Chester, 2011
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noah and the Whale - Tonight's The Kind Of Night.
Monday, 16 May 2011
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Taste of Religion
Next month I will be speaking at Taste of Religion, a special event organised by the Employers Forum of Belief and KPMG which will cover religious festivals.
Many of the world’s religions have different foods associated with them – for religious, cultural and traditional reasons. For example, Jews eat unleavened bread at Passover, Christians eat fish on Fridays. Delegates will be able to network over lunch with the different tastes from five religions - Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism.
There will be presentations from Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer, Khola Hasan, Shaunaka Rishi Das, Dr Satinder Singh, Simon Webley and myself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matisyahu - One Day.
Many of the world’s religions have different foods associated with them – for religious, cultural and traditional reasons. For example, Jews eat unleavened bread at Passover, Christians eat fish on Fridays. Delegates will be able to network over lunch with the different tastes from five religions - Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism.
There will be presentations from Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer, Khola Hasan, Shaunaka Rishi Das, Dr Satinder Singh, Simon Webley and myself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matisyahu - One Day.
TASK Newsletter 26
Chris Connelly writes:
Welcome to a bumper edition of our regular TASK e-letter.
Creating Community event- May 21
The very friendly and outward looking St John's Church at the junction with Aldborough Road and St. John's Road plays a major role in the life of our local community, hosting many activities and clubs in addition to its own internal faith programme. Next Saturday, May 21, sees its annual spring plant and table top sale, which this year forms part of a bigger celebration, Creating Community, to include the opening of their new community garden and the unveiling of an exciting mural executed by the pupils at Downshall Primary School.
It is all part of an award winning partnership project between the church, the Seven Kings and Newbury Park Residents' Association and Living Streets, the national charity formerly known as the Pedestrians' Association, which has seen some investment in public seating, an art walk and attempts to clean up the footways around the church and along Aldborough Road South.
It promises to be a feelgood morning and one TASK is proud to support so do come along, grab a bargain and be part of the fun. It all kicks off at 1030 and runs until around 1330.
Redbridge Green Picnic-June 5
Sadly, another well established local event, the biannual Redbridge Green Fair, the closest the borough gets to an alternative festival event, normally scheduled for the late May Bank Holiday weekend will not happen
this year because of a shortage of people to make it happen . Organisers are, however, promoting a smaller event on Sunday June 5, national Big Lunch Day, from 12-4pm with a picnic on Melbourne Fields at Valentines Park. The idea is that families and groups of friends pitch up with some food and drink to share an afternoon together with some games, live music courtesy of local musicians and food related displays . Here's hoping it goes well and that the Green Fair proper can return next year.
Top author event at Goodmayes Library: May 25
The recent author event at the Seven Kings Library saw Sagheer Afzal, the man behind the comic novel, The Reluctant Mullah draw a small but deeply appreciative crowd for a very funny routine.
Our recently saved Goodmayes Library is next up, playing host to the author of the acclaimed Costa Award shortlisted novel Coconut Unlimited, Nikesh Shukla on May 25. Tickets are just £2.50 and can be booked online at www.redbridge.gov.uk/bam.
Allotment clean up gets musical: be part of the big push on May 19
As food prices soar its little surprise that public demand for allotments is at a generational high, and it is good to see our local allotment society bringing abandoned plots back into use on Vicarage Lane. Thursday 19 May sees a massive push to progress ground clearance with a mass clean up with music from 4-8pm, organised in partnership with Orange Rockcorp, a national scheme linking community work to free concert tickets. To take part, and to get to hear a free concert for a little bit of digging, you need to register
at http://www.orangerockcorps.co.uk/.
June TASK meeting
TASK meet again at 7pm on Tuesday June 7 at our usual venue, Gizem Bakers on the High Road, Seven Kings. All supporters are welcome at a meeting that will agree the issues that will form our main focus for the next year. Have your say on the night or email suggestions to this address.
Goodmayes Park Extension: referred to Scrutiny
Last time we alerted supporters to the Redbridge Council Cabinet plan to lease the nearby Goodmayes Park Extension to a private sports club on a controversial 99 year lease for a peppercorn rent. This has now been
referred to Council's Scrutiny Committee, allowing for further investigation of all aspects of the proposal, dates for which we will advise you on as we know.
Redbridge Citizens: a new community alliance
London Citizens, the inspirational campaign group behind some great ideas like the safe haven scheme for youth affected by knife crime and the London Living Wage have been working across much of east London for 20 years and are now looking to develop a cross community alliance here in Redbridge.
They are holding an initial session on Wednesday May 18 from 6-8pm at the Kenneth More Theatre, to which TASK have been invited, to build relationships between local leaders and share interests and concerns. If you would like to attend with TASK, please email me. If you are part of another faith or campaign or community group interested in getting involved in this meeting, then please contact Sheilla Patel at London Citizens on sheilla.patel@cof.org.uk. For more on Citizens themselves, go to http://www.londoncitizens.org.uk/.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Script - For The First Time.
Welcome to a bumper edition of our regular TASK e-letter.
Creating Community event- May 21
The very friendly and outward looking St John's Church at the junction with Aldborough Road and St. John's Road plays a major role in the life of our local community, hosting many activities and clubs in addition to its own internal faith programme. Next Saturday, May 21, sees its annual spring plant and table top sale, which this year forms part of a bigger celebration, Creating Community, to include the opening of their new community garden and the unveiling of an exciting mural executed by the pupils at Downshall Primary School.
It is all part of an award winning partnership project between the church, the Seven Kings and Newbury Park Residents' Association and Living Streets, the national charity formerly known as the Pedestrians' Association, which has seen some investment in public seating, an art walk and attempts to clean up the footways around the church and along Aldborough Road South.
It promises to be a feelgood morning and one TASK is proud to support so do come along, grab a bargain and be part of the fun. It all kicks off at 1030 and runs until around 1330.
Redbridge Green Picnic-June 5
Sadly, another well established local event, the biannual Redbridge Green Fair, the closest the borough gets to an alternative festival event, normally scheduled for the late May Bank Holiday weekend will not happen
this year because of a shortage of people to make it happen . Organisers are, however, promoting a smaller event on Sunday June 5, national Big Lunch Day, from 12-4pm with a picnic on Melbourne Fields at Valentines Park. The idea is that families and groups of friends pitch up with some food and drink to share an afternoon together with some games, live music courtesy of local musicians and food related displays . Here's hoping it goes well and that the Green Fair proper can return next year.
Top author event at Goodmayes Library: May 25
The recent author event at the Seven Kings Library saw Sagheer Afzal, the man behind the comic novel, The Reluctant Mullah draw a small but deeply appreciative crowd for a very funny routine.
Our recently saved Goodmayes Library is next up, playing host to the author of the acclaimed Costa Award shortlisted novel Coconut Unlimited, Nikesh Shukla on May 25. Tickets are just £2.50 and can be booked online at www.redbridge.gov.uk/bam.
Allotment clean up gets musical: be part of the big push on May 19
As food prices soar its little surprise that public demand for allotments is at a generational high, and it is good to see our local allotment society bringing abandoned plots back into use on Vicarage Lane. Thursday 19 May sees a massive push to progress ground clearance with a mass clean up with music from 4-8pm, organised in partnership with Orange Rockcorp, a national scheme linking community work to free concert tickets. To take part, and to get to hear a free concert for a little bit of digging, you need to register
at http://www.orangerockcorps.co.uk/.
June TASK meeting
TASK meet again at 7pm on Tuesday June 7 at our usual venue, Gizem Bakers on the High Road, Seven Kings. All supporters are welcome at a meeting that will agree the issues that will form our main focus for the next year. Have your say on the night or email suggestions to this address.
Goodmayes Park Extension: referred to Scrutiny
Last time we alerted supporters to the Redbridge Council Cabinet plan to lease the nearby Goodmayes Park Extension to a private sports club on a controversial 99 year lease for a peppercorn rent. This has now been
referred to Council's Scrutiny Committee, allowing for further investigation of all aspects of the proposal, dates for which we will advise you on as we know.
Redbridge Citizens: a new community alliance
London Citizens, the inspirational campaign group behind some great ideas like the safe haven scheme for youth affected by knife crime and the London Living Wage have been working across much of east London for 20 years and are now looking to develop a cross community alliance here in Redbridge.
They are holding an initial session on Wednesday May 18 from 6-8pm at the Kenneth More Theatre, to which TASK have been invited, to build relationships between local leaders and share interests and concerns. If you would like to attend with TASK, please email me. If you are part of another faith or campaign or community group interested in getting involved in this meeting, then please contact Sheilla Patel at London Citizens on sheilla.patel@cof.org.uk. For more on Citizens themselves, go to http://www.londoncitizens.org.uk/.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Script - For The First Time.
Paper, poetry and praise
Rosheen Browning is an emerging artist who works to visualise text with spiritual depth. This could be poetry, quotes or bible. She uses found papers and fabrics alongside traditional drawing tools, printing techniques and Photoshop. Colour and texture are very important to her. She says that she paints with paper. She has a background in Graphic Design and is a qualified Art Teacher.
Rosheen will be presenting her first solo show Paper, Poetry and Praise, a diverse and thought-provoking mix of drawings prints and collage inspired by her personal encounters with creation and creator, at Nucleus Gallery from 28 May - 2 June. Exhibition preview/meet the artist: Friday 27 May 2011, 6-8pm. Nucleus Gallery is part of the Nucleus Arts Centre complex and can be found between Trafalgar Centre Inshops and Reload Menswear, diagonally opposite Iceland, at 272 High Street, Chatham, Kent ME4 4BP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Candi Staton - Mercy Now.
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Christianity and consumerism
This week I visited the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) for the first time in a few years. It is an odd experience as, while, practically, a very useful opportunity to see a wide range of suppliers and products, it makes transparent the extent to which Christianity is immersed in capitalism at the same time that this reality is resolutely ignored.
The exhibition features well over 300 suppliers each with a product to sell yet this is not written about or spoken of as a commercial event instead it is described as an exhibition providing everything needed to resource, equip and empower the Church. In this way, the commercial nature of the event is disguised by the use of spiritual language to describe what occurs.
CRE also provides "practical and resourcing seminars" and workshops, together with opportunities to "enjoy the very best in Christian theatre and music" but again each are provided by those who have products to sell in the main exhibition. Unless you are willing to separate the presentations and performances from the product placement, this produces some odd disjunctions. So, Stuart Townend began leading worship by saying that this was time out from viewing cassocks to worship God. Yet, if worship is holistic, then viewing cassocks is as much worship as is singing songs, as, perhaps, is selling product which was, after all, among the reasons Townend was there as his most recent album was being heavily promoted in the main exhibition with a huge advert on the Kingsway stand featuring his face.
This is not intended as an attack on CRE or Townend (we'll be singing at least one of his songs tomorrow at St John's Seven Kings) but simply as an observation that we tend not, as a Church, to actively acknowledge the extent to which we imitate the consumerist Capitalist culture of which we are part. Now I would fully acknowledge that I am as complicit in this as the next person having chosen to work within existing structures and needing many of the suppliers and products at CRE in order to do mission and ministry at St John's Seven Kings. My main complaint is that we don't honestly acknowledge the reality of what we are doing but instead dress it up in spiritual language and, in fact, seem to need to do this in order to sell the products which we are promoting.
There are several implications. First, that we cannot truly provide an alternative to consumerism when we are so enmeshed in it ourselves. Second, that much of what we then promote is safe, rather than radical, at least in part because that is what sells. It was interesting to note that none of the groups involved in emerging church appeared to be represented at CRE and that those who are seen as representatives for that movement, which seeks to work at least to some extent outside of mainstream Christian structures and culture, were not being heavily promoted by those who were there at CRE. Having said that such groups are still implicated usually having their own product to sell albeit via other channels.
Can we escape the dilemma? Possibly not, or not fully, being part of a consumerist culture but the debate about the extent to which we may or may not cannot really start until we honestly acknowledge that the extent to which we participate in consumerism.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Jam - In The Crowd.
The exhibition features well over 300 suppliers each with a product to sell yet this is not written about or spoken of as a commercial event instead it is described as an exhibition providing everything needed to resource, equip and empower the Church. In this way, the commercial nature of the event is disguised by the use of spiritual language to describe what occurs.
CRE also provides "practical and resourcing seminars" and workshops, together with opportunities to "enjoy the very best in Christian theatre and music" but again each are provided by those who have products to sell in the main exhibition. Unless you are willing to separate the presentations and performances from the product placement, this produces some odd disjunctions. So, Stuart Townend began leading worship by saying that this was time out from viewing cassocks to worship God. Yet, if worship is holistic, then viewing cassocks is as much worship as is singing songs, as, perhaps, is selling product which was, after all, among the reasons Townend was there as his most recent album was being heavily promoted in the main exhibition with a huge advert on the Kingsway stand featuring his face.
This is not intended as an attack on CRE or Townend (we'll be singing at least one of his songs tomorrow at St John's Seven Kings) but simply as an observation that we tend not, as a Church, to actively acknowledge the extent to which we imitate the consumerist Capitalist culture of which we are part. Now I would fully acknowledge that I am as complicit in this as the next person having chosen to work within existing structures and needing many of the suppliers and products at CRE in order to do mission and ministry at St John's Seven Kings. My main complaint is that we don't honestly acknowledge the reality of what we are doing but instead dress it up in spiritual language and, in fact, seem to need to do this in order to sell the products which we are promoting.
There are several implications. First, that we cannot truly provide an alternative to consumerism when we are so enmeshed in it ourselves. Second, that much of what we then promote is safe, rather than radical, at least in part because that is what sells. It was interesting to note that none of the groups involved in emerging church appeared to be represented at CRE and that those who are seen as representatives for that movement, which seeks to work at least to some extent outside of mainstream Christian structures and culture, were not being heavily promoted by those who were there at CRE. Having said that such groups are still implicated usually having their own product to sell albeit via other channels.
Can we escape the dilemma? Possibly not, or not fully, being part of a consumerist culture but the debate about the extent to which we may or may not cannot really start until we honestly acknowledge that the extent to which we participate in consumerism.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Jam - In The Crowd.
Community Garden
Lots more work was done this morning on the community garden at St John's Seven Kings to ensure that the garden is ready to be officially opened next Saturday by the Archdeacon of West Ham.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Randolph and the Family Band - If I Had My Way.
Gospel music: influence and imitation
Here are two very different takes on different aspects of Gospel music:
Rejoice and Shout is billed as the definitive history of Gospel music - some of the most emotional and powerful music in the world, and the foundation of the blues, country and rock n' roll.
The PR says that, "Packed with evocative photos, rare audio, recordings, stirring film appearances and TV performances, REJOICE AND SHOUT is a jubilant journey through the 200 year musical history of African-American Christianity. Culled from hundreds of hours of music, REJOICE AND SHOUT features interviews and performances from the most celebrated voices in gospel music, including: Smokey Robinson, Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Andrae Crouch, The Blind Boys of Alabama, the Selvey Family, Darrel Petties and many more."
Rejoice and Shout traces the evolution of Gospel through its many musical styles - the spirituals and early hymns, the four-part harmony-based quartets, the integration of blues and swing into Gospel, the emergence of Soul, and the blending of Rap and Hip Hop elements. Gospel music walks in step with the story of African-American culture - slavery, hardscrabble rural existence and plantation work, the exodus to major cities, the Depression, World War II, civil rights and empowerment. Rejoice and Shout connects the history of African-American culture with Gospel as it first impacted popular culture at large.
By contrast, here's an extract from Joel Heng Hartse's book Sects, Love, and Rock & Roll, which also features in a Christianity Today article, and which tells the story of another form of Gospel Music:
"The history of Christian music basically goes like this: rock and roll (which was created possibly by Bill Haley and the Comets, maybe by Elvis, probably by the Beatles) is conceived, born, and begins to mature sometime between 1950 and 1960.
At some point, rock bands stop being polite young men in matching suits and become drug-addled, free-loving, infrequent bath-taking hippies, and the music gets more interesting. The hippies realize that taking tons of acid has not actually made their lives quantifiably better and become disillusioned; some of them become lawyers, but some find Christianity to be a more satisfying alternative, establishing a kind of counter-counterculture called the Jesus Movement. These people (also called Jesus Freaks) are still hippies, but with less drugs and sex and more Jesus. More Jesus, in fact, than a lot of churches, who (the Jesus Freaks think) are too focused on rules and rituals and not enough on the joy of the Lord. Converts though they are, these emerging Jesus rockers are not keen on stodgy church music (it's part of the problem), and so they keep playing rock and roll, but—and this is key—they do not go back to the politeness and the matching suits. They keep their beards and torn jeans, and the Jesus Freaks start touring churches with their bands. Other Christians start to realize that (a) these people seem pretty legit, faith-wise, and (b) kids seem to like this kind of music.
This is where things get sketchy and where you should ask someone who was alive before 1980, but somehow a collusion of churches, businessmen, parachurch organizations, rock bands, and musicians gets together and establishes some Christian record labels. These labels are fairly small and independent, but in the 1980s, a lot of people start buying records from them, the economic gears get moving, and soon something large enough to be called a "Christian music industry" exists, both in a "mainstream" or wholesome, money-making, and authority-approved form, and in an "underground" or youth-oriented, not particularly money-making, and suspiciously authority-unfriendly form.
By the beginning of the 1990s, Christian music of all genres and proclivities is beginning to melt into one glorious spectacle of noise, faith, money, and culture — all lines save the one that separates "Christian" from "secular" are blurred. You start to see Christian records in regular record stores (but not many), and "Christian bookstores" that once sold only Bibles and cross necklaces are now stocking Christian heavy metal and gangsta rap albums. There are Christian fake-indie labels pouring money into records by great bands, Christian indie labels with no money putting out bad records, and vice versa. Grunge rebel songs and ballads about chastity are played one after the other on Christian radio. Metrosexual Christian pop singers open for nu-metal Christian rock bands. Everyone is buying records and Christian bands fight their way to the upper third of the Billboard charts. This all lasts for most of the decade, until the turn of the century when everyone stops buying CDs, the Christian indie rock bands get fed up with the profit-driven audience pandering (sometimes referred to as the "Jesus Per Minute" rule) and pull up stakes and decide to try their luck in "the world," and the Christian industry consolidates itself, musically, by focusing on artists who sound like Coldplay and U2: epic e-bowed guitars, soaring choruses, and lyrics, loud in the mix, about wonder and worship."
It may be a simple and overly generalised comment but one story would seem to of a musical style that impacts and inspires other musical styles and the other essentially a story of a musical style which imitates other musical styles. The difference comes because the former is rooted in a particular culture and is the legitimate expression of that culture while the latter attempts to put on culture, like fashion, not in order to live that culture but connect or communicate with it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blind Boys of Alabama - Amazing Grace.
Rejoice and Shout is billed as the definitive history of Gospel music - some of the most emotional and powerful music in the world, and the foundation of the blues, country and rock n' roll.
The PR says that, "Packed with evocative photos, rare audio, recordings, stirring film appearances and TV performances, REJOICE AND SHOUT is a jubilant journey through the 200 year musical history of African-American Christianity. Culled from hundreds of hours of music, REJOICE AND SHOUT features interviews and performances from the most celebrated voices in gospel music, including: Smokey Robinson, Mavis Staples and the Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Andrae Crouch, The Blind Boys of Alabama, the Selvey Family, Darrel Petties and many more."
Rejoice and Shout traces the evolution of Gospel through its many musical styles - the spirituals and early hymns, the four-part harmony-based quartets, the integration of blues and swing into Gospel, the emergence of Soul, and the blending of Rap and Hip Hop elements. Gospel music walks in step with the story of African-American culture - slavery, hardscrabble rural existence and plantation work, the exodus to major cities, the Depression, World War II, civil rights and empowerment. Rejoice and Shout connects the history of African-American culture with Gospel as it first impacted popular culture at large.
By contrast, here's an extract from Joel Heng Hartse's book Sects, Love, and Rock & Roll, which also features in a Christianity Today article, and which tells the story of another form of Gospel Music:
"The history of Christian music basically goes like this: rock and roll (which was created possibly by Bill Haley and the Comets, maybe by Elvis, probably by the Beatles) is conceived, born, and begins to mature sometime between 1950 and 1960.
At some point, rock bands stop being polite young men in matching suits and become drug-addled, free-loving, infrequent bath-taking hippies, and the music gets more interesting. The hippies realize that taking tons of acid has not actually made their lives quantifiably better and become disillusioned; some of them become lawyers, but some find Christianity to be a more satisfying alternative, establishing a kind of counter-counterculture called the Jesus Movement. These people (also called Jesus Freaks) are still hippies, but with less drugs and sex and more Jesus. More Jesus, in fact, than a lot of churches, who (the Jesus Freaks think) are too focused on rules and rituals and not enough on the joy of the Lord. Converts though they are, these emerging Jesus rockers are not keen on stodgy church music (it's part of the problem), and so they keep playing rock and roll, but—and this is key—they do not go back to the politeness and the matching suits. They keep their beards and torn jeans, and the Jesus Freaks start touring churches with their bands. Other Christians start to realize that (a) these people seem pretty legit, faith-wise, and (b) kids seem to like this kind of music.
This is where things get sketchy and where you should ask someone who was alive before 1980, but somehow a collusion of churches, businessmen, parachurch organizations, rock bands, and musicians gets together and establishes some Christian record labels. These labels are fairly small and independent, but in the 1980s, a lot of people start buying records from them, the economic gears get moving, and soon something large enough to be called a "Christian music industry" exists, both in a "mainstream" or wholesome, money-making, and authority-approved form, and in an "underground" or youth-oriented, not particularly money-making, and suspiciously authority-unfriendly form.
By the beginning of the 1990s, Christian music of all genres and proclivities is beginning to melt into one glorious spectacle of noise, faith, money, and culture — all lines save the one that separates "Christian" from "secular" are blurred. You start to see Christian records in regular record stores (but not many), and "Christian bookstores" that once sold only Bibles and cross necklaces are now stocking Christian heavy metal and gangsta rap albums. There are Christian fake-indie labels pouring money into records by great bands, Christian indie labels with no money putting out bad records, and vice versa. Grunge rebel songs and ballads about chastity are played one after the other on Christian radio. Metrosexual Christian pop singers open for nu-metal Christian rock bands. Everyone is buying records and Christian bands fight their way to the upper third of the Billboard charts. This all lasts for most of the decade, until the turn of the century when everyone stops buying CDs, the Christian indie rock bands get fed up with the profit-driven audience pandering (sometimes referred to as the "Jesus Per Minute" rule) and pull up stakes and decide to try their luck in "the world," and the Christian industry consolidates itself, musically, by focusing on artists who sound like Coldplay and U2: epic e-bowed guitars, soaring choruses, and lyrics, loud in the mix, about wonder and worship."
It may be a simple and overly generalised comment but one story would seem to of a musical style that impacts and inspires other musical styles and the other essentially a story of a musical style which imitates other musical styles. The difference comes because the former is rooted in a particular culture and is the legitimate expression of that culture while the latter attempts to put on culture, like fashion, not in order to live that culture but connect or communicate with it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blind Boys of Alabama - Amazing Grace.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)