Church Times: Art review: Slipping the Veil (St Bartholomew the Great, London EC1)

My latest exhibition review for Church Times is on Slipping the Veil (St Bartholomew the Great, London EC1):

'“Slipping the Veil” seeks to offer what is constantly discovered in St Bartholomew the Great, whether through its architecture, space, or worship: the offer of glimpses beyond time and materiality. What the building and exhibition offer is, in the words of T. S. Eliot, a pattern of timeless moments. In the brief time that this exhibition is in this space, take the opportunity to slip the veil of time to experience a momentary glimpse of the timeless.'

For my review of an earlier exhibition at St Bartholomew the Great see here.

Other of my pieces for Church Times can be found here. My writing for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Artlyst are here, those for Seen & Unseen are here, and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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Nick Cave - Seven Psalms.

There is time

Here's the sermon I shared during Evensong at St Catherine’s Wickford this evening:

Last year, I led a Memorial Service for a friend from St Martin-in-the-Fields who died an untimely death. For those of us who gathered for the Memorial, there was no getting away from that fact, and lockdown had also meant that for many of us our contact with our friend had been less than it might otherwise have been. Those were tough truths and caused us real sadness as we gathered to remember her and give thanks for her life.

Nevertheless, the reading from Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 3.1-11) that she had chosen for that reminded us that, although the time she had had with us was shorter than we would have liked, there had been time for her life to impact us and others, while there was also time for her to live through the whole gamut of life's experiences from great joys to great sorrows.

At her Memorial we heard of childhood friendships enduring into adulthood and later friendships built on lived experience of discrimination, leading to advocacy on behalf of others. There was time to reflect on places that, at points, provided safe space and community space to her and also places like the Wards of the Hospitals in which she stayed that were restrictive and conflicted spaces in which to be. There was time too, to also hear the voice, as through her writings, she had articulated her experiences and advocated on behalf of others whilst acknowledging the many ways in which hers was a voice insufficiently heard, sharing experiences that are insufficiently understood and appreciated. In her life there had been time for travel to places like Palestine that impacted her deeply and which gave lifelong commitments and also times in which she was confined to one place, whether on a ward or in her flat during lockdown. There had also been time for talking - conversation, prayer, presentations, advocacy - and time for silence - whether of reflection or of discrimination when her voice went unheard.

Her Memorial Service provided time in which we could say that ‘This was the woman I knew’ and time to hear others saying, ‘This was the woman I knew’. There was time to gather up the richness, the fullness, the diversity of her personality and experiences in order we all experienced a greater depth in our understanding of her, all that we appreciated about her, all that we had shared with her, could share of her with others and could learn of her from others. There was time for anger at the discrimination and lack of understanding that she and others face. There was time for inspiration from the experiences she articulated, the statements she left and the example she provided. There was time in which the extremes, the contradictions, the confusions, the paradoxes of life and experience could be held and where the limits of our own understandings could be acknowledged in a time and space where we each one valued and affirmed her for the dear, special, unique and gifted person that she was and came to know that we can now hold and appreciate in our hearts forever the time that each of us shared with her and had now shared with one another.

Ecclesiastes 3.1-11 tells us that there is time, even when lives are cut short, if we use the time that is available to us. All too often we do not take the time we have to be with those that are important to us. All too often we distract ourselves with unimportant tasks and fail to do the things that are truly of importance to us. Ecclesiastes 3.1-11 encourages us to use the time that we have. So, as we often pray during funerals, grant us, Lord, the wisdom and the grace to use aright the time that is left to us on earth. Let us use that time to know others more completely, appreciate them more fully, love them more deeply, and, in that knowing, know ourselves more intimately. For to know and appreciate and love and enjoy each other in that way is heaven. 

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U2 - 13 (There Is A Light).

Foyer Display: Andrew Carter & Helen Ireland

‘Float’ & ‘Black and Blue’, handprinted on Japanese paper, 120cm x 45 cm, 2019, collaborative linocut prints by Andrew Carter & Helen Ireland

St Martin-in-the-Fields is home to several commissions and permanent installations by contemporary artists. We also have an exciting programme of temporary exhibitions, as well as a group of artists and craftspeople from the St Martin’s community who show artwork and organise art projects on a temporary basis. One of the initiatives from this group is a changing display of work by the group members or artists linked to the group. Each month a different artist shows examples of their work, so, if you are able, do return to see the changing display.

‘Float’ was made in response to a walk along Studland and Shell Bay in Dorset, watching and collecting pieces of seaweed as they washed up and floated in the tide. Helen made a series of drawings from the sea weed and then we both cut the blocks and printed them with transparent ink so that the shapes would appear as layered, delicate traces. This piece was printed over a part of the second, splash print.

‘Black and Blue’ came about through a process of experimentation with making transient marks. Splashing, dripping, throwing and making spontaneous ink marks became the basis of this careful and slowly made print. This piece is about different types of time. A quick emotional response made slowly. The overlaying of two strong colours feels bold and all of the accidental markings have become deliberate and permanent.

Both works are made by the two of us; shared response, shared drawing and cutting blocks, choosing colour and printing. All takes time and requires decision making and working together. It has been an exciting challenge and these are the results. Both prints are Artists’ Proofs from an edition of 20.

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Cowboy Junkies - Powderfinger.

Review - John Kirby: All Passion Spent

John Kirby: All Passion Spent, Flowers Gallery Cork Street, until 30 March 2019 

The art of painting is to still time and motion. As a result, the moment at which the artist chooses to freeze time is of real significance. The moments selected by John Kirby are those that reveal dis-ease.

The characters in his images pose awkwardly in scenes of everyday existence where their expressions suggest embarrassment and their body language points to a fundamental lack of comfort in their own skin and the relationships they inhabit. Whether the forced gaiety of those wearing party hats in ‘House of Fun’ or the unnatural pose of the naked child between the legs of a father-figure in ‘Ordinary People’, we are clear that what is depicted is not fun and is not ordinary. Kirby utilizes the static nature of painting to hint at the torment underlying the civilised facade of our culture.

Born in Liverpool in 1949, Kirby studied at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art. He has indicated that his refined style has been influenced by the American realist painter Edward Hopper and the Polish-French modern artist Balthus. He has spoken of living ‘day to day with a cast of characters from my past into the present’ and this small retrospective to mark his 70th birthday brings together new and recent works alongside selected paintings from the past two decades, focusing on the conversation between past and present portrayed by that enduring cast of characters.

Kirby may be thinking of stilling time still further having hinted in an interview that this is possibly the last time he’ll have a show. The title of the exhibition, All Passion Spent, could lead in that direction with Kirby intimating that he has said what he has to say in and through his work.

Much of Kirby’s work has been driven by the expression of repression through the stiff and secretive interiority and surreality of his images. This driven-ness has its roots in internal struggles relating to religion and sexuality. Kirby’s use of the line ‘All Passion Spent’ from Milton's Samson Agonistes may suggest the private search of his characters for calm, as well as an increasing sense of personal peace.

One hopes that Kirby’s passion is not spent and that the showing of his work is not stilled as it would be fascinating to see the images that could result from the stilling of the storm in Kirby’s work and characters; to see what peace may look like on the stage that he has constructed.

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Nick Drake - Day Is Done.

It's time ...

From the 1920s to the 1980s, strange adverts were spotted on billboards and the sides of British buses, which read: ‘Crime, banditry, distress and perplexity will increase until the bishops open Joanna Southcott’s box.’ From 1792, Joanna Southcott, increasingly aware of her divine mission as a prophetess with messianic connections, filled a "Box of Sealed Prophecies" that could only be opened under certain conditions.

When the First World War began in 1914, many believers in Southcott’s prophecies thought that this must be the predicted time of national danger. A number of different groups and people tried to persuade the bishops of the Church of England to open the box. During the 1920s and 1930s, the unopened box remained central to the beliefs and activities of the Millenarian Panacea Society – and for decades they continued to issue their adverts calling on the bishops to open the box.

In 2018 while we may not face a Millenarian catastrophe, although groups continue to exist which believe in that possibility, we do nevertheless, as Greek artist Danae Stratou believes, live in a time of multiple crises in which it is ever so easy to fall into a state of fear-induced paralysis. ‘It’s time to open the Black Boxes!’ is a participatory art project which is a reaction to just such a prospect.

For a two month period prior to the Pollença exhibition, through a blog, social media and conventional local media, an open call was made inviting the local community to participate in the project by submitting the one word that best expresses either what frightens or threatens them the most, or what they believe is in urgent need of protection. In this way the project reveals local concerns, hopes and fears to give voice to and to assist materially as many people as possible to attain a deeper understanding of our collective predicament. The words submitted include: Affection; Balance; Calm; Dagger; Education; Failure; Generosity; Hate; Ignorance; Justice; Laughter; Magic; Nationalism; Ocean; Plastics; Recognition; Sensibility; Time; Uncertainty; Values; War; Xenophobia; and Yellow.

At Eglésia del Convent de Sant Domingo in Pollença, Mallorca, 100 black aluminium boxes are geometrically positioned on the floor equidistant from another, so as to form a rectangular grid. The boxes’ lids are open at an angle. Inside each box a black screen is positioned at a 450 degree angle in relation to the floor. The boxes are surfaced with translucent mirrors, thus creating the illusion that they are filled to the rim with a liquid substance and that the screens within them are submerged in polluted water akin to an oil slick.

Upon entering the exhibition space the viewer is confronted by a mixture of sounds such as beeps, heart beats, explosions and flat-lines. The screens inside the boxes display words and numbers. The words displayed are the 100 considered most representative of those submitted through the open call. Each word appears for a few seconds before being replaced by either a countdown or a count-up (depending on the word). As the numbers race (down toward zero or up to a specially chosen limit), their pace, style and accompanying sounds resemble a ticking bomb. When the countdown, or count-up, reaches its climax, each box emits the sound of either an explosion or a flat-line. These sounds are designed so as to intensify the sensation of tension, crisis, and alarm.

By the opening of these ‘Black Boxes’ there is a symbolic bringing to light of the words from the open call that reflect what threatens us the most, or that which we are desperately eager to preserve. Black boxes are used after disasters to ascertain the causes, but these black boxes equate more closely to Joanna Southcott’s box with its warning of approaching disaster. These Black Boxes seek to open a public dialogue that examines how art in conjunction with new technologies can promote direct, sophisticated and advanced democratic models and practices. A catalogue essay by Stratou’s husband, the economist Yanis Varoufakis, aims to expose ‘the powers-that-be with the power to control our lives (the state, corporations, the media, banks, organised pressure groups etc.)’ and advocates getting inside the network and disrupting the information flow.

The hope is that, in a world in which we see the rise of misanthropy, xenophobia and toxic nationalism, projects such as this can lay the foundations for a new trans-European, reflective, participatory and tolerant community. The challenge is that the technology used by this project can as readily, if not more so, be used by business people intent on using populism to undermine the current checks and balances of economics and politics in order to create unregulated markets for the unscrupulous to exploit.

Curator Inés Muñozcano explores the synergies and dissonances of staging this installation in a hall used to exhibit contemporary art that was originally built in the 17th century as a church of the Dominican Order. As with the project and its wider context, the immediate context for this installation is ambiguous and complex; while noting the democratic principles of St Dominic’s Rule of Life, Muñozcano also notes its involvement in the Spanish Inquisition and, therefore concludes that this former church ‘reflects these internal contradictions, and the frustrated attempts to create a ‘bottom-up’ system eager to assume the principles of dialogue and responsibility.’

Joanna Southcott’s box has not been opened, the black boxes of airplanes are only opened following catastrophe and if found, the one box or container that was opened was that of Pandora, from which all the evils of the world are said to derive. The opening of boxes is not without consequence. This installation, while intending to encourage a degree of democratic participation to address populism, may instead be an indicator that by entertaining populism we have already reopened Pandora’s box.

‘It’s time to open the Black Boxes!’, Museu de Pollença, until 30 September 2018.

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Spiritualized - Broken Heart.

In the time between times

Here is my sermon from this morning's Sung Eucharist at St Anne's Lutheran Church:

We live in the time between the times. That may sound like the opening sentence in a science fiction novel but it is also an important truth for us to understand in this time of Advent when we prepare to remember Christ’s first coming and look forward to Christ’s second coming.

The things that Jesus did in his ministry on earth - healing people physically, emotionally and spiritually, forgiving sins, including the excluded and raising the dead - were the beginnings of the rule and reign of God on earth. In Jesus’ ministry we see “the signs, the dawning, the budding of the … kingdom” of God. The first coming of Jesus was a demonstration of what the kingdom of God is and will become.

I say “will become” because history is moving towards a climax with the second coming of Jesus when the kingdom of God will be fully realised on earth and, as the book of Revelation tells us, there will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain.

So the Bible speaks about there being two ages, this age and the age to come. Through Jesus, the kingdom of God has broken into this age and when Jesus returns the age to come will begin when the kingdom of God will come on earth as it is in heaven.

Therefore, we live in the time between the first and second comings of Jesus. In the time between the times, we see signs of God’s kingdom on earth but are still waiting for the full realisation of that kingdom and we are therefore in a similar position to that of John the Baptist (John 1: 6-8, 19-28)..

John lived in the time before Jesus began his ministry and spent his life looking out for and pointing people towards Jesus. Therefore, John can give us ideas about the way in which we should live as we look out for and point people towards the kingdom of God and Jesus’ second coming.

The first thing that we can see from John’s witness is that we should point people to Jesus and not to ourselves. In verses 19-21, John is asked whether he is the Messiah, Elijah, or the Prophet. Each time he answers, “I am not”. John’s “I am not” is in deliberate contrast to Jesus who, throughout, this Gospel says, “I am” because I AM is actually the name of God - I AM WHO I AM (the name that God used of himself when he spoke to Moses from the burning bush).

Archbishop William Temple wrote that John is here giving us an example for our own witness because he is saying, “Never mind who I am; listen to what I say and look at the person that I point you towards.” If ever our witness begins to be about ourselves or to make ourselves very prominent something is going wrong with it. It is not ourselves but our witness for which we want to claim attention. As Paul writes, “We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” In this time between the times, our lives and our words need to point others away from ourselves and towards Jesus.

Next, John describes himself and his role by quoting from the prophet Isaiah: “I am the voice of someone shouting in the desert; Make a straight path for the Lord to travel.” John is quoting the beginning of Isaiah 40 which says:

“A voice cries out, “Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God! Fill every valley; level every mountain. The hills will become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all mankind will see it. The Lord himself has promised this.”

John was in the wilderness which was also the place where the Israelites had been before they entered the Promised Land. The wilderness is the place of waiting, of preparation, for the promise of God to be fulfilled. John’s job in this place of preparation sounds like a major building project - fill every valley, level every mountain, make the hills a plain and the rough country smooth. And when this has been done then the glory of the Lord will be seen by everyone. So, John’s job was to call people to remove barriers to all people everywhere seeing Jesus for themselves.

The task that God had given to the Jewish people was to be a light to the Gentiles, to reveal the glory of God to all people. Jerusalem and its Temple was supposed to become a place to which the nations would stream to learn from God. Instead the Temple became a symbol of Jewish identity with all sorts of people excluded from worship at the Temple unless they conformed to the detailed requirements of the Mosaic Law. The Temple and the worship in it actually prevented the free access to God’s word that God wanted to see for people of all nations. Therefore, John is calling for all those barriers to God to be removed and torn down so that people can clearly see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In the time between the times we need to do the same. To identify those things in our society that prevent people from seeing Jesus and call for their removal. I’m thinking, for example, of the consumerism and individualism in our society that lead people to live as though all that matters is themselves and their own pleasure. A few years ago an American ambassador to UN food agencies in Rome found a novel way to do that this week by consigning most of his black tie evening guests to a freezing tent with only rice to eat. Tony Hall invited guests at his walled residence to pick a card from a hat and, while those who drew one card were ushered inside for a candlelit meal, he joined the unlucky others outside. By doing this he gave people a shock demonstration of what it is like for the 60 per cent of the world’s 6 billion people who struggle to eat. Hall told his Times interviewer that he was prompted in his quest to bring world hunger to people’s attention both by what he has seen firsthand in Ethiopia and by Isaiah 58.6, where God says: “The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free.”

Finally, John is questioned about the reason why he baptised people. John’s baptism was one of “repentance for the forgiveness of sins”. Those who were baptised by John were people who agreed with him that the people of Israel had lost their way and were not fulfilling God’s plan for their nation. John’s baptism prepared them to recognise Jesus who would faithfully carry out God’s plan for the salvation of all peoples. In the time between the times we need to do the same, to call people away from our society’s obsession with consuming more and more goods in order to bolster our own fragile egos and help people turn towards Jesus’ way of giving to others in order to see signs in our day of the kingdom of God.

Like John the Baptist we live in a time of preparation for the coming of something greater than what we know. Like him, we need to point people, not to ourselves, but to Jesus. Like him, we need to call for the removal of all barriers to people seeing Jesus for themselves. And like him, we need to help people repent for lives and a society that ignores God’s purpose and plan for our lives and turn back to God. As we learn from John, like him, we can create signs in our time of that something greater for which we wait. We can create signs of the kingdom of God which is here now but which will fully come when Jesus comes again.

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Kings College Choir - Coventry Carol.

Start:Stop - A prayer for our busy working lives

Bible reading

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff — they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. [Psalm 23]

Meditation

In reflecting on this Psalm I simply want to share with you two rewritings of the Psalm. The first, by Marcia K. Hornok,  is the antithesis of Psalm 23 outlining all the ways in which our working lives do not align with the Psalm. The second, which was composed by Toki Miyashina and broadcast by Rev. Eric Frost on 4th May 1965, which re-translates the Psalm as a prayer for our busy working lives. As we think about both, may we reflect on ways to draw on the wisdom of this Psalm in the midst of our busy working lives.

The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest.

It makes me lie down only when exhausted.

It leads me to deep depression. It hounds my soul.

It leads me in circles of frenzy for activity’s sake.

Even though I run frantically from task to task,

I will never get it done,

For my “ideal” is with me.

Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me.

They demand performance from me,

beyond the limits of my schedule.

They anoint my head with migraines.

My in-box overflows.

Surely fatigue and time pressure shall follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the bonds of frustration forever.

Psalm 23 - Japanese version

The Lord is my Pace-setter, I shall not rush;

He makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals.

He provides me with images of stillness, which restore my serenity;

He leads me in ways of efficiency through calmness of mind,

And His guidance is peace.

Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day,

I will not fret, for His presence is here.

His timelessness, His all importance, will keep me in balance.

He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity

By anointing my mind with His oils of tranquillity.

Surely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours,

For I shall walk in the peace of my Lord, and dwell in His house for ever.

Prayer

The Lord is our shepherd. We have all that we need. We pray for those who feel overwhelmed and alone in the darkness of depression, illness, loss or anxiety. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

He lets us rest in green meadows. We pray for refugees and asylum seekers who have given up everything, for survivors of natural disasters who have nothing left, and for all who are homeless. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

He leads us beside peaceful streams. We pray for people who have only dirty water to drink, and those for whom hunger is not a choice. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

He renews our strength. He guides us along right paths, bringing honour to his name. We pray for those whose faith is new or fragile, for those burdened by doubts. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Even when we walk through the darkest valley, we will not be afraid, for you are close beside us.

We pray for those who struggle with temptation or addiction, for those who feel invisible or

voiceless. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

You prepare a feast for us in the presence of our enemies. We pray for Christians who live in countries where it is dangerous or illegal be a Christian. For those who face persecution, imprisonment, and death, as a direct consequence of their faith. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Our cup overflows with blessings. We pray for people who have hurt us, for people we find it hard to forgive, for people we find it difficult to love. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Surely, your goodness and unfailing love will pursue us all the days of our lives, and we will live in your house for ever. We pray that the time will not be far off when your Kingdom will come, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of your glory. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

(http://www.st-cuthberts.net/pdf/psalm23_reflections_and_prayers.pdf)

Blessing

Go now with your trust in the good shepherd, and let us love, not just in words, but in truth and action. Believe in the name of Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

And may God be at your side, even in valleys of death. May Christ Jesus be the cornerstone of your life. And may the Holy Spirit abide in you and tend you with love and mercy all the days of your life. Amen.

(http://laughingbird.net/LectionTexts/B35.html)

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11:59 - To Thy Holy Name.

Business Harvest Festival: A Grateful Heart

A small selection of the symbols of work placed on the altar of St Stephen Walbrook today

Symbols of work were placed on the altar of St Stephen Walbrook as part of today's Business Harvest Festival by Central London Magistrates, Central London Samaritans, City of London Police, commission4mission, Coq d'Argent restaurant and Bar, Kim Poor artist, London Internet Church, The Don and 'Sign of the Don' Restaurants, Tony Gant Pottery, University of the Third Age, Walbrook Music Trust, Wells Fargo Bank and Xuber Insurance Software.

In my sermon I said:

Come, ye thankful people, come. Harvest is all about thankfulness and gratitude, but was originally about thankfulness for the song of harvest home. In an age when we are not actively involved in the growing of food, for what should we be thankful?

We can be thankful for those that do grow and supply the food that we enjoy so abundantly, although our thankfulness should come with an awareness of the reasons why hunger continues to be experienced within our world, of the negative impacts of our industrial agricultural approaches, and the increasing impacts of climate change.

We can also be thankful for the different harvest of our work and the work of the City more generally, both in incomes provided for those who work here and in the financing of all sorts of initiatives, projects and services around the world. Again, though, our thankfulness may also be tempered by awareness of the temptations to excess and greed which go together with access to significant wealth and the need for regulation as a result.

Our Gospel reading (John 6. 25 - 35), however, gives us another reason for thankfulness today, about which thanks without measure can be offered. That is for Jesus himself, who is our true food and life. He is the bread of life, the one on whom we can feed eternally because, as creator, he gives us life itself and, as Saviour, restores to relationship with God; a relationship which will continue into eternity.

How should we show our thankfulness? Our Old Testament reading (Deuteronomy 26. 1 - 11) unpacks that for us. We show our thankfulness for all that God has given to us by giving a proportion of what we have received back to God. We do so by giving our time, our talents and our treasure; three things which form the basis of the Stewardship campaign which we are launching at St Stephen Walbrook today.

We give our time and talents in volunteering which benefits others rather than ourselves and our Stewardship leaflet lists ways in which we need the input of volunteers here at St Stephens. We give our treasure by giving our money in ways that benefit others and our Stewardship leaflet explains how to give regularly and consistently to St Stephen.



The recent Long Long Lunch on the Lord Mayor’s City Giving Day was an example of the way in which time, talents and treasure can combine to benefit others. The four restaurants involved – The Don, Coq d’Argent, 1 Lombard Street and Hispania – gave their time in organising the lunch, their chefs used their talent in creating the menu and those who paid for the meal contributed from their treasure in order that the Lord Mayor’s Appeal raised significant funds. Our hope and prayer is that those who support St Stephen Walbrook will use their time, talents and treasure as creatively as those involved in the Long, Long Lunch.

By commending tithing, the giving of 10% of what we have received back to God, our Old Testament passage also raises the thorny issue of how much we should give. Tithing is not a Biblical requirement but it is a helpful measure of what a baseline for thinking about generosity in our giving back to God might look like.

Instead of giving grudgingly, the Bible encourages generosity and cheerfulness in giving. In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul writes, ‘Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’

The Elizabethan poet George Herbert was aware of our natural tendency to think what God has given to us as being ours and to retain as much of it for ourselves as possible. His prayer, therefore, was that he might be given a grateful heart. One that rejoices in all that god has given, recognising it all as a gift, rather than something earnt, and, therefore, generous in the way it is used and given back to God. May our prayer also be that of George Herbert:

Thou that hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, a grateful heart …

Not thankful, when it pleaseth me;
As if thy blessings had spare days:
But such a heart, whose pulse may be
Thy praise.

So, come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of Harvest home.

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Come, ye thankful people, come.

Discover & explore: Time

The music in today's Discover & explore service on the theme of Time at St Stephen Walbrook included: A Prayer of Henry VI, Henry Ley; To Morning, Gabriel Jackson; Even such is time, Bob Chilcott; and Nunc Dimittis, Gustav Holst. The latest group of Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields sang for the first time in this service and will do so for the rest of this series:

• Monday 10th October: Talents
• Monday 17th October: Treasure/Gold
• Monday 24th October: Guidance
• Monday 31st October: Promises (All Souls)
• Monday 7th November: Safety
• Monday 14th November: Money
• Monday 21st November: Security

Here is the reflection I shared:

I wonder which of these rewrites of Psalm 23 is true for you: ‘The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest’ or ‘The Lord is my Pace-setter, I shall not rush’? There are moments in our lives when it seems that we have all the time in the world and other moments when it seems that we have no time at all. We can see this visualised in Kim Poor’s painting The Angel of the Hours where time is vanishing from the clock which the angel holds. Is this an indication that the angel wishes to draw us into the timelessness of eternity or is it, an indication of the speed with which we feel our days go by? The comedian Dave Allen famously said: “You clock in to the clock. You clock out to the clock. You come home to the clock. You eat to the clock, you drink to the clock, you go to bed to the clock… You do that for 40 years of your life, you retire, what do they … give you? A clock!”

The reality, of course, is that time is constant and unchanging; it does not actually lengthen or contract. What changes are the choices that we make as to how we use our time and the feelings we have as a result.

The famous passage from Ecclesiastes that we have just heard read (Ecclesiastes 3. 1 - 15) is often understood as meaning that God orders our time and allots particular events to particular times and seasons. However, it can also be understood in terms of one of those phrases like ‘stuff happens’, ‘life happens’ or ‘shit happens’ which mean simply that what happens happens. The reality it says is that all our lives will contain enough time for births and deaths, tears and laughter, mourning and dancing, conflict and peace to occur. There is time enough in each of our lifetimes for all these things and it is inevitable that we will experience them.

While it is inevitable that the highs and lows of life will occur over the course of our lives, we don’t know when these things will occur or how long our lives themselves will be, and so inevitability is combined with uncertainty. We often respond to this by trying to impose order either by detailed planning on our own part or by asking that God will order our days. When we do so, we can end up preoccupied with the future, instead of experiencing the present.

As we don’t know how much time we have, it is imperative that we must use the time we currently have wisely. We do so by savouring and appreciating the time we have whether that is: time at home - growing together as a family; time at work – completing tasks and supporting colleagues; time at church - in worship, fellowship and prayer; or time alone with God - praying and reading the Bible.

Van Morrison sings that ‘These are the days, the time is now … There's only here, there's only now.’ Similarly, Simon Small has written, ‘There is always only now. It is the only place that God can be found.’ Each moment we are alive is unique and unrepeatable. As songwriter, Victoria Williams, has put it, ‘This moment will never come again / I know it because it has never been before.’ We live in the present and can only encounter God in this moment, in the here and now, today.

Equally, we can only give in the here and now. In Deuteronomy 30. 11 - 20 we read of Moses saying to the Israelites, “today … I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses” and exhorting them to “choose life.” Similarly, in Hebrews 3. 7 - 19, the writer of that letter says, ‘Today, if you hear his [God’s] voice, do not harden your hearts …’ The emphasis of these passages is that now is the moment to encounter God, now is the moment to live, now is the moment to give.

This autumn we are encouraging all those who come to St Stephen to reflect on the various ways in which we can use our time, talents and treasure in God’s service. Each of us has time, talents and treasure which could be given out of gratitude and to help this church. In the Stewardship leaflet we have given you today we list a variety of roles with which we need help here at St Stephen, so I encourage you to reflect on those roles and consider whether you could help us in some way.

How much time have we got? We don’t know, so we must use it all wisely. The past is behind us, the future is yet to come, so now is the only moment in which we can live and move and have our being. This means that now is always the moment in which to encounter God, now is always the moment in which to truly come alive and truly live, now is always the moment in which we can give of ourselves in thanks for all that God has given to us. There's only here, there's only now. This moment is unique and unrepeatable. It will never come again because it has never been before. So, these are the days for encounter, for living and for giving. The time is now.

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Gabriel Jackson - To Morning.

Set up: The Shadow of Angels

First images of Kim Poor's exhibition The Shadow of Angels which opens tomorrow at St Stephen Walbrook and which also features an installation by Sacha Molyneux.

The exhibition can be viewed tomorrow in the context of our Discover & explore service at 1.10pm on the theme of Time led by the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields and myself. It can also be viewed tomorrow in the context of the Opening Night reception from 6.00pm when the launch of the exhibition will be celebrated with an expertly curated collection of classical musicians and dancers.

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Saint-Saëns - The Swan, Le Carnaval Des Animaux.

Discover & explore, The Shadow of Angels & Business Harvest Festival

This week at St Stephen Walbrook includes the beginning  of our latest series of Discover & explore services of musical discovery, the opening of Kim Poor's exhibition The Shadow of Angels and our annual Business Harvest Festival.

Our Discover & explore services begin again on Monday 3rd October at 1.10pm with a service on the theme of Time led by the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields and myself. This new series will explore themes of stewardship & finance. As well as being led by the Choral Scholars of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the series will have input from Revds Jonathan Evens, Alastair McKay and Sally Muggeridge. 

All Discover & explore services begin at 1.10pm:

• Monday 3rd October: Time
• Monday 10th October: Talents
• Monday 17th October: Treasure/Gold
• Monday 24th October: Guidance
• Monday 31st October: Promises (All Souls)
• Monday 7th November: Safety
• Monday 14th November: Money
• Monday 21st November: Security

Discover & explore services have been described as “perfect services of peace in our busy lives” and explore their themes through a thoughtful mix of music, prayers, readings and reflections.

Discover & explore service series are supported by The Worshipful Company of Grocers, for whose generous support we are most grateful.

We do hope you'll be able to join us on Monday evening, 3rd October, to celebrate the launch of The Shadow of Angels. We're excited to announce the musical programme for the evening, which will feature an expertly curated collection of classical musicians and dancers!

The opening will run from 6pm with music and dance from just before 8.

NIKLAS OLDEMEIER - Piano
Prelude and Fugue in B Flat Minor BWV 867
J.S.Bach
‘Pavane' 2nd Piano Suite Opus 10
George Enescu
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
FERNANDO MONTAÑO - Soloist with The Royal Ballet, Covent Garden
YAROSLAVA TROFYMCHUK - Cello
LENA NAPRADEAN - Piano
'The Swan' Carnival des Animaux
Camille Saint-Saens
'Kol Nidrei' Opus 47
Max Bruch
Estampes - 'Pagodes'
Claude Debussy
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SHIR VICTORIA LEVY - Violin
'Grave and Andante’ from Violin Sonata No 2 in A Minor BWV 1003.
J.S. Bach
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
KIRILL BURLOV DANCE COMPANY
'Elements' Carte Blanche
Choreography by Kirill Burlov

At St Stephen Walbrook we have a tradition that companies in the parish designate someone to bring an object to represent their work and to place it on the altar as a symbol at the beginning of our Business Harvest Festival service.

Businesses and organisations representing the work found in the Parish of St Stephen last year included: Arthur J Gallagher, The City of London Police, The Don Restaurant and ‘Sign of the Don’, Rynda Property Investors, Vestra Wealth LLP, The Friends of the City Churches, U3A, London Internet Church, City of London Corporation, Sir Robert McAlpine, Christian Aid, commission4mission, Walbrook Music Trust, Threadneedle Asset Management, Central London Samaritans, British Arab Commercial Bank and Coq d’Argent, among others.

Among the items placed on the Henry Moore designed altar during 2015’s Service were a PCSO's black bowler, bolts, bronze and glass from local construction sites, paintings and drawings, a variety of reports and brochures, bread, wine and fruit, a hi-vis jacket, and a telephone representing the work of Samaritans.

This year our Business Harvest Festival will be held on Thursday 6th October at 12.45pm. Music by the Choir of St Stephen Walbrook and our organist Joe Sentance includes Te Deum in Bb by Stanford and Jubilate Deo by Britten. All are welcome.

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Charles Villiers Stanford - Te Deum in Bb. 

Sophia Hubs - New videos

Sophia Hub Redbridge has posted a new video on youtube explaining who we are and what we do ...

A second video explains the way in which the Redbridge Timebank trades with time, not money ...

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Sophia Hub  Redbridge & Enterprise Desk - Timebank.

Truths imparted seem more profound with every year

In the Guardian this week Jonathan Jones wrote about Bill Viola's forthcoming exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park from 10 October 2015 – 10 April 2016:

'A chapel that stands among the rolling landscapes of Yorkshire Sculpture Park provides a perfect setting for part of this retrospective of the pioneering video artist. Viola is daring and unusual among contemporary artists in the forthright way he engages with religion. The spiritual art of the past echoes in his work – martyrs, triptychs, meditation, all that sacred jazz. But it is not (necessarily) an art of belief. Rather, this Californian artist is fascinated by the loneliness and insight of the saint and the mystic, by the varieties of religious experience. Out of this real emotional quest he has arguably created the most serious and worthwhile work ever done in the name of video art.'

Adrian Searle wrote about Sanctum by Theaster Gates which will be at Temple Church, Bristol, from 29 October – 21 November:

'For 24 days, the medieval ruins of Bristol’s Temple Church, bombed in 1940, are going to come alive with the voices and sounds, beats and songs of the city. Theaster Gates’ first public project in the UK follows his extraordinary interventions in his Chicago hometown and in a destroyed Huguenot house in Kassel. Gates wants the church ruins to resonate with sound, round the clock, for 576 hours. Gates’ public projects are sites for protest and celebration, and have a therapeutic, spiritual core. Above all, they’ve got soul. An unmissable treat.'

Peter Paphides wrote:

'Time has a crude way of separating the good songs from the bad songs. The bad songs don’t grow or change. They harden in the light and remain exactly as they were when you first encountered them. The music you keep coming back to, though, isn’t like that. It does all the things that living things do. It grows and assumes new shapes with time. The truths it imparts seem more profound with every year, be it what Martha and The Vandellas’ Heatwave has to say about love or the anguished questing of U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. Some songs connect straight away. Others are gifts from writers to their future selves. These days, when Yusuf Islam – formerly Cat Stevens – sings Father & Son, he does so “from the point of view of someone who has still a lot to learn from their children”.

When Fleetwood Mac perform Silver Springs now, it takes on the form of both a karmic pasting issued by Stevie Nicks to Lindsey Buckingham and an apology from the band who elected, against her wishes, to omit it from the album Rumours. It’s hard not to feel like an intruder when you see Nicks eyeball her ex-lover and sing: “You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loved you.” The best songs transcend the limitations of their authors and display a wisdom often lost on the people who created them. I fear we’ve lost the Morrissey who once sang, “It takes guts to be gentle and kind”, but we still have the bands who hardwired the humanity of his early songs into their outlook: bands such as British Sea Power, whose Waving Flags exhorts new émigrés from eastern Europe to “welcome in/From across the Vistula/You’ve come so very far”.'

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U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.

Glenn Lowcock: Diffusion and accumulation

This exhibition of work by Glenn Lowcock (Monday 14 October – Sunday 10 November, St Martin-in-the-Fields) asks us to slow down our looking, and to spend a little time. Exploring qualities of diffusion and accumulation Glenn’s work is quiet and meditative and encourages us to look at, to look through, and to look beyond.

Please note, the Gallery will be closed  at the following times:

Tuesday 15 October: from 4.00pm.
Wednesday 23 October: from 3.00pm
Thursday 24 October: from 3.00pm
Friday 25 October: from 3.00pm
Saturday 26 October: all day.
Sunday 27 October: Open from 1.00pm.

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Gungor - I Am Mountain.

Bill Viola: The slowing of time to create meditative space

Bill Viola is described by the American Academy of Religion as a "pioneering video artist whose internationally exhibited work explores universal human experiences - birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness - and has its roots in religious traditions including Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and Christian mysticism."

Frustrated Actions and Futile Gestures is a museum-scale exhibition of nine new works by Viola at Blain|Southern. "Created between 2012 and 2013, both on location and in the artist’s studio in Southern California, the exhibition presents three distinct bodies of works; the Frustrated Actions, the Mirage and the Water Portraits series. Through these works, Viola engages with complex aspects of human experience, including mortality, transience and our persistent, yet ultimately futile attempts to truly and objectively understand ourselves and the meaning of our brief lives."

Much of Viola's work features the slowing of time (see, in particular, the four works from the Mirage series) in order to create meditative space for reflection on his core themes, all of which resonate with religious beliefs and significance:

"In Man Searching for Immortality/Woman Searching for Eternity (2013) a man and woman in the later stages of their lives emerge out of the darkness, pausing to explore their own naked bodies with torches, a daily routine search for disease and decay. The figures are projected onto two seven-foot high black granite slabs, suggestive of tombstones, which evoke a sense of impending mortality. The diptych, Man with His Soul (2013) presents us with a man sitting on a chair, waiting, though we will never discover exactly what he is waiting for. The left hand screen – in high-definition video – depicts his conscious self, while the right – shot in grainy black and white – portrays his soul, his inner being. Thus, the viewer is confronted with a juxtaposition of physical and psychological realities. Angel at the Door (2013) continues to explore this theme of the ‘inner self’; a cycle develops whereby a man hears a knocking at the door, but each time he opens it, he finds no one there – only a dark void. When he opens the door for the final time, however, there is an explosion, revealing a mirror image of himself – offering a thought-provoking insight into man’s inevitable and unavoidable confrontation with his ‘inner self’."

Viola has said that art resides in life itself, "that as a practice it derives primarily from the quality of experience, depth of thought and devotion of the maker": "Everything else, virtuosity with the materials, novelty of the idea or approach, innovation in craft or technique, skill of presentation, historical significance, importance of the venue, in short, almost everything I learned to value in art school - was secondary."

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All Things Bright and Beautiful - The Transfiguration Part 1.

Olivier Messiaen: Favourite pieces of 20th-century music

Works by Olivier Messiaen feature twice in a 'What's your favourite piece of 20th-century music?' article in today's Guardian. Mathematician Marcus du Sautoy chose the Quartet for the End of Time but describes the piece solely in terms of science: 

"Our concept of time and space were totally disrupted by Einstein's breakthroughs at the beginning of the 20th century. No longer was there a single timeline, or a fixed frame of reference. Time could go at different speeds. Space could contract. For me, the Quartet for the End of Time captures some of the spirit of that scientific revolution. The story of its composition reflects one of the major historical events of the century: the second world war. But it is the music that resonates with this new view of the universe. The opening movement exploits the mathematics of two prime numbers to create a sense of destabilised time. The piano part plays a 17-note rhythmic sequence against a 29-note harmonic sequence. The two different primes create a sense of two different timeframes that never quite get in sync."

While this captures an important aspect of the piece, it completely overlooks the Christian belief which infuses the piece and without which the Quartet for the End of Time could not have been written.

By contrast Rufus Wainwright, who chose Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise, although stating clearly that he is not a religious person, responds to the "incredible spirituality at its base which gives it a timeless quality" and says that he can "certainly appreciate it when music strives for the heavens."

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Olivier Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time.

Realism is fiction

In Sculpting In Time, Tarkovsky quotes Dostoevsky as saying, "They always say that art has to reflect life and all that. But it's nonsense: the writer (poet) himself creates life, such as it has never quite been before him ..."
If Dostoevsky said it, then it must be true! But this statement also resonates with my own sense, through my own minor creative work, that realism is fiction. Any attempt to describe, recreate or re-present an actual experience always results in subtle changes to the experience. This is partly to do with time and partly to do with editing.

All experience is gained in the moment, in time, while all description, recreation or re-presentation is reflection on what has passed. The act of reflection is qualitatively different from the act of experience involving, as it does, perspective on the event which it is not possible to have at the time. This difference in time subtly effects the description, recreation or re-presentation of the past event changing it, albeit slightly, in the process.

All description, recreation or re-presentation of past events also involves editorial decisions about what to include/exclude and what perspective to give. Actual experience is a constant flow in time but no description, recreation or re-presentation can mimic the constant flow of events in time and therefore decisions have to be made about where to start and end thereby disrupting the actual flow of events as they were experienced. Much of what is viewed on television purports to be actual experience (i.e. news footage or reality TV) yet editors have always made decisions regarding where and what to film as well as, often, what to show. What is seen is always a glimpse of the actual influenced by an editor's perspective rather than the whole of what occurred.

In this sense, realism - even, or perhaps especially, hyper-realism - is a fiction.

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Paul Weller - That Dangerous Age.