a booklet of images, reflections and prayers based on these Stations. The reflections and prayers used are those that I wrote for an earlier collaboration with Henry called 'The Passion'.

The Passion: Reflections and Prayers features minimal images with haiku-like poems and prayers that enable us to follow Jesus on his journey to the cross reflecting both on the significance and the pain of that journey as we do so. Henry and I aimed in these reflections to pare down the images and words to their emotional and theological core. The mark making and imagery is minimal but, we hope, in a way that makes maximum impact. Here is an example of one of the reflections and prayers: 

Jesus dies on the cross

The sun is eclipsed, early nightfall,
darkness covers the surface of the deep,
the Spirit grieves over the waters.
On the formless, empty earth, God is dead.

Through the death of all we hold most dear, may we find life. Amen.

The set of Stations now at All Saints Goodmayes have previously been exhibited at York Minister, St stephen Walbrook, and Chelmsford Cathedral. The booklet comes with a Foreword by The Most Revd and Rt Hon. Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York:

"At this most holy time, as we follow Jesus on His journey to the cross, Henry Shelton's contemporary images provide an evocative background against which we can place our deepest reflections as we contemplate the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his death and resurrection delivered and saved the world." 

Henry Shelton was born and grew up in Stratford, East London. He joined West Ham church as a choir boy where he first became aware of the importance of Christian art.

After leaving school he joined a London studio as an apprentice draughtsman developing his drawing skills in lettering and fine art. After 15 years of service he set up his own studio receiving many commissions to design for such clients as the Science Museum, Borough Councils, private and corporate bodies.

During this time he continued painting Christian art and after meeting Bishop Trevor Huddleston he completed a series of portraits of him which were exhibited in St Dunstan's Church, Stepney, where he was also confirmed by the Bishop.

Henry worked designing in studios across the world, including Hong Kong and the USA. Together, we formed commission4mission, an artist's collective that generated church commissions, exhibitions, events and resources. Henry's commissions include a large oil painting of the Ascension installed as an altarpiece in the Church of the Saviour, Chell Heath; the Millennium clock tower in Goodmayes, memorial etched glass windows in All Saints Goodmayes and All Saint's Hutton, paintings for the Chapel at Queen's Hospital Romford, Stations of the Crown of Thorns at St Paul's Goodmayes, and the Trinity Window at All Saints Goodmayes.

An interview that I undertook with Henry can be read here and here.

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Extreme - Peacemaker Die.

Sacred Meetings and Near Thursbitch

Sacred Meetings - paintings by Greg Tricker is at Marylebone Theatre until 3 June 2023. Sacred Meetings is an exhibition of the work of Greg Tricker. Greg is a stone carver and painter. He was born in London in 1951. Deeply inspired by Vincent Van Gogh in the early years, he later developed his own unique style of painting on the Isles of Sicily. He trained as a monumental mason and now lives in the Cotswolds and teachers at the Ruskin Mill Centre.

His profound and simple style of paintings follows in the mystical and sacred tradition of art akin to the work of Rouault and Cecil Collins. Qualities of myth, echoes of the Folk Art Spirit and element of the circus feature in his work, which he presents in themes; he has produced a number of themed exhibitions, notably Paintings for Anne Frank (exhibited at Peterborough Cathedral and St Clement Danes, London), The Catacombs and recently Francis of Assisi exhibited at Salisbury Cathedral and Piano Nobile Gallery, London.

Peter S. Smith RE, wood engraver, was drawn to Jenkin Chapel near Thursbitch, high in the hills of the Peak District, by the story of a curious memorial stone, and that stone is the subject of a new booklet Near Thursbitch. Peter tells his story and shows his boxwood engraving of the stone, an oblique tale and an oblique engraving. It is shown as the centre of the trifold, the text from the two faces of the stone holding his engraving, in their grip.

Near Thursbitch has been published by Incline Press, which celebrates 30 years of printing books and ephemera in November 2023. Proprietor, printer and binder Graham Moss, has published over 120 limited edition books in traditional private press fashion. A true craftsman, he carefully chooses the metal type, paper and binding for each of them, creating a beautiful collection of sought-after work. 

Near Thursbitch is set in 16 point type, designed by the calligrapher Alfred Fairbank in 1929; the cut lettering is represented by Russell Maret’s Baker, issued in 2016, also used as the titling fount. The wood type on the cover is from Stephenson Blake. Printed on 170gsm Zerkall paper, hand sewn with linen thread into a cover made by Papeterie St-Armand in Montreal. The edition is of 160 numbered copies, £36 including UK postage. Each copy is signed by the author/engraver.

Peter S. Smith RE, former head of the school of Art, Design and Media at Kingston college, is a member of the Society of Wood Engravers, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. He has paintings and prints in public and private collections including Tate Britain, the Ashmolean, the Fitzwilliam and the British Museum. In September 2006 Piquant Editions published a book about his printmaking ‘The Way I See It’ with an introductory essay by Calvin Seerveld. He currently has a studio at the St. Bride Foundation, London, where he also teaches wood engraving workshops.

Peter currently has work in the RE Originals exhibition at the Bankside Gallery and will have a piece in the RA Summer Exhibition.

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Bruce Cockburn - O Sun By Day, O Moon By Night.

Something Worth Sharing

 

Together with Inclusive Church, St Martin-in-the-Fields and Accessible Synod, HeartEdge supported the launch during General Synod of 'Something Worth Sharing', a booklet sharing the fruit of an annual conference on disability and church.

Talks from the launch event by Fiona MacMillan, Emily Richardson and Tim Goode can be read here.

Read more about the conference, its approaches and learning from it in recent articles for anglican focus and The Plough:

• anglican focus: “If the Church is to be renewed from the edge it must make space for the edge to come to the centre. That space needs to be open to disruptive prophets and uncomfortable conversations – and accessible.”
• The Plough: Disability asks us questions that only more questions can answer.

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St Martin's Voices - A New Commandment.

CTiW Solidarity Resources booklet

Churches Together in Westminster has prepared a Solidarity Resources booklet for churches. Here is my letter introducing the booklet to our members:

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of all people across the globe. We, in the wealthy countries of the G20, need to recognise and take responsibility for the fact that our progress, quality and way of life is at the expense of the people of the least developed countries.

The coronavirus pandemic is not a great equaliser as some have claimed. This pandemic has reminded us that we are all connected, and that to be well and healthy we depend on others, and on our communities. In fact, unequal systems of power double down in a crisis.

The danger is that, even with a vaccine, for some time to come our focus in the UK will shift almost entirely to domestic issues and to our own recovery. This will not be a quick process but has already led to claims that we cannot afford to support the most vulnerable countries at the level we did before, thus casting them adrift.

Pope Francis has said, ‘We exist only in relationships: with God the Creator, with our brothers and sisters as members of a common family, and with all of God’s creatures within our common home.’ As a global Christian family we need to embody Pope Francis’ prophetic words as we unite to
pray and take action for our common home during this season of global pandemic.

Lucy Olofinjana writes for Churches Together in England & Wales that we need to:

‘Unite with Christians from all continents to ask for a coronavirus response that embraces sharing, not plundering. Learn the importance of living out Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 12, ‘If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness.’ Let’s seek to make this a reality as we go about life as part of God’s family. Let’s ‘rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn’ (Romans 12:15) – being real and honest with one another, and truly being there for each other, in the good times and the bad. Because, after all, we are family.’

This resource booklet has been prepared by Churches Together in Westminster to help our members focus on those in developing countries who are suffering from the COVID-19 Pandemic. We hope we will all encourage our congregations to engage actively with Christian organisations worldwide in their work with vulnerable communities. This should surely be a part of our response to the universal gift of God that we remember and celebrate in Christmastide.

This booklet has been arranged as a series of daily readings around key themes:

• Day One Impact of coronavirus on people in fragile countries
• Day Two Health, shelter and survival
• Day Three Poverty and livelihoods
• Day Four Education and children
• Day Five Violence against women and girls, and gender inequality
• Day Six Impact on those with disabilities
• Day Seven Loss of rights and freedoms
• Day Eight Impact on peace processes and conflict

We encourage you to make the booklet available to your congregations and consider holding a Solidarity Sunday service to introduce the booklet and encourage support for the organisations listed in the booklet’s appendix. Solidarity Sunday is about reminding ourselves and each other that there is so much good we can do - through giving, through prayer and through powerful demonstrations of unity.

A celebration of solidarity organised by Farm Street Church with CTiW can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=XvJ4mE5C3AY. The service includes a sermon preached by Revd Tricia Hillas, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, testimony and readings from homeless guests of the Central London Catholic Churches service at Farm Street, and prayers from Churches Together in Westminster.

We hope you will organise your own Solidarity Sunday service and will be happy to provide any support, ideas or advice that would assist.

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World Day of the Poor 2020 - Churches Together in Westminster.

Thinking Differently About God

Thinking Differently About God was a weekend of events to mark the 8th annual conference on Disability and Church, a partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church.

Videos, texts and more from the speakers at the conference can now be found on the Inclusive Church website. These include:

Fiona MacMillan: Introduction to the conference (video)

Fiona is chair of the Disability Advisory Group at St Martin-in-the-Fields and a trustee of Inclusive Church. After ten years managing innovative health projects Fiona studied at the School for Social Entrepreneurs, becoming one its first fellows. She has been collecting health and neurodivergent labels for the last 20 years, and combines these experiences in her writing and work on disability, lived experience and questions of social justice. Fiona coedited the booklets Calling from the Edge and Something Worth Sharing. She is a member of the Nazareth Community.

Dan Barnes-Davies: Storyteller (video)

Dan was born and raised in rural north Essex, but is also a Londoner by adoption. He started to help with these conferences as an Inclusive Church trustee years ago. He has pursued and received diagnoses of dyspraxia and ADHD in those years, deepening his self-understanding. Among these insights is a new perspective on his otherwise very privileged experiences, and to encounter (some) institutional discrimination.

Ann Memmott: Talk on autism and church (video) and Powerpoint presentation.

Ann is autistic and faceblind, lives with arthritis and has nerve damage from chemotherapy for past cancer. Having been unable to use spoken language to communicate for the first ten years of life, Ann sometimes uses technology to assist. Her experiences of encountering anxiety around autistic people in church contexts have led her to pioneer work in this field. The autism guidelines for the Church of England were written by Ann & her team. In her wider work Ann is a Director of an international autism advisory group and a Trustee of Autistic Pride Reading.

Sam Wells: Talk on the parable of the persistent widow - part 1 and part 2. Notes from Sam's talk are here and here.

Sam is Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and a widely known preacher, pastor, writer, broadcaster, and theologian. He has served as a Church of England parish priest for 21 years. He also spent 7 years in North Carolina, where he was Dean of Duke University Chapel. Sam is also Visiting Professor of Christian Ethics at King’s College London, and a member of the Multi-Stakeholder Council that advises the G20 meetings. He has published 33 books, including studies in Christian ethics and explorations of liturgy, preaching, faith and mission. His most recent book is Walk Humbly (Canterbury 2019).

Rachel Noel: Storyteller (video) and text.

Rachel is affectionately known by the local press as the Pink Vicar. She had a particularly formational journey through curacy during which she was diagnosed with Bipolar, ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder, with strong autistic traits; she is currently awaiting ASC assessment. Rachel lives and works openly with these conditions, and has been licensed as Priest in Charge of St Mark’s Church, Pennington. Her gifts and symptoms include high energy, enthusiasm, creativity and love of colour - especially pink! Rachel loves exploring her faith and spirituality through creativity, stitch, paint and contemplation, and is a member of the Community of Hopeweavers.

Bingo Allison, Sue Hartley, Krysia Waldock and Philip Hickman: Panel (video) and notes/ pdf presentations: Bingo, Sue(powerpoint), Sue (pdf), Krysia and Philip.

Bingo (they/them) is a genderqueer, autistic, dyspraxic person working as a curate to The Order of the Black Sheep, a fresh expression of church in Chesterfield in Derby Diocese. They have been involved in disability activism for the last fourteen years and have contributed to various secular and religious discourse around neurodiversity and liberation, including as a storyteller in the Inclusive Church resource book, Disability. Bingo is also a performance poet who uses their poetry to reflect on their own experiences as an autistic and transgender person in the church.

Sue is a retired GP and a self-supporting priest in the Chelmsford Diocese. She is an Ignatian trained spiritual director with experience of leading individuals through the Spiritual Exercises. Other ministries include hospital chaplaincy and providing chaplaincy support to an independent secondary school for students with autism. Early in 2017, she received a diagnosis of autism. Since then she has been passionate about raising awareness in churches, and reflecting on the interface between autism and spirituality.

Krysia is an autistic PhD student at the University of Kent exploring autism within different beliefs, including religious and humanist systems. She also is a rotational panelist on BBC Radio Kent's Sunday Breakfast and writes a blog 'Musings of an autistic researching spirituality'. She has been campaigning for a more 'inclusive church' in her local Methodist circuit for the last 3 years. @krysiawally. Read Krysia's recent posts and report here, here and here.

Philip writes: 'As someone who has been identified as dyslexic I have had trouble with expressing myself with words. As a “Visual Theologian”, my aim is to minster to the effectiveness of the Christian Contemplative practice of photography and thus come to understand a deeper realisation of the divine nature of God. As someone who is identified with cerebral palsy, my work as a photographer helps me question my own identity and its implication to the wider world. Working closely with photography, contemplation and my identity, my research questions the less fortunate understanding of my identity and questions my own true self; that is to help me answer the question; “Who am I?”.

2019 Conference Eucharist: Liturgy and Poem

Workshop: Descriptions

Sunday morning: liturgy (pdf) and Ann Memmott's address (audio)

Sunday afternoon: report.

Since 2012 this annual conference has held space for disabled people- to gather, to resource each other and the church. It's a partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church, working #withnotfor disabled people.

At the 2019 conference a brand new booklet 'Something Worth Sharing' was launched. This is now available to download! In it are ideas, responses and resources from the 2018 conference. Exploring access and theology, language and structures, communication and participation. The booklet 'Calling From the Edge' celebrating the first 5 conferences is available here.

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June Boyce Tillman - Hope Psalm.

Thinking Differently About God: Neurodiversity, Faith and Church

 

 

 

 

Thinking Differently About God: Neurodiversity, Faith and Church
Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October

A weekend of events to mark our 8th annual conference on Disability & Church, a partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church.

Neurodiversity is the idea that there are natural variations in the way people think and process information. These include autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and Tourette's - each a particular combination of needs and gifts. 

We explored our understanding of God and sharing experience of discovery, discrimination and discernment. Speakers included: Bingo Allison, Dan Barnes-Davies, Sue Hartley, Phillip Hickman, Naomi Jacobs, Ann Memmott, Rachel Noel, Krysia Waldock, WAVE and Sam Wells.

We welcomed 80 people from across the country and are hugely grateful to the many people who supported the event. Participants said:

• Brilliantly stimulating conference at St MitFs on neurodiversity. Speakers telling their stories. "Divinely disruptive", "Different not broken". God loves and accepts all of us.
• Fabulous day! Thank you all so spoke with and whose company I enjoyed - church should be like this more often!
Thank you for being a bright bulb in our lives. I am motivated and moved following today’s Neurodiversity Conference. I engaged with many participants who were uplifted because they had the space to unpack hidden challenges.
• Every year I leave the conference at St Martins in the Fields thinking that it truly is a prophetic voice to the wider church. Today is no different - a truly transformative and challenging day. Thank you to all the speakers and especially to Fiona and her team.

Tomorrow at the 10.00am Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields we welcome Ann Memmott, author of Church of England guidelines on welcoming autistic people, as our visiting preacher. Parts of the liturgy have been written by our Disability Advisory Group, under the guidance of Sam Wells. The service is BSL interpreted.

Something Worth Sharing: we'll also be launching a new booklet on disability and church. Based on our 2018 conference it shares ways to create change in church. Includes our own Disability Advisory Group, theological reflection by Sam Wells and an introduction by the Bishop of London. Copies are available after service in the Lightwell. Donations to support this work are welcome.

At 2.00pm in St Martin's Hall we explore the ideas via the creative arts. Including an introduction to Contemplative Photography by Phillip Hickman and a special screening of ‘Touretteshero: Me, My Mouth and I’; a documentary exploring neurodiversity in the visual arts through the lens of Samuel Beckett's play, 'Not I'. We'll be joined by Jess Thom (aka Touretteshero) – to explore what the arts have to teach the church about diversity, acceptance and belonging.

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Let Us Build A House Where Love Can Dwell.

Calling from the Edge

 

'Calling from the Edge' marks 5 years of conferences on Disability and Church, a partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church. As part of our commitment to share the learning and experience we have taken the booklet to General Synod this week where it is the focus of a stall in the marketplace. 

We also opened the ideas to a wider audience with a lunchtime pop-up event today at Central Hall Westminster, when several of our conference speakers brought the booklet to life. The chair was The Very Revd Dianna Gwilliams, Chair of Inclusive Church, and the speakers included: Emily Richardson, Ann Memmott, Fiona MacMillan and Revd Tim Goode.

Fiona MacMillan said, 'We are all a combination of needs and gifts. When our needs are met, our gifts can flourish.' Emily Richardson told us how twitter has helped her find her voice; finding new and creative ways to communicate can be the role of prophets calling from the edge. For Emily, “Being a Twitter prophet means 'making every character matter'.” 

Tim Goode told us that God has a plan for all human flourishing. The disability conference, he thought, enables the Church to hear prophetic voices that haven't been heard in 2,000 years. Ann Memmott told us about her varied experience of being autistic in churches; sadly she has sometimes experienced ignorance, myth, praying away the autism etc. She has 'tried to respond with love,' but it is hard.

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U2 - Song For Someone.

Prophetic voices calling from the edge

Vox pop interviews given by participants at Prophets & Seers: Calling from the Edge, the 2016 conference on Disability and Church, organised in partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church. Participants shared their message to the Church.

Here is my Thought for the Week for the Parish Newsletter at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

“My weakness and my weariness can be something like a gift.”

“It is really important to have a chance to tell our stories, hear them underpinned by theology and find out how they can – or should – influence wider public policy.”

“We need to move on from welcoming disabled people as an act of grace and see them as whole people with as much right to be there as anyone else.”

“Disabled people are not so much a pastoral problem as a prophetic potential. We need to ask not how the church can care for disabled people but to ask what is the prophetic message of the church in our culture and how disabled people can make a unique contribution to that renewal.”

“Our disabilities don’t necessarily detract from how whole we are, please don’t presume we need to be healed or that we have nothing to contribute – everyone has gifts to give.”

These quotes come from ‘Calling from the Edge’, a beautifully produced booklet celebrating the first five disability conferences that have been held as a partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church. In the booklet you will find stories and reflections that tell the story that underlies this significant series of conferences. We are launching this booklet during a weekend of events that includes the sixth conference in the series, in which we are exploring what being disabled says about God and what the stories of disabled people tell us about God’s story.

All this is predicated on the basis that nothing should be said about us without us and, as a result, that the conference is organised by and for disabled people. The prophetic voices we hear emanating from the conference and booklet are, rightly, challenging for the Church but, as Sam Wells says in his Foreword to the booklet, we need to recognise the sin of how much we have rejected in the past, and celebrate the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives. That’s what prophetic ministry means.

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St Martin's Voices - Gloria.

Advent booklet: HeartEdge principles

This year at St Martin-in-the-Fields we invited our congregation to write pages for our #Advent2016 booklet. Each day a new reading, reflection and prayer on the theme, “At the Heart. On the Edge.”, is being posted on our twitter account and facebook page. Here is my first piece in the booklet which was Wednesday's reflection:

HeartEdge principles

All who believed … had all things in common; they would sell their … goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. (Acts 2. 44 – 47)

The Early Church was formed at the very heart of Jerusalem and Judaism while also being on the edge because they were the few (albeit, a rapidly growing number) who followed and believed in Jesus Christ as Messiah. As such they developed an ethos for and practices of being at the heart and on the edge which have inspired and challenged the Church through the ages. Our understanding of mission as involving compassion, cultural expression and commerce rooted in a vibrant congregational life can be traced right back to these first Christians who gathered together regularly, sold their possessions and goods, gave support to those in need, and whose praise of God included singing the first hymns. In building HeartEdge, a new network of churches for the 21st century, we can find many of the principles that will need to inform this network in the example of these first Christians. They trusted that God would give everything they needed for their life together as people on the edge. They did unbelievable things together by starting with one another’s assets, not their deficits. They thrived as the gifts of all were released and they built one another’s assets.

HeartEdge God, inspire and challenge us through the example of the Early Church in Jerusalem to create opportunities for nurturing generosity and cooperation and, by doing so, encourage others to find their way to becoming abundant communities that open space for generosity and cooperation. Amen.

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The Innocence Mission - Bright As Yellow.

At the Heart. On the Edge.

This year at St Martin-in-the-Fields we've invited our congregation to write pages for our #Advent2016 booklet. Each day a new reading, reflection and prayer on the theme, “At the Heart. On the Edge.”, will be posted on our twitter account and facebook page.

Today read Sam Wells's reflection - "We want to be where God is, and God's on the edge, so we want to be there too."

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The Advent Of Our King.

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.