George Musgrave: Journeys of St Paul

St Paul Comes to Ilford is an exhibition and events based around 25 paintings of the life and journeys of St Paul, painted by the artist George Musgrave. They will be on display at Vine Church from Tuesday 20th February until Sunday 18th March. A special preview day will be held on Wednesday 21st February from 9 am to 3.00pm with guided tours of the paintings at 11.00 am and 1.30 pm. Stay for light lunch, refreshments and informal discussions and reflective activities from 12.-1.30. Open for anyone interested to attend. 

On 5 Tuesday evenings at 7.30 pm during Lent, starting Tuesday 20th February, there will also be a bible study series based on the life of St Paul, making use of the paintings. You are also welcome to attend any of these bible studies. It may be helpful to let the organisers know if you are coming. For more information you can contact: Petermusgrave1950@gmail.com; tel: 079986988 /02070417194. The venue will be Vine URC, Riches Road entrance, Ilford IG1 1JH There is limited car parking (available in special cases) – contact Dulcie on 0208 514 2478. 

This selection of paintings are about the life and journeys of St Paul. They show aspects of Paul’s life from his birth in Tarsus, his persecution of Christians in Jerusalem, his conversion on the road to Damascus and his subsequent life experiences as a missionary in Asia and Europe, including imprisonments , floggings, preaching, appearing before governors, baptising people, being shipwrecked and his final execution in Rome. 

The artist George Musgrave (1915 - 2012) painted these pictures over a 20 year period from the 1980’s onwards and displayed them in his museum in Eastbourne until his death. He researched the paintings thoroughly through his travels in the Mediterranean. He trained in an art school in the 1930s, became a congregational minister and missionary before becoming a toy manufacturer. Now two of his sons have decided it’s time that St Paul comes to London for a visit. You can see a preview of the paintings on this link, which also show how they were used in Eastbourne last October - https://petermusgrave.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/the-journeys-of-st-paul. 

Then the paintings will be displayed in Central London, at the Meditatio Centre, St Marks, Middleton Square, which is 15 minutes walk from Kings Cross and near Angel Islington from about 22nd March until end of April. There will be a special preview of the paintings there on Saturday 24th March in Islington. If you look at the Link to the 2018 Meditatio Programme, you will see that page 4 advertises the preview event on Saturday 24th March from 5-7 pm -  http://meditatiocentrelondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/The-Meditatio-Centre-Programme-2018.pdf.

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Pierce Pettis - St Paul's Song.

Ilford Recorder stories about St John's

Here are links to the stories in the Ilford Recorder about Bishop Stephen's missionary journey which ended at St John's Seven Kings with the first anniversary celebration of the Sophia Hub (http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/news/bishop_of_chelmsford_completes_redbridge_pilgrimage_leg_1_3792115) and then the story about our Patronal Festival weekend (http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/news/seven_kings_church_enjoys_double_weekend_celebration_1_3796136).

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Tintwistle Brass Band (Songs of Praise) - Come let us join our cheerful songs.

Bishop Stephen's 9th missionary journey

Bishop Stephen walked from Woolwich to Seven Kings via Stratford today for his ninth missionary journey within the Diocese of Chelmsford as part of the Diocese's Centenary Celebrations. Several members of St John's Seven Kings met +Stephen at the parish boundary and, as we walked with him to St John's, heard stories of his breakfast with the British Legion in Woolwich, the Greek Orthodox couple he met in Stratford who want to attend St Johns Stratford on Sunday, and the two schoolboys who asked about his crozier and ended up agreeing to pray for the Bishop as he promised to do for them.

At St John's we gathered in our community garden for a time of public prayer for the church and community. +Stephen outlined his vision for his missionary journeys as a means of making visible the work of the churches in the Diocese within their communities. +Stephen then joined our first Anniversary celebrations for the Sophia Hub which runs from the St John's Centre and which builds community by supporting social enterprises locally.

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Luke Sital-Singh - I Have Been A Fire.

Bishop Stephen's ninth missionary journey

Bishop Stephen Cottrell has been undertaking 10 missionary journeys in the Diocese of Chelmsford during the Diocese's Centenary Year. His walk on Tuesday 30th September will be the penultimate journey and will take him from Woolwich to Seven Kings via Stratford. The idea is that people can come and join him for all or part of the walk each day, and at breakfast, lunch and in the evening there is an opportunity for the local church to use him in some sort of activity.

His route in Redbridge will take him from Ilford Station  to St John's Seven Kings via Thorold and Benton Roads. A group from the parish will meet him at the Ley Street/Benton Road parish boundary at about 16.20 and will walk with him to St John's. There will be public prayer in our community garden with the Bishop at about 17.15.

There are several ways in which you could be part of +Stephen's missionary journey. First, a group will leave St John's at 16.15 to meet +Stephen on the way and walk with him to St John's. Second, you could join us for public prayer in the community garden at St John's at 17.15. Third, you would be very welcome to come to the Sophia Hub Anniversary event in the evening.

The Seven Kings & Newbury Park Sophia Hub has been open for one year and is celebrating its first anniversary with a business networking event on Tuesday 30th September from 5.45pm at St John's Seven Kings (St Johns Road, Seven Kings, Ilford IG2 7BB). We would love you to be there celebrating this milestone with us and our special guest, The Rt. Revd. Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford.

The event will include: a Sophia Hub presentation; sharing your views on enterprise and community; meeting our start-ups; opportunities to network and join our timebank; buffet and refreshments. We have exciting achievements to share with you including the delivery of Sophia Courses, a weekly Enterprise Club and the setting up of a Timebank.

See our website - http://sophiahubs.com/seven-kings/ - and blog - http://sophiahubs7k.wordpress.com/.%C2%A0 for more details.

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday 30th September. Please RSVP to ros.southern@sophiahubs.com.

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U2 - I Will Follow.

Paphos churches and St Paul's Pillar

While in Cyprus I was able to photograph a few churches around the Paphos area including the Monastery of Agios Neophytos, Church of Saint Ekateriny Tala, Holy Temple of the Birth of Christ Tala, St Nicholas Paphos, the Church by the Bishop's Palace/Byzantine Museum and Ayia Kyriaki Chrysopolitissa Church by St Paul's Pillar:

"The earliest reference to Christianity in Cyprus is found in the Acts of the Apostles (chapter 13). This tells of a visit to the island by Paul, Barnabas (who was a Cypriot by birth) and John Mark, at the start of what is called St. Paul’s First Missionary Journey. The visit is probably to be dated in the second half of the 40′s of the 1st century AD and the three probably came in the hope of converting Jews. They landed on the east coast at Salamis, the largest city (it had 3 synagogues) and then came to the Roman capital Nea (New) Paphos, now Kato (Lower) Paphos.

... the prophet or magus known variously as Elymas and Bar Jesus ... resisted the Christian missionaries at the court of the proconsul in Paphos and was consequently denounced by St.Paul, who correctly predicted that he would, as a punishment, temporarily lose his sight. This event so impressed the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, that he converted to the Christian faith (becoming the first Roman ruler to do so).

In 2 Corinthians 11: 24-25 St. Paul says that during his ministry so far he has been beaten five times by the Jews, three times by the Romans. Cypriot tradition has it that the apostle was tied to one of the many pillars that now lie adjacent to the church of Agia Kyriaki and beaten ... as neither Acts nor Paul’s letters speak of any mistreatment in Cyprus, the tradition of the beating, and the association of the apostle with the area where Agia Kyriaki lies, must remain open to question.

At the beginning of the 4th century AD a magnificent Christian basilica, the largest on the island, was built near the site of the present church. The floors were decorated with mosaics in floral and geometric patterns and the columns were made out of granite and marble with Corinthian-styled capitals. The basilica was divided into seven aisles with the central nave ending in the east in a double apse. The narthex, or porch, at the west end opened onto a colonnaded court.

The Basilica was extensively remodelled and reduced to five aisles. The double apse was replaced with a single one and the large floor areas were also repaved with new mosaics. The reason for this refurbishment is obscure yet it certainly reflects the continuing prosperity of Paphos. The Basilica appears to have been destroyed at the time of the Arab invasion in 653 AD. Paphos suffered great damages at that time, as the Arab graffiti on the fallen columns support.

Sometime later a small Byzantine Church was erected above the ruins of the Basilica. Its foundations were found directly below the present church ... By the late 13th or early 14th century the Franciscan foundation built a Gothic church. The remains of this beautiful building, unique in Cyprus, lie at a somewhat higher level on the edge of the ruins of the Basilica, adjacent to the present wooden walkway. There were other churches in the Paphos area, amongst them a Gothic cathedral.

By 1498 the island came under the control of the Venetians. It was during this time that the present building was constructed in the style of a Byzantine church. The building is erected over an earlier church that was destroyed in an earthquake in 1159. With the invasion of the Ottomans in 1570 the Catholic dominance came to an end. Many Latin churches were either destroyed or changed into mosques – the St. Sophia church near the Municipal Market was converted to a mosque in this fashion. Through special arrangements the church by St Paul’s pillar was spared destruction and was named Agia Kyriaki Chrysopolitissa, the Byzantine Cathedral of Kato Paphos."

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Beverley Knight - Remember Me.