Sabbatical art pilgrimage: Report - Part 5

The story of the renaissance in Church commissions is not one which has been well told, either by the Church or the mainstream art world. There are many reasons for this on both sides but my concern in making this story the focus of my sabbatical has been to encourage the Church to tell and to value this story.

As both a parish priest and through commission4mission, the group of artists of which I am part, I have seen the value of promoting and publicising the artworks which churches have commissioned. Through the creation of Art Trails locally and regionally, we have provided churches with a means of publicity which has led to events such as art competitions, exhibitions, festivals and talks, community art workshops, guided and sponsored walks, and Study Days. Each has brought new contacts to the churches involved and has built relationships between these churches and local artists/arts organisations.

The commissions I have seen speak powerfully and movingly of the Christian faith and therefore inform the spirituality of those who see them. It is my contention that to tell more fully the story of the engagement which the Church has had with modern and contemporary art could have similar impact on a wider scale and would also have the effect of providing emerging artists from within the Church and the faith with a greater range of role models and approaches for their own developing inspiration and practice.

During my sabbatical I have visited churches which seem to have little or no regard for the artworks they possess and others which actively utilize them in their mission and ministry. Commissions can often occur at the instigation of a particular individual (e.g. Hingley, Hussey, Judd), so that, on occasion, when that individual is no longer there the impetus for seeing commissions as central to mission and ministry can also be lost. 

In much thinking and teaching on church art the work and the artist(s) are subservient to the liturgy and therefore are not given prominence, as in a gallery or museum with their different functions. In this way of thinking it is what the works signify or communicate of the faith that is important, not what they are or who it was that made them. This view of art wants to screen out the fullness of the interaction that the artwork has with its context on the basis of art for Christ's sake.

In my view this is to diminish the fullness of what the work of art is and can be in its context and, therefore, to restrict or restrain the artwork. Works of art are what they are, a unique entity in their own right, but they are brought to birth by an artist(s) who influence significantly the nature of the artwork itself. The artwork is brought to birth in and often for a particular context with which the artwork is in a dialogue. Additionally, the artwork continues to exist, while displayed, in a continuing context within which it is seen and with which it interacts. We respect and remember the integrity of the work by always remaining in dialogue with it and never privileging one facet or perspective over another in order to say 'this' is what it is.

Église St Michel,Les Breseux, is a church that has really engaged with the artworks it has commissioned and the visitors who therefore come to see those commissions. This church is aware that it now receives visitors who would not otherwise come and therefore takes their needs into account with simple but essential facilities provided and a small exhibition about the commissions, Manessier, and arte sacré more generally. Many larger churches do not do as much and Les Breseux is both an exemplar and an example as to why and how to cater for and minister to those who visit to view wonderful works of art.

Metz and Chichester Cathedrals both have simple but effective leaflets which identify a prayerful route around the spaces taking in the most significant commissions and offering a brief prayer in response to each. Such leaflets encourage all visitors not simply to be tourists but worshippers as well. I know from personal experience, having created a similar leaflet for St Margaret's Barking, how much such simple initiatives are appreciated by parishioners and visitors alike.

An argument can be made that such approaches, like the information provided on wall cards in museum exhibitions, can direct viewers to see the artwork from one perspective alone. However, this does not have to be the case as viewers often take that perspective as a starting point for then seeing others themselves. Additionally, providing no way in to perspectives on artwork, as curators have found, can leave viewers unable to begin to engage with the artwork at all.

Taking the meditative nature of his Julian of Norwich series further, Alan Oldfield created a film of the paintings with Sheila Upjohn reading selected extracts from Julian's shewings. Upjohn would later make a similar use of extracts from Julian in the booklet based on the 'Stations of the Cross' by Irene Ogden which can be found at St Julian's Church in Norwich. Jane Quail's 'Stations of the Cross' based on the Beatitudes were installed in the grounds of the Anglican Shrine at Walsingham in 2001 and are much loved by pilgrims. As with the Stations of the Cross by Ogden, a booklet with meditations based on the images and texts has been published. These are imaginative artworks which make creative textual and visual connections between the events of the 14 Stations and scriptures not normally associated with those events. They integrate scriptures creating a harmonious whole and opening up the scriptures to other interpretations and connections.

Metz Cathedral, like many other Cathedrals and churches, also has an ongoing arts programme centred on music and the visual arts. Exhibitions are hung within the body of the Cathedral with the exhibition at the time I visited, by Eban, being abstract works based on these words from Georges Rouault: “Shape, color, harmony / Oasis or mirage / For the eyes, the heart or the mind.” Similarly and as part of understanding that its commissions (stained glass windows by Chagall) had created for it a new and wider ministry, Tudeley Parish Church organizes an annual music festival. The Tudeley Festival, which specializes in period performance, was established in 1985 and the church also hosts concerts by visiting musicians and choirs at other points throughout the year.

Tudeley also has an excellent website with significant information about its commissions and other initiatives. The range and quality of information on their website remains relatively rare, even among those churches and cathedrals which do feature their artworks, but another which provides a marvelous example of what can be done online is Berwick Parish Church in Sussex under the heading of ‘Bloomsbury at Berwick’.

As a result of its memorial commissions St Andrew Bobola in Shepherds Bush is a significant space for memory and memorial for those remembering Poles who died during World War II, but also, more generally, for the Polish community in the UK as a whole. The Sandham Memorial Chapel at Burghclere with its murals by Stanley Spencer was specifically created as a memorial space. St Andrew Bobola and Berwick Parish Church, by contrast, incorporate a memorial function into their wider ministry by means of their commissions.

Adam Kossowski’s murals at St Benet's Chapel have proved to be an excellent talking point in the Rev. Jenny Petersen's ministry to students of other faiths, with Muslims in particular understanding the themes of judgement found therein, leading to a willingness to use the space for prayer. She has encouraged contemplation of the mural's themes by producing a series of cards exploring the imagery of each panel together with the relevant sections from the Revelation of St John.

At St AlbanRomford their commissions have given the parish a 'beyond-the-parish ministry' in that other parishes considering commissions are regularly recommended to visit St Alban's in order to see what has been achieved, be inspired, gain ideas and be put in touch with artists. Visits also come as a result of the parish participating in borough-based Open House and Art Trail events as well as school visits. As Chairman of Governors and Link-Governor for Art and Design at The Frances Bardsley School for Girls, Fr. Hingley has played a significant role in the development of the School as a centre of excellence for the Arts including the Brentwood Road Gallery and commissions at the School by Reytiens and Cazalet. This engagement, which has led to the School joining the Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Education Affiliated Schools Scheme, enables the School, Parish and Diocese to "support each other in the spirit of Christian fellowship and service" finding "innovative ways of working together and learning from one another." One outcome was the inclusion of artworks by students which featured in the church as part of its Fan the Flame mission week.

In 2009 St Alban's hosted the launch of commission4mission which seeks to encourage churches to commission contemporary art as a mission opportunity. St Alban's exemplifies all that commission4mission suggests that local church engagement with the Arts can provide:

• works of art which speak eloquently of the Christian faith;
• a reason to visit a church – something that was tapped with their Art Trail for the Barking Episcopal Area;
• links between churches and local arts organisations/ initiatives; and
• a focus for people to come together for a shared activity.

To view the Arts in this way provides a further point of connection with the desire of the French Dominicans for a Christianity that was engaged with the secular world. As a result, they argued that priests should not live in ‘Christian ghettos’ but should join with the citizenry ‘to establish a new, spiritually inspired system of social justice’ - the worker-priest movement – and, with artists, to preach a ‘new gospel of sacred art’ that could help these artists come to ‘Christian awareness.’ These initiatives were representative of ‘a new evangelical spirit’ which was concerned with contextualized mission and which can continue to be replicated today in the current engagement which the Church has with the Arts.

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Leoš Janáček - Glagolitic Mass.

Sabbatical art pilgrimage: Report - Part 2

The commissions I have seen include work by mainstream artists and architects including: Norman Adams, Jean Bazaine, Pierre Bonnard, Anthony Caro, Marc Chagall, Brian Clarke, Jean Cocteau, Stephen Cox, Maurice Denis, Tracy Emin, Jacob Epstein, Elizabeth Frink, Eric Gill, Evie Hone, Alexander Klecki, Christopher Le Brun, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, Jean Lurçat, Alfred Manessier, Henri Matisse, Tomas Mikulas, Henry Moore, Maurice Novarina, Tom Phillips, Renzo Piano, John Piper, Francis Pollen, Germaine Richier, Georges Rouault, Alberto Sartoris, Albert Servaes, Gino Severini, Basil Spence, Stanley Spencer, Graham Sutherland, Theis & Khan, Bill Viola and Adrian Wisniewski. Alongside these commissions are others (i.e. Benedict Read’s “alternative world of Church decoration”) by artists for whom such commissions formed or form a significant part of their practice, including: Peter Eugene Ball, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Paul Bony, Ervin Bossanyi, Mark Cazalet, Alexandre Cingria, Thomas Denny, Leonard Evetts, Hans Feibusch, Marcel Feuillat, Albert Ghaeng, John Hayward, Jean Hebert-Stevens, Adam Kossowski, Nicholas Mynheer, Marcel Poncet, Jane Quail, and Henry Shelton.

Within many of the commissions visited specific commissioners, curators or broker/support organisations had played key roles. These included: Art & Christianity Enquiry (ACE), Art in Sacred Places (ASP), Ateliers d'Arte Sacré, Christian Artists, commission4mission, Marie-Alain Couturier, Meryl Doney, Guild of Catholic Artists and Craftsmen, Guild of St Joseph & St Dominic, Fr. Hingley, Walter Hussey, Peter Judd, L’Arche, Fr. Lynch, Societie de Saint Luc et St Maurice, and Society of Catholic Artists.

Commissions can be categorized as follows:

·         single commissions;

·         series of commissions over a different time-frame;

·         series of commissions in the same time-frame; and

·         programme of temporary commissions.

Issues to be addressed within such commissions include:

(i)                  Harmonisation versus dialogue/dissonance

This relates to commissions in settings where there is existing artwork/architecture and concerns the extent to which the new commission is integrated with whatever is already there or by being dissonant raises questions about what is already there. Artworks integrated within the life and architecture of a church are not viewed in the same way as works within the white cube of a gallery space and this needs to be understood and handled with sensitivity during the commissioning process. The result can be a sense of overall integrity and harmony within a space which holds great variety and diversity. Where this occurs the whole and its constituent parts image something of the Trinitarian belief – the one and the many - which is at the heart of Christianity.

Harmonisation is used most frequently with single commissions or a series of commissions over a different time-frame. At St Alban Romford Fr. Roderick Hingley has created links of colour, shape, texture and symbol that have led to the integration of commissions into a re-ordered space which enhances worship and is also aesthetically pleasing. At Chelmsford Cathedral former Dean, Peter Judd, used this approach when he commissioned Cazalet’s engraved St Cedd window in St Cedd’s Chapel as a counter-balance to John Hutton’s engraved St Peter window in St Peter’s Chapel. St Paul’s Goodmayes provides another example of this approach.

In other situations churches such as Metz Cathedral or Sint Aldegondis Deurle seem to have commissioned work without an overall scheme or plan for harmonization, yet do not appear to have become incoherent spaces. In many Belgian churches contemporary art is integrated with the artwork of the past in a melange of different styles which, while not specifically harmonised, nevertheless possesses integrity. It must be a great encouragement to contemporary artists to see churches, already rich in heritage, wishing to continue to develop and add to that tradition from the work of their own day and time.

Expressionist images of the crucifixion introduced a sense of dialogue or dissonance by challenging sentimental images of Christ and deliberately introducing ugliness into beautiful buildings. Dissonance most often occurs in relation to temporary commissions, such as that at St Paul’s Cathedral. The interventions there fulfil the key requirement of installation art; “a friction with its context that resists organisational pressure and instead exerts its own terms of engagement.”

(ii)                Curatorial vision versus artistic vision

Artworks commissioned for churches by necessity function as an element within a broader architectural, aesthetic and liturgical scheme and, for some artists, this sense that the art and the artist's vision is subordinate to a bigger, broader vision can be a part of the reason why church commissions are unattractive and unpursued.

At St Mary & All Angels Little Walsingham a note from the Director of Art in Churches says that the artworks commissioned there have been carefully placed to distinguish them from liturgical artefacts also in the church. He wants them to be seen as ‘works of art’ in a way that differs from the liturgical artefacts and enriches the areas of our spiritual being which extend beyond 'the confines of the spiritual liturgical.' This note illustrates a strand of thinking which sees art and artists as independent of though complementary to the Church, as opposed to the thinking in the Liturgical Movement, where art is the handmaid of the liturgy. Both have value, while both also raise issues for debate and discussion. Justine Grace, in The Spirit of Collaboration, writes of church commissions being perceived in modernism as being ‘ruled by the dogmatic prescriptions of the church rather than the artistic imagination’. At the same time, the example provided at Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce du Plateau d'Assy, where contemporary ‘masters’ were explicitly commissioned by Pére Marie-Alain Couturier, is, as noted by William S. Rubin, in some instances, of artists unfamiliar with the liturgy translating the subjects chosen into ‘purely personal philosophies’ (Modern Sacred Art and the Church of Assy, Columbia University Press, New York & London, 1961).

Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce on the Plateau d’Assy was planned as showcase for the value of contemporary church commissions. Couturier took on the primary role of curator but, as most of the commissions included were on the basis of his friendships with the artists involved, his decisions he made or did not make illustrate the tricky balance required to succeed in commissioning.

Too much work was commissioned for Assy from too many artists making the resulting iconographic scheme muddled and esoteric. There are inappropriate clashes of style (e.g. the Jacques Lipchitz sculpture dominating the Rouault windows or different styles in each of the nave windows), inappropriate positioning of some works (e.g. stained glass by Bazaine and reliefs by Chagall which can barely be seen), commissions which do not work in the space (e.g. the intimiste style of Bonnard is not suited to being viewed from a distance) and central commissions with esoteric symbolism (e.g. the Lurçat tapestry).

Couturier, presumably to sustain his friendships with the artists involved, seems not to have exercised sufficient control regarding the overall scheme which therefore means that the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts. By contrast, Sutherland had to fight for aspects of his vision for the tapestry at Coventry Cathedral and needed the support of Spence in order to do so in the face of requests for change from Cathedral staff.

The architecture and artworks at a church like the Church of the Annunciation Little Walsingham illustrates what can be achieved when using artists who are either involved with the ‘alternative’ world of church decoration or who are not generally reckoned to be contemporary ‘masters’

(iii)              Treasure casket versus integrated design

Spence described Coventry Cathedral as a plain jewel casket filled with many jewels. In other words the building is architecturally plain - essentially a white rectangle - with the aim that this simplicity and minimalism will show off the artworks to best effect and that the significance and impact of these works will bring the building to life as a place of worship.

Spence was “the co-ordinator of the whole operation of commissioning artists and craftsmen with the skills to create a variety of elements, including glass, congenially juxtaposed and working together as a whole.” “Spence believed that the architect, as leader of the team, should collaborate at the earliest possible stage with his engineers and artists. With the art in progress there was also a reduced risk of it being lost in any subsequent budget cut. He was therefore careful to commission work from the outset. Artists were sought to suit each project and the artist’s freedom was maintained.”

The desire to preserve is at its strongest, however, when a church is built as a complete, integrated artistic and architectural unit in a particular style, whether Neo-Gothic/Pre-Raphaelite, as at St Michael & All Angels Waterford, or Modernist, as with Le Corbusier’s churches at Ronchamp and La Tourette. With such churches the desire to preserve is at its greatest, meaning, in the most extreme circumstances, that no development or new commissions are permissible because to do so would detract from the original designs. For many of the art sacré Churches which I visited in France this also means that they are designated as historic monuments. This guarantees their preservation while, possibly, denying their development.

The need for input/oversight from some kind of wider preservation body (e.g. the Diocesan Advisory Committee in Anglican settings) is demonstrated by the issues raised at St Peter’s Gorleston-on-Sea where for some time individuals were able to make significant changes to Gill’s original design based primarily on personal taste or preference.

The rejection of Harry Clarke’s design for St Michael and All Angels, on the grounds that the design was out of keeping with the Pre-Raphaelite windows already in the church, provides an interesting example of the complexity of issues and pressures found in such settings which has the potential for turning down work that could add considerably to the setting. The debate which preceded the work by Renzo Piano on the site of Ronchamp may well be another example of this syndrome; one which had a positive resolution. One possible solution to these dilemmas, which has been used at La Tourette, is that of commissioning temporary works that then relate in some way to the original design of the church or its artworks.

(iv)               Team versus individual stars

Couturier criticized the Ateliers d'Art Sacre as a 'world closed in on itself, where reciprocal indulgence, or else mutual admiration, quickly becomes the ransom paid to work as a team and maintain friendship.' Yet Couturier's scheme of work at Assy suffers from the opposite problem, as work by individual masters produced in isolation from each other, with work assigned on the basis of what they could with integrity contribute, results in a decorative scheme with no cohesiveness or focus.

Couturier, here, fails to be sufficiently decisive as a curator. As William S. Rubin states, 'the subject was almost as often picked for the man as the man for the subject.' It is the difference between a cohesive team of mediocre talents versus a team of individual stars. It is anyone's guess as to which will win. The ideal is usually part-way between the two and a mixed economy (of artists with significant mainstream reputations receiving occasional commissions plus artists with less significant mainstream reputations receiving commissions which form a significant part of their practice) is what we find throughout this period and into the present day.

Artists in the latter group have often worked together on commissions or to obtain commissions i.e. using broker/support organisations such as: ASP, Ateliers d'Arte Sacré, Christian Artists, commission4mission, Guild of Catholic Artists and Craftsmen, Guild of St Joseph & St Dominic, Societie de Saint Luc et St Maurice, and Society of Catholic Artists.

Commissioning several works from the same artists and positioning these at different locations within a church indicates an awareness of the differing ways in which visitors and worshippers use and respond to the space. Artworks integrated within the life and architecture of a church are not viewed in the same way as works within the white cube of a gallery space and this needs to be understood and handled with sensitivity during the commissioning process. The number and variety of commissions which feature within Chelmsford Cathedral, for example, mean that even in a packed service when each worshipper will only see from their specific place within the space a very small proportion of the artworks within the building, they will, nevertheless, be able to view something of significance and depth to enhance their experience of worship.

(v)                 Current masters versus national, regional or local artists

Couturier and Pie-Raymond Régamey argued that "each generation must appeal to the masters of living art, and today those masters come first from secular art." Hussey wrote that it had been the great enthusiasm of his life and work” to commission the very best artist’s he could.

In Contemporary Art in British Churches Paul Bayley sets up a dichotomy (as did Couturier and Régamey) between the significant contemporary artists participating in the upsurge of commissioning from the church (initiated by Hussey) and "self-styled 'Christian art' that though sincere and well-intentioned" is "often formulaic or decorative" and (tellingly) has "little or no standing within the art world." Alan Green gives a theological underpinning to this approach by pointing out that "Jesus was not afraid to associate with, and be looked after by, those who were not seen as good Jews ... Those who approached Jesus and seem to have got the best responses from him were not the religious elite, but those with no particular religious standing who nevertheless recognised something special in him and presented themselves honestly."

However the mainstream art movements of the day will not necessarily share a natural affinity with the Church (particularly when the Church is seen as a part of what is to be subverted) and, if the focus of the Church is on engaging key mainstream artists, then less attention may be paid to supporting emerging artists with a Christian faith able to engage effectively with the mainstream art world.

In addition, fashions and reputations in the art world (as elsewhere) change considerably with time. In their own day and time Pablo Picasso and Matisse were considered unassailable as the giants of twentieth century art while now, in terms of continuing influence on contemporary artists, Marcel Duchamp is generally considered to be the most influential twentieth century artist. Lurçat’s tapestry provides the central focus for the Church at Assy, where those artists commissioned were considered current masters, but his reputation has not been sustained into the current day.

The reputations of many of those who were commissioned by the Church in the twentieth century (e.g. Bazaine, Denis, Albert Gleizes, Lurcat, Manessier, Sutherland, Piper, Rouault, Severini) have declined following their deaths. The same is likely to be so for those receiving contemporary commissions (i.e. Clarke, Cox, Emin, Le Brun, Wisniewski). The pace with which modern art moved from one movement to next in the twentieth century quickly and, often unfairly, condemned as passé what had previously been avant garde.

The Church cannot, and probably should not, seek to keep up with the fickle nature of fashion and instead should value both artists with significant mainstream reputations wishing to receive occasional commissions plus artists with less significant mainstream reputations who receive commissions which form a more significant part of their practice. In my view, therefore, debates about artists with significant mainstream reputations versus those without and between secular artists and artists who are Christians represent false division and unnecessary debate. The reality is that both have happened simultaneously in the story of modern church commissions and both have resulted in successes and failures. As I shall attempt to outline in discussing the quality of commissions, the key is to pay sustained and prayerful attention to each and every artwork in order to discern what is good and of God in and through it. 

(vi)               Permanent vs temporary

Artists may, consciously or unconsciously, value permanent commissions (with churches providing one significant public context for such commissions) once they have established their reputation with a view to sustaining that reputation into an uncertain future. Permanent church commissions offer a means to escape the vagaries of the art market. However as Christianity is not currently viewed as trendy or fashionable in the West, it is seen as rarely benefitting an emerging artist to secure a church commission.

Permanent commissions raise issues of maintenance such the effect on its stained glass of building subsidence at Canterbury Cathedral or the ongoing maintenance programme for Kossowski’s ceramics at Aylesford Priory. Their cost can therefore be more than the purchase price.

The development of the idea and practice of installation art from the 1960s onwards has meant that it is no longer necessary to think of church commissions solely in terms of permanent commissions. This change in thinking has meant that St Paul’s Cathedral, rather than attempting the tricky negotiations which would be entailed by seeking to add to its existing permanent array of art (from the delicate carvings of Grinling Gibbons in the quire to Sir James Thornhill's dome murals, as well as the Victorian mosaics and Henry Moore's Mother and Child: Hood), can instead explore the encounter between art and faith through a series of temporary interventions by artists, which have included Rebecca Horn, Yoko Ono, Antony Gormley and Bill Viola.

These interventions enrich both the daily pattern of worship in the Cathedral and the experience of the thousands who visit daily. Their temporary nature offers something new even for those that are regular worshippers at St Pauls, while the contrast that they provide with the existing art and permanent architecture of the Cathedral means that they also fulfil the key requirement of installation art; “a friction with its context that resists organisational pressure and instead exerts its own terms of engagement.”

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Low - Nothing But Heart.

Sabbatical art pilgrimage: St Alban's Romford

St Alban,Protomartyr, Romford has been transformed from a modest suburban church into a place of beauty and excellence that can be seen as a centre for significant works of Ecclesiastical Art. Father Roderick Hingley, the Parish Priest who has led this transformation, believes the visual arts are “a great vehicle for communicating the Christian Gospel,” thinks that we are living through an exciting period in Ecclesiastical Art and, therefore, encourages others to be bold, creative and adventurous in the commissioning of original art.

Fr. Hingley’s work at St Alban began with a major re-ordering of the church from 1992-1995 which removed the cluttered and over-furnished interior that he found on arrival. This work laid a foundation on which it has been possible to build well in excess of 20 separate commissions leading to twenty-one Diocesan Advisory Committee Design Awards. Among the most significant of these are fifteen Stations of the Cross by Charles Gurrey, a Christus Rex by Peter Eugene Ball, seven stained glass windows by Patrick Reyntiens and a chancel ceiling mural by Mark Cazalet.

Gurrey’s Stations are carved in European Oak with their irregular sizes governed by each individual design. They speak with an eloquent minimalism; each piece focussing on a detail from the station and stimulating the viewers imagination to picture the fuller scene. Christ’s face remains unseen until the final resurrection station.            

The Christus Rex at St Alban is the first that Ball has carved of Christ as Supreme and Eternal High Priest. This Christ, gilded with red and gold and clothed with chasuble and stole, springs forth from the brick wall to embrace and bless the congregation below. Cazalet, on first coming into St Alban, was struck by the visual link between this golden Christ and the rich colours of Reyntien’s sanctuary stained glass. 

Reyntien's helped redefine the medium of stained glass through his collaborations with John Piper. Among their numerous ecclesiastical and secular commissions in Britain and USA were the iconic Baptistery Window at Coventry Cathedral and their 'Crown of Glass' at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. On his own Reyntiens has also made windows from Washington DC to Southwell Minster and his work has been an inspiration to contemporary glass art workers. It was his windows at Southwell Minister - as here, filled with angels - which encouraged Fr Hingley to approach him regarding work at St Alban's. 

Here, five angelic windows fill the sanctuary with light and movement, their colours washing over the stone altar and steps. The central three angels hold the crucifix, host and chalice while the north and south angels are less dense in colour to allow for a greater play of light on the altar and echo each other in their interplay of rose and fire imagery combined with words from Mother Julian and T.S. Eliot.

Cazalet then further linked the Angel windows with the Christus Rex through a mural covering the chancel ceiling and depicting the angels of the four elements of creation: air, fire, earth and water. Mirroring the church’s transition from the variegated blues of its baptistery window to its light-filled sanctuary, Cazalet’s mural moves from the dark blue of the winter night to the light and yellows of the summer sun. The light touch of this work extends to Cazalet’s humorous angels soaring above and engaging with the sights and sounds of Romford including its commuters, shoppers, clubbers and parishioners.

Fr. Hingley has a significant involvement in the schools of the parish and groups of schoolchildren often visit the church. Many of the commissions at St Albans have been made with children in mind, including Cazalet’s mural. Hingley’s community links have also been a major source of support in raising funds for the many commissions. In addition to the support of the schools, funds have also been raised by church members and local businesses (Hingley has been Chaplain to the local Chamber of Commerce) and through bequests and grants (including a major award from the Jerusalem Trust for the Cazalet mural).  

As a result, these commissions have given the parish a 'beyond-the-parish ministry' in that other parishes considering commissions are regularly recommended to visit St Alban's in order to see what has been achieved, be inspired, gain ideas and be put in touch with artists. Visits also come as a result of the parish participating in borough-based Open House and Art Trail events as well as school visits. As Chairman of Governors and Link-Governor for Art and Design at The Frances Bardsley School for Girls, Fr. Hingley has played a significant role in the development of the School as a centre of excellence for the Arts including the Brentwood Road Gallery and commissions at the School by Reyntiens and Cazalet. This engagement, which has led to the School joining the Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Education Affiliated Schools Scheme, enables the School, Parish and Diocese to "support each other in the spirit of Christian fellowship and service" finding "innovative ways of working together and learning from one another." One outcome is the inclusion of artworks by students which will feature in the church as part of its forthcoming Fan the Flame mission week.

At St Alban, Protomartyr, Romford, a rather dull traditional church building has been made to sing by becoming a treasure house filled with high quality and varied works of art; all in the context of a church aspiring to do all it does as well as it possibly can. Most churches which have significant commissions have accumulated their holdings over many years and through the ministry of many priests. It is a rare and special achievement to re-order and re-fit an entire church within the ministry of one parish priest and to do so with such a degree of attention to both quality and mission.

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Igor Stravinsky - Symphony Of Psalms.  

commission4mission's launch

Bishop David, the Patron of commission4mission, giving his keynote speech

Fr. Hingley speaking about commissions for the interior of St Albans

Fr. Hingley showing the sandblasted glass entrance doors at St Albans

Peter Webb and Fr. Hingley lead the returning party from the exterior artworks

Fr. Hingley begins his presentation and tour

commission4mission enjoyed a successful launch today at St Alban's Romford.

Fr. Roderick Hingley, St Alban's Parish Priest, gave a tour of the artworks commissioned for the church and described how the series of commissions had helped to transform the church in terms of light, space and welcome. He spoke about the way in which commissioning contemporary artists had meant that the artworks had relevance and resonance for local people, most obviously in the Mark Cazalet cancel ceiling mural with its imagery drawn from rural and urban Havering. What the achievement at St Alban's demonstrates is not only that the commissioning of contemporary Christian Art by Parish Churches is possible but that sensitive, informed and brave commissioning enhances the mission of the church as well as its aesthetic.

I gave a brief presentation of the aim and objectives of commission4mission which also set out our initial programme:

• exhibitions at Pentecost Festival (30th May) & Chelmsford Cathedral (2nd-7th November);
• study day at Chelmsford Cathedral (7th November);
• exploration of four possible commissions with two proposals submitted;
• co-operation with the Faith & Image group;
• application submitted for catalogue funding;
• art workshop at ‘Fun in the Park’ in Barkingside (13 June);
• invitation to be part of London-wide discussions on art in religious spaces;
• invitation to exhibit in the West Ham Festival; and
• support from Bishop of Barking for commission4mission leaflets.

Finally, Bishop David gave the keynote address as Patron of commission4mission. He began by speaking about creativity as both God-given and a key aspect of what it means to be human. He described the birth and growth of a child into adulthood as the most astonishing kinetic sculpture. He outlined how he saw spirituality breaking through in much contemporary and modern art and called for Christians to be sensitive interpreters of such art. Among the examples he cited were the humanity of Anthony Gormley's work based as it is on his own body and the 'something more' of Damien Hirst's diamond encrusted skull, For The Love Of God. He ended by using a quote attributed to Rowan Williams “that artists are special people but every person is a special kind of artist.” commission4mission would need, he suggested, to be a support the special people that artists are in their creativity but also to find ways of revealing and developing the creativity of all.

Among those present at the launch were representatives of the Arts Centre Group, Faith & Image and the World Art Federation.

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Eric Bibb - Connected.

commission4mission Newsletter No. 1 – January 2009

Founding members – Jonathan Evens & Henry Shelton

Pentecost Festival logo

'Pieta' by Rosalind Hore

Our patron Bishop David, who will give the keynote speech at the launch of commission4mission

Welcome to the first commission4mission newsletter. Future newsletters will be a source of information for commission4mission members but this first edition is being widely distributed as part of our initial publicity leading up to our launch event on Saturday 7th March.

Information and updates about members can be included in future newsletters and should be sent to Jonathan Evens at: jonathan.evens@btinternet.com or 2 Regent Gardens, Ilford, IG3 8UL.

commission4mission launch event

commission4mission will be launched on Saturday 7th March with an exciting event to be held at St Alban’s Romford (Kings Road/Princes Road, Romford, RM1 2SR) beginning at 2.00pm.

Our patron Rt. Revd. David Hawkins, Bishop of Barking, will give the inaugural commission4mission address. Bishop David says: “I think there is a big need to re-engage with the Arts. I think that there is great scope in the Church encouraging creative expression in everyone as this is a way of helping us to be fully human. Where appropriate that flowering of artistic expression can be expressed in Church as, for example, an outflow of worship. We are fellow-creators with God and need to remember that he is creator as well as redeemer.”

St Albans Romford has been chosen as the venue for the launch of commission4mission on account of more than 20 separate commissions leading to twelve Diocesan Advisory Committee Design Awards. Among the most significant of these are fifteen Stations of the Cross by Charles Gurrey, a Christus Rex by Peter Eugene Ball, stained glass windows by Patrick Reyntiens and a chancel ceiling mural by Mark Cazalet. Fr. Roderick Hingley, the Parish Priest who has led the transformation of St Alban Protomartyr, Romford from being a modest suburban church into a place of beauty and excellence that can be seen as a centre for significant works of Ecclesiastical Art, will lead a tour of the artworks at St Albans.

Car Parking will be at Manor Primary School, Shaftesbury Road, Romford RM1 2PH. RSVP to Jonathan Evens (020 8599 2170 or jonathan.evens@btinternet.com).

Showcase Exhibition & Study Day

An week-long exhibition to showcase commission4mission artists and a Study Day on the commissioning process are being planned for Chelmsford Cathedral in November 2009.

The exhibition will open on Monday 2nd November and will continue until the Study Day on Saturday 7th November. Contributors to the Study Day will include our Patron, Bishop David, and the Cathedral Dean, Peter Judd.

Please put this date in your diaries. More information about exhibiting and the Study Day will be available soon.

Pentecost Festival Art Exhibition

The Pentecost Festival is a London weekend festival with hundreds of events celebrating diversity in the Christian faith: multi-culturalism, arts, politics, ecology, worship. Co-ordinated by Share Jesus International over the Pentecost weekend 26th - 31st May, the festival is highly visible and takes place in the parks, coffee shops, bars, churches, clubs and theatres of central London. In 2008, the festival's inaugural year, the capital saw 10,000 people enjoy over 150 events at more than 60 venues and outdoor spaces.

The Festival will include an art exhibition on Saturday 30th May at a Central London venue. commission4mission will have a section of this event for members to exhibit. There will also be space for members to carry out public demonstrations of their work. If you would be interested in being part of the exhibition and/or demonstrations, please contact Jonathan Evens on 020 8599 2170 or jonathan.evens@btinternet.com for more details. commission4mission will be profiled in the programme and on the Festival website, which will also be linked to web-based information about commission4mission. You will also have the opportunity to sell any of your resources.

Member profile: Rosalind Hore

“I am a sculptor and painter of Christian subject – Christ figures, nativity sets, Ecce Homo, Stations of the Cross etc. I work in clay, plaster, concrete (figures can also be bronze cast at the foundry). My paintings are mostly in acrylic of the events in the life of Christ.” Rosalind’s Pieta is currently on display at St Laurence’s Upminster.

Faith & Image

Faith & Image (FAIM) is a forum for all who have an interest in art as a medium of spiritual expression. The group seeks to gain insight and understanding from all art forms, all traditions and cultures. FAIM offers a programme of talks, discussions and visits. Speakers include a wide range of artists, architects, craft workers, art and design historians. FAIM and commission4mission plan to collaborate on a number of events and activities in future.

The next FAIM event will be an evening focussing on the current ‘Byzantium’ exhibition at the Royal Academy followed by a group visit to the exhibition on the following day. The ‘Byzantium’ evening will be on Thursday 19th February, 8.00pm, St Mary’s Woodford, Woodford High Road, London E18. The exhibition visit will be 10.00am on Friday 20th February at the Royal Academy. For more details and to book contact Mark Lewis at pharos@sketchbook.wanadoo.co.uk.

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Arcade Fire - Crown Of Love.

Launching commission4mission

Not Worthy So Much by Henry Shelton

Worth Abbey by Jonathan Evens


Bishop David with landscape

The Garden Door by Celia Ward

Pieta by Rosalind Hore

A new arts organisation formed by artists and clergy within the Chelmsford Diocese is to be launched in March 2009. commission4mission aims to encourage the commissioning and placing of contemporary Christian Art in churches, as a means of fundraising for charities and as a mission opportunity for the churches involved.

commission4mission is the brainchild of the artist Henry Shelton, a member of All Saints Goodmayes, and has Bishop David as its Patron. The organisation will be launched on Saturday 7th March with an event at St Albans Romford beginning at 2.00pm. Bishop David will give a keynote address and Fr. Roderick Hingley will give an art tour of the many recent commissions installed at St Albans. A brief AGM will be followed by refreshments and the event is open to all who wish to find out more about this exciting new venture.

The idea for commission4mission was developed after Bishop David dedicated a set of memorial etched glass windows by Henry Shelton at All Saints Goodmayes. Bishop David says:

“I think there is a big need to re-engage with the Arts. The Church has had a lengthy and happy marriage with the Arts in the past but this has eroded in recent times. I agree with Rowan Williams that the Church needs more artists and “that artists are special people but every person is a special kind of artist.” I think that there is great scope in the Church encouraging creative expression in everyone as this is a way of helping us to be fully human. Where appropriate that flowering of artistic expression can be expressed in Church as, for example, an outflow of worship. We are fellow-creators with God and need to remember that he is creator as well as redeemer.”

Henry Shelton agrees and explains that:

“the purpose of the Society will be to promote modern Christian Art in all its forms (i.e. painting, sculpture, music etc.) and by doing so to raise money for charity, particularly children’s charities. I want us to be offering quality work and craftsmanship, rather than mass-produced work, to continue the legacy of the Church as a great commissioner of art. The Church has, in fact, commissioned some of the greatest works of art ever produced.”

St Albans Romford has been chosen as the venue for the launch of commission4mission on account of more than 20 separate commissions leading to twelve Diocesan Advisory Committee Design Awards. Among the most significant of these are fifteen Stations of the Cross by Charles Gurrey, a Christus Rex by Peter Eugene Ball, seven stained glass windows by Patrick Reyntiens and a chancel ceiling mural by Mark Cazalet.

Fr. Roderick Hingley is the Parish Priest who has led the transformation of St Alban, Protomartyr, Romford from being a modest suburban church into a place of beauty and excellence that can be seen as a centre for significant works of Ecclesiastical Art. He believes the Visual Arts are “a great vehicle for communicating the Christian Gospel,” thinks that we are living through an exciting period in Ecclesiastical Art and, therefore, encourages others to be bold, creative and adventurous in the commissioning of original art.

Membership of commission4mission is open to any Christian artist (of any discipline) or supporter of Christian Art. commission4mission promotes the purchase of artworks by churches through donations given in memory of loved ones, with these people being commemorated in plaques placed (wherever possible) on or near the artwork itself. All commissions undertaken by commission4mission involve a significant proportion of the overall cost being donated to charity.

Interest in commission4mission prior to its launch has been considerable with artists joining the organisation, potential commissions being explored, and plans developed for future exhibitions and events, including a showcase exhibition and study day at Chelmsford Cathedral in November 2009.

For more information about the launch event, joining commission4mission, commissioning work or hosting an exhibition, please contact me on 020 8599 2170 or jonathan.evens@btinternet.com.

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Lone Justice - Shelter.