Review - Finding Abundance in Scarcity

 

Philip Welsh has reviewed 'Finding Abundance in Scarcity: Steps Towards Church Transformation - A HeartEdge Handbook' in the latest edition of Church Times:

'this lively account of the response from St Martin-in-the-Fields over the first months of the pandemic provides plenty of pastoral and theological food for thought to take up as the story moves on.'

This new book from Canterbury Press includes contributions from myself and others at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

The publisher's description is as follows:

'All churches have had to learn to do things differently during closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. None has been more imaginative or inventive than London's St Martin-in-the-Fields. Through its HeartEdge programmes, it has continued many aspects of its ministry, and developed significant new initiatives and is now a virtual college with an impressively varied programme for practitioners.

Here the St Martin's team reflects theologically and shares its newly found pastoral and practical wisdom in many areas:

Finding God in Lockdown
Meeting God and One Another Online
Rediscovering Contemplative Prayer
Facing Grief amidst Separation
Preaching at Such a Time as This
Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Time
Hearing Scripture Together in Difficult Times
Praying through Crisis
Creating a Community of Practitioners
Finding Faith at Home
Conclusion: A Strategy for Transformation

Contributors are all on the staff at St Martin's and key figures in HeartEdge: Sam Wells, Richard Carter, Sally Hitchiner, Fiona MacMillan, Jonathan Evens and Andrew Earis.'

The book uses a similar format to our earlier Liturgy on the Edge: Pastoral and attractional worship in which I wrote about the creation of Start:Stop at St Stephen Walbrook.

Both books can be bought from the online shop at St Martin-in-the-Fields, as can my own The Secret Chord, an exploration of what makes a moment in a 'performance' timeless and special, co-authored with Peter Banks.

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Switchfoot - Meant To Live.

Liturgy on the Edge: Pastoral and attractional worship

Liturgy on the Edge has been reviewed in Church Times. Reviewer Philip Welsh concludes: 'Liturgy on the Edge is an enjoyable, inspiring, provocative, and useful book. In one way or another, we all find ourselves (in Francis Thompson’s words) “betwixt heaven and Charing Cross.”'

He notes that: “we’re trying to find appropriate ways to help other organisations make the kind of journey we’ve made; but what we can’t do is offer them techniques for fixing their problems — we can only offer them inspiration and support for entering deeper into their mystery.”

and say that, "Reading about the experience of St Martin’s — including what it has learned from its occasional mistakes — is a stimulus to think more imaginatively, more collaboratively, more inclusively, and more theologically."

Liturgy on the Edge: Pastoral and attractional worship is a practical companion to creating pastoral liturgies arises from the vibrant ministry of St Martin-in-the-Fields which is designed to aid local ministry teams in devising forms of worship outside and beyond the scope of authorised church liturgy, yet in sympathy with its purposes and structures.

It includes outline liturgies for:

• regular pastoral services, such as an informal Eucharist, worship for small groups or for a church away-day, a dementia-friendly service, a healing service, interfaith ceremonies.
• acute pastoral needs, such as services for communities affected by local tragedy, those experiencing loss through violence.
• outreach services in the open air or welcoming people into sacred space.
• special services though the year for Homelessness Sunday, Prisoners Week, Holy Week, Harvest, Remembrance, a community carol service and more.

Each section is introduced with a reflection on theory and practice, and each item has a commentary on theological, liturgical and pastoral choices made with the aim of enabling practitioners to adapt and create liturgies for their own contexts.

Liturgy on the Edge: Pastoral and attractional worship is edited by Sam Wells with contributions from Richard Carter, Andrew Earis, Caroline Essex, Jonathan Evens, Katherine Hedderly, Alison Lyon, Alastair McKay, Fiona MacMillan and Will Morris.

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Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields - Amazing Grace.

Climate Changes: The Gallery at Parndon Mill

Today I visited Parndon Mill, in its delightful riverside setting, which provides workspace for artists, craftspeople, designers and architects. The Gallery at Pardon Mill, which is open five days a week, has become a focus for the artists who have studios there, and for those who work further afield.

The Gallery presents a series of exhibitions each lasting about six weeks which display a wide variety of paintings, original prints, sculpture and skilled craftwork, including an annual exhibition of works of art in glass by some of the best artists in this popular medium. In Summer the exhibition space can extend onto the "island" outside. Sculpture is even sited in the river! At all times there is a selection of original prints, paintings and crafts available for sale at The Gallery, and a wide variety of artworks can be viewed within a visual image data-base.


Climate Changes is the current exhibition (from 7th April until 15th May); a show of works which reflect humanity's effect on the world and its climate. Especially featured in this exhibition are paintings by Ian Welsh who uses multi-layered lacquers to evoke the melting ice of glaciers and the sea. Welsh has always been fascinated by the poignant beauty of decay, and has been totally seduced by the majestic collapse of our 'frozen' world but paradoxically views it with a profound sense of dread.

Also featured are a series of thought provoking prints by Anne Daniels. Anne states "The differences in the artistic and the scientific approach to nature fascinate me. I spent ten of my youthful educational years learning about applied mathematics and modelling fluid flows, then recently eleven years studying art at the University of East London." At present she is studying for a doctorate using climate change as a chosen subject. Her prints use the analogy of the world as a sliced red cabbage with telephone masts, wind farms, oil rigs and overcrowded buildings on the surface and oil wells and mines in the interior. Although her prints are concerned with this serious theme, they are very decorative and not without humour.

Textile hangings by Jill Leech depict strata through the earth exposed by the excavation of minerals and coal. She uses recycled dust bin bags to represent coal so effectively that one has to touch to be sure, and real coal is also imbedded in the fabric.

The exhibition also includes Alan Burgess's paintings of local flooding and his wife the sculptor Angela Godfrey's drawings of trees in Epping Forest affected by drought. Paintings and prints by Gillian McKenna, Corrina Dunlea, Fiona Zobole and Julie Cooper are also being shown.

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The Jesus and Mary Chain - April Skies.