Windows on the World (344)

Abu Ghosh, 2014

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Lenny Kravitz - Believe.

Simon Evans Goes to Market

How do you make economics funny? How do you put the comedy in commodity? That is the challenge that comedian Simon Evans has set himself with Simon Evans Goes to Market. The first series was interesting, thought-provoking and informative, as well as being funny. 'The market in radio comedy being what it is - [he] was rewarded with a second series.'

'In this new series for BBC Radio 4, he looks at the markets of four goods that might perhaps be referred to as 'Bads' - coffee, alcohol, tobacco and sugar. Addictive, stress inducing, even deadly - but a big part of our daily life that we just can't do without.

With the help of a variety of experts and regular co-host, presenter of More or Less, Tim Harford, he shows how economics really is part of our everyday life.'

Miranda Sawyer notes that Evans' humour 'doesn't quite fit the comedy norm' as he's 'not particularly leftwing, he has no time for cool posturing and he likes to know about stuff.' He laces 'proceedings with his clever jokes, some scripted, some off the cuff', and 'illuminates a subject as he riffs about it, takes it seriously and gets the laughs.'

Thanks to Paul Trathen for a good night out.

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Florence + The Machine - Ship To Wreck.

Crossroads: lives which are not linear

Like many of us at St Martin-in-the-Fields I have enjoyed beginning to peruse and reflect on ‘The Bridge’ exhibition which will be with us until 31st July.

When an exhibition includes lots of works, as does ‘The Bridge’ with 47 pieces, it is easy to be distracted from the piece you are viewing by other works nearby that have not yet been seen. However, art rewards contemplation, so on my first view I thought I would focus on one image rather than the totality of the exhibition.

‘Crossroads’ by Azadeh Ghotbi is an abstract painting in which cubist planes in yellows and greens combine to form the sinuous curves of crossing and connecting paths. Each coloured line, Ghotbi writes, ‘represents a person with a unique story, cultural background, belief system and sensibility.’

The painting derives from her own personal experience as someone who was born a Muslim, attended a Catholic School, married an atheist, and whose bridesmaids were Muslim and Jewish respectively. As a result, the painting depicts the interaction of our lives; lives which, as she says, ‘are not linear’ but which cross, bridge and impact each other.

Various statements have been made in philosophy and art suggesting that God does not move the world in a straight line or build in straight lines. These statements are contentious in terms of the natural world but make absolute sense when applied to building or sustaining community. If we live along straight lines only, we effectively live parallel lives. This may be why I recently heard someone apply this phrase to the curved lines of our EastWindow.

So, while it is here, do have a good look at Azadeh Ghotbi’s ‘Crossroads’ and see what it suggests to you both about the nature of our community here at St Martin’s and the relational God that we worship.

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Mick Jagger featuring Lenny Kravitz - God Gave Me Everything.

Walbrook Ward Club Dinner

The Walbrook Ward Club Dinner was held at St Stephen Walbrook this evening. I was there at the invitation of the Club's President, Alderman John Garbutt, and we enjoyed a meal in the stunning surroundings of the church followed by an organ recital given by the excellent Joe Sentance.

The Ward of Walbrook is one of the smallest Wards in the City of London but is in an important position at the heart of the City encompassing the Mansion House, St Stephen’s Church, the Grocer’s Hall, the Old Stock Exchange Building at 125 Old Broad Street, and some of the banking community including The Bank of England.

The Ward Club of Walbrook is the second oldest in the City being founded on 4 December 1809 at the Bay Tree Tavern in St Swithin's Lane. It's purpose is to promote friendly and neighbourly exchange.

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Charles-Marie Widor - Toccata.

A Nazareth Manifesto

'At the interface of critical academic reflection and faithful church theology, we have no better voice than that of Sam Wells. He invites us to rethink, from the ground up, our abiding temptation to condescending “help and service” to others. He compellingly renders a more excellent way toward the transformative “with.”' Walter Brueggemann

Last Friday I was at the launch of Sam's latest book, A Nazareth Manifesto, which is an eloquent and impassioned ecumenical proposal for re-envisioning Christianity’s approach to social engagement away from working “for” the people to being “with” them. The book questions the effectiveness of the current trend of intervention as a means of fixing the problems of people in distressed and disadvantaged circumstances. Sam argues that Jesus spent 90% of his life simply being among the people of Nazareth, sharing their hopes and struggles, therefore Christians should place a similar emphasis on being alongside people in need rather than hastening to impose solutions.

This is a particularly significant book because Sam maintains 'that the word with is the most important word in theology.' The book 'is an enquiry into whether with is the pervading theme that runs through Trinity, creation, incarnation, atonement, the sending of the Spirit, ecclesiology, and eschatology.' Additionally, Sam argues that the human project in the West has been to secure life against limitation in general and mortality in particular, but that such efforts have only deepened the true predicament, which is isolation.' 

A Nazareth Manifesto comes out of Sam's experience of trying to lead influential institutions in ways that bring about empowering and dignifying relationships with people experiencing social disadvantage.

Jean Vanier said in his Templeton Prize acceptance remarks: 'A Nazareth Manifesto reveals that Jesus came to teach us, not just to do things for people who are homeless, but to be with them. Yes, that is the real secret of the church, and the secret of our communities, and hopefully one day it will be the secret of all humanity, to be with.


To be with is to live side by side, it is enter into mutual relationships of friendship and concern. It is to laugh and to cry together, it is to mutually transform each other. Each person becomes a gift for the other, revealing to each other that we are all part of a huge and wonderful family, the family of God.'

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Sydney Carter - I Come Like A Beggar.

Planting Seeds of Hope

Tonight St Martin-in-the-Fields held an evening of silence, prayer and collective action. We joined in solidarity with people across the planet as we fasted and prayed for the climate, leading up to the UN Climate Conference in Paris, December 2015. As a symbolic action, we planted seeds of hope.

Pray and Fast for the Climate is a movement of Christians praying and fasting on the 1st of each month for a meaningful and just global climate agreement at the UN climate talks. They started off in the UK, but now include people from Australia, Canada, Europe and the US. And they hope to grow more – recently the Anglican Communion Bishops’ statement on the environment suggested that all Anglicans worldwide pray and fast on the 1st of the month! Pray and Fast for the Climate is supported by members of the ‘Faith for the Climate’ network.

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Bruce Cockburn - If A Tree Falls.

Start:Stop - What is your work for?

Start:Stop our regular Tuesday morning opportunity at St Stephen Walbrook for City workers to start their day by stopping to reflect for 10 minutes has got off to a very encouraging start.

Every 15 minutes between 7.30am and 9.15am, a 10 minute session of reflection begins which includes bible passages, meditations, music, prayers, readings and silence. City workers are encouraged to drop in on their way into work to start their day by stopping to reflect.

Here is last week's reflection:

Bible reading

... a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22. 35 – 40)

Meditation

What is your work for? This is an interesting question to ask because you are likely to get a different answer depending on the person you ask. To your CEO, the answer may be about the overall profitability of the organisation. To your line manager, it may be about the achievement of targets, while for those you live with it may be about the salary you bring home and the way it enables you to live. Your customers will give a different answer again. For them, you work will be about customer service, the service or product that you deliver to them.

What is your work for? There are different answers depending on who we ask. None of them are wrong. They are all in the mix and we need to address them all as we go about our business.

What is your work for? How would God answer that question? Judging by the answer Jesus gave to the question about which is the greatest commandment, where the answer he gave involved God, ourselves and others, he would see that there are different answers which all have validity. However, by including love of our neighbour in his answer he would certainly also want us to focus our thinking on the ways in which our work benefits others, whether individually (as customers) or more broadly (as a society) and prioritise those things in the way that we work.

Silent reflection

Prayer

Lord Jesus, who shaped wood as a carpenter, who taught multitudes and who came to serve others, we thank you for our work and those it benefits.

We pray for the profitability of the organisations within which we work and for appropriate returns to shareholders and stakeholders alike.

Lord, lead me as I work for you, myself and for others.

We pray for the setting and achieving of realistic targets which shape and build our organisations in meeting customer needs and delivering broader benefits to society.

Lord, lead me as I work for you, myself and for others.

We give thanks for the blessing of an income to provide for those we love and with whom we live. May we never take that blessing for granted.

Lord, lead me as I work for you, myself and for others.

We pray for our customers as we seek to meet their needs and serve them to the best of our ability. Keep the benefit of others at the forefront of our thinking as we go about our business daily.

Lord, lead me as I work for you, myself and for others.

May we love you, Lord God, with all our heart, and soul, and mind this week 

as we put heart and soul and mind into our work.
May our work be for you, for others and for ourselves
and may the outcome of our work be benefit for others, as well as ourselves.
May those blessings of God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Rest upon you and remain with you always.
Amen.

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Pēteris Vasks - The Fruit Of Silence.