Resources for Advent

This year, in addition to Advent resources with which I have been involved, I also want to share information about ‘Wonder in the Waiting’ - an Advent Jazz Vespers which gives space to gather, stop and wait over the busy Christmas period. This candlelight and musical gathering is interspersed with carols, Advent-themed artwork and reflective readings.

NOW AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD:

• Music demonstration tracks
• Music backing tracks
• Sheet music and lyric sheet
• Script and supporting slideshow
• Leader's notes

Major Richard Mingay has provided six Christmas arrangements; five are traditional carols and one is an original song written especially for this publication. All the arrangements are set in the jazz genre and are designed to have flexible instrumentation. The songs can work effectively with just piano accompaniment or with the addition of drum kit, bass, and instrumentalist. 

'Come, Lord Jesus, Come' is an Advent devotional (booklet & slideshow) by Victoria Emily Jones based on an Advent meditation written by myself. Each line of the meditation focuses on one aspect of Christ’s coming. To promote deeper reflection on all these aspects, Victoria has selected twenty-four art images to lead the way in stoking our imaginations and to provide entry points into prayer. She has taken special care to present art from around the world and, where possible, by modern or contemporary artists so that we will be stretched beyond the familiar imagery of the season.

Victoria writes: 'Art is a great way to open yourself up to the mysteries of God, to sit in the pocket of them as you gaze and ponder. “Blessed are your eyes because they see,” Jesus said. Theologians in their own right, artists are committed to helping us see what was and what is and what could be. Here I’ve taken special care to select images by artists from around the world, not just the West, and ones that go beyond the familiar fare. You’ll see, for example, the Holy Spirit depositing the divine seed into Mary’s womb; Mary with a baby bump, and then with midwives; an outback birth with kangaroos, emus, and lizards in attendance; Jesus as a Filipino slum dweller; and Quaker history married to Isaiah’s vision of the Peaceable Kingdom.'

Through 'Come, Lord Jesus, Come' you are invited to consider what it meant for Jesus to be born of woman—coming as seed and fetus and birthed son; the poverty Jesus shared with children around the world; culturally specific bodies of Christ, like a dancing body and a yogic body; how we are called to bear God into the world today; and more.

Victoria writes: 'Advent takes us back and brings us forward. In preparing us to celebrate Christ’s first coming, it places us alongside the ancient prophets, who awaited with aching intensity the fulfilled promise of a messiah, and Joseph and Mary, whose pregnancy made the expectation all the more palpable; it also strengthens our longing for Christ’s second coming, when he will return to fully and finally establish his kingdom on earth ... May God bless you this Advent season as you ponder the amazing truth of the Incarnation.'

My 'Love is ...' meditation for Advent can be found by clicking here. This meditation ponders the love Mary demonstrated at various points along the way from the announcement of Jesus’s conception to her and her family’s resettlement in Egypt.

Additionally, I have a series of poetic meditations which draw on the thinking of René Girard in interpreting the Bible readings traditionally used in services of Nine Lessons and Carols. This set of Alternative Nine Lessons and Carols meditations can be found by clicking here.

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Richard Mingay - In This Light.

The mystery at the heart of music

Michael Hann writes in The Guardian: 'If it feels as though you can’t move for new music, then books about pop aren’t far behind. This Christmas alone has brought weighty tomes by Bono and Bob Dylan, Nick Cave’s conversations with the writer Sean O’Hagan, Bez’s autobiography, and former GQ editor Dylan Jones’s book about 1995.'

For Surrender, Bono 'chose the title because, having grown up in Ireland in the 1970s, the act of surrendering was not a natural concept to him. Bono, whose lyrics have frequently been inspired by his Christian beliefs, said that “surrender” was “a word I only circled until I gathered my thoughts for the book”.

“I am still grappling with this most humbling of commands. In the band, in my marriage, in my faith, in my life as an activist,” he added, describing the book as “the story of one pilgrim’s lack of progress … With a fair amount of fun along the way.”'

Kitty Empire writes, 'The real eye-opener throughout is the depth, breadth and idiosyncrasy of his faith, a non-sectarian Catholicism that’s not strictly church-y.'

Wesley Stace begins his review of The Philosophy of Modern Song by pointing out that: 'In a 1997 Newsweek interview, Bob Dylan told “the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music . . . I’ve learned more from the songs than I’ve learned from . . . rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that.”

He made the point again in 2020’s “Goodbye Jimmy Reed,” his valediction to the man he calls “the most country of all the blues artists in the fifties,” one of whose songs is under consideration in “The Philosophy of Modern Song”: “Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Reed indeed; / Give me that old time religion, it’s just what I need.” Dylan’s religion, his philosophy, his code, is the music.'

In The Philosophy of Modern Song Raymond Foye writes 'Dylan finds profundities where others find ditties ... [in] chapters [which] take the song as a jumping-off point for stand-alone meditations on art, money, war, religion, etc. ...

Dylan’s view of life seems to be a lot of horror and a little bit of joy, which is where the songs come in: they are a source of comfort and hope for the downtrodden. They “take the sting out of life.” ...

Dylan sees the world crowded with angels and demons, with songs as the intercessors. Songs also represent a better life: you get there by wishing, hoping, and dreaming. For three minutes you too can be a king, a lover, or an outlaw.'

In Faith, Hope and Carnage Nick Cave 'explains his personal crossroads of rock and religion: “All my songs are written from a place of spiritual yearning, because that is the place that I permanently inhabit. To me, personally, this place feels charged, creative, and full of potential.”'

Lyn McCredden writes that 'One of the chastening effects of grief, for Cave, is registered in the experiences and expressions of religious faith. The conversation between Cave and O’Hagan leaves us in no doubt about Cave’s deepened religious beliefs. These have always been a part of him, through his post-punk, drug-fed years, but they are taking new turns.

To his strengthened Christian faith, Cave, often to O’Hagan’s bemusement, attaches a suite of moral human values he would now, through living with his grief and doubt and fear, like to nurture in himself: values of empathy, humility and vulnerability, mercy towards others, openness and tolerance, and acknowledgement of his need for atonement.'

Trailblazing saxophonist Albert Ayler, who remains an important influence among jazz and experimental musicians long after his death, is explored in an important new biography, Holy Ghost: The Life and Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler by Richard Koloda. 

'Ayler's turbulent, often polarising, music career and life, which lasted a brief 34 years, has been subject to myth and rumour right from his debut free jazz recording, Witches And Devils in 1964, through his 1964/5 dates for ESP (including the highly acclaimed, landmark album Spiritual Unity, which featured at No.28 in Jazzwise's The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World book) to his recordings for the Impulse! label, which signed him following a recommendation by John Coltrane. These included 1967's avant-garde extravaganza Live in Greenwich Village, Love Cry and 1969's Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe, which saw Ayler's music moving closer to spiritual redemption and R&B (the latter a return to the music he started out playing with bluesman Little Walter in the early 1950s), before his mysterious death in 1970.'

Ayler 'had a sound that was as big as a house and a way of improvising at times that blended tones into one big mixture that disregarded individual notes. He was as free as they come in avant-garde jazz, yet his themes were at times a mixture of gospel, folk and even simple nursery rhymes.'

'Ayler's work eerily recalled the ragged polyphonies, street-march beats, gospel songs and spirituals of the earliest African-American music.'

Nick Cave says that he believes 'that there exists a genuine mystery at the heart of songwriting' that 'Through writing, you can enter a space of deep yearning that drags its past along with it and whispers into the future, that has an acute understanding of the way of things.' In different ways, these books and the music they describe inhabits that space.

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Nick Cave - Spinning Song.

ArtWay: Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals

My latest piece for ArtWay is a review of the republished 'Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals. The Origins and Spirituality of Black Music in the United States' by Hans Rookmaaker:

'Reading ‘Jazz, Blues and Spirituals’ has revived my gratitude for Rookmaaker’s teaching, writing and passions. It has revived my appreciation for the significant part his ideas and understandings played in my own appreciation of the Arts, and that of many others. It has enabled reflection on the personal journey I have made in appreciating the Arts, both in terms of understanding where that journey began and where I am in the present.

Most of all though, reading ‘Jazz, Blues and Spirituals’ has introduced me to musicians about whom I knew little previously and enlivened my appreciation for the roots of the music with which I am most familiar.'

I interviewed Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, Editor-in-Chief of ArtWay, for Artlyst and asked her then about Hans Rookmaaker, her father, and his legacy. The interview can be read at  https://www.artway.eu/artway.php?id=1019&lang=en&action=show.

My visual meditations for ArtWay include work by María Inés Aguirre, Giampaolo Babetto, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Alexander de Cadenet, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Antoni Gaudi, Nicola Green, Maciej Hoffman, Giacomo Manzù, Michael Pendry, Maurice Novarina, Regan O'Callaghan, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Albert Servaes, Henry Shelton and Anna Sikorska.

My Church of the Month reports include: Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Churches in Little Walsingham, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Metz Cathedral, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

Other of writings for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Church Times can be found here. Those for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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King Oliver - Doctor Jazz.

Amazing Grace, Gabriel's Dream, Devotion

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Aretha Franklin - Climbing Higher Mountains.

3 Psalms, Art Songs & Spirituals, Spiritual Jazz

Andy Mackay says of his new recording 3 Psalms: 

"I have long been fascinated by this collection of ancient poetry and song which has permeated our cultural life. I have tried to reflect this by using the original Hebrew and Latin - the language in which they were written - as well as 17th Century English of the Book of Common Prayer. People of faith will find themselves in familiar territory of prise and mystery and worship while atheists and agnostics can join the extraordinary debate in which the Psalmists sometimes turn from a feeling that God is totally absent or unknowable to arguing with Him because He isn’t doing what they want!"

Free jazz pioneer and civil rights activist Archie Shepp is presenting a new project revisiting his ‘60s output where he explored both his connections to Africa and the civil rights movement that swept America. Kevin le Gendre noted that the spirit of protest "pervades the black church, a haven for African-Americans and touchstone for Civil Rights activists": 

‘Absolutely, you can’t really separate them from the periods that inspired them... slavery, oppression, injustice, he says before putting the current incumbent of the White House in the dock. ‘We’ve always needed spirituals. Donald Trump only represents problems that have existed in our society for centuries. It would be impossible for Trump to have found so much support and so many ears willing to listen without the fact that he was working in fertile soil. Racism and prejudice was already there and he was very much on time for those people who have so long courted fascist ideas. He’s not alone in the world. If we look at Austria and Europe (Sweden of late) in general (at what’s happening there, it’s frightening).'"

Goin' Home is a studio album by Shepp and pianist Horace Parlan. A jazz and gospel album, Goin' Home features Shepp and Parlan's interpretations of African-American folk melodies and spirituals. Its title is an allusion to Shepp's return to his African cultural roots. Shepp had never recorded spirituals before and was overcome with emotion during the album's recording because of the historical and cultural context of the songs.

The rise of Kamasi Washington and his 3-volume album “The Epic” marked an interesting point in recent jazz history as increasing numbers of jazz musicians started exploring spiritual jazz, where the divine meets spontaneity, expressiveness, and eclecticism. Stingray DJAZZ has highlighted five spiritual UK jazz acts:

• Maisha: Drawing influences from the music of Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, as well as West African and Afro-Beat rhythms, the act released their debut EP “Welcome To A New Welcome” in 2016. Led by the drummer Jake Long, Maisha also features one of the biggest raising jazz stars - saxophonist Nubya Garcia.
• Shabaka Hutchings: The virtuoso saxophonist, composer, and musical leader, Hutchings has been exploring the spirituality aspect in jazz via most of his musical projects: Sons of Kemet, The Comet is Coming, as well as Shabaka And The Ancestors. His sound has been inspired by many elements found across African continent.
• Matthew Halsall: Trumpeter Matthew Halsall is probably the most spiritually sounding trumpeter on the jazz map right now. His music has this mesmerizing atmosphere that blends less conventional instruments such as a harp, or flute, together with distinct percussive sounds, slow tempos, and modality. The type of jazz played by him has its roots in different qualities of life: calmness, mindfulness, and above all - spiritualness.
• Dwight Trible: Dwight Trible has shaped a unique and spiritually saturated sound. Having performed with artists, such as Pharoah Sanders and Kamasi Washington, Trible is perhaps the only true spiritual jazz singer out there at the moment, which gives him a cult status among many jazz fans as well as like-minded musicians.
• Nat Birchall: One of the lesser known spiritual jazz musicians on the list, Nat Birchall, released his first spiritual jazz record in 1999. Ever since, the saxophonist has been an active member of the UK jazz community. His latest release “Cosmic Language” (Jazzman Records, 2018) combines the already established spiritual jazz elements with classical Indian music, meditation, as well as his favorite instrument - harmonium. Yet, it is the small pump up organ that really defines the sound of Brichall’s music at this moment, giving it Zen-like atmosphere and filling it with the particular energy, which can only be found among classic spiritual jazz musicians, such as Alice Coltrane or Pharoah Sanders.

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Archie Shepp & Horace Parlan ‎– Goin' Home.

The most marvellous Pentecost Sunday

Today has been, I think, the most marvellous Pentecost Sunday I can remember experiencing and enjoying.

Feel the Spirit - A Celebration for Pentecost was broadcast live from St Martin-in-the-Fields on BBC1. The preacher was the new bishop of London, the Rt Rev Sarah Mullally, and the Mass setting, Will Todd's wonderful Jazz Missa Brevis, was sung by the combined choirs of St Martin's and directed by Andrew Earis. Hymns include the 'Every Time I Feel the Spirit', 'God is Love', 'Let Heaven Adore Him' and 'Come Down, O Love Divine'. The service also included a moving Pentecost drama with members of our congregation as the disciples speaking in their mother tongues, as well as a specially written Affirmation of Faith and intercessions. This was a tremendous celebration of the gift of the Spirit to the church through the wonderful diversity of the St Martin’s community.

Then I went to Regent Hall Salvation Army for the Churches Together in Westminster Pentecost Service with a great variety provided by the Regent Hall Band, Songsters, Worship Group and young people's band and choir. The service was led by Major Richard Mingay and the preacher was Fr Dominic Robinson SJ. We also viewed the video above of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry exploring what we mean when we pray 'Thy Kingdom Come'. I was interviewed about my upbringing, calling to ordained ministry, partnership development role at St Martin's, and my co-authored book 'The Secret Chord'. 

I talked about the Spirit's leading in my call through the thought that I had built up a set of skills and experiences through my work in the Civil Service and lay ministry that would be of use in ordained ministry. As I explored ordination I came to see that it could bring together my interests in partnership work, social action, spirituality and the Arts. I spoke of 'The Secret Chord' as an impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life, written through the prism of Christian belief. By exploring artistic dilemmas from a range of different perspectives the book draws its readers into an appreciation of harmony in performance as revealing the Secret Chord. 

HeartEdge is a growing ecumenical and international network of churches and other organisations initiated by St Martin’s, and focused around the model of mission with which St Martin’s works – congregation, commerce, culture and compassion. HeartEdge aims to catalyse kingdom communities by building association, learning, development and resource. The Spirit has been active in calling, creativity and the emerging HeartEdge community. I said that ecumenical partnerships and relationships are important because they place us at the heart of Jesus' prayer for unity among his disciples and provide the fullest expression of the Body of Christ.

Finally, the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields gave us the most magnificent Choral Evensong to end  Pentecost Sunday. The service included: Purcell's 'I was glad' as the Introit; Responses by Rose, Canticles from the Evening Service in B flat by Stanford; and Parry's 'Blest pair of sirens' as the anthem.

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Regent Hall Band - Expressions.

Pentecost Services

This year at St Martin-in-the-Fields, we are delighted to host the live BBC One worship broadcast for Pentecost on Sunday 20 May. All are warmly invited to this service as we celebrate the gift of the Spirit to the church through the wonderful diversity of the St Martin’s community. Our preacher will be the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, the new Bishop of London. The service is led by Revd Dr Sam Wells, with the combined choirs of St Martin’s and the Will Todd Ensemble, directed by Andrew Earis. Please be seated in church by 9.30am.

The 2018 Churches Together in Westminster Pentecost Service will be held at 3.00pm on Sunday, 20 May, and will kindly be hosted by The Salvation Army, Regent Hall, 275 Oxford St, Mayfair, London W1C 2DJ. Again, all are welcome! The service will be led by Major Richard Mingay, the preacher will be Fr Dominic Robinson SJ and I will be interviewed about my ministry and my partnership development role at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

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Will Todd - Mass in Blue (Jazz Mass).

Update: Sophia Hub Redbridge

Ros Southern writes:

Events today and this week

• Today Saturday 5th! Kathy Mason's Dagenham social enterprise collects winter harvest for medical purposes info here
• Mon 7th - Wanstead Business Network evening open to all Redbridge businesses 6pm info here
• Tuesday 8th - Entrepreneurs' club -from product design to launch with Ruth & Gideon. An exciting soon to be launched business is to share their journey so far - 1pm at Enterprise Desk - info here
• Weds 9th - Timebank community skills swap in lovely cafe - 6.30 - great offers! info here
• Sat 12th - Ilford Green Pop Up market is part of The Streets jazz festival - 10 till 2. info here

Events coming up

• Tues 15th - 3 hour starting a business workshop at Enterprise Desk 10-1 info here
• Thurs 17th - Entrepreneurs club - 1pm - speaker Fiona Flaherty. more info to follow
• Thurs 17th/Fri18th - London business show , info here

Other stuff

• Isatu Harrison's new fashion design shop in Barking is looking for Redbridge designers as partners Info here

Some of our social media shares this week

• Freelancers get protection from non payers in New York - a first!
• Redbridge business Every Box Ticked looking to help Redbridge businesses win contracts for the area 
• Crowdfunding tips from Start Up Britain
• Younger generation are using sharing economy platforms for social benefit, not just for profit
• What does resilience for occupational therapists look like - Redbridge freelancer Awele Odeh

And thanks so much to Wendy Foster of City Business Library for leading the Entrepeneurs' club this week

Best wishes,

Ros Southern
Coordinator, Sophia Hubs Redbridge / 07707 460309

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Lifehouse - Whatever It Takes.

Jazz Age Catholicism

Martha Hanna has provided a helpful review of Jazz Age Catholicism: Mystic Modernism in Postwar Paris, 1919-1933 by Stephen Schloesser:

'Jazz Age Catholicism offers an original, insightful, and penetrating analysis of an important moment in the cultural history of modern France. It argues that pervasive collective bereavement in the aftermath of World War I prompted a profound cultural shift in elite French society that made Catholicism—dismissed only a few years earlier as retrograde, essentially out of step with the modern world, and archaic—a vibrant and consoling cultural option for many of France's most innovative and creative minds ... prominent French Catholic thinkers and artists embraced modernity not by wholesale rejection of the past but by effecting a synthesis of medieval and modern philosophical principles and artistic forms. At the forefront of this experiment in Catholic renewal and redefinition were Jacques Maritain, Georges Bernanos, Georges Rouault, and Charles Tournemire. Refusing to abandon the philosophic and aesthetic traditions of the Catholic past—whether Scholasticism in philosophy (in the case of Maritain) or Gregorian chant in music (as was Tournemire's striking accomplishment)—each of Schloesser's subjects "formulat[ed] traditional Catholic ideas in modernist guise" ...

Schloesser's ... willingness to think about how sexual modernity (epitomized in the 1920's by homosexuality) often coincided with a deep respect for cultural order—most evident in Jean Cocteau's abiding friendship with, and respect for, Jacques and Raissa Maritain—offers us a new way to understand the modernist initiatives of inter-war Catholicism: "la main tendue,"once understood only as the outstretched hand that hoped to bring Catholics and Communists together, emerges here as another form of cultural rapprochement, equally unexpected by the standards of the pre-war era, by which Catholics and homosexuals could find common ground.

Jazz Age Catholicism contributes in two significant ways to our understanding of twentieth-century French cultural history: first, it prompts a serious reconsideration of the role played by, and the cultural attraction of, Catholicism in the aftermath of World War I; second, it contributes importantly to a scholarly re-assessment of the cultural consequences of the war itself.'

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Charles Tournemire - l'Orgue Mystique - L'Ascension.

Arts Festival for the Barking Episcopal Area

The Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival began in 2011 and involves quality events from a variety of Arts genre as a way of embracing and celebrating performing/visual arts & engaging with local communities, their people and arts culture. The Festival is organised annually but in a different part of the Episcopal Area each year and in parallel with already established community arts festivals. This fourth Festival is called the H’Art Festival & runs parallel to the Hornchurch Festival of Arts & Heritage.

H’Art Festival Programme

• Library underpass, Romford Market - 1st - 15th June, all day: Graffiti Art in the Underpass. Prepare to be amazed by the work of local graffiti artists. Inspired by Stephen Poch of Every Second Counts. 
• St Edward’s Church - 1st – 15th June: Art Exhibition. Salvation Army, Romford - 1st – 15th June: Photographic Exhibition. 
• Sennen Cottage, Upminster – Sunday 1st June, 3pm-5pm: Take some time on your Sunday to chill out with an innovative mix of recycled sculpture & music. Afternoon Tea & Cake sale. Free entry. 
• All Saints, Ardleigh Green - Sunday 1st June: Yarnbombing of All Saints Church porch. Members of the Knit & Natter group at Hornchurch Library knitting flowers to display on the outside of the main porch of the church! 
• St Peter’s Harold Wood - Sunday 1st June, 6.30pm: Summer Praise – combined service for local churches, followed by refreshments 
• Romford Central Library - 2nd – 13th June: Photographic Exhibition. 
• Deeper Lounge, 40 High Street, Romford - Mon 2nd – Fri 6th June, 10am-5pm: Photographic Exhibition. Enjoy a cup of coffee & view contemporary photography by skilled Havering photo-artists. Free entry. 
• Hornchurch, Romford & Rainham Libraries - Mon 2nd - Fri 13th June, usual Library opening hours: Art Exhibition. See painting & pottery by guest (George Hogg) & commission4mission artists including Hayley Bowen, Harvey Bradley, Jonathan Evens, Mark Lewis, Caroline Richardson, Janet Roberts, Henry Shelton, Joy Rousell Stone, Andrew Vessey and Peter Webb. 
• St Peter’s, Harold Wood - Mon 2nd – Fri 6th June, 10am-4pm & Mon 9th – Fri 14th June, 10am-4pm: Recent Building Development combines an uplifting new church centre with a homely parish church celebrating its 75th anniversary. Spot the Bible texts that adorn the church inside & out. 
• The Source Coffee Shop, Stubbers Adventure Centre, Upminster - Mon 2nd June, 7.30-9.30pm: Film Buffs Night. Love film & want to unpack more? A showing of Richard Curtis film, ‘About Time’ plus a short post-film discussion of the plot & themes. Free. Coffee shop open for refreshment sales. 
• Deeper Network Church, Romford - Thurs 5th June, 5.30pm – 8pm: Final Fantasy X (the film of the game) - Gaming at a Higher Level – What’s it all About? A Youth special - chance to watch the film of the game & talk about it with like-minded gamers of your age. Refreshments supplied. Free entry.
• Salvation Army, Romford - Fri 6th June, 5.30pm – 8pm: Final Fantasy X (the film of the game) - Gaming at a Higher Level – What’s it all About? As above. 
• St Nicholas Church, Elm Park - Sat 7th June, 10am – 3pm: Your Very Good Health. Church & centre open all day hosting & running different activities and stalls around the theme of health for all age groups. 
• All Saints, Ardleigh Green - Sat 7th June, 10am – 5pm: Flower festival celebrating the centenary of the Diocese of Chelmsford & Fayre. 
• Nelmes United Reformed Church - Sat 7th June, 10am – 4pm: Exhibition of Arts & Crafts including knitted Bible stories. Refreshments available. 
• Upminster Park - Sat 7th June, 11am-2pm: Local Art & Messy Church. View amazing works by our talented local artists & photographers & take part in the innovative new “Messy Church” for the 21st Century. 
• St Edward’s, Romford - Sat 7th June, 3pm – 5pm (in the grounds): ECHO – Motown influenced band with a great sound. Beautiful soul songs, with a little modification, become wonderful songs of worship. ECHO sing these songs to the Lord with a worshipful heart & lead others in worship. 
• All Saints, Ardleigh Green - Sun 8th June, 10am – 5pm: Flower festival celebrating the centenary of the Diocese of Chelmsford. Entry free. 
• Messy Church - Sun 8th June, 1.30-3.30pm: Messy Church in the Market (South Street end). A drop in event for all the family offering crafts, activities & story sessions to explore how we encounter God in our lives. 
• All Saints, Ardleigh Green - Sun 8th June, 6.30pm: Songs of Praise – singing the top ten hymns as suggested by those attending the Flower Festival. 
• St Andrew’s Church, Hornchurch - Sun 8th June, 6.30pm – 9.00pm: Combined Choirs of St Andrew’s, Hornchurch & St Edward the Confessor, Romford. Festal Choral Evensong at 6.30pm followed by: Recital of Sacred & Secular Part Songs at 8.00pm (including well known Folk Songs from the British Isles, Spirituals and motets by Stanford & Rutter). Evensong & recital are approx. 1 hour each. Recital admission by programme £10 including refreshments. 
• All Saints, Ardleigh Green - Mon 9th – Fri 13th June, 10am – 4pm: Church open. Display of arts & crafts by residents of Havering. Light refreshments available. Entry free. 
• United Reformed Church, Western Road, Romford - Wed 11th June, 8pm-9.30pm: Concert of brass band music by the Romford Salvation Army Band. 
• Overflow Cafe, St Luke’s Church, Cranham - Fri 13th June, 8-10pm: Final Fantasy X (the film of the game) - Gaming at a Higher Level – What’s it all About? Watch the film of the game & talk about it with like-minded gamers of your age. Ages 14-19 years. 
• Redden Court School, Harold Hill - Sat 14th June, 10am–4pm: St Peter’s Car Show – now in its third year. 
• Trinity Methodist Church - Sat 14th June, 7.30pm -9.30pm: Relaxed evening of classical music with something for everybody including Mozart, Schubert, Chopin as well as Bach's concerto for 2 violins. Donations invited. 
• All Saints, Ardleigh Green - Sat 14th June, 7pm – 9.30pm: New Dimension Choir. A local community choir will be singing “Songs from the East End” – with lots of opportunity for audience participation! St Luke’s Centre, Cranham - Sat 14th June, 1pm – 7pm: Church open with art displays available for viewing. 
• St Luke’s Centre, Cranham - Sat 14th June, 7.30-10pm: Andrew Linham Jazz Orchestra – led by extraordinary young local saxophonist who studied at top British Conservatoires & has performed internationally. Now performing regularly around London & the UK including Ronnie Scotts. A fabulous professional jazz band with local roots - tickets on the door £5. Enjoy a free glass of wine, while viewing a photography & art exhibition by local talent. 
• St Luke’s Church, Cranham - Sunday 15th June, 6.30-8.30pm: H’Art Closing Celebrations & Exhibition. Hear Helen Yousaf & band in concert with inspiring life stories as she shares songs from her new album. Closing reflections by Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford. Exhibition by local artists & photographers. Refreshments provided.

Contact Jan Stainer on hub@thegoodshepherd.co.uk or 01708745626 to check details.

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Andrew Linham Quartet - Wednesday Afternoons.

Arve Henriksen and Arcade Fire

On Places Of Worship, Arve Henriksen "inhabits the space between these two worlds, in a series of tone poems and mood pieces located around religious buildings and ruins. These still, silent quarters and abandoned houses of the holy can be where we experience our deepest moments of reflection, silence and occasionally fear. Making the aura of these places audible, Henriksen’s haunted horn and idiosyncratic treble vocals carry an air of treading on forbidden territory, stirring up the dust of forgotten spirits."

"As their Grammys-cabinet shows, Arcade Fire are the reigning monarchs of Big Music. Yet the Canadians’ fourth album achieves the seemingly impossible: making their massive music even massiver. The juggernauting anthemia that has become their signature is upscaled for ‘Reflektor’, a wider-than-widescreen, 70-minute, two-disc odyssey.

The need for a big canvas lies within the subject matter. ‘Reflektor’ is about opposites and conflicts: Celebrity vs. anonymity. Memory vs. the moment. Mortality vs. immortality. And while the themes are enough for an A-Level project, the music is a whole syllabus of styles." (The Fly)

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Arve Henriksen - Ascent.

Improvisation: The ability to create something spiritual

Here are some thoughts I dropped into a funeral address recently for a man who had been a big fan of trad jazz:

St Paul says that God’s children are those who are led through life by God’s Spirit (Romans 8). Jesus said that God’s Spirit is like the wind which “blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going” (John 3. 7 - 8).

Being led by God’s Spirit is a lot like improvising in jazz; you take the tune into yourself and you allow it to take you to places you wouldn’t otherwise go. The essence of jazz is improvisation; you take a traditional tune and do your own thing with it. Sonny Rollins once said, “Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one’s own.”

Another aspect of jazz is that however far out you go when improvising you always return home to the tune at the end. In this passage St Paul says the same thing. Wherever God’s Spirit may lead us in life, we return to God at our end knowing him as Father and sharing the glory and blessings that Jesus himself enjoys.

There is a lot more on improvisation and faith to be found in my co-authored book, The Secret Chord.

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Sonny Rollins - There Is No Greater Love.

Subsumed into the strata of time

I've enjoyed visits to the Saatchi Gallery ('Breaking the ice: Moscow Art 1960-80s' and 'Gaiety is the most outstanding feature of the Soviet Union: New art from Russia') and Tate Modern ('A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance'). The highlights for me were the work of Jānis Avotiņš and Dmitry Plavinski:

With their ghostly, alienated faces and figures reminiscent of Soviet-era photography, Jānis Avotiņš thinly painted canvases draw us into a fragile, elliptic world haunted by collective memory. Often using a minimalistic, monochromatic aesthetic reminiscent of fellow Latvian artist Vija Celmins, Avotiņš’ virtuosic imprimatura washes and technique blur and erase the specificity of his subjects, imbuing his images with an air of mystery, rather than nostalgia.

Dmitry Plavinski describes the artistic movement he developed as ‘structural symbolism’ where an integral view of the world disintegrates into a sequence of symbolic forms, subsumed into the strata of time – the past, present and future. In 1964 he produced a graphical book of grasses painted from life after which he finally moved across to figural painting, as well as texture painting, and his works increasingly included religious motifs. In the middle of the 1960’s the artist created large canvases entitled ‘Gospel of John’, ‘Novgorod Wall’ and ‘The Ancient Book’ which used plastic and ligatures of scripts from ancient Slavic texts. Plavinsky said, 'Creation by human thought and hand is sooner or later absorbed by the eternal poetry of nature ... For me, it is not the birth of a civilisation which is of greatest interest but its death and the moment its successor is born …’

I was also fortunate to visit St John the Evangelist Waterloo in time to hear part of their lunchtime concert by the X Ray Quartet while viewing artworks such as a 'Nativity' and 'Crucifixion' by Hans Feibusch, plus the 'Blue King, Crowned' sculpture. The church clearly contains more contemporary art than it was possible to see while the concert was under way and also houses the Southbank Mosaics Studio and Gallery.

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King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - Bubble.

OPEN for music

OPEN is a fresh expression of church in Gants Hill (St George’s Barkingside). Today's OPEN session featured Tom and Simon on lead guitar and bass playing rock and blues, ably supplemented on a couple of tunes by our resident jazz pianist Keith. OPEN sessions regularly feature art, conversation, games, meditations (projected), music, poetry, photography and refreshments. They are generally as interactive as we can make them, although with the fine music Tom and Simon were making this session was more of an extended and intimate jam session.

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Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love.

The future of Christian Theology

Today I have been at the Barking Episcopal Area Annual Study Day which this year was entitled ‘The Future of Christian Theology’ and led by David Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University. David is Acting Director of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, the author of several books and editor of Modern Theologians. He is currently working on a theological commentary of St John’s Gospel.

He led us in exploring themes from his most recent book, The Future of Christian Theology (including ‘In a Secular Age: a ‘dramatic code’ for 21st century living,’ ‘Collegiality and Conversation,’ ‘Interfaith Blessing,’ and ‘The Apprentice Theologian’) and in Bible Study together on the Prologue to St John's Gospel.

He gave us two past points of reference for the future of Christian theology; the Prologue of John’s Gospel and the diversity of theologies developed during the twentieth century.

He thought of the Prologue of John’s Gospel as being the most influential single text from scripture because it is a superabundant text to which he is constantly responding. It is an illustration of Ricoeur’s idea that the meaning of a text goes ahead of the text i.e. go on generating new meanings. John’s Gospel was written in order to act like that.

He particularly valued Jean Vanier’s Commentary Drawn into the mystery of Jesus for its understanding of this Gospel’s theology of the endless richness of God. It is a succession Gospel which looks to the future. In the farewell discourses Jesus says you will do greater things than these and be guided into all truth; in action and understanding there will be more and more of what you have experienced to date. The Vanier take on this is that there will be more footwashing. The writer of the Gospel is utterly confident that God has more and more for us in future. God has a future full of good surprises for us; of superabundant love.

The writer of the Gospel has been given the Holy Spirit and is being led into all truth, so is able to write daring, extraordinary theology. The Prologue is a midrash on Genesis 1 interpreting that scripture in ways not articulated before. It is a theology which begins with the interpretation of scripture but is not dull repetition, rather daring interpretation in the Spirit. The writer of this Gospel is saying that good theology interprets scripture and this is done in the Spirit and in relation to Jesus (Christology).

Logos is a term that enables him to relate Jesus to the whole of the Hebrew scriptures (Septuagint). Logos is used for the commandments, the prophetic word, and wisdom literature - so embraces the Torah, the prophets and the wisdom writings. He is immersed in scripture, inhabiting it - he frequently uses the greek word meaning to dwell or inhabit. Logos is also an inter-cultural word as it was a common word in the Hellenistic culture of the day. So there is a dialogue between the Hebrew-Christian tradition and the surrounding culture.

Logos becomes a key term in the Church for developing a Christology. In doing so it was crucial to engage with wider world because all things came into being through Him. Jesus relates to all things, so theology can not ignore any aspect of reality; all peoples, all cultures, all religions - Jesus is involved with everything.

Light shines in darkness; a great natural symbol which sets our imaginations going as we ponder, what does light mean? Theology has to stretch imagination and therefore has to be involved with the Arts. As example, Ford spoke about his relationship with the poet Michael O’Siadhail. Both are each other’s first readers and this has had a remarkable effect on Ford’s theology.

This image is also the beginning of conflict in the Gospel. John is an utter realist about conflict and dualism. It is essential to face up to darkness and evil but he always leads you beyond that. John doesn’t leave you with dualism - darkness doesn’t overcome the light - but he takes the darkness of the cross seriously. Ford was present at a Rwandan service with dancers from genocide survivor communities. As the children began to dance there was a great wave of grief expressed by those widowed through the genocide. There was both ongoing terrible grief and affirmation, through the children dancing to God, that that wasn’t the last word - the cross and resurrection were experienced together.

John the Baptist was a man sent from God as a witness. Our faith is one which is dependent of historical truth. A trust in testimony is central to the Gospel. Belief involves the whole person, everything you are. Faith is inseparable from love.

"His own did not accept him" - the Johannine community had a painful break with the parent Jewish community and the bitterness and pain of that break is apparent here. The Johannine community prizes unity and love. This Gospel is not legalistic and has no Sermon on the Mount. There is an astonishing sense of showing God to the world. Jesus is seen in the way that the community loves one another. They are an intensive community in love for the sake of going out into the world as Jesus was sent (remembering that Jesus was crucified). Being born of God is our identity.

The Word became flesh and entered into history. This is paradoxical for Hellenistic frameworks of understanding. The glory seen in Jesus is that which is seen on the cross. The only mention of grace in the Gospel comes here, in grace and truth. This raises the question, what is John doing in relation to Paul? The answer is that he is doing new theology. Abundance and fullness is set against a packaged theology. There will be more and more truth and wisdom. We have received grace upon grace from Jesus’ fullness.

No one ever seen God but the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed Him. In John 1.18 the climax of this discussion of God and all things, the deepest secret of universe, is this the intimacy of love between the Father and the Son in the Spirit. At the end of the Gospel the beloved disciple leans on the breast of Jesus. We are all beloved disciples in the bosom of Jesus. This is where we are to dwell. We are to mutually indwell Jesus Christ. Vanier has a theology of talking with Jesus, sitting in the presence of the one who loves you.

It’s really just all about Jesus. Jesus leads us into all things. It is about whose face you live before, whose face is in your heart. This forms our identity. We are part of an ongoing drama of love and are not to be distracted by some of the other big frameworks that we might get into. Peter is asked, ‘Do you love me, feed my sheep.’ It doesn’t matter whether the beloved disciple lives to the second coming, the focus is on the ongoing ordinary drama of love - follow me and wash the feet of others.

So what is the future of theology in relation to John’s Gospel. We should be equally daring in our theology. This feels risky - what checks and balances are there? - but unless you grow the tree, you don’t have anything to prune.

The twentieth century was the most fruitful, creative century for theology with theologies from around the world, new voices emerging, such as the voices of women, and the growth of theological institutions. This is utterly unique and how much there is going on is a delight.

What are the key elements of wise and creative Christian theology? There are four elements:

• retrieval - the sense that any decent theology has to re-engage with the sources of scripture and tradition;
• engagement - a simultaneity of engagement with God, Church and World. If theology is weak on any of these three, it is unlikely to be wise or creative;
• thinking - rigorous and imaginative thinking with the excitement of finding new concepts;
• communication - often neglected but intrinsic to content including the need to take the preparation and delivery of sermons more seriously.

Bonhoeffer is the theologian who sums these up best in his own work.

The book of Job gives us a healthy ecology of approaches to faith and theology. Much theology is concerned with indicatives and imperators - this is what you believe and what you do - neat packages which don’t open out to other moods and themes. Job questions, imagines, experiments to try to make theological sense of his trauma without givinhg up on his desire for God. He knows that there is more to grasp. Theology can’t be all wrapped up because God cannot be wrapped up. We have to desire God more and more, this has to be the central mood. It is not, first of all, about us - obeying, inquiring, desiring - instead we are affirmed, questioned, commended, desired by God. Job’s friends offer neat packages. We need to desire God for God’s sake. The key to the book is does Job love (fear) God for nothing - as gift, for God’s sake.

Wisdom cries out and wisdom is a discernment of cries. In a parish, you are surrounded by cries. Ben Quash argues we need to improve the quality of disagreement. We will always have disagreements but need to be committed to loving our enemies. There is something wonderful about being in a church (like the Church of England) which tries to engage with disagreement publicly. At the first Primates meeting, the bishops wrestled with Ephesians - dividing wall comes down through death of Christ - and ended by saying that to turn away from a brother or sister in Christ is to turn away from the cross.

Scriptural reasoning suggests that there are no short cuts to long-term inter-faith engagements where faith is on the table. Much inter-faith engagement has been by those on the fringes of their faith and has been seen as a liberal thing to do. A focus on scriptures is more likely to engage those in the mainstream of each faith. Through scriptural reasoning, you go deeper into your own scriptures, into other scriptures, into the common good, and the community doing the scriptural reasoning - not looking for consensus but friendship. When you realise how deeply diverse all religions are, all generalisations dissolve.

Theology is done for the sake of the name. We do things for God’s sake. Unless that is there, you lose the joy. Like O’Saidhail writing poems about jazz and saying, the only end of jazz is jazz.

What we inhabit/dwell in is spirituality. The mystery of God is what comes as and when everyone testifies to God. "No one comes to the Father but by me," John reports Jesus as saying but John has already told in the Prologue that all things relate to Jesus. Karl Barth wrote that Christians are those who, in the light of Jesus Christ, are those who are permitted to hope the best for all people.

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Jonathan Butler - Falling In Love With Jesus.

Farewell to our curate

This afternoon we said goodbye to Geoff Eze, who has been our curate at St John's Seven Kings since 2008. This is what I said in thanking him for all he has contributed here during that time:

Because of your wise-cracking and extrovert personality, we have enjoyed and been challenged by some of your sermons that have stayed firmly lodged in our memories like your Christmas Day sermon where you gave us a humourous quiz about yourself (surprise, surprise!) that had us all thinking this is Geoff bigging himself up again. Only to then remove your robes in order to symbolise all that Christ gave up through the incarnation. I remember the whole mood and dynamic of the sermon and the service changing at that point with the meaning behind the action being crystal clear and lodging in memory just as much as the action itself.

We’ve had sermons using jazz, liturgies which rhyme, video interviews, as well as many sermons that have weaved a contemporary story (often personal and self-deprecating) together with the passage on which you have been preaching in such a way as to sustain interest in both the story and the passage. These are approaches to preaching that are not just for effect; they have helped us get at the heart of bible passages in a way that helps them stay in our memory and therefore continue to influence us.

You’ve done some great work with our children and young people over the time that you have been here; organising and fronting Holiday Clubs and building up the youth group with a varied programme which has interested our young people and drawn in young people from outside the church too. You’ve also developed youth leaders and helped in handing over the running of the Youth Group so that we can be confident it will continue. But you haven’t simply focused on young people, important as they are, those elderly and housebound folk that you have regularly visited have been very grateful for your conversation and for bringing them communion at home.

You have played an active role in the development of Street Pastors within the Deanery and took up the opportunity to provide a Christian witness in the community by becoming a Police Chaplain to the Newbury Safer Neighbourhoods Team. You’ve supported the deanery by being the clerk to the Clergy Chapter and by being the arranger for the early cluster meetings. You’ve been a key part of building the closer relationship we now have with St Paul’s Goodmayes and have organised and led the Palm Sunday procession and Praise in the Park. You’ve also done some excellent work with local schools, initially with the Christian Education Project, and then more recently through the Easter Activity Stations and by forging new links with the new Aldborough E-Act Free School and Seven Kings High School.

So, there has been lots that you have done and much that we will remember with real gratitude. But, of course, we will also remember with real affection the person that you are; your optimism and positivity; your liveliness and energy; your humour and piano playing; and perhaps, most of all, the challenge of your ministry here – the challenge to us to expand our vision of what God can achieve through us combined with the encouragement to become all that God intends us to be.

Although we will miss you, we also know that you do need to move on for the next phase of your ministry, so we want to pray for your as you move to Stoke and as you begin your new ministry in the parish of Stoke Minister. Let us pray:

Lord God, we thank you for Geoff and for all that he has brought to St Johns during his time here. We thank you for bringing him to us and for all that we could share together during his curacy. We thank you for his new role in Stoke Minister and pray that you will help him adjust to his home, parish and city with all of the changes that will be involved. We pray that Stoke Minister will be a parish where he can use all of the gifts you have given to him and where he can utilise all that he has learnt through his training and curacy. We pray that he will continue to learn from you through the new experiences he has and the people he will meet and among whom he will minister in Stoke Minister. May your Spirit fill him for these new challenges and opportunities and may your hand of blessing rest upon to sustain and strengthen him for this new ministry in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Black Gospel Jazz - There Is None Like You.