This flowering of culture occurred, to a significant extent, within and with the support of both churches. Bishop Bell was clearly a significant figure within Anglicanism in encouraging and supporting the arts, while the formation of the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic as a religious community was stimulated by the Dominican Prior, Father Vincent McNabb.
Barbara Reynolds has described the way in which Eliot, in his essay ‘The Idea of a Christian Society’, visualised “the setting up of a Community of Christians, of clergy and laity, who shall speak with authority contesting heretical opinion and immoral legislation, individually and collectively setting themselves to form the conscience of the nation”. She has described how Sayers seized on this idea and used it as the basis of her book, Begin Here. This idea is not just representative of Sayers’ activity though, but also of Gill, Lewis and Eliot himself in the books, broadcasts and lectures that they produced throughout the war years.
Additionally, their groupings contributed to the formation of several support groups and communities for artistic Christians. Gill, of course, formed the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic which continued until 1989. The Religious Drama Society grew from those involved in the Canterbury Festival beginning in 1930 with Bishop Bell as its President, while Sayers actively supported the formation by Dom Bernard Clements of the Guild of Catholic Writers.
All of these developments contributed to the optimism within the church and these groups regarding the possibility of revival. Gill, for example, had written that:
“there is a possibility that religion is about to spring up again in England. A religion so splendid and all embracing that the hierarchy to which it will give birth, uniting within itself the artist and the priest, will supplant and utterly destroy our present commercial government and our present commercial age”.
Given all this it is perhaps surprising to note the conclusion which both Wilson and Raine reach, that this flowering of culture was part of the last days for these churches. Wilson speaks of, “the last days before the final eclipse” of the Anglican Church and Raine of, “the last days of a triumphalist [Roman Catholic] church”. While “last days” may be an over-exaggeration, if we look at numbers alone their analysis is borne out. Michael Moynagh’s view, for example, is that church attendance in the UK has plummeted in the latter half of the twentieth-century:
“In 1979 5.4 million people in England attended church on an average Sunday. Ten years later that number had dropped to 4.7 million. Nine years later, in 1998, the total had collapsed to 3.7 million. A 13% decline over ten years was followed by a staggering 22% fall over nine years.”
Given the significance of these artists and the support they received from the churches, why this implication of failure? Why was their impact not greater? There are, of course, many cultural, organisational and sociological factors that would need to be part of a comprehensive answer to those questions. Many of which are broader and more significant that the artists under discussion here, but in the remainder of this series of blogs I wish to explore three factors that are closely connected with these artists in particular.
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James MacMillan - Seven Last Words From The Cross, Part 3.
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Monday, 10 March 2008
TASK Newsletter No. 5
Hello again, another fortnight has passed and welcome to our latest bumper edition of the TASK newsletter updating you on what is happening in our neighbourhood. We hope you enjoy reading it and politely ask that once you have finished with it, rather than bin it, you might pass it on to a neighbour, friend or family member so we can keep spreading the word.
TASK open meeting
Friday March 7th saw almost 30 TASK supporters come together for ourfirst ever open meeting at St. John's Church. This was intended to helpus to get to know each other, to share our specific concerns and hear about some of our early campaign successes from Chris, Ali and Doug. Supporters came from all over the area, and were as diverse as our neighbourhood. We are especially pleased that we had a wide age spread, from our youngest supporter at 13 years old through to an 84 year old resident who has lived here all of his long life! Let us also note that we managed to attract more of a presence than the Council's area committee five, held on the same week, which had barely half the numbers whilst covering a much wider geographical area.
Issues people raised at the meeting as of concern to them included the curse of too many takeaway outlets, a new library, cleansing, speeding, policing, drug abuse, anti-social conduct, the threat to the Meads Lane post office, the opportunities for the lorry park, untidy front gardens, parking restrictions, a lack of road signs, congestion arising from the controversial closure of Downshall Avenue, the need for festive lights, the lack of youth and community facilities, the rundown state of the station and the state of our local parks.
We are delighted to say that many of the areas identified are already the subject of TASK activity, although we have always said our two key priorities are ensuring the lorry park is properly developed with an outstanding build that allows for community use; and securing a new Library. As we grow bigger and stronger, we hope to set up specific work groups on all of the various topics, allowing supporters to get most involved with those issues that matter to them most. Watch this space!
Thanks to everyone who came out in the dark, and especially to those who offered to do some leafleting, and the Reverend Jonathan Evens, for kindly hosting us at St. John's Church. We are planning to hold another open meeting in April, focusing on the lorry park itself, when we hope to be joined by Steve Eccles from Swan Housing, the new land owners. Dates and times will follow in our next TASK newsletter.
Meads Lane Post Office
We were joined at the meeting by David Shah, our outstanding local postmaster, who spoke passionately about how much his service means to so many. He advised that a whopping 1,600 local people had already signed his petition and also urged supporters to write in to the Post Office consultation exercise to further explain the need to keep this business going. The contact addresses to use are as follows: online at http://www.postoffice.co.uk/ - click on public consultations under the network change programme or by email at consultation@postoffice.co.uk or by snail mail at Anita Turner, Network Development manager, c/o National Consultation Team, FREEPOST CONSULTATION TEAM or by phone at 08457 22 33 44.
Some TASK supporters have also suggested we do something more direct, like a pavement protest outside the Post Office or a march to the nearest alternative provision, to highlight the distance and difficulty for many older/disabled users, and we will be taking these options up with David, but will be led by his preference on best approaches to campaigning.
Seven Kings station
TASK met with railway operator National Express - formerly 'one' - on Friday 7th March to monitor their action plan for the deeply rundown station buildings. We have already secured a special security presence at the railway station from 1400 until 0200 daily until September 2007, a service which will now be better signposted to ensure all commuters know where to find the guards if they are not immediately visible. Work will also begin over the next few weeks on installing new windows over the upper walkway, whilst the spring/early summer will see derelict WCs pulled down and flower beds planted for the first time in a generation. By July, we are promised a station we can be truly proud of. Bring it on!
Streetscape
Our latest walkabout on February 29 involved TASK supporters, residents, councillors and officials, and saw a marked improvement in general conditions along the High Road. That said, we witnessed major dumping on the alley behind the old Joker pub, some truly squalid dumping behind shops and lots of clean up notices served for dumping outside mainly multi-let properties on Aldborough Road South. This last activity highlighted a number of letting agencies who are apparently most neglectful, and TASK will be looking to convene a meeting with these agencies to encourage better practice, from advising landlords of the likelihood of stern action if properties are neglected through to the proper delivery of maintenance contracts for which charges are made. The message to them is clear. You may think running rentals in Seven Kings is a soft touch. It may have been once, but the times are now a changing. Smarten up.
The next street scene walkabout is scheduled for April 25. We welcome volunteers to walk the route and suggestions for particularly needy locations. Please contact Ali at ahai@deloitte.co.uk with both names and ideas.
Getting a new Library
Redbridge Council Head of Libraries Martin Timms made a short presentation on options for a new local Library at the area 5 committee. The talk acknowledged that we are now the only area in the borough without a static library, and began the talk of options, which include a new build, conversion of an existing property or use of an existing public building like the Downshall Centre. We have just received new information using freedom of information legislation highlighting user numbers at Downshall and will be following up on this to see what is possible. More next time. Meanwhile, keep signing the petition as it will help us show the huge public demand and will strengthen our case.
The Joker withdraws
The new owners of the Joker pub have withdrawn their application for a license in its entirety, having initially scaled down their planned opening hours. This will please residents concerned at possible anti-social behaviour issues arising out of its re/opening, large numbers of whom signed a petition against giving it a new lease of life.
Traders for TASK
Doug has done great work talking to traders, many of whom have made valuable donations to TASK. This has allowed us to run off much needed leaflets, post out newsletters for those without email, cater our meeting and help fund our campaign work. Huge thanks to A.I.N.T, Creeds, FOBA Communications, Eye Gee, TAQWA Carpets, Somex Pharmacy, Cliff Owen Music, O'Grady's Bar and Kitchen, Asha Jewellers, UK salon group, Sheek Dry cleaners and Nickel Press. Money continues to come in and we will credit new donors in future editions.
Useful local contact numbers
At the open meeting, a number of people expressed confusion about where to turn to resolve some of the everyday problems we all face, and we promised to list out some key contact numbers. Thanks to Ali for compiling this helpful listing of Council and police services:
- Cleansing Services - 02087085515
- Cleansing Services Enforcement - 02087085255
- Fly tipping 24hr hotline - 0208 708 5512 / 0208 554 5000
- Street Scene Hotline - 02087085050
- Graffiti hotline - 02087083582 / 02087085050
- Highways - 02087085845
- Planning - 02087082057/2058/2059/2016
- Seven Kings Safer Neighbourhood team - 02083452925
That's all for now folks. We are back w/b March 24 with more news and local stories. Keep spreading the news, and if people want to know more, please refer them to our helpful website at http://www.task7.co.uk/, which has full contact details.
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Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler).
Money Well Spent
FaithAction's Money Well Spent conference brought together more than 200 faith-based and community organisations delivering public services, senior civil servants and ministers to engage in meaningful dialogue. Speeches by The Rt. Hon Stephen Timms MP and Dr. Husna Ahmad, CEO of Faith Regen UK were of particular note and both speakers have consented to their speeches being put onto the FaithAction website, so please click the following links to download:
- The Rt. Hon Stephen Timms MP’s Keynote Speech in which he praises the work of faith-based and faith-inspired organisations around the country and talks of his support for FaithAction.
- Dr. Husna Ahmad’s Setting the Scene in which she discusses faith communities and the Government to work together to build more cohesive and sustainable communities.
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Curtis Mayfield - Keep On Keeping On.
Resurrecting individuals & cultures
Imagine a bed surrounded by the debris of a week’s illness, soiled sheets and slashed pillows, pills and vodka bottles, used condoms and tissues. This is My Bed an installation by Tracy Emin was first exhibited in 1999. You’ll probably remember reading about it in the press at the time as it prompted the usual “call that art, my two-year old could have done better” kind of articles.
A bed is a powerful symbol of birth and death, sex and intimacy but this controversial installation was perhaps an image of our culture’s sickness and dis-ease surrounded by the remnants of those things through which we seek a cure; sex, alcohol, drugs, tears, aggression. And the bed, like many lives, was empty. The morning after the cure that never came.
Our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel 37. 1-10 suggested something very similar about the people of Israel. Ezekiel saw a valley of dry bones and God said to him that the people of Israel were like those bones, dried up without any hope and with no future.
Sometimes our lives feel like these two pictures - dried up, no future, diseased, empty, dead. Our relationships may have broken down, we may have been abused, we may be anxious, stressed or worried, our work might be under threat or have ended. For all these reasons and many others we can feel as though our lives have closed down becoming barren or dry or dead.
Our communities and culture can feel like that too. Many years ago now, at the end of the 1970’s, The Sex Pistols sang about there being no future in England’s dreaming. And many people still think that our society is changing for the worse. When I had a holiday in Spain a few years ago I stayed on a street that was mainly occupied by British people who had left because they didn’t like the changes that they saw in British society. Such people think of Britain as being diseased and dead with no future for them.
Being in the Church it is also easy to feel the same. We are regularly told in the press that the Church is in decline (although many of the Churches in the Deanery suggest otherwise) and my Church, the Church of England is dealing with major conflicts over women bishops and gay clergy that threaten to pull it apart. Again, it is easy to feel as though the Church is washed up, dried out and dying.
Whatever we think of those issues and views, the God that we worship is in the resurrection business. And that is where we need to be too. In Ezekiel God promised that he would put his breath into the people of Israel and bring them back to life and in our Gospel reading (John 11. 1-45) Jesus said that he is the resurrection and the life and demonstrated this by bringing Lazarus back to life. Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Ezekiel that he would bring the people of Israel back to life. In Jesus, Israel lived life as God had intended and fulfilled Israel’s mission of bringing light to the rest of the world. In this way, Jesus resurrected a society and culture transforming the entire world as he did so.
He calls us to follow in his footsteps by looking for the places where our society and culture is dried up or dying and working for its transformation and resurrection. This is why it is important for us to support the work of the Church Urban Fund during Lent as their funding helps disadvantaged people escape their disadvantage. It is why it is important for us to live and work with people of other faiths, as we have been thinking about through our evening Lent course, so that we can escape the dead-end of racial conflicts. It is also why it is important for us to be involved in the regeneration of our area and borough. The beginning of this week saw a deanery meeting on Redbridge and Regeneration held here at St John’s and the end of the week the first public meeting of the Take Action for Seven Kings group.
Each of us can do the same as Jesus through our work and community involvements and we need to be asking ourselves how God wants to use us, through those involvements, to transform parts of our society and culture.
Raising Lazarus from death was a sign of what would happen after Jesus’ own death on the cross. By rising from death himself, Jesus conquered death for all people enabling us to enter in to eternal life after our physical death. This is good news for us to share with other people around us wherever we are - in our families and among our friends, neighbours and work colleagues.
After Easter we plan to run another Alpha course. Courses like Alpha provide great opportunities for us all to share our faith. There maybe someone that you can invite and bring along to the course or you may be able to help with running the course by helping with refreshments or setting up the room or helping in a discussion group (see me for more details after, if you can help or would like to come on the course). Think for a moment about the people and places where you can share the good news of life after death through our Lord Jesus.
Jesus also resurrected lives before physical death came. Look for a moment at John 11 with me. In the first section of that chapter from verses 1 to 16 we see the disciples struggling to understand what Jesus is saying and doing. He is wanting them to see how God is at work in Lazarus’ illness and death. They keep looking only at their physical and material circumstances - if Jesus goes back to Judea then he will be killed, if Lazarus is asleep then he will get better, and so on. Jesus wants them to see that God can work even through death and in verse 16 he draws out of them the commitment to go with him even though they may die with him.
Then in verses 17 to 27, Jesus helps Martha to move beyond her theoretical belief in the resurrection to a belief that Jesus himself is the promised Messiah. Finally, in verses 38 to 45, he helps all those present to move beyond their focus on physical realities to believe in God’s ability to do the supernatural. Throughout, Jesus is challenging all the people he encounters to move beyond their comfort zones, to step out in faith, to encounter and trust God in new ways. He wants to do the same with each one of us. Wherever our lives have got stuck, have become dried up or closed down or have died he wants to challenge and encourage us to move out of our comfort zones and to encounter him and other people in new and risky ways. He wants us to come alive to God, to the world, to other people and to life itself in new ways.
Jesus is in the resurrection business. Whether it is transforming society, sharing the good news of eternal life or encouraging us to step out in faith, Jesus wants to bring us to life. How will you respond to Jesus this morning? Is there an area of your life that he can bring back to life or will you commit yourself to join in sharing the good news of eternal life with others and transforming society where you are? As you think about that challenge let us pray together briefly, using the words of a song by Evanescence:
Lord Jesus, we are frozen inside without your touch, without your love. You are the life among the dead, so wake us up inside. Call our names and save us from the dark. Bid our blood to run before we come undone, save us from the nothing we’ve become. Bring us to life. Amen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evanescence - Bring Me To Life.
A bed is a powerful symbol of birth and death, sex and intimacy but this controversial installation was perhaps an image of our culture’s sickness and dis-ease surrounded by the remnants of those things through which we seek a cure; sex, alcohol, drugs, tears, aggression. And the bed, like many lives, was empty. The morning after the cure that never came.
Our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel 37. 1-10 suggested something very similar about the people of Israel. Ezekiel saw a valley of dry bones and God said to him that the people of Israel were like those bones, dried up without any hope and with no future.
Sometimes our lives feel like these two pictures - dried up, no future, diseased, empty, dead. Our relationships may have broken down, we may have been abused, we may be anxious, stressed or worried, our work might be under threat or have ended. For all these reasons and many others we can feel as though our lives have closed down becoming barren or dry or dead.
Our communities and culture can feel like that too. Many years ago now, at the end of the 1970’s, The Sex Pistols sang about there being no future in England’s dreaming. And many people still think that our society is changing for the worse. When I had a holiday in Spain a few years ago I stayed on a street that was mainly occupied by British people who had left because they didn’t like the changes that they saw in British society. Such people think of Britain as being diseased and dead with no future for them.
Being in the Church it is also easy to feel the same. We are regularly told in the press that the Church is in decline (although many of the Churches in the Deanery suggest otherwise) and my Church, the Church of England is dealing with major conflicts over women bishops and gay clergy that threaten to pull it apart. Again, it is easy to feel as though the Church is washed up, dried out and dying.
Whatever we think of those issues and views, the God that we worship is in the resurrection business. And that is where we need to be too. In Ezekiel God promised that he would put his breath into the people of Israel and bring them back to life and in our Gospel reading (John 11. 1-45) Jesus said that he is the resurrection and the life and demonstrated this by bringing Lazarus back to life. Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Ezekiel that he would bring the people of Israel back to life. In Jesus, Israel lived life as God had intended and fulfilled Israel’s mission of bringing light to the rest of the world. In this way, Jesus resurrected a society and culture transforming the entire world as he did so.
He calls us to follow in his footsteps by looking for the places where our society and culture is dried up or dying and working for its transformation and resurrection. This is why it is important for us to support the work of the Church Urban Fund during Lent as their funding helps disadvantaged people escape their disadvantage. It is why it is important for us to live and work with people of other faiths, as we have been thinking about through our evening Lent course, so that we can escape the dead-end of racial conflicts. It is also why it is important for us to be involved in the regeneration of our area and borough. The beginning of this week saw a deanery meeting on Redbridge and Regeneration held here at St John’s and the end of the week the first public meeting of the Take Action for Seven Kings group.
Each of us can do the same as Jesus through our work and community involvements and we need to be asking ourselves how God wants to use us, through those involvements, to transform parts of our society and culture.
Raising Lazarus from death was a sign of what would happen after Jesus’ own death on the cross. By rising from death himself, Jesus conquered death for all people enabling us to enter in to eternal life after our physical death. This is good news for us to share with other people around us wherever we are - in our families and among our friends, neighbours and work colleagues.
After Easter we plan to run another Alpha course. Courses like Alpha provide great opportunities for us all to share our faith. There maybe someone that you can invite and bring along to the course or you may be able to help with running the course by helping with refreshments or setting up the room or helping in a discussion group (see me for more details after, if you can help or would like to come on the course). Think for a moment about the people and places where you can share the good news of life after death through our Lord Jesus.
Jesus also resurrected lives before physical death came. Look for a moment at John 11 with me. In the first section of that chapter from verses 1 to 16 we see the disciples struggling to understand what Jesus is saying and doing. He is wanting them to see how God is at work in Lazarus’ illness and death. They keep looking only at their physical and material circumstances - if Jesus goes back to Judea then he will be killed, if Lazarus is asleep then he will get better, and so on. Jesus wants them to see that God can work even through death and in verse 16 he draws out of them the commitment to go with him even though they may die with him.
Then in verses 17 to 27, Jesus helps Martha to move beyond her theoretical belief in the resurrection to a belief that Jesus himself is the promised Messiah. Finally, in verses 38 to 45, he helps all those present to move beyond their focus on physical realities to believe in God’s ability to do the supernatural. Throughout, Jesus is challenging all the people he encounters to move beyond their comfort zones, to step out in faith, to encounter and trust God in new ways. He wants to do the same with each one of us. Wherever our lives have got stuck, have become dried up or closed down or have died he wants to challenge and encourage us to move out of our comfort zones and to encounter him and other people in new and risky ways. He wants us to come alive to God, to the world, to other people and to life itself in new ways.
Jesus is in the resurrection business. Whether it is transforming society, sharing the good news of eternal life or encouraging us to step out in faith, Jesus wants to bring us to life. How will you respond to Jesus this morning? Is there an area of your life that he can bring back to life or will you commit yourself to join in sharing the good news of eternal life with others and transforming society where you are? As you think about that challenge let us pray together briefly, using the words of a song by Evanescence:
Lord Jesus, we are frozen inside without your touch, without your love. You are the life among the dead, so wake us up inside. Call our names and save us from the dark. Bid our blood to run before we come undone, save us from the nothing we’ve become. Bring us to life. Amen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evanescence - Bring Me To Life.
Friday, 7 March 2008
There were giants in those days (1)
It is said that, ‘Of the making of lists there is no end’ and, as it hasn’t done any harm to Nick Hornby’s career, I shall begin with three lists myself. Lists that group together a number of the significant British-based artists in the first half of the twentieth-century.
List one includes C. S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, J. R. R. Tolkien and Charles Williams. Lewis is the link person within this group: he, Tolkien and Williams met weekly in Oxford from 1939 to 1945 through the meetings of The Inklings; Sayers corresponded and met with both Lewis and Williams; Lewis and Sayers both developed a role as ‘popular theologians’; while Lewis, Sayers and Tolkien each contributed essays to what became the posthumous volume, Essays Presented to Charles Williams.
The second list or grouping revolves around T. S. Eliot and includes Christopher Fry, David Jones, Sayers and Williams: Eliot published and wrote introductions to the work of Jones and Williams; Eliot, Sayers and Williams shared a common love of, and wrote on, the work of Dante; Eliot, Fry, Sayers and Williams all wrote drama for the Canterbury Festival; Eliot, Fry and Williams were part of the Verse Drama movement; while, Jones and Williams shared a love of the Arthurian legends – Jones critiquing Williams’ work in The Arthurian Torso.
The final list or group has Eric Gill at its centre and includes, Desmond Chute, Philip Hagreen, Edward Johnston, Jones and Hilary Pepler. Gill, later followed by Johnston and Pepler, moved to Ditchling, Surrey in 1907 and this move led directly to the formation by Chute, Gill and Pepler of the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic in 1920. The Guild was a community of artists and craftspeople living, working and worshipping as Dominican Tertiaries. Jones joined the community in 1921 and then, in 1924, moved with Gill and Hagreen to Caldey in Wales as part of an attempt to establish a similar Guild there.
The links that I have briefly outlined are sufficient to establish that we have here three distinct groups – formed around Eliot, Gill and Lewis – plus a significant amount of overlap and linkage in personnel, ideas and forms between the groups – with Jones, Sayers and Williams emerging as the principal individuals linking the three groups.
Within their own time some of these groupings and links were recognised. Kenneth Pickering has noted that Sayers “was particularly conscious that she was one of a group of Christian writers who were under attack from both radical Christian and agnostic critics”. She wrote of indignation being “reserved for a small group of Anglicans, such as Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis … and, of course, T. S. Eliot …”.
George Bell, as Dean of Canterbury and then as Bishop of Chichester, initiated the Canterbury Festival where, as we have heard, plays by Eliot, Fry, Sayers and Williams, among others, were commissioned and performed. Bell also held several conferences on art and the church and again Eliot, Sayers and Williams were involved.
Accordingly, A. N. Wilson, in his biography of Lewis, suggests that there were giants in the Church of England in those days and cites Eliot, Lewis, and Sayers as examples.
However, it was not only in the Anglican Church that artistic giants existed. The group gathered around Gill, together with Tolkien, were all part of the Roman Catholic Church and there too a similar pattern can be seen. Kathleen Raine, for example, has stated that Gill and Jones were part of “a remarkable flowering of Catholic culture”.
Finally, the links between this group and the Anglican grouping have been noted by Gregory Wolfe who includes Eliot, Gill and Jones in his list of Religious Humanists from this period.
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King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King.
List one includes C. S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, J. R. R. Tolkien and Charles Williams. Lewis is the link person within this group: he, Tolkien and Williams met weekly in Oxford from 1939 to 1945 through the meetings of The Inklings; Sayers corresponded and met with both Lewis and Williams; Lewis and Sayers both developed a role as ‘popular theologians’; while Lewis, Sayers and Tolkien each contributed essays to what became the posthumous volume, Essays Presented to Charles Williams.
The second list or grouping revolves around T. S. Eliot and includes Christopher Fry, David Jones, Sayers and Williams: Eliot published and wrote introductions to the work of Jones and Williams; Eliot, Sayers and Williams shared a common love of, and wrote on, the work of Dante; Eliot, Fry, Sayers and Williams all wrote drama for the Canterbury Festival; Eliot, Fry and Williams were part of the Verse Drama movement; while, Jones and Williams shared a love of the Arthurian legends – Jones critiquing Williams’ work in The Arthurian Torso.
The final list or group has Eric Gill at its centre and includes, Desmond Chute, Philip Hagreen, Edward Johnston, Jones and Hilary Pepler. Gill, later followed by Johnston and Pepler, moved to Ditchling, Surrey in 1907 and this move led directly to the formation by Chute, Gill and Pepler of the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic in 1920. The Guild was a community of artists and craftspeople living, working and worshipping as Dominican Tertiaries. Jones joined the community in 1921 and then, in 1924, moved with Gill and Hagreen to Caldey in Wales as part of an attempt to establish a similar Guild there.
The links that I have briefly outlined are sufficient to establish that we have here three distinct groups – formed around Eliot, Gill and Lewis – plus a significant amount of overlap and linkage in personnel, ideas and forms between the groups – with Jones, Sayers and Williams emerging as the principal individuals linking the three groups.
Within their own time some of these groupings and links were recognised. Kenneth Pickering has noted that Sayers “was particularly conscious that she was one of a group of Christian writers who were under attack from both radical Christian and agnostic critics”. She wrote of indignation being “reserved for a small group of Anglicans, such as Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis … and, of course, T. S. Eliot …”.
George Bell, as Dean of Canterbury and then as Bishop of Chichester, initiated the Canterbury Festival where, as we have heard, plays by Eliot, Fry, Sayers and Williams, among others, were commissioned and performed. Bell also held several conferences on art and the church and again Eliot, Sayers and Williams were involved.
Accordingly, A. N. Wilson, in his biography of Lewis, suggests that there were giants in the Church of England in those days and cites Eliot, Lewis, and Sayers as examples.
However, it was not only in the Anglican Church that artistic giants existed. The group gathered around Gill, together with Tolkien, were all part of the Roman Catholic Church and there too a similar pattern can be seen. Kathleen Raine, for example, has stated that Gill and Jones were part of “a remarkable flowering of Catholic culture”.
Finally, the links between this group and the Anglican grouping have been noted by Gregory Wolfe who includes Eliot, Gill and Jones in his list of Religious Humanists from this period.
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King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King.
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Images for Easter
----------------------------------------------------------------------------Pops Staples - Nobody's Fault But Mine.
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Two memes
I've been tagged by Paul and Sam on two different memes, so here are my responses:
1. What translation of the Bible do you like best?
I agree with Paul on this one. Having read the Bible throughout my life and, therefore, having a familiarity with many passages that can be dulling, I find that The Message often brings passages alive in new ways.
2. Old or New Testament?
Both! I love the counter-story in the OT which then emerges in the NT as the story of God's kingdom in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. My favourite quote on this is from Josipovici: “It’s a magnificent conception, spread over thousands of pages and encompassing the entire history of the universe. There is both perfect correspondence between Old and New Testaments and a continuous forward drive from Creation to the end of time: ‘It begins where time begins, with the creation of the world; it ends where time ends, with the Apocalypse, and it surveys human history in between, or the aspect of history it is interested in, under the symbolic names of Adam and Israel’. Earlier ages had no difficulty in grasping this design, though our own, more bookish age, obsessed with both history and immediacy, has tended to lose sight of it. Neither theologians nor biblical scholars have stood back enough to see it as a whole. Yet it is a whole and quite unlike any other book.”
3. Favorite Book of the Bible?
John's Gospel - which I read together with Stephen Verney's Water into Wine commentary.
4. Favorite Chapter?
Ephesians 4 - which I hope is what characterises my ministry. It has certainly been my inspiration for ministry.
5. Favorite Verse? (feel free to explain yourself if you have to
Romans 5. 8 - the verse that, as a teenager and still today, assures me that I am loved and accepted by God as I am.
6. Bible character you think you’re most like?
Like Paul, I want to be like Jesus (although I don't kid myself that I am!). My gut answer to this question would be Luke.
7. One thing from the Bible that confuses you?
Revelation - the Book of!
8. Moses or Paul?
I identify strongly with Moses in his reticence and arguing with God but plump for Paul at his inclusive height - no difference between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, men and women, all are one in union with Christ!
9. A teaching from the Bible that you struggle with or don’t get?
Those sections that commend/condone exclusion.
10. Coolest name in the Bible?
Jonathan.
I tag Huw, Jim and Philip with this thread.
Sam's meme was this:
Rule 1) List three reasons for your blogging.
Rule 2) List these rules.
Rule 3) Tag three others with the thread.
Reason 1 - I want to share discoveries of people and things that inspire me to live creatively in the tension of the now and the not yet. Reason 2 - I need to write and therefore also need an outlet for the writing I do. Reason 3 - As Sam says, blogging is a conversational activity that invites response and debate.
I tag Painter of Blue, Paul and Huw with this thread.
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Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell.
1. What translation of the Bible do you like best?
I agree with Paul on this one. Having read the Bible throughout my life and, therefore, having a familiarity with many passages that can be dulling, I find that The Message often brings passages alive in new ways.
2. Old or New Testament?
Both! I love the counter-story in the OT which then emerges in the NT as the story of God's kingdom in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. My favourite quote on this is from Josipovici: “It’s a magnificent conception, spread over thousands of pages and encompassing the entire history of the universe. There is both perfect correspondence between Old and New Testaments and a continuous forward drive from Creation to the end of time: ‘It begins where time begins, with the creation of the world; it ends where time ends, with the Apocalypse, and it surveys human history in between, or the aspect of history it is interested in, under the symbolic names of Adam and Israel’. Earlier ages had no difficulty in grasping this design, though our own, more bookish age, obsessed with both history and immediacy, has tended to lose sight of it. Neither theologians nor biblical scholars have stood back enough to see it as a whole. Yet it is a whole and quite unlike any other book.”
3. Favorite Book of the Bible?
John's Gospel - which I read together with Stephen Verney's Water into Wine commentary.
4. Favorite Chapter?
Ephesians 4 - which I hope is what characterises my ministry. It has certainly been my inspiration for ministry.
5. Favorite Verse? (feel free to explain yourself if you have to
Romans 5. 8 - the verse that, as a teenager and still today, assures me that I am loved and accepted by God as I am.
6. Bible character you think you’re most like?
Like Paul, I want to be like Jesus (although I don't kid myself that I am!). My gut answer to this question would be Luke.
7. One thing from the Bible that confuses you?
Revelation - the Book of!
8. Moses or Paul?
I identify strongly with Moses in his reticence and arguing with God but plump for Paul at his inclusive height - no difference between Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, men and women, all are one in union with Christ!
9. A teaching from the Bible that you struggle with or don’t get?
Those sections that commend/condone exclusion.
10. Coolest name in the Bible?
Jonathan.
I tag Huw, Jim and Philip with this thread.
Sam's meme was this:
Rule 1) List three reasons for your blogging.
Rule 2) List these rules.
Rule 3) Tag three others with the thread.
Reason 1 - I want to share discoveries of people and things that inspire me to live creatively in the tension of the now and the not yet. Reason 2 - I need to write and therefore also need an outlet for the writing I do. Reason 3 - As Sam says, blogging is a conversational activity that invites response and debate.
I tag Painter of Blue, Paul and Huw with this thread.
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Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell.
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