In Praise of Stop

Here's the sermon that I shared today at St Andrew’s Wickford:

When you use the Lectionary to decide on the Bible reading for a particular service, as we do in this Church, you sometimes wonder what the people who chose the readings were thinking when they made their choices. The Gospel reading for today (Mark 6: 30-34, 53-end) misses out the wonderful stories of Jesus feeding the five thousand and walking on the water which have stimulated thousands of sermons and instead all we get is Jesus travelling around towns, villages and farms meeting large crowds and healing people and, as the preacher, you think; well, how am I going to get a sermon out of that?

One interesting thing about this selection of verses is that we see Jesus attempting to take some time out from ministry together with his disciples and being frustrated in the attempt because the demands of the crowds around them were too great. That continues to be the case in ministry whether we are lay or ordained but the busyness of ministry here in the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry and in our weekday lives cannot be sustained if it is not fed by regular times of withdrawal for prayer and recuperation.

That was Jesus’ regular practice. We read of him getting up long before daylight, leaving the town and going to a lonely place where he could pray. In order to pray effectively and well he needed to get away from the demands of ministry and away from his disciples too. He needed to be alone with God in order to recharge his batteries for further ministry to come and this is his pattern throughout his ministry; active mission together with others combined with withdrawal for individual prayer and recuperation. It was what he tried to demonstrate to his disciples in today’s Gospel reading and it needs to be our pattern too.

I’m reminded of an exhibition by the artist Micah Purnell which was called In Praise Of Stop . This was an exhibition which reflected on the theme of Sabbath as Resistance by exploring 'the practice of the fourth commandment in a contemporary age.' The exhibition included thought-provoking aphorisms such as ‘Nothing takes practice’, ‘Switch off to connect’, ‘Thou shalt not prepare for tomorrow’ and ‘Everything comes from nothing’. 

In a similar vein is the book written by Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, which is entitled ‘Do Nothing to Change Your Life: Discovering What Happens When You Stop.’ In this book Cottrell invites us to slow down and stop … and breathe. He asks, ‘When was the last time you had a real day off? Ditched the 'to-do' lists? Switched off the phone? Had a lie-in? Sat in the bath until the water went cold?’ Most of us, he suggests, live at break-neck speed. Busy lives - work, family, friends, endless tasks - leave us with little time to sleep, never mind stopping and reflecting. We urgently need to learn to nurture our inner slob. As Isaiah 30:15 says, ‘In return and rest you shall be saved.’

In a book called 'The city is my monastery', Richard Carter writes that 'Rest is given to us as the culmination of creation’ and that the ‘whole of creation moves towards this time of Sabbath, and our lives have no meaning simply as cycles of survival without this arrival at the place of wonder and rest.’ The rest that is ultimately the culmination of creation is that which we will experience in heaven. Sabbath is our anticipation of that experience in the here and now.

‘Creation is not complete,’ he writes, ‘until God rests on the seventh day and contemplates all creation.’ Therefore, 'God blesses time’ and ‘consecrates it as holy.’ The whole of creation is moving towards this time of Sabbath, ‘and our lives have no meaning simply as cycles of survival without this arrival at the place of wonder and rest.'

‘When we rest, we imitate God - we enter into the rhythm of God's time,' but, more than that, 'if Sabbath is God's time, it does not end in the keeping of the Sabbath - the Sabbath enters into all our time.’ ‘When we keep Sabbath, everything we do can be infused with that sense of God's presence.'

He describes a day on holiday in Kefalonia where he pays attention to every moment of the day – the bread he buys from the bakery, the person who serves him, the wrapping in which it comes, the feel and taste of it. Later in the day, he writes, ‘I sat on the beach and watched people playing in the sea … I swam, ate bread and ripe tomatoes, and these actions were like a prayer.'

So, Richard Carter suggests that Sabbath rest is not simply about stopping but more so about an attitude of the heart which slows us in everyday life to appreciate and enjoy what we encounter in our daily lives.

In lockdown we all experienced an enforced Sabbath. An unattributed poem that was circulated on Facebook at that time suggested that our lockdown experience could be a moment in which we learn how to rest and experience renewal:

For years our land has groaned beneath the grind
Of work, work, work, of pounding feet, of churn;
For years we stopped our ears and would not mind
The gentle voice that urged us all to turn
From endless slog and strain that warps and rends
The sinews of the Spirit, toward rest:
The Sabbath's breathing wisdom God intends
For human flourishing and the land's best.
Now cafes rest, deserted and the shops,
The bank, the bustle, bargain, building, bar,
The tube's hot haggling hustle: it all stops.
Forced into stillness, now we breathe, we are.
Such tragic loss of love, of breath, to prove
How much we need to rest, to breathe, to love.

Our reading today, demonstrates some of the difficulties in regularly finding that time and the attitude Richard Carter described because of the constant demands that ministry makes on us. However, the difficulties involved shouldn’t prevent us from making the attempt to build rest periods and an attitude of slowing down and paying attention into our daily lives. By doing so, we follow in the footsteps of Jesus who specifically carved out times for prayer in the busyness of his ministry years and sought to teach his disciples to do the same. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Be Still For The Presence Of The Lord.

Seeing is Receiving: The art of contemplation (3)

2. Sustained

Hidden away at the end of a lane leading from Five Oaks Green Road, set among fields and Kentish Oast houses, is a pretty, compact country church which dates to the beginning of the seventh century, although most of what can be seen today is from the 18th century.

The brick tower and marbled ceiling of All Saints’ Tudeley date from around 1765 while the North aisle was added in 1871. The interior was substantially re-ordered in 1966, creating a greater sense of space and light. It was what came next, however, that created a wow factor; something that is astonishing both in its physical impact and in the uniqueness of its nature.

On my sabbatical pilgrimage I’ve arrived at a church which is one of the UK’s finest examples of religious art and a moving example of the crucifixion as a conduit for a very personal tragedy. As I walk into Tudeley Parish Church I am immediately immersed in intense colours – ‘rich and deep marine blue, with blends of burgundy and bottle green’ – because, as James Crockford has described, every window in the church ‘from great big panes of light, to tiny peep holes’ was designed by the Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall. Chagall’s designs swirl with emotive colour and evocative movement. This is stained-glass that shines and glows ‘with a glory that hits you’ through ‘the energy of light and life that bursts or glows through.’[i]

These windows were installed between 1967 and 1985; the east window being followed by the five north windows and two south ones dedicated in 1974 and then finally the four chancel windows installed in 1985. Chagall was initially reluctant to take on the commission, but was eventually persuaded, and when, in 1967, he arrived for the installation of the east window and saw the church, he said, 'It's magnificent. I will do them all.' Over the next 15 years, he designed all the remaining eleven windows, collaborating as usual with glassworker Charles Marq of Reims.

This sustained series of stained glass – inspiration sustained over 15 years and filling all 12 windows in the building - was inspired by Psalm 8, especially verses 4—8:

‘What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honour.

You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.’

There’s a dilemma on entering as the East window draws your attention but the surrounding windows lead up to it. That’s where the flocks and herds, beasts, birds and fish of creation from the Psalm are to be found, so do you begin with the culminating experience - the east window with its depiction of crucifixion and drowning – or the preparatory experience of the Psalm inspired windows? Wherever you begin sustained viewing of this series, which sets death in the context of creation while brightly bathing the building in vibrant colour, is to have an experience of profound spirituality.

The east window is a magnificent memorial tribute to Sarah d'Avigdor-Goldsmid who died aged just 21 in a sailing accident off Rye. Sarah was the daughter of Sir Henry and Lady d'Avigdor-Goldsmid; the family then lived at Somerhill, a Jacobean house situated nearby. As Sarah had shown an early interest in contemporary art and had, with her mother, seen Chagall’s designs for windows in the synagogue of the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem. Sir Henry and Lady d'Avigdor-Goldsmid commissioned Chagall to design the east window.

Crockford has reflected on what Chagall offers to us through sustained viewing of this visionary series: ‘What I think Chagall offers us so well is a vision that holds together the devastation of a painful tragedy with a vision of hope and renewal. He suggests the real possibility of the transformation of human loss, a loss that seems pretty integral to humanness; yet there is no glimmer of forgetting or diminishing the gravity and depth of that suffering. We see here an invitation to let our suffering be a sharing in his [Christ’s] sufferings, a way of becoming like him, just as, in suffering, he becomes like us. The stories of our lives are drawn up into the reality of Christ: that includes our death and our life, our fear and our freedom, our shame and our glory.’[ii]

Tudeley’s remoteness necessitates giving time to visit and Chagall’s art rewards slowing down to look and linger, to sustain our looking in order that we truly see. As with the art historian who went nose-to-nose with Leonardo's The Musician staying for about 10 minutes before then repeating the exercise twice. The art historian’s looking was sustained, just as Chagall’s creation was sustained, yet, as adults, we rarely look in a sustained manner.

Sister Corita Kent suggested that children can give adults lessons in looking:

‘Ask [a] child to come from the front of the house to the back and closely observe her small journey. It will be full of pauses, circling, touching and picking up in order to smell, shake, taste, rub, and scrape. The child’s eyes won’t leave the ground, and every piece of paper, every scrap, every object along the path will be a new discovery.

It does not matter that his is all familiar territory – the same house, the same rug and chair. To the child, the journey of this particular day, with its special light and sound, has never been made before. So the child treats the situation with the open curiosity and attention that it deserves.

The child is quite right.’[iii]

The reason that the child is right is that things ‘constantly change and we may have seen an object only five minutes ago and thought we knew it – but now it is very different.’ Visiting Tudeley on a sunny day is highly recommended and, yet, it doesn't really matter whether the sun is shining or not because, if we really look, something new will be seen in every viewing under differing conditions of light. Such changes are only noticed if our looking is sustained. That is something which children instinctively practice.

Kent therefore describes life as a succession of moments and says that to live each one is to succeed. For us to do so we must become ‘able to adjust to these subtle differences’ which means ‘looking anew’; repeated and sustained looking ‘with what new materials we have gathered up inside ourselves – as well as noting what changes have taken place within the object.’ In this way Kent suggests, we become ‘aware of what we don’t yet know.’ Henri Matisse suggested that, to look in this way, to repeatedly look at something ‘as though you had never seen it’ requires ‘great courage.’[iv]

My colleague at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Richard Carter built the concept of steadfastness or staying with into the rule of life for the Nazareth Community he set up there. Staying with is about sustained contemplation; returning again and again to God because it is so easy and so quick to ‘become disorientated and separated from the source of our being.’[v] He used the image of a swimmer returning to the pool because, whatever the weather, the pool is there. Similarly, whether the sun is shining or not, we can return on a sustained basis to the practice of slowing down in order to see contemplatively.

Staying with - sustained looking and praying – also enables us in the context of uncertainties, mysteries and doubts. Carter notes the use of the phrase ‘negative capability’ by John Keats ‘to characterize the human potential to pursue a vision of beauty even when it leads through intellectual confusion or uncertainty.’ He argues that there ‘is an importance in staying with the discomfort of the unknown, fear and the unresolved, because it is in that place that we reach the borders of what we are and discover what we could become.’[vi] It is as we sustain our contemplation over time through a multiplicity of reflections on all that is uncertain, confusing or challenging within our world and experiences that we come to see where beauty might lie within our brokenness. That is the basis on which Tudeley’s stained glass was created, both in the tragic events memorialised and Chagall’s meditative response.

Makoto Fujimura's work is a slow art requiring sustained looking which enables us to see beauty in brokenness. Fujimura combines the traditional Japanese painting technique of Nihonga with Abstract Expressionism. Both influences prioritise surface in the work. Nihonga, as it uses ground minerals such as azurite, malachite and cinnabar mixed with animal hide glue applied to handmade paper. Abstract Expressionism, as it has no external reference existing purely as pigment on canvas.

Fujimura describes letting: ‘The layers of azurite pigments, spread over paper as I let the granular pigments cascade. My eyes see much more than what my mind can organize. As the light becomes trapped within pigments, a "grace arena" is created, as the light is broken and trapped in refraction.’[vii] His minerals, ‘when layered in the correct manner, can refract, as each individual granule acts as a prism, so the surface traps light.’ He says that this ‘subtle, quiet way of capturing light’ intrigues him.

At first glance the malachite surface looks green: ‘But if the eye is allowed to linger on the surface—it usually takes ten minutes for the eye to adjust—the observer can begin to see the rainbow created by layer upon layer of broken shards of minerals. Such a contemplative experience can be a deep sensory journey toward wisdom. Willingness to spend time truly seeing can change how we view the world, moving us away from our fast-food culture of superficially scanning what we see and becoming surfeited with images that do not delve below the surface.’[viii]

Fujimura sees ‘in the very process of painting a parable of life: how our lives, too, need to be refractive of light as people created in God’s image.’ How often, he asks, ‘do we experience grace in the midst of trial (as our lives are being “pulverized” to reveal inner beauty)?’[ix] The minerals he uses ‘must be pulverized to bring out their beauty’.

As a result, he argues that: ‘The Japanese were right in associating beauty with death … Art cannot be divorced from faith, for to do so is to literally close our eyes to that beauty of the dying sun setting all around us. Every beauty also suffers … Prayers are given, too, in the layers of broken, pulverized pigments. Beauty is in the brokenness, not in what we can conceive as the perfections, not in the "finished" images but in the incomplete gestures. Now, I await for my paintings to reveal themselves. Perhaps I will find myself rising through the ashes, through the beauty of such broken limitations.’[x]

Perseverance in prayer is commended by Jesus in the Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge (Luke 18.1-8) and the Friend at Midnight (Luke 11.1-13). I wonder whether that practice, which is about sustained prayer in which we stay with the one for whom we pray, is not so much about our needing to change God’s mind and more about our coming to see the ways in which beauty is to be found in brokenness and redemption in desolation. For many of us, this is also our regular experience of the depth of scripture; that we can return again and again to the same passage or story and find something new each time. Sustained attention, praying or reading all enable to see

It may only be as we sustain our looking, praying or reading that such revelations come. Chagall looked for 15 years, the art historian looked for half an hour, Fujimura thinks ten minutes is necessary for our eyes to adjust and see the prismatic nature of his slow art. The specific length of time our looking can be sustained is not the primary issue; the issue is how we see and the extent to which we surrender to what we see.

Explore

The Art Stations of the Cross began in 2016 in London with an exhibition in 14 iconic destinations that enabled the Passion to be experienced as a pilgrimage for art lovers. For Christians, the Stations of the Cross represent 14 moments in Jesus’ journey through Jerusalem, from condemnation to crucifixion and burial. Across the chasm of two thousand years, this tortured path resonates with current events for people of many faiths and cultures. In particular, it calls to mind the hazardous journeys of refugees from today’s Middle East.

The exhibition invited people of all backgrounds to experience London as a ‘new Jerusalem.’ It told the story of the Passion in fresh ways, provoking passions by using existing masterpieces and new commissions by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim artists. Those visiting all 14 destinations had to sustain a journey through London and let the Stations sustain them.

The project has been sustained further by being replicated in other parts of the world and through a website which collates each version of the Art Stations. Exploring this website enables sustained reflection on different aspects of each Station as there have now been five different manifestations of the project with little replication of specific artworks. The website, therefore, asks us to look at each Station from a range of different perspectives thereby offering the opportunity for sustained reflection.

Dwelling in the Word is a simple, but profound way of reading the bible in community, based on Lectio Divina while being subtly quite different from that ancient practice. Dwelling in the Word is a spiritual practice of reading and dwelling in the biblical text by listening deeply to God and to one another. Reading for spiritual formation involves patiently allowing the text to intrude into our lives, address us, and enable our being encountered by the God of mystery.

There is a significant difference between approaching God’s Word through informational reading and formational reading. Formational Reading involves: living in the same text for a period of time; multi-layered reading with depth that changes our quality of being; receiving the Word as a servant; being formed and transformed by the text; being with the Word humbly and willingly; and being open to the God of mystery addressing us.

Dwelling in God’s Word in community enables a focus on new insights and understandings through a process of sharing with others; not seeing only what we heard or read about the particular text or what we already think we know about it. As such, it involves slow, sustained and conscious reading.

Dwelling in the Word in community invites the Living Word to penetrate to the innermost being of our personal and communal lives because it is here that God desires to dwell.

Wonderings

I wonder when you last had an experience of being so captured by something that you were unable to look away.

I wonder what has been the most sustained commitment or relationship in your life.

I wonder what benefits you have found from an experience of staying with.

Prayer

All-knowing God, you look at me so intently that you can count the hairs on my head. Help me to see as you see; to look at people, creatures, and the world in which we live, with lingering gaze of love. You looked and all you saw was good. Captivate the eyes of my heart that I look and look again until I see what you see. Amen.

Spiritual exercise

Think of something in your home of which you have more than four examples (e.g. books, family photos, objects you collect etc.). Bring together a good selection of these items and spread them out wherever you can. Take time to look at and handle them. Remember why you have them, where they came from, when they came into your possession. Turn those memories into prayers (whether of thanksgiving or healing) and sense what God is saying to you about the sustained place that they have in your life.

Art actions

View the Chagall windows online at https://www.tudeley.org/chagallwindows.htm and plan a visit.

Discover more about the Art Stations of the Cross and Dwelling in the Word at https://www.coexisthouse.org.uk/stations2016.html and https://churchmissionsociety.org/resources/dwelling-word/

[i] J. Crockford, ‘Chagall at Tudeley’, Sermon preached at University Church, Oxford, 7th April 2019 - https://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/sermons/chagall-tudeley?fbclid=IwAR3hxj1Lah8A5Uq2yYjggxw1rafwJlxq-4V86olsvwSdpyoLAJ11kKNvKAc

[ii] J. Crockford, ‘Chagall at Tudeley’, Sermon preached at University Church, Oxford, 7th April 2019 - https://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/sermons/chagall-tudeley?fbclid=IwAR3hxj1Lah8A5Uq2yYjggxw1rafwJlxq-4V86olsvwSdpyoLAJ11kKNvKAc

[iii] C. Kent & J. Steward, Learning by Heart, Allworth Press, 2008, p.14

[iv] C. Kent & J. Steward, Learning by Heart, Allworth Press, 2008, p.12

[v] R. Carter, ‘The City is my Monastery: A contemporary rule of life’, Canterbury Press, 2019, p. 219

[vi] R. Carter, ‘The City is my Monastery: A contemporary rule of life’, Canterbury Press, 2019, p. 224

[vii] https://www.makotofujimura.com/writings/beauty-without-regret/

[viii] M. Fujimura, Silence and Beauty: Hidden Faith Born of Suffering, IVP, 2016

[ix] https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-fate-of-the-arts/articles/interview-with-artist-makoto-fujimura

[x] https://www.makotofujimura.com/writings/beauty-without-regret/

Click here for the other parts of 'Seeing is Receiving'. See also 'And a little child shall lead them' which explores similar themes.

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U2 - Stay (Faraway, So Close).

The desert in the city: Sabbath

Here's my reflection on Sabbath for tonight's Lent Course session at St Martin-in-the-Fields, based on Richard Carter's book 'The city is my monastery':

‘Living God’s future now’ will be the title for the next HeartEdge conference, but it is also a very effective description of what Sabbath is all about.

Discussions about the Sabbath often centre around moralistic laws and arguments over what a person should or should not be able to do either the Jewish Sabbath or on Sundays in the Christian tradition. Those of you who are my age or older will recall what Sundays were like before the introduction of Sunday trading in 1994. Sunday’s then commonly began with church worship, followed by roast lunch with the family and time at home together. Some people now miss the fact that Sunday is little different to other days in the week and the enforced slow down and battery recharge that the old Sundays had. For some the introduction of Sunday trading has eroded family time with a consequent deleterious effect on society. Others remember detesting Sundays as everything was either closed or seriously curtailed and think it's much better now with everything open and little curtailment. A French novelist in the 1950s had a retired British Army officer character declare that: ‘If England has not been invaded since 1066, it is because foreigners dread having to spend a Sunday there.’

Such debates about ways to keep a particular day are ultimately distractions from the deeper meaning of Sabbath. In tonight’s Word from the Edge (Hebrews 4. 1-10) we hear repeatedly the assertion that the promise of entering God’s rest is still open, it remains open for some to enter God’s rest and that a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews is saying that the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian practice of gathering for worship on Sunday are no more than stages on the way to the real Sabbath which will be experienced in heaven. They are rehearsals for the reality that we will experience then and that is why we can talk about seeking to live God’s future now.

In order to understand how to really live Sabbath as a rehearsal for the reality of heaven, we need to understand key characteristics of heaven itself. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews highlights particularly the idea that those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours as God did from his.

In his writings about being with, Sam Wells has introduced us to the four categories of: being with, being for, doing for and doing with. He has challenged us and others with the thought that we spend much of our time, effort, energy and activism on doing things for or being for others, instead of being with others. When we are being for or doing things for others, we are in problem solving mode because there are things that we think we can fix and it is our activity that will provide or contribute to the solution. Heaven challenges our propensity to do and be for others because in heaven there is nothing to fix. In heaven God wipes every tear from our eyes, death is no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more. In heaven there is no being for or doing there is just being with. We cease from our labours as God did from his and simply enjoy God, each other, the world around us and ourselves for who we are.

We prepare for that reality, as Sam says, by learning to live with everybody now and receive their unexpected gifts with imagination and gratitude in recognition that these are the people with whom we’ll be spending eternity, lucky and blessed as we all are to be there. So, we’d best use these earthly years as a time for getting in the mood.

That means that Sabbath moments are primarily those times of appreciation, revelation and understanding towards God, others, creation and ourselves. ‘The City is my monastery’ is a book that gets us in the mood for heaven by taking us deeper into moments of realisation and wonder. Richard Carter writes that 'Rest is given to us as the culmination of creation’ and that the ‘whole of creation moves towards this time of Sabbath, and our lives have no meaning simply as cycles of survival without this arrival at the place of wonder and rest.’ The rest that is ultimately the culmination of creation is that which we will experience in heaven. Sabbath is our anticipation of that experience in the here and now.

‘Creation is not complete,’ he writes, ‘until God rests on the seventh day and contemplates all creation.’ Therefore, 'God blesses time’ and ‘consecrates it as holy.’ The whole of creation is moving towards this time of Sabbath, ‘and our lives have no meaning simply as cycles of survival without this arrival at the place of wonder and rest.'

‘When we rest, we imitate God - we enter into the rhythm of God's time,' but, more than that, 'if Sabbath is God's time, it does not end in the keeping of the Sabbath - the Sabbath enters into all our time.’ ‘When we keep Sabbath, everything we do can be infused with that sense of God's presence.'

He describes a day on holiday in Kefalonia where he pays attention to every moment of the day – the bread he buys from the bakery, the person who serves him, the wrapping in which it comes, the feel and taste of it. Later in the day, he writes, ‘I sat on the beach and watched people playing in the sea … I swam, ate bread and ripe tomatoes, and these actions were like a prayer.'

The poet Mary Oliver wrote that ‘Attention without feeling is only a report.’ To fully feel life course through us we must befriend our own attention, that ‘intentional, unapologetic discriminator.’ The philosopher, Simone Weil wrote that: ‘Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.’

That is true Sabbath - not a particular day or a particular set of actions (helpful as those can be) – but absolute unmixed attention presupposing faith and love. This is a style of prayer originally practised by the Celtic saints in this country and passed down the generations in Gaelic regions, in prayers said while undertaking daily tasks. In more recent years a renewal of interest in Celtic Christianity has revived this style of prayer for many.

Richard writes in ‘The city is my monastery’ that this is possible even in the midst of trouble, difficulty and challenge. He writes of time spent in hospital and says, 'It's sometimes only when we are a little stripped down, like this in your hospital night-gown, and tubes coming out of your arm, that God’s presence is once again uncovered.' He then tells of a conversation with a homeless man who was coming regularly to Morning Prayer:

‘Have you always been so faithful in your prayers?’ I asked him. ‘No,’ he said, ‘only when I am in trouble.’

‘Where did you learn to pray?’ He is silent for a moment. And then he tells me quietly: ‘In prison that’s when I realized I needed him most.’

‘Well,’ said Richard, ‘I learnt to pray again in hospital.’

I wonder whether, as with Richard and that homeless man, our current troubles – this enforced Sabbath - could be a moment in which we learn to pray again living God’s future now by practicing faith, love and thankfulness through prayerful attention. There is an unattributed poem circulating currently on facebook which suggests this might be so:

For years our land has groaned beneath the grind
Of work, work, work, of pounding feet, of churn;
For years we stopped our ears and would not mind
The gentle voice that urged us all to turn
From endless slog and strain that warps and rends
The sinews of the Spirit, toward rest:
The Sabbath's breathing wisdom God intends
For human flourishing and the land's best.
Now cafes rest, deserted and the shops,
The bank, the bustle, bargain, building, bar,
The tube's hot haggling hustle: it all stops.
Forced into stillness, now we breathe, we are.
Such tragic loss of love, of breath, to prove
How much we need to rest, to breathe, to love.

Open my heart that I might contemplate your presence in everyone and everything you have made; all that is good, all that is beautiful and all that is true. May wonder and awe at your goodness draw me closer to you and lead me to a sense of eternity now. Amen.

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Bruce Cockburn - No Footprints.

Lent 2020: The desert in the city & The city is my monastery

Using Richard Carter’s new book The City is my Monastery: A contemporary rule of life, this year’s Lent Course at St Martin-in-the-Fields focuses on how we might deepen our lives of contemplation and action at the heart of the city. Charles de Foucault once famously remarked that if we need to go to the desert to find God, then everyone trying hard to survive in a bustling city would need to have a little strip of desert with them. We need he said ‘to create the desert in the heart of the city… contemplation in the streets that is our task.’ How can we become more attentive to the continuous presence of God and create the space to bring our lives before God? Over the seven weeks of Lent we will be exploring our own spiritual paths: the places of encounter, forgiveness, nurture, compassion, generosity and growing depth, and the challenging discovery of the Word made flesh in one another.

Each week will focus on a different chapter of Richard’s book:

• 26 February Ash Wednesday – With Silence
• 4 March – With Service
• 11 March – With Sacrament
• 18 March – With Scripture
• 25 March – With Sabbath
• 1 April – With Sharing
• 8 April – Staying With

‘This book is about being caught up in the infectious holiness of God and inspired by these narratives and these poems, prayers and promises to believe that you too can be suffused with the Spirit, not alone but in community and the city can become your monastery too.’ Sam Wells

‘This wonderful book is both recognizable and startlingly new. What we are given here is a workbook for living in and with meaning, Christian meaning, Jesus shaped meaning.’ Rowan Williams

Copies of The City is my Monastery (for those who do not have them) and Study Guides for the Lent course for everyone will be available from Sunday 16 February from the vergers vestry or collected after the Ash Wednesday Bread for the World at 6.30pm which this year will be the first week of our Lent Course.

The book is also available to purchase from St Martin’s Shop and the Online Shop.
‘The city is my monastery’ is an exhibition created by the artists and craftsperson’s group at St Martin-in-the-Fields that will be in the Foyer of the Crypt at St Martin's throughout Lent, from 26 February - 10 April.

St Martin-in-the-Fields is home to several commissions and permanent installations by contemporary artists. We also have an exciting programme of temporary exhibitions, as well as a group of artists and craftspeople from the St Martin’s community who show artwork and organise art projects on a temporary basis. One of the initiatives from this group is a changing display of work by the group members or artists linked to the group. Each month a different artist shows examples of their work, so, if you are able, do return to see the changing display.

For Lent 2020 the group have created to accompany the Lent Course at St Martin-in-the-Fields – ‘The Desert in the City.’ Using Revd Richard Carter’s new book ‘The City is my Monastery: A contemporary rule of life’ as its inspiration, this exhibition focuses on how we might deepen our lives of contemplation and action at the heart of the city. Through this exhibition the artists and craftspeople at St Martin’s are seeking to explore our own spiritual paths: the places of encounter, forgiveness, nurture, compassion, generosity and growing depth, and the challenging discovery of the Word made flesh in one another. The exhibition explores themes of: cities, monasteries, prayer, contemplation, community, silence, sacraments, study, sharing, service, steadfastness (staying with), and sabbath.

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Emmylou Harris - Darkest Hour Is Just Before The Storm.

HeartEdge Mailer | November 2019

HeartEdge Mailer | November 2019

Initiated by St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, HeartEdge is an international ecumenical movement.

• We are churches and other organisations developing mission.
• Our practice is focused on 4 areas - commercial activity, congregational development, cultural engagement and compassion.

Each month we email stories and web links related to developing commercial activity, congregations, cultural engagement and compassion.

This month:

• Hannah Malcolm on hope, Liz Delafield on good society and Val Barren on enterprise - and young and olds sing a new song via Mesadorm.
• Setting up a community shop in church, plus living with a church building, how church can become a community hub plus - activism and Franciscan spirituality.
• Loads of Christmas ideas for congregations, plus community chaplaincy.
• An extract from 'The City is my Monastery: A Contemporary Rule of Life' by Richard Carter.

Read the Mailer here.

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Gungor - Brother Moon.

The City is my Monastery: A contemporary rule of life

My colleague at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Richard Carter has written a book called
The City is My Monastery: A Contemporary Rule of Life. It’s being published by Canterbury Press with Forward by Sam Wells and Afterword by Rowan Williams. The book is illustrated by Andrew Carter, Helen Ireland, and Vicky Howard.

On Wednesday 20 November 6.30pm in our service of Bread for the World at St Martin-in-the-Fields Richard will speak about the book.

Richard Carter swapped a life of simplicity with an Anglican religious order in the Solomon Islands for parish ministry in one of London’s busiest churches, St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Seeing a need for monastic values in the centre of the city, he founded the Nazareth Community. Its members gather from everyday life to seek God in contemplation, to acknowledge their dependence on God’s grace and to learn to live openly and generously with all.

Part story, part spiritual meditation, The City is My Monastery offers spiritual wisdom for daily life rooted in the Nazareth Community’s seven guiding principles: Silence, Service, Scripture, Sacrament, Sharing, Sabbath Time and Staying.

‘This wonderful book is both recognizable and startlingly new. What we are given here is not simply another book on ‘spirituality’ but a workbook for living in and with meaning, Christian meaning, Jesus-shaped meaning.’ Rowan Williams

‘This book is a generous gift. The City is My Monastery is rich and moving reading which warmed my spirit and encouraged me to stay.’ The Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London

‘This is a book that moved me deeply and will surely strengthen and give heart to many. It is an autobiography of poetry and prayer. Above all, a powerful poetic meditation on meeting God every day on the streets and in the people of London.’ Neil MacGregor, founding director of the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, director of the British Museum 2002-2015

‘Precious few are the books that accomplish what this masterfully practical and inspiring book accomplishes. Nor do they do so with such grace, depth and unflinching insight. Those who tread the pathless path of contemplation will be grateful to be in Richard Carter’s debt for the gift of this remarkable book.’ Martin Laird OSA, author of An Ocean of Light

‘The City is my Monastery is beautiful, inspiring, humble and attractive. It is so deeply soaked in loving attention and that is what makes it so infectious.’ The Revd Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields

‘This is a life-changing book, and needs to be read as it is written - as a prayer.’ Sarah Coakley, Norris-Hulse Professor Emerita, University of Cambridge

‘There are treasures on every page: wisdom gathered, practised and shared. This book is so readable it could be a quick read, but linger and use it slowly over the months and years. This is a guide to life.’ The Rt Revd Nicholas Holtam, Bishop of Salisbury

‘This is one of those books that can be a lifetime’s companion, holding before us what we are here for: Life.’ Father George Guiver, Community of the Resurrection.

‘Richard Carter has written a book not of abstract theory but of lived experience and practice. It will inspire urban and rural dwellers alike.’ Revd Lucy Winkett Rector St James's Church, Piccadilly

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Taize - Veni Sancte Spiritus.

HeartEdge events - art, community & spirituality

Mission Model workshops organised by HeartEdge share a particular mission initiative as well as telling the story of how the idea for the particular initiative was developed. The next workshops in this series are:

Nazareth Community Workshop - Wednesday 27th February, 2.30pm, St Martin-in-the-Fields

The Nazareth Community was established at St Martin-in-the-Fields in March 2018, now with over fifty members, from the congregation and other churches.

The workshop will be led by Revd Richard Carter, and is an opportunity to learn about the life of the community, and to consider how it could be applied in your own contexts. The afternoon will mirror the Saturday morning sharing time, and will begin in the church.

The session will include: Welcome and introduction; Prayer & silence; Talk; Q&A; Refreshments; Small groups; and Close. There is the option to stay on for Bread for the World, at 6.30pm - a key component of the community’s worship.

Tickets are free for HeartEdge members and £10 for others. To register click here.

For more information, contact georgina.illingworth@smitf.org.


HeartEdge Workshop: Beach Hut Advent Calendar - Tuesday 19th March

The Beach Hut Advent Calendar was created in Brighton in 2008 to encourage people to connect with the Christian roots of Advent and explore spirituality through creativity. The workshop will reveal the journey of the Beach huts and some of the stories from the last 11 years, and will consider what can be transferred to your own setting.

The scheme was initiated, devised and curated by Beyond which was born in Brighton with a mission to create arts events, which inspire people to connect with Christianity.

Since then 264 art installations have been created by beach hut owners, professional artists, schools, churches and other community groups, helping people to understand some of the themes of advent and bringing light to the darkness of the Brighton and Hove seafront every night in December. This has inspired others to create their own versions of this mission event across the UK and internationally.

The workshop will give insight into the development of the Advent Calendar and explore principles which can be applied to your own setting.

Details: Led by Revd Martin Poole, of St Luke’s Prestonville, Brighton, and Revd Jonathan Evens, of the HeartEdge network.

2-4:30pm, Tuesday 19th March 2019

Austen William Room, 6 St Martin’s Lane, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, WC2N 4JH

Tickets are free to HeartEdge members, £10 otherwise, at: https://tickets.myiknowchurch.co.uk/gb/ODYyLTEw/t



Additionally, we have also organised a Churches & Congregations day (Thursday 11 April 2019,
10:00 – 15:30) exploring ways to deepen the spirituality of congregations.

Explore approaches to deepening the spirituality of congregations including accompanied prayer, art, Godly Play, lay communities, open door retreats, spiritual direction, and more. An opportunity for personal refreshment also.

The day is being running in partnership between members of the team from London Centre for Spiritual Direction and HeartEdge members.

Contributors include:

• Neil Evans, Director of Ministry, Diocese of London
• Alison Christian, Advisor and Advocate for Spiritual Direction
• Richard Carter, Associate Vicar for Mission, St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Julie Dunstan, Director for Formation and Professional Development, LCSD
• Antonia Lynn, Community Warden and Referrals Coordinator, LCSD

To book free tickets go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/deepening-spirituality-tickets-56331233235?aff=ebdssbdestsearch. For further information, please contact Jonathan Evens at jonathan.evens@smitf.org.

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Johnny Cash - Spiritual.

HeartEdge Mission Model workshops

The Mission Model workshops organised by HeartEdge share a particular mission initiative as well as telling the story of how the idea for the particular initiative was developed. The next three workshops in this series are:


Inspired to Follow Workshop - Thursday 14th February, 2.00pm, St Martin-in-the-Fields

How to explore the Christian faith using a more open-ended approach? How to engage a more visually-focused culture? ‘Inspired to Follow: Art and the Bible Story’ is one resource developed by St Martin-in-the-Fields.

The discipleship course uses fine art paintings from the National Gallery, a Biblical story and a short theological reflection to help people explore the Christian faith today. Learn about the genesis of ‘Inspired to Follow’ and discuss its use with Revd Jonathan Evens, St Martin-in-the-Fields.

This is an opportunity to experience one of the sessions of ‘Inspired to Follow’ and to learn how to make the most of the resource. This has been scheduled with those planning to use the resource during Lent in mind, as we know that many of you have used the resource for Lent Courses previously.

The workshop runs from 2.00-4.30pm, in the Austen Williams Room, at St Martin’s. It will be led by Jonathan Evens, who is experienced in delivering the resource. The workshop is being offered by the HeartEdge network, and is free to HeartEdge members. If you’re not yet a member of the Network, the cost is £10 per person. We are restricted to 24 participants, so do book soon.

If you would like to attend the workshop, please register at https://tickets.myiknowchurch.co.uk/gb/ODYyLTk/t. If you have any queries please contact Jonathan Evens, who coordinates HeartEdge, at jonathan.evens@smitf.org or phone 020 7766 1127.


Nazareth Community Workshop - Wednesday 27th February, 2.30pm, St Martin-in-the-Fields

The Nazareth Community was established at St Martin-in-the-Fields in March 2018, now with over fifty members, from the congregation and other churches.

The workshop will be led by Revd Richard Carter, and is an opportunity to learn about the life of the community, and to consider how it could be applied in your own contexts. The afternoon will mirror the Saturday morning sharing time, and will begin in the church.

The session will include: Welcome and introduction; Prayer & silence; Talk; Q&A; Refreshments; Small groups; and Close. There is the option to stay on for Bread for the World, at 6.30pm - a key component of the community’s worship.

Tickets are free for HeartEdge members and £10 for others. To register click here.

For more information, contact georgina.illingworth@smitf.org.


HeartEdge Workshop: Beach Hut Advent Calendar - Tuesday 19th March

The Beach Hut Advent Calendar was created in Brighton in 2008 to encourage people to connect with the Christian roots of Advent and explore spirituality through creativity. The workshop will reveal the journey of the Beach huts and some of the stories from the last 11 years, and will consider what can be transferred to your own setting.

The scheme was initiated, devised and curated by Beyond which was born in Brighton with a mission to create arts events, which inspire people to connect with Christianity.

Since then 264 art installations have been created by beach hut owners, professional artists, schools, churches and other community groups, helping people to understand some of the themes of advent and bringing light to the darkness of the Brighton and Hove seafront every night in December. This has inspired others to create their own versions of this mission event across the UK and internationally.

The workshop will give insight into the development of the Advent Calendar and explore principles which can be applied to your own setting.

Details: Led by Revd Martin Poole, of St Luke’s Prestonville, Brighton, and Revd Jonathan Evens, of the HeartEdge network.

2-4:30pm, Tuesday 19th March 2019

Austen William Room, 6 St Martin’s Lane, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, WC2N 4JH

Tickets are free to HeartEdge members, £10 otherwise, at: https://tickets.myiknowchurch.co.uk/gb/ODYyLTEw/t

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Steve Bell & Malcolm Guite - Descent.

Nazareth Community, Bread for the World & Great Sacred Music

Last Sunday's BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship was a wonderful service of meditation led by Revd Richard Carter, leader of the Nazareth Community at St Martin-in-the-Fields. Listen to 'With Silence, with Scripture, with Sacrament, with Service: Rediscovering the Presence of Christ in the midst of busy and complex lives' by clicking here.

There are two more opportunities this week to find out more about the Nazareth Community. This Sunday at our 10.00am Eucharist we are full of joy that seven new people will be joining the Nazareth Community. We will pray for them and for all the community as they continue to deepen and enrich their faith through silence, sacrament, compassionate service, sacred study and sharing the life of the Nazareth Community.

Then on Wednesday, at 6.30pm, Bread for the World, our weekly informal Eucharist, will be on the theme of the Nazareth Community. For this service we will be joined by delegates from the first HeartEdge national conference, for whom this service will be an opportunity to learn about the Nazareth Community.

Additionally, a special Great Sacred Music is to be held at St Martin's earlier on Wednesday, again as part of It’s All Church!, the first national HeartEdge conference. Open to all and being held at the slightly earlier time of 12.50pm (please arrive by 12.40pm), this Great Sacred Music is entitled ‘All my hope on God is founded’. Led by Sam Wells with St Martin’s Voices, directed by Andrew Earis, this performance will include music by Howells, J.S. Bach, Stanford, Bullard and Finzi. A said Eucharist will also be held at 1.00pm that same day in the Dick Sheppard Chapel.

The HeartEdge conference is an opportunity for people from churches across the UK to gather for two days of inspiration, ideas and resources, including the opportunity to experience Great Sacred Music and Bread for the World at St Martin’s. Register for the conference here, but simply turn up at 12.40pm for Great Sacred Music or at 6.30pm for Bread for the World.

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Great Sacred Music: A Hymn for St Cecilia.

Exploring the theology of HeartEdge

HeartEdge held an event at St Martin-in-the-Fields this week where a selection of HeartEdge branded books were launched. Andy Goodliff interviewed Sam Wells on themes addressed within ‘For Good: The Church and the Future of Welfare’, 'Incarnational Mission', ‘Who Is My Neighbour? The Global and Personal Challenge’ and ‘Liturgy on the Edge: Pastoral and Attractional Worship’. 

In recent months, a series of books have been published by Sam, often in collaboration, with others which set out key aspects of the theology that informs the design and practice of HeartEdge. As a result, several of these books carry the HeartEdge logo. These are books which speak into key issues and situations of our time in ways that have been described as timely, valuable and courageous. They are commended to us as richly challenging, deeply engaging and as being outstanding guides. Exploring their themes tonight therefore promises to be enriching on many levels.

Guiding us in our exploration of themes from the books was Andy Goodliff, the Minister at Belle Vue Baptist Church in Southend-on-Sea. Belle Vue were among the first churches to join HeartEdge and Andy subsequently explained the reasoning behind that decision in an article published by Baptist Times. In the article, Andy said that ‘HeartEdge feels different, in that it is practical theology, where the theology is not just a veneer, but running right through it.’ His interview with Sam enabled discussion of the theology that underpins the support and networking which HeartEdge offers, as well as providing the opportunity to listen to Sam talk about the theology of “Being With.”

A video of this interview can be viewed by clicking here.

“Who is my Neighbour?” The Global and Personal Challenge will have a further launch at St Martin's on 21 May at 7.00pm when Sam will chair an exciting panel discussion with Rabbi Shulamit Ambalu, Dr Megan Warner, Revd Richard Carter and Sam Ahmad Ziaee (who will tell the story of his journey aged 16 from Afghanistan to the UK). “This richly challenging and deeply engaging book merits careful consideration at a time when fear of the “other” threatens to overwhelm us. In simple terms its theme is migration but actually it’s about being human.” The Rt Revd Adrian Newman Bishop of Stepney. “This brilliant book addresses one of the most urgent questions of our time: how to welcome the strangers who come seeking a home with us.” Timothy Radcliffe. The event is free and open to all. Copies of the book will be on sale at £10. The Eventbrite link is https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/who-is-my-neighbour-the-global-and-personal-challenge-tickets-44409049663.

HeartEdge is a growing ecumenical network of churches and other organisations which are contributing to God's mission in the world by ministry with diverse, inclusive congregations that combines compassionate activities, commercial activities and cultural programming. HeartEdge members see all of these as missional and aim to integrate all four for maximum impact.

HeartEdge has been initiated by St Martin-in-the-Fields and the 4C's form the mission model that has been used here for the past 30 years. It is a model that is used by or which makes sense of the mission and ministry of churches throughout the UK and beyond. For that reason, churches Aberdeen to Amsterdam, Bristol to Birmingham, and all points in between including Dunfermline, Edinburgh, Hull, London, Norwich, Rochdale, Shoeburyness, Swaffham and Utrecht, among others, have already joined the network.

In addition to the Book Launch, HeartEdge has recently organised a well attended day on Churches & Commerce at St Martin in the Bull Ring and last week ran a consultancy day for HeartEdge member All Saints Hertford exploring options for developing their existing ministry. For Consultancy Days we gather a small hand-picked team of people from member churches to visit a specific church for a day, spending the morning seeing and hearing about their ministry, buildings and context, before using the afternoon to share stories of relevant experience and thoughtshower ideas and approaches which may be of use within that context. The church was grateful for the time and input of the HeartEdge group, all of whom added real value.There seemed to be several points during the afternoon at which ‘lights were coming on’ for particular people or for the church group as a whole, together with a range of ideas and responses that also emerged from the day. Further consultancy days are being planned for churches in Bristol, Redruth and Southwark.

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Carolyn Arends - Seize The Day.

The Nazareth Community at St Martin-in-the-Fields

Here's news of an exciting new initiative at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

This weekend, on Sunday 18 March 2018, 45 people will make their promises and be blessed by the vicar, Revd Dr Sam Wells, as a new intentional community is formed at St Martin-in-the-Fields. The Nazareth Community is an experiment in being with God, with one’s neighbour and with oneself in the centre of London. The community offers a structure and a framework to grow in prayer and compassionate discipleship. It is a dispersed community that joins together in five shared disciplines:

• Silence
• Sacrament
• Service
• Sacred Study
• Sharing

The Community’s way is to live prayerfully, simply, attentively and mercifully in the midst of often busy lives. It believes that sacred space is needed at the very centre of our city and aims to deepen a life of contemplative prayer realised in compassionate face-to-face service. The Nazareth Community is rooted in, but not exclusive to, the congregation of St Martin’s. The 45 who will make their promises come from many different walks of life, including those who have known homelessness and those who are refugees. Each new member of the community receives a small Lampedusa Cross. Each cross is made on the island of Lampedusa from the wreckage of migrant boats washed ashore. This is a sign of resurrection born in the pain and the hope of the cross.

Revd Richard Carter, who will lead the community, spent many years of his life as the Chaplain and Brother in the Melanesian Brotherhood, a community that models a similar sense of living in the spirit of the Beatitudes. He writes: ‘The Nazareth Community is about learning to listen again, as St Benedict said, “with the ear of the heart.” We sense the need in this city for sacred space for people to come and replenish tired, stressful or simply busy lives. At the heart of our community we want an oasis of the Spirit - the Spirit that leads to compassionate reciprocity, service, healing and joy. We are not simply managers organising resources and events but those who seek God: women and men of prayer, who know our utter dependence on God’s grace and know this city’s need of God’s forgiveness and love.”

Revd Dr Sam Wells writes: ‘Being with God and one another and ourselves is how we shall spend eternity. The Nazareth Community is a group of people who are saying, ‘Why not start eternity now? Why wait?’ In their living eternal life now we see hope and inspiration for ourselves, our church, our community and our city.’

For further information email Richard.Carter@smitf.org or visit www.smitf.org

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John Tavener - The Lord's Prayer.

Holy Week & Easter at St Martin-in-the-Fields

This Sunday at St Martin-in-the-Fields we mark the beginning of Holy Week with a Palm Sunday procession, led by a donkey, with the Chalk Farm Salvation Army Band and the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields. We meet at the steps behind Admiralty Arch near the British Council building where the procession begins at 9.45am. For those who are not joining the procession the service in church begins as usual at 10am, when we greet the arrival of the procession and together we experience a dramatised reading of the Passion Gospel led by members from the St Martin’s community.

Lent Oasis, Sunday 9 April, 2.00-4.00pm, George Richards and Austen Williams Rooms

Another ‘Oasis’ time of quiet scripture reflection, prayer and practical art. Art materials will be available for you to explore, play with colour and be creative through collage, painting, drawing or writing.

Download the full flyer for Holy Week and Easter at St Martin-in-the-Fields 2017

Sunday 9 April – Palm Sunday

8.00am: Holy Communion (BCP)

9.45am: Palm Sunday Procession

We meet at the corner of St James’s Park near Admiralty Arch. Join the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Salvation Army Band for a procession with palms, led by a donkey, into church.

10.00am: Eucharist

With the reading of the Passion Gospel

1.00pm: Service in Mandarin

2.15pm: Service in Cantonese

5.00pm: From Creation to Salvation

A powerful service of readings and music as we enter into Holy Week, telling the story of salvation, with the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

7.00pm: Compline with Time to Heal

Monday 10 April – Holy Week

8.30am: Morning Prayer

1.15pm: Holy Communion (DSC)

4.30pm: Choral Evensong

7.00pm: Crosslight: A Passion Play
Presented by Riding Lights Theatre Company

This play draws us into the dramatic events of Christ’s Passion and into the experience of one disciple who failed, despite everything he believed so passionately. It’s “a fascinating psychological drama,” and is suitable for adults and young people aged 12 and older.

Tickets: £10 (£5 students)
Available here

Tuesday 11 April – Holy Week

8.30am: Morning Prayer

1.15pm: Holy Communion (DSC)

6.00pm: Holy Communion with homily (DSC)

Wednesday 12 April – Holy Week

8.30am: Morning Prayer

1.00pm: Choral Eucharist

6.30pm: Bread For the World in Holy Week

Thursday 13 April – Maundy Thursday

8.30am: Morning Prayer

1.00pm: Great Sacred Music

Join us to mark Maundy Thursday, as the clergy and St Martin’s Voices present an exploration of Duruflé’s Requiem.

6.30pm: Maundy Thursday Liturgy with foot washing. The silent vigil of the watch follows until 10.00pm. Preacher: Revd Richard Carter

Friday 14 April – Good Friday
8.30am: Morning Prayer

10.00am: Good Friday Service for All Ages

12noon-3.00pm: The Three Hours
Revd Professor Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, Kings College London, is the preacher in this service of reflections on the passion of Christ. With the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

12noon and 3.15pm: The Passion of Jesus – free open air play by cast from the Wintershall Estate in Trafalgar Square

7.30pm: Bach St John Passion by Candlelight

Come and see Bach’s dramatic and emotional St John Passion performed by St Martin’s Chorus and the Brandenburg Sinfonia led by conductor Andrew Earis.

Tickets: £26 £22 £18 £15 £9
Available here

Saturday 15 April – Holy Saturday

9.00am: Morning Prayer

Sunday 16 April – Easter Day

5.30am: The Easter Vigil, the lighting of the new fire and the First Eucharist of Easter

8.00am: Holy Communion (BCP)

10.00am: Easter Eucharist

Preacher: Revd Dr Sam Wells with the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields

1.00pm: Service in Mandarin

2.15pm: Service in Cantonese

5.00pm: Choral Evensong with the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields

6.30-7.30pm: Allegri Miserere by Candlelight

St Martin’s Voices perform a selection of poignant music for Passiontide, including the beautiful Allegri Miserere and Tallis’s Lamentations of Jeremiah, written especially for Tenebrae in the 16th century.

Tickets: £16 £12 £7
Available here

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Thomas Tallis - Lamentations Of Jeremiah.

St Martin-in-the-Fields Autumn Lecture Series Introduction

Autumn Lecture Series Intro

With the UK voting to leave the European Union and with increasing division, xenophobia, and confusion over future national and international relationships, the St Martin-in-the-Fields Autumn Lecture Series examines the crucial question: Who is my Neighbour?

Dates:

• 19 September - Rowan Williams 
• 3 October - Michael Northcott 
• 17 October - Sarah Teather 
• 24 October - Sarah Coakley 
• 31 October - Stanley Hauerwas 
• 14 November - Sam Wells 

Find out more:

http://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/press-releases/who-is-my-neighbour-the-ethics-of-global-relationships/

http://stmartininthefields.eventbrite.com/
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Great Sacred Music - A Hymn for St Cecilia.