come, again: degree show 2 design - central saint martins

Degree Shows at Central Saint Martins are a collective cacophony of voices and creativity. Thanks to University of the Arts London Chaplain and Interfaith Advisor, Mark Dean, I was able to see that for myself this evening at the Private View for Degree Show 2 Design.

Crossing disciplines, Show Two spans from design and fashion to drama and cultural enterprise. Projects on show – whether provocation, performance or product – present a future in the making.

Courses featured in Show Two:

• Culture and Enterprise programme: BA Culture, Criticism and Curation, MA Innovation Management
• Drama and Performance programme: BA Performance Design and Practice, MA Performance Design and Practice, MA Character Animation
• Fashion programme: BA Fashion, BA Fashion Communication, Graduate Diploma in Fashion
• Graphic Communication Design programme: BA Graphic Design, MA Communication Design
• Jewellery and Textiles programme: BA Jewellery Design, BA Textile Design, MA Material Futures
• Product, Ceramic and Industrial Design programme: BA Ceramic Design, BA Product Design, MA Design: (Ceramics); MA Design: (Furniture); MA Design: (Jewellery), MA Industrial Design
• Spatial Practices programme: BA Architecture, MA Architecture, MA Narrative Environments

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Pulp - Common People.

In the Wilderness: Preparing for Public Service (2)

Malcolm Guite is publishing on his blog the sequence of seven sonnets which have been commissioned to go with a sequence of paintings by the artist Adam Boulter on the theme of Wilderness. They will form part of the exhibition ‘In the Wilderness: Preparing for Public Service which will be installed for the whole of Lent in St. Margaret’s Westminster. 

The paintings and poems are a series of meditations on key turning points in Biblical and Church wilderness experience. Malcolm has described the way in which he and Adam worked on them as follows: 

'First he sent me the scriptural or patristic point of inspiration together with a sketch he had made, in situ, of the wilderness episode, for he is a chaplain in Amman in Jordan and has been able to journey through the desert himself and visit these sites. Then I composed the poem, drawing on both the scripture or church history and the sketch, and sent him the poem. Then he completed the painting having in mind both the initial sketch and the poem. It has been a remarkable and I think fruitful long distance collaboration, and I can hardly wait to see the paintings themselves when he and I meet for the opening night on the 17th of this month.'

In the meantime Adam has given permission for Malcolm to share the initial sketch book images he worked with, as well as the sonnets, so these are being posted in a series on his blog. If you want to see the finished paintings then do go to the exhibition which is open 9.00am - 4.00pm every day in Lent, at St. Margaret’s just next to Westminster Abbey and across from the Houses of Parliament.

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Malcolm Guite & Steve Bell - The Singing Bowl/Birth Of A Song.

Remember, remember

“Remember, remember, the 5^th of November.

Gunpowder, treason and plot.”

November seems to be the month for remembering as it also contains Remembrance Sunday in addition to the very different remembering of Bonfire Night.

Why is it so important that we do remember what has occurred in the past? Both the Bonfire Night rhyme and Remembrance Sunday are in part about remembering in order that we learn lessons for the past and don’t repeat the treason or conflicts of the past. The poet Steve Turner has written a salutary short poem called ‘History Lesson’ on this theme:

History repeats itself.
Has to.
No-one listens.

Our annual acts of remembrance as a nation and in our culture are attempts try to ensure that the ignorance of the past that Turner identifies should occur as infrequently as possible.

Each year the Civic Remembrance Service in Redbridge includes an act of commitment in which those present affirm their intent to seek to live peacefully as a response to the blood shed in two World Wars and subsequent conflicts. This year, because the Mayor of Redbridge has chaplains from each of the borough’s faith groups we will be using a different act of commitment; one developed at the Millennium specifically by the faith communities found in the UK.

The Mayor’s Chaplains will say together: In a world scarred by the evils of war, racism, injustice and poverty, we offer this joint Act of Commitment as we look to our shared future. We commit ourselves, as people of many faiths, to work together for the common good, uniting to build a better society, grounded in values and ideals we share: community, personal integrity, a sense of right and wrong, learning, wisdom and love of truth, care and compassion, justice and peace, respect for one another, for the earth and its creatures. We commit ourselves, in a spirit of friendship and co-operation, to work together alongside all who share our values and ideals, to help bring about a better world now and for generations to come.

The Bible is also full of encouragement to reflect. The words, reflect, consider, ponder, meditate and examine, crop up everywhere. God encourages us to reflect on everything; his words (2 Timothy 2.7), his great acts (1 Samuel 12.24), his statutes (Psalm 119.95), his miracles (Mark 6.52), Jesus (Hebrews 3.1), God's servants (Job 1.8), the heavens (Psalm 8.3), the plants (Matthew 6.28), the weak (Psalm 41.1), the wicked (Psalm 37.10), oppression (Ecclesiastes 4.1), labour (Ecclesiastes 4.4), the heart (Proverbs 24.12), our troubles (Psalm 9.13), our enemies (Psalm 25.19), our sins (2 Corinthians 13.5). Everything is up for reflection but we are to be guided by the need to look for the excellent or praiseworthy (Philippians 4.8) and to learn from whatever we see or experience (Proverbs 24.32).

Clearly all this reflection cannot take place just at specific times. Just as we are told to pray always, the implication of the Bible's encouragement to reflection is that we should reflect at all times. We need to make a habit of reflection, a habit of learning from experience and of looking for the excellent things.

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Paramore - Hallelujah.

Vessel - space in which the spiritual interacts with art

There is a great example of practically exploring the relationship between art and spirituality on Tim Abbott's blog involving art students at Colchester Sixth Form College, the college chaplain, and Jevan Watkins Jones, one of the associate artists at Firstsite, a visual arts centre in Colchester seeking to make contemporary art relevant to all.

Initial meetings and workshops produced a theme, “Vessel”, signifying the space in which spirituality interacts with the artistic impulse. This then led on to an exhibition by the students held last week at the College. Tim writes that "This project has been a great example for us of how the work of chaplaincy in the college can integrate into other aspects of college life."

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Barclay James Harvest - Hymn.

InSpiration @ Westfield

I got to see InSpiration, the faith zone in Westfield Stratford City today. Designed as a worship and prayer area and also as a quiet space, InSpiration is a facility which is being used by people of all faiths and none. Located on the 3rd floor near the Food Court, it has an open area used for collective activities and a smaller area with armchairs and tables for private prayer, quiet time, one-on-one conversations and small groups. Volunteers from local churches staff the facility in a variety of time slots and a chaplain, Rev. Julia Murphy, is also located there on a part-time basis. InSpiration is open 11am to 7pm Mondays to Saturdays, and 11am to 5pm on Sundays. Christian services are held daily in the space.

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Iona - Let Your Glory Fall.

What I found when I googled myself

It's fascinating what you find when you google yourself. Amongst other things that I didn't know were on the web were the following:

• my review of Ana Maria Pacheco's Memoria Roubaba exhibition at Wallspace (which was written for Art and Christianity);
• my review of Reunited: Gwen John, Mere Poussepin and the Catholic Church at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, also written for Art and Christianity;
• a description of Christianity that I wrote for Faith Regen Foundation's faith communities toolkit is on the Transform Work UK website and described as being "an ideal article that can be used to explain your faith to a work colleague or an employer";
• an interview with Catharine Pusey, when acting CEO of the Employers Forum on Belief, which was published in the Faith in Business Quarterly, can be found on the website for the Christian Association of Business Executives;
• a quote from my Art and Christianity review of Daniel Siedell's God in the Gallery is on the Baker Books page about the book;
• my article on Taking faith to work appears on the Derbyshire Chaplaincies website;   
• commission4mission's donation to Haven House was mentioned in their newsletter;
• natalie's narrative has an excellent post - The Bible as (post)modern - based on my The Bible: backward and forward influences post. 

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Lloyd Cole and the Commotions - Why I Love Country Music.

War Memorial dedication

These photos are from the dedication of the new War Memorial at Hainault which I led on Sunday 31st October as Chaplain to the Ilford Branch of the Royal British Legion. The dedication that I used for this ceremony was as follows:

"This memorial is dedicated to those men and women who have died on active service. It is dedicated to those they left behind, the innocent casualties of war; family and friends, those who endured the heartbreak of their loved ones in harm’s way, and those who have served in a civilian capacity. It is dedicated to those who survived the anguish of war; the thousands of men and women who served and came home. It is also dedicated to the serving men and women of all nations who protect us from harm and guarantee our right to liberty, justice and freedom for all.


In the faith of Christ, for the benefit of this community, and in memory of those we remember here, I dedicate this memorial to the glory of God, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

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Henryk Górecki - Quasi una Fantasia, String Quartet No.2.

Olympic Village site visit

The Velodrome

Stadium entrance

The Aquatics Centre

The Aquatics Centre

View towards Docklands

Waiting for the bus

Entering the site

The International Broadcast Centre / Main Press Centre

Olympic Stadium

Olympic Village

Today I was part of the visit to the Olympic Village site organised by the London & South East Region of the Industrial Mission Association. We met in Stratford to join the bus and, led by our informative tour guide Victoria, were taken on an hour-long journey around the whole site.

After our visit we went to St Pauls Stratford, where Revd. Kevin Woolmer is Chaplain to the Construction Workers for the New Stratford City Shopping Centre and the Construction Workforce of the London 2012 Olympics. There we were led in a theological reflection on our visit by Fr. Dermot Tredget of Douai Abbey.

We thought initially about the complexity of relations between the large number of stakeholders involved and the difficulty of ensuring that all stakeholders can properly be heard.

We looked at several biblical texts (1 Corinthians 9. 24-27, 2 Timothy 2. 5, 2 Timothy 4. 7, and Hebrews 12. 1) which helped us reflect on the pressure that the organisers and athletes are under to succeed. Several of these passages, although not all, commend competing and completing as more important than winning and one commends competing within the rules (particularly relevant in the light of bloodgate and the recent football fines and bans on clubs and players perceived to have cheated).

We noted that, in her article A Hymn to Life: The Sports Theology of Pope John Paul II, Connie Lasher writes that, "Pope John Paul II speaks of sport as a school of human virtue that ennobles the individual and becomes a vehicle of friendship and social interaction on the part of athletes and spectators." Sport has the potential to enrich and develop people but can bring perils as well as promises.

Small group discussions then resulted in the following reflections:

• the Olympics is elitist and the poor won't be there (e.g. no cheap tickets for locals);
• the legacy should be the priority and a part of this could include community organising to ensure that the community is recognised and heard as a stakeholder;
• the chaplain's role is a prophetic speaking to the structures of the organisations involved as much as it is pastoral with those working in the organisations;
• chaplaincy involves continual negotiation as the parameters within which they work constantly change on a huge project such as this;
• effective pastoral work among workers generates a feed upwards so that, for example, one construction company specifically sought out the chaplain to arrange specific dates and times for visits to their site as a result of hearing from their staff of the benefit felt in having the chaplain visit.

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Mark Heard - Lonely Moon.