Rock and theology: A matter of time and space

Peter Banks, co-author of The Secret Chord, has an interesting guest post on the Rock and Theology blog where he discusses the liberty we can experience when we allow ourselves to be disarmed by something so transcendent that we abandon our reservations! Peter has also been interviewed for the blog - click here to view.

The Rock and Theology blog explores the relationship between popular music and theology, and related matters of religion, spirituality and culture today. It is part of the Rock and Theology Project, directed by Tom Beaudoin.

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Coldplay - Fix You.

Arts Festival for the Barking Episcopal Area

The Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival for 2013 will be held in Harlow Deanery from 23rd - 27th May in parallel to the Heart 4 Harlow Festival. As in previous years, we have a very exciting programme including the premiere of Korban – a new play on the life of Christ; Art talks (inc. Bishop Stephen on Stanley Spencer); art & photographic exhibitions; Flower Festival (Hatfield Broad Oak); music & poetry evening (Holy Trinity Hatfield Heath); and Big Lunch & Community Praise, among other events.

As part of the Festival commission4mission will be mounting an exhibition using a shop unit in the Harvey Shopping Centre Harlow from Thursday 23rd to Monday 27th May. Also in the Festival will be art talks by Bishop Stephen Cottrell (Stanley Spencer) and Mark Lewis (John Piper) plus a performance evening at Holy Trinity Hatfield Heath which will include a range of local musical contributions plus music from Colin Burns and poetry from Mal Grosch, Jane Grell and myself.

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Colin Burns - I Wait For You.

Windows on the world (239)

Dorchester Abbey, 2012

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The Moody Blues - Question.

Sophia Hubs: wisdom-based incubators for social enterprises

Sophia Hubs are a network of local, wisdom-based incubators for new businesses and social enterprises, harnessing the wisdom and resources of the faith traditions, leading to sustainable social and economic development and change.

Sophia Hubs aim to enable people of all faiths and none to participate in economic and social regeneration, inspired by shared values of justice, collaboration and sustainability.

Funding is being sought to begin a pilot Sophia Hub in Seven Kings and Newbury Park which will aim to deliver:

• entrepreneurial skills programme, offering a challenging but supportive and safe environment and testing social enterprise ideas, with active training by successful entrepreneurs, wisdom mentors, and faith leaders.
• connecting investors with new enterprises by setting up “pitch sessions” where new enterprises pitch their needs to prospective investors, or by arranging one-to-one meetings between enterprises and investors.
• people with specific forms of wisdom useful to the development of social enterprises (often from faith communities) offering their time to ground enterprise ideas in a wider context of social change, work-life balance, and community enhancement.
• ideas exchange through organising seminars and workshops exploring the connections between wisdom and work: invited speakers will come from various belief systems and a range of entrepreneurial approaches.
• reflective and applied developmental course exploring wisdom perspectives which help form the conditions for developing new projects.

The Sophia Hub will be embedded in local faith communities by use of faith buildings; entrepreneur and mentor recruitment via faith networks; and creating enterprises which meet the expressed needs of faith communities locally.

Using local business, community, faith and individual networks we will identify local business people from the faith communities in Seven Kings and Newbury Park and train them to act as mentors to new entrepreneurs. Those who train as mentors will be people of different faiths drawn together for their training and, as entrepreneurs using the Sophia Hub will be recruited via local faith communities, when these entrepreneurs are matched with their mentors we will again be bringing people of different faiths together.

We will launch this process later in 2013 with a public event at which identification of potential mentors will begin but which will also involve information about Sophia Hubs, discussion of the wisdom of the different faith traditions as it relates to work, and will enable networking to occur across members of different faiths present. Additionally, the Sophia Hub will on an on-going basis organise further events where dialogue between the wisdom of the different faith traditions can develop in the context of live projects. These events will also bring people of different faiths together for first encounters which through the development of business and networking relationships will become everyday interactions.

To date funding has been committed by Area Committees 5 & 7, the Mission Opportunities Fund in the Diocese of Chelmsford, London Over the Border and Near Neighbours. The aim, as further funding is obtained, is to begin the pilot Sophia Hub during 2013 with the aim of delivering on an annual basis: 3 developmental Sophia courses; delivery of business start-up training and mentoring plus investor connections and incubation space to 8 local people intending to set up a social enterprise/small business; and 4 new social enterprises/businesses set up, sustained and developing.

The initiative will cover Newbury and Seven Kings Wards. It will be based initially at St John’s Seven Kings but will seek to utilise faith and community facilities and networks throughout its catchment area.

A local pilot management group has been set up. Involvement is sought from all the faith and community groups in the area. For more information, contact me on 020 8599 2170 or jonathan.evens@btinternet.com.

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Peter Tosh - Fools Die aka Wisdom.

Pascal’s God-shaped hole working its way into literature and film

“An old saying goes, in order to experience Easter you must go through Good Friday first. According to The Dark Knight Rises, the third instalment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, even superheroes aren’t immune to this tenet. The film provides a thorough examination of the themes of sacrifice and resurrection, two of the fundamental principles of the Christian life.”

The previous instalment of the Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight, was the story of Batman as suffering servant. At its climax, Harvey Dent becomes Batman’s Judas as Batman decides to take responsibility for Dent’s crimes so that those sins could be forgiven and the people of Gotham saved. As a result, in The Dark Knight Rises “we meet Bruce Wayne, beaten and battered, hidden, in isolation from the world and all relationships. He has seemingly lost everything, his health, his reputation, and the love of his life. All has been lost for the sake of the people of Gotham.”

The villain of the latest film, Bane, “throws Batman into a prison described as a literal hell on earth where the suffering is not physical, but the hopelessness sprouting in the hearts of its inmates when they look up at the sky, knowing that escape is impossible. From this, our Dark Knight is resurrected, conquering “death” and then later conquering the Enemy, bringing freedom.”

“Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is a retelling of the real Messiah-hero story.” What is the significance of the story of Easter being retold in the garb of Batman?

Firstly, it shows us the continuing resonance of the Easter story. It is a real story; “real stories are ones that reflect true things about life, human nature, and the world we live in.” Secondly, it shows us that “people, whether they realize it or not, long for the gospel. There is something in the story that resonates with us, even if we are resistant to the message on a conscious level. We’re wired for it. Maybe it’s Pascal’s God-shaped hole working its way into literature and film.”

As we celebrate Eastertide together, we can reflect that the real Messiah-hero story continues to impact on the lives and imaginations of many in our world even when transposed into other stories and mediums. This Eastertide, may we come to know the real Messiah-hero deeper ourselves and step into his story of death and resurrection for ourselves.

(This post is based on material from http://www.patheos.com/blogs/schaeffersghost/2012/08/the-dark-knight-resurrects/, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/schaeffersghost/2012/07/dark-knight-rex/, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/schaeffersghost/2012/07/the-rocks-cry-out-finding-the-gospel-in-very-unexpected-places/, http://bustedhalo.com/features/a-light-in-the-dark-knight, http://thatfilmchannel.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/batman-must-die-an-analysis-of-the-dark-knight-trilogy/).

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Brice Randall Bickford - Pictures of Adolf Again (Bill Fay)

Music update

The first single from the album ... “Now” ... shows that Paramore is back in full force. "It just feels like the perfect way to start this new journey we are embarking on not only as a band but as a movement," the band wrote. "To show people that you can lose battles but come back and win full-on wars. You can rise from ashes. You can make something out of even less than nothing. The only thing you have to do is keep moving forward."

"My grappling with spirituality is … I’m not a church going person. Any first year divinity student could debate circles around me with religion. But I’m not talking about religion, I’m talking about spirituality. It’s important to me to try and understand what my perspective is on a higher power, and to understand what role that sort of belief might play in my life. It’s critical to me to think about this stuff – a lot." (M. C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger)

The Relatives’ sound bridges the gap between traditional Gospel, Soul and Psychedelia. In the early 1970’s, they recorded three obscure singles and a previously unreleased session—all of which are compiled on the acclaimed 2009 anthology, Don’t Let Me Fall. The release of the anthology brought The Relatives back together as a band, planting the seeds for their 2013 Yep Roc release, The Electric Word, which was recorded and produced by Jim Eno of Spoon.

Ricky Ross will be releasing a new solo album ‘Trouble Came Looking’ in April and touring Scotland, Wales and England in April – May to support it. Ricky began writing ‘Trouble Came Looking’ as the wheels started to fall off the economy. It’s a modern Celtic folk album about the helplessness we all felt as governments signed off billions to protect the banks and institutions, and then sat back and watched as normal people lost everything.

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Hiss Golden Messenger - I've Got A Name For The Newborn Child.

Improvisation: The ability to create something spiritual

Here are some thoughts I dropped into a funeral address recently for a man who had been a big fan of trad jazz:

St Paul says that God’s children are those who are led through life by God’s Spirit (Romans 8). Jesus said that God’s Spirit is like the wind which “blows wherever it wishes; you hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going” (John 3. 7 - 8).

Being led by God’s Spirit is a lot like improvising in jazz; you take the tune into yourself and you allow it to take you to places you wouldn’t otherwise go. The essence of jazz is improvisation; you take a traditional tune and do your own thing with it. Sonny Rollins once said, “Improvisation is the ability to create something very spiritual, something of one’s own.”

Another aspect of jazz is that however far out you go when improvising you always return home to the tune at the end. In this passage St Paul says the same thing. Wherever God’s Spirit may lead us in life, we return to God at our end knowing him as Father and sharing the glory and blessings that Jesus himself enjoys.

There is a lot more on improvisation and faith to be found in my co-authored book, The Secret Chord.

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Sonny Rollins - There Is No Greater Love.