London's Burning and Fire & Phoenix

London's Burning is a Great Fire 350th Anniversary Concert on 12th November 2016 at 7.30pm in St Stephen Walbrook. Join the Myriad Singers “at the scene” to commemorate the Great Fire of London 1666. Hear John Tavener's stunning but rarely-heard piece 'The World is Burning' for choir and tam-tam. Music contemporary with the Great Fire from Tomkins, Locke and Blow and pieces by Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Lauridsen, interspersed with readings of eye-witness accounts of the Great Fire.

Fire & Phoenix is a new play to mark the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London.

The play opens in the bakery of Thomas Farynor, King's Baker, just before midnight on 1 September 1666. It's a swelteringly hot night. There has been no rain for months. Thomas assures his daughter that he has checked the fires...

The fire starts within hours; for three days it rages terrifyingly, helped by a ferocious East wind. Lord Mayor Bludworth is useless. Samuel Pepys takes practical measures, and liaises with the King, Charles II. The people lose everything and camp out at Moorfields. Foreigners and 'papists' are blamed for the fire and so are ferociously attacked. People are hysterical. St Paul's burns: a vision of Hell.

A Frenchman is hanged for starting the fire, but was he really guilty? What about Farynor? Pepys has his suspicions...

Despite the toll of 89 churches, 1300 houses and 200,000 people made homeless, Christopher Wren, in a moving final scene with Pepys, has a strong sense of hope, and believes that London, like the Phoenix, will rise from the ashes.

Historia Theatre Company is Registered Charity 1099807, founded in 2003 to put on plays that have their source in or inspiration from history. Previous productions include Evelina (2004), Five Eleven (2005), An African’s Blood (2007-8), Judenfrei: Love and Death in Hitler’s Germany (2010-11), The Sound of Breaking Glass (2012-13), Queen Anne (2014), Magna Carta (2015).

Fire & Phoenix is at the Bridewell Theatre from 15 - 19 November, then tours 'Fire' Churches including St Stephen Walbrook on Wednesday 23 November, 7.30pm. Tickets £15 (£12 concessions) available on the door. To reserve places, email priest@ststephenwalbrook.net.

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Morten Lauridsen - Sure on this Shining Night.

Greg Tricker: Revelation ~ Sacred Art, Sacred Music

Today I had the opportunity to visit Piano Nobile at King's Place which is "presenting a collection of paintings, sculpture and stained glass by contemporary artist Greg Tricker, Revelation ~ Sacred Art, Sacred Music explores moments of divine manifestation and the power of visionary illuminations. A series of inspirational figures upon whom Tricker works in cyclical series, such as Maria, Mother of God, John the Divine, St Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc and Anne Frank, draw us into intimate contemplation, these iconic images become beacons of light and hope.

Tricker's profound and sincere style of work is deeply entwined with the sacred artistic tradition, for which the artist has gained international recognition. Recent series of work have been exhibited at Westminster Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, Peterborough Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral and, most recently, Rhiems Cathedral in 2013.

Revelation ~ Sacred Art, Sacred Music runs in conjunction with a series of performances of John Tavener’s compositions as part of the Minimalism Unwrapped musical programme. Like Tricker, Tavener turned to sacred iconic imagery, believing that when an iconic image is seen with the ‘eye of the heart’ rather than the intellect the icon can speak to something deep within us. His compositions in music could at times be seen as creating an icon through sound.

Tricker and Tavener have both been repeatedly drawn to the presence of the eternal feminine. For Tavener, the Mother of God, the inspiration for such masterpieces as The Protecting Veil, is the ultimate representation of the eternal feminine: nurturing, gentle, noble, generous and divinely beautiful. In Tricker’s work, the eternal feminine is revealed through a legacy of reverent and spiritual women; Maria, Bernadette of Lourdes, St Bride, Joan of Arc and Anne Frank embody for Tricker the pure essence of the eternal feminine. It is through these devout figures that Tricker sounds a visionary trumpet-call in a world in turmoil, his works are icons of light speaking of the innate dignity within each one of us."

In my review of Tricker's The Christ Journey for Art & Christianity, I wrote:

"Greg Tricker has described his work as an uncovering of latent images with these emergent images being discovered and freed as he carves or paints. Inspiration, for him, is like “being handed down buckets of fire from above,” that must be passed on. Quietly listening, he sees into his materials sensing the arrival of images as he reaches “a threshold, a possibility point, between what becomes broken and discarded, and a discovery that brings a sense of purpose, shapes reality.”

With these origins it is probably no surprise that his images have been understood as developing the mystical tradition in modern British art pursued by Eric Gill, Cecil Collins and others in the last century. For me, the style and spirit of Marc Chagall and Ken Kiff more readily come to mind."

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Victoria Williams - Why Look At the Moon.

Kings Place: Lynn Chadwick, Geoffrey Clarke & Greg Tricker

Kings Place currently has two fascinating exhibitions to view. First, Pangolin London is presenting "the works of Lynn Chadwick (1914–2003) and Geoffrey Clarke (1924–2014), two of the greatest modern British sculptors of the 20th Century, together in their exhibition, Conjunction." "The exhibition is the first show to focus exclusively on the prolific careers of these two British sculptural powerhouses."

"Although initially sharing a similar visual language, Clarke and Chadwick’s styles diverged as their careers progressed. Clarke enjoyed many public and ecclesiastical commissions, which stemmed from his work in Coventry Cathedral under Sir Basil Spence. In contrast Chadwick seldom accepted public commissions, and one of the highlights of the exhibition are the maquettes for two of Chadwick’s rare commissions Maquette for R34 1957 and Manchester Sun 1963. Further highlights include both Clarke and Chadwick’s entries to The Unknown Political Prisoner, a worldwide sculpture competition organised by the Institute of Contemporary Arts. Although the competition was won by Reg Butler, both artist’s entries have not been exhibited together since 1953. The exhibition also includes the candlesticks commissioned from Clarke for Coventry Cathedral and a monumental Chadwick has been installed by the canalside at Kings Place."

Second, Piano Nobile is "presenting a collection of paintings, sculpture and stained glass by contemporary artist Greg Tricker, Revelation ~ Sacred Art, Sacred Music explores moments of divine manifestation and the power of visionary illuminations. A series of inspirational figures upon whom Tricker works in cyclical series, such as Maria, Mother of God, John the Divine, St Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc and Anne Frank, draw us into intimate contemplation, these iconic images become beacons of light and hope.

Tricker's profound and sincere style of work is deeply entwined with the sacred artistic tradition, for which the artist has gained international recognition. Recent series of work have been exhibited at Westminster Cathedral, Gloucester Cathedral, Peterborough Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral and, most recently, Rhiems Cathedral in 2013.

Revelation ~ Sacred Art, Sacred Music runs in conjunction with a series of performances of John Tavener’s compositions as part of the Minimalism Unwrapped musical programme. Like Tricker, Tavener turned to sacred iconic imagery, believing that when an iconic image is seen with the ‘eye of the heart’ rather than the intellect the icon can speak to something deep within us. His compositions in music could at times be seen as creating an icon through sound.

Tricker and Tavener have both been repeatedly drawn to the presence of the eternal feminine. For Tavener, the Mother of God, the inspiration for such masterpieces as The Protecting Veil, is the ultimate representation of the eternal feminine: nurturing, gentle, noble, generous and divinely beautiful. In Tricker’s work, the eternal feminine is revealed through a legacy of reverent and spiritual women; Maria, Bernadette of Lourdes, St Bride, Joan of Arc and Anne Frank embody for Tricker the pure essence of the eternal feminine. It is through these devout figures that Tricker sounds a visionary trumpet-call in a world in turmoil, his works are icons of light speaking of the innate dignity within each one of us."

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John Tavener - The Protecting Veil.

John Tavener RIP

Where some obituary's tend to simply be a recitation of facts and received critical opinion, the Guardian's obituary of Sir John Tavener seemed to me to be written from the perspective of someone who knew and understood both Tavener's real achievements and what he was seeking to achieve in and through his music:

'... once he had acquired a broadly based audience, his universalist focus continued to result in wonderful works, such as the mass Sollemnitas in Conceptione Immaculata Beatae Mariae Virginis (2006) and the Requiem (2008) for cello, soloists, chorus and orchestra, premiered in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Drawing its texts from Sufi poetry, the Catholic Mass, the Koran and Hindu words from the Upanishad, Tavener explained that "the essence of the Requiem is contained in the words 'Our glory lies where we cease to exist'". Like practically all of Tavener's music, it is a story about a "journey" and becoming "one with God".'

In my co-authored book The Secret Chord, Peter Banks and I discuss the popularity of Tavener, Pärt and Górecki in terms of the contrast between movement and stasis noting Martha Ainsworth's argument that 'they reject values typically associated with contemporary classical music.' In traditional classical music the development of musical ideas is expected with this development moving to a climactic denouement. By contrast, the music of these holy minimalists seems not to go anywhere because its overall purpose is contemplation.

Similarly, Nico Muhly writes in The Guardian: 'To study Tavener's music is to immerse oneself in the subtle vocabulary of stillness and slow change.'

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John Tavener - Eternity's Sunrise.

Greenbelt diary (4)

Sunday morning I was offsite as we attended the main service at St Giles in Uley, the village where we were staying. Revd. Ian Gardener, from Dursley Parish Church, led the service and preached an excellent sermon on having the courage to ask the difficult questions - very appropriate for a Greenbelt weekend! Ian was also interested to hear something of our experiences of ministry when we talked after the service.

Some of those difficult questions were being asked when I did get back to the Festival later in the day. There was a large crowd to hear Gene Robinson speak on sexuality and spirituality. His was a very considered contribution which highlighted the earthy ever-present nature of sexuality in the Hebrew scriptures and the Jewish tradition generally, most notably in the Song of Songs. He spoke about each of us as sexual beings and emphasised that the incarnation means that Jesus too was a sexual being. Jesus understood the need we have for a soul mate (i.e. 'the disciple that Jesus loved') and was criticised for his radical respect of women. At the heart of both the incarnation and a wholesome, holistic sexuality is the making of ourselves vulnerable with another. Sex, at its best, is a learning laboratory for vulnerability and a means of becoming good steward's of another person's vulnerability.

Robinson needs to be heard, particularly by his opponents, as he, and what he has come to stand for in the Anglican Communion, is grounded in an understanding of scripture and the Christian tradition. His opponents often characterise him as playing fast and loose with scripture and present their interpretation of scripture as being God's word on the issue of homosexuality but the reality is that on both sides of the debate what we are grappling with are our interpretations of scripture which are not definitive. Hearing Robinson unpack his understanding of scripture is to hear a man with a real and live spirituality.

Alistair McIntosh in this photo appears to have a minimal audience but we had all retreated to the stands by this stage because of the cold. McIntosh presented a dystopic vision of the future by arguing that our response to climate change is too little too late and that it is probable that there is now insufficient time as well as insufficient political will to make the changes that are required. He cited Abbé Pierre's understanding of the atonement as explanation of where we are in relation to climate change; seeing ourselves as addicts who have imprisoned ourselves. He spoke movingly about premature death of his baby and linked this to our need as human beings to look death in the face in order to look through death into life. We need the spirit of Jeremiah, he suggested, as we face the consequences of our consumerist addiction and seek, through community with others, our world and with God, to recover what it means to be truly human.

Margaret Barker, although a Biblical scholar as opposed to an activist, is deeply concerned to highlight the environmental implication of understanding the Temple theology which she argues underpins both the teaching of the Old Testament, Jesus and the Early Church. In her session she gave a brief synopsis of Temple theology. In her view, the structure of the tabernacle and Temple are based on the six days of creation revealing the different relationships in creation itself. Barker's ideas suggest that eternity is an ever-present reality, the kingdom, into which Jesus understood himself to be bringing us, through his death on the cross which completes the New Creation. Having come through the veil into the Holy of Holies, we are now angels and saints, in Barker's view.

This is the second time that I have heard Barker speak (click here for a post about the first occasion) and I keep waiting for more radical consequences for the way in which Jesus understood himself and his teaching from this model than actually seems to arrive in what Barker says. Perhaps I need to go beyond her introduction to Temple Theology in order to find this.

I then finally heard Rob Bell, along what must have been the biggest crowd that any speaker drew over the weekend, when he was interviewed at the Jerusalem stage by, I think, Martin Wroe. I described Bell to someone who hadn't heard him as intelligent on the scriptures, post-modern in his presentation, and evangelical in his theology. That seemed a reasonable description of his contribution to this conversation. What stayed most in the memory was his commitment to living a 'normal' life despite the popularity of his book, church, and film ministries and his summary of Christianity in 10 words or less (which was roughly): whatever tiny signs of hope you find are real.

Chris Dingle's argument that music stops time seemed to be borne out with the contrasting concerts which ended Sunday. The Greenbelt Festival Orchestra played a selection of works by Sir John Tavener, by intercutting the seven sections of The Protecting Veil with a selection of his choral works drawn mainly from The Veil Of The Temple. This was blissfully beautiful music in which the sense of time passing was suspended. On a more intellectual level, however, I do question the appropriateness of sectioning up a work like The Protecting Veil which, although moving through seven sections to its completion, features an almost continuous cello line that was broken by the decision not to perform the work as a continuous whole.

Duke Special was the polar opposite of the Tavener; gothic theatrical vaudeville with a compassionate core, a dramatic high energy set that was never less than engaging. His MySpace page describes him as "the fucked up ringmaster of a broken down circus, the lead dancer in a forgotten ballroom of ghosts, the loudest singer in a midnight choir and the first on his knees in an old time revival tent" and all of those facets were on show in this performance. "Everybody wants a little something good," is what he sang and that's exactly what we got.

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Duke Special - No Cover Up.