ArtWay: Interview with Steve Whittle

My latest interview for ArtWay is with Steve Whittle, whose exhibition at St Andrew's Wickford opens next week. The interview covers Steve's fascinating career and the range of work he undertakes, including his primary focus on collage. See below for more about Steve and his exhibition at St Andrew's.

ArtWay.eu has been hailed "a jewel in the crown of work in Christianity and the arts," and having come under the custodianship of the Kirby Laing Centre, the much-loved publication is entering an exciting new chapter in its story with the launch of a new website in September.

Since its founding, ArtWay has published a rich library of materials and resources for scholars, artists, art enthusiasts and congregations concerned about linking art and faith. Founded by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker in 2009, ArtWay's significance is reflected in its designation as UNESCO digital heritage material in the Netherlands.

In the video above, the ArtWay team recounts the history of this much-loved resource and looks ahead to an exciting future for ArtWay.

Back in 2018, I interviewed ArtWay founder Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker for Artlyst on the legacy of ArtWay itself. I have written frequently for the site with a recent piece being an interview with British artist Hannah Rose Thomas, who is also an author, human rights activist and a UNESCO PhD Scholar at the University of Glasgow.

My visual meditations for ArtWay include work by María Inés Aguirre, Giampaolo Babetto, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Alexander de Cadenet, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Jake Flood, Antoni Gaudi, Nicola Green, Maciej Hoffman, Gwen John, Lakwena Maciver, S. Billie Mandle, Giacomo Manzù, Sidney Nolan, Michael Pendry, Maurice Novarina, Regan O'Callaghan, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Nicola Ravenscroft, Albert Servaes, Henry Shelton, Anna Sikorska, Alan Stewart, Jan Toorop, Andrew Vessey, Edmund de Waal and Sane Wadu.

My Church of the Month reports include: All Saints Parish Church, Tudeley, Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Churches in Little Walsingham, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Metz Cathedral, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, St Michael and All Angels Berwick and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

Blogs for ArtWay include: Congruity and controversy: exploring issues for contemporary commissions; Ervin Bossanyi: A vision for unity and harmony; Georges Rouault and André Girard: Crucifixion and Resurrection, Penitence and Life Anew; Photographing Religious Practice; Spirituality and/in Modern Art; and The Spirituality of the Artist-Clown.

Interviews for ArtWay include: Matthew Askey, Paul Chandler and Brian Whelan, Sophie Hacker, Peter Koenig, David Miller, Belinda Scarlett and Hannah Rose Thomas.

I have also reviewed: Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace, Kempe: The Life, Art and Legacy of Charles Eamer Kempe and Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals for ArtWay.

Other of my writings for ArtWay can be found here.

'The Way', an exhibition by Steve Whittle at St Andrew's Wickford (11 London Road, Wickford, Essex SS12 0AN) from 11 January to 18 April 2025. This artist, based in Westcliff-on-Sea based, uses collage to create Stations of the Cross & a range of other scenes, both religious and landscape. St Andrew’s is usually open: Sat 9am-12.30pm; Sun 9.30am-12 noon; Mon 2-3.45pm; Tue 1-4.30pm; Wed 10am-12 noon; Fri 10am-1pm.

‘The main medium I use is collage and over many years I have developed the technique which can be seen in many of the pictures in this exhibition.’

View the exhibition and hear Steve speak about his work at ‘Unveiled’, the arts & performance evening at St Andrew’s Wickford, Friday 17 January, 7.00 pm.

The primary subject matter in Steve Whittle's work is colour, which has been the major theme. The work is often produced in series and is unified by the similar images and combinations of colours that are used. Each picture can therefore be viewed as a component of a group or seen as an individual piece.

The medium Whittle uses is collage and over many years he has developed the technique which can be seen in many of the pictures in this exhibition. Firstly, the paper, which is acid free, is prepared with several coats of acrylic paint in the appropriate colour and the torn paper collage is applied to this surface with acrylic glue in as many layers as necessary to get the correct colour combinations. When the picture is complete it is then coated with UVS varnish.

‘The Way’ includes a series of Stations of the Cross, plus other crucifixion and resurrection images.

The Spring 2025 programme for Unveiled, our fortnightly Friday night arts and performance event at St Andrew’s Church (7.00 – 9.00 pm, 11 London Road, Wickford, Essex SS12 0AN), begins with the exhibition viewing evening for 'The Way' by Steve Whittle:

Spring Programme 2025

• 17 January (7.00 pm) – ‘The Way’ exhibition viewing evening. Meet artist Steve Whittle, see his exhibition & hear him interviewed. This artist, based in Westcliff-onSea based, uses collage to create Stations of the Cross & a range of other scenes, both religious and landscape.
• 31 January (7.00 pm) – ‘Four Essex Trios’. An evening of poems and photographs with Jonathan Evens exploring thin places and sacred spaces in Essex, including Bradwell, Broomfield, Pleshey, and Runwell.
• 14 February (7.00 pm) – An evening with the Ladygate Scribblers. Hear poetry and prose from a longestablished Wickford-based writers group.
• 28 February (7.30 pm) – Open Mic Night. Everybody is welcome to come along & play, read, sing or just spectate. See you there for a great evening of live performance!
• 14 March (7.00 pm) – Simon Law in concert. Simon has fronted the rock bands Fresh Claim, Sea Stone and Intransit, as well as being a founder of Plankton Records and becoming an Anglican Vicar. This will be his final concert for us before retirement.
• 28 March (7.30 pm) – Dave Crawford & friends in concert. Popular local musician, Dave Crawford writes engaging/melodic songs in Americana/ Alt-Rock/IndieFolk. He has performed at the Leigh Folk Festival, Pin Drop Sessions, & Music for Mind together with Kev Butler. This will be Dave’s third concert at Unveiled. We have also enjoyed his powerful vocals & guitar at our Open Mic Nights.
• 11 April (7.30 pm) – Tim Almond in concert. ‘Around the World in 60 Minutes’ featuring songs and stories from Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Ecuador and Bangladesh.

See http://wickfordandrunwellparish.org.uk/whats-on.html and https://basildondeanery.co.uk/index.php/news/ for more information.

These events do not require tickets (just turn up on the night). There will be a retiring collection to cover artist and church costs.

Our churches are places to enjoy cultural programmes including concerts and exhibitions as well as being places to see art and architecture.

St Andrews Church in Wickford provides regular art, culture and heritage events and we are looking to develop this further. We think that to do so will benefit the Town by bringing more people to the Town Centre. As part of a Feasibility Study exploring what might be possible that is funded by UKFSP Feasibility Fund, we are asking people locally to share what art, culture and heritage activities they are interested in and what they are looking for.

We would be very grateful if you could complete the survey and tell others about it. The survey can be found at https://forms.gle/dmPH7uzAafuAqLzDA. We are keen that as many people in and around Wickford complete the survey as possible.

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Dave Crawford - Revelations.

Addressing prestige and privilege

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

In 2019 a TUC report showed that graduates with parents in ‘professional and routine’ jobs were more than twice as likely as working-class graduates to start on a high salary, no matter what degree level they attain. The TUC’s General Secretary Frances O’Grady commented: ‘Everyone knows that getting that dream job is too often a case of who you know, not what you know.’

Is that well-known saying true? It seems that it might well be! In 2022 a paper entitled “A Causal Test of the Strength of Weak Ties,” appeared in Science magazine and appeared to confirm its truth. The paper detailed the results of a study which involved millions of users of LinkedIn, the social networking site that helps users connect with colleagues, find jobs, and advance their careers.

The research upheld an idea first posited nearly 50 years ago; that weak ties to other people have a value that strong ties do not. The people you know best may have social networks that closely resemble your own and thus may not add much new job-seeking value for you. Your more casual acquaintances, on the other hand, have social networks that overlap less with yours and may provide connections or information you would not otherwise be able to access. As a result, tapping the knowledge and contacts of people in our networks who we know less well than our core friends is more likely to help us find a new job.

Today’s Gospel reading (Mark 10: 35-45) suggests that 'in-crowds' and 'favours' were also a part of thinking and practices in Jesus' time. James and John asked Jesus for a favour in the way that Frances O’Grady alleges favours can be granted in work today. They wanted to be privileged over and above the others in the group and used a private conversation to make their request.

What James and John were after was another perennial temptation for us as human beings; the desire for prestige, in this case, the request to sit on the right and left of Jesus in glory. Similarly, within the kind of networks we noted at the beginning of this sermon, it is suggested that there may be pathways to prestige which are essentially open on the basis of birth, wealth or power.

Jesus calls this whole approach into question with his response to James and John. Today we would characterise what he says in relation to discussions of rights and responsibilities.

Jesus says firstly that places of prestige are not available without sacrifice (i.e. no rights without responsibilities), in other words there is no entitlement because of birth, schooling, friendships, networks. What matters in the kingdom of God is service and sacrifice and these not for the sake of future prestige and glory, but for their own sake and for the love of others: ‘Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Jesus turns the search for prestige on its head. Instead of the prestige of being first being the goal and the reward, those who are great in the kingdom of God are those who make themselves the least; those who are prepared to serve in same way as Jesus, by laying down their life for others.

Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, in his statement on the coronavirus outbreak and how we might live in and through it, drew on just this thinking. He said that: ‘Jesus came among us in the first place, to show us … how to live not simply as collections of individual self-interest, but how to live as the human family of God. That’s why he said love the Lord your God, love your neighbor as yourself. Because in that is hope for all of us to be the human family of God … So look out for your neighbors, look out for each other. Look out for yourselves. Listen to those who have knowledge that can help to guide us medically and help to guide us socially. Do everything that we can to do this together, to respond to each other’s needs and to respond to our own needs.’

James and John say they are prepared to do this but it is ultimately about deeds, not words, and their action in asking for a favour on their behalf clearly shows that they hadn't understood his teaching and practice at this stage in their relationship with him.

Where are we in relation to these issues? Are we chasing after worldly rewards and prestige; seeking it through favours or paying for prestige? Maybe, like James and John, we have brought the values of the world into the kingdom of God and are trying to follow Jesus for some form of personal gain?

Let’s take the opportunity that this passage provides for self-reflection on these issues and consider the possibility of aligning our thinking, values and deeds with those of Jesus as we become the servants or slaves of others in order that we serve instead of being served and give our lives for the sake of others. Amen.

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Big Star - The Ballad Of El Goodo.

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Church of the Month report

 My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on All Saints Tudeley:

"Hidden away at the end of a lane leading from Five Oaks Green Road, set among fields and Kentish Oast houses in the Tunbridge Wells borough of Kent, England), 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 ...

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.’"

My Church of the Month reports include: Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Churches in Little Walsingham, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Metz Cathedral, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, St Michael and All Angels Berwick and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

My visual meditations include work by María Inés Aguirre, Giampaolo Babetto, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Alexander de Cadenet, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Jake Flood, Antoni Gaudi, Nicola Green, Maciej Hoffman, Lakwena Maciver, S. Billie Mandle, Giacomo Manzù, Michael Pendry, Maurice Novarina, Regan O'Callaghan, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Nicola Ravenscroft, Albert Servaes, Henry Shelton, Anna Sikorska and Edmund de Waal.

Interviews for ArtWay include: Sophie Hacker and Peter Koenig. I also interviewed ArtWay founder Marleen Hengelaar Rookmaaker for Artlyst.

I have reviewed: Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace, Kempe: The Life, Art and Legacy of Charles Eamer Kempe, and Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals.

Other of my writings for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Church Times can be found here. Those for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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Beth Rowley - Beautiful Tomorrow.

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on Metz Cathedral:

'Nicknamed “God’s Lantern,” Metz Cathedral in Lorraine, France, is renowned for its vast expanse of stained glass—covering 6,496 square meters, i.e. over twice as much as Rouen and three times as much as Chartres. The amount is impressive, but so too is its variety. It dates from the thirteenth century all the way through to the 1960s ...

The cathedral offers visitors a simple but effective leaflet, Parcours spiritual, that identifies a prayerful route around the cathedral, highlighting sixteen of its most important aspects, including its modern glass. At each of these points in the cathedral, information and a prayer can be found, encouraging visitors to be not simply tourists but worshipers as well. Some argue that this approach, like the information provided on wall cards in museum exhibitions, might direct viewers to see the artwork from one perspective alone. However, this does not have to be the case, as viewers often take that perspective as a starting point for then seeing others. Curators have found that providing no way into an artwork can leave viewers unable to begin to engage with the artwork at all.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Churches in Little Walsingham, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

Other of writings for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Church Times can be found here. Those for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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The Westies - Everything Is All I Want For You.

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on churches in Little Walsingham:

'The Guild Chantry Chapel of St. Michael and the Holy Souls, designed by Laurence King in 1965, is the most modern of the worship spaces at the Anglican Shrine. The chapel has abstract glass, a crucifix carved in wood by Siegfried Pietsch, and a low-relief fibreglass sculpture by John Hayward depicting St. Michael defeating Satan. Both Pietsch and Hayward worked with the Faith Craft organization, which was based at one time in the Abbey Mill in the city of St. Albans. “For over 50 years Faith Craft artists and designers produced stained glass, vestments, statues and other carvings, liturgical furniture, sacred vessels and other ornaments for the beautification of God’s worship”.

Hayward also designed and executed the east window at St. Mary and All Saints Little Walsingham. His complex design includes saints to which the church is dedicated, other sites of pilgrimage, founders of monastic orders associated with Walsingham, the story of Walsingham, and the fire that devastated this church in 1961. The window was installed for the re-consecration of the church in 1964.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

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Van Morrison - Hymns To The Silence. 

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on Eton College Chapel:

'A bomb that fell on Upper School in 1940 shattered all the Chapel glass except that in the window above the organ. The east window, which was created by Evie Hone and installed in 1952 as a replacement, is considered by many to be one of the masterpieces of modern stained-glass art. The designs for the windows flanking it, four on each side, are by John Piper and were executed in glass by Patrick Reyntiens from 1959 onwards. The subjects are divided into four miracles on the north side and four parables on the south, each built around a general theme of success and failure.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

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Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - God Is In The House.

After the Fire

The fire at Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017 shocked the nation. A personal tragedy that claimed over 70 lives and affected many more, it exposed inequalities and tensions but also a strong sense of community and resilience and, in particular, a wide range of faith groups that are embedded in the community, and that responded practically, pastorally and professionally in a time of serious need and confusion.

In advance of the one year anniversary of the fire, the parish of St Clement and St James and the religion and society think tank, Theos, will host an evening to reflect on the faith groups’ response.

The evening marks the launch of two publications: After the Fire by Alan Everett, Vicar of St Clement and St James, and After Grenfell: the Faith Groups’ Response by Amy Plender, from Theos. After the Fire is a moving and penetrating account of Alan’s experience at the heart of the mass disaster, while After Grenfell draws on over 30 interviews with faith groups across the community to understand how they were able to respond in the way they did.

In the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, the local parish church became a focal point of the relief effort, and a gathering place for a traumatised community. In the months that followed, it worked closely with other community and faith groups to provide a compassionate network of support.

In this bold and prophetic challenge, Alan Everett shows that the church's response was possible only because it had opened its doors long ago, building relationships with the most marginalised in the community. Its effectiveness was born out of a patient, faithful, unheroic ministry that is all too easily underestimated.

Through gripping reportage and searching theological reflection, After the Fire demonstrates how parish ministry can be a living symbol of God's love, and a vital sign of hope.

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Petris Vasks - Lord Open Our Eyes.

Church Times: Where Love & Sorrow Meet, A fractious and yet fruitful embrace & From the Polish spirit

This week's edition of Church Times has much that is of interest beginning with its report on the commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, which reduced the grounds on which homosexual men could be sent to prison. This includes 'Where Love & Sorrow Meet', a service in St Martin-in-the-Fields, which looked forward as well as back. Click here to read the addresses from that service, including a powerful sermon from Mark Oakley.

Ayla Lepine, an art historian and ordinand, reflects on the idea of the artist-in-residence, and looks at some examples of how it works for churches. Ayla, with Alastair McKay, will also be facilitating taster sessions at Greenbelt from the new online interactive discipleship resource from St Martin-in-the-Fields and the National Gallery, ‘Art and the Bible Story: Inspired to Follow’, which looks at the Biblical story through fine art paintings.

I enter into the world of Polish émigré art, and its link to the hospice pioneer Dame Cicely Saunders, through a review of Art Out of the Bloodlands at Ben Uri Gallery. I have written a wide range of pieces of émigré artists, particularly Polish artists in Britain, and these supplementary articles and posts can be found at:

• http://www.artlyst.com/features/polish-art-britain-centenary-marked-londons-ben-uri-gallery/; 
• http://joninbetween.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/exile; 
• http://www.artlyst.com/features/refugee-artists-learning-from-the-lives-of-others-revd-jonathan-evens/; 
• http://www.artway.eu/content.php?id=1395&action=show&lang=en; 
• http://www.artway.eu/artway.php?id=532&action=show&lang=en; and https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2013/3-may/features/features/united-in-life-art-and-death.

In this review I note that the current exhibition of Polish art at the Ben Uri Gallery, a recent exhibition by Jamaican artists at St Stephen Walbrook, and the current exhibition “I Am” of work by Middle Eastern women artists at St Martin-in-the-Fields (until 20 August) — all opened within days of each other. London is nothing if not cosmopolitan, and the churches continue to contribute to that diversity and our reflection upon it.

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London Gay Men's Chorus - Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay Report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on Chichester Cathedral:

'... the mix of commissions at Chichester Cathedral—from the “riot of colour and symbol” in the Piper tapestry to the glow of Hans Feibusch’s tender Baptism, the harmonious whole that is the Icon of the Divine Light by Cecil Collins to the fractured energies of Ursula Benker-Schirmer’s tapestry for the Shrine of St. Richard—genuinely invigorate and beautify the cathedral while introducing variety and intrigue into the experience of visiting and worshipping here. Tourists are encouraged to do both during their visit by prayers on the hour and use of the leaflet “A Spiritual Tour of Chichester Cathedral,” which has been designed to help people pray as they walk around the space.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Lumen, Metz Cathedral, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St Margaret's Ditchling and St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

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Karl Jenkins - The Armed Man.

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on Metz Cathedral:

'James Waller has written that here “Chagall is all curves and tonal flares,” his “modulation of tone, within the fabulously fragmented and flowing glass panes” lending “his colours a deeper, more smoldering dimension.”

Waller contrasts Chagall’s curves with the “constructivist angles and flat-colour planes” of the windows by Jacques Villon created for the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in 1957. Villon’s “highly expressive constructivism, divided into powerful sections of colour, makes a startling impact within the medieval interior” and “flare brilliantly, even on an overcast day, drawing all eyes towards them.” In the early morning light, his “stained-glass compositions of the Crucifixion (centre), the Jewish Passover and Last Supper (left), and the Wedding Feast of Cana (right)” blaze in a stunning conflagration of light.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St Margaret's Ditchling and St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

Also on ArtWay is a short piece about Francis Bacon based on the forthcoming Crucifixions:Francis Bacon exhibition at St Stephen Walbrook. 

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Corinne Bailey Rae - The Skies Will Break.

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft.

'St Margaret’s Church in Ditchling has an east window designed in 1947 by [Charles] Knight, as well as an oak screen designed by John Denman and carved by [Joseph] Cribb in memory of the artist Louis Ginnett. The font and the lettering of the Ten Commandments are also by Cribb. The gravestones of [Edward] Johnston and Cribb overlook the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, where examples of their work and that of Guild members are now displayed in new premises by Adam Richards Architects, shortlisted in 2014 for the ArtFund’s Museum of the Year award. “The Museum offers an accessible and evocative insight into type of craftsmanship and way of life the Ditchling Arts and Crafts community developed”'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church and St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated withMarian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

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The Band - To Kingdom Come.

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal in Geneva. 'The manifesto for the renaissance of modern sacred art is written in stone, glass, and paint at Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal in the upmarket municipality of Cologny in Geneva, Switzerland. Cologny is well known for having been visited by Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John William Polidori, and other friends in the summer of 1816, a trip that spawned the development of the classic talesFrankenstein and “The Vampyre.”

Located at the southern end of Cologny at the dead end of the Avenue de Saint-Paul, the church isn’t something one stumbles upon; it has to be deliberately sought out—and great beauty awaits those who do.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy, Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church and St Mary the Virgin, Downe, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

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Jennifer Warnes & Leonard Cohen - Joan Of Arc.

Business Harvest Festival: What is your work for?

At St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London we have a tradition that companies in the parish designate someone to bring an object to represent their work and to place it on the altar as a symbol at the beginning of our Business Harvest Festival service. Businesses and organisations representing the work found in the Parish of St Stephen this year included: Arthur J Gallagher, The City of London Police, The Don Restaurant and ‘Sign of the Don’, Rynda Property Investors, Vestra Wealth LLP, The Friends of the City Churches, U3A, London Internet Church, City of London Corporation, Sir Robert McAlpine, Christian Aid, commission4mission, Walbrook Music Trust, Threadneedle Asset Management, Central London Samaritans, British Arab Commercial Bank and Coq d’Argent, among others.

Among the items placed on the Henry Moore designed altar this year were a PCSO's black bowler, bolts, bronze and glass from local construction sites, paintings and drawing, a variety of reports and brochures, bread, wine and fruit, a hi-vis jacket, and a telephone representing the work of Samaritans. Following the service, we heard from the City of London Police about #WeStandTogether, a National community led initiative to #celebrate our difference: promote #respect & tolerance; building a safer, stronger #UnitedKingdom.
Here is the sermon I preached at the service:

What is your work for? This is a question that I frequently use as an ice-breaker in sessions exploring the connections between faith and work. It is an interesting question to ask because you are likely to get a different answer depending on the person you ask. To your CEO, the answer may be about the overall profitability of the organisation. To your line manager, it may be about the achievement of targets, while for those you live with it may be about the salary you bring home and the way it enables you to live. Your customers will give a different answer again. For them, your work is likely to be about customer service; the service or product that you deliver to them.

What is your work for? The different answers we give can help us in identifying the harvest which results from our work. For most of us here the harvest resulting from our work won’t be the traditional harvest of food; something that we try to recognise here with our display of symbols of our work rather than the more traditional display of harvest food. The traditional timing of harvest represented a key moment in the agricultural cycle but the key moments in our work schedule are unlikely to fall at the same time of year, so, once you’ve answered the question, it might be more helpful for you to think of your harvest as falling at a key point in your working year – accountants at the end of the tax year, students and teachers when exam results are published, shop assistants during sales, and so on.

What is your work for and how might God answer that question? In thinking that through, we might consider what Jesus said in answer to the question about which is the greatest commandment. He spoke there about love for God, ourselves, and our neighbour. By including love of our neighbour in his answer he would almost certainly want us to focus our thinking on the ways in which our work benefits others, whether individually (as customers) or more broadly (as a society) and prioritise those things in the way that we work. We often describe this aspect of business purpose, impact or harvest in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility, whether that means volunteering, philanthropy, sustainability or other issues and impacts. Here, at St Stephen Walbrook, we will be exploring some aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility during November with a programme of exhibitions, events and services about Philanthropy in the City.

Research indicates that tackling Corporate Social Responsibility issues improves profitability. Will Hutton noted in a newspaper article, ‘recent work by a group of researchers at Harvard and the London Business School compared 90 American companies that took sustainability seriously with 90 who did not. Over 18 years the 90 committed to sustainability delivered annual financial returns 4.8% higher than the other 90. Today’s Guardian features the Open for Business report which claims that when companies address diversity issues, ‘you attract better people, it lowers costs … [and] makes [staff] more productive and more entrepreneurial and so the company has better output.’ That sounds like a Harvest for all!

One benefit that all businesses provide in society is the alleviation of poverty by the creation of jobs. Whatever other impacts your business may have on society, this will be an impact or harvest that is common to all our organisations, whether insurance, banking, hospitality, retail, tourism, law, emergency services, construction, property development, the City civic and other sectors and businesses. We can join together in thanking God for the harvest of jobs that businesses, shops, and other organisations here in the City deliver.

What is your work for? There are different answers depending on who we ask. None of them are wrong. They are all in the mix and we need to address them all as we go about our business. What is your work for? The different answers we give can help us in identifying the harvest which results from our work. What is your work for? God wants us to focus our thinking on the ways in which our work benefits others, whether individually (as customers) or more broadly (as a society) in order that we prioritise those things in the way that we work. That is a Harvest for all for which we can all be working all the time. Amen.

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St George's Windsor - Come, Ye Thankful People, Come.

Sabbatical art pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church. 'The Church of St. Andrew Bobola, Shepherd’s Bush, is one of London’s hidden gems. St. Andrew Bobola was a Polish Jesuit missionary and martyr, known as the Apostle of Lithuania, and this Roman Catholic Church dedicated to him opened in 1961 in a former Presbyterian Church building that has been extensively restored as a living memorial to Poles who died during World War II. The church holds the main shrine in Britain to the dead of Katyn, the 1940 massacre of thousands of Polish officers by the Soviet secret police.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy, Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford and St Mary the Virgin, Downe, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

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Morton Harket - Brother.

God is Red

'Liao Yiwu, 57, has lived in exile in Berlin since 2011. He was a leading Chinese literary figure until 1989 when he wrote a long poem titled Massacre addressed to the authors of the Tiananmen massacre (4 June 1989). Sentenced to four years in jail, he experienced life behind bars and social exclusion.

Although his books have been banned, they are widely circulated underground. Among the most famous are The Corpse Walker (English translation by Pantheon, 2008) and Dans l'empire des ténèbres ('In the empire of darkness,' in French, by François Bourin Editeur, 2013), in which he describes his experiences in prison.

In God is Red, published in 2011 in English and in French last month, he talks about his encounters with Christians from Yunnan, Hebei, Beijing and other parts of China. Before that, Liwu had never been interested in Christianity ...

In prison, Liao met with Christian prisoners. In doing so, he discovered another group of fellow Chinese. In God is Red, he relates the stories of some 20 people, Catholics and Protestants. Like many Chinese who do not know the history of the Church, he cannot see much difference between the two.

At the book launch on 12 February, he noted that converting to Christianity is "fashionable" in China. "During the 2000s, there was a strong sense of insecurity, of threat, in China," he said in the interview. "Not everyone had Liu Xiaobo's inner strength to resist those in power". A friend of Liao Yiwu, Liu won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2009, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for some of his online writings.

"Conversion is a way to find spiritual assistance. Yu Jie, a writer who became famous in the 90s, converted after feeling overwhelmed by the regime's threats. My friend Wang Yi did the same, as did their wives. For them it is a way to stop fear. Moreover, when we would meet, my recently converted friends would urge me to convert as well."

Even though Liao Yiwu is not a Christian, he is impressed by the courage Christians showed. Persecuted by the Communist government, they have remained steadfast in their faith.

"They all impressed me. Their fierce resistance for the freedom to believe inspired me a lot," he said. "The one who impressed me the most was a lady who was more than 100 years old, who was filled with holy anger. It is this holy anger that made her live. She wanted to fight until the complete victory of freedom for her religion."'

Friday's Guardian included a report about the current situation:

'A Chinese human rights lawyer who disappeared into police custody last month after joining the fight against a government drive to take down church crosses could face spying charges.

Zhang Kai, a Beijing-based attorney, was seized by security officials on 25 August in Wenzhou, a city in the eastern province of Zhejiang sometimes referred to as China’s Jerusalem because of its large Christian population.

Zhang had been in Wenzhou offering legal support to churches battling a controversial Communist party demolition drive that has targeted Christian places of worship since late 2013.

Writing on Weibo, China’s Twitter, two weeks before his detention, Zhang said: “I have thought it through: at worst they can put me in jail. But if I keep silent, I will regret it for the rest of my life.”'

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Soar On Wings.