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Monday, 8 May 2023

Artlyst: The Art Diary May 2023

My May diary for Artlyst includes mention of Joe Tilson, Alastair Gordon, Dennis Creffield, Jim Ede, Michael Petry, Marcus Lyon, Anne Redpath, Passion Arts, Jake Lever, Evelyn de Morgan, Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian, Ervin Bossányi and Manoucher Yektai:

'Ervin Bossányi: Stained Glass Artist will explore the art of the Hungarian artist in the collections of St Peter’s College Oxford and the stained glass of the College Chapel. Bossányi left Germany for Britain before the Second World War, aware that his family and work would be under threat had he stayed. He joined the large number of émigré artists arriving in Britain, many of whom were Jewish, many of whom explored spirituality within their work, and many of whom would, like Bossányi, receive church commissions in the post-War period. Among his peers in some of these respects were the muralist Hans Feibusch, mosaicist Georg Mayer-Marten, sculptor Ernst Müller-Blensdorf, ceramicist Adam Kossowski, and painter Marian Bohusz-Szyszko. In his life and art, Bossányi fused influences from Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sufism to create a vision of harmonious, unified human societies that were at one with the natural world. This is a profound and profoundly moving vision of life based both on his experience of peasant life in Hungary and the influence of the art of non-European civilisations. It was a vision forged in a time of great conflict and division, which had a significant personal impact on Bossányi.'

For more on Ervin Bossányi click here, Joe Tilson click here, Alastair Gordon click here, Marcus Lyon click here, and Passion Arts click here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Monthly diary articles -

Articles/Reviews -

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U2 - Bad.

Sunday, 12 June 2022

The dance of love

Here's the sermon I preached at St Mary's Runwell this morning at our joint service for Trinity Sunday:

I wonder whether those of you who are Strictly Come Dancing fans have a particular stand-out moment from the 19 series since 2004. Looking online the Top 10 Strictly moments are either those which provided comedy value - such as Ed Balls doing “Gangnam Style” or Ann Widdecombe being dragged across the floor – or those in which celebrity and dancer best combine – such as Jill Halfpenny’s Jive with her partner Dan in the final of Series 2, which was the first dance to that point to score a perfect 10.

Explaining the idea of the Trinity - three persons, one God - has always been a challenge to priests and preachers. The shamrock is one favourite illustration - three leaves, one stem - as is water - two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen forming one entity which can be a liquid, a solid and a gas.

My favourite image, though, is not of the form of the Trinity but of its dynamism and dynamic. That image is of a dance as the Greek word for the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit - perichoresis - means ‘to dance around one another in relationship’ ('peri meaning around, and choreio to dance' - Touching the Sacred, Chris Thorpe and Jake Lever, Canterbury Press). As those who have danced with others regularly or those who have watched Strictly will know, dance partners interact “within a rhythm which remains the same but in a continuous variety of movements.” At its best, you have people totally in tune with one another for the period of that dance.

This is what the united relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is thought to be in the Christian faith and it means that at the very heart of God is a dynamic relationship in which a constant exchange of love is underway. That exchange has been called it the dance of love.

At several points in John’s Gospel, we hear Jesus speaking about his relationship with God the Father and with God the Holy Spirit. When he speaks in this way it is as though Jesus is pulling back the veil which prevents us from seeing God and giving us, thereby, a glimpse of God as Trinity. He says in John 16: 5-15 that God the Spirit takes what belongs to God the Son and declares it to us. All that belongs to God the Son, he says, also belongs to God the Father. So, all that Jesus has belongs equally to the Spirit and the Father. Therefore, we have a picture of God the Father giving to God the Son who gives to God the Holy Spirit who gives to us. What is being pictured is an exchange of love.

Stephen Verney explored this idea in several of his books (e.g. The Dance of Love, Stephen Verney, Fount): “The Son can do nothing of himself”, he wrote, “but only what he sees the Father doing” (5. 19). That is one side of the equation (of this so-called equality) – the emptiness of the Son. He looks, and what he sees his Father doing, that he does; he listens, and what he hears his Father saying, that he says. The other side of the equation – of the choreography – is the generosity of the Father. “The Father loves the Son, and reveals to him everything which he is doing” (5. 20), and furthermore, he gives him authority to do “out of himself” all that the Father does, and can never cease to do because it flows “out of himself”. In that dance of love between them, says Jesus, “I and the Father are one.” The Son cries, “Abba! Father!” and the Father cries “my beloved Son”, and the love which leaps between them is Holy Spirit – the Spirit of God, God himself, for God is Spirit and God is Love.”

This is the relationship of love at the heart of the Godhead where love is constantly being shared and exchanged between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is out of this relationship of love that Jesus comes into our world to open up a way for us to participate in the relationship of love that is constantly being shared between Father, Son and Spirit.

That is the incredible truth that Jesus’ words reveal to us. The Spirit takes what belongs to Father, Son and Spirit and gives it to us. We are invited in to the relationship of love which exists in the Godhead. Verney says that the eternal dance of the Trinity in heaven is reflected in the creation and we are invited to join in. Our relationship with God means that we are always being invited to be drawn further into this constant, eternal exchange or dance of love. Jesus describes this when he says that he is in the Father and the Father in him. He then extends that same relationship to others too - I am in you and you are in me. To really know love, Christianity suggests, we must be drawn into the dance of love which Father, Son and Holy Spirit share and which is at the very heart of God.

We are familiar with the idea that God’s love for us is shown in Jesus’ sacrifice of himself for us by becoming human and then dying for us on the cross. We are less familiar with the idea that we can be part of the constant exchange of love in God of which we have been speaking and which Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice enables us to experience. If we live in God, we live in love and love lives in us. We become included in the constant exchange of love which exists in the Godhead and are, therefore, constantly loved no matter what else is going on in our lives. The dance of love is the glory in God’s heart, the pattern by which we are loved and the pattern by which we are called to live.

God intends to embrace all creation within the fellowship of the Three. God’s mission is to form communities that reflect and embody the life of the Trinity by living in love and having love live in us.

“What the world needs more than anything else is communities of trust and support and love that show what kind of life is possible when we believe that God is sovereign, when we place our trust and security there. We need people and communities that believe in the power of God, that believe in the role of the church, and that are content to live through no other power than the means of grace God has given us.” (Sam Wells)

So, within the Holy Trinity, we strive, as David Runcorn has described, to be a dancing community of divine poverty. Each eternally, joyfully, dispossessing ourselves; emptying, pouring ourselves out to the favour and glory of the other. Nothing claimed, demanded or grasped; living and knowing each other in the simple ecstasy of giving, which is the unity and community of the Triune God (D. Runcorn, Choice, Desire and the Will of God, SPCK).

Let us pray: Triune God, in the dance of your love we see your nature as utter relationship. Your three persons gaze in mutual attention, relish each other in deep delight and work together in true partnership. Make your church a community across time and space that enjoys the gift of your life and imitates the wonder of your glory, until we all come into your presence and gaze upon your glory, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Amen.

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Maddy Prior - Lord Of The Dance.

Monday, 10 May 2021

Artlyst - British Museum Spotlight Loan Crossings: Community And Refuge

My latest article for Artlyst highlights the British Museum Spotlight Loan Crossings: Community And Refuge tour. This begins at Coventry Cathedral, where it will be shown briefly alongside Jake Lever's 'Do the Little Things' installation:

"Curator Jill Cook says, “The Lampedusa Cross reminds us of all the histories that are lost and of the thousands of people who are not otherwise remembered ...

Neil MacGregor described how, “Kourbaj’s little convoy of matchstick figures stand for all migrants, anywhere, driven by fear, guided by hope.” ...

“In the face of increasing isolation and uncertainty,” [Lever] says, “I wanted to convey a sense of journeying with them and cherishing them from afar.” That impulse is one that would seem to be shared by all the makers contributing to this tour. Would that we all felt the same."

Jake Lever was recently interviewed as part of HeartEdge's 'Living God's Future Now' programme - https://www.facebook.com/506026059544325/videos/1076762322816164.

My recent piece for Artlyst on 'Keith Haring: Personal Spiritual Imagery' has been republished by ArtWay and can be read here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Articles -

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The Alpha Band - Rich Man.

Tuesday, 6 April 2021

Visual Arts and HeartEdge (2)

HeartEdge is programming some excellent sessions on the visual arts over the next few weeks:

Art and the Liturgical Year: Bringing the Church Kalendar to Life
Monday, April 26th, 3:00pm EDT

Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/149461829355.

The visual arts have the power to change our perceptions and even transport us to unfamiliar places. Think about how you feel when you sit quietly and contemplate a stained-glass window or wander the halls of an art museum. Art offers us opportunities to transform our vision and perspective and to step into someone else’s shoes and community.

Imagine the way art influences our thinking about our faith - a painting in an English cathedral will likely bring a much different perspective of Jesus than one portrayed in a Coptic icon. In viewing each, we expand our vision of what our faith means and how different cultures express fundamental truths. Art is a means to stir our imagination and bring fresh meaning to our faith.

During this workshop, our panel will discuss engaging artists with parishes and congregations to explore art in the context of the Church calendar. We’ll also look at how our liturgical year can be a source of inspiration for artists and explore how artists can use their talents to open up our understandings of the faith in new ways.

Attendees will leave with tangible approaches to using visual arts in conjunction with scripture and our Church calendar to bring concepts from the liturgical year to life for congregations. Learn how exhibitions and installations can amplify the message of seasons like Advent or Lent and hear how this work benefits both artists and congregations. This workshop is presented by the CEEP Network in partnership with the HeartEdge Network and CARAVAN.

Panelists include:

Janet Broderick - Rector, All Saints Beverly Hills; Beverly Hills, California
Paul-Gordon Chandler - Bishop, Diocese of Wyoming; Jackson Hole, Wyoming (moderator)
Catriona Laing - Chaplain, St. Martha & St. Mary’s Anglican Church Leuven; Associate Chaplain, Holy Trinity Brussels; Brussels, Belgium
Ben Quash - Professor, Christianity and the Arts & Director, Center for Arts and the Sacred, King’s College London; Director, Visual Commentary on Scripture Project; London, United Kingdom
Aaron Rosen - Professor, Religion and Visual Culture; Director, Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion, Wesley Theological Seminary; Co-founder, Stations of the Cross Public Art Project; Washington, D.C.

Introducing the Visual Commentary on Scripture

Thu, 29 April 2021, 14:00 – 15:30 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/introducing-the-visual-commentary-on-scripture-tickets-148377347641.

The Visual Commentary on Scripture, TheVCS.org, is the first online project to introduce visitors to the entirety of Christian Scripture in the company of art and artists.

Celebrated with a launch event in November 2018 at Tate Modern, TheVCS.org seeks to connect the worlds of art and religion as a ground-breaking resource for scholars, educators, churches and interested readers looking for insightful, original explorations of art and the Bible.

In this talk, Canon Ben Quash, the project’s director, will share some of the challenges and discoveries he has encountered so far in this ambitious undertaking.

Ben Quash came to King’s College London as its first Professor of Christianity and the Arts in 2007. Prior to that, he was a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College and then of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. He is fascinated by how the arts can renew people’s engagement with the Bible and Christian tradition, and is directing a major 7-year project to create an online Visual Commentary on Scripture. He runs an MA in Christianity and the Arts in association with the National Gallery, London, and broadcasts frequently on BBC radio. He is a Trustee of Art and Christianity Enquiry, and Canon Theologian of both Coventry and Bradford Cathedrals.

His publications include Abiding: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2013 (Bloomsbury, 2012) and Found Theology: History, Imagination and the Holy Spirit (T&T Clark, 2014), and he has written catalogue essays for exhibitions at Ben Uri Gallery, London, the Inigo Rooms in Somerset House, and the Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015.

Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story

‘Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story’ helps people explore the Christian faith, using paintings and Biblical story as the starting points. The course uses fine art paintings in the National Gallery’s collection as a springboard for exploring questions of faith.

Register for a Zoom invitation at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inspired-to-follow-art-and-the-bible-story-tickets-148401610211.

Sunday 2 May, Session 16: The Resurrection. Text: Luke 24:25-35. Image: ‘The Supper at Emmaus’, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1601, NG172.
Sunday 9 May, Session 17: The Ascension. Text: Acts 1:1-12. Image: ‘The Incredulity of Saint Thomas’, Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, about.1502-4, NG816.
Sunday 16 May, Session 18: Pentecost. Text: Acts 2:1-39 (extracts). Image: ‘Pentecost’, Giotto and Workshop, about.1310-18, NG5360.
Sunday 23 May, Session 19: Death of Stephen. Text: Acts 6:8 – 7:60 (extracts). Image: ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Stephen’, Possibly by Antonio Carracci, about1610, NG77.
Sunday 30 May, Session 20: Saint Peter. Text: Acts 10:30-48. Image: ‘Christ appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way (Domine, Quo Vadis?)’, Annibale Carracci, 1601-2, NG9.
Sunday 6 June, Session 21: Saint Paul. Text: Acts 9:1-19. Image: ‘The Conversion of Saint Paul’, Karel Dujardin, 1662, NG6296.
Sunday 13 June, Session 22: The New Jerusalem. Text: Revelation 21:1-5, 9-11, 22-27, & 22:1-5. Image: ‘Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven’; central predella panel, probably by Fra Angelico, about 1423-4, NG663.1.

Navigating the Dark: A conversation between an artist and a theologian

Thu, 6 May 2021, 19:00 – 20:00 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/navigating-the-dark-tickets-148323582829.

Join us as artist Jake Lever is interviewed by Dr Paula Gooder, Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Jake Lever is an artist who is interested in the power of visual art to draw us into an encounter with the sacred. He seeks to make work that invites a slowing down, a return to the liminal and the "real". During the pandemic, he has developed a new participatory project, making hundreds of tiny, gilded boats that people have sent by post as tokens of love, gratitude and solidarity to family and friends around the world. Website: www.leverarts.org.

Dr Paula Gooder is a writer and lecturer in Biblical Studies. Her research areas focus on the writings of Paul the Apostle, with a particular focus on 2 Corinthians and on Paul’s understanding of the Body. Her passion is to ignite people’s enthusiasm for reading the Bible today, by presenting the best of biblical scholarship in an accessible and interesting way. She is currently the Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Website: www.gooder.me.uk.

Art, Scripture and Contemporary Issues

In a short series, curators for the Visual Commentary on Scripture will speak about their experience of curating for VCS in order to assist in understanding more deeply the value and potential uses to which the VCS exhibitions can be put by churches.

The sessions will demonstrate a central premise of the VCS’s approach i.e. that the ‘world(s)’ of experience and action that the Scriptures describe can speak meaningfully to the ‘world(s)’ that present-day interpreters of the Scriptures continue to inhabit; and that the ‘world(s)’ to which art has responded in every epoch can speak meaningfully to both.

Session 1: Tue, 11 May 2021, 14:00 – 15:00 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-scripture-and-contemporary-issues-tickets-149131206453?aff=erelpanelorg. In this session Deborah Lewer will speak about her experience of curating an exhibition on Proverbs 11 exploring why she made the choices and decisions she did in relation to both text and images. Proverbs 11 is part of the oldest collection of proverbs in the book. It opens with a statement about the righteousness of true and accurate measures: Yahweh abhors a ‘false balance’ and delights in ‘an accurate weight’. Balance, uprightness, constancy, steadfastness, and diligence are characteristic of the ordered worldview of the proverbs. When their equilibrium is upset—by wickedness, crookedness, cruelty, avarice, folly, and violence—the ensuing consequences are both just and inevitable. Debbie is Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Glasgow. In addition to her specialism in 20th-century German art, she is interested in relationships between visual art, faith and theology. She works extensively as a retreat leader and with churches, clergy and ordinands to open up the potential of a wide spectrum of visual art in worship, theological reflection and in pastoral contexts.

Session 2: Thu, May 13, 2021, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM BST. Register for a Zoom invite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-scripture-contemporary-issues-tickets-149683719033. In this session Caleb Froehlich will speak about his experience of curating the Cities of Refuge exhibition exploring why he made the choices and decisions he did in relation to both text and images. Numbers 35, Joshua 20, and Deuteronomy 4:41–43 record the appointment of six Levitical cities as ‘cities of refuge’ to ensure that if there was an accidental killing, the accused killer could flee to one of these cities and be protected from the menace of the ‘avenger of blood’. This session will consider the provisions of the biblical cities of refuge from the perspective of sanctuary-seekers. Caleb Froehlich is a researcher for the St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology and an editor for De Gruyter’s Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception. He holds a PhD in Religion, Art, and Culture from the University of St Andrews and has two principal areas of research: the intersection between religion and popular culture (with a focus on twentieth and twenty-first century religious history) and culturally engaged theology (with a focus on art and media as spiritual, religious, and/or theological in potentia).

Session 3: Tue, 25 May 2021, 14:00 – 15:00 BSThttps://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/art-scripture-contemporary-issues-tickets-148748287131?aff=erelpanelorg. In this session Susanna Snyder will speak about her experience of curating the Ruth 3-4 exhibition exploring why she made the choices and decisions she did in relation to both text and images. The brevity of the book of Ruth belies its significance. It offers an answer to some of the most important questions the people of Israel grapple with throughout the Old Testament. How are we to respond to refugees? How should we understand and inhabit boundaries? Susanna Snyder is Lecturer in Ethics and Theology at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, and an Associate of the Centre for Theology and Modern European Thought, University of Oxford.

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T Bone Burnett - Image.

Monday, 29 March 2021

Visual Arts and HeartEdge

HeartEdge is programming some excellent sessions on the visual arts over the next few weeks:

Stations of the Cross

Thu, 1 April 2021, 16:00 – 17:30 BST. Register for a Zoom invite at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/stations-of-the-cross-tickets-147886712137.

Monuments to the Future, Global, 2021, is an exhibition that uses art and reflection to explore the way in which, for people of all faiths and none, the Stations of the Cross speak into issues of injustice.

The exhibition takes viewers on a virtual journey around the world. Each station responds to a monument or memorial, reflecting a tumultuous year in which fresh memorials sprung up to grieve the dead and historic monuments to prejudice were toppled and dismantled.

In this workshop Revd Dr Catriona Laing, Dr Aaron Rosen and guest artists featured in the exhibition will reflect on the relevance of the Stations of the Cross, the way in which they speak into issues of injustice and the virtues of the physical experience of the first four years versus this year’s online experience.

Revd Dr Catriona Laing’s call to the priesthood was influenced by her desire to join those building the Kingdom of God with the poor and marginalized. Her academic interests, which stem from a childhood spent in the Middle East, are in the area of Muslim Christian relations and specifically the role of prayer in deepening inter-faith relations. Before coming to Brussels, she worked in parishes in London and Washington D.C.. In addition to serving St Martha & St Mary’s Anglican Church Leuven, Catriona is Associate Chaplain at Holy Trinity with a particular remit to encourage the chaplaincy’s social justice ministry.

Dr. Aaron Rosen is Professor of Religion & Visual Culture and Director of the Henry Luce III Center for the Arts & Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary. As director of the Luce Center, he overseas research, teaching, and outreach, as well as exhibitions at the seminary's Dadian Gallery. He is also Visiting Professor at King’s College London, where he was previously Senior Lecturer in Sacred Traditions & the Arts and Deputy Director of the Center for the Arts and the Sacred.

Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story

‘Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story’ helps people explore the Christian faith, using paintings and Biblical story as the starting points. The course uses fine art paintings in the National Gallery’s collection as a springboard for exploring questions of faith.

Register for a Zoom invitation at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/inspired-to-follow-art-and-the-bible-story-tickets-148401610211.

Sunday 2 May, Session 16: The Resurrection. Text: Luke 24:25-35. Image: ‘The Supper at Emmaus’, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1601, NG172.

Sunday 9 May, Session 17: The Ascension. Text: Acts 1:1-12. Image: ‘The Incredulity of Saint Thomas’, Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, about.1502-4, NG816.

Sunday 16 May, Session 18: Pentecost. Text: Acts 2:1-39 (extracts). Image: ‘Pentecost’, Giotto and Workshop, about.1310-18, NG5360.

Sunday 23 May, Session 19: Death of Stephen. Text: Acts 6:8 – 7:60 (extracts). Image: ‘The Martyrdom of Saint Stephen’, Possibly by Antonio Carracci, about1610, NG77.

Sunday 30 May, Session 20: Saint Peter. Text: Acts 10:30-48. Image: ‘Christ appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way (Domine, Quo Vadis?)’, Annibale Carracci, 1601-2, NG9.

Sunday 6 June, Session 21: Saint Paul. Text: Acts 9:1-19. Image: ‘The Conversion of Saint Paul’, Karel Dujardin, 1662, NG6296.

Sunday 13 June, Session 22: The New Jerusalem. Text: Revelation 21:1-5, 9-11, 22-27, & 22:1-5. Image: ‘Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven’; central predella panel, probably by Fra Angelico, about 1423-4, NG663.1.

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The Band - When I Paint My Masterpiece.

Wednesday, 30 December 2020

Jake Lever - Do The Little Things

Jake Lever is a Birmingham-based artist who had an exhibition of Soul Boats at Birmingham Cathedral - - for which he won an award for art in a religious context . I wrote a piece about the awards for Artlyst. and have made use of Touching the Sacred: Creative Prayer Outlines for Worship and Reflection by Chris Thorpe and Jake Lever.

Jake Lever's 'Do the Little Things', a pandemic project is described here:

‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things.’ St David 589 AD

Through the pandemic, I have wanted to connect with people I care about, but have often found myself lost for words, unsure what to say. Instead, I turned to making tiny golden boats, sending them to people as a kind of silent, wordless communication, heart to heart.

Some boats have symbolised my sadness at not being able to be physically present with people when they are facing challenges like illness and isolation. Some boats have expressed my wish to reach out ‘from a distance’ to people celebrating births, weddings and other joyful events. Other boats have been posted simply as a way of treasuring my friendships.

These small gestures - ‘little things’ - have started to form a web stretching far and wide, a visual expression of our universal human need for belonging and connection.

An invitation to join in: If you wish to be able to connect with those you care about by sending them a boat, I would be very happy to collaborate with you. By sending someone a handmade gilded boat (for whatever reason), you will be participating in 'Do the Little Things', a slowly evolving communal artwork. In time, these journeys will be anonymously charted as lines on an illuminated map of the world, a record of precious human relating.

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The Innocence Mission - This Boat.

Wednesday, 13 November 2019

A+C and Chaiya Art Awards

Great to be at the Bishopsgate Institute this evening for the Art and Christianity Awards. These awards celebrate the successes and diversity of artistic projects in religious buildings throughout Britain. There is also have an award for a book which explores the dialogue between the visual arts and religion.

I was there as Michael Takeo Magruder's 2016 installation at St Stephen Walbrook, Lamentation for the Forsaken, was among the shortlisted works. This piece is a new media installation that juxtaposes Christ’s suffering and journey to the cross with the anguish and plight of refugees fleeing the Syrian Civil War. See the installation of the piece at St Stephen Walbrook here and read my interview with Michael Takeo Magruder here.

Congratulations to the winners of the Awards:

The A+C Award for art in a religious context - permanent category:Stephen Owen, Prayer Chapel Communion Table and Lectern for Guildford Baptist Church, 2016; and temporary category: Jake Lever, Soul Boats at Birmingham Cathedral, 2015-16; and
The A+C Book Award - Ittai Weinryb, Agents of Faith (Yale University Press, 2018)

I am privileged, too, to have been invited to join the Judges for the Chaiya Art Awards. The biennial Chaiya Art Awards has its roots in Christianity but this competition is open to people of all faiths, to those who have no belief in God, and to everyone in between. It’s about continuing an age old conversation in a modern setting with contemporary eyes. It’s about asking big questions and looking for inspiration from the wealth of the UK’s creatives. Artists entering have been encouraged to mine the depths of their imagination and creatively fly as they respond to the theme 'God is ...'

Read my interview with Katrina Moss, founder of Chaiya Art Awards, here and read my visual meditation of the winning piece from the inaugural Awards here.

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Thomas Tallis - Lamentations Of Jeremiah.

Sunday, 8 May 2016

The Dance of Love: Living the prayer of Jesus

Here is the sermon that I preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields today:

If you knew you had roughly eighteen hours to live and could use that time to talk and pray with your nearest and dearest, I wonder what you would say and do? It is likely that whatever you did and said in that time it would all be to do with what was of central importance to your life and thought.

That was the situation in which Jesus found himself in the hours before his crucifixion and we know that he used that time to share acted parables and key messages with his disciples, as well as to pray. His prayer at that time, a part of which forms today’s Gospel reading (John 17. 20 - 26), was for the unity of his current and future disciples – that they might be one. So, why was unity of such central importance to Jesus’ thinking and praying at that most significant moment in his life - the time of his death? If we can answer that question, we can reach into the very heart of Jesus’ being and thinking.

When Jesus prayed that his followers might all be one, he prayed this on the basis that his followers might be in God as he is in the Father and the Father is in him. He was praying that we, who follow in his footsteps, would experience the same oneness with God and each other that he enjoys with God, his Father. In essence, his prayer is that we will experience unity, because unity is what is at the very heart of God.

The Greek Fathers called the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit perichoresis, which “means ‘to dance around one another in relationship’, … peri meaning around, and choreio to dance” (Touching the Sacred, Chris Thorpe and Jake Lever, Canterbury Press). Stephen Verney, a former Bishop of Repton, explored this idea in several of his books (e.g. The Dance of Love, Fount) writing about “the dance of love of the Trinity in which they give place to each other.” “This is the glory revealed in Jesus, as the Father and the Son give authority to each other in mutual interdependence, and as the creator and the creation interpenetrate each other.” Similarly, David Runcorn has described “the Holy Trinity as a dancing community of divine poverty. Each eternally, joyfully, dispossessing themselves; emptying, pouring themselves out to the favour and glory of the other. Nothing claimed, demanded or grasped. They live and know each other in the simple ecstasy of giving” (Choice, Desire and the Will of God, SPCK). At the heart of the Godhead is a relationship of love where love is constantly being shared and exchanged between Father, Son and Holy Spirit and this exchange or dance of love holds them together in unity.

Verney goes on to say that the eternal dance of the Trinity in heaven is reflected in creation and we are invited to join in because it was out of that relationship of love at the heart of the Godhead that Jesus came into our world to open up a way for us to participate in the eternal dance of love constantly shared between Father, Son and Spirit. We are familiar with the idea that God’s love for us is shown in Jesus’ sacrifice of himself for us by becoming human and then dying for us on the cross. We are, perhaps, less familiar with the idea that we can be part of the constant exchange of love in God of which we have been speaking and which Jesus’ once-for-all sacrifice of himself enables us to experience. If we live in God, we live in love and love lives in us. We become included in the constant exchange of love which exists in the Godhead and are, therefore, constantly loved no matter what else is going on in our lives.

In the words of Paul Simon, we could respond to this by saying ‘So beautiful or so what’. It’s all very well picturing a beautiful dance at the heart of the Trinity but what difference does that make to us or anyone else?

Firstly, it says to us that we are 100% loved by God, surrounded by and filled by love, and that the more we experience of God, the more we can come to know love for ourselves. I wonder, do we allow the reality that we are accepted and loved by God to seep into the depths of our being where it can and will address our insecurities and anxieties? Do we know this for ourselves? Do we accept it for ourselves? Because ultimately our deepest need is to know with absolute confidence that we are loved and that is what is assured for us through the sacrifice of Jesus and the dance of love which is the Trinity.

Second, we see that love involves the continual giving and receiving of affirmation and authority. The dance of love is not a solo with the spotlight firmly fixed on an individual who garners all the glory for his or herself. It’s not even a picture of the kind of intuitive interaction which we see in ballroom dancing and which has been popularised on TV by ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. We are talking here of reciprocal love or giving which cannot be manipulated by ego, because the gift always moves beyond the reach of the one who first gives it. That is one of the reasons why it is so important that God is Trinity, three persons who are also one.

Lewis Hyde notes in his book called ‘The Gift’ that when giving is reciprocal: "The gift moves in a circle, and two people do not make much of a circle. Two points establish a line, but a circle lies in a plane and needs at least three points.” It is only “When the gift moves in a circle [that] its motion is beyond the control of the personal ego, and so each bearer must be a part of the group and each donation is an act of social faith.” That is what we see in the Trinity and what we are called to replicate in our own relationships. “The Dance of Love,” Verney writes, “is the glory in God’s heart, but it is also the pattern which is reflected in everything he has created.” The more we live according to God’s pattern for life, the more we know in our lives the love and unity of the Trinity itself.

In his prayer Jesus makes a contrast between giving which can be controlled by personal ego or one pair of gift partners and giving which is genuinely reciprocal. He states that the world does not know his Righteous Father and, earlier in the prayer, that the world hates his disciples because they do not belong to the world, just as he does not belong to the world.

When Jesus uses this language of separation in John’s Gospel between his disciples and the world, Verney suggests that he is speaking about two different levels or orders to reality. What he means by this are different patterns of society, each with a different centre or ruling power. In the first, “the ruling principle is the dictator ME, my ego-centric ego, and the pattern of society is people competing with, manipulating and trying to control each other.” In the second, “the ruling principle is the Spirit of Love, and the pattern of society is one of compassion – people giving to each other what they really are, and accepting what others are, recognising their differences, and sharing their vulnerability.” Runcorn puts it like this, “the life of God is non-possessive, non-competitive, humbly attentive to the interests of the other, united in love and vision.” To be God-like, “is not to be grasping” and so “Jesus pours himself out ‘precisely because’ he is God from God.”

These two orders or patterns for society are at war with each other and we are caught up in the struggle that results. Choosing our side in this struggle is a key question for us as human beings, the question being “so urgent that our survival depends on finding the answer.” Verney writes that: “we can see in our world order the terrible consequences of our ego-centricity. We have projected it into our institutions, where it has swollen up into a positive force of evil. Human beings have set up prison camps where they torture each other for pleasure. We are all imprisoned together, in a system of competing nation states, on the edge of a catastrophe which could destroy all life on our planet.”

I was reminded of these words when reading a recent interview that Neil McGregor gave to The Observer. In this interview he made some typically insightful contributions to the current debate about the EU referendum based on research for his book ‘Germany: Memories of a Nation’. He said, for example, that: “German people see the whole purpose of a political leader is to make successful alliances. The proper use of sovereignty is all about pooling it to achieve your aims. The British idea that you should entirely do these things on your own and try to assume total control over your environment is unthinkable.”

Similarly, President Obama suggested, during his recent visit to Europe, that “the people of Europe … are more secure and more prosperous because we stood together for the ideals we share.” As a Guardian article commenting on this speech noted this message runs counter to Europe’s growing populism; “the self-glorification of national egos, the distrust towards outsiders, and the reflex of putting up walls or closing down borders.”

In the UK we are at the very heart of this discussion as the last few years have seen us engaging in considerable political debate about the benefits of collaboration versus independence. From 2010 – 2015 we had our most recent experience of coalition government and, for all the complications inherent in coalitions, many would see that period as preferable to the licence that a majority Conservative Government has had to pursue austerity cuts on those with the least influence and political power in our society. In 2014 Scots voted narrowly to remain part of the United Kingdom rather than choosing independence and this year we are asked vote on essentially the same issue but in relation to the European Union.

Jesus’ focus on unity at the time of his death and the dance of love within the Trinity which is the basis for that focus, would suggest that, as his followers, we should favour collaboration, coalition, alliances and unions over independence, in the way that Neil suggests the German people have come to do. Yet we know, too, that a focus on unity at all costs also can silence voices of dissent and conscience and that power can accrue in unhelpful or unaccountable ways the larger or all-embracing an organisation or union may be.

Here at St Martin’s we know how difficult and complex it can be to create and sustain a community that is both unified and inclusive. We also know how valuable it is to make the attempt and to grapple with the complexities. I know that I have been both impressed and impacted by the way in which St Martin’s grapples with these issues and realise that I need to make changes in my thinking and practice as a result. These issues and complexities are, of course, magnified when it comes to working them through in the context of a union of nations, as we can by being part of the EU.

Nevertheless, the dance of love at the heart of the Trinity and our participation in that dance, as God’s children, compels us, I think, to make that attempt within the communities, organisations and networks of which we are part; whether that is family, church, local community, nation or union of nations. In doing so, we come to know ourselves firstly as surrounded by and filled by the love which overflows from the Trinity, then understand that such love involves the continual giving and receiving of affirmation and authority as we seek to live in and through the dance of love in the complexities of human relationships, alliances, coalitions, collaborations and unions. Like the Holy Trinity, we strive to be a dancing community of divine poverty. Each eternally, joyfully, dispossessing themselves; emptying, pouring themselves out to the favour and glory of the other. Nothing claimed, demanded or grasped; living and knowing each other in the simple ecstasy of giving, which is the unity for which Jesus prayed.

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K.D. Lang - Jericho.