Art, theology and preaching

I was asked recently about resources for bringing together art, theology and preaching. 

The request came from someone already using 'Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story' a free resource to help people explore the Christian faith, using paintings and Biblical story as the starting points. It’s been created by St Martin-in-the-Fields in partnership with the National Gallery. The course uses fine art paintings in the National Gallery’s collection, along with a theological reflection and a Biblical text, as a spring board for exploring these two questions:

• How can I deepen my faith in God?
• What does it mean to follow Jesus today?

Find out more at https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/life-st-martins/discipleship/inspired-to-follow/. 

Additionally I suggested the following:

The Visual Commentary on Scripture as a great resource for bringing together art, theology and preaching - https://thevcs.org/. The Visual Commentary on Scripture (VCS) is a freely accessible online publication that provides theological commentary on the Bible in dialogue with works of art.

The Visual Meditations at the Artway site (some of which I have written) are always good value - https://www.artway.eu/artway.php?lang=en.

Former Vicar at St Martin's +Nicholas Holtam wrote a book of reflections on paintings in the National Gallery's collection - https://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/products/the-art-of-worship-paintings-prayers-and-readings-for-meditation-hb/p_1032035.


The Art of Worship: Paintings, Prayers, and Readings for Meditation represents a unique collaboration between two famous Trafalgar Square institutions: the National Gallery and the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. In this beautifully illustrated book, the Reverend Nicholas Holtam – then vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields – presents his favourite paintings from the National Gallery.

I find Sister Wendy Beckett's books of meditations on art helpful. As you'll be aware there are many of them. The Art of Lent is the one for this season - https://spckpublishing.co.uk/the-art-of-lent - but 'Art and the Sacred' and 'The Gaze of Love' are also great.



Join Sister Wendy on a journey through Lent, and discover the timeless wisdom to be found in some of the world’s greatest paintings. Illustrated in full colour with over forty famous and lesser-known masterpieces of Western art, this beautiful book will lead you into a deeply prayerful response to all that these paintings convey to the discerning eye.

Stephen Cottrell's Christ in the Wilderness is a book in a similar vein - https://spckpublishing.co.uk/christ-in-the-wilderness



The Calvin Institute of Worship has a useful page on Art that Preaches - https://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/art-that-preaches
Art That Preaches. Call it "the preacher's friend." Certain types of visual art are especially good for helping people worship because they direct attention beyond the artist or artwork to God.

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Nickel Creek - He Will Listen To You.

Sermon Preparation workshop

HeartEdge is currently offering a weekly online workshop live with Revd Dr Sam Wells and Revd Sally Hitchiner which may be of interest to church practitioners. 

Every Tuesday at 4.30pm there is a live Facebook preaching workshop focusing on the forthcoming Sunday's gospel.

In today's workshop Sam suggested, "This is a great passage for this Sunday... We are in a Lenten quarantine..."

"Our congregations think about death all the time if we're not preaching about death we're not scratching where they are itching... Nobody ever talks about it... Both of the main readings are about resurrection... "

This Sunday is about feeling grief and lament rather than 'buck up', cheer up. Watch the workshop in full here.

At the first HeartEdge sermon workshop on our Facebook page, Sam and Sally discussed the lectionary readings for Sunday 22 March.

Those who joined them from around the world posed questions that included:

• Has Covid-19 revealed that our perception that we were in control in the world was an illusion, before this crisis?
• What is the difference of writing for people to read and hear on-line rather than in a church building?
• How does discussion feed in to the preparation for those preaching on the theme of Mothering Sunday?

Those who joined the workshop online said:

• 'Thank you for this wisdom.'
• 'Such an encouragement to be finding creative ways of connecting. So helpful to share our experiences in this way.'
• 'Great to have your wisdom. Lots of food for thought about how we can share the Word of God in these challenging times. Thank you.'

View the first workshop discussion here and join back here next week for the next workshop.

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Bob Dylan - Hard Times Come Again No More.

HeartEdge online workshops

HeartEdge is offering two weekly online workshops live with Revd Dr Sam Wells which may be of interest to church practitioners. 

Every Tuesday at 4.30pm there will be a live Facebook preaching workshop focusing on the forthcoming Sunday's gospel. The first online sermon workshop for the HeartEdge community took place today on the HeartEdge facebook page last Tuesday. Sam Wells and Sally Hitchiner discussed the lectionary readings for tomorrow. See the first in the series here.

Every Wednesday at 4.30pm on Zoom there will be a Community of Practitioners workshop. This is an opportunity for incumbents and other leaders of HeartEdge churches to meet together to reflect on issues relating to congregational renewal through commerce, culture and compassion. We will read together the book 'A Future Bigger than the Past Catalysing Kingdom Communities' and support one another virtually in these unprecedented times. Message us (jonathan.evens@smitf.org) if you want to take part. 

If you want to join HeartEdge visit: www.heartedge.org.

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St Martin's Voices - Gloria.

The Quality of Mercy

I wanted to let you know about the exciting Autumn Lecture Series 2019 at St Martin-in-the-Fields: The Quality of Mercy and invite you to attend any of the lectures that you are able to.

In a time of increasing conflict, division and blame this series will explore the concept of mercy in our world today and what part it needs to play in issues of race, equality, truth and justice and how literature, music, poetry and drama can help shift perspectives and help us see the wider world through others’ eyes. In this series St Martin’s brings together renowned writers, artists, theologians and speakers to address how and if we can discover a mercy that will lead to a deeper humanity and true transformation. The lectures will be followed by the chance to ask questions and a reception in the café in the crypt for further discussion.

For those able to attend we look forward to welcoming you and those you know who may be interested in coming. It is free and open to all and you can reserve a place with Eventbrite: stmartininthefields.eventbrite.com

In addition, as we did last year, all the lectures are being professionally filmed and will be uploaded to the St Martin’s YouTube channel soon after the event has taken place. This is intended to enable churches unable to attend to use the series as part of their own programming. We will also prepare an accompanying study guide for the Lecture Series. In the guide, each lecture will have a Bible passage for reflection, and some wondering discussion points, to enable individuals, as well as groups, to engage with the lecture. We hope that you will be able to use these resources in your own churches and different contexts, so that more than just those who come each evening, are able to benefit from this excellent line up of speakers.

For those able to come to St Martin's there is also the opportunity to see our accompanying exhibition. In a world where retaliation and revenge grab all the headlines, The F Word: Stories of Forgiveness Exhibition tells the stories of people whose lives have been shattered by violence, tragedy and injustice and who are learning to forgive, reconcile or move on. The exhibition is the brainchild of British journalist Marina Cantacuzino and photographer Brian Moody who have collected numerous accounts from across the globe. The exhibition has been seen in more than 550 venues, across 14 countries, to an audience of over 70,000 people.

The F Word aims to open up a dialogue and promote understanding. The Forgiveness Project believes that by listening to the voices of people who have experienced reconciliation and renewal after trauma and unrest, it is possible to see alternatives to endless cycles of conflict, violence, crime and injustice. The remarkable stories in The F Word aim to do just this. See theforgivenessproject.com for more information.

We also have a wonderful programme and great contributors lined up for the annual HeartEdge conference, which is in Edinburgh on 2 and 3 October. 'On Earth as it is in Heaven' features US theologian Winnie Varghese and Asset-based community worker Cormac Russell. Our two-day gathering of the HeartEdge community includes Sam Wells delivering the annual Chalmers Lecture series.

Arrive for the evening of 1 October for Sam’s lecture on ‘Entertaining Angels Unawares: It is More Blessed to Receive’. The two-day intensive then starts the following morning on 2 October prioritising practical input, ideas and resources. We’ve kept costs down and there’s a subsidised rate for HeartEdge members – we hope you’ll make it along. Register here for members rates. More details here, here and here.

Advance news regarding resources is that an additional Inspired to Follow Advent Course (Advent Wreath characters) will be added this Autumn, with a Lent Course (Who is my Neighbour?) following in the New Year. More information about these new resources will follow shortly. See https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/life-st-martins/discipleship/inspired-to-follow/ for the current Inspired to Follow resources. Other future HeartEdge events will be in Milton Keynes and Norwich.

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Marvin Gaye - Mercy, Mercy Me.

Paul-Gordon Chandler and The Bridge

Paul-Gordon Chandler will be preaching at St Martin-in-the-Fields tomorrow during the 10.00am Parish Eucharist as The Bridge exhibition comes to a close. 

Paul is an author, interfaith advocate, social entrepreneur and U.S. Episcopal priest who has worked extensively in the Middle East. He is Founder and President of CARAVAN, the international peace-building arts non-profit (NGO) that builds bridges through the arts between the Middle East and West, and has brought The Bridge exhibition to life. Paul has much to share about its inspiration and journey.

The Bridge is a groundbreaking interfaith gathering of premier and emerging artists, focusing on what they hold in common through their Arab, Persian and Jewish cultures, and their Christian, Muslim and Jewish creeds.

Have you come to view the exhibition while it has been at St Martin's? If so, we would love to know what you thought. We have created a short survey which poses questions we hope will help you think about it a little deeper. Take part in the survey here.

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Malek Jandali - Caravan.

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.