A prayer for revival, restoration and return

Here's the sermon I shared this morning at St Andrew's Wickford:

The Christian movie “Jesus Revolution”, which was released earlier this year has surpassed the $50 million mark in cinemas and is now available on digital platforms and soon on Blu-ray. Released by Lionsgate, the movie telling the story of the 1970s Jesus People movement earned more than $51 million in box office receipts. That makes it the ninth highest-grossing faith-based film of all time. The film stars Kelsey Grammer (“Frasier”) Jonathan Roumie (“The Chosen”), and Joel Courtney (“Super 8”).

The story it tells is of the last major Revival to date in the Western world, which saw thousands converted to Christ, several new denominations started, and the beginnings of Jesus Rock, which has become the Contemporary Christian Music industry. The book on which the film is based is called ‘Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today'.

Today’s Psalm is a prayer for revival, restoration and return (Psalm 126). Exile is a key theme in the Bible with important lessons for us to learn. Sam Wells has described the story of exile which is told in the Bible. He writes that:

‘There was a small nation on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, which we call Israel. It was made up of twelve tribes, but the northern ten tribes were destroyed in the eighth century BC. Only two tribes remained, based around the city of Jerusalem and its glorious temple. But at the start of the sixth century BC, the remnant of Israel, known as Judah, was destroyed and its ruling class was transported five hundred miles away to Babylon.

In Babylon the exiles reflected profoundly on their history and identity. They wrote down stories of how they had once been in slavery in Egypt and how under Moses they’d been brought to freedom. They recalled accounts of how at Mount Sinai Moses had met the God who had brought Israel out of slavery, and had received a covenant that bound Israel to that God forever. They perceived that that liberating God had also, at the dawn of time, created the world out of nothing. They remembered that after the ways of the world had gone awry, that same God had called the great ancestor Abraham to be the father of the people Israel and to inhabit the promised land. They commemorated the way the covenant with Israel, inaugurated in Abraham and renewed in Moses, was tested during forty years in the wilderness but came to fruition when Joshua entered the promised land and by endeavour and miracle subdued that land (sometimes brutally) and made it Israel’s own.

In Babylon the exiles recorded that it was a long time before Israel had a settled pattern of leadership and government, but eventually Saul, and then David, and then Solomon became kings of a united people. After this high point, the kingdom split and departed frequently from the path of the covenant; it was this weakness and shortcoming that led eventually to the nation’s destruction and deportation to Babylon. This was the story Israel came to understand in exile. Yet after fifty years of exile, Israel returned to the promised land, rebuilt the temple and city walls, and resumed the life of the covenant.’

Psalm 126 describes that moment expressing themes of redemption and joy and gratitude to God. Jewish scholarship often pairs this psalm with Psalm 137, which commemorates the beginning of the Babylonian exile just as Psalm 126 describes the end of that exile. In a similar way, the Jesus Movement was an unexpected revival in the midst of the growth of secularism and at a time when the established churches viewed Sixties youth culture as a wholly negative development. The Holy Spirit often surprises us with the people and places and times in which it moves.

The key insight from the exile for Israel, however, was not that God restored the people at the end of exile but that God had been with them through exile. Wells writes, ‘Out of the exile came ancient Israel’s new insight that the God they thought was for them was actually something much better—a God who was with them.’

He applies this insight to our own day and time where we see a decline in the numbers of people attending church and a growth in secularisation. The people of God have tended to be closer to God in times of adversity than in periods of plenty, he says, so, ‘if we’re experiencing adversity in our church life right now, this is precisely the time we expect God to be close to us like never before’. He says that: ‘This conviction—this trust—is perhaps the hardest part of Christianity to believe. But it is the most wonderful to behold.’ When we see the Lord restoring the fortunes of Zion in that way, then we will be like those who dream. Then our mouth will be filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then will it be said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoice. So, as we experience a degree of exile currently within society, let us learn the lesson of the Babylonian Exile and make our prayer that of the writer of Psalm 126.

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11: 59 - Psalm 126.

Saturday Solace: Beautiful Scars

Here's the reflection I shared during Saturday Solace at St Andrew's Wickford this morning:

Bible reading:

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. (Luke 24.36-43)

Meditation: Beautiful scars

When Jesus says to his disciples, “Look at my hands and feet … Touch me and see”, it is the scars from the nails that were driven into his hands and feet while on the cross and the spear that was thrust into his side that he is asking his disciples to look at and touch. These scars are part of Christ’s resurrected body.

Christ’s resurrection is only achieved by way of the wounds he gained from the crucifixion. He is for us the risen Christ because he was firstly for us the crucified Christ. In a similar way our wounds inevitably form and shape us. We would not be who we are as we now are without having gone through or having endured those wounding experiences.

In Isaiah 53 we read: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering … and by his wounds we are healed.” Jesus saves us through his wounds. Those who are wounded often become wounded healers, with their experience of living with their wounds shaping their ministry to others facing similar experiences and circumstances.

We are all wounded and scarred, that is reality for all of us, but the marks of our pain can be turned into beautiful scars if we view the wounds we bear as being embraced by Christ, as formative in our lives and as opportunities which create potential in us to minister in future to others.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, who carries on his body the scars of our salvation, make our scars beautiful like your scars. May wounds in our lives, which at one time were signs of harm, become signs of care for others as our experience of living with our wounds comes to shape our ministry to others as wounded healers. We pray for this resurrection experience and ask that what was once harmful and destructive in our life be transformed to become life-giving for us and for others. Amen.

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Merry Clayton - Beautiful Scars.

Renewal from the edge

Here are the remarks I made today in the Annual Parochial Church Meeting for the Wickford and Runwell Team Ministry:

As I’ve only just begun my ministry here, I thought it would be helpful to say a few words about my background and experience to highlight some of the things I’ll be looking at and sharing with you in the course of my first year with you.

The first thing to say is that I haven’t always been a priest. I worked for 18 years in the Employment Service before sensing a call to ordination and retain a strong interest in the world of work as a result. Throughout my ministry I looked to make connections for others between faith and work, something that looks to me to be important here as so many who live in Wickford are commuters working in Central London.

Initially, that fact seems to be a deficit for the church, as that’s a large group of people who aren’t around to attend church during the week and who are looking to rest and relax at the weekend meaning that going to church isn’t top of their agenda. One of the lessons I’ve learnt in my time at St Martin-in-the-Fields is that beginning with deficits is never the place to start. If we begin with the problems or issues we are facing then we end up overwhelmed by those issues and can’t see a way forward. Instead, we need to begin with assets or opportunities, as those always exist, even in the most difficult of circumstances. In fact, the Bible teaches us that God seems closest to us and is encountered most deeply in time of adversity than is the case in times of comfort. The Israelites discovered that when they went into Exile. Initially, they thought they had lost everything but Exile became the place where they learnt that God was everywhere, not just in Israel, and where they drew together and returned to their scriptures.

So, we need to look at the different groups of people who make up the community in Wickford and Runwell – including children, young people, parent, elderly people and others - assume that they are, in various ways open to encountering God, and work out how, when and where such encounters might take place. Different groups of people will be able to be engaged in different ways and at different times – in other words they won’t necessarily connect with our existing services and service patterns, maybe not initially, maybe not ever. So, in order to grow, as well as maintaining and developing our existing services and congregations, we will also need to grow new congregations by drawing on the riches of our traditions, history and heritage in the Team while representing those riches in new ways and at different times. 

As one example, Great Sacred Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields is a weekday lunchtime concert that engages with people who enjoy choral music but who don’t feel comfortable in a church service. As a result, it is a concert rather than a service but one in which the underlying spirituality of the music performed is explored and explained in ways that enable to encounter something of God despite not being in a service. This is an effective bridging event drawing on the riches of Church choral music while sharing those riches in ways that enable people who wouldn’t otherwise come to church to engage.

I’m not saying that we need to replicate Great Sacred Music here. Instead, I’m saying that we will need to find our equivalents for the community here that provide a bridge to God in the way that Great Sacred Music does in central London.

Understanding and engaging with culture is also key to enabling others to encounter God. This has been another significant interest for me, particularly with the visual arts and music, but also with the Arts as a whole. Engaging with creatives locally and further afield and encouraging the creativity inherent in each of us enables the church to engage with another segment of the local community which often feels disconnected from church and enables us to create a culture of creativity that is a reflection of God, who is the most creative being in existence.

I’ve talked already about three elements of the model of mission with which I have worked throughout by ministry. It’s called the 4Cs, with the Cs being Commerce, Culture, Compassion and Congregation. We began with work, which is based on commerce and where we need to make deep connections between faith and work in order that people see how faith is lived out in the working week, not just on Sundays. Commerce is also needed as an additional source of income for churches that can’t be fully funded by benefactors or stewardship alone. I’ve already said a lot about culture, so won’t say more about that now. Compassion is a part of the 4Cs with which the churches in Wickford and Runwell already engage through support for the Foodbank and Women’s Refuge. I wonder whether there might be compassionate projects that we could, in time, initiate; remembering that care for the environment and support for families, young people and elderly folk are all also compassionate initiatives.

Congregation is the fourth element of this mission model. Supporting, sustaining and growing existing congregations is fundamental but is not an end in and of itself. If inwardly focused, existing congregations dwindle. If outwardly focused, seeking to support and grow new congregations using the other 3Cs, that’s when congregations grow. When congregations do this, it puts church at the heart of the community whilst also being with those who are on the edge. The edge may be the edge of church or the edge of society or the creative cutting edge (which might be found in commerce or culture).

Renewal comes from the edge. Those who are currently outside our congregations are those who have the greatest potential to renew us. That is because the Holy Spirit is always at work in the world and our wider community. We often don’t recognize what God is already doing in and through others because we think God is with us and we are those who have to share God with others. It’s freeing to turn that thinking on its head and realise that our calling is often to recognize and name what God is already doing in and through others, while getting involved to support those initiatives and help others see that what they are doing is of God.

This is a brief summary of some of what I have learnt about mission and ministry from nineteen years of ordained ministry. I hope it gives some ideas and frameworks that we can explore more fully over the months ahead. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas as we seek to learn from each other and share together in being God’s people engaged in God’s mission here in Wickford and Runwell.

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It Is A Thing Most Wonderful.

Renewing the Church from the edge with disruptive prophets and uncomfortable conversations

“If the Church is to be renewed from the edge it must make space for the edge to come to the centre. That space needs to be open to disruptive prophets and uncomfortable conversations – and accessible,” say Fiona MacMillan and The Rev’d Jonathan Evens from St Martin-in-the-Fields writing for anglican focus, the news site of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland.

Our article can be found here.

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The Byrds - 5D (Fifth Dimension).

humbler church Bigger God

HeartEdge is fundamentally about a recognition of the activity of the Holy Spirit beyond and outside the church, and about a church that flourishes when it seeks to catch up with what the Spirit is already doing in the world. There was a time when church meant a group that believed it could control access to God – access that only happened in its language on its terms. But God is bigger than that, and the church needs to be humbler than that. Kingdom churches anticipate the way things are with God forever – a culture of creativity, mercy, discovery and grace – and are grateful for the ways God renews the church through those it has despised, rejected, or ignored.

‘humbler church Bigger God’ is the new title for our ongoing online festival of theology, ideas and practice.

We’ve developed this in response to our changing world. The church is changing too, and - as we improvise and experiment - we can learn and support each other.

This is ‘humbler church Bigger God’’ - talks, workshops and discussion - hosted by HeartEdge. Created to equip, encourage and energise churches - from leaders to volunteers and enquirers - at the heart and on the edge.

The online programme includes:

• Regular weekly workshops: Sermon Preparation (Tuesdays) and Community of Practitioners (Wednesdays)
• One-off workshops and series on topics relevant to renewal of the broad church.

Find our archive of Living God’s Future Now sessions at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWUH-ngsbTAKMxCJmoIc7mQ.

The series also coincides with the publication of Samuel Wells, 'Humbler Faith, Bigger God: Finding a Faith to Live By', a major new articulation of the Christian faith that sees criticism as a gift to foster renewal. https://canterburypress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781786224187/humbler-faith-bigger-god (Pub date 29 April 2021)

“I’m not sure who else alive could have written this book. Scholars are not usually this accessible. Pastors not usually this sharp-eyed. Critics not usually this devastating. Advocates not usually so beautiful. This unusual book calls to mind Augustine’s heart, Aquinas’s mind, Day’s activism, Temple’s leadership. You say I exaggerate? Take up and read before you tell me I’m wrong.”

— Jason Byassee, Butler Professor of Homiletics and Biblical Hermeneutics at Vancouver School of Theology

St Botolph's Church - The Servant Song.

Church Times review - Edmund de Waal: Library of Exile

My latest review for Church Times is of Edmund de Waal's Library of Exile at the British Museum:

THE wisdom of the world is found in words and images and held in containers of space and containers of thought. Edmund de Waal’s Library of Exile gives us architecture, art, and literature combined in one habitable installation, where the inside and outside provide different responses to human learning and creativity ...

Outside this temporary structure, we see destruction recorded; inside, we view, review, and remember; and, when removed, the memories contained in covers will revitalise and renew the rebuilding of a restored thought container.

In the Psalms, in de Waal’s “Psalm”, in this library, in all libraries, we still ourselves and “navigate the space between the silence of things and the silence of people”.'

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here.

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My Morning Jacket - Librarian.

Christ the King – Renewal from the edge

Here's my sermon for Christ the King preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields this morning: 

Like many parents, Christine and I couldn’t bear to get rid of the toys and books that our daughters had enjoyed as children. We stored them in the attic and they moved with us as we have gone from curatage to vicarage and back to our own home. We recently brought them down from the attic for our eldest grandson. The book that Joshua loved most from our collection is called ‘Puzzle Mountain’, a book which, like the better known ‘Where’s Wally?’, has characters and objects to find on each of its busy pages. The story is about a journey to the top of Puzzle Mountain to protect a rare flower but the story is only a part of the book’s interest. What Joshua particularly loved was to find the hidden characters on each page. In other words, he loved answering the question of where those characters were at each stage of the story.

The parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25.31-46) asks us to reflect on the question of where Jesus is in this story. The story begins with Jesus at the centre in the position of power, authority, majesty and judgement. It is the end of time with the Son of Man coming in all his glory to sit on the throne of his glory and separate all the people of all the nations, one from another. It’s a centralised image with power and judgement centred in and dispensed by one person. As such, it’s a traditional image of monarchical, political, judicial or hierarchical power.

Yet, although this is where the story begins, it is not where the centre of the story actually resides. There is a redefining of the centre and the margins, the heart and the edge, that is the challenge which is at the heart of this parable. The judgement made within the story is one made on the basis of the extent to which people have been with those on the edge; those who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick or imprisoned. This is about compassion – bringing food and water, welcoming, clothing, caring and visiting – but is not simply about gestures of humility and service towards others. As in the story of St Martin, our patron saint, sharing his cloak with a beggar and then, in a dream, realising that the beggar was Christ; the deeper insight of this parable is that we encounter Jesus in those on the edge. They are Christ to us and we need to be on the margins ourselves because that is where Christ is to be found most fully.

This story is, therefore, a retelling of the story of incarnation; of Christ giving up equality with God to become a human being who suffers and dies for the sake of all. It is also a retelling of the story that the Bible, as a whole, tells. The Old Testament has a core narrative which associates God with the powers that structure, order and rule society; a story with Judges and Kings that for many today is viewed as patriarchal and oppressive; meaning it is unlike the kingdom that Jesus later revealed. However, the core narrative in scripture is subverted by a counter narrative in which God hears the voices of those who are victims and is found with the oppressed in order that they can journey from oppression to freedom. These two narratives may actually be two different ways to interpret the story told in the Old Testament. The question as to which is the correct reading remains open until Jesus comes to be the fullest revelation of the nature of God that can be seen in human form. These narratives, therefore, culminate in the story of the incarnation in which God becomes the ultimate scapegoat sent out from the centre into the margins carrying the sins of all for the sake of all.

This parable, the incarnation and the salvation history found in the Bible all ask the question of where is God to be found. They turn our expectations upside down by saying that God is seen most clearly among those on the edge. This is how we have come to understand our mission and ministry at St Martin’s and is what we have sought to share more widely through HeartEdge. We have said that, theologically, St Martin’s exists to celebrate, enjoy, and embody God being with us – the heart of it all. This is not a narcissistic notion that we are the heart, but a conviction that God is the heart and we want to be with God. The word ‘heart’ refers to feeling, humanity, passion, emotion. It means the arts, the creativity and joy that move us beyond ourselves to a plane of hope, longing, and glory. It means companionship, from a meal shared in our café or a gift for a friend perhaps bought in our shop. At the heart means not standing on the sidelines telling the government what to do, but getting into the action, where honest mistakes are made but genuine good comes about, where new partners are found and social ideas take shape.

The edge, for us, refers to the edge of Trafalgar Square, looking over its splendour and commotion, pageant and protest. But theologically, as we have been reflecting, the word ‘edge’ speaks of the conviction that God’s heart is on the edge of human society, with those who have been excluded or rejected or ignored. God is most evidently encountered among those in the margins and on the edge. St Martin’s isn’t about bringing those on the imagined ‘edge’ into the exalted ‘middle’; it’s about saying we want to be where God is, and God’s on the edge, so we want to be there too.

This parable, the incarnation and the salvation history found in the Bible take us further still as they turn our traditional understandings of heart and edge upside down and reveal that it is from the edge that the centre or heart is renewed. Our traditional expectation in society and, often, within the Church are that leadership, power and direction all come from the centre - the heart - of a society or nation or organisation or church. Our expectation has been that those on the edge need to be drawn into an exalted centre where they will also in time be exalted.

That is the basis for much charitable endeavour, particularly the charitable endeavours of the wealthy or powerful. It is also the basis of the flawed trickle-down theory of economics which argues that centralised wealth eventually trickles down to empower those who are poorest and furthest from the centres of wealth or power. Whether we think in terms of charity, economics, education or evangelism, these are instrumental approaches in which those at the centre possess what those at the edge need and benignly bestow their largesse on others, always in limited measure. They are approaches based on patronage rather than empowerment.

These stories turn that kind of thinking on its head. The defining characteristic in these stories is that of being on the edge with those who are hungry, thirsty, naked or imprisoned. God is seen in those on the edge therefore the edge is now where the heart of God is fully revealed. The edge is where God is fully seen and can be encountered meaning that the edge is now the place from which renewal can come.

Left to their own devices those at the heart with power and influence accumulate more power and influence centrally. To fully reflect Christ's characteristics of service and sacrifice we need to understand that the edge and the heart have become one. It is only as power and influence is devolved from the centre to the margins that society reflects the rule of Christ by reflecting the characteristics of Christ in letting go of power and serving others.

Christ divested himself of power, influence, authority and prestige when choosing to be born as a human being in relative poverty and obscurity in Bethlehem. Christ moved into our neighbourhood bringing the human and divine together, bringing the heart to the edge, and thereby renewing the Godhead by bringing our humanity into the heart of the Trinity, so that we become one. As our reading from Ephesians puts it, we become the body of the one whose fullness fills all in all.

As a result, those who are at the centre – however defined - are called to divest themselves of power in order to be with those on the edge. We have an example of this occurring within HeartEdge. Azariah France-Williams, who leads the HeartEdge Hub church for Manchester, wrote his book ‘Ghost Ship’ about institutional racism in the Church of England because his experience and that of other black clergy was of those with white privilege in the Church using that privilege to disempower black clergy. In his experience those with white privilege have not divested themselves of power or devolved that power to the margins of the church where most black clergy are currently to be found. Azariah says that his experience in HeartEdge has been different; one of being trusted to lead and of receiving support in enabling his voice to be heard through the HeartEdge programme.

So, like Joshua looking for the hidden characters in ‘Puzzle Mountain’, we need to be those who ask where Christ is in our world. This parable pictures Christ as being in the centre and on the edge – the fullness of the one who fills all, as our reading from Ephesians put it – but the parable is clear that being on the edge is what defines Christ and should also define us, as his followers. This parable, similarly, challenges us to go to the margins and to live on the edge if we are truly to find Christ and be found with Christ in the renewal of church, society and God that he promises and towards which he leads us. 

That means we do something that Joshua and I can’t do with ‘Puzzle Mountain’, which is to enter the story ourselves. This parable is a story we can enter, making the question posed in the parable not just where is Christ, but also where are we. When we see Jesus on the throne of judgement, that is the only one question he will have for us: “Where have you been?”

View this sermon and the full service at https://www.facebook.com/stmartininthefields/videos/379469153291742.

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Forth In The Peace Of Christ We Go.

Renewal from the edge

St Mark's Pennington and St Thomas' Lymington are spending the next six weeks exploring HeartEdge themes including the 4 Cs. I joined them this Sunday to preach and introduce HeartEdge. Catherine Duce will preach for the final Sunday in the series. Their services can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKRF1l-cpB5-rn1o5tUNWUw.

Here is the sermon I shared:

Are you at the heart (at the centre) or on the edge? Is your church at the heart or on the edge?

Your answer to that question will depend on what you identify as the area under consideration and where you see the centre or heart being. So, if the question was, are Pennington and Lymington at the heart of Hampshire, you might give a different answer to being asked whether the churches of Lymington and Pennington are at the heart of their local communities. The question can also be posed personally in terms of your churches; are you at the heart of your church or on the margins? Again, in order to answer that question, you have to think first, where is or what is the heart of this church?

These are important questions for all churches to be asking and the answers that we give shape the mission and ministry of each church, in ways that can be positive or negative. The HeartEdge renewal movement provides a framework for exploring these questions, but it is one which may reverse or challenge some of the assumptions you may have when you begin to ask these questions.

Our Gospel reading today (Matthew 21:23-32) is based on the same questions and, within HeartEdge, we want to be faithful to the answers it gives. As the beginning of John’s Gospel puts it, the Word became flesh and lived among us, the true light, which enlightens everyone, was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. That’s essentially what we see happening in today’s Gospel. 

The beginning of John's Gospel says that God came into the world but was rejected and not recognised. Yet, the stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone. The one who was at the centre of the Universe – the creator God – chose to be on the edge by becoming one with his creation; not as one born with power and prestige, but as one on the edge – a servant, a slave – who was then unrecognised, rejected and killed.

God chose to be on the edge, with those on the edge, and to be recognised by those on the edge. That’s what today’s Gospel reading tells us; those at the centre of religious life in Jesus’ day - the chief priests and the elders of the people – didn’t recognise him. But those on the edge of religious life (including those excluded from it) – the tax collectors and prostitutes, did recognise him. As he said of John the Baptist: ‘John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.’ The clear implication from Jesus is that exactly the same thing was happening in regard to his ministry too.

So, we ask the questions with which we began this sermon not because the centre is the place to be and the place into which everyone needs to be brought, but, instead, because God is actually with those on the edge and the renewal of the heart – the centre – will only come from those on the edge.

‘At the heart. On the edge.’ is the vision statement of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Sam Wells, our Vicar, has explained what it means for us. St Martin’s is at the heart of London and at the heart of the establishment. Theologically, St Martin’s exists to celebrate, enjoy, and embody God being with us – the heart of it all. This is not a narcissistic notion that we are the heart, but a conviction that God is the heart and we want to be with God. The word ‘heart’ refers to feeling, humanity, passion, emotion. It means the arts, the creativity and joy that move us beyond ourselves to a plane of hope, longing, and glory. It means companionship, from a meal shared in our café or a gift for a friend perhaps bought in our shop. At the heart means not standing on the sidelines telling the government what to do, but getting into the action, where honest mistakes are made but genuine good comes about, where new partners are found and social ideas take shape.

The edge, for us, refers to the edge of Trafalgar Square, looking over its splendour and commotion, pageant and protest. But theologically, as wehave been reflecting, the word ‘edge’ speaks of the conviction that God’s heart is on the edge of human society, with those who have been excluded or rejected or ignored. God is most evidently encountered among those in the margins and on the edge. St Martin’s isn’t about bringing those on the imagined ‘edge’ into the exalted ‘middle’; it’s about saying we want to be where God is, and God’s on the edge, so we want to be there too.

Being on the edge does mean facing the cost of being, at times, on the edge of the church. Some of the issues we care deeply about are not areas of consensus in the church. We aim to practise what we believe is a true gospel where we receive all the gifts God is giving us, especially the ones that the church has for so long despised or patronised. We believe that God is giving the church everything it needs for the renewal of its life in the people who find themselves to be on the edge. But the ‘edge’ also means a leading edge, perhaps a cutting edge with an outstanding music programme, a green footprint, and an eye for issues around disability. In particular it means a commercial enterprise that’s integrated into the life of the church community and, rather than simply being a source of funds, is at the forefront of the congregations interface with London’s civil economy.

The stone that the builders rejected didn’t find a place in the wall somewhere by being thoughtfully included like a last-minute addition to a family photo. The rejected stone became the cornerstone, the keystone – the stone that held up all the others, the crucial link, the vital connection. The rejected stone was Jesus, as our Gospel reading makes clear. In his crucifixion he was rejected by the builders – yet in his resurrection he became the cornerstone of forgiveness and eternal life. That’s what ministry and mission are all about – not condescendingly making welcome alienated strangers, but seeking out the rejected precisely because they are the energy and the life-force that will transform us all. Every minister, every missionary, every evangelist, every disciple should have these words over their desk, their windscreen, on their screensaver, in the photo section of their wallet, wherever they see it all the time – the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. 

If you’re looking for where the future church is coming from, look at what the church and society has so blithely rejected. The life of the church is about constantly recognising the sin of how much we have rejected, and celebrating the grace that God gives us back what we once rejected to become the cornerstone of our lives. That’s what prophetic ministry means. That’s what HeartEdge is all about.
 

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Paul Baloche - God, My Rock.

A prayer for the easing of lockdown

God of being and doing, of waiting and renewal 

your Son's disciples locked themselves in the upper room after the crucifixion 

and responded in different ways and at different times to his resurrection return.
As Jesus responded to each individually, assuring each of his love and presence, 

may we know your presence with us now, 

each in our different places following the easing of lockdown.
For those now able to leave their homes, 

we pray for wisdom in their use of regained freedoms.
For those who continue shielding at home, 

we pray for a increased connection and community.
For those for whom isolation and restriction are ongoing reality, 

we pray their voices and experience will now be heard, understood and valued.
As community was found in our shared experience, 

so may unity be found as our experiences now diverge. 

And in our diversity, hold us together within the embrace of your love. 

Amen.

With thanks to Fiona MacMillan for ideas and editing.

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Arvo Pärt - Kanon Pokajanen: Prayer After the Canon.

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.

Living God’s future now

Here is the sermon that I preached at St Peter's Nottingham yesterday:

‘A Future that’s Bigger than the Past’ is a book by Sam Wells, the Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields that focuses on the theology and methods of HeartEdge as a vision for renewal in the Church. In the book Sam asks “What kind of church do we need to become if we are to face the challenges and take the opportunities of the years ahead?” He explores what it means to see culture, commerce and compassion as out-workings of congregational life, and sources of growth for the church in faithfulness as well as numbers. The book is called ‘A Future Bigger than the Past’ because he wants us to rediscover a sense that this is a great time to be the Church and God is sending us everything we need to do the work of the Holy Spirit.

At present, within the Church of England, we often struggle to see a future that’s bigger than the past. That’s because the church in the West is getting smaller; and the church is becoming narrower. Those who regularly attend worship are fewer; and the church’s reputation and energy are becoming associated with initiatives that are introverted and often lack the full breadth of the gospel. In response, churches often focus on what they don’t have, who isn’t there, and the problems they face. When we think in terms of deficits, we begin with our hurts and our stereotypes, and find a hundred reasons why we can’t do things or certain kinds of people don’t belong. As churches, we are often quick to attribute our plight to a hostile culture or an indifferent, distracted population or even a sinful generation; but much slower to recognise that our situation is significantly of our own making.

Yet that phrase - ‘A Future that’s Bigger than the Past’ - remains true for us as Christians regardless of our circumstances or the state of the Church because our future is ultimately in heaven. As Paul states, in Philippians 3:20, ‘Our citizenship [as Christians] is in heaven.’ Pause for a moment to reflect on how transformational those words are; ‘Our citizenship is in heaven.’ Paul literally shifts the centre of the universe, from this existence and our daily reality, to the realm of essence, the things that last forever, the habitation of God and of those whom God has called to share the life of eternity. Rather than earth being the source and testing ground of truth and coherence, the measure of all things becomes heaven. When we’re assessing whether something is right or wrong, when we’re determining the current state of the Church, the question to ask is, does it stand the test of eternity? Will it abide with God forever? Or does it belong to the world that is passing away?

I want us to follow Paul today and start to concentrate on where we’re going. We’re going to heaven – where there is more than enough love for all, more than enough joy, more than enough truth, more than enough space for everyone to flourish. When we do so, we arrive at a new definition of the Church: a bunch of people who all come from different places but are all going to the same place. We’re a people pooling our resources for a journey we make together to a place none of us have ever been. There are no experts, because we’re all citizens of a country we’ve never visited and longing for a home we’ve never known.

How do we prepare for that journey? We look at the glimpses we have in scripture of heaven, including our Gospel reading today – the story of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17.1-9). In speaking of that story Sam Wells says: “There’s glory – the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. There’s the pattern of God’s story in Israel and the church, a story that finds its most poignant moments in the midst of suffering and exile. There’s the loving, tender, presence and heavenly voice of God the Father – a voice that for the only time in their lives, the disciples hear and understand. And there’s the extraordinary realisation that, even though all this could have gone on without them, the disciples have been caught up in the life of the Trinity, the mystery of salvation, the unfolding of God’s heart, the beauty of holiness.”

Up until this point, “the disciples know Jesus does plenty of amazing and wonderful things and says many beautiful and true things, but they still assume he’s basically the same as them.” It’s only as they go up the mountain with him that the veil slips and they’re invited in to a whole other world. A world in which “Jesus is completely at home,” “even when the Father’s voice thunders from above.” “And more remarkably still, it seems there’s a place for them in it, hanging out with the likes of Moses and Elijah. They’ve been given a glimpse of glory. It’s a glory that’s faithful to the story of Israel, a glory that has Jesus at the centre of it, a glory that has God speaking words of love, a glory that has a place for them in it, however stumbling and clumsy they are, and finally a glory in which Jesus touches them tenderly in their fear.”

The glimpse of glory that they are given is a glimpse of heaven. In the glimpse of heaven they are given they first see Jesus with his face shining like the sun. The light of the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus. God is seen – seen, not heard - in Jesus. What the disciples see of God in the Transfiguration is demonstration, not proclamation; the light of God seen as it is lived out in the life of his Son.

Second, they see Jesus in conversation and in relationship with Moses and Elijah. Moses, Elijah and Jesus are together in community, communing one with the other. The letter to the Hebrews speaks about a great crowd of witnesses in heaven made up of the prophets, saints and martyrs who have gone before but with whom we are in relationship. We see here, in the Transfiguration, a glimpse of that community of saints of which we are part.

Third, we see that such glimpses are currently temporary while they encourage us to yearn that they become permanent. Peter responds to the Transfiguration with the hope that Moses, Elijah and Jesus can tabernacle together (or live together in tents) just as God tabernacled (or dwelt in a tent) with the Israelites in the wilderness. Although, he yearns for a longer, more permanent experience, Peter has to accept the temporary nature of the Transfiguration in his present reality. A cloud overshadows the disciples and, when they look up, Jesus is alone again.

As citizens of heaven we are given glimpses of heaven in order that we begin to live as if we were already there. What do the glimpses of heaven that we see in the Transfiguration show us about how to live as if we were already in heaven?

First, the light of God was seen as it was lived out and demonstrated in the life of Christ. The church, therefore, should be about modelling and making possible forms of social relationship not found elsewhere. The church should seek to shape communities whose habits and practices anticipate and portray the life of God’s kingdom. Our role in mission is to cultivate assets and thereby foster and advance abundant life. So, it makes sense for the church to witness to its faith in an incarnate Lord who cares for the material reality of people’s lives by building community capacity and enhancing training, education, personal development and creative expression so as to enable individuals and neighbourhoods to flourish. Social engagement isn’t an add-on to the core business of worship; it’s a form of worship, because in the kingdom disciples are humbled, moved and transformed as they stumble into the surprising places and come face to face with the disarming people in whom the Holy Spirit makes Christ known. Christianity caught on in the second and third centuries because it created institutions that gave people possibilities and opportunities the rest of the world had yet to imagine. That’s what Christianity originally was: a revolutionary idea that took institutional form. That’s what it needs to become again. The church must model what the kingdom of God (its term for the alternative society, its language of God’s future now) means and entails in visible and tangible form.

Second, this modelling and demonstration of God’s future now will be centred on community. The Transfiguration shows us Christ in communion with the prophets, saints and martyrs. The chief end of humanity is, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, to glorify God by enjoying him forever. Heaven is all about relationships; enjoying God, each other and ourselves. Therefore, Christianity must take the present opportunity to be what it was always called to be: an alternative society, overlapping and sharing space with regular society, but living in a different time – that’s to say, modelling God’s future in our present. It’s not enough to cherish the scriptures, embody the sacraments, set time aside for prayer, and shape disciples’ character in the ways of truth, if such practices simply withdraw disciples for select periods, uncritically then to return them after a brief pause to a world struggling with inequality, identity, and purpose. Rather, what we need is to become and to model communities of ordinary virtues, but ones infused with grace: thus trust, honesty, politeness, forbearance, and respect are the bedrock of such communities, while tolerance, forgiveness, reconciliation, and resilience are among its abiding graces. What I’m describing is the transformation of churches into dynamic centres of abundant life, receiving, evidencing, dwelling in and sharing forms of social flourishing and being a blessing to their neighbourhood.

The Lent Course that you will shortly begin here explores the question ‘Who is my neighbour?’ in terms of: being waited on by Angel Neighbours; being a neighbour to those close to us; giving hospitality to strangers; standing up for the oppressed; carrying another’s load; and being a neighbour to those on the road. That course will, therefore, provide an opportunity for you to explore together how to become and how to model being a community of ordinary virtues infused with grace.

Third, we recognise the temporary nature of our community whilst longing, like Peter, for a more permanent experience of heaven on earth. That reality is implied by the phrase ‘The future is always bigger than the past.’ In essence, we don’t know, but we’re learning. We haven’t arrived, but the journey’s great. We’re not sure exactly where we’re going, but it’s getting better all the time. We’ve had some wonderful experiences, but the best is yet to come. So, we pray for the kingdom to come in future, on earth as it is in heaven, while seeking to create temporary signs of that kingdom in the here and now.

The experience of what it’s like to feel as though we’re already in heaven is what we call the kingdom of God. In HeartEdge we are seeking the renewal of the church by catalysing kingdom communities where we all have that experience. That is transfiguration. In Jesus’ transfiguration we see a whole reality within and beneath and beyond what we thought we understood; in times of bewilderment and confusion, we are shown God’s glory, that we may find a deeper truth to life than we ever knew, make firmer friends than we ever had, discover reasons for living beyond what we’d ever imagined, and be folded into God’s grace like never before. In other words, God reshapes our reality, to give us a new and right spirit to trust that even in the midst of suffering and hardship, truth can still be experienced and shared.

Entering in to that experience of glory is where we’re going. God invites us all to be in heaven, not because any of us have a right to be there, or because God is trying to set straight a historic injustice or present imbalance, but because God chooses never to be except to be with us in Christ, and that being-with is not a for-some-people thing but a for-everyone thing, and it’s not a for-now thing it’s a forever thing. We prepare for that reality 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.

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Echo and the Bunnymen - Heaven Up Here.

Resource Church: Licensing of Catherine Duce

Revd Catherine Duce was licensed on Wednesday as Assistant Vicar for Partnership Development at St Martin-in-the-Fields by The Rt Revd Ric Thorpe, Bishop of Islington. Catherine’s role is to further develop HeartEdge in London, while also leading on Nazareth Community partnerships more generally and supporting other key initiatives at St Martin’s. Her appointment has been made possible because St Martin’s has been designated as a resource church by the Diocese of London.

The role that Catherine is now taking on is one which is part of the Resource Church initiative that Bishop Ric has pioneered in the Diocese of London and more widely. Resource churches are essentially those that are able to share with and support other churches in their mission and ministry. Many Resource churches in London will use the model of church planting but, here at St Martin's, the resource that we are sharing is HeartEdge, the ecumenical movement for renewal that we initiated in February 2017.

HeartEdge is a growing network of churches and other organisations in which ideas for and approaches to mission are shared and where the challenges faced by churches today are honestly explored. We have a programme of introductory events, mission model workshops and consultancy days which provide opportunities for mutual learning and support the revitalization of churches and, with Catherine’s help, will plan more London-focused events. Catherine's role is to grow HeartEdge in London, supporting existing member churches and encouraging more churches to join this movement for renewal.

Please do pray that God will take all that Catherine brings to this role from her previous experience and use it powerfully in the development of mutual support between churches, the revitalization of congregations and the growth through those congregations of new worshipping communities.

Catherine can be contacted on 020 7766 1127 or catherine.duce@smitf.org and would love to hear from you. She will be seeking to visit all HeartEdge members in London, so expect to hear from her before too long. We would also love to draw more churches into the movement for renewal that is HeartEdge, so do suggest other churches with which Catherine could share information.

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Take O Take Me As I Am.

A Future That Is Bigger Than The Past: Catalyzing Kingdom Communities

Rev Dr Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, delivered the 2019 Chalmers Lectures this autumn. Entitled ‘A Future that’s Bigger than the Past’, the six lectures focused on the theology and methods of HeartEdge as a vision for renewal in the Church.

Launched at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 2017, HeartEdge is a membership-based organisation, an ecumenical network of partners and a movement for renewal.

The name HeartEdge reflects the group’s purpose - for those working at the heart of commerce, culture and community, with those at the margins and on the edge.

Through joining the network, churches are supported in finding their stories, share resources and connect with others developing their church and community.

The six Chalmers Lectures delivered at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh were:

• For Such a Time as This: Locating the UK Church in a global and gospel story – Tuesday 17 September
• Investing in the Kingdom: Taking money beyond the benefactor and the steward – Wednesday 18 September
• Minding God’s Business: Realigning commerce and Church – Thursday 19 September
• Entertaining Angels Unawares: How God renews the Church through the stones that the builders reject – Tuesday 1 October
• Let All the People Praise Thee: How the Church may be part of a cultural renaissance – Wednesday 2 October
• On Earth as it is in Heaven: Towards a vision for the renewal of congregational life – Thursday 3 October

The final three lectures in the series were heard during the HeartEdge Annual Conference. For those who were unable to attend in person, the lectures were recorded and can be watched again https://stream1.churchofscotland.org.uk/chalmers-lecture.

A Future That's Bigger Than The Past: Towards the renewal of the Church is a book comprising his six talks. It shares the vision of the church as imagined by HeartEdge, the growing network of churches established by St Martin-in-the-Fields, with its fourfold focus for renewing the mission activity of the church: commerce, culture, congregation and compassion. 

Six chapters explore the practical outworking of this vision: * For Such a Time as This: Locating the UK church in a global and gospel story; * Investing in the Kingdom: Taking money beyond the benefactor and the steward; * Minding God's Business: Realigning commerce and church; * Entertaining Angels Unawares: How God renews the church through the stones that the builders reject; * Let All the People Praise Thee: How the church may be part of a cultural renaissance; * On Earth as it is in Heaven: Towards a vision for the renewal of congregational life.

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Michael Kiwanuka - You Ain't The Problem!

HeartEdge conference: On earth as it is in heaven

  

HeartEdge welcomed US theologian Winnie Varghese and asset-based community worker Cormac Russell for a two-day conference 'On earth as it is in heaven' – a gathering of the HeartEdge community in Edinburgh (2 & 3 October 2019).

The programme also included The Right Rev Colin Sinclair (Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland), The Most Reverend Mark Strange (The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church) and Dr Sara Parvis (Senior Lecturer in Patristics, University of Edinburgh) in conversation with Sheena McDonald on the theme of Renewing the Church.

Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, delivered the Chalmers Lectures. Entitled ‘A Future that’s Bigger than the Past’, these lectures were concerned with the theology and methods of HeartEdge as a movement for renewal in the Church. The conference included the opportunity to hear the final three lectures in the series; the first three in the series being held in September. The Lectures can be viewed in full at https://stream1.churchofscotland.org.uk/chalmers-lecture while the book of the Lectures is available from https://canterburypress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781786221773/a-future-thats-bigger-than-the-past.

The HeartEdge Conference was a practical, two-day intensive of ideas, theology and connecting. It included workshops on enterprise and commerce, launching cultural projects, developing congregations and sustaining community response, plus time to make connections and find encouragements. Among others who took part were: Rosie Addis; David Bradwell; Derek Browning; ID Campbell; Jonathan Evens, Sally Hitchiner; Simon Jay; Jonny Kinross; Tania Kovats, Deborah Lewer; Suzanne Lofthus; Maxwell Reay; Scott Rennie; Fiona Smith; Peter Sutton; and Bev Thomas. The conference venues were The Parish Church of St Cuthbert and St John's Church, with the Chalmers Lectures held at Greyfriars Kirk.

 

Sam Wells asked “What kind of church do we need to become if we are to face the challenges and take the opportunities of the years ahead?” “I want listeners to rediscover a sense that this is a great time to be the Church and God is sending us everything we need to do the work of the Holy Spirit.”
He added, “I was especially thrilled that the invitation to explore the theology and significance of HeartEdge coincided with the second annual HeartEdge conference in Edinburgh. It felt like in the evenings we were proposing the theory and during the days we were exploring the practice. What a wonderful model of Church.”

Sam introduced the conference as follows:

'I remember a colleague saying, ‘We all know Mary was a Catholic.’ It was funny and true at the same time. But it got me thinking.

We all know the Bible was written by evangelicals. We all know the Holy Spirit is a charismatic.

The result is that those who identify with the broad church – who believe that God is as active beyond the church as within it, who are focused not just on talking about God’s future but on living God’s future now, who believe the church should be as kaleidoscopically diverse as God, tend to deprive themselves of vital tools to work with. HeartEdge believes the Spirit is alive and working both within and beyond the church, and is especially concerned to focus on the beyond. It believes that the Bible points us to a gloriously many-splendoured community of outcasts, just as the early churches were.

Welcome to the HeartEdge conference 2019. We’re thrilled to be in Edinburgh, and to have so much support from the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church. Do take the advantage to listen, challenge, network, make friends, discover new vocabulary and perspectives, and share your story. That’s what we’re all here to do – and thereby seek God’s will on earth as in heaven.'

Winnie Varghese wrote:

'Christians in the West, and I include myself in this, have several unique opportunities in this time. Our task, as it is in every generation, is to "do the theology" for our times. In the Western context that means interrogating our contexts and asking where we might seek Jesus, God among us, in this time. The simple answer is in the church. A slightly less simple answer is in the person most vulnerable to the structures of power. What brings us all together is that we are not seeking a simple answer. We know there is a complex, possibly difficult, inevitably challenging response that means that we test boundaries, language, practice, self-understandings, and our pre-set notions of goodness and God.

Most literally, we seek salvation and reconciliation to a vision that might be like a vision God would hold for our communities in the contexts in which we find ourselves.

I want to talk very concretely about the tools we have to do what is actually almost impossible to do, particularly in a political climate that invites us to be defended, on our toes, protected — we as Christians and leaders of Christian institutions are to be soft hearted, vulnerable, open, changeable, seeking of transformation — through the world. This is where we are told we give up our lives that we might have life abundant.

Can we build institutions that live this way by shrewdly managing the abundant resources we steward, casting a vision broad and beautiful enough to be worthy of our tradition, and developing a collaborative network that invites wisdom back into the centre of our common lives?'

Philip Dawson has provided the following conference report:

'02/10/19 - Day 1 of the HeartEdge Conference at St Cuthbert’s Church in Edinburgh. Water seemed to be a recurring theme!

We began the day with Winnie Varghese from Trinity Wall Street (a church modeled on St Mary Le Bow) talking about the particular problems that wealth brings for the church and society. She called on us to “plumb the depths of our tradition” to use the power of the institution to help to renew the church and bring heaven and earth closer together.

In a fascinating Q&A moderated by Sheena McDonald, Dr Sara Parvis from the University of Edinburgh spoke about the challenges facing the world, including the environment, politics and refugees. Referencing St Paul’s shipwreck in Acts 27 and the way he responded to it, she speculated whether we are in need of a good shipwreck today?

At a “Renewal Service” after the Q&A, The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church participated in a service of Renewal of baptismal vows, sprinkling the congregation with water. My knowledge of the church in Scotland is very poor but I think this was a very significant and symbolic moment that doesn’t happen every day.

In the afternoon, workshops took place focusing on the 4Cs of HeartEdge – Commerce, Compassion, Culture and Congregation. I chose to attend a fascinating workshop on a Mental Health Drop-In Centre in Edinburgh, meeting Stephen one of the regular attendees. I also attended a workshop on organising Passion (or Mystery) plays run by Cutting Edge Theatre.

The day concluded with a lecture by Sam Wells as part of the Chalmers Lecture Series at Greyfriars Kirk, on the Church and Culture. Referencing the writing of Makoto Fujimura, Sam Wells speculated that the image of an estuary was useful in considering the relationship between church and culture – a transitional habitat which, through the intermingling of fresh and salt water, is a place of nurture and cross-fertilisation of ideas. Rather than seeing the church as the ‘sea’ or the freshwater of the river – perhaps the estuary is a more relevant metaphor – perhaps the church is like an oyster (which only exists in estuary habitats) turning polluted water into pearls. A fascinating day.

03/10/19 - Day 2 of the HeartEdge Conference took place at St John’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh. Water was again a recurring metaphor – the keynote speaker, Cormac Russell of the Nurture Institute spoke about Asset Based Community Development – and how the relationship between stakeholders in the community is hydraulic. Cormac (who began training as a Roman Catholic Priest and then a Clinical Psychologist) used Humpty Dumpty as a secular version of Sam Wells’ famous Good Samaritan analysis to advocate a “being with” rather than “doing for” approach – with those “in need” pushing the hydraulic relationship towards us, the church or the state rather than vice versa.

The day included workshops to discuss issues with other HeartEdge members, a great panel discussion moderated by Jonathan Evens on Art in Church and rounded off with frank reflections from Sam Wells, Winnie Varghese and Cormac Russell. Thank you to Jonathan and the HeartEdge team for a fascinating two days. The wisdom will take some time to trickle through my brain!'

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Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Sun Forest.