Unique musical event combined performances of new compositions with Interfaith conversation

This evening, the Woolf Institute at the University of Cambridge presented a unique musical event that used music as a springboard for interfaith dialogue.

Entitled “Creation: A World-Premiere Event”, it featured live performances of new compositions written by musicians from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim backgrounds expressly for this project. The musical offerings were followed by an engaging roundtable discussion featuring an interfaith collection of scholars affiliated with Cambridge University.

“I envisioned this event as an opportunity to explore the unique the arts can contribute to interfaith dialogue”, says Delvyn Case, an American musician and scholar who curated the project as part of his Visiting Fellowship at the Woolf Institute. “Listening to music reminds us of all the things we have in common with each other, no matter who we are or what we believe: the love of beauty, the value of human connection, and our need to explore the deepest questions life poses to us. Using music to help us consider questions of faith and spirituality will be a one-of-a-kind experience for all who attend.”

The event featured new compositions for voice and piano by Ari Ben-Shabetai, an internationally-prominent composer now based in the UK, as well as Case, who serves as Professor of Music at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. These works were performed by baritone Robert Rice, a member of The Cardinall’s Musick, and Calvin Leung, one the UK’s most accomplished young pianists. The third piece, a new song based on an original text, was performed by Samia Malik, a singer-songwriter, workshop leader, and activist known for her emotionally-riveting bilingual Urdu/English songs.

“Each of us has created a new piece of music that explores the theme of ‘creation’ from a religious or spiritual perspective,” says Case. “It’s fascinating to see the unique ways each of us has approached the challenge. Some of us have focused on the ways the theme relates to the basic human urge to create – and how that helps us understand the spiritual dimension of human experience. Others have expressly connected it to the issue of environmental crisis that we all face. Altogether, these pieces demonstrate the unique power of the arts to bring people together in conversation about themes that are relevant to all of us today.”

The performances of the pieces was followed by an informal panel discussion featuring scholars representing each of the three Abrahamic faiths. Cambridge Faculty of Divinity members Prof. Giles Waller and Prof. Timothy Winter (Abdal Hakim Murad) were joined by Dr. Danielle Padley, a Research Fellow at the Woolf Institute. Each of the composers was also present for the event and shared their own thoughts about their music. 

Musician biographies:

Born in Jerusalem, Ari Ben-Shabetai studied composition with Mark Kopytman at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music, and with George Crumb and Richard Wernick at the University of Pennsylvania,U.S.A., where he received a Ph.D. in Composition. Now residing in the UK, for many years he served as head of the Composition, Conducting and Theory Department at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music. His Sinfonia Cromatica won the first prize in the 1994 Israel Philharmonic Orchestra composition competition, and was subsequently performed on tour to Germany, France, Italy, and the U.S.A. with Maestro Zubin Mehta conducting. In 1995 his work Magreffa was commissioned by Maestro Lorin Maazel for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and was performed both in Pittsburgh and in Jerusalem. A winner of numerous international awards, Dr. Ben-Shabetai was Chairman of the Israel Composer's League for four years, during which period he founded the Israeli Music Center (IMC) publishing house and produced "Psanterin" - a 9 CD Anthology of Israeli piano music.

Born in Saudi Arabia to Pakistani parents, Samia Malik has lived in the UK since she was a child. For over 30 years she has written, performed and produced bilingual Urdu and English songs based on traditional Urdu Ghazal (a highly refined union of poetry with music) extending and subverting the form to explore contemporary issues around identity, race and gender. She has collaborated and toured nationally and internationally with acclaimed world-class musicians, writers and artists including Baluji Shrivastav OBE, Dr Mallika Sarabhai, Giuliano Modarelli, Seemab Gul, Al MacSween, Sukhdeep Dhanjal, Sianed Jones and Cris Cheek. Samia has released five albums: 'The Colour of the Heart' (1998 rereleased 2023), Jaago – Wake Up (2004), Azaadi: Freedom (2017), 'Samia Malik Live at Norwich Arts Centre' (2019), and 'Songs to Heal and Empower' (2023). She also delivers highly successful and popular workshops and performances directly in the community, including to vulnerable groups such as refugees and asylum seekers, women and families being supported by domestic violence organisations, and isolated rural groups.

Delvyn Case is an American musician, scholar, writer, speaker, and educator. He has spent 25 years developing projects for secular and religious audiences that explore music’s unique power to explore questions of spirituality in the contemporary world. His writings on music, faith, and theology have appeared in The Christian Century, Sojourners, Books and Culture, and his work has been featured in Time Magazine, on BBC4’s “Sunday Morning” broadcast, and in the Boston Globe. He has collaborated on projects with the Yale Institute for Sacred Music, the Boston College Centre for Christian-Jewish Learning, the American Academy of Religion, Hebrew College, and many churches and organizations in the UK. He is the founder and executive director of Deus Ex Musca, an international organization that promotes the use of sacred music as a resource for spiritual formation, ecumenism, and interfaith dialogue. In 2024 he spent two terms as a Visiting Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford, and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Woolf Institute. His music has been performed by over 100 orchestras across the world, including the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the Hallé Orchestra, as well as by Grammy-winning artists including Richard Stoltzman and the Chestnut Brass Company. A graduate of Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Case currently holds the A. Howard Meneely Endowed Professorship at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, where he conducts the Great Woods Symphony Orchestra.

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Samia Malik - Like A Gift.

True love of our neighbour means that we receive as well as give

Here's the sermon that I have shared at St Mary's Runwell and St Peter's Nevendon today:

We all know the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10. 25 - 37), don’t we? And we all know what the story is about? It’s very clear, isn’t it? It’s a call to kindness, a call to care, a call to help others, unlike those who passed by on the other side. We know all that, don’t we? So, there’s really no point in my reiterating what we already know and therefore I can just leave you to reflect on the calls to kindness that you experience in your daily life. How do you meet those? How do you respond?

There isn’t really anymore to say, so I’ll just leave it at that for today. Or, is that actually the case? Is there perhaps something more to this parable that isn’t generally spoken about? Might there actually be an aspect to this parable that is generally overlooked?

Let’s think for a moment about the hero of the parable – a Samaritan. Samaritans were contemptible people, as far as the Jews of Jesus’ day were concerned, considered as social outcasts, untouchables, racially inferior, practicing a false religion. While Samaritans claimed that they were the true Israel who were descendants of the "lost" tribes taken into Assyrian captivity. The Samaritan’s had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. They also claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile.

Samaritans were of mixed Jewish and Gentile ancestry, claimed descent from Jacob and worshipped the God of Israel. So, Samaritans were close to the Jews in their birth and beliefs but they were also different in significant ways, a volatile combination in any era. As a result, Samaritans and Jews engaged in bitter rivalries, which in Jesus’ day could lead to political hostilities that, sometimes, required intervention from the Romans.

Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders seem to have taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter each other's territories or even to speak to one another. Jews avoided any association with Samaritans, travelling long distances out of their way to avoid passing through a Samaritan area. Any close physical contact, drinking water from a common bucket, eating a meal with a Samaritan, would make a Jew ceremonially unclean - unable to participate in temple worship for a period of time – this may be part of the reason why the priest and Levite don’t stop to help.

The artist Dinah Roe Kendall painted a version of the parable of the Good Samaritan which set the story in South Africa at the time of apartheid. Doing so, seems to me, to be an accurate parallel with the kinds of emotions and cultural practices that were at play in the relationship between Jews and Samaritans and it shows up clearly the twist in the tail of Jesus’ story.

Jesus, as a Jew, didn’t illustrate his point - that people of every race, colour, class, creed, faith, sexuality, and level of ability are our neighbours – by telling a story in which a Jew was kind to someone else. Instead, he told a story in which a Jew receives help from a person who was perceived to be his enemy. The equivalent in Kendall’s painting is of the black man helping the white man, who represents the people that have oppressed him and his people.

So, Kendall’s version of the story brings out part of the twist in the tail that Jesus gives this story; the sense of receiving help from the person who is your enemy. What her version doesn’t deal with, however, is the idea that the enemy who helps is someone of another faith. The Jews were God’s chosen people and a light to the other nations and faith, so what would have been expected from this story would have been for the Jew in the story to bring the light of faith to the Samaritan. But that is not how Jesus’ story unfolds. Instead, the person who is one of God’s chosen people receives help from the person of another faith.

For Jesus to tell a story in which a Samaritan was the neighbour to a Jew was, for the reasons we have been considering, deeply shocking. We can sense this in the story as recorded for us by Luke, as the lawyer in the story is unable to bring himself to utter the word ‘Samaritan’ in answering Jesus’ question. The story is doubly shocking because the Jews in the story, the Priest and Levite, do not act as neighbours to the man. And trebly shocking, because it was probably their expression of devotion to God that prevented them from being neighbours. Priests were supposed to avoid impurity from a corpse and Pharisees thought that one would contract impurity if even one’s shadow touched the corpse. It was safer, therefore, not to check than to risk impurity.

Perhaps we can get a sense of how shocking this was by asking ourselves who, in our own day, are we least likely to think of as neighbours? Who do we think of as those least like us? Who do we think of as enemies? Who do we think of as contemptible? The point of the story is that Jesus says our neighbour is not our own people but those we think of as enemies or as contemptible because of their birth or beliefs. The least likely people, the people least like us, these are the people that Jesus calls our neighbours.

To find a contemporary equivalent for this aspect of the story, we have, perhaps, to think about relationships in this country between Christians and those of other faiths, and within those relationships, recognise that relationships between Christians and Muslims are often those which are currently most conflicted, with some Christians believing that Islam represents a threat to the Church and Western civilization. Within this context, the parable of the Good Samaritan challenges Christians as to what we can receive from those of other faiths and, particularly, those who we might view as enemies. Jesus says to us, through this parable, that loving our neighbours is not simply about what we can give to others but also about what we receive from others.

Our neighbours, understood in this way, are those to whom we should give – “go and do likewise”, Jesus said to the lawyer - and they are those that we should love as we love ourselves. They are also those from whom we should receive because it was the Samaritan in the story who provided help, not any of the Jewish characters. So, we need to ask ourselves how we can receive, grow, learn from and be blessed by those we think of as enemies or as beneath contempt because of their birth or beliefs.

You see, if our focus is just on what we can give, then we are in a paternalistic relationship with our neighbours or enemies. If our focus is just on what we can give, then what we are saying is that we hold all the aces and we will generously share some of them with you. In other words, we remain in a position of power and influence. Immediately we acknowledge that we can receive from our neighbours or enemies, then the balance of power shifts and we make ourselves vulnerable. In this parable, Jesus says that that is where true love is to be found and it is something that he went on to demonstrate by making himself vulnerable through death on the cross.

We often protect ourselves from the need to engage with, learn from or show love to those who are different from us by using aspects of the Bible to justify our lack of contact or compassion. But Jesus rules this approach out for his followers by giving us the examples of the priest and Levite. George Caird has written that “It is essential to the point of the story that the traveller was left half-dead. The priest and the Levite could not tell without touching him whether he was dead or alive; and it weighed more with them that he might be dead or defiling to the touch of those whose business was with holy things than that he might be alive and in need of care.”

This is religious rule-making justifying a lack of compassion. Caird says that, “Jesus deliberately shocks the lawyer by forcing him to consider the possibility that a semi-pagan foreigner might know more about the love of God than a devout Jew blinded by preoccupation with pettifogging rules.” Who do we, as the Church, stay away from because we are afraid of contamination or defilement? What aspects of scripture do we use to justify our lack of contact?

Jesus told this story in order that we reach out across the divides and barriers that people and groups and communities and nations construct between each other. He told this story so that Christians would be in the forefront of those who look to tear down the barriers and cross the divides. To the extent, that we fail to do this we are more like the priest and Levite in this story that the Samaritan who was a neighbour to the person in need.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the sting is in the tail, the deepest point is that one of God’s chosen people receives help from his enemy who is of another faith. Jesus is taking us deep into the heart of love and saying that we will not truly love our neighbour until we understand and accept that we have much to receive from those that we perceive to be our enemies. In other words, true love of our neighbour means that we receive as well as give.

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Unique Musical Event Combines Performances of New Compositions with Interfaith Conversation

On July 1 at 6 pm, the Woolf Institute at the University of Cambridge will present a unique musical event that will use music as a springboard for interfaith dialogue.

Entitled “Creation: A World-Premiere Event”, it will feature live performances of new compositions written by musicians from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim backgrounds expressly for this project. The musical offerings will be followed by an engaging roundtable discussion featuring an interfaith collection of scholars and clergy affiliated with Cambridge University. The event is open to all members of the public.

The event will take place at Westminster College in Cambridge. Tickets are available at https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/events/concert-creation-a-world-premiere-event

“I envisioned this event as an opportunity to explore the unique the arts can contribute to interfaith dialogue”, says Delvyn Case, an American musician and scholar who curated the project as part of his Visiting Fellowship at the Woolf Institute. “Listening to music reminds us of all the things we have in common with each other, no matter who we are or what we believe: the love of beauty, the value of human connection, and our need to explore the deepest questions life poses to us. Using music to help us consider questions of faith and spirituality will be a one-of-a-kind experience for all who attend.”

The event will feature new compositions for voice and piano by Ari Ben-Shabetai, an internationally-prominent composer now based in the UK, as well as Case, who serves as Professor of Music at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. These works will be performed by baritone Robert Rice, a member of The Cardinall’s Musick, and Calvin Leung, one the UK’s most accomplished young pianists. The third piece, a new song based on an original text, will be performed by Samia Malik, a singer-songwriter, workshop leader, and activist known for her emotionally-riveting bilingual Urdu/English songs.

“Each of us has created a new piece of music that explores the theme of ‘creation’ from a religious or spiritual perspective,” says Case. “It’s fascinating to see the unique ways each of us has approached the challenge. Some of us have focused on the ways the theme relates to the basic human urge to create – and how that helps us understand the spiritual dimension of human experience. Others have expressly connected it to the issue of environmental crisis that we all face. Altogether, these pieces demonstrate the unique power of the arts to bring people together in conversation about themes that are relevant to all of us today. This should make for a vibrant conversation.”

The performances of the pieces will be followed by an informal panel discussion featuring scholars representing each of the three Abrahamic faiths. Cambridge Faculty of Divinity members Prof. Giles Waller and Prof. Timothy Winter (Abdal Hakim Murad) will be joined by Dr. Danielle Padley, a Research Fellow at the Woolf Institute.

Each of the composers will also be present for the event and will share their own thoughts about their music.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception open to all. This event is being presented by the Woolf Institute and is co-sponsored by Westminster College, and The Spalding Trust.

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John Pfumojena & Delvyn Case - Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

Church Times - Art review: Football and Religion: Tales of Hope, Passion and Play (Aga Khan Centre)

My latest review for Church Times is Football and Religion: Tales of Hope, Passion and Play by Ed Merlin Murray at the Aga Khan Centre Gallery:

'IF ONE were to be told of a current football exhibition with women footballers featuring as its main image, expectations would be high for an image of the Lionesses victorious at the Euros in the summer. The very different focus of this exhibition becomes apparent in that the key image features the Shimshali sisters — Sumaira Inayat and Karishma Inayat — who have, since 2018, run the Gilgit-Baltistan Girls Football League, Pakistan’s first women-led girls football tournament.

The sisters are Muslims, and this exhibition, as a whole, focuses primarily on the current contribution of Muslims and Christians to football, together with an archive display highlighting both Jewish and Christian contributions. The stories of Muslim women footballers included are one key aspect of an exhibition that challenges stereotypes on several levels. As Karishma says, “I am representing a region that lacks basic facilities yet encourages its daughters to play football and break the patriarchy.”

The exhibition features many stories of hope, passion, and play in the lives of players and professionals, both female and male. These stories are presented through a series of new artworks created by visual artist, illustrator, and animator, Ed Merlin Murray.'

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here. See also Modern religious art: airbrushed from art history?

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New Order - World In Motion.

Start:Stop: The call to tell the Good News

Bible reading

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs. “As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them. And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations. When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. (Mark 13. 1 – 11)

Meditation

How to live in wartime? That is essentially the guidance that Jesus gives his disciples in the teachings recorded for us in Mark 13. In the light of recent terrorist attacks, it is particularly pertinent to us today.

Jesus was talking about a very specific conflict that would affect his disciples in the near future and which occurred in AD70 when the Roman army attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple there. When this happened, as Jesus prophesied, “Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” The essence of Jesus’ teaching comes in verse 13 when he says “the good news must … be proclaimed to all nations.” The conflict he describes and prophesies will, he says, be an opportunity for his disciples to tell the Good News, if they stand firm: “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines … As for yourselves, beware; for they will hand you over to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them.” (Mark 13. 8 & 9)

That is what Jesus looks for from his followers in wartime and he promises his support and enabling in doing so: “When they bring you to trial and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say; but say whatever is given you at that time, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.” The situations in which we are called to do this change throughout history but what is unchanging is the call to tell the Good News, as here, in situations of military defeat, but also in times of victory, while the outcome is uncertain, and in times of peace.

The Early Church saw the spirit of the world transformed by God as they stood firm in their faith and told the Good News. That is how we are called live in wartime - in the battle of ideas or clash of civilizations which we now face - to stand firm in our faith and tell the good news. The challenge of this passage is whether we can do and see that within our changed and changing world.

Prayer

Dear Jesus, we know you understand evil, because you stared it in the face as you were terrorized on the cross. Give us your courage to choose love. Show us a 'third way' that is neither submission nor assault, neither passivity nor war. Help us to oppose evil without mirroring it. Help us resist our oppressors without emulating them.

May we continue to develop courage and wisdom to work together to build a peaceful earth community for all.

A prayer from the Muslim community: God, you are pure and perfect. Help us find purity in our hearts and minds, and make sense of the senseless as we try to assemble a puzzle that should never have been taken apart. You are our source of healing and comfort. The magnitude of our collective pain has brought your people together, kneeled in prayer; help us rise again.

May we continue to develop courage and wisdom to work together to build a peaceful earth community for all.

God of justice and compassion, you walk with your people and show us your face. In you we find consolation. Be close to the people of Paris, in the shock and trauma of recent days. Speak your peace and bring your healing to all who are grieving and wounded and turn the hearts and minds of those who would kill and maim and destroy. Show us how to seek your kingdom; a life beyond violence, a future beyond hatred, and hope beyond tears and pain through the love of your Son, our peacemaker, neighbour and friend. Jesus Christ our Lord.

May we continue to develop courage and wisdom to work together to build a peaceful earth community for all.

A prayer from the Buddhist community: We pray for those who have lost their lives in Paris, in Beirut, in Mali, in Nigeria, in Baghdad and in the world, caused by terrorist attacks. May we honour and remember their lives to bring peace and unity, not fear and division. We pray for those who have lost their loved ones, houses and communities to find inner strength to overcome the challenges. May we open our hearts and hands to help their recovery, as we are all in this together. In these days of shock and sorrow, may we continue to develop courage and wisdom to believe in humanity and work together to build a peaceful earth community for all of us.

May we continue to develop courage and wisdom to work together to build a peaceful earth community for all.

Blessing

A life beyond violence, a future beyond hatred, hope beyond tears and pain, opposing evil without mirroring it, resisting oppressors without emulating them. May those blessings of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon us and remain with us always. Amen.

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Sabrina Johnston - Peace.

London stands in solidarity with Paris

The Bishop of London had an article in yesterday's Evening Standard in response to the attacks in Paris. In the piece he reflected on his recent visit to Moscow where he gave a speech at a bi-lateral symposium with the Russian Orthodox Church and also met with Russia’s Islamic leader, the Supreme Mufti.

Bishop Richard’s article is also published in full on the diocesan website: London stands in solidarity with Paris.

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Francis Poulenc - O Magnum Mysterium.

The Good Samaritan: Giving and Receiving

The artist Dinah Roe Kendall painted a version of the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10. 25 - 37) which set the story in South Africa at the time of apartheid. Doing so seems to me to be an accurate parallel with the kinds of emotions and cultural practices that were at play in the relationship between Jews and Samaritans and it shows up clearly the sting in the tail of Jesus’ story.

The Jews at the time considered Samaritans as social outcasts, untouchables, racially inferior, practicing a false religion. While Samaritans claimed that they were the true Israel who were descendants of the "lost" tribes taken into Assyrian captivity. The Samaritan’s had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. They also claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile. Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders seem to have taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter each other's territories or even to speak to one another. Jews avoided any association with Samaritans, travelling long distances out of their way to avoid passing through a Samaritan area. Any close physical contact, drinking water from a common bucket, eating a meal with a Samaritan, would make a Jew ceremonially unclean - unable to participate in temple worship for a period of time – this may be why the priest and Levite don’t stop to help.

Jesus, as a Jew, didn’t illustrate his point - that people of every race, colour, class, creed, faith, sexuality, and level of ability are our neighbours – by telling a story in which a Jew was kind to someone else. Instead, he told a story in which a Jew receives help from a person who was perceived to be his enemy. The equivalent in Kendall’s painting is of the black man helping the white man who represents the people that have oppressed him and his people.

So Kendall’s version of the story brings out part of the sting in the tail that Jesus gives this story; the sense of receiving help from the person who is your enemy. What her version doesn’t deal with, however, is the idea that the enemy who helps is someone of another faith. The Jews were God’s chosen people and a light to the other nations and faith, so what would have been expected from this story would have been for the Jew in the story to bring the light of faith to the Samaritan. But that is not how Jesus’ story unfolds. Instead, the person who is one of God’s chosen people receives from the person of another faith.

To find a contemporary equivalent for this aspect of the story, we have, perhaps, to think about relationships in this country between Christians and those of other faiths, and within these relationships, recognise that relationships between Christians and Muslims are often those which are currently most conflicted, with some Christians believing that Islam represents a threat to the Church and Western civilization. Within this context, the parable of the Good Samaritan challenges Christians as to what we can receive from those of other faiths and, particularly, those who we might view as enemies. Jesus says to us through this parable that loving our neighbours is not simply about what we can give to others but also about what we receive from others.

If our focus is just on what we can give then we are in a paternalistic relationship with our neighbours or enemies. If our focus is just on what we can give then what we are saying is that we hold all the aces and we will generously share some of them with you. In other words, we remain in a position of power and influence. Immediately we acknowledge that we can receive from our neighbours or enemies, then the balance of power shifts and we make ourselves vulnerable. In this parable, Jesus says that that is where true love is to be found and it is something that he went on to demonstrate by making himself vulnerable through death on the cross.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the sting is in the tail, the deepest point is that one of God’s chosen people receives help from his enemy who is of another faith. Jesus is taking us deep into the heart of love and saying that we will not truly love our neighbour until we understand and accept that we have much to receive from those that we perceive to be our enemies. In other words, true love of our neighbour means that we receive as well as give.

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Victoria Williams - Love.

Modest Fashion: Styling Bodies, Mediating Faith

Increasing numbers of women are engaging in the development and discussion of modest dressing; a movement matched by a growing media and popular demand for intelligent commentary about the topic. Modest Fashion: Styling Bodies, Mediating Faith edited by Reina Lewis, Artscom Centenary Professor of Cultural Studies, London College of Fashion, set out to meet that need. 

As a trend, modest dressing is spreading across the world, yet it is rarely viewed as 'fashion'. Studying consumers and producers, retailers and bloggers, Modest Fashion provides an up to the minute account of the art of dressing modestly - and fashionably. Leading scholars in the area, along with journalists, fashion designers, entrepreneurs and bloggers discuss the emergence of a niche market for modest fashion among and between Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith groups as well as secular dressers. Crossing creeds and cultures, analysing commentary alongside commerce, the book probes the personal and the political as well as religious, aesthetic and economic implications of contemporary dress practices and the debates that surround them.

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Violent Femmes - I Held Her In My Arms.

Crossroads: lives which are not linear

Like many of us at St Martin-in-the-Fields I have enjoyed beginning to peruse and reflect on ‘The Bridge’ exhibition which will be with us until 31st July.

When an exhibition includes lots of works, as does ‘The Bridge’ with 47 pieces, it is easy to be distracted from the piece you are viewing by other works nearby that have not yet been seen. However, art rewards contemplation, so on my first view I thought I would focus on one image rather than the totality of the exhibition.

‘Crossroads’ by Azadeh Ghotbi is an abstract painting in which cubist planes in yellows and greens combine to form the sinuous curves of crossing and connecting paths. Each coloured line, Ghotbi writes, ‘represents a person with a unique story, cultural background, belief system and sensibility.’

The painting derives from her own personal experience as someone who was born a Muslim, attended a Catholic School, married an atheist, and whose bridesmaids were Muslim and Jewish respectively. As a result, the painting depicts the interaction of our lives; lives which, as she says, ‘are not linear’ but which cross, bridge and impact each other.

Various statements have been made in philosophy and art suggesting that God does not move the world in a straight line or build in straight lines. These statements are contentious in terms of the natural world but make absolute sense when applied to building or sustaining community. If we live along straight lines only, we effectively live parallel lives. This may be why I recently heard someone apply this phrase to the curved lines of our EastWindow.

So, while it is here, do have a good look at Azadeh Ghotbi’s ‘Crossroads’ and see what it suggests to you both about the nature of our community here at St Martin’s and the relational God that we worship.

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Mick Jagger featuring Lenny Kravitz - God Gave Me Everything.

The Prophet and the Losses: Relating to Islam and Islamists

This evening the Revd Dr Sam Wells preached on The Prophet and the Losses: Relating to Islam and Islamists. The sermon will be available to read shortly by clicking here. My thoughts on British Shared Values and Faith, which have some synergies with this sermon, can be read here.

The intercessions I prepared to complement this sermon follow:

Eternal God, one God, living and subsisting in yourself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, we adore you for you have spoken to us; every nation and tribe and language and people. You did not abandon either Ishmael or Isaac and we therefore pray in trust for your continued care of the faith communities which have grown from their seed. We stand in awe and gratitude for your persistent love towards each and all of your children: Christian, Jew, Muslim, as well as those with other faiths. As Christians, Jews or Muslims may we remember, and profoundly affirm, what we share as children of Abraham, people of our Books and as monotheists. Strengthen our resolve to share common ground by living face to face and side by side in peace with one another.

Jesus, whose death is a fundamental statement of the centrality of nonviolence, you experienced in person torture and death as a prisoner of conscience. You were beaten and flogged and sentenced to an agonizing death though you had done no wrong. Be now with prisoners of conscience throughout the world. Be with them in their fear and loneliness, in the agony of physical and mental torture, and in the face of execution and death. Stretch out your hands in power to break their chains. Bless all those, like Amnesty International, trying to secure their release. May the ways of peace and diplomacy prevail over acts of violence and aggression. Be merciful to the oppressor and the torturer, and place a new heart within them. Forgive all injustice in our lives, and transform us to be instruments of your peace, for by your wounds we are healed.

Holy Spirit, who makes Christ and his benefits present to us now and who is therefore active in bringing many from East and West to sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, we pray for all who are working for peace in the tangled conflicts of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria and other nations today. For international leaders holding a thread of control, for the politicians holding a thread of power, for the religious leaders holding a thread of authority, for the fighters holding a thread of influence, and the citizens clinging to a thread of hope. We pray particularly for refugees like the Rohingya caught up in issues beyond their community and unable to fi8nd a place to lay their head. Give to them a home and to us: understanding that puts an end to strife; mercy that quenches hatred; forgiveness that overcomes vengeance; the strength it takes to listen rather than to judge; growth in trust rather than fear of the other; the courage and persistence to try again and again to make peace even when peace eludes us.

Holy Trinity, within whom love is constantly exchanged and shared, may we experience the extension of that exchange in shared conversation and action with those of other faiths. In the spirit of that exchange we pray using words from the Sufi poet Rumi, asking for a world in which through love all that is bitter will be sweet, all that is copper will be gold, all dregs will turn to purest wine, all pain will turn to medicine. That through Love the dead will all become alive and the king turn into a slave. We also share in the Shabbat prayer crying out for rest from pain and turmoil and hard service. May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease; when a great peace will embrace the whole world. Then nation shall not threaten nation and humankind will not again know war. For all who live on earth shall realize we have not come into being to hate or destroy. We have come into being to praise, to labour and to love. Compassionate God, bless all the leaders of all nations with the power of compassion. Fulfil the promise conveyed in Scripture: "I will bring peace to the land, and you shall lie down and no one shall terrify you. I will rid the land of vicious beasts and it shall not be ravaged by war." Let love and justice flow like a mighty stream. Let peace fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.

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Eric Whitacre - Hope, Faith, Life, Love.

The Prophet and the Losses: Relating to Islam and Islamists

St Martin-in-the-Fields has an ongoing Issues of our Time series on themes and challenges of the day with choral music sung by the Choir and Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields and sermons from Revd Dr Sam Wells.

This Sunday the topic is The Prophet and the Losses: Relating to Islam and Islamists. The service begins at 5.00pm.

Earlier topics in the series have included: Choosing our Government and Governing our Choices: The Coming Election; Full of Years – The Wisdom of Old Age; and The Family: A Nuclear Necessity or an Extended Memory?, among many others.

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Rumi - Say I Am You.

British Shared Values and Faith

The Muslim Community & Education Centre and Global One 2015 hosted an event today exploring shared values among faith communities in Britain. The event aimed to encourage meaningful and insightful conversation on the issue of shared values and faith in Britain, and brought together leaders and thinkers from Britain’s faith communities as part of a multi-faith discussion panel chaired by The Right Honourable Baroness Berridge which included Rabbi James Baaden, Imam Asharaf Salah and myself.

With the rise of religious discrimination and tension in the UK and around the world, proactive inter-faith dialogue is as important and relevant as ever. Faith communities in the UK face increasing challenges and yet provide invaluable resources in the form of education, guidance, social engagement and community support on local, national and international levels. In the run up to and aftermath of the general election British values have been constantly in the media spotlight with questions about what British values really mean and how they are compatible with major religions.

A 2014 study by Ipsos Mori revealed that Britons overestimate the proportion of Muslims in the country by a factor of four. These mass misconceptions become problematic when combined with biased perceptions of Islam leading people to feel threatened by the faith and its perceived incompatibility with British values. A similar study for Jewish Policy Research found that 28% of respondents felt anti semitism in the UK had increased a lot in the past five years; whilst 40% felt it had increased a little.

Faith communities’ participation in civil society is an important aspect of building strong cohesive communities. As participation is an indicator of how vibrant a civil society is faith participation can play an enabling and empowering role for many faith communities particularly those which are disadvantaged.

By bringing together religious, social and political leaders and thinkers The Muslim Community & Education Centre and Global One 2015 hoped to bring the discussion on shared values and faith to the forefront of British community life and find positive and achievable solutions to the problems faced by these communities today.

In my contribution to the debate I said the following:

This week my sermon at St Stephen Walbrook was based on James 1. 22, “be doers of the word, and not merely hearers.” This passage says that if we are hearers of God’s word and not doers, we are like those who look at themselves in a mirror and immediately forget what they were like. “A first century mirror was not the silvered glass one without which no bathroom is complete today. It was beaten bronze and gave a fuzzy image. If you wanted to be sure your face was not dirty a quick glance was not sufficient. You would need to peer intently, work out what was required, then go and find some clean water to do something about it. The same is true of the way we react to encountering God. The real blessing of the Christian faith does not lie in listening to sermons or reciting liturgies, but in dwelling on what is true until it transforms what we do. A genuine encounter with Jesus provokes action.”

The action it produces is, as the letter of James states, “care for orphans and widows in their distress.” Jesus said, in the Parable of the sheep and goats, that God’s judgement on us will be based on our actions; giving food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and visiting those in prison. These actions are to be the end result of our faith. If our looking deeply into God’s word does not result in our doing these things, our faith is not genuine and we are not walking the walk as Christians.

One summary of those words from and thoughts based on the Christian scriptures would be the sentence known as the Golden Rule which appears in the scriptures of many faiths i.e. ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you.’

Let us bear these thoughts in mind, as shared values, as we think a little now about the contribution of Christianity to shared British values.

Julian Rivers has argued in ‘Religion and Law’, that:

“The political and legal implications of Christianity have been quite different from those of Judaism and Islam.” “Judaism and Islam manifested themselves as the law of an entire community organised around those faiths. So it makes sense to talk of Islamic or Jewish criminal law, family law, property law, law of contracts, charitable foundations and so on.” “Instead, under God, in Christianity, there are two authorities on earth, not one, and they are church and government. The sphere of church is characterised by salvific grace, by individual commitment, by freedom – so much so that the very concept of law might be out of place in the church (although Christian ecclesiological traditions vary considerably on that particular question). The sphere of government is characterised by judgement and coercion in the service of goods common to all of humankind. The tasks of government may be considered primarily in terms of restraining evil, or of coordinating human action in pursuit of the common good.”

He notes that, as a result, English law has been beneficially affected by Christianity” and summarises the argument of Lord Denning (Master of the Rolls 1962-1981) who, on his retirement as President of the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship, published a pamphlet on this topic: “These included a belief in the importance of truth, requirements of good faith in statutory interpretation and contractual obligations, the development of the law of negligence, basic presuppositions of criminal law (such as the requirement to demonstrate that the accused had a ‘guilty mind’), the principle of government under law, the rise of social welfare legislation, and the centrality of a Christian conception of marriage.”

To this list Rivers adds the following:

“Modern commitments to political liberty and equality within the law emerged out of debates which were internal to Christianity; debates which were catalysed by the inescapably radical liberty and equality exemplified by Jesus and his disciples. Jesus is the model of the accountable public servant, using power for the good of others and conscious of his answerability to a higher tribunal. English nationhood owes more than a little to the example of Israel. Christianity also reinforced a commitment to authority, order and the rule of law.”

Dipti Patel has explored, in a paper on the religious foundations of Human Rights, approaches to understanding Human Rights based on the Judeo-Christian tradition. She writes that:

“The central understanding of the human being within the Judeo-Christian tradition starts with the idea that God was the creator of all things. He created man in his own image: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness … So God created man in his own image, in the image and likeness of God he created him; male and female he created them.’ (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1, 9:6). This supports the idea of rights that all enjoy by virtue of their common humanity. By virtue of reflecting the divine image, absolute worth is accorded to human beings. This gives all human beings a special status, a unique value, or ... his dignity. Therefore the human being has absolute and inviolable worth. A human being is not to be valued for what society can do with him, he is not a means to an end. Being created in God’s image is to be understood ‘in the sense of God bestowing dignity and honour upon man’. This is explained in Psalm (8:5) where it is stated ‘You have made him but a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor.’ This means that every human being is to be treated with love and respect.”

This is a shared understanding within the Judeo-Christian tradition, while the particular Christian perspective on this issue is that:

“In the New Testament, the Son of God, in the person of Jesus Christ, perfected divine regard for the human being. Through Christ humanity is freed from sin and as a result of the Fall, redeemed before God, and exists in a state of grace. So it is in Christ that the image of God, obscured and blurred by sin, is restored. The human being has supreme value with infinite worth; he is not a bearer of borrowed values. So the Christian understanding of human rights is entirely a function of the value divinely granted to humans through Christ. This is absolute and universal. The absolute value of a person pre-exists any social differences, all are seen as equal, and as a result the value is universal. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is Jesus Christ, who is to be received by faith (Romans 3:21- 25). The origin of human rights language in the Judeo-Christian tradition therefore starts with the idea of the creation of man in the image of God, and is therefore absolute, and the state of grace, which is universal. This is the reason why it is important to recognise the dignity of every human being regardless of any social differences. Dignity is inherent. Human rights law provides for a way to recognise the respect for dignity.”

One significant point in the development of Human Rights legislation and the history of Christian influence on British values which is being celebrated this year, is the signing of Magna Carta: “In 1215, after King John of England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by which England had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which enumerates what later came to be thought of as human rights. Among them was the right of the church to be free from governmental interference, the rights of all free citizens to own and inherit property and to be protected from excessive taxes. It established the right of widows who owned property to choose not to remarry, and established principles of due process and equality before the law. It also contained provisions forbidding bribery and official misconduct. Widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the development of modern democracy, the Magna Carta was a crucial turning point in the struggle to establish freedom.”

Magna Carta starts as a religious document, concerned with the “health of the soul” of the King, and with the “honour of God,” and with the “exaltation of the Holy Church”. Dr Mike West notes that “Magna Carta established the freedom of the English church from state interference and this has grown to enshrine the rights of each individual to enjoy religious freedom. Today it challenges faith communities to examine the part they might play in the development of a liberal democracy and to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem in international relations.”

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Yusuf Islam - Peace Train.

The Bridge: an East-West travelling art exhibition

The Bridge is an East-West travelling art exhibition organised and curated by CARAVAN, an inter-religious and intercultural peacebuilding NGO. It showcases the work of 47 premier contemporary visual artists from 15 countries. Each artist has submitted one original work (created specifically for the exhibition) addressing the theme. The Bridge is an unparalleled gathering of international artists focusing on what they hold in common through their cultures and creeds: Christian, Muslim and Jewish.

The Bridge serves as a common starting point on which to build, towards seeing the development of a world that inherently respects and honours cultural and religious diversity, living and working together in harmony.

The exhibition showcases the work of 47 visionary contemporary artists who focus on what they hold in common through their cultures and creeds, illustrating their ideas of how to build bridges between us all. The Bridge will be at St Martin-in-the-Fields from June 1 - July 31.

Find out more about the exhibition - http://www.oncaravan.org/#!2015-about-the-bridge/cl8n.

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Rickie Lee Jones - I Was There.

The question of who defines Islam

Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff makes some perceptive points in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings in his comment piece for the Church Times:

'The real conflict is not between Islam and the West, but between Muslims themselves: it is an intra-Muslim fight for domination of the Islamic world, and for who defines Islam. The West is being sucked into this as a means of changing the balance. If Western nations can be provoked into more interventions in the Middle East, this can be used to urge all Muslims to make common cause with extremists against the infidel invaders.

If, on the other hand, the West holds aloof, it appears to be compromised morally by permitting humanitarian catastrophes; and new Islamist powerbases can arise in the vacuum of failed states, such as Libya and Syria. Either way, the Islamist's can play the West's role to their advantage.'

He continues that, 'Only Muslims themselves can resolve the question who defines Islam, and what being an authentic Muslim entails.' Therefore, 'those with religious authority in mainstream Islam must be enabled' to 'unite to invalidate the extremist interpretation' and 'be seen to do it definitively, for the wider good of all.'

Giles Fraser makes a similar point in his latest Comment is free piece for The Guardian. There he critiques the fateful decisions in France, based on their recent heritage of secularism, to pick 'a fight with Islam by banning the headscarf from schools in 2004 and the niqab from all public life back in 2010 – bans which closely echo the hostility of earlier generations to the veiling of nuns':

'But there is a huge difference between targeting grand bishops in Rome and a beleaguered, economically fragile Muslim community that has received a great many knocks at the hands of the French state and its colonial past. Rabelaisian derision aimed at the House of Saud or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is one thing. But aimed at the disaffected banlieues it is bullying and goading. You have to be suspicious that French secularism is not the neutral thing it purports to be when racists such as Le Pen start defending it so enthusiastically. And yet there is nothing the leaders of al-Qaida want more than the French state to be seen to declare war on its religious citizens once again. They know that many young, disaffected Arab immigrants on the sink estates outside Paris are itching for a fight. The French government must not give it to them. And that means re-thinking their precious laïcité.'

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The Neville Brothers - With God On Our Side.

Faith and the Visual Arts

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Glen Hansard - Love Don't Leave Me Waiting.

Christianity: Making sense of life

“Sherlock Holmes once remarked to Dr Watson that, ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’

This is what motivates Professor John Polkinghorne. As a Cambridge physicist he might be expected to disbelieve such an extraordinary miracle as resurrection, which appears to contravene the laws of nature. But in fact, it is the cornerstone of his faith. Reflecting on the remarkable rise of the early Church, he concluded: ‘Something happened to bring it about. Whatever it was it must have been of a magnitude commensurate with the effect it produced. I believe that was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.’

“Only a tiny handful of people have founded immense, influential movements. They shared three vital assets:

• a charismatic personality

• a long life

• a fast growing number of committed followers

Muhammad is a good example. He died in his sixties after a very energetic life. His following had momentum - lots of people, good organisation, a buoyant mood. So it's no surprise to find that Muhammad's charisma gave rise to a great movement, known today as Islam.

The single exception to the 'long life and growing movement' rule is Jesus. He died young - in his thirties. He spent only three years in the public eye and that in a small country under enemy occupation. He stayed local and didn't write anything down (apart from a word or

two in the sand). Towards the end his popularity ran out and his followers ran away, their lofty dreams shattered.

To sum up ... it was quite impossible for this sequence of events to give rise to a movement of any size or consequence, let alone the largest movement in all history. Yet ... IT DID!”

(John Young, Build on the Rock – Faith, doubt and Jesus’)

As Sherlock Holmes remarked, ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’

We are not speaking here of proof. Just as the existence or non-existence of God cannot be conclusively proved and is therefore, for both Christians and atheists, a matter of belief; so the resurrection cannot be conclusively proved or disproved and, on both sides, is ultimately a matter of belief.

What is being said though is that we have to make sense of the historical facts about the remarkable rise of the Early Church and that belief in the resurrection makes sense of that story. As John Polkinghorne has said, ‘Something happened to bring it about. Whatever it was it must have been of a magnitude commensurate with the effect it produced.’

More than that, the Christian story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection makes sense of life itself. For the early Church and for Christians ever since, this story enables us to understand life, to make sense of it, to see it as a journey with meaning, purpose and an ultimate destination which is not death and destruction but new life and rebirth.

Death AND resurrection. Suffering AND salvation. This is the journey which Christians make, following in the footsteps of Jesus, as we travel through Lent and Easter.

While it is a journey which in no way minimises the reality and pain of suffering and bereavement, it is ultimately a journey of hope. One which leads to new life, where we proclaim that Jesus is alive and death is no longer the end.

As a result, to go on this journey, builds resilience and endurance in those who travel this way. As we look at our lives, the difficulties and challenges we might face, our Christian faith tells us that this is not the end instead change and new life are possible; indeed, that they will come.

The story of Christ’s death and resurrection takes us forward into a new life. The reality of his presence with us on the way helps us endure and persevere. The combination of the two brings hope for the future. Whatever we may experience in the here and now, ultimately Love wins.   

In his book ‘Surprised by Joy C.S. Lewis sets out the series of moves which led him to faith in God, using a chessboard analogy’:

‘What Lewis describes in Surprise by Joy is not a process of logical deduction: A therefore B, therefore C. It is much more like a process of crystallisation, by which things that were hitherto disconnected and unrelated are suddenly seen to fit into a greater scheme of things ... Things fall into place ...

It is like a scientist who, confronted with many seemingly unconnected observations, wakes up in the middle of the night having discovered a theory which accounts for them ... It is like a literary detective, confronted with a series of clues, who realises how things must have happened, allowing every clue to be positioned within a greater narrative. In every case, we find the same pattern – a realisation that, if this was true, everything else falls into place naturally, without being forced or strained. And by its nature, it demands assent from the lover of truth. Lewis found himself compelled to accept a vision of reality that he did not wish to be true, and certainly did not cause to be true ...

Lewis finally bowed to what he now recognised as inevitable. “In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

Lewis ... realised that if Christianity was true, it resolved the intellectual and imaginative riddles that had puzzled him since his youth ... he began to realise that there was a deeper order, grounded in the nature of God, which could be discerned – and which, once grasped, made sense of culture, history, science, and above all the acts of literary creation that he valued so highly and made his life’s study.’

(Alister McGrath, C.S.Lewis: A Life)

So, we have seen that belief in the resurrection not only makes sense of the rise of the Early Church but also can make sense of life itself, seeing it as a journey with meaning, purpose and an ultimate destination which is not death and destruction but new life and rebirth. This gives us a means of enduring the difficulties and challenges we face now with resilience and endurance because of our belief that this is not the end and that change and new life are possible and will come.

As a result, the story of Christ’s death and resurrection takes us forward into a new life. The reality of his presence with us on the way helps us endure and persevere. The combination of the two brings hope for the future because whatever we may experience in the here and now, ultimately Love wins. That is what made sense to John Polkinghorne and C.S. Lewis and is also what has made sense for millions of Christians over the centuries since that first Easter Day. May we also know Christ’s resurrection not only making sense for us but also making sense of our lives too. 

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Alice Cooper - I Am Made Of You.

Scriptural Reasoning: Education and knowledge

Education and knowledge was the theme of the text bundle used in our local Scriptural Reasoning group meeting tonight. 

This meeting was hosted by the South West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue (SWESRS) who have recently installed a Tree of Life in the foyer of their prayer hall. The designer who created this beautiful and original commission had, by coincidence, celebrated his Bar mitzvah at what was then SWERS. The tree is mounted on boards for ease of maintenance. Leaves can be purchased to celebrate happy family events such as births, B’nei mitzvah, marriages, anniversaries etc and also to commemorate the life of someone who has passed away.

The Tree of Life is one of the names for the Torah. In the introductions to the Jewish and Islamic texts we heard about the focus on learning within both traditions. In my introduction to the Christian text (1 Timothy 3. 13 - 17) I focused on different ways of understanding the phrased 'God-breathed' as it relates to the inspiration of scripture:    

'God-breathed has been understood as a way of saying that the scriptures have been inspired by God. The idea that the scriptures are directly inspired by God is often understood as being the basis for an understanding of the scriptures which sees them as being literally true in every detail and which requires absolute obedience to their literal meaning. However, this is by no means the exclusive understanding of this phrase with Christianity today and is a relatively recent understanding of the phrase. According to an article in Theology Today published in 1975, "There have been long periods in the history of the church when biblical inerrancy has not been a critical question. It has in fact been noted that only in the last two centuries can we legitimately speak of a formal doctrine of inerrancy."

A more helpful way of understanding this phrase may be think about it in relation to basic needs. The scriptures are described as being like food and water, as well as breath. These are all things without which we will not survive very long. We can survive without food for about two months, without water for up to 8 - 10 days but without air or breath for only about 3 minutes. At one level, then, these are metaphors about the necessity of the scriptures for life itself. They are as fundamental to life as breathing, water and food.

These metaphors are also about taking the scriptures into our lives in order to gain benefit from them. We can observe and discuss food, water and even breath but they all have to enter our bodies for us to physically and literally benefit from them. This speaks of the necessity for us not simply to talk about the scriptures but also to apply them to our lives for real learning and benefit to occur. Learning from the scriptures is not primarily an academic exercise. They have to affect our heart as well as our head if they are truly to be of benefit to us.

Breathing, however, is not simply about taking in but also about giving out. This is, perhaps, another aspect of applying the scriptures; they are for giving out i.e.  sharing both in word and deed.

Finally, this image is not firstly or primarily about us but about God. The scriptures are the very breath of God but because breathing is about inhaling and exhaling we can understand scripture in terms of an interactive responsive to and fro, exchange or dialogue between God and ourselves. God speaks into our lives through the scriptures (this is inhalation) and we then respond in prayer or worship or action which then prompts further input into our lives followed by further response.

This to and fro between God and ourselves can be thought of in terms of dialogue or conversation which can take in all forms of response including praise, worship, acceptance, argument, complaint and requests among others. Like breathing, to be effective, this needs to be constant and ongoing but for most of us, perhaps all of us, is, in reality, halting and impaired.'

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Adrian Snell & David Fitzgerald - Shema (Hear O Israel). 

Opening of 'Deconstructing c o n f l i c t'

commission4mission's Deconstructing c o n f l i c t exhibition opened today at Chelmsford Cathedral featuring the dramatic expressionist paintings of Maciej Hoffman alongside work by commission4mission artists. My latest painting The Flowering of the Crown of Thorns is included alongside Hoffman's Wolves behind us.

The exhibition is open from 7.45am to 9.00pm tomorrow and then from 7.45am to 3.00pm on Wednesday. A drinks reception is being held tomorrow from 6.15pm prior to an inter-faith lecture, at 7.30pm in the Chapter House of the Cathedral, by Rabbi Herschel Gluck OBE, founder of the Muslim-Jewish Forum which seeks to build bridges between Muslim and Jewish communities in the UK and around the world.

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Jackson Browne - Lives In The Balance.