Discover & explore: Faith

We had a very positive beginning to the 'Discover & explore' service series at St Stephen Walbrook. Among the comments made by those present were these:

• 'Magnificent choir & organ'
• 'Both the songs and the reflection were excellent' 
• 'Beautiful music; the readings were long and meaty! The whole liturgy was good'
• 'St Martin's Choral Scholars – wonderful tone & expressions'

Here is my reflection on the theme of 'Faith' from today's service:

On 15 June 1215 at Runnymede King John agreed to have Magna Carta, the ‘Great Charter,’ sealed. This event has later become recognised as one of the most important events in English history as it marked the road to individual freedom, parliamentary democracy and to the supremacy of law.

To mark this event, today, at Runnymede, there has been a national Magna Carta Foundation of Liberty ceremony, organised by the National Trust and Surrey County Council, and attended by 4,500 invited guests and VIPs from a cross-section of the community and around the world.

The City of London is the only place to be named in Magna Carta, in a clause guaranteeing "the City of London shall have all its ancient liberties by land as well as by water." It also played a fundamentally important role in the events leading to Magna Carta: Temple, in the west of the City, was where a posse of barons first confronted King John to demand a charter. The City was also later granted the right to appoint a Mayor (later known as the Lord Mayor), part of whose duties was to ensure the provisions of Magna Carta were carried out. As part of the 800th Anniversary celebrations of Magna Carta, the 1297 Magna Carta is currently displayed in the City of London’s Heritage Gallery.

Magna Carta starts as a religious document, concerned with the “health of the soul” of the King, and with the “honour of God,” and with the “exaltation of the Holy Church”. Dr Mike West notes that “Magna Carta established the freedom of the English church from state interference and this has grown to enshrine the rights of each individual to enjoy religious freedom”.

Magna Carta has led to Article 9 of the Human Rights Act, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, which includes:

• the freedom to change religion or belief;
• the freedom to exercise religion or belief publicly or privately, alone or with others;
• the freedom to exercise religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance; and
• the right to have no religion (e.g. to be atheist or agnostic) or to have non-religious beliefs protected (e.g. philosophical beliefs such as pacifism or veganism).

The process which took us from the Magna Carta establishing the freedom of the English church from state interference to the rights which we all have to enjoy religious and non-religious freedom ran through the period explored by paintings in the recent re-hanging of the Guildhall Art Gallery’s Victorian Collection. The mid-19th century, as is noted in the Gallery’s description of the theme of ‘Faith’, saw a “crisis of faith” brought about by new scientific developments, such as geological discoveries and Darwin’s evolutionary theory, although the majority of society continued to consider personal spirituality as a key component of life.

The debates which began in that period, and which never simply involved the binary oppositions of faith and science that feature in the usual popular commentaries on that period, continue into the present. These lead us firstly to value the freedom we have to hold either religious or non-religious beliefs. This comes with the recognition, identified primarily by Michael Polanyi, that all human knowledge, including that of science, is ultimately faith-based. This is so, because all knowledge relies on personal commitments which motivate our highest achievements and mean that we believe more than we can prove and know more than we can say. As Hebrews 11 expresses it, ‘Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ Secondly, for those who do hold religious beliefs, they lead us to value the place of doubt and debate in faith. The latter is well expressed by the statement at St Martin-in-the-Fields that the church exists to honour God by being an open and inclusive church that enables people to question and discover for themselves the significance of Jesus Christ.

As these understandings of faith and the freedom to believe are not universally applied, Dr Mike West, in exploring the legacy of Magna Carta, writes that, “Today it challenges faith communities to examine the part they might play in the development of a liberal democracy and to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem in international relations.”

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John Stainer - God So Loved The World.

Sophia Hub Seven Kings update

Ros Southern writes:

'Hi there,

I hope the following if of interest. Please do send me info you think will be of interest to start-ups, Timebanks and community networks.

We have a fabulous health farm and yoga away day (in Chadwell Heath) this Wednesday. There's space for more at our seaside retreat! Click here for info.

Our weekly enterprise club speaker this Tuesday is Jeff Conway of the Chambers. Open to all, please come prepared with a specific business issue/question. Click here for more info.

Shahriar Hossein for leading our enterprise club last week. Info here.

There's some great workshops coming up with the ECHO Timebank - click here for info.

Click here for news and photos on the pilot Seven Kings pop up that took place yesterday :) 

We are trying to gather up the many resources locally for start-ups and business, please click here to see what is missing and let me know! www.sophiahubs7k.wordpress.com/resources

Hope to see many of you Tuesday, and I'm joining the Timebank mini holiday on Wednesday :)

Best wishes,

Ros Southern, Coordinator, Sophia Hubs Seven Kings
M: 07707 460309 T: 0208 590 2568
ros.southern@sophiahubs.com
T: @sophiahubs7k FB: Sophia Hubs Seven Kings blog: https://sophiahubs7k.wordpress.com/
c/o St Johns Church, St Johns Road, Seven Kings, IG2 7BB'

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Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People.

Barbara Hepworth: linking the numinous with the real

Barbara Hepworth: Sculpture for a Modern World at Tate Britain includes mention of Hepworth's spirituality.

'In 1931, [Barbara Hepworth] made a sculpture in pink alabaster (destroyed in the war), which she pierced for the first time. This “irrational, inorganic piercing of the closed form”, as AM Hammacher describes it, “entailed a literal and spiritual breakaway from the tradition of the closed volume”.

Hepworth said: “I had felt the most intense pleasure in piercing the stone in order to make an abstract form and space; quite a different sensation from that of doing it for the purpose of realism.” The technique became integral to her art, expressing not just her sculptural creed, but – as Lucy Kent points out in the Tate catalogue – giving expression to her spiritual beliefs, allowing her, as a Christian Scientist, to find a way of expanding the inner life of her sculptures beyond their physical limitations, of linking the numinous with the real.' (Sarah Crompton)

Pam Twiss notes that, 'Although Ben [Nicholson] was clearly interested and gained much from Christian Science - and Barbara [Hepworth] toyed with its teachings - neither were fully committed Christian Scientists. Of the three, only Winifred [Nicholson] was a Christian Scientist in the sense of being a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass.(The Mother Church) and active in local branch churches.'

Henry Myric Hughes writes that 'Winifred, whose own talents were considerable, seems not merely to have given Nicholson confidence in his artistic mission, but to have provided him with a rationale for continuing to work. Through her, he came into contact with the teachings of Christian Science, and the author argues, plausibly enough, that these strengthened his belief in the spiritual value of his art and its enduring ability to communicate values of universal significance.'

In an essay written for The Christian Science Monitor in 1965, Barbara Hepworth wrote: `I believe most strongly that any sculpture made now should be valid in its form and ideas a thousand years hence. A sculpture should be an act of praise, an enduring expression of the divine spirit.'

As Chancellor of Salisbury, Moelwyn Merchant acknowledged Hepworth's success in expressing the divine spirit by accepting from Hepworth, his friend, the gift of a large bronze Crucifixion which he controversially had placed near the door of the cathedral. To him it was an important expression of faith by a major contemporary artist; to some conservative Salisbury residents, it was threatening and sacrilegious.

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Patti Smith - Tarkovsky (The Second Stop Is Jupiter).

Combining business with humanity, without neglecting either

On Thursday I had the opportunity to visit the Rothschild Archive and learnt about the ethos which underpins this famous company's success.

The success of the Rothschild family business owes much to the solidity of the original partnership of the five sons of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who developed businesses in five European capitals: Frankfurt, London, Paris, Vienna and Naples. Working in close harmony, the family rose to prominence in a number of business sectors including bullion, government bonds, railway and mining finance.

Mayer Amschel believed that forming a partnership would sustain a strong family business into the future, a belief that proved to be correct. The agreement ensured that the reputation that Mayer Amschel had built up for himself, through a lifetime of innovative trading, could be passed on to the next generation. By remaining true to the principles and rules of the partnership and by staying in close communication, the brothers went on to create a business that has remained at the forefront of global finance.

The formal structure of the partnership agreement survived into the twentieth century, though the family business subsequently adopted more sophisticated corporate structures. Profit sharing was built into the agreement. Mayer Amschel intended that his sons should share out the profits of the partnership, ensuring that the brothers were committed to the well-being of each other, and the partnership as a whole.

This ethos is demonstrated by a letter of thanks sent by Sir Siegmund George Warburg after spending time in 1926, as a young man, at New Court, under the tutelage of Lionel de Rothschild and his brother Anthony. His time at the London house obviously made an impression, as his gracious thank-you letter shows:

"At the moment of leaving London I wish to tell you how grateful I am to you for the time I was allowed to spend at New Court which I consider a great honour. You provided me with many opportunities to learn. I learnt quite a lot of details of business-machinery. But I learnt something also which will be far more important to me in my future life. This is the fine tradition of New Court which combines business with humanity, without neglecting either. To learn such a combination is particularly valuable to somebody from the continent where so often humanity is killed by business."

Warburg was later to become a senior City figure who firmly believed that financial integration of Europe was an essential step in the development of the European economy. He managed the firm he created, S.G. Warburg & Co. until the 1970s. S.G. Warburg & Co. was later acquired by UBS AG, creating UBS Warburg, which then became UBS AG.

Despite the depredations of time and occasional bouts of over-enthusiastic destruction, a high proportion of the records of N M Rothschild & Sons have survived across nearly two centuries of continuing business, in good physical condition and carefully preserved order, looked after by generations of clerks in the Archives Department of the London Bank.

In 1999, the Board of Directors of N M Rothschild & Sons Limited, under the Chairmanship of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, formally gifted the contents of the Archive Department to the newly established Rothschild Archive Trust. The Trustees of The Rothschild Archive Trust administer the Archive as an independent charitable trust in purpose-built premises made available for the purpose within the offices of the London business.

In 2011, the Rothschild Archive moved into new premises at New Court in the City of London. The latest building to stand on the New Court site was designed by OMA, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, headed by the eminent Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. OMA’s vision for the fourth version of New Court was inspired by the idea of ‘heritage in the City’ The Reading Room is a key feature of the dramatic modern glass and steel design.

The Reading Room bookcases and furniture were designed, crafted, and installed by the prestigious North Yorkshire company, Robert Thompson’s Craftsmen Ltd, also known as ‘The Mouseman of Kilburn’.Thompson’s use only the best quality sustainable oak and skill to create the finest pieces.The bookcases alone used 19 English oaks, took 5,500 hours to produce, and over 1,000 hours to install, and all the pieces in the Reading Room feature Thompson's trade mark mouse motif.

The Archive now houses, alongside the records of the London banking house (which themselves include often detailed correspondence from the continental houses in Frankfurt, Paris, Vienna and Naples), records of the different branches of the businesses in England, France, Germany, Italy and Austria. The Archive is also responsible for a large collection of papers of the French banking business, held on deposit with the Archives Nataionales du Monde du Travail, Roubaix, France. The Archive also holds collections of private papers of members of the English, French and Austrian Rothschild family.

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Mathilde de Rothschild - Where lilac blows.

A Common Voice on Migration

London Churches Social Action hosted an extended day seminar on the topic of Migration at St Margaret's Barking on Monday. It was a timely opportunity for London Churches to develop some key "Common Voice" messages on this topic.

We considered how the church and UK society is being blessed/challenged by migration, who is weeping about, with and for migrants today, and what, from the treasures of our faith, we can draw on towards responding to issues related to migration. Many of the presentations can be heard by clicking here.

Contributors included Susanna Snyder, author of Asylum-Seeking, Migration and Church which addresses one of the most pressing issues confronting contemporary society, How are we to engage with migrants? Drawing on studies of church engagement with asylum seekers in the UK and critical immigration and refugee issues in North America, Snyder presents an extended theological reflection on both the issue of asylum-seeking and the fears of established populations surrounding immigration. This book outlines ways in which churches are currently supporting asylum seekers, encouraging closer engagement with people seen as 'other' and more thoughtful responses to newcomers.

Artist Revd Elizabeth Gray-King, sought to capture the day’s conversations in art form and shared her reflections with us. See Elizabeth's image from the day and read her reflections by clicking here: "We were reminded of the Tabernacle, the tent of God’s presence, erected wherever the people stopped to rest and worship; the two tents at the bottom of the cross show this stopping on journey, with the cross being the sign of the travelling God in Jesus. The cross also marks the reason why the good people of this seminar gathered for this discussion, Jesus having called us all to not only note our neighbours, but also to accompany and share life with our neighbours, no matter how their prior journey is coloured."

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Kerry Livgren - Seeds Of Change.

Windows on the world (345)

Pafos, 2014

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Kansas - Play The Game Tonight.

The Path of Generosity

This parable (Luke 16. 19 – 31), more than perhaps any other of the parables told by Jesus, is a story of contrasts. Contrasts between rich and poor, hell and heaven, and, perhaps most significant of all, between the way of greed and the way of generosity.

As in the parable of the Rich Fool, where a farmer stores up what he has for himself and then dies when he had expected to eat, drink and be merry, this parable is about the dangers of gaining wealth solely for oneself. Here, the focus isn’t on the inevitability of death but instead the impact of greed in the afterlife.

The selfishness of the Rich man in this life results in separation from God in the next. When he realises his predicament, the rich man wants to warn his siblings who are still alive so that they will follow the path of generosity rather than the path of greed, but is told that they have all the warning they need in the scripture – Moses and the prophets. If they don’t pay heed to their sacred writings then they are unlikely to pay heed to anything else.

So, the contrast between the way of greed and the way of generosity is the central contrast within this parable. The parable is told to encourage its hearers to take the path of generosity in their lives.

We have in church today paintings which share a similar message. María Inés Aguirre’s exhibition is called ‘The Way of the Heart’ and shows us scenes from the life of Christ and the Saints which encourage reflection on self-sacrifice and generous love.

MIA’s paintings result from her gifts as an artist. She thinks that the paintings are given to her by a higher power as she follows the emotions of line and colour. They are offered to us as a gift for our reflection on those emotions provoked by the Passion of Christ while seeing that story as also representing the different moods of our lives too. Contemplating MIA’s paintings, like reflecting on Jesus’ parables, leads us towards the path of passionate, generous love; the Way of the Heart.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus is chiefly aimed at the Pharisees who, we are told in an earlier verse, were lovers of money. It was not only the Pharisees’ love of wealth that set them apart but, more importantly, their hardness of heart. While we might feel revulsion at the lavish lifestyle of the rich man, the horror lies in the fact that he ignores the needs of his neighbour.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus does not call us to condemn wealth, but to notice the needs of our neighbours – both on our doorsteps and further afield – and to examine our own lives in the light of this. It asks us to consider the following questions:

• Who is our neighbour? 
• Are we so wrapped up in our own fulfilment that we forget our neighbours whose potential is denied? 
• Are we ready to share our resources so that we can all become the people God would have us be?

These questions are as pertinent now as they were in Jesus’ day. And now as then, they are not questions to be put off for another day.

Jesus teaches that our resources are for the benefit of everyone. He continually considers the poor, and those who are on the margins of society first. Interestingly, this is seen in this parable by the fact that it is the only one of Jesus’ parables where someone is given a name. And the named person is Lazarus, not the rich man. In our society, the rich and powerful are constantly named to us, giving the message that these people are of more value than others. Who is it that we name and value? Is it the people society gives value to, or is it the people of the poor countries who are eating the scraps from our table? The answer to that question will reveal whether we are walking the way of greed or the way of generous love.

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Roland de Lassus - Psalmi Davidis Poenitentiales.