International Times: Dark Intense Music

My latest review to be published by International Times is of 'Down River: In Search of David Ackles' by Mark Brend:

'In Down River Mark Brend tells the story of David Ackles more fully than it has ever been told before. In the book, he identifies why that story and Ackles’ four albums remain worthy of such focused attention. As Bernie Taupin once said, ‘It’s not just that his music was different; he was different’. Through his search for David Ackles, Brend identifies the ways in he and his music were different from all around him and makes a strong argument for a greater appreciation of the value of difference.'

'Ackles’ storytelling songs demonstrate an incarnational ‘being with’ approach to his characters (‘We are all flawed; we have all fallen’), while the cumulative picture painted is of the bleakness of a world which has, as with the stunning ‘His Name is Andrew’, lost its connection with God.'

For more on David Ackles see here and here.

My earlier pieces for IT are an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a profile of singer-songwriter Bill Fay, plus reviews of: 'Headwater' by Rev Simpkins; 'The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art' by Jonathan A. Anderson; 'Breaking Lines' at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, albums by Deacon Blue, Mumford and Sons, and Andrew Rumsey, also by Joy Oladokun and Michael Kiwanaku; 'Nolan's Africa' by Andrew Turley; Mavis Staples in concert at Union Chapel; T Bone Burnett's 'The Other Side' and Peter Case live in Leytonstone; Helaine Blumenfeld's 'Together' exhibition, 'What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise' by David Miller; 'Giacometti in Paris' by Michael Peppiatt, the first Pissabed Prophet album; and 'Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord', a book which derives from a 2017 symposium organised by the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art.

Several of my short stories have been published by IT including three about Nicola Ravenscroft's EarthAngel sculptures (then called mudcubs), which we exhibited at St Andrew's Wickford in 2022. The first story in the series is 'The Mudcubs and the O Zone holes'. The second is 'The Mudcubs and the Clean-Up King', and the third is 'The mudcubs and the Wall'. My other short stories to have been published by International Times are 'The Black Rain', a story about the impact of violence in our media, 'The New Dark Ages', a story about principles and understandings that are gradually fading away from our modern societies, and 'The curious glasses', a story based on the butterfly effect.

IT have also published several of my poems, including 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem. Also published have been three poems from my 'Five Trios' series. 'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. 'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.

To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. My poems published in Amethyst Review are: 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'.

I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.

'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:

• 'Barking';
• 'Bradwell';
• 'Broomfield';
• 'Pleshey'; and
• 'Runwell'.

These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.

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David Ackles - Waiting For The Moving Van.

HeartEdge Mailer | February 2019

HeartEdge Mailer | February 2019

HeartEdge is an international ecumenical movement.

• We are churches and other organisations developing mission.
• We focus on 4 areas - commercial activity, congregations, cultural engagement and compassion.
• Join us! Details here.

Each month we collect and email stories, web links, news related to our focus: commercial activity, congregations, cultural engagement and compassion.

Useful, inspiring, practical - it's a resource.

This month:

• Migrants, asylum seekers and church as hospitality and safe place
• Making good ideas real via CMS and 'Out of the Box' and Birmingham Bike project,
• Churches running cafés and soft play business plus how to curate art in a church building.
• Tips on community storytelling and the conflict in our congregations.
• Laura Everett on pedal power and prayer, biking around Boston.

Read the Mailer here.

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Lizz Wright - I Remember, I Believe.

Christmas/Epiphany family-friendly session

Today we held our second family-friendly session at St Stephen Walbrook for families with young children.

Our theme was Christmas and Epiphany. We began with a star-themed Treasure Hunt exploring 'The Divine Image' exhibition and ending at our Crib. Then we enjoyed star-led craft activities including DIY constellation viewers and planispheres. Some lunch followed and we ended by telling the nativity and epiphany stories using our crib figures, singing 'Away in a manger' and praying the following prayer:

Loving Jesus, we come to you today because you came to us. God become human as a baby boy to share your love with us and know what our lives are like. We thank you for loving us enough to be one of us and we want to be one with you as a result. Amen.

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Anaïs Mitchell - Song of the Magi.

Arts Evening for the Billericay Art Trail

Next Saturday I will be giving a poetry reading as part of an Arts Evening for the Billericay Art Trail. A great, varied programme including poetry, music, digital projection, storytelling and dance has been arranged for the evening at St. Mary Magdalen Billericay. 

I am particularly looking forward to hearing Tim Cunningham again, as he has read previously at several events I have organised. Billericay-based Cunningham has been called the poet of good endings and his apposite phrases serve to illuminate the everyday encounters which characterise his poetry. He has had four collections of his poetry published: Don Marcelino's Daughter (2001), Unequal Thirds (2006), Kyrie (2008), and most recently Seige, published to coincide with his 70^th birthday and consisting of a selection of visceral, roots poems taken from his three previous selections with a sprinkling of new work.

My fellow commission4mission member, Colin Burns, is also taking part. Combining classical and popular influences, guitarist/singer-songwriter Burns will play tracks from his debut album Emerald & Gold. This project brings together compositions from many years with the painter-turned-performer fusing instrumental dexterity and melodic poetry.

The evening also includes Reflection Dance, storytellers Colin Taylor and Pat Roberts, animations from Dezadie, plus images from the Big Draw event earlier in the day at Norsey Wood. The evening starts at 7:30pm.

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Dezadie - Cyber Dancer.

Performance: An evening of music and poetry

The final event in this year's Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival was Performance: An evening of music and poetry at Holy Trinity Hatfield Heath. I opened the evening with a selection of poems that included The Mark and Worthship. Colin Burns performed songs and instrumentals from his Emerald and Gold album, as well as new material. Jane Grell read from her newly published Collected Poems Praise Songs. The first half of the programme was brought to a resounding conclusion by the Brass of St Mary's (Sheering) that included both Be Still and Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines. Mal Grosch made a humorous start to the second half of the programme with poems from his new collection entitled Blackfriars. A choir from Holy Trinity and St Mary's reprised songs from the Roger Jones musical David. The evening's varied and thoroughly enjoyable  entertainment concluded with songs, a poem and a story by Jane Grell.

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Mal Grosch - Sweet England.  

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.

The Hobbit: An Unnecessary Inflation

In The Lord of the Rings films, there is a fine balance struck between the seriousness (within the context of the fictional world created) of the unfolding narrative and the particular responses and stories (often incorporating humour) of the main characters. The main focus is on a state-of-the-universe narrative but the potential portentousness of this big story is leavened and humanised by the humour and humility of the central characters and the parts they play within this meta-narrative.  

The Hobbit was originally written by J.R.R. Tolkien as a children's story complete in it's own right and it only later became a prelude to The Lord of the Rings. Having reached The Hobbit by the opposite route seems to have meant that Peter Jackson is unable to tell the earlier story in its own right and for what it is in and of itself. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first of a three part series which can only tell this the slighter of Tolkien's originally published tales of Middle Earth at this length because of the decision to also tell the story as an explicit prelude to The Lord of the Rings.

This has two implications. First, that The Hobbit films will only make sense to those who already know The Lord of the Rings films as the additional material doesn't progress the story which is actually told in The Hobbit but does fit that story into the bigger story of The Lord of the Rings. Second, the balance between seriousness and humour/humanity found in The Lord of the Rings films is lost here because of the decision to tell both the story of The Hobbit and the story of The Hobbit as a prelude to The Lord of the Rings. The story told in The Hobbit is a lighter, slighter tale which is well told in this film with humour (except when Radagast's distraction of a hunting party of Orcs is turned into the equivalent of a Benny Hill-style sketch) but this is then set against the seriousness of the storyline which explains how the events of The Hobbit fit into the state-of-this-universe narrative that is The Lord of the Rings. Instead of the leavening of seriousness with humour and humanity that is found in The Lord of the Rings films here we get a jarring shuttling back and forth between these two separated styles and stories.

This results, I think, from a lack of trust on the part of the makers in the ability of the story of The Hobbit to communicate in its own right and its own form. Jackson, essentially, does not trust that the seriousness of the tale and its links to The Lord of the Rings would emerge simply by dramatising the tale as told by Tolkien. In the story, as told by Tolkien, these aspects emerges from the lighter, humourous form of the story. It is the reverse of what is achieved in The Lord of the Rings films and it is ironic that Jackson having found for himself a balance between seriousness and humour for The Lord of the Rings films (as this balance is not in the book as written by Tolkien) has then been unable to trust the reverse balance which is naturally found in the original tale as told by Tolkien.

There is much to enjoy in the film and I'll be there with the many who will see all three over the next 18 months and then will watch all three all over again on DVD but, on a first viewing at least, my view is that the story would have been better told by reflecting and respecting the lighter, slighter nature of its form instead of this attempt to inflate it with the expansiveness and seriousness of The Lord of the Rings.

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Howard Shore - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Celebration of Poetry

Our ‘Celebration of Poetry’, as promised in our publicity, was a wonderfully varied evening of poetry supplemented by music and storytelling with both local and published poets performing their work. More photos of the event can be seen by clicking here.

To set the scene, and before reading a selection of my own poems, I quoted from Malcolm Guite's Faith, Hope and Poetry:

“Shakespeare set poetry the comparatively modest task of ‘holding a mirror up to nature’, that is, helping us to see our society and ourselves more clearly, reflecting our known realities back to us. But sometimes (and very often in the works of Shakespeare), the mirror of poetry does more than reflect what we have already seen. Sometimes that mirror becomes a window, a window into the mystery which is both in and beyond nature, a ‘casement opening on perilous seas’. From that window sometimes shines a more than earthly light that suddenly transforms, transfigures all the earthly things it falls upon. Through that window, when it is opened for us by the poet’s art, we catch a glimpse of that ‘Beauty always ancient always new’, who made and kindled our imagination in the beginning and whose love draws us beyond the world.”

Jane Grell gave us Caribbean poetry, storytelling, Moses poems and a Hopi Indian prayer/poem. Jane was born and grew up on the island of Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean.  She started her teaching career in an all boys Comprehensive in Hackney, teaching French, before switching to teaching English to bilingual students in Waltham Forest. It was as a teacher of bilingual students that she discovered the power of storytelling. For her storytelling, Jane 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.

Malcolm Guite read work including 'My poetry is jamming your machine' and two of his O antiphons, before singing 'The Green Man' and 'Angels Unawares'. He ended with his recent iOde for his iPhone. Malcolm is a poet, a singer-songwriter, a priest, a chaplain, a teacher and an author. He plays in Cambridge rock band Mystery Train, and lectures widely in England and USA on poetry and theology. His collection of sonnets for the church year, Sounding the Seasons, is due to be published this December by Canterbury Press. Luci Shaw has said of him, ‘I recommend the work of Malcolm Guite, an English poet and Anglican priest who plumbs the depths of poetry and religious faith like a true metaphysical.’

Alan Hitching showed images of two pottery creations and shared the poems linked to these pieces. Alan is a poet, potter and priest. He says that poetry and pottery are like two languages for him. Words he has used all his life in poetry to express feelings and faith, the other language of clay he has only over the last 15 years since he was challenged to learn. Joy has come when the two languages speak on the same topic at the same time, expressing together his thoughts and feelings on subjects. 

Jenny Houghton gave us poems for each season. Jenny has been writing poetry since her teenage years, initially personal pieces. Then in response to an article in her church’s magazine in 1999, she submitted a short poem to a Christian publishing house, and was surprised but pleased when it was accepted for publication. Further submissions were regularly included in their poetry anthologies. Writing in a range of styles including verses, traditional rhyme and more abstract narrative, her work often includes wordplay and structural patterns. These occur instinctively as she has had no formal instruction in poetry composition. Her poems often reflect her Christian faith and she believes her ability is a true gift. Jenny first read one of her poems in public at a Good Friday service in 2011 but was initially concerned about sharing her work in this way. However her experience of performing in choirs, drama, dance, and creating craft work reminded her that no art form is truly complete without an audience to appreciate it!

Tim Cunningham gave us a selection of his poems, primarily drawn from his third collection entitled Kyrie. These are characterised by gentle humour and acute observation. Tim was born in Limerick in 1942 and has had a varied life history having worked for a brewery, in local government, with the National Coal Board and in education plus having lived in Limerick, Tipperary, Dublin, Trowbridge, London, Newark (Delaware), and, presently, Billericay. He has had four collections of his poetry published: Don Marcelino's Daughter (2001), Unequal Thirds (2006), Kyrie (2008), and most recently Seige, published to coincide with his 70^th birthday and consisting of a selection of visceral, roots poems taken from his three previous selections with a sprinkling of new work. Adrian Mitchell has written that, 'Tim Cunningham's poems are as various and fascinating as the animals in Noah's Ark. He has a most musical ear, a keen eye and an open heart. His aim is true. He writes beautiful poems.'

Thanks from Kathryn Robinson and I, as organisers, to all those who took part and to St Paul's Woodford Bridge for hosting us. 

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Van Morrison - Rave On John Donne.

Beyond 'Airbrushed from Art History' (8)

The Pilgrim Project features artists across different practices – art, music, writing, poetry, film, cultural groups and more – that bring back storytelling. It is a network of artists concerned with the expression of the search for the sacred and engagement of the human experience and builds connections across different audiences and demographics.
Michael Galovic engages himself in a few parallel directions: traditional icons, contemporary religious and non religious art. He keeps revisiting the theme he graduated with: The Flight and Fall of Icarus as well as the Crucifixion theme, but has been particularly focused lately on building a body of work on Uluru, the sacred Rock in the Northern Teritory of Australia. He says, ‘I am attracted to the powerful imagery in general. [It is] the highest possible drama of mankind ever seen and experienced… It talked to me. It resonated with me on that level immediately before I embraced any kind of faith.’

Patricia Varney adopts Christian themes in her works and utilises them in the contemporary practice of painting. Her focus is best identified by a layering of symbolism through the mystery of Christian paradoxes: the meeting of heaven and earth (divine geometry), the Annunciation (the possibility of Christ becoming man) and the illustrative expressions of what it means to ‘see’.

Eleni Antoniou Holloway is heavily influenced by the material she uses – clay is not only a process of making, but is the conceptual foundation for her work. She explores the work of clay through its historical function and through the personal narratives, metaphors and Christian symbolism of the ancient material: creation, the desire to create, the imprint of the maker, transformational processes and the pouring and containment of meaning.

Kristone Capistrano’s art practice is driven by an ongoing fascination with the person – moving beyond a story into connecting with the very essence of personhood. Working within the traditions of portraiture, he moves towards a questioning of presence and how it continues to linger, despite the departure of the person. His work functions in capturing, (re)presenting and (re)constructing the (corpo)real presence the composition of his work.

The Mandorla Art Award is a thematic religious art prize, attracting some of Australia’s finest artists since its 1985 inception. This achievement represents the dream of a small group of committed Christians, who call themselves “The Mandorla Centre of Inner Peace”. They were concerned by the overwhelmingly secular nature of contemporary art and so set about reviving an interest in and patronage of religious art. The Mandorla Art Award employs a thematic spiritual inspiration that changes with each exhibition. These inspirations are defined by quotations from the Bible and all participating artists are requested to interpret these in their own way.

The root of Art is compassion. At times we may forget beauty and neglect the dignity of each other’s story. The expression of our lives brings us into direct conversation with each other: it gives us the opportunity to stop and learn from and about one another and see ourselves in another’s eyes. These stories allow us to enter into our humanity and help us realise that we are not alone, but travel alongside each other in a pilgrimage that calls for transformation.

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Eli Moore - What Good Am I?

Experiential learning and lay training

Experiential learning was fundamental to the ministry of Jesus. He taught primarily by storytelling and without, in the main, explaining the stories he told. As a result, his listeners had to inhabit Jesus' stories and think for themselves about how they would respond as characters within these stories. We see this process in action as Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan in response to a question from his audience and leading to his own question which is designed to provoke personal reflection on how to respond to the scenario and issues explored by the story.

In addition, Tom Wright has comprehensively demonstrated in The New Testament and the People of God and Jesus and the Victory of God how Jesus was also storytelling through the events of his ministry. By his actions and the dramas he initiated and played out he was retelling the story of the people of Israel in terms of himself.

The disciples which he gathered around him were drawn into this story to experience it for themselves and, while he sought to explain what was going on to them as it took place, they often did not understand at the time. How could they have? They were part of a story and process of experiential learning which could not be fully understand until its conclusion was reached with the Ascension. Once Jesus had completed the story and completed their process of experiential learning then they were empowered to begin a new chapter of the ongoing story by ministering confidently in the light of all they had learnt and understood.

Experiential learning is based on the four stages of learning identified by David. A. Kolb:


• Stage 1: Concrete experience – doing;
• Stage 2: Observation/Reflection – reviewing;
• Stage 3: Conceptualisation – concluding;
• Stage 4: Testing – planning.

Ruth Ackroyd and David Major in Shaping the Tools: Study Skills in Theology provide examples of the way in which experiential learning can be used effectively within a church context. For example, they provide a hypothetical example of a new Sunday School teacher giving a first lesson to illustrate the way in which experiential learning can be applied in a church context. They conclude that:
 
“… learning of the experiential sort is almost inevitably multi-disciplinary. Learning about the content of the syllabus is not enough to make our Sunday School teacher a success. He will also need to pay attention to the teaching methods he uses and subject them to the same experiential learning cycle. He will also come to see that not all of the children in his group learn in the same way … These observations and reflections on experience may lead him to consult books on educational theory where he may learn about such things as individual learning preferences and styles of learning … Again, when planning for the next lesson, his new learning will inform his thinking … The experiential learning cycle also offers a great deal of potential for the Sunday School teacher to learn more about himself so that, as well as learning about the Bible and Christian doctrine, teaching methods and children’s learning, he is also engaging in critical reflection upon his own life.”
 
They argue that the models of reflective practitioners and critical thinkers are appropriate to facilitating the development of congregations and individuals within congregations. In doing so, they highlight the work of Reginald Revans and Paulo Freire. Revans argues that experiential learning involves the whole being including the religious and spiritual dimension while Freire’s dialogical model of education aims to overcome disabling issues and liberate from oppression .

The Church of England, as a whole, has been learning to place less reliance on full-time stipendiary clergy. Patterns of collaborative working between clergy and parishes have grown. New opportunities for leadership responsibility have become available for self-supporting clergy and Readers, Church Army Evangelists and Ordained and Lay Pioneer Ministries. In addition, the roles such as Pastoral Assistant and Evangelist have been recognised and there are growing numbers of employed and voluntary Children, Youth and Family Workers in parishes. This trend is to be welcomed as a proper expression of the full variety of ministry gifts within the Body of Christ but to continue this trend will require greater use of experiential learning.

At this time when the Church of England needs to, for reasons of mission and deployment, further diversify its education and training provision for lay ministry by licensing or local commissioning of a broader range of lay ministries (e.g. aspects of ministry such as preparation for occasional offices, community work, leading of funerals, inter-faith engagement etc), it will be vital to deliver the greatest level of access possible for lay people to Lay Education and Training in dioceses. To do this too will require much greater use of localised, experiential learning.

Parish ministry has reinforced for me the sense of pressure which most of us experience in everyday life and the difficulty many lay people experience in finding time for more than work, family commitments, and church attendance. In this context, gifted people are often unable to train for ministry because training structures are insufficiently flexible and tailored to fit within their time constraints.

In order to respond effectively a mixed economy of delivery based on the principle of subsidiarity (that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority) will be required including use of accreditation of prior learning (to remove duplication of learning), modular and/or distance learning (to ensure flexibility of timing and location of training), and parish-based delivery for locally commissioned roles (in order that education and training is delivered as close as possible to each local setting). This would create, to the fullest extent possible, tailored learning packages able to overcome access issues through flexible/localised delivery and the use of personalised learning styles.

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Pink Floyd - Time.

Literary reflections

Here are a few brief literature-related reflections taken from a discussion I've been having on facebook:

The strength of our response to authors often reflects the moral judgements we make on the worldview underpinning the fiction of these authors. This is, I think, a major reason for the existence of storytelling in human culture; that we share and test ways of viewing and inhabiting the world through the stories we tell. This is not a didactic exercise (at least, not in great literature) as we are invited to inhabit one or more worldviews through the story's unfolding rather than being told about those worldviews, as would be the case in an article, essay or sermon.

I think therefore that we all instinctively make moral judgements about stories and veer towards literature and art which reinforces or develops our worldview while tending to reject work which expresses worldviews to which we don't subscribe (because the characters and narrative in these don't seem credible). We aren't comfortable acknowledging this, however, as we like to think our literary judgements are dispassionate and objective rather than passionately moral (although coming from differing moral bases).
 
As a result, while I think that texts exist in their own right once completed and can be addressed in their own right, I don't think that the life of the author then becomes irrelevant as a result. The relationship between author and book is similar to that between parent and child. I can know and relate someone's child without knowing anything of the parent but, through knowing the parent, I am likely to appreciate aspects of the child which I might not acknowledge otherwise. This additional knowledge does not define the child, who exists as someone more than simply the son of daughter of the parent, but can provide extra insight into his/her character or personality. I think the same is true of authors and books.


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My Chemical Romance - Desolation Row.

Telling our story: testimony & witness

In Galatians 1. 11-24, the Apostle Paul gives his testimony. Testimony is the telling our story; the story of how we came to faith and have grown in our faith.

Often we think that to be effective testimonies must be dramatic as was the testimony of Paul. The story of how the persecutor of the faith became the Apostle to Gentiles, including his Damascus Road experience, was and is a story full of drama and one which had huge impact in its day and has had since.

However, we should not, as a result, despise other less dramatic and more gradual testimonies of faith. My own story is one of growing up in a Christian family and of coming to faith as a child after hearing an account of the crucifixion at a Holiday Bible Club. That night I knelt by my bed and asked Jesus into my life. As a shy teenager very aware of my own shortcomings I later doubted whether I was good enough for God but in my late teens was shown Romans 5. 8, which says “while we were still sinners Christ died for us,” by a youth group leader and, as a result, recommitted my life to Christ. Over the course of my life I have felt God leading me to develop the particular mix of community action, workplace ministry, artistic activities and relationship building that characterises my ministry today.

That simple, undramatic testimony will I hope be an encouragement to those of you here today who, like me, don’t have dramatic testimonies to tell but who nevertheless have real encounters with God and real growth in faith to share as part of our testimonies. When we do so, we are witnesses to Jesus and to the impact and effect that he has had on our lives.

To be witnesses to him is what Jesus calls us to do and to be. As we were reminded a couple of weeks ago at Pentecost, before he left his disciples Jesus said to them (Acts 1. 7-8), “... when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of all the earth.”

Witnesses are those who have seen or experienced a particular event or sign or happening and who then tell the story of what they have seen or heard as testimony to others. That is what Jesus called us to do before he ascended to the Father; to tell our stories of encountering him to others. No more, no less. We don’t have to understand or be able to explain the key doctrines of the Christian faith. We don’t have to be able to tell people the two ways to live or to have memorized the sinner’s prayer or to have tracts to be able to hand out in order to be witnesses to Jesus. All we need to do is to tell our story; to say this is how Jesus made himself real to me and this is the difference that it has made.

I want to encourage us today that this is something which each of us can do. The best description I have heard of it is to gossip the Gospel. Just simply in everyday conversation with others to talk about the difference that knowing Jesus has on our lives.

Now the reality is that when we do that it is in a context of being to some extent on trial. Witnesses are usually called to give their testimony in a trial and that is so because the truth of what happened or what has been experienced is not self-evident and has to be established through reliable testimony.

The missiologist, Lesslie Newbigin puts it like this:

“Testimony, or witness, is a kind of utterance different from the statement of a fact that is self-evident or can be demonstrated from self-evident premises. It is not a logically inescapable “truth of reason”. A witness makes his or her statement as part of a trial in which the truth is at stake, in which the question: “What is the truth?” is being argued; it is not, while the trial proceeds, presumed to be common knowledge ... The witness stakes his or her being and life on a statement which can be contradicted ... The final proof of the statement will not be available until the trial is over and the judge has pronounced the verdict ...

What is the content of this testimony? Essentially it is a witness to the living God traces of whose presence and actions have been granted in the events which are recounted ...

The testimony which the Church has to give is of a revelation which is not an alien invasion threatening the freedom of the human spirit, but the appeal of a love which alone can set the human spirit free.”

We know that we cannot prove the existence and love of God in any way that is self-evident to all people, just as atheists are unable to prove that God does not exist. Therefore, we are in a debate or trial in which the only evidence available is that of testimony and where we are called to be witnesses of all that we have experienced of God’s love and presence.

We are not called to prove anything or to be erudite or experienced public speakers, or to have answers to every question that we might be asked. All we are asked to be are witnesses who give testimony by telling our story of how we have encountered Jesus.

That is what Paul did and we can be like him, not because we have an equally dramatic testimony to share, but simply because we have a testimony and we share it with others.

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Sam Phillips - River Of Love.

Stories, poetry and coffee

Outreach activities in Seven Kings together with Redbridge Library Services continue apace.

The Mobile Library continues to establish its newest stop on St John's Road each Friday morning from 11.15 am - 12.15 pm.

The next outreach event is a Children's Storytelling session at St John's Seven Kings on Wednesday 5th August at 2.00pm. In September the next Library Services coffee morning will be held, also at St John's, on Friday 25th September.

The Book group at St Johns met on the 16th July to talk about Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed this and to have a favorite passage.

The group decided that the next book they will read is the novel The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. The Amazon description is as follows: "This is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959".

The group will meet to discuss this book on Thursday 8th October 2009 in the Upper Room at St John's.

Redbridge Library Services are currently running a poetry competition for adults, 16 and over. The theme is: 'What London means to You!' Poems must not exceed 40 lines (not including title) and must be submitted in the body of an email to poetrycompetition@redbridge.gov.uk. Entry is restricted to Redbridge residents or people working or attending education in Redbridge.

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The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset.

New mobile library site in Seven Kings

New mobile library site in Seven Kings

The Mobile Library will begin using a new site in Seven Kings from Friday 3rd July. Each Friday (from 3rd July onwards) the Mobile Library will be in St John's Road (outside St John's Church) from 11.15am to 12.15pm.

This is additional library service provision for Seven Kings at a time and venue that will be of particular benefit to users of the Aldborough Road South shopping parade, Downshall Centre and St John's Centre together with residents at Trillo Court.

Storytelling sessions for children

The next set of dates and times for Library Service storytelling sessions for children are as follows:

Wednesday 24th June 2009 - 2.00-2.30pm
Friday 17th of July 2009 - 11.30am - 12 noon
Wednesday 5th August 2009 - 2.00-2.30pm
Friday 28th August 2009 - 11.30am - 12 noon
Wednesday 16th September 2009 - 2.00-2.30pm
Friday 9th October 2009 - 11.30am - 12 noon
Wednesday 28th October 2009 - 2.00-2.30pm
Friday 20th November 2009 - 11.30am - 12 noon
Wednesday 9th December 2009 - 2.00-2.30pm

These are also all at St John's Seven Kings.

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Clannad - I Will Find You.

TASK Newsletter No. 14

Welcome to our latest TASK e-newsletter as the sun shines and we move towards spring. As ever, there is a huge amount going on so please read this as a thank you to all our volunteers, and as a set of summary headlines.

Seven Kings Library

This was undoubtedly our big campaign of 2008, and efforts continue to develop permanent library provision in the area, as demanded by residents from all parts of the community. Meanwhile, though, we are generating valuable additional outreach services for local people, to include a 'beefed up' mobile service and regular family reading events at St. John's Church.

A regular programme of children's Storytelling sessions is now happening at St John's Seven Kings on a monthly basis. Future dates include Friday 13th March; Wednesday 1st April; Friday 24th April; Wednesday 13th May; Friday 5th June; Wednesday 24th June; Friday 17th July; Wednesday 5th August; Friday 28th August; Wednesday 16th September; Friday 9th October; Wednesday 28th October; Friday 20th November; and Wednesday 9th December. The times of these Storytelling sessions will be: Fridays - 11.30am to 12pm; and Wednesdays - 2.00-2.30pm.

A book group is also being started. Intended as quite a casual set up, without set questions or structured feedback and just an open ended discussion about how each person responded to the book. It will meet about four times a year and the first book to be discussed will be Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet. The group will meet to discuss this book on Thursday 23rd April at 8pm. The venue is to be confirmed but will probably be at St John's. The group is open to anyone who wants to come along and for more details, contact Huw Jacob on: huw.jacob@gmail.com.

The next Library Services Coffee morning at St John's is being planned for 11.00am on Wednesday 8th April and will feature a talk on gardening by Nick Dobson. Finally, for the moment, an Evening of Poetry featuring Tim Cunningham and Naomi Foyle will be happening on Monday 27th April at 7.00pm at St John's as part of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival. Tickets are just £2.

Money for Westwood Recreation Ground

Good news- funding has been secured by the Council to allow for an upgrade to play facilities at Westwood Recreation Ground, on Meads Lane. The sum, thought to be around £60 000, will allow for an upgrade to the old school style play equipment, and officers are consulting with the community on how it might best be spent.

TASK have offered some opening thoughts on the desirability of imaginative free style play kit, maybe using the same kind of interesting and stylish designs now being installed at Valentines Park, and suggested leisure staff talk first to the young audience - and their families - who we hope will make good use of it.

The hope is that consultation can happen fast over the spring, allowing action in time for this summer's peak use season. If you have any thoughts on this development, do please address them direct to Leisure Officer, Edward Smith, at Edward.Smith@redbridge.gov.uk, or by phone to 020 8 708 3745, mentioning you are responding to a call for input from TASK.

As we go to press, we have also just heard that there will be a public consultation meeting on Thursday March 26th, starting at 7pm at Farnham Green School. All local residents are welcome so do please let your family, friends and neighbours - and their kids - know so the borough can benefit from the widest possible pool of ideas.

(Yet) more consultation on the Roman Road

It seems like public authorities love to consult more and more often, and having made some input in January to a group looking at the design of urban high streets on behalf of London Mayor, Boris Johnson, we are now giving feedback on a much more specific project aimed at regenerating the Roman Road- basically the road out of Ilford to Romford, covering the entirety of run down Seven Kings High Road. The local press have made much of this new action plan, and we are hopeful too that with political will and funding support, real advances can be made.

Our initial points are summarised below:

• although we are committed to consultation and action for change, the creation of Action Plans that don't result in action does over time lead to the building up of cynicism amongst local people;
• local people strongly associate with the High Road but think it has been run down over generations;
• currently it has a limited and inadequate shopping base dominated by too many takeaways;
• a mixed economy is needed along the High Road; we need a greater variety of retail outlets and community facilities/organisations with a new local library as the major priority;
• introducing this mixed economy may involve changing usage in some instances to enable community services to be delivered from what are currently retail outlets and/or using existing community building (such as schools and faith community buildings) for the delivery of local community services;
• new developments should be high quality which includes environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing;
• equivalent parking to that which is currently available should be delivered in new developments in order to sustain business levels for local traders;
• encouraging walking and use of bikes will be best achieved by locating community facilities locally. When libraries and post offices are more than one mile away most people will use cars to get to them; locate these and other community facilities locally and many more people will walk/cycle;
• attention should be paid to enhancing local heritage, where it exists, and enhancing awareness of that heritage. Public art could play a part in doing so;
• the area looks generally run down and needs: better street cleaning; trees/flower displays; enhancing of shop frontages; aesthetic new developments; and public art;
• the area in front of Seven Kings station is dangerous because it is used as a cut through; pedestriansing the area would be an option;
• although the railway is a major barrier, there would be little benefit to building more pedestrian crossings over the railway. Attention should be paid to traffic congestion caused by limited road crossings over the railway.

Special thanks are due to Jonathan Evens for setting things up and taking a bold lead on this project.

Blood and guts on Cambridge Road

Residents on Cambridge Road have been having a tough time recently, with a spate of violent incidents, racist taunting and anti-social behaviour coming from tenants of two rented houses on the street. Despairing residents contacted local councillors and TASK, who, after hours of feverish email exchanges with cabinet member Cllr Vanessa Cole, council staff and the local safer neighbourhoods police team managed to get the tenants moved on. Overall, it was a good team effort that worked on this occasion, but not before time, and with some evident service lapses we need to learn from. The real worry is that these tenants will simply be shuffled to a new location, possibly even locally, where they will reproduce the violence and mayhem once again. This cannot happen and TASK hope that we can all learn lessons, and develop practical strategies and actions, that allow other residents in other streets to benefit from much more rapid responses to displace this kind of offensive behaviour.

It is an issue that is bound to come up at our next Area 5 meeting at 7.15pm on Monday 23 March, at Barley Lane School, which majors on crime and policing. All major players will be there and it really has never been more important to come along.

Next walkabout date

The next community walkabout is scheduled to happen on Friday April 24 starting at 0900 from outside Goodmayes station heading towards Seven Kings station. It is designed to get local residents to join council officers, the police and councillors to pick up on, and immediately address, irksome streetscape issues like dumping, graffiti, public drinking, vandalism, highways, planning and licensing breaches. This time round rail operator national express will also be taking part, and can update us on what is happening at and around our station, the subject of radical and much needed upgrade throughout 2008.

Area 5 festival

Plans continue to develop a small community event at Barley Lane Recreation Ground this summer ahead of a much bigger festival idea for 2010 and a dedicated working group now meets regularly on this to work up a programme and schedule. Already confirmed are martial arts displays, dancing, community group stalls and sale of allotment products. With scope for lots more to happen.The hope is that this will run on Sunday September 20 from noon until 5pm The next working group meeting is on Wednesday April 1 at 7pm. The venue is Barley Lane Primary School.

Redbridge Green Fair is on Sunday 24 May

The biannual Redbridge green fair has now been running for the best part of 20 years and comes around again over the late May Bank Holiday weekend when Melbourne Fields - at Valentines Park - is appropriated for one day only as a giant community and environmental festival space. Its always an inspirational event, with live music, a solar powered cinema, brilliant food outlets and lots of community information and stalls. TASK are hoping to be one of the exhibitors and need volunteers to run our stall across the day. Please contact Chris at chrisconnelley@ntlworld to find out more and/or offer time.

That is it for now. Expect more soon. And do please share your news and stories with us at chrisconnelley@ntlworld.com or ahai@deloitte.co.uk.

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Over the Rhine - The World Can Wait.

Books, stories, coffee & poetry in Seven Kings

Community outreach events by Redbridge Library Services, which were initiated through discussions with TASK, are continuing to develop.

A regular programme of children's Storytelling sessions is now happening at St John's Seven Kings on a monthly basis. Future dates include: Friday 13th March; Wednesday 1st April; Friday 24th April; Wednesday 13th May; Friday 5th June; Wednesday 24th June; Friday 17th of July;
Wednesday 5th August; Friday 28th August; Wednesday 16th September; Friday 9th October; Wednesday 28th October; Friday 20th November; and Wednesday 9th December. The times of these Storytelling sessions will be: Fridays - 11.30am to 12pm; and Wednesdays - 2.00-2.30pm.

A book group is also being started. Intended as quite a casual group, without set questions or structured feedback just an open ended discussion about how each person responded to the book, it will meet about four times a year. The first book to be discussed will be Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet. The group will meet to discuss this book on Thursday 23rd April at 8pm. The venue is to be confirmed but will probably be at St John's. The group is open to anyone who wants to come along. For more details contact Huw Jacob on: huw.jacob@gmail.com.

The next Library Services Coffee morning at St John's is being planned for Wednesday 8th April and will feature a talk on gardening by Nick Dobson. Finally, for the moment, an Evening of Poetry featuring Tim Cunningham and Naomi Foyle will be happening on Monday 27th April at St John's as part of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival.

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Leonard Cohen - A Thousand Kisses Deep.