New doors at St Stephen Walbrook

This week St Stephen Walbrook has had new glass doors installed at the top of the stairs in its main entrance. These enable views from the street of our marvellous Wren interior which were not visible previously.

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David Bowie - Changes.

Enterprising Redbridge: making voluntary organisations more entrepreneurial

Welcome to Enterprising Redbridge … making voluntary organisations more entrepreneurial

In the current climate a significant reduction in the availability of grants, particularly from public sector sources, has resulted in some voluntary sector groups closing – leaving a void in local service provision. We believe some of this can be avoided.

In order to help local groups move to a more sustainable future, we are offering a
programme of seminars, networking opportunities and one-to-one advice on becoming more independently sustainable. We believe this package of support can provide the positive encouragement such groups need.

We know that solutions are not always obvious, as you tend to be (rightly) totally focused on your day-to-day operations. So this programme gives you the opportunity to think beyond the day to day, the space to consider difficult questions in a safe place, and thechance to say the unsayable. We want this programme to inspire you, challenge you, support you and affirm the work you are doing.

Our goal is to inform and inspire 450+ Redbridge voluntary organisations to become more entrepreneurial through the provision of information and online tools. That’s a big ask. But it will depend on you. Your willingness to engage. Your desire to continue change.

For those most committed to trying new ideas or introducing change to their organisation, we will provide intensive tailored support to 10 groups not only to survive into the future but go on to thrive with greater independence.

Sophia Hubs and Redbridge CVS obtained Big Lottery funding to commission Aspiren andUrban Catalysts to take the lead on this project. Take a look at the website for more information and register your interest now. www.enterprisingredbridge.org.uk.

This is an initiative that aims to bring business skills to the voluntary and community sector. We hope that this will make a significant contribution to Redbridge by enabling the sector to learn ways to become less dependent on funding and more resilient.

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Peter Case - Until The Next Time.

Sermon: Becoming part of the story

My Christmas and Epiphany sermons at St Stephen Walbrook are up on the London Internet Church site and my sermon on 'The Revolutionary Magnificat' has been uploaded to the St Martin-in-the-Fields site. Here is the sermon from today's Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

The favourite Christmas story of Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford, concerns a two year old called Miriam at a church on the edge of Chichester where he was parish priest. The red brick rectangular church seated about 80 and was full to overflowing for the Christmas Day service. As every space was taken, the crib scene had been placed under the altar.

During the service Miriam wandered into the sanctuary and stood for a while observing the nativity scene. It was a large nativity set and so the characters in the scene were about the same size as the two year old. After observing the scene for a while, Miriam carefully climbed in under the altar making her way around the characters to sit in a space within the crib scene where she then remained for the rest of the service.

What she did was essentially an acted parable to the congregation because she became part of the story. That is what happens – it is what we are doing – when we become Christians. In other words for many of us, it is what is going on when we are baptised. Baptism is our immersion in the Christian story; a story which begins with God’s creation of the universe and life on earth. It continues with our rebellion as human beings. Our saying to God that we know who we are and what we need to do and, therefore, will go ahead and do our own thing. We all live with the consequences of that right now.

But in the story which the Bible tells God does not leave us simply to do our own thing. First, he chooses the people of Israel and through his special relationship with them seeks to call all people back to their true identity and purpose and then he sends his own Son, Jesus, to reach out in rescue and return us to him. He does this so that each one of us can find our identity and purpose in God and play our part in bringing the kingdom of God in full on earth as it is in heaven.

When Jesus was baptised he was saying that he would immerse himself in this story and play his special, unique part within it. As he made that commitment, God the Father affirmed him in his identity and purpose by saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” As we do what Miriam did and enter the story, then we are also affirmed by God in just the same way. St Paul writes in Romans 8. 14 – 17 that: “Those who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God's children, and by the Spirit's power we cry out to God, “Father! my Father!” God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ's suffering, we will also share his glory.” What he was saying is that as we enter the story we are adopted by God as his children and become brothers and sisters of Jesus, co-heirs with him of all he possesses.

How do we then play our part in the story? That all depends on our coming to know the story and what happens within it. We start by looking at what we know of the story to date – the things God has done in and through Israel, Jesus and the Church – and we also look at the hints we have about the way the story will end with the coming in full of the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven. Then we say to ourselves, ‘What is it that people do in this story? How do they act and behave? And then we start to do and say similar things as we have the opportunity. As Christians we are never given a script which has all our lines and actions printed on it. Instead, we have to improvise our part on the basis of what we know of the story so far, on the basis of the example provided by those who have lived in the story before, and on the basis of the opportunities provided in the places where we are and among the people that we know.

Living in the Christian story, therefore, is a challenge – something we should know anyway from looking at the life and death of Jesus – but it comes with the affirmation that we are part of God’s family; his dearly loved children, brothers and sisters of and co-heirs with Jesus himself. As we said last week, when we know this we can relax because whatever happens to us we are accepted, forgiven, loved and gifted by the God who created all things and who will bring all things to their rightful end.

When we do that we are like Miriam climbing in under the altar to become part of the crib scene. When we do that we become part of God’s story which makes us his children and gives us identity, purpose and meaning.

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Cristóbal de Morales - Et Factum Est Postquam.

Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert

Each Wednesday in Lent from 17 February until 23 March we invite you to join us at St Martin-in-the-Fields for our Bread of the World, an informal Eucharist 6.30pm.

We will be taking the wisdom of the 4th-5th century desert fathers and mothers as the theme for reflection. This will be followed by a simple Lenten supper before we divide into groups to share thoughts and our response to this desert wisdom. We will be using former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’ book: Silence and Honeycakes: The Wisdom of the Desert as our guide. In it he explores the extraordinary wisdom that comes from this desert spirituality much of which resonates so strongly with aspects of our won modern spiritual search:

• How can we discover the truth about ourselves?
• How can we live in relationship with others?
• What does the desert say about recognising our priorities?
• How do we learn to pray?
• How can we create a fearless community?

The desert fathers and mothers offer a message of both profound simplicity and depth. Join us as together we journey into the desert to rediscover some of the most vital truth about our lives and faith. All are welcome

The cost of Lent Study is £15 which includes a copy of the book Silence and Honeycakes (plus a recommended to donation of £2 towards the supper each week). For those who already have a copy of the book the cost of the Lent Study is £8.

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John Tavener - Eternity's Sunrise.

Southwell Minister: The Art of Mary

A major exhibition of new art on the theme of ‘Mary’ is to be shown at Southwell Minster during January 2016. Over 20 significant contemporary artists have made major new works specifically for an ambitious exhibition that will see art shown all over the cathedral, both inside and outside. Timed to coincide with the Patronal Festival of Candlemas at the Minster the exhibition will be supported by a programme of events and will be open to the public for free over the month.

The exhibition was planned by the cathedral art group, and Fr Matthew Askey says: “The Art of Mary is a rare opportunity for us to see a large collection of brand new art from many of the most significant artists working with Christian themes in Britain today. It is of national importance and is a once in a generation snapshot of these artist’s views of ideas and stories associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is one of the most significant, but neglected, figures in our shared cultural story. Mary was remarkable for the time and she has many things to show us and inspire us with today. She was an unmarried teenage mother, on the run, a refugee really, and at the same time through both her vulnerability and her determined strength she embodies so many positive characteristics of motherhood and what it means to be a woman today. Mary ultimately said ‘yes!’ to life, and gave herself into the hands of God’s love, and this is something that resulted in the life of the most inspiring person who has ever lived, Jesus, and then the birth of the world-wide Church that followed. The Church has 2 billion members today world-wide, is still growing, and about 32% of the world’s population are involved in some way with its acts of charity and life-transforming message of forgiveness and love for all people. Mary is right at the root and start of this movement of love.”

Some of the artists showing new artworks at the Art of Mary exhibition include: Mark Cazalet, Chris Gollon, Susie Hamilton, Sophie Hacker, Iain McKillop, Nicholas Mynheer, Celia Paul, Anna Sikorski, Roger Wagner and many others.

The Art of Mary is at Southwell Minster from Sat 9th Jan – Fri 5th Feb 2016, admission is free. A full colour illustrated exhibition guide is available.

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Shirlie Roden and Adrian Snell - Look At Us Now.

Martin Harris, sabbatical and Lesslie Newbigin

The memorial above at St Matthias, Chennai was amongst the things that re-ignited Martin Harris' interest in Lesslie Newbigin in 2012. Martin is currently on sabbatical in Chennai exploring further the thinking of Newbigin. His sabbatical posts can be followed at http://martinspersonalblog.blogspot.co.uk/.

He writes:

'These words from Newbigin's 'On Being the Church for the World' are staying with me:

"[W]hen Jesus said to them, 'As the Father sent me, so I send you', he showed them his hands and his side. In other words, the Church will be recognizable as the bearer of this mission on which the Father sent the Son and on which the Son sent the Church, in so far as the scars of the Passion are recognizable in its body. So you have that classic definition of mission, which has been so much ignored, in St Paul's letters, where he defines his apostolic mission as 'bearing in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh'.

"I think we have often missed something by concentrating entirely on that Matthaean version which can produce the kind of triumphalist picture of the mission of the Church. Here, however, the Church is recognizable as the bearer of the Kingdom, the presence of the kingdom, in so far as it is marked by the scars of the Passion... And if you see the mission of the Church in that sense, then all this futile discussion between evangelism and social action disappears."'

My posts drawing on Newbigin's writings can be found by clicking here.

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Gungor - Church Bells.

Past Life - Present Mission (5.1)

The Open Gate

"As long as we are alive, we are on the move. To become static is to stagnate ... life is meant to be an adventure ... In Celtic folk-tales a curse that could happen to a person was to enter a field and not be able to get out of it. To be stuck in that place forever ... The Open Gate is the call to explore new areas of yourself and the world around you." (The Open Gate, David Adam, Triangle 1994). David Adam suggests that the open gate is the choice that God is always placing before us and that we "should look upon the open gate as a way to extend ourselves and our vision ... it may take a great deal of discipline to get off the old familiar track and to break with old habits, but, in return, it offers the excitement of new ground and new vistas ..."

"Every now and again our eyes are opened and we see beyond the narrowness of our day to day vision ..." into new spiritual dimensions of awareness and experience. I was privileged to have two such experiences whilst on Celtic pilgrimage. The first, whilst staying for a few days in a remote cottage on the Island of Lismore where I had an overwhelming experience of the awesomeness of God's presence together with an anointing that led to a great rejoicing in Jesus. The second was during my 'Celtic Pilgrimage of Discovery' when I experienced a new relationship with God and his physical creation.

For us, living in the inner city, some new gates may open at a point of crisis in our lives. When we are suddenly and unexpectedly bereaved, or made redundant, or "where we are having what the world calls a breakdown". Such events make us more aware of change because they have dislocated us. Pain, brokenness and loneliness may be involved in walking through that new gate.

At St. Edmund’s at that time we seemed to be moving into a spiritual field where there were new gates before us. Inevitably there was also a variety of responses. To some, the Lord was acting as a heavenly potter bringing change and re-moulding which involved brokenness, inner healing and a move through the gate marked spiritual renewal. To others, it included dislocating experiences that re-directed that person's pilgrimage. To others again, it was a gate of deepening awareness of the plans that the Lord had for that person.


Spirituality exercises

At St Edmund’s we encouraged people to reflect on spirituality with several ‘spiritual exercises’. Here is one that you might like to try:

• STAGE 1: Get a blank sheet of paper and write at the top of it this statement on Spirituality – “Spirituality means ... the real, the effective understanding of Christian truth and experience from within our own human awareness (or consciousness). It's ... understanding ... it's experience of God's Holy Spirit Presence ... It's an inner awareness of The Lord; and the realness (reality of) Christian faith from within the person that is YOU. It is often surrounded by or part of prayer and it's a vital part of our personal commitment to Christ. It includes our understanding of ourselves in relation to the religious and moral values we believe and/or practice!”
• STAGE 2: Write down what you've made of it. Add anything else you think it means and especially note if you think it's left out anything that's part of it ...
• STAGE 3: Over the next three weeks add anything else that happens to you that is within you ... your thoughts, feelings, responses to being a follower of Jesus that day ... any awareness you had of the actual presence of God. Especially, how you became aware of His presence. Put it down on your spirituality sheet. If you are a housegroup member why not have a 'chin wag' about it together, and weld it together with prayer.
• STAGE 4: Return your sheet so that all the replies can be looked at to see if something comes out that all can share in.

As part of all that, try praying to the Lord, say at the start of the day, in a way that starts to invite Him to make you aware of His lovely presence. Or, you never know, it might be a slightly different awareness!! In my case, who knows, God (in spite of His lovely presence) may need to give a bit of a 'kick on the ankle' over something or other!


The Tysley Prayer Vigil

At our Prayer Vigil in St Edmund's, on the day the UN deadline for the first Gulf war was reached, our burden was that war should be avoided. As we moved toward the end of the Vigil, the Lord spoke to us strongly in two ways. First, He brought to our notice, through the reading of Daniel 10: 1 - 18 and Ephesians 6: 10 - 18, that the Gulf War is part of a great cosmic struggle going on between the forces of evil in conflict with the forces of light. Second, one of our ladies shared with us something that had happened to her the previous night. She was unable to sleep and as she spoke with the Lord, He gave her a message which was to 'Prepare the Way'. All of us in the Vigil then sought the Lord to ask Him to share with us what He was now saying to us as a Church, how to prepare the way. Various ones then shared the following: That the Lord was saying to us, here in Tysley, that we needed to move into a time of preparing for the Way of the Lord. That the Gulf crisis, and our legitimate concern about it, shouldn't stop us from committing ourselves as a Church to earnestly seek the Lord's face that His Spirit might start to prepare us for His work here, in the days ahead. That God was also preparing the way nationally, and internationally, for His work and will to be done, even from within the war. Preparation was what we had been told to focus upon. A new commitment to prayer seemed to be at the heart of it. The Lord had spoken to us whilst we had been in a trough. He had all sorts of plans for Tysley and local people, and we were a part of that. He wanted us to share in that, even though we were a small congregation. The example of Gideon was relevant (Judges 6 - 8). God doesn't always need masses of people to be His local commando troop but He does require those who are prepared, when it comes down to 'brass tacks', to put Him first.

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David Fitzgerald & Dave Bainbridge - Though The Dawn Breaks.