Speech to launch commission4mission in South London

I spoke tonight at a well attended Private View for commission4mission's Christmas exhibition entitled 'Incarnation'. 

The exhibition can be seen at Wimbledon Library Gallery (1st floor, Wimbledon Library, Wimbledon Hill Road, London SW19 7NB) and includes the work of 16 artists in media including ceramics, fused glass, paintings and photography. It continues until Saturday 8th December, 9.30am - 7.00pm (2.00pm on Saturday) with access through the Library. A second Private View will be held tomorrow from 6.30 - 9.30pm. 

In launching commission4mission in South London, I said the following:

commission4mission was launched in March 2009 by our Patron, the Bishop of Barking, to encourage the commissioning and placing of contemporary Christian Art in churches, as a means of fundraising for charities and as a mission opportunity for churches.

We aim to:

·                    provide opportunities for churches to obtain and commission contemporary Christian Art for church buildings;

·                    provide information, ideas and examples of contemporary Christian Art and its use/display within church settings; and

·                    raise funds for charities through commissions and sales of contemporary Christian Art. 

In the short time that commission4mission has been in existence we have:

·                    built up a pool of over 30 artists available for Church commissions;

·                    developed a blog profiling our artists and giving up-to-date news of our activities;

·                    completed of 10 commissions;

·                    organised 13 exhibitions, two Study Days, three art workshops, several performance and networking events for members;

·                    created an Art Trail for the Barking Episcopal Area;

·                    worked in partnership with two other arts organisations (Christian Artist’s Networking Association & Veritasse) to create an Olympic-themed art project – Run With The Fire; and

·                    published several sets of images and meditations primarily with a Lenten or Passiontide focus.

We seek to be a proactive organisation for both the artists and the churches with which we work. For our artists we regularly provide information updates and networking opportunities as well as actively promoting their work through our blog, events and exhibitions. This ensures that they feel connected to one another and the wider faith and arts scene as well as benefiting from the support and ideas of fellow members. For churches, we actively provide opportunities to think about the possibility of commissioning contemporary art by seeing and considering the work of our artists and by suggesting ways to overcome some of the barriers which sometimes seem to stand in the way of new commissions such as finances and the differing tastes of church members. 

Why do we do what we do? Fundamentally, I would want to say that there is a Trinitarian underpinning to what we do. Firstly, that we are creative because we are made in the image of our Creator. That, as Dorothy L. Sayers reminded us in her book The Mind of the Maker, to be made in the image of God means that we are most like God when we are being creative. Secondly, that it is the Holy Spirit who gives skill to craftspeople and artists. The first Spirit-filled man in the Bible, Bezalel, was chosen by God to be skilled, knowledgeable and able to teach in all kinds of craftsmanship. So, to be biblically inspired is to make. Thirdly, that because God became truly human in Jesus we can represent his human nature as with any other member of the human race. So that, if we paint a picture of Jesus, we’re not trying to show a humanity apart from divine life but a humanity soaked through with divine life.

Next, I would want to say that the Arts are in many ways foundational to all that occurs in Church. Very briefly, we can say that:

•         the Architecture of our churches provides a designed context and stage for the worship that occurs within them;

•         we re-enact Biblical narratives through the poetry of the liturgy;

•         music in church provides composed expressions of emotions and stories in and through song; and

•         images in churches re-tell Biblical narratives and open windows into the divine.

Finally, we would also say that the Arts contribute to the mission of the Church by:

•         speaking eloquently of the faith;

•         providing a reason to visit a church – something we have tapped with our Art Trail for the Barking Episcopal Area;

•         making links between churches and local arts organisations/ initiatives; and

•         providing a focus for people to come together for a shared activity.

These then are key reasons why, in commission4mission, we seek to encourage the commissioning and placing of contemporary Christian Art in churches.

I would like to end with a poem by the German kinetic sculptor Heinz Mack who has had much experience of trying to work in and with Catholic chapels in Germany:

“Church art is not always art.

Art that happens to be placed in church, is art in the church,

But not Church art.

Church art that is shown in museums, remains church art in museums.

Art for the Church is not always regarded as art by the Church.

The Church does not always want art.

Art is art without the Church.

Great Church art is art in the church and for the church.”

In seeking to encourage the commissioning and placing of contemporary Christian Art in churches, commission4mission is aiming to be about “art in the church and for the church.”

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Switchfoot - New Way To Be Human.

The King James version in context

Yesterday I attended the special lecture for Bible Year 2011 arranged by Dr Graham Gould at Holy Trinity with St Augustine of Hippo Harrow Green. Entitled The King James version in context: the Church of England and the Bible in the early seventeenth century, the lecture was given by The Very Revd Dr David Hoyle, Dean of Bristol.

Hoyle began by vividly describing the awkward and difficult nature of the Reformation as it impacted in parish level where, as Eamon Duffy has demonstrated, Catholicism was in rude health. So, candlesticks and church plate had to be melted down and sold off, altar tables removed, rood screens defaced or torn down, chasubles unstitched, walls whitewashed, relics discarded and paintings of saints hidden in parishioners’ houses.

He then spoke about the central significance of the Bible to Protestantism, quoting William Chillingworth as saying, "... the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants!" Prior to the Reformation, only one translation of the Bible was in use; the Vulgate, created by St Jerome and used by Catholic churches for 1,000 years prior to the Reformation. However, sermons and prayers in services were in English and English compendiums of Gospel stories were in circulation. Bible stories were also told through the visual imagery of Catholic churches.

Leading up to the Reformation we see: English becoming established as a language of power and excitement through the work of Chaucer, Langland and others; the development of the printing press with Caxton printing collections on the Catholic saints; and the beginnings through such as Erasmus and Wycliffe of new translations of parts of the Bible. Luther understood himself to have been saved from his anxiety about Hell by his reading of scripture leading to his emphasis on sola scriptura. Tyndale was similarly convinced that the truth could not be known until we hand the scriptures in our hands in English.

Tyndale was a literary genius and 75% of the King James Version of the Bible is essentially his translation. This occurred via 'The Great Bible,' which combined Tyndale's translations of the New Testament and part of the Old - Tyndale was unable to complete his translation of the Old Testament - with the Coverdale translation (a full translation of the Bible into English based on the Vulgate) making up the gaps including the Psalms in particular. The King James Version was not a new version, being based on The Great Bible, but sought to make a good translation better through its various translation companies or committees. Interestingly, it was read aloud before being finalised and this testing by ear contributed to its subsequent influence on English language and literature.

Hoyle was particularly interesting in his emphasis on the complexity of the process of change with the irony that Henry VIII gained the title 'Defender of the Faith' for opposing Protestatism, giving instances of reluctant conformity to Protestantism, and dissatisfaction with the King James Version following its publication in contrast to the later acceptance of it as the 'Authorised' version.

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Philip Bailey - Bring It To Jesus.

Save King George Hospital

The Save King George Hospital campaign is a multi-party, multi-faith campaign to persuade Andrew Lansley, the Secretary of State for Health to stop the closure of A and E and maternity services at King George Hospital, Ilford. Yesterday I took part in the day of the protests which began outside Queens Hospital and included a march to Ilford Town Hall for a rally where more than 500 people heard speeches from John Cryer, Mike Gapes, Margaret Hodge, Lee Scott and local faith leaders, including myself. My contribution was as follows:


"What will be gained by this proposed reorganisation and who will benefit from it?

Clearly, we, the people of the affected boroughs, do not want it to happen. We have said so loudly and vociferously throughout the campaign but our voice has not been heeded by those in the Health Service who wish to push the changes through in the face of our opposition. As that is the case, we can only conclude that those who are driving these proposals either have some other agenda which benefits the Health Service itself or think that they know better than the huge number of local people who are opposed to these proposals.

So, on the one hand there is the possibility that this reorganisation is not about better service delivery to local people at all or the possibility that these proposals are paternalistic with so-called Health experts thinking that they know better than us what is good for us.

The whole direction of Government policy in the previous and current Government has been in terms of greater accountability to patients and yet these proposals ride roughshod over such accountability because those responsible for them insist on driving through in the face of overwhelming local opposition.

There are essentially two ways of delivering public services, whether as a Health Trust or a local authority, either you bring all your workers together in one place so that you reduce your costs and the public have to travel to you. Doing so, primarily benefits the Agency delivering the service and inconveniences those who use it. Alternatively, you locate your service as close to the people you are serving as it is feasible to do. This means you need more buildings and staff, rather than the public, are inconvenienced by having further to travel. This approach is about best practice and best customer service.

It is what we have now with locally delivered A and E and Maternity Services at King George Hospital. We must not lose it simply to satisfy Health Service managers pursuing their own agendas at the expense of hearing what we, the people they are in post to serve, are saying to them. What we are saying is simple and clear: Save King George Hospital."

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Writz - Night Nurse.

The persistence of faith

FaithAction have today summarised the speech made yesterday by Conservative Party Chairman Baroness Warsi about the importance of faith to life in Britain:

"Baroness Warsi opened her speech, to Anglican bishops in Oxford, by stating that Britain has ‘a big problem in the way we think about faith in our society as a whole’.

Baroness Warsi referred to media reports which said how 'Faith charities have been put off from applying for public funding by a barrage of bureaucracy’. There is an imbalance in the relationship between the state, faith and society, which is shown by a suspicion of faith by the ‘political elite’.

Baroness Warsi said that the Government needed to put this right and presented three approaches:

1. Understanding the current state of faith in Britain
2. Having a richer recognition of the Anglican and wider faith-based contribution to society
3. Draw the right conclusions for policy

Understanding the current state of faith in Britain

Know that the proportion of people in the world who adhere to the four biggest religions has actually increased in the past century with increased turnouts at religious ceremonies.

‘The fact is that our world is more religious than ever. Faith is here to stay!’

‘Deny it and you deny the ability of a high part of society to articulate where they have come from, what they are working for, and who they are.’

Understanding the Faith based contribution

There are almost 30,000 faith based charities in the UK

‘We have come to a deeper understanding about the contribution of these faith communities to our society. In other words, why they do the good things they do. Unless we understand what drives people of faith to contribute to society, we cannot hope to help them on their way’.

‘Very often, faith communities offer us innovations which the whole of society can learn from’.

Faith and the Big Society

‘Just imagine if the whole nation could give to charity at the same levels as people of faith already do. The question is how can government help to bring that about?’"

Over the summer I read The Persistence of Faith by Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, and wrote a poem in response with the same title which echoes aspects of Baronness Warsi's speech:

The persistence of faith


“I remain convinced that, in many conflict zones throughout the world, if religion does not become part of the solution, it will be part of the problem. We have not yet learned what it is for religion to be a force for peace in our hyper-connected age.” Jonathan Sacks

On Dover beach Matthew Arnold heard
the melancholy, long withdrawing roar
of the retreating Sea of Faith.
A dead sea evaporated
by a lunar cycle of utopian visions and disastrous wars
revealing a place of disenchantment,
a dried-up Waste Land
devoid of meaning and cohesion
in which private piety was a song
played on a mental i-pod to while away
the idle hours at the end of history.

The returning flood-tide of religion –
a tsunami-like wave of fundamentalism –
overwhelmed sceptic and believer alike.
Driven full speed down the one-way street of secularism,
came the 4x4’s of the US Moral Majority,
the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the fall of Communism,
and the rise of tactical terror as weapon of choice
in religiously-defined cosmic struggles.
On the beach where Arnold mourned,
Richard Dawkins fulminated.
Where Europe doubted, the Majority World believed.

The timeless and timebound intersect
at a crossroads where the one-way streets
of secularism and fundamentalism do not meet.
The literalism inherent in the love of self or God
for self’s and God’s sake cannot interpret the signs
of past ideals in terms of present possibilities.
The voice of transcendent revelation calls
for love of others for the wholly other’s sake.
The fight for human flourishing is now within religion
calling forth a wave of compassion, not condemnation.
How long to hear this song? How soon is now? If not now, then when?

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U2 - 40.

Faith & Climate Change (5)

While at the 'Faith & Climate Change' conference I recorded an interview for the Open University's Creative Climate project telling the story of how we are responding to the challenge of climate change at St John's Seven Kings. What follows is that story pegged to key themes from the recent lecture (sponsored by the Christian environmental group Operation Noah) which the Archbishop of Canterbury gave setting out a Christian vision of how people can respond to the looming environmental crisis:

Beginning with the story of Noah and the Flood, Dr Williams highlighted the “burden of responsibility for what confronts us here and now as a serious crisis and challenge”. Our relationship with the rest of creation is intimately bound up with our relationship with God. The Bible offers “an ethical perspective based on reverence for the whole of life”. “To act so as to protect the future of the non-human world is both to accept a God-given responsibility and, appropriately, to honour the special dignity given to humanity itself.”

At St Johns we teach regularly from these, and other biblical perspectives, on the necessity of care for our environment. We do so particularly through our annual Stewardship Campaign, our Harvest Festival and our support of Christian Aid and their campaigns. We have also linked our teaching to the related theme of Peak Oil, the idea that the world’s supply of fossil fuels has peaked and that increased fuel costs in future will necessitate lifestyle changes.

Dr Williams warned against looking for a single solution to the complex environmental challenges which face us. “Instead of a desperate search to find the one great idea that will save us from ecological disaster, we are being invited to a transformation of individual and social goals that will bring us closer to the reality of interdependent life in a variegated world”. He urged action at the personal and local, as well as at the national and international, levels saying, “When we believe in transformation at the local and personal level, we are laying the surest foundations for change at the national and international level”.

At St Johns we have a Peace & Justice committee who regularly involve us in campaigns calling for global change politically, such as Christian Aid’s ‘Countdown to Copenhagen’ campaign on which theme they are currently preparing a service. As a church, we intend to install solar panels on our roof and are currently exploring how this could be done using the new arrangements for supporting the introduction of renewable sources of energy being introduced by the Government in 2010. On the individual level, during our Stewardship month we give our congregation a list of simple changes, such as sharing transport, turning heating thermostats down, saving water, switching to green energy and so on – that they can make to begin to transform their individual carbon footprint.

The Archbishop urged leaders to take bold decisions at the Copenhagen summit in December. He encouraged the taking of effective collaborative local action to reduce carbon emissions and to maintain pressure on local governments and businesses to do the same. And he encouraged the small actions which mark a break with destructive patterns of consumption and waste and help “to make us more aware of the diversity of life around us”.

At St Johns our understanding of Christian care for the environment and those in need increasingly leads us to view Western consumerism as selfish and wasteful, although we recognise that we are also implicated and need to repent of our own levels of consumption. Our initial discussions of peak oil have led us to begin to consider transition initiatives while also recognising that our love of affluence as a society currently means that the radical changes needed as individuals, communities and society are not being made as fully or rapidly as the crisis demands.

Dr Williams underlined the particular role that belief can play in recovering a sense of balance and interdependence. “What we face today is nothing less than a choice about how genuinely human we want to be; and the role of religious faith in meeting this is first and foremost in setting out a compelling picture of what humanity reconciled with both creator and creation might look like.”

In conclusion, the Archbishop emphasized that “the Christian story lays out a model of reconnection with an alienated world: it tells us of a material human life inhabited by God and raised transfigured from death; of a sharing of material food which makes us sharers in eternal life; of a community whose life together seeks to express within creation the care of the creator”. Quoting Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, he concluded “I am giving you a choice between good and evil, between life and death… choose life”.

At St Johns we are seeking to choose life but are also very aware that the global challenge needs a far greater level of change and transformation than we have yet implemented.

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Nickel Creek - When In Rome.

Breakfast events @ St John's

John Pantry

Lydia Gladwin with her husband John, the Bishop of Chelmsford

We have two breakfast events planned for consecutive Saturdays in November at St John's Seven Kings. The events are:

• Ladies Breakfast - Saturday 8th November, 8.30am - 10.00am. Tickets - £3.00 (from the Church Office, 020 8598 1536). A buffet breakfast with guest speaker Lydia Gladwin (wife of the Bishop of Chelmsford) sharing her experiences of working with prisoner's families in a talk entitled 'Who serves the sentence?' MUDPIES is the acronym for Chelmsford Mothers' Union & Diocese Prison Initiatives. The project operates in the two prisons in the diocese - Bullwood Hall (184 prisoners) and Chelmsford, a Category B local prison and young offender institution (575). Lydia Gladwin says: "The needs which the projects seek to meet are a welcome to families and provision for children in the visits' halls. Before we launched MUDPIES there was little provision in the visits' halls, no toys and no play areas." As a result, MUDPIES launched five initiatives: Support for the needs of the children and the partners of prisoners; Providing supervised recreational facilities for them within the prisons; Involvement in support of pastoral work of Chaplaincy such as asylum seekers; A homework club for children with their fathers (Chelmsford); and Special children's visits (Bullwood Hall). More information on MUDPIES can be found at http://www.chelmsford.anglican.org/980.html

• Men's Breakfast - Saturday 15th November, 8.30am - 10.00am. A cooked breakfast with guest speaker John Pantry (Premier Radio presenter). John trained as a recording engineer and worked for some years in the music business, contributing to many hit records for various artists. He also met with some success as a songwriter and in one memorable month there were six singles by different secular artists released, all singing his songs. He appeared with Kenny Everett on Radio 1, worked on the early Bee Gees albums as well as time spent with the Stones, the Kinks, the Small Faces, the Who and many others. Following his conversion to Christianity his first Christian production was "Light Up The Fire" which made it to the UK charts. He spent a year working for Maranatha Music in California and on his return to Britain began touring internationally as a singer and speaker releasing a dozen Christian albums. In 1989 he was accepted by the Anglican Church for ordination and after training at Oak Hill College, was ordained in 1993. In 1995 he joined the work at Premier Radio. He is a non-stipendiary Curate and is currently writing a new musical setting for a communion service. Donations will be requested towards the cost of the meal and speaker's expenses. More information on John Pantry and Premier Radio can be found at http://www.premierradio.org.uk/presenters/johnpantry.aspx.
  

We are excited to be welcoming such interesting speakers to these breakfast events at St John's. These popular events provide good food and conversation combined with stimulating presentations. There is an open invitation to those from other churches and the wider community who would like to come to hear our speaker's stories of how Christian faith engages with real life in the very different worlds of prisons and the entertainment industry.

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Creed - My Own Prison.

Sacred & creative space

Love & Light

Newlands Park community mural with graffiti artist AKS

RE:Generation

Hertford stns

Advent Art Installation

Yesterday evening I gave a presentation to the Social Regeneration Network conference entitled Sacred & Creative Space: public art as spiritual regeneration for communities.

The presentation included discussion of the following public art projects: A13 Artscape, Barking Town Centre Artscape, Love & Light, RE:Generation, Newlands Park community mural, The Cabinet of Sin & Salvation, Hertford stns, and the Advent Art Installation.

Through these projects, I suggested, local people have been engaged by a range of approaches including: performances in public spaces; being filmed and those images projected onto public buildings; personal stories and memorabilia featuring in a film; learning skills and creating a community mural; commenting on the development of an artwork; encountering art in a town centre; and coming in to a contemplative space.

Through these projects we have explored: the diversity of the community; continuity within change, concepts at the heart of community; ideas of sin and salvation; epiphany and pilgrimage; and reflections of light and peace.

Benefits from involvement in these projects have included:

• improving streetscapes and creating local landmarks;


• encouraging congregations and local people because they have been able to contribute to the projects and see their contribution in the finished artwork;


• raising the profile of churches locally because the projects have each made very visual stories that the local press wanted to feature. The projects have each generated considerable interest and comment locally and have featured in the local, church, arts and regeneration media;


• either bringing people into church to see the project/exhibition or taking the church out into the community; and


• on occasion, leaving something of permanent benefit to the community created through the church and community working together.

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Albert Ayler - Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen.

If you have the Bible in one hand, what is in the other?

Yesterday I was at Chelmsford Cathedral for a clergy synod during which David Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, spoke on the theme: 'If you have the Bible in one hand, what is in the other?' (Post your answers below!)

It was a useful morning with several helpful insights on ways of reading scripture wisely. David Ford's talk has been well summarised by Sam Norton on his blog, so click here to have a read.

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The Call - I Still Believe.

Lancaster Unity link

Good to see that turn-out in the London Mayoral election has been high. Yesterday's Ilford Recorder reported my speech to the Redbridge & Epping Forest TOGETHER rally which led to some interesting information and comment on the Lancaster Unity blog, which can be found here.

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Mavis Staples - 99 & 1/2.

The New Atheism

The New Atheism: Where has it come from and where is it going?
Date: Monday 16 June 2008 Time: 18:45 - 21:00

The God Delusion… God is Not Great… Against all Gods… The End of Faith… Breaking the Spell… Atheism is suddenly fashionable, with new anti-God polemics flying off the shelves. But is there anything new about them? What are the origins of this sudden explosion of atheistic fury and does it have any staying power?

In an evening hosted by Theos, the public theology thinktank, and LICC, John Gray, Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and author of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia, will be exploring current anti-theistic sentiments.

Drawing on historical examples, Professor Gray will argue that there is little that is genuinely new in contemporary atheist thinking, which continues to take many of its concepts and categories from theism while denying its debts to Judaism and Christianity. Given its dogmatic character, he argues, contemporary atheism is likely to continue to function as a sect in the broader tradition of western monotheism.

With opportunity for Q&A after the talk, this evening promises to be both an interesting and enlightening exploration of one of the most important trends of recent years.

Please book in advance as entry can’t be guaranteed on the evening. To book a place call LICC on 020 7399 9555 or email mail@licc.org.uk.

Cost: £7, concessions: £5 (for bookings of 5 people or more). Light refreshments provided.Venue: LICC, Central London, St Peter’s Church, Vere Street, W1G 0DQ.

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The Smiths - The Boy With The Thorn In His Side.

Wider debate on Archbishop's lecture

Muslim lawyers say they are puzzled that Archbishop Rowan Williams raised the Sharia issue before they have had a chance to tackle some key concerns. But Evangelicals and a progressive interfaith group are calling for wider debate. Read the full story of some more measured responses to Rowan Williams' Temple lecture here.

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Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Red Clay Halo.

One voice of sanity

It is hard to find any reaction to Rowan Williams' lecture in today's media that is not based on over-reaction and misinformation, but there was a voice of sanity to be found on the letters page of today's Times:

"Sir,

As one who was present at the lecture, I have been astonished at the wholly inaccurate coverage of the measured and thoughtful contribution that Dr Williams has brought to bear on the current debate.

Religious organisations are no different from any other members’ club or voluntary association. They have their own rules of conduct and process to which their adherents sign up when they join, and which are mutually binding as a matter of quasi-contract. The secular courts are required, when necessary, to enforce these internal regulations.

While reluctant to engage with matters of doctrine, the courts do so when necessary but have traditionally shown deference to the internal governing instruments of individual faith communities, provided they do not offend the law of the land. There is nothing novel in what Dr Williams is suggesting. For centuries Britain has shown toleration to religious minorities and afforded accommodations in laws of general application. Such is the mainstay of a liberal democracy in a plural state.

Professor Mark Hill
Centre for Law and Religion
Cardiff University"

For more reasoned comment see Paul Trathen's blog on the issue by clicking here.

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Nickel Creek - Reasons Why.

Religion in the workplace

Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach (Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs) gave the Christian Association of Business Executive's (CABE) Eighteenth Hugh Kay Memorial Lecture: "Religion in the Workplace" on 16 October 2007.

In the lecture Lord Griffiths asks: Is your organisation "faith friendly"? What are the benefits to organisations of being faith friendly? How should we be good followers of Christ and effective witnesses at work?

He makes the case for being faith friendly by saying:

"an individual who takes their faith seriously will wish to explore how it relates to issues raised by the particular workplace in which they find themselves. What does it mean for example to show integrity in a financial transaction? How does a partner in a leading international accounting, law or investment banking firm maintain an appropriate work – life balance? How does the idea that “my word is my bond” apply in a fast moving negotiation? How does one handle a conflict between being an agent and a principal?

The subject also raises issues for management.

How much knowledge of other religions should managers be expected to have? How should a manager deal with the zeal of a new convert who wishes to share his/her faith with others? Should people be allowed to wear jewellery which are religious symbols at their place of work? Should people who are opposed to same-sex unions be required to attend training sessions in order to better understand sexual preference? Should women be allowed to wear a burkha or a hijab (veil)? How should management respond to a person of religious conviction who refuses to travel on business to a certain Middle Eastern country? Should employees in a company have the right to hold a Christmas carol service? Or an Eid party?

All of these are practical issues faced by employees and managers in today’s world.

What I find remarkable is the way in which these issues are now being discussed openly and seriously in the business world as well as in business schools. Not that long ago the subject of religion in business was a taboo subject. Religion and business simply did not mix. They were entirely separate enterprises. Within the last ten years however Fortune magazine has run a cover article on “God and Business: The Surprising Quest for Spiritual Renewal in the Workplace”, Business Week has led with a piece on “Religion in the Workplace: The Growing Presence of Spirituality in Corporate America”, and there have been numerous articles in the Financial Times, the Times and the Wall Street Journal dealing with similar issues."

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Edwin Starr - War.

Unity and multiplicity

The latest edition of Art & Christianity is out and, along with many other interesting features, includes a report of the papers presented at the 2007 ACE International Conference in Cambridge.

In the magazine Graham Howes summarises my contribution, a paper entitled Allusive and Elusive, as follows:

"It was a London clergyman, however, Jonathan Evens, who, rather than demonizing ... Modernism and Postmodernism, or advocating ... the contemporary equivalent of Plato's guardians, saw the former, especially within the visual arts 'as progressing largely via deconstruction' where 'each successive movement identified a new individual element of of what had originally been a whole work of art and explored that fragment to its limits.' But he did not view this process as culturally or credally dysfunctional, but believed, with David Jones, that 'objects, images and words accrue meanings over the years that are more than the object as object or image as image. Therefore all things are signs re-presenting something else in another form'. Such a process, Evens argued, rather than weakening the links between art, faiths and culture, only served to strengthen these by lending them greater emotional and spiritual unity. His predicted outcome was indeed close to the 'unity in multiplicity and multiplicity in unity' which Samir Mahmoud had described to us as 'the essential characteristic of Islamic spirituality and the creative well-spring of its art'. Evens' more general and essentially creative conclusion was that in much 'Modern' art, as in much 'Postmodern' discussion of Biblical form and content, we now saw 'the holding together of fragments in ways that enable conversations to occur between these fragmentary ideas and images'. This, in his judgement, rendered the need for what he called 'a revival of religious and artistic languages that are "elusive, allusive, not didactic"' even more imperative."

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Anton Bruckner - Locus iste.

Ken Leech & Terry Waite @ CTC

On Thursday 27 September, 5-6.30pm, Fr Ken Leech will be speaking at the Contextual Theology Centre about his book on working as a community theologian in East London — Doing Theology in Altab Ali Park. The event includes a drinks reception. You may book in for dinner afterwards for £10.

On Tuesday 16 October, 7.30-9pm, Terry Waite, who was an adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury and was taken hostage in the Lebanon from 1987 to 1991, has agreed to speak on
Survival in Solitude to raise money for the Contextual Theology Centre’s work. Tickets for this evening event will cost £10—book yours now! You can book in for a buffet supper (at 6.30pm) for a further £10.

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Check Sabrina Johnston's Peace (In The Valley).

What are the 21st century's social evils?

Julia Unwin, Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, launched the JRF's inquiry into modern social evils with a speech at the RSA in which she identified what she views as major modern social evils. Her list included: affluence; avarice; alienation and anger (and associated violence). She argued that these social evils can be addressed by the concepts of dignity, solidarity and civility. You can read her speech in full here and contribute your own views on modern social evils here.

Ministerial speeches

At Wednesday's FRF dinner the Minister there, Jim Murphy, gave a relatively unscripted speech that came across, to me, as refreshingly honest and human.

In my past life within the Civil Service I occasionally wrote speeches for Ministers and heard a significant number; most were deadly dull with bullet point after bullet point justifying what we thought Government policy was at the time (we usually thought we had a better grasp on this than the Ministers themselves!). At one point, Ministers recognised the dull nature of the scripts that were being presented with and asked us to find jokes or anecdotes to open speeches; as though we had gone into the Civil Service to be gag writers!

Of course, not all Ministers used what was given to them and their speeches were usually all the better for that! I did some work with Margaret Hodge, when she was Minister for Disabled People, and she had a reputation for never using the speech that she was given. On one occasion though, by putting the whole speech onto powerpoint, she used every word of my prepared speech in order not to stray from the next set of points that were coming up on screen. Margaret Hodge later gave good support to the ESOL courses, Faith Forum, and support groups for Self-Harmers that I was involved with from St Margaret's Barking but I never, in that time, got around to reminding her about that anecdote!

The best speeches I have heard from a politician have been by John Battle in his unofficial (and non-Ministerial) role of link between the Government and faith communities. John would typically share some anecdotes from his constituency and summarise parts of his recent reading before linking these to his presentation of Government policy on faith communities. He'd generally prepare his material himself (often on the train on the way to the event) and his delivery was all the better for being personal and self-prepared.