Exhibitions and events update

An exhibition themed on the “Sermons and Holy Sonnets of John Donne” is being held at St Giles, Cripplegate and St James, Piccadilly in Central London until 20th July 2014. Christian Arts has worked with Art and Christianity Enquiry on the exhibition organisation and the ACE International Conference will be held during the exhibition period.

The Sacred City - Public lectures from the ACE/ASK conference: The Revd Dr Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Turning All into Alleluia: Arts and the Renewal of St Martin-in-the-Fields on Tuesday 8 July, 6.30pm at St Giles Cripplegate, Fore Street, London EC2Y 8DA. Professor Alison Milbank, Associate Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of Nottingham, Visualising London through the Eyes of Dante on Wednesday 9 July, 6.30pm at St James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL. Tickets on the door: £5, concessions and ACE members £4 (free to ACE conference delegates). The lectures are kindly suported by the Community of St Andrew and the Gibbs Family Charitable Trust. Also, as part of the conference, two artworks by Anna Sikorska and Benedict Romain will be exhibited at St Giles-in-the-Fields, 7–11 July.

CANA Christian Arts Seminar at New Jerusalem Church, Phnom Penh, August 12 - 13, 8.00 am - 5.00 pm. Two days of teaching, sharing and worship, exploring ways to use creative gifts to serve God. CANA stands for Christian Artists Networking Association. Their vision is to see artists and creative people redeemed and rooted in the love of God, so that their creativity reflects Truth in beautiful ways. CANA has helped organize Christian arts conferences in Bali, Thailand, and different parts of Europe. They are making plans for a similar conference to be held in Cambodia in the summer of 2015.

As a precursor to that, they are inviting people to attend a two-day seminar on August 12-13, 2014, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., at New Jerusalem Church, Phnom Penh, to learn more about their vision and to explore how they might be involved in the 2015 conference. At the 2014 seminar, they are partnering with CCAM, Cambodian Christian Arts Ministry, to present some teaching and examples about how to integrate faith with creativity. This teaching will focus on who we are in Christ, and how we may effectively bear fruit for Him through the arts. It will draw upon Biblical foundations and perspectives, exploring insights revealed by Jesus Himself in His creation and in His Word, especially gleaned from the Gospel of John.

If you are an artist searching for your God-ordained niche in the Kingdom of God, or a creative person wondering how your gifts can make a difference for Christ in the world, or a missionary or church leader desiring new ideas for creative ministry, then this seminar is for you! For additional information, or to pre-register, contact Steve Scott at info.cana.arts@gmail.com . There is no registration fee, but donations to help cover expenses are welcome. Participants are requested to bring their own picnic lunch.

Adam Boulter, who is priest at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Aqaba, Jordan, will be holding an exhibition of paintings and pastels from Jordan entitled: out of the wilderness at Piers Feetham Gallery (475 Fulham Road, London SW6 1HL) from 15th-20th September 2014. Private Views: 6.30 - 8.30 pm, Tuesday 16th  & Thursday 18th September. Gallery opening times: Monday 3 pm - 6 pm, Tuesday - Friday 10 am - 6 pm, Saturday 10 am - Midday.

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Steve Scott - The Resurrection Of The Body.

Of beauty and affirmation (3)

W. David O. Taylor has posted 9.5 Theses about beauty at Diary of an Arts Pastor. These derive from conversations with friends over a series of texts - ranging from Aquinas to Milbank while taking in a lot of Von Balthasar along the way - which have focused their attention on questions surrounding art, aesthetics and beauty.

His provisional conclusion has been that the centuries-long discussion about art and beauty, specifically about art's relationship to beauty, is a dizzying mess. His theses question the assumption that art and beauty self-evidentially go together and set out factors which are important if art's relationship to beauty is to be defined while still not giving up on beauty altogether, because the world would be much poorer without it, theologically as well as actually.

What he thinks he has learned principally is "to slow down - to read things three and four times if necessary, to look and to look again, to understand the author carefully before I make judgments (a basic requirement of charity), and to not be afraid, as hard as it is, to keep asking simple questions, however "obvious" or "silly" they may seem, and when I feel overwhelmed to not panic but to recognize that these authors deserve the respect of careful, slow, patient study."

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McIntosh Ross - All My Trust I Place In You.

Faiths together for hope not hate (3)

The Rt Reverend David Hawkins, The Bishop of Barking pictured with Hope not Hate staff, Sam Tarry, Campaign Organiser, and Caroline Alabi, Faith Communities Organiser

The Rt Reverend David Hawkins, The Bishop of Barking, Sam Tarry and Caroline Alabi, with a group of passing students, who asked to join in the photo shoot when they discovered it was to promote considered and informed voting!

The Rt Reverend David Hawkins, The Bishop of Barking, urges all registered voters to get out and vote on 6 May.

Bishop David’s Episcopal Area covers the London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest, together with Epping Forest, Ongar and Harlow in Essex. Parties of the far-right are fielding candidates in nine of the fourteen parliamentary constituencies and this part of east London and Essex is a key target of the extreme parties hoping to get a foothold in Parliament.

Bishop David says: “Racist ideologies, seeking to divide people on the grounds of ethnicity have no place in mainstream British politics and I encourage people to vote in such a way as to prevent racist political parties making any electoral gains.”

The Bishop adds: “This election is arguably the most important General Election in a generation. I urge all those who are registered and ready to vote to think carefully about where they place their cross on 6 May. The result we wake up to on 7 May will influence and shape life in our country for the next four or five years and I emphasise the need to carefully examine consider party policies before voting.”

The Contextual Theology Centre writes that:

"David Cameron and Nick Clegg have agreed to attend a 2500-person Citizens UK assembly at Methodist Central Hall on Monday 3rd May at 2.45pm (Gordon Brown is still to confirm).

The Contextual Theology Centre (CTC) is sponsoring this event, and has a limited number of tickets for church leaders who are considering joining the Citizens movement.

The candidates will be responding to an agenda determined by Citizens UK's member institutions, including: The Living Wage; A cap on interest rates; Community land trusts; Ending child detention for sanctuary seekers; and Earned citizenship for long-term migrants.

In advance of the election, CTC has launched two books on Christian teaching and community organising - more information is online at http://www.theology-centre.org/resources/books:
Crunch Time: A Call to Action is a collection of essays by John Milbank (Nottingham) and CTC Fellows Luke Bretherton (King’s College, London) and Vincent Rougeau (Notre Dame) on a Christian response to the credit crunch. This is also available as a free PDF. Faithful Citizens is a book on community organising and Catholic social teaching by organiser, journalist and CTC Fellow Austen Ivereigh.

To keep up to date with the increasing impact of citizen organising on the election campaign, you can follow CTC's Jellicoe Blog at http://jellicoecommunity.blogspot.com

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Thousand Foot Krutch - Phenomenon.

Crunch Time - A Call to Action

The Contextual Theology Centre has just launched Crunch Time: A Call to Action - a collection of essays by John Milbank, Luke Bretherton, Maurice Glasman and Vincent Rougeau. The essays are available as a free pdf, or copies can be ordered for £6.99.

It outlines a community organising agenda to which all the major parties have been responding - with significant commitments on economic policy and on the renewal of civil society. You will see from their recent blog posts that the Centre's partner churches, officers and interns have been playing a key role in this process. They hope that these successes will increase Christian engagement in the work of London Citizens, the capital's community organising alliance.

Also on the their blog you will find coverage of the 75th anniversary of Fr Basil Jellicoe's death. The Jellicoe Community will be involved in a service of thanksgiving in July at which the Bishop of London will preach - and last Friday's Church Times contained anniversary essays by Prof Diarmaid MacCulloch and Simon Cuff (one of the first Jellicoe interns).

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Luxury - The Luxury Theme.