Congratulations: Steven Saxby

Congratulations to Steven Saxby who has been appointed as Executive Officer to the London Churches Group with effect from 1 March. He will also remain as Priest in Charge of St Barnabas, Walthamstow, a church which is a member of London Citizens, active in the CitySafe campaign and a key member of Walthamstow Migrants Action Group. 

Steven has a strong record of social action, ecumenical and multi faith engagement that will stand him in good stead in his new role. This includes as Waltham Forest Faith Communities worker (2002-2003) and later line manager for his successors (2003-2007), developing the Faith Forum for Waltham Forest, serving on the Local Strategic Partnership and advising the local authority on faith matters since 2002. He also founded the London Boroughs Faiths Network in 2002, which is still going strong.

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Neil Young - Rockin' In The Free World.
 

C4M webpage update (23)

On the commission4mission webpage this have been posts about press coverage of our Queens Hospital commission and Stations exhibition at St Barnabas Walthamstow in The Month plus a new profile of new commission4mission member, Caroline Richardson. Caroline is a glass and textile artist and created the Tree of Life window for the St Luke's Chapel at Queen's Hospital Romford.

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Hummingbird - Live Your Life Laughing.

c4m webpage update (21)

This week's posts on the commission4mission webpage give the opportunity to sample Henry Shelton's current Stations of the Cross exhibition at St Barnabas Walthamstow and to find out about the work of Peter Webb in original commissions and community artworks at St Marys Woodford.

Regarding the Shelton Stations, Revd. Steven Saxby writes:

"I have been given permission by contemporary artist Henry Shelton to negotiate terms with any church interested in purchasing his Stations of the Cross, currently on temporary exhibition here at St Barnabas and previously displayed in York Minster. Henry and I are very keen to find these wonderful contemporary and spiritually engaging paintings a permanent home in a proper church context.

You can find information about and photos of some of the Stations via http://commissionformission.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html. St Barnabas already has a splendid set of Arts and Crafts Stations. We realise that not every church would be happy to display the non-Biblical Stations and would be willing to sell the set excluding these. Henry is also open to painting a final Station of the Resurrection for any church which would want this as the final Station.

The link above also contains information about Commission4Mission which several of us in Chelmsford Diocese have founded as a means of encouraging the commissioning of art and its benefits in furthering the mission of the church. The organisation was in part founded to raise money for a children's hospice. Experience is several places suggests that in return for some record within the church, all sorts of people are willing to give generously for the purchasing of art in memory of loved ones. We are seeking around £300 for each painting, half of which will go to charity. The paintings have a much higher commercial value. We are also open to negotiating a lower price and of suggesting ways of raising funds for the purchase.

If you, or anyone you know, might be interested, please let me know. The paintings are on display here till the end of September for anyone who would like to come and see them. I trust that the Stations will be a tremendous aid to some church in its devotion to our Lord and in its mission to the world."

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James Macmillan - Seven Words from the Cross Part III.

c4m webpage update (20)

This week on the commission4mission webpage we have stories about the dedication of our first completed commission and about the opening of our current exhibition.

Our first completed commission, two paintings by Henry Shelton, was dedicated on Tuesday 1st September as part of the dedication by the Rt. Revd. David Hawkins (Bishop of Barking and Patron of Commission For Mission), Rt. Revd. Mgr. David Manson (Vicar General, Brentwood Diocese) and Revd. Roy Jackson (Superintendent Minister, Romford Methodist Circuit) of the new St Luke's Chapel at Queen's Hospital, Romford.

A set of Henry Shelton's Stations of the Cross are currently on show at St Barnabas Walthamstow as part of the E17 Art Trail. Steven Saxby writes about how thrilled he is to have them displayed at St Barnabas.

At the Greenbelt Festival there was much talk about eradicating the gap between what we believe and how we act. So it has been encouraging to return from a Festival celebrating the creativity of the Arts to these two specific expressions of that God-given creativity that commission4mission has incubated and brought to birth.

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Pierce Pettis - Grandmother's Song.

c4m webpage update (19)

There are three new stories on the commission4mission webpage this week. First off, a round up of some recent press coverage; an interview with Henry Shelton about his commission at Queen's Hospital (to be dedicated by the Bishop of Barking on Tuesday 1st September) and an exhibition review that I wrote for Art & Christianity.

This was followed by updated information about the first two events in our autumn programme. Henry's Stations of the Cross are being exhibited at St Barnabas Walthamstow as part of the E17 Art Trail in September. Then in October our artists will be exhibiting at All Saints Goodmayes as part of their Festival weekend which also features a concert organised by c4m member, Alexander Chaplin.

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Tom Waits - Hang On St. Christopher.