SKFC Lent Courses 2009

These three … Faith, Hope and Love is the title of this year’s Lent Course chosen by the Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches. The course is based on the three great qualities celebrated in 1 Corinthians 13. This famous passage begins and ends in majestic prose but the middle passage is practical and demanding. St Paul’s thirteen verses take us to the heart of what it means to be a Christian.

The five sessions of this course take us through: Believing and Trusting; The Peace of God; Faith into Love; The Greatest of these; and All shall be well. As we reflect on these topics we will be guided by the participants on the course CD who, this year, are Bishop Tom Wright, Anne Atkins, and Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of Worth Abbey. Dr. David Hope introduces the course and Professor Frances Young provides the Closing Reflections.

There are plenty of opportunities to study this course with others in the Seven Kings Fellowship of Churches as there are four different course venues (at which all are welcome):

• St Teresa’s Newbury Park – Mondays 10.00am (2, 9, 16, 23, 30 March)
• St Peter’s Aldborough Hatch – Wednesdays 10.45am & 8.00pm (4, 11, 18, 25 March & 1 April)
• St John’s Seven Kings – Wednesdays 10.45am (4, 11, 18, 25 March & 1 April)
• St John's Seven Kings – Wednesdays 8.00pm (4, 11, 18, 25 March & 1 April)

The Church Times review of this course said: “This course is very good indeed. Written by John Young, it is the latest in the excellent series of York Courses designed for groups and individuals.”

This year there is also an alternative to the Lent course which may suit film buffs. There will be a series of Lent Film evenings at St John’s Vicarage (2 Regent Gardens IG3 8UL) on Tuesdays at 7.30pm. On these evenings we will watch four controversial portrayals of Jesus’ life and death - ‘The Gospel According to Matthew’ (U) on 3/3; ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ (15) 10/3; ‘Jesus of Montreal’, (18) 17/3; ‘The Passion of the Christ’ (18) 24/3 - before discussing all four films on 31/3.

Film is a very powerful medium for telling the Jesus story and as we reflect on the differing ways in which these films tell that story we are guaranteed to be moved, challenged and uplifted. Whether you choose to watch these Lent films or study the Lent course I pray that that will be your experience as we prepare during Lent to relive and celebrate Jesus’ passion and resurrection at Easter.

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Groove Armada Feat. Candi Staton - Love Sweet Sound.

Artistic nuns

Today's Sunday Times has an interesting interview with Dame Joanna Jamieson, a 73 year-old abbess who has just spent a year at an East End art school.

Dame Joanna's call to the monastic life followed a meeting with Dame Werburg Welch at Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire, where she was herself to become a religious.

Dame Werburg entered Stanbrook in 1915. Expecting to give up art altogether, she found herself instead being encouraged to extend her scope to vestment designs and wood-engravings for the Press. Desmond Chute and Eric Gill gave her postal tuition. As a result she adopted Gill's angular style, which was a life-long influence on her own work.

After her paintings, vestment designs and wood-carvings received favourable reviews at exhibitions of the Guild of Catholic Artists and Craftsmen in the 1930s and 1940s, commissions came in from churches and private individuals all over the country. Illustrations appeared in contemporary Catholic magazines such as Art Notes and L'Artisan Liturgique.

Stations of the Cross painted by Dame Werburg include a set painted on wood for the Church of Christ the King, Bromborough, Cheshire (c.1950); those painted for the Catholic Chaplaincy at Birmingham University c.1961; and c.1956 the set for St. Edmunds, Isle of Dogs. The Isle of Dogs paintings, along with the church building, suffered severe deterioration from damp but were restored for the new church in 1998. The Stations of the Cross carved in wood by Dom Vincent Duprè of Farnborough Abbey for the Anglican church of All Saints, Weston-super-Mare, were designed by Dame Werburg, as were the Douai Abbey Stations carved in stone by Dom Aloysius Bloor. Other major works include several large hanging crucifixes and the carved oak crucifix commissioned c. 1982 for the Czech chaplaincy in London.

Examples of Dame Werburg's work can be seen by clicking here.

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Karl Jenkins - Benedictus.