commission4mission: Creation exhibition at All Hallows by the Tower

‘Creation’ is a group show by commission4mission artists at All Hallows by the Tower from Tuesday 15 to Saturday 26 October and Holy Trinity Sloane Square from Tuesday 29 October to Saturday 9 November 2019. The exhibitions can be viewed during the two churches normal opening hours. The Private View at All Hallows is on Monday 14 October, beginning at 6pm, while the Private View at Holy Trinity is Monday 28 October, beginning at 6.30pm.

The title and theme for the exhibition can be understood in terms of emotions, ecology, personal, biblical etc. A mix of abstract and representational imagery has been created, utilising assemblage, ceramics, digital illustration, drawing, painting, puppetry and sculpture.

Revd Jonathan Evens, Secretary of commission4mission, says: ‘We have encouraged our artists to reflect broadly on the theme and 25 artists have responded with imagery that ranges from depictions of the Genesis Creation stories to Christ’s birth and our recreation through redemption, by way of flower studies, the creation of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance, and future creation using AI and genetic engineering.’

The exhibition includes work by Hayley Bowen, Harvey Bradley (All Hallows only), Irina Bradley, Lewis Braswell, Cathie Chappell, Valerie Dean (Holy Trinity only), Jonathan Evens, Mary Flitcroft, Maurizio Galia, Michael Garaway, John Gentry, Clorinda Goodman, Laura Grenci, Barbara Harris, Deborah Harrison, David Hawkins, Alan Hitching, Anthony Hodgson, Jacek Kulikowski, Mark Lewis, David Millidge, Dorothy Morris, Jacqui Parkinson, Janet Roberts (Holy Trinity only), and Henry Shelton.

Mary Flitcroft and Jacqui Parkinson are exhibiting with commission4mission for the first time. Mary Flitcroft is a ceramic artist whose work is contemplative and abstract. She currently works with porcelain paper clay in very thin, translucent sheets which she folds, tears, cuts, marks and stains with colours. Her work is contemplative and abstract. Jacqui Parkinson produces artwork with textiles – usually on a large scale – for public buildings and her work has regularly toured cathedrals. Jacqui uses a powerful graphic instinct together with the intimacy of the hand-stitched line to create work that feels highly spontaneous, very lively, moving and thoroughly engaging. Her work is designed to catch the eye and challenge the mind.

Michael Garaway is a mixed media artist who finds continual inspiration in urban landscape and new technologies to inform and produce his atmospheric and semi abstract work. He says, ‘I see creation as an on-going interactive process, which involves exploring and attempting to understand ways of ordering the world, and our views of the world.’ His work orders the appearances of specific locations with the use of grid and pattern. Divisions and multiples of a 12mm grid are used to develop and fix compositions, and Celtic step and knot patterns are incorporated in some of the work, linking to a much earlier Christian practice of illumination.

Clorinda Goodman’s ‘Ancilla Domini’ is a resin cast, a hexagonal representation of the Biblical moment when Eve disobeyed God’s command not to touch the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, which led, not only to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, but the growth of the human race and expansion of God’s creation through the world. Thus Eve, as well as the Virgin Mary, is seen as the ‘Handmaid of the Lord’ in fulfilling God’s purposes for his creation.

‘Christ & Cephas’ by John Gentry is a work about forgiveness, restoration and redemption. In John 21 we read of Peter being restored, forgiven, and, commissioned. In John’s image the triangle on the left of Christ is both Trinity and Fire. The pillar in the centre is the Pillar of Fire by night. Christ’s wounded hand is upon Cephas’ shoulder. Peter holds in his hand a net. In the net are fish, but also tin cans, plastic, glass bottles. The re-creation has been made possible by the redeeming work of Christ who commissions his body to proclaim and live Gospel. The rubbish is a type of sin. What a mess! “Who shall deliver us…?” Alleluia, says John, for saving grace!

Sculptor Deborah Harrison, in ‘Born Again’, gives us a body emerging from an egg, while Italian artists Laura Grenci and Maurizio Galia focus on water and music respectively as sources of creation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Bright Horses. 

Calling out the gaslighters

Here is my reflection from today's Choral Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Gaslighting is a form of manipulation intended to distract. Gaslighters will say, do and post the most outrageous things to take your focus off of something else. The term originates with a play called “Gas Light.” In the play, a woman’s husband tries to convince her that she is mentally unstable. He makes small changes in her environment, such as dimming the gaslights in their house. He then convinces his wife she is simply imagining these changes. His ultimate goal is to have her committed to an asylum so he can steal her inheritance.

Kate Abramson, philosophy professor at the University of Indiana, calls gaslighting the “deepest kind of moral wrong” and suggests that it aims ‘to induce in someone the sense that her reactions, perceptions, memories and/or beliefs are not just mistaken, but utterly without grounds.’ For the most part, this manipulation by distraction technique is very effective at changing people’s sense of reality and is currently practised by many politicians, perhaps most particularly Donald Trump.

On the day that Trump’s former lawyer pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign-finance violations while his former campaign chairman was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud, the crowd at Trump’s rally that evening chanted, “Lock her up” — in reference to Hillary Clinton. In response to the making public of the telephone in which he sought to pursue Ukraine’s President to interfere in a US election, Trump has redoubled the accusations he has made, without evidence, against Joe Biden’s son. Trump seeks to distract attention away from his own behaviour by accusing his political rivals of wrongdoing.

Gaslighting, however, is not a new phenomenon. Instead, as Jesus reveals in today’s Gospel reading (Luke 11.42-46), it has been practised for many years in the context of religion.

The first form of gaslighting that Jesus highlights is that of using minor but visible aspects of religious practice to distract others from an unwillingness or inability to practice the kind of love and justice to which religious practices are intended to lead. The example he gives is of Pharisees giving a tenth of their herbs while not practising love and justice towards others. By seeming to obey the Jewish law to the nth degree, through tithing money and produce, the Pharisees were able to distract attention away from their lack of charity and their unjust practices towards others.

The second form of gaslighting is in regard to image by using the prestige associated with places of authority or power to distract attention away from an inability to come alive spiritually. Such people have no reality to their spiritual life and therefore will not be remembered but use the trappings of religious practices to give the impression of sanctity or piety. Abramson argues, that the gaslighter poses as a source of normative authority. The gaslighter assumes the pretense of sincere testimony, drawing on the standing to issue demands that others “see things his way.”

The third form of gaslighting highlighted by Jesus involves the constant addition of rules and regulations that apply to others as a distraction from the reality that such rules are not applied to oneself. Such people seek to make life harder for others while relieving themselves of such constraints.

With directness and honesty Jesus calls out the gaslighting practised by the Pharisees and lawyers for what it is. Psychotherapist Stephanie Sarkis says that this is one of two responses we can make to gaslighters. She says that: ‘When you see gaslighting among your friends, family or colleagues, call it out for what it is. Provide evidence that what a gaslighter is saying and doing is not true. Educate others about gaslighting so that they, too, can start to identify it and call it out. But when you catch a gaslighter, simply present the facts to them, calmly and with purpose. Don’t allow yourself to get baited. Then walk away, shut off your laptop, leave it be.’ Her advice seems to mirror what we see Jesus do and say here as he pronounces woes on the gaslighters of his own day and time.

By contrast to those who are gaslighting, Jesus seeks to tell it like it is in relation to himself and his disciples. He tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to die, he tells those wishing to follow him that they will have to bear crosses too, he tells Peter that he will deny him and Judas that he will betray him. His disciples often don’t understand or don’t want to understand, yet there is a straightforwardness and transparency about much of what Jesus said and did, with no attempt to curry favour or distract from the challenges of faith. We are, as ever, called to follow in his footsteps.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bettye LaVette - Things Have Changed.

Windows on the world (517)

Painswick, 2019

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul Weller - May Love Travel With You.

Thinking Differently About God: Neurodiversity, Faith and Church

 

 

 

 

Thinking Differently About God: Neurodiversity, Faith and Church
Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October

A weekend of events to mark our 8th annual conference on Disability & Church, a partnership between St Martin-in-the-Fields and Inclusive Church.

Neurodiversity is the idea that there are natural variations in the way people think and process information. These include autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and Tourette's - each a particular combination of needs and gifts. 

We explored our understanding of God and sharing experience of discovery, discrimination and discernment. Speakers included: Bingo Allison, Dan Barnes-Davies, Sue Hartley, Phillip Hickman, Naomi Jacobs, Ann Memmott, Rachel Noel, Krysia Waldock, WAVE and Sam Wells.

We welcomed 80 people from across the country and are hugely grateful to the many people who supported the event. Participants said:

• Brilliantly stimulating conference at St MitFs on neurodiversity. Speakers telling their stories. "Divinely disruptive", "Different not broken". God loves and accepts all of us.
• Fabulous day! Thank you all so spoke with and whose company I enjoyed - church should be like this more often!
Thank you for being a bright bulb in our lives. I am motivated and moved following today’s Neurodiversity Conference. I engaged with many participants who were uplifted because they had the space to unpack hidden challenges.
• Every year I leave the conference at St Martins in the Fields thinking that it truly is a prophetic voice to the wider church. Today is no different - a truly transformative and challenging day. Thank you to all the speakers and especially to Fiona and her team.

Tomorrow at the 10.00am Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields we welcome Ann Memmott, author of Church of England guidelines on welcoming autistic people, as our visiting preacher. Parts of the liturgy have been written by our Disability Advisory Group, under the guidance of Sam Wells. The service is BSL interpreted.

Something Worth Sharing: we'll also be launching a new booklet on disability and church. Based on our 2018 conference it shares ways to create change in church. Includes our own Disability Advisory Group, theological reflection by Sam Wells and an introduction by the Bishop of London. Copies are available after service in the Lightwell. Donations to support this work are welcome.

At 2.00pm in St Martin's Hall we explore the ideas via the creative arts. Including an introduction to Contemplative Photography by Phillip Hickman and a special screening of ‘Touretteshero: Me, My Mouth and I’; a documentary exploring neurodiversity in the visual arts through the lens of Samuel Beckett's play, 'Not I'. We'll be joined by Jess Thom (aka Touretteshero) – to explore what the arts have to teach the church about diversity, acceptance and belonging.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let Us Build A House Where Love Can Dwell.

Within: Everyday Faith

Within was a day exploring a breadth of different approaches to spirituality that was organised by HeartEdge with the Watling Valley Partnership and the Diocese of Oxford. The day promoted the Oxford Diocesan priority of deepening spirituality via #EveryDayFaith, harnessed and promoted the approach to mission of HeartEdge, an international ecumenical movement for renewal, and encouraged confidence amongst God’s people, as we live out our faith in the world.

Values

• We are called to be a Christ-like church for the sake of God’s world
• We are called to be disciples and ‘make a difference in the world’
• We seek to ‘be with’ God, (alone and corporately), our neighbours (near and far), and creation

Presentations, workshops and worship included: Sam Wells (Vicar, St Martin-in-the-Fields); St Martin’s Voices; TesTamenT; Tina Molyneux (Discipleship Enabler, Diocese of Oxford); Sharon Grenham-Thompson (Watling Valley Ecumenical Partnership); Ruth Maxey (Forest Church); Jonathan Evens (HeartEdge); Catherine Duce (HeartEdge), among others. Being With; Great Sacred Music; Art Oasis; Personal Discipleship Plans; Contemplative Toolkit; Listening Groups; Faith in Work; ‘The Christ We Share’; Forest Church, among others.

The Watling Valley Partnership are HeartEdge members and Revd Sharon Grenham-Thompson, who led the event for the Watling Valley Partnership writes:

‘We were so thrilled to have such wonderful support from St Martin’s and from the HeartEdge team for the event. Developing a partnership with HeartEdge has been such a positive move for us here in the Watling Valley, and has really helped us to move forward in an energetic and hopeful way. Sam’s talk was inspiring, and has been taken deeply to heart by many who attended. I have received numerous messages of thanks and appreciation for Sam’s part in the day – and I would like to add those of the Watling Valley staff team as well. And as for the music! I knew how fab Andrew and the Voices were, but for most folk there it was a new experience that blew them away! The workshops were perfectly judged, practical and very helpful. The friendliness and openness of the St Martin’s team contributed greatly to the day, and we are so grateful for them giving up their time, and expending their energy, on our little patch of the kingdom.’

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

St Martin's Voices - What Sweeter Music.

Resource Church: Licensing of Catherine Duce

Revd Catherine Duce was licensed on Wednesday as Assistant Vicar for Partnership Development at St Martin-in-the-Fields by The Rt Revd Ric Thorpe, Bishop of Islington. Catherine’s role is to further develop HeartEdge in London, while also leading on Nazareth Community partnerships more generally and supporting other key initiatives at St Martin’s. Her appointment has been made possible because St Martin’s has been designated as a resource church by the Diocese of London.

The role that Catherine is now taking on is one which is part of the Resource Church initiative that Bishop Ric has pioneered in the Diocese of London and more widely. Resource churches are essentially those that are able to share with and support other churches in their mission and ministry. Many Resource churches in London will use the model of church planting but, here at St Martin's, the resource that we are sharing is HeartEdge, the ecumenical movement for renewal that we initiated in February 2017.

HeartEdge is a growing network of churches and other organisations in which ideas for and approaches to mission are shared and where the challenges faced by churches today are honestly explored. We have a programme of introductory events, mission model workshops and consultancy days which provide opportunities for mutual learning and support the revitalization of churches and, with Catherine’s help, will plan more London-focused events. Catherine's role is to grow HeartEdge in London, supporting existing member churches and encouraging more churches to join this movement for renewal.

Please do pray that God will take all that Catherine brings to this role from her previous experience and use it powerfully in the development of mutual support between churches, the revitalization of congregations and the growth through those congregations of new worshipping communities.

Catherine can be contacted on 020 7766 1127 or catherine.duce@smitf.org and would love to hear from you. She will be seeking to visit all HeartEdge members in London, so expect to hear from her before too long. We would also love to draw more churches into the movement for renewal that is HeartEdge, so do suggest other churches with which Catherine could share information.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Take O Take Me As I Am.