New music from Pissabed Prophet and Steve Scott

Check out new music from Pissabed Prophet and Steve Scott issued today:

New Pissabed Prophet track Hornet is taken from their upcoming mini album Apple. Apple is a micro-album of songs grown from the seed of Waspdrunk (a track on Pissabed Prophet's self-titled debut album) which releases December 1, 2023. Pre-order Apple here: https://pissabedprophet.bandcamp.com/album/apple. Read my review of Pissabed Prophet here. 

Rev Simpkins from Pissabed Prophet will be in concert, Friday 17 November, 7.00 pm, at St Andrew’s Church, 11 London Road, Wickford SS12 0AN. No ticket required – donations requested on the night. Suffolk-Essex musician, Rev Simpkins, presents an evening of acoustic music of great imagination and charm, inspired by the history and geography of East Anglia. The Rev will perform songs from his acclaimed folk albums Big Sea and Saltings, before his band Pissabed Prophet, formed with Dingus Khan’s Ben Brown and Nick Daldry, takes to the stage to play their first ever acoustic set. The Rev’s sweeping melodies, rich harmonies, and fascinating lyrics have won him both a cult following and national acclaim. This is a rare chance to experience the breadth of the Rev’s work in one evening.

Upon completing art school in the mid-1970’s, Steve Scott moved to the United States at the request of a small record label and began recording songs. He now has eleven albums of original work released on several small independent labels. The work ranges from rock music to more experimental poetry and spoken word, performed over electronic loop based compositions.

His latest album “The Way Of The Sevenfold Secret” is a cycle based on a 1926 booklet by Lilias Trotter, a British artist and a Protestant missionary to Algeria. “Secret” begins with a pair of set pieces that read like memories as much as they do poems. The remainder of the album works through seven movements (plus an epilogue) that mirror Trotter’s writing.

Each poem is accompanied by subtly haunted tones that reinforce the presence of something more than Scott’s words. There are extended moments beyond the words that seem to invite reflection and internalization – as if the sounds that swirl around Scott mimic the role of Virgil leading Dante through the Inferno, Purgatory, and ultimately, Paradise.

I worked with Steve, through commission4mission, to organize some of the different `Run with the Fire’ art exhibitions and events held in and around London, during the Olympic summer of 2012. You can learn more about `Run With The Fire’ by clicking here, here, and here.

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Steve Scott - Rainbows At Midnight.

Looking down the wrong end of a telescope

Writer and poet Rupert Loydell has just written a great piece for Ship of Fools looking back to the collaborations and collisions between church culture and the wider culture in the 1970s and 80s, with a cast including Jesus Rock Music, the Greenbelt festival, Mary Whitehouse and musicians such as Larry Norman and Steve Fairnie of Writz. Read Rupert's article here.

Rupert Loydell is a poet, painter, editor and publisher, and senior lecturer in English with creative writing at Falmouth University. He is interested in the relationship of visual art and language, collaborative writing, sequences and series, as well as post-confessional narrative, experimental music and creative non-fiction. He has edited Stride magazine for over 30 years, and was managing editor of Stride Books for 28 years. His poetry books include Wildlife and Ballads of the Alone (both published by Shearsman), and The Fantasy Kid (for children); he has also edited anthologies for Shearsman, Salt and Knives, Forks & Spoons Press.

For more on the period about which he writes, read my dialogues with musician and poet Steve Scott here, here, here, here, and here, plus my other posts on CCM. For more of my writing on music, see my co-authored book with Peter Banks of After the Fire, ‘The Secret Chord’, which has been described as an impassioned study of the role of music in cultural life written through the prism of Christian belief.

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Writz - Night Nurse / Luxury / Movies. 

St Martin's Bowness-on-Windermere

I enjoyed visiting St Martin's Bowness-on-Windermere recently. The following comes from their current website:

"Some of the unique features inside St Martin’s Bowness-on-Windermere are the decorative murals, the sixteenth century instructive sayings and the quotations from the Bible on the walls and the roof beams. The only remaining part of the original pattern of decoration is to be found above a window in the south aisle.

The appearance of the present church owes much to the 1870 restoration and enlargement under the architects Paley and Austin of Lancaster. The chancel was extended to the east, as the differing roof beams demonstrate, the tower was heightened and all the seating renewed. Most of the mural decorations (by a Mr Henry Hughes of Frith St, London) including two large paintings in the chancel, date from this time. They serve to relieve the bareness of the smooth re-plastered walls and pillars. The mural on the north wall of the Chancel depicts the Adoration of the Magi, that on the south wall, the Entombment of Christ.

The marble reredos behind the main altar incorporates mosaics, executed by Bell and Almond of London, depicting the symbols of the Gospel writers and the Passion. The reredos, and the whole chancel extension, were designed as part of the Victorian restoration by Paley and Austin.

The outstanding treasure of St Martin’s is the East Window which was so successfully restored in 1870 by Mr Hughes, under the supervision of the Society of Antiquaries, when the new chancel was built. The magnificent East Window contains some very fine stained glass, most of which dates from the 15th century. However, it is not all of this period. Some of the glass at the top is earlier, and the restoration of 1870 made good the damage believed to have been done by Cromwell’s soldiers. This included replacing the faces of the saints.

The history of the window is obscure but it is thought that the glass probably came from Cartmel Priory. The central theme is the crucifixion, flanked by a group of figures including St George (and the dragon), St Barbara, (also an early martyr to the truth) and St Katherine (patroness of learning and theology). In the medieval period, the prayers of these three so-called auxiliary saints were thought to be most effective in aid of the faithful. The supplicants shown kneeling below include Canons of Cartmel as well as various benefactors wearing their coats of arms. The earliest glass is at the top of the third light from the left; a representation of the Virgin and Child believed to date from 1260. In the Middle Ages the Virgin Mary was traditionally depicted in green (later replaced by blue). There is very little glass older than this anywhere in Britain. Surrounding the 15th century coat of arms of a Prince of Wales are many shields relating to north Lancashire families as well as the Prior of Cartmel (strongly suggesting the window’s origin). In the fifth light from the left, one of the seven shields bears what were believed to be arms of that branch of the Washington family (who had lands around the Warton area of Lancashire in the 1400s) and from whom the first president of the United States was descended.

Below the tower, you will see the Curwen Screen, installed in 2000. Magnificent etched glass panels designed by Sally Scott surmount the glass and wood base. The Angels & Music design depicting angels glorifying God through music reflects the theme of the surrounding wall.

At the base of the tower is the statue of St Martin. This carved wooden figure of the Saint shows him on horseback with a beggar, on foot, beside him. The Saint is dividing his cloak with his sword to give half to the beggar illustrating the best-known story of St Martin who became bishop of Tours in France and died in 400 A.D. The statue is probably of foreign origin and dates from the 17th century. It was returned to the church in 1915, having been removed for safekeeping during the 1870 restoration."

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The Westies - Everything Is All I Want For You.

Rupert Loydell: Dear Mary

Rupert Loydell read from 'Dear Mary' when he read at St Stephen Walbrook during 'Crucifixions: Francis Bacon'.

In 'Dear Mary' poet and painter Rupert Loydell writes about art and life and how they intersect. Fascinated by both renaissance and contemporary painting, he reinvents moments of annunciation in today's world, and revels in the colours and sunshine of Italy. This is a world of wonder and surprise, where aliens abduct the Virgin Mary, 20th century rock singers find themselves collaged together and singing about her, infinite greys (and grays) blur together between other greys, Francis Bacon paints angels, and even the weather forecast predicts the future.

Above all else, this is a book which celebrates language and art, and explores how we navigate the world around us, seen and unseen; how we might wonder, explain, and begin to understand.

“Artist and writer Rupert Loydell brings his accomplished eye, ear, and voice to this book of subtly crafted poems and prose. His loaded brush and carefully chosen words engage with luminous artworks and radiant landscape, and are also wrapped around a deeper mystery that invites, but ultimately defies description.” — Steve Scott

“Dear Mary is a thrilling love letter to the way in which meaning inheres in the world and the word. Light-drenched Tuscany is suffused with mysteriously overlaid greys; for Rupert Loydell, it is a place where everything is ‘trying to imply ascension’. Moments of transcendence occur even when ‘We didn’t get to see the angel.’” — Neil Philip

These pieces are 'flakes of reverence' or gaps for the numinous, gestures towards the missing tones and colours of angels, as Loydell meditates on these Italian icons, seeking whatever is outside the picture frame or beyond the truncated gestures.” — Martin Caseley

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Tracey Chapman - Open Arms.

Blogs: cryingforavision & Stride magazine

cryingforavision is a blog by Steve Scott which aims to develop an ongoing conversation about arts, cultures and faith. I worked with Steve, through commission4mission, to organize some of the different `Run with the Fire’ art exhibitions and events held in and around London, during the Olympic summer of 2012. You can learn more about `Run With The Fire’ by clicking here, also here, and here.

Scott is a British mixed-media artist, writer, lecturer, and performer. Upon completing art school in the mid-1970s, Steve moved to the United States at the request of a small record label and began recording songs. He now has ten albums of original work released on several small independent labels. The work ranges from rock music to more experimental poetry and spoken word, performed over electronic loop based compositions.

Stride magazine was founded in 1982 by Rupert Loydell. Since then it has had various incarnations, most recently in an online edition since the late 20th century. You can visit the previous site which is gathering dust over at http://stridemagazine.co.uk. As of May 2016 Stride magazine is published at http://stridemagazine.blogspot.co.uk/. Rupert Loydell is the author and editor of many books. You can read about his Shearsman titles here and his Knives Forks and Spoons titles here.

Loydell was the managing editor of Stride Books from 1981 to 2011, and continues to edit Stride magazine online. After leaving university, he was a freelance writer, editor and artist, and also spent time as Exeter arts development officer, and wrote several creative writing modules for the Open University. He worked at the universities of Bath, Warwick and Plymouth and for the Royal Literary Fund before joining the English department at Falmouth University in 2006.

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Steve Scott - This Sad Music.

CANA Cambodia 2015 conference

Steve Scott writes:

"CANA stands for Christian Artists Networking Association, and we are committed to learning better ways of networking and empowering artists in different parts of the world. To that end we have organized conferences in Thailand, Bali and Bulgaria, with participants from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and America.

This is an update on our proposed Cambodia 2015 conference. We are looking at the week of the 22-29 of August.

Some have indicated that an `entire week’ might not be possible for them and have suggested having the conference (or the main part at least) over a FOUR DAY period ending on 29th. (if this your situation, please let me know….)

We will be based in Phnom Penh. Once we conclude with Phnom Penh we have the option of additional days in Siem Reap. (there is much to learn there!! Can you join us for additional days? Please let me know!!))

This CANA arts conference in 2015 will offer a valuable experience for both CANA international artists and creatives, as well as local/Cambodian artists learning and growing in faith. As we talk to each other, and share work and ideas, we will have opportunity to reflect upon Cambodia’s cultural heritage…. its recent history, and its hope and aspirations for a flourishing future. We will consider these things together in the light of our shared Christian faith.

There will be teaching and performances from Cambodian Christian Arts Ministry
CANA Philippines….and others.

Many of you have expressed interest in being there, and sharing your work as part of the program. Many others are in our larger database and would perhaps consider In order to finalize plans and make accommodation arrangements we need firm numbers and commitments to work with as we continue to talk with local groups and organizations. We want to keep `in land costs’ DOWN but in order to do that we need to hear from YOU.

We need your help in finalizing the plans!!

We are assessing accommodation needs (headcount) local transport needs, and also need to hear how long you can join us for (up to and including Siem Reap: Please indicate)

ARE YOU AN ART MAKER/CREATIVE THINKER ?

ALL ART FORMS WILL BE REPRESENTED

Please let us know by MARCH 30th if you are truly able to join us. The response to this 30th March deadline is growing. It is going to be an interesting conference based on the variety of participants sharing so far ......

If you have questions, please get in touch info.cana.arts@gmail.com."

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Steve Scott - When World's Collide.

Exhibitions and events update

An exhibition themed on the “Sermons and Holy Sonnets of John Donne” is being held at St Giles, Cripplegate and St James, Piccadilly in Central London until 20th July 2014. Christian Arts has worked with Art and Christianity Enquiry on the exhibition organisation and the ACE International Conference will be held during the exhibition period.

The Sacred City - Public lectures from the ACE/ASK conference: The Revd Dr Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Turning All into Alleluia: Arts and the Renewal of St Martin-in-the-Fields on Tuesday 8 July, 6.30pm at St Giles Cripplegate, Fore Street, London EC2Y 8DA. Professor Alison Milbank, Associate Professor of Literature and Theology at the University of Nottingham, Visualising London through the Eyes of Dante on Wednesday 9 July, 6.30pm at St James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL. Tickets on the door: £5, concessions and ACE members £4 (free to ACE conference delegates). The lectures are kindly suported by the Community of St Andrew and the Gibbs Family Charitable Trust. Also, as part of the conference, two artworks by Anna Sikorska and Benedict Romain will be exhibited at St Giles-in-the-Fields, 7–11 July.

CANA Christian Arts Seminar at New Jerusalem Church, Phnom Penh, August 12 - 13, 8.00 am - 5.00 pm. Two days of teaching, sharing and worship, exploring ways to use creative gifts to serve God. CANA stands for Christian Artists Networking Association. Their vision is to see artists and creative people redeemed and rooted in the love of God, so that their creativity reflects Truth in beautiful ways. CANA has helped organize Christian arts conferences in Bali, Thailand, and different parts of Europe. They are making plans for a similar conference to be held in Cambodia in the summer of 2015.

As a precursor to that, they are inviting people to attend a two-day seminar on August 12-13, 2014, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., at New Jerusalem Church, Phnom Penh, to learn more about their vision and to explore how they might be involved in the 2015 conference. At the 2014 seminar, they are partnering with CCAM, Cambodian Christian Arts Ministry, to present some teaching and examples about how to integrate faith with creativity. This teaching will focus on who we are in Christ, and how we may effectively bear fruit for Him through the arts. It will draw upon Biblical foundations and perspectives, exploring insights revealed by Jesus Himself in His creation and in His Word, especially gleaned from the Gospel of John.

If you are an artist searching for your God-ordained niche in the Kingdom of God, or a creative person wondering how your gifts can make a difference for Christ in the world, or a missionary or church leader desiring new ideas for creative ministry, then this seminar is for you! For additional information, or to pre-register, contact Steve Scott at info.cana.arts@gmail.com . There is no registration fee, but donations to help cover expenses are welcome. Participants are requested to bring their own picnic lunch.

Adam Boulter, who is priest at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Aqaba, Jordan, will be holding an exhibition of paintings and pastels from Jordan entitled: out of the wilderness at Piers Feetham Gallery (475 Fulham Road, London SW6 1HL) from 15th-20th September 2014. Private Views: 6.30 - 8.30 pm, Tuesday 16th  & Thursday 18th September. Gallery opening times: Monday 3 pm - 6 pm, Tuesday - Friday 10 am - 6 pm, Saturday 10 am - Midday.

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Steve Scott - The Resurrection Of The Body.

Steve Scott and Mal Grosch: New youtube videos

New youtube videos from poet/musician friends, Steve Scott and Mal Grosch.

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Over The Hill - The Everlasting Arms.

Arts and Entertainment Sunday with UFC Band

In our 6.30pm Evening Service at St John's Seven Kings on Sunday 28th April we will be celebrating Arts & Entertainment Sunday in a service where our worship will be led by the UFC Band, a worship band made up of young people from the Ilford Bible Study group.

Arts & Entertainment Sunday, a new initiative from several Christian arts groups representing performers, artists, and creators within the world of Stage, TV, Film and media is inviting people to pray for their profession.

“We thought Olivier Sunday offered a good opportunity to ask people to pray for the    arts and entertainment professions on the same day as this popular televised event,” explained Chris Gidney, Director of Christians in Entertainment. “As a commercial producer, writer and performer myself, I know just how pressurised working in the business can be, but also how influential it is in our everyday lives.”

Arts Centre Group spokesperson Susanne Scott said, “It’s so important to remember to thank God for the creative skills he has given us. Imagine a world without colour, shape, and sound!”

Fellow artist and Director of Christian group Artisan, Steve Cole added, “It’s an important time to pray for our world and those within it, and the arts, media and entertainment have such a crucial part to play. I know that prayer makes a difference.”

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Chris Tomlin - How Great Is Our God.

Faith and imagination resources

I was recently asked to recommend some resources on the interface between faith and imagination. Those I commended were: 

Art and Christianity Enquiry are the main organisation in the UK exploring links between faith and the visual arts. There are a small number of articles on the page about their journal. 'Art, Modernity & Faith' by George Pattison, 'God in the Gallery' by Daniel A. Siedell and 'The Art of the Sacred' by Graham Howes are all well worth reading. Daniel Siedell had a blog for a while on the themes of 'God in the Gallery' which has some interesting debate on it. Colin Harbison is also worth reading online.

'Contemporary Fiction and Christianity' by Andrew Tate is a good review of theological themes in literature as is 'The Poet as Mirror: Human Nature, God and Jesus in twentieth-century literature' by Karl-Josef Kuschel. George Steiner's 'Real Presences' is a classic text when it comes to literature arguing that a transcendent reality grounds all genuine art. Malcolm Guite makes a similar argument for poetry in 'Faith, Hope and Poetry'. In 'Grace and Necessity: Reflections on Art and Love' Rowan Williams sketches out a new understanding of how human beings open themselves to transcendence.

Steve Scott's 'Crying For A Vision' is worth a read and spans music, literature and visual art. My own co-authored book on faith and music (taking in aspects of literature and the visual arts too) is 'The Secret Chord'.

On imagination specifically, Walter Brueggemann's 'The Prophetic Imagination' is another classic text. 'Image' Journal sees itself as bridging faith and imagination. In Walking On Water, Madeleine L'Engle argues that the prime task of the artist is to listen, to remain aware, and to respond to creation. In The Mind of the Maker Dorothy L. Sayers explores understandings of the Trinity through the medium of human creativity. Finally, in The Book of God Gabriel Josipovici applies literary criticism to the texts of the Bible. 

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Bruce Cockburn - Creation Dream.

The poetry of connection

2012 was enjoyable for me because of opportunities to correspond with (and on occasion perform with) several poets.

Tim Cunningham has been called the poet of good endings and his apposite phrases serve to illuminate the everyday encounters which characterise his poetry. Analogy is the clue to Cunningham’s experience of faith. It is in the connections between ordinary existence and the Christ event that faith becomes real. A friend “a mere unlucky Thirteen years” collapses at play, dies and is lifted up across a wall into the garden that becomes the parent’s Gethsemene, the wall shaping their pieta. The statue of the Virgin “looks down at the girl stanching tiny / Dams of tears, the girl whose secret was not / Whispered by an angel in her ear.” The final poem in Kyrie finds Cunningham mute in a church that, apart from God and he, is empty. He is on hold, his turn missed at the exchange, but, he reasons, God will perhaps call him back, after all God has his number. The wry humour of Cunningham’s experience and verse reveals faith.

Jane Grell discovered the power of storytelling as a teacher of bilingual students. For her storytelling, she draws heavily from the African-Caribbean Oral Tradition of her childhood. She has worked extensively as a poet and storyteller in teacher training establishments as well as primary and secondary schools in Britain. She was a teacher-secondee to BBC School Radio as an adviser on the multicultural content of its output. While at the BBC, she also wrote and presented stories for schools' programmes. Jane has publications in Hawthorn Press, Scholastic and many poetry anthologies.

Cambridge poet, priest and singer-songwriter Malcolm Guite is Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge. A performance poet and singer/songwriter, he lectures widely on poetry and theology in Britain and the US and has a large following on his website, www.malcolmguite.wordpress.com. In Sounding the Seasons, Guite transforms seventy lectionary readings into lucid, inspiring poems, for use in regular worship, seasonal services, meditative reading or on retreat. Already widely recognised, his writing has been acclaimed by Rowan Williams and Luci Shaw, two leading contemporary religious poets. Seven Advent poems from this collection will appear in the next edition of Penguin's (US) Best Spiritual Writing edited by Philip Zaleski, alongside the work of writers such as Seamus Heaney and Annie Dillard.

The sacred, the profane and the prophetic come together in the work of Tamsin Kendrick. In Charismatic Megafauna Kendrick ponders the romantic potential of Peter Pan and Captain Hook, liberates Mr Tumnus from his snow-bound Narnia, composes urgent communiqués from a post-apocalyptic city, and documents the struggle to find love. Kendrick’s unique poetry is characterised by vivid, surreal imagery, brimming with references to myth, legend and pop culture, and underpinned by a genuine, if fraught, search for the divine.

Rupert Loydell is Senior Lecturer in English with Creative Writing at University College Falmouth, and the editor of Stride and With magazines. He is the author of many books of poetry, including A Conference of Voices and Boombox, as well as several collaborative works; he also paints small abstract paintings. His latest publication, The Tower of Babel, is a limited edition hand-stamped book-in-a-box edited by Loydell, including a set of 24 original print postcards, an essay, and an anthology of poems.

Steve Scott is a British writer, poet, and musician whose songs have been recorded by artists including the 77s and Larry Norman. His musical and spoken word projects include Love in the Western World, Lost Horizon, Magnificent Obsession, More Than a Dream, The Butterfly Effect, Empty Orchestra, We Dreamed That We Were Strangers, and Crossing the Boundaries, in conjunction with painter Gaylen Stewart. In 2012, his songs became available on MP3 format, coincident with the release of a limited edition CD, Emotional Tourist: A Steve Scott Retrospective. He writes and speaks often on the arts in the UK and US, and is the author of Like a House on Fire: Renewal of the Arts in a Post-modern Culture and Crying for a Vision and Other Essays: The Collected Steve Scott Vol. One.

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Steve Scott - No Memory Of You.

Reaching Beyond, More Than Gold and Run with the Fire

The Reaching Beyond exhibition is at Bow Road Methodist Church (2 Merchant Street, London E3 4LY) until 1st September 2012 and includes the work of about twenty artists, with works in various forms including paintings, icons, sculptures, mosaics, cartoons and fabrics. The works will be augmented week-by-week with the winning works of the young people’s art competitions and the poetry competitions. Admission free. Normal opening hours 12 noon to 6.00 pm Monday to Saturday.
Reaching Beyond is an artistic event in East London (visual arts, poetry, community involvement), which is culminating in the exhibition at Bow Road Methodist Church. The exhibition site is in the heart of the East End, and about a mile from the Olympic Park. The title, “Reaching Beyond”, is intentionally open to a wide range of interpretation.

Key elements of the project are:

• Poetry competitions for adults and young people (via the Internet)
• Young people’s art competitions for local boroughs
• A journey with The Visitor (a small piece of sculpture) around East London boroughs
• The exhibition of work by contemporary artists with roots in a variety of cultures
• Kerbside painting and carving, and other participative arts activity on the exhibition forecourt beside the A11
• Events at the exhibition, such as art workshops, talks, explorations by groups, etc.

Through More Than Gold there will be almost 700 free performances by Christian musicians, dancers and visual artists from over 30 nations during the 2012 Games. A key hub of activity is Westminster where there is –

• A global collective of art at both St Margaret's and Methodist Central Hall
• Daily live performances on the Abbey Green and afternoon performances in the Chapel at Methodist Central Hall

This is a partnership with Westminster Abbey, Methodist Central Hall and St Margaret's to create a Westminster Arts Festival inspired by the Games. Click here for your guide to visual artists who are contributing to this rich programme.

A huge canvas - 18 feet high by 72 feet long painted by artists from every corner of the globe - is among an amazing array of artwork inspired by the Olympic Games and now on display across Westminster in Central London.

Exhibitions at Westminster Abbey, St Margaret's and Methodist Central Hall celebrate the Cultural Olympiad with a range of artistic forms from sculpture, carvings and glasswork to art installations, photography and paintings in various medium.

The exhibitions are in partnership with More Than Gold, the agency established by all the main denominations to help churches make the most of the Games.

The ‘Westminster Arts Inspired by the Games’ Festival is open throughout the Games and incorporates work from a number of celebrated artists from around the world.

‘With such a wide array of nations represented at the Games, it is exciting to see artists from around the world collaborating on these art exhibitions. The displays, housed in iconic London churches, are important because they help connect themes from the Christian faith with the Olympic vision,’ says Andy Frost who leads More Than Gold’s Creative and Performing Arts team.

Westminster Abbey features the work of the British-born sculptor Eleanor Cardozo, combining her classical training in sculpture with personal sport experience: ‘With twenty years as a professional sculptor I have used my knowledge of the human anatomy and my experience as a gymnast to create a collection of bronze gymnasts to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic Games. Each sculpture perfectly conveys the Olympic philosophy of combining in a balanced whole, the body, will and mind,’ Eleanor Cardozo said.

Next door to the Abbey, St Margaret’s Church hosts a free exhibition which features a range of artistic disciplines from textiles to fine art.

Methodist Central Hall will host two exhibitions during the Games, one of which is a huge canvas 18 feet high by 72 feet long. This piece is comprised of 141 canvasses painted separately by individuals and groups of artists from every corner of the globe. The canvas, entitled Key of David holds the biblical promise that it ‘opens doors that no one can close and closes doors that no one can open’.

Bryan Pollard, a Creative Director from New Zealand, has orchestrated the artists to create a piece which ‘truly celebrates the unity amidst diversity spirit that is a trademark of the Olympic Games’ Each artist joining this international project sees their personal contribution as a living testimony of their creative gifts given by a Creator God.

Run with the Fire is an arts project for the 2012 Olympic year organised by CANA, commission4mission and Veritasse based on the image of fire which links the Church's Pentecost celebration with that of the Olympic runner. Run with the Fire provides a digital art exhibition for use in Olympic-themed events and can be purchased by clicking here.

The latest Run with the Fire iniative is a community art exhibition with creative workshops  organised by Army of Artists at St Aubyn Church, Chapel Street, Devonport, PL1 4DP until 5th September. This is an exciting arts project and exhibition engaging churches, schools and community groups and is a creative response to three symbols of the Olympic Games; its motto 'Higher, Faster, Stronger’, the 5 rings representing a continent connecting during the games, and the Olympic Flame standing for peace, unity and friendship, which is spread as the flame is passed from one torch bearer to another. Run with the Fire is a creative response to these symbols; celebrating the stories, faith and skills that we pass on from one generation to another, building relationships, embracing life and connecting different communities.

There has been further press coverage of Run with the Fire through interviews with Steve Scott.
An interview Steve gave to Church and Art Network, in which Run with the Fire is featured, is included in their latest e-bulletin as a case study.
Steve has also been interviewed about his wide ranging career in art, music and poetry, including his involvement with Run with the Fire, in the current edition of Down The Line magazine.
Steve has some fascinating things to say in this interview which can be downloaded by clicking here.

Both are in addition to the Transpositions interview with Steve which we featured in an earlier post. Click here to read this interview.

For the latest news of Run with the Fire go to http://runwiththefire.blogspot.co.uk/.

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Brandon Flowers - Crossfire.

Steve Scott: Run with the Fire interview

Transpositions has today published an interview with Steve Scott about Run with the Fire. Run With The Fire  is an arts project for the London 2012 Olympics year organized by CANA, commission4mission and Veritasse. Designed to exhibit in churches, Transpositions say that Run with the Fire is an interesting synergistic example of what happens when art, culture, and the church come together. Click here to read the interview.

Steve Scott is a British writer, poet, and musician whose songs have been recorded by artists including the 77s and Larry Norman. His musical and spoken word projects include Love in the Western World, Lost Horizon, Magnificent Obsession, More Than a Dream, The Butterfly Effect, Empty Orchestra, We Dreamed That We Were Strangers, and Crossing the Boundaries, in conjunction with painter Gaylen Stewart. In 2012, his songs became available on MP3 format, coincident with the release of a limited edition CD, Emotional Tourist: A Steve Scott Retrospective. He writes and speaks often on the arts in the UK and US, and is the author of Like a House on Fire: Renewal of the Arts in a Post-modern Culture, The Boundaries, and Crying for a Vision and Other Essays: The Collected Steve Scott Vol. One. He holds an MA in global leadership.

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Steve Scott - This Sad Music.

Run with the Fire performances and art talks

We had a great launch night for the 'Run with the Fire' exhibition. It was a packed event with some memorable performances in the context of a stimulating and eclectic show. I read The Mark, a Mark of the Cross meditation and my Run with the Fire poem:

Stripped down - free of weights and encumbrance -

muscles taut and trained, eyes on the prize -

on track, no turning back - forgetting what is behind,

straining toward what is ahead, winged feet

bearing tongues of flame - inextinguishable flickers

of hope, the torch passed on through generations,

message of victory - peace, goodwill to all.

How lovely are the feet - run red-raw, blistered

and calloused, dust-encrusted yet lithe as leopards

and fleet as foxes - which pound the mountains,

hills, valleys and plains, echoing through history

from Marathon to London via Jerusalem.

It was great to read poetry to an audience which included Steve Turner, whose poetry and music journalism - including Up To Date and Hungry for Heaven among others - I've appreciated greatly over the years.  

The Launch Night provided the first opportunity to see the exhibition which includes ceramics, paintings and sculptures, together with a digital exhibition on Olympic/Pentecost themes. Performances by singer-songwriter and poet Malcolm Guite, artist-musician Colin Burns, musician-poet Steve Scott and performance poet Tamsin Kendrick added to the exploration of the exhibition's theme - running life's race with passion and spirit.

Tamsin Kendrick performed vibrant, earthy poems based on the parable of the Prodigal Son and Psalm 139, Steve Scott shared work in progress based on incidents from John's Gospel, Colin Burns played three pieces from his debut CD Emerald&Gold, while Malcolm Guite made a great job of linking themes from the artworks and other performances with poems from his sonnet sequence for the Church Year and from his CD Dancing through the fire.
I'll be giving a talk at the exhibition as part of a programme of art talks and painting demonstrations on Saturday 26th May:

• Painting demonstration – Harvey Bradley, ongoing throughout the day. See Harvey work on a painting and discuss his approach with him.
• The Spiritual Image in Modern Art - Mark Lewis, 11.30am. A broad overview of the spiritual impulse in the art forms of the modern world and their potential to turn our minds to higher things.
• Run with the Fire – Steve Scott, 12.30pm. A talk about the ‘Run with the Fire’ project and DVD.
• Stanley Spencer – A Visionary of our Time – Mark Lewis, 2.00pm. A talk which examines the life and work of one of Britain’s most renowned and eccentric 20th Century painters. The main themes include Spencer’s time as a war artist, and his extraordinary paintings which envision the Christian Gospels played out by the people in his beloved home town of Cookham.
• Praying with our eyes open – Glenn Lowcock, 3.00pm. A talk on using images as an aid to prayer.
• Emotional Tourist – Steve Scott, 4.00pm. What I am learning about art, life, spirituality, Trinity, and relational aesthetics from my travels in Bali and elsewhere.
• Christian influences on modern & contemporary art – Jonathan Evens, 5.00pm. A broad overview of modern and contemporary art and artists which engage with Christianity.

The Run with the Fire exhibition is at the Strand Gallery (32 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6BP) and can be seen from 22nd - 27th May (11.00am - 6.00pm, Sunday 11.00am - 2.00pm), as part of the Pentecost Festival. The event listing for the exhibition and launch night can be found at: http://www.pentecostfestival.co.uk/ai1ec_event/run-with-the-fire-exhibition/?instance_id=873. Directions to the gallery are at: https://www.proudonline.co.uk/contact.aspx.

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Tamsin Kendrick - This City Needs A Hero.

Painting, poetry and presentations at 'Run with the Fire' exhibition

Next week I'll be exhibiting together with other commission4mission and invited artists showing in the Run with the Fire exhibition at the Strand Gallery (32 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6BP) from 22nd - 27th May (11.00am - 6.00pm, Sunday 11.00am - 2.00pm), as part of the Pentecost Festival. I'll also be performing poetry at the Launch Night for the exhibition on Monday 21st May, 6.00 - 8.00pm as well as speaking on Christian influences on modern & contemporary art at 5.00pm on Saturday 26th May.

The Run with the Fire exhibition includes Ken James Ashby, Harvey Bradley, Colin Burns, Christopher Clack, Christine Garwood, Jim Insole, Miriam Kendrick, Glenn Lowcock, Bradley Lucas, Henry Shelton, Sergiy Shkanov, Joy Rousell Stone, Esther Tidy, Mike Thomas, Rachel Watson and Peter Webb.

Original work by the above artists will complement the Run with the Fire digital exhibition (featuring the work of 25 international artists) to create a stimulating and exciting show with an eclectic mix of styles and media and exploring the broad theme of running life's race with passion and spirit.

Run with the Fire is an arts project for churches in the 2012 Olympics year organized by CANA, commission4mission and Veritasse based on the image of fire which links the Church’s Pentecost celebration with that of the Olympic runner. Run with the Fire aims to celebrate creativity, cultural exchange and hope for the future by providing a virtual exhibition of international artwork for use in Olympics-themed events organised by churches in 2012.
Run with the Fire provides a virtual exhibition of international artwork available on DVD, for display on large scale HD TV or monitor, or for projection using a digital projector. This digital exhibition can be presented as part of Olympics-themed events organised by churches in 2012 plus arts events or exhibitions organized by local churches. Copies of the Run with the Fire DVD can be purchased via http://www.veritasse.co.uk/cards-prints/most-popular/run-with-the-fire-dvd-pack/ or at the exhibition. A preview of the Run with the Fire digital exhibition can be seen at http://youtu.be/nFBGZDgFaw4, while for up-to-date news of the project see http://runwiththefire.blogspot.com/.
A Launch Night on Monday 21st May, 6.00 - 8.00pm, will provide the first opportunity to see the exhibition and will also include music and poetry exploring the exhibition theme. Those performing include singer-songwriter and poet Malcolm Guite, artist-musician Colin Burns, musician-poet Steve Scott and performance poet Tamsin Kendrick. Refreshments will be available. Cost - £2.00, pay on the door.

On Saturday 26th May there will be an additional programme of art talks and painting demonstrations:

• Painting demonstration – Harvey Bradley, ongoing throughout the day. See Harvey work on a painting and discuss his approach with him.
• The Spiritual Image in Modern Art - Mark Lewis, 11.30am. A broad overview of the spiritual impulse in the art forms of the modern world and their potential to turn our minds to higher things.
• Run with the Fire – Steve Scott, 12.30pm. A talk about the ‘Run with the Fire’ project and DVD.
• Stanley Spencer – A Visionary of our Time – Mark Lewis, 2.00pm. A talk which examines the life and work of one of Britain’s most renowned and eccentric 20th Century painters. The main themes include Spencer’s time as a war artist, and his extraordinary paintings which envision the Christian Gospels played out by the people in his beloved home town of Cookham.

• Praying with our eyes open – Glenn Lowcock, 3.00pm. A talk on using images as an aid to prayer.
• Emotional Tourist – Steve Scott, 4.00pm. What I am learning about art, life, spirituality, Trinity, and relational aesthetics from my travels in Bali and elsewhere.
• Christian influences on modern & contemporary art – Jonathan Evens, 5.00pm. A broad overview of modern and contemporary art and artists which engage with Christianity.

The event listing for the exhibition and launch night can be found at: http://www.pentecostfestival.co.uk/ai1ec_event/run-with-the-fire-exhibition/?instance_id=873. Directions to the gallery are at: https://www.proudonline.co.uk/contact.aspx. The programme for art talks and demonstrations on Saturday 26th May is at: http://commissionformission.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/pentecost-festival-exhibition-saturday.html.

Hard copies of programmes for the Pentecost Festival can be ordered from: http://www.pentecostfestival.co.uk/contact/order-programmes/. The promo for the Festival can be viewed at: http://www.pentecostfestival.co.uk/promo/.

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Ty Tabor - Room For Me.

The modern and contemporary Catholic novel (4)

Theodore P. Fraser writes, in The Modern Catholic Novel In Europe, that:
"Heinrich Böll was born of a Catholic family of craftsmen whose ancestors had left England to settle in the Rhineland during the reign of Henry VIII. The Catholic identity of the family was strong, and Böll was brought up in close-knit, supportive Catholic environment of working class people living in tenements ... Böll's early works, which use the war as living metaphor of universal evil, also have deep religious themes of guilt and the need for repentance - for both individual and collective sins of aggression and cruelty ... Böll's later novels are much broader in scope and more morally explicit and engaged in regard to social, political, and religious problems ... Böll became increasingly outspoken in his criticism of the Catholic Church in Germany in the 1960s ... Despite his sharp attack against the German Church, Böll never denied being spiritually Catholic and insisted that he should receive a Church burial at his death. Like Péguy, whom he much admired, Böll was always careful to distinguish between the mystical body of the Church extending above and beyond the human institution and the essentially worldly and political corporation for the wealthy social classes that he judged the Church in West Germany to be."
Gene Kellogg, writing in 1970 in The Vital Tradition, commends the development of Japanese and Indian Catholic literary movements:
"Natsume Soseki's Kokoro (1914) compares favorably with the work of most Japanese writers working today. Similarly, in India the best work of M. R. Anand can be read quite comfortably even in such company as R. K. Narayan's masterpiece, The Man-Eater of Malgudi (1962), particularly if one turns to Anand's zestful and humane short stories such as "The Barbers' Trade Union" (1936)."

Doug Cummings, in his essay accompanying the film Silence, writes that, during the period that the Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo studied at the University of Lyon, "Catholic thought in postwar France was in the midst of intellectual revival and reform" - "Philosophers like Jacques Maritain and Emmanuel Mounier grappled with theology and modernity" while Endo "focused on writers he called the "grande écrivaines of French literature" ... François Mauriac, Georges Bernanos, and Julien Green ... Catholic novelists who specialized in vivid descriptions of personal struggles, religious doubts, and dark nights of the soul. (Their novels were later direct influences on Graham Greene and Flannery O'Connor.)"

Endo was born in Tokyo in 1923. After his parents divorced, he and his mother converted to Roman Catholicism. Following study at Keio University and in Lyons, his novels established him the leading writer of his day in Japan. He has been called the Japanese Graham Greene because he is a Catholic novelist whose writings depict both the anguish of faith and the mercy of God. A central theme of his writings has been the clash between Japanese culture and a very Western mode of religion. Novels like Silence and The Samurai suggest that Christianity must adapt itself radically if it is to take root in the “swamp” of Japan. Cummings notes a "deep bifurcation within Endo that would remain a part of him and his writing throughout his life: the Western-Christian side and the Eastern-Japanese side, both psychological hemispheres yearning for solidarity but refusing cohesion." As a result, the reigning motifs in his work become "philosophical rifts, religious fervour and weakness, suffering innocents, martyrs and apostates, and the clash of cultures."

Steve Scott notes, in Crying for a Vision and Other Essays, that:

"Endo's characters, both eastern and western, are haunted by a specific Christ - a paternal, Judicial figure in the West and a maternal, forgiving figure in the East. In this haunting they bear some resemblance to the "fundamentalists" of Flannery O'Connor's fiction. Endo has repeatedly registered his conviction that a gospel centered on the forgiving, nurturing Christ is far more appropriate for his homeland than the stern, judgemental model imported from the West."
Endo writes in his Preface to the American Edition of A Life of Christ that the "religious mentality of the Japanese ... has little tolerance for any kind of transcendent being who judges humans harshly, then punishes them ... the Japanese tend to seek in their gods and buddhas a warm-hearted mother rather than a stern father." In Endo's classic novel Silence, for example, as Adrian Pinnington notes in his interesting paper on Endo, "Rodrigues, the priest who finally betrays the Church and apostasizes, actually first learns true humility through this action." It is only, Pinnington notes, "after he has abandoned the false absolutes of European culture that he can recognize the action of Christ in his own life, and begin to hear the voice of Christ."
Other novelists considered within the critical literature on the Modern Catholic novel include: Mary Gordon, Carmen Laforet, Elisabeth Langgässer, Gertrude von Lefort, Giovani Papini, and Sigrid Undset. The popular novels of Morris West can also be considered in this context.

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Tōru Takemitsu ~ Itinerant.