Bread for the World: Christian Education

Tonight, at St Martin-in-the-Fields, we hosted a Churches Together in Westminster Reformation 500 event, with St Anne’s Lutheran Church London and Revd Eliza Zikmane, focusing on Martin Luther’s legacy to Christian Education through the Small Catechism.

In our Bread for the World service we sang two of Martin Luther's hymns (A mighty fortress is our God and Now thank we all our God) and a setting of Our Father (Lord's Prayer), while St Martin's Voices sang: Jesu, meine Freude (Chorale); Aber die Herzen forschet (from Motet ‘Der Geist hilft’) - J.S. Bach; and Jesu joy of man’s desiring - Bach. The service ended with Organ Chorale Prelude ‘Wir glauben all ‘ an einen Gott (from ‘Clavierubung’).

Our readings were extracts from Luther's Small Catechism:

Table of Duties

Certain passages of Scripture for various holy orders and positions, admonishing them about their duties and responsibilities

To Bishops, Pastors, and Preachers

…..

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Titus 1:9

……..

To Parents

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Eph. 6:4


3) The Creed

The Second Article: Redemption

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Plate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

What does this mean? I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord. Who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.


Eliza Zikmane spoke about Luther's use of cutting-edge technology and the wide range of mediums he used through which to teach. In our discussions after the service we explored the following questions:

1) What was the basic Christian education you had and by whom? Did it have a lasting impact, and in what way?

2) I wonder what kind of sections would we choose and why, if we were to write a Small Catechism (a short outline of our/our church's faith). What kind of questions and answers would we write? Would they still be relevant in several hundreds of years’ time?

3) Luther used cutting-edge technology and a wide range of mediums to teach. How are we embracing the cutting edge technology of our time and with what results? What are the challenges for Christian/religious education in London in 21st century?

We began and ended our discussions with the following prayers from Small Catechism:

Behold, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in the faith; strengthen me. I am cold in love; warm me and make me fervent that my love may go out to my neighbour. I do not have a strong and firm faith; at times I doubt and am unable to trust you altogether. O Lord, help me. Strengthen my faith and trust in you. In you I have sealed the treasure of all I have. I am poor; you are rich and came to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; you are upright. With me, there is an abundance of sin; in you is the fullness of righteousness. Therefore, I will remain with you, of whom I can receive but to whom I may not give. Amen.

I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep me this night. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.

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J.S. Bach - Aber die Herzen forschet.

Start:Stop - We need each other

Bible reading

Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” (Mark 7:31-37)

Meditation

‘In the early 1980s, after decades of steady deterioration, writer and academic John Hull lost his sight.’ As he adjusted to his new condition, he ‘came to think of blindness as one of the great natural human conditions.’ It is, he wrote, ‘just the way that some people are, and the world which blindness creates is one of the many human worlds, which must all be put together if the human experience is to become entire.’ In fact, ‘to believe in the God of all being who is Lord of all life’ means ‘we have to put the worlds together’ because ‘we need each other.’

In today’s reading, we see Jesus enter into the world of a deaf man who also had an impediment in his speech. Jesus understands this man’s communication issues and responds to him in ways which aim to minimise his distress and maximise their ability to communicate. Jesus realises that being in a crowd would have been disorientating for this man, so takes him away from the crowd in order that they can communicate one-to-one. Then, he uses the heightened senses that this man possesses - sight and touch – in order to communicate with him. As a hearing person with speech, Jesus could have stayed in his world and sought to use words to communicate. Instead, he uses touch primarily and sight secondarily to mark the places to be unblocked and opened.

Jesus sometimes asks those he heals, ‘Do you want to get well?’ This may seem a surprising question, yet if disabilities, such as blindness or deafness, do create their own worlds, then there is a choice to be made about which world to inhabit. John Hull discovered great insights through entering the world of blindness, so it may be that when Jesus takes this man aside that he asks him which world he wishes to inhabit. On many occasions when Jesus heals, the result of his healing is that the person healed is re-included into society generally and the local community. In Jesus’ time, many disabled people were excluded from the Temple and forced to exist on the edge of society. Following many of his healings, Jesus sends the healed person to the priest in order that the person can be re-integrated into society. Today, we realise that instead of needing to change the person in order to be inclusive, rather we need to change society, both attitudinally and physically.

The Church has at times been effective in offering healing and care, but frequently fails disabled people in terms of inclusion, hearing echoes of an understanding that links sickness with sinfulness, mental health issues with possession, and disability as being in need of cure. Inclusion was the overall aim of Jesus’ healing ministry, so we need to do more, as the Church, to put our different worlds together and, as Jesus did, to enter the world of disabled people and then receive the gifts found in those worlds. As John Hull stated, ‘We have to put the worlds together’ because ‘we need each other.’

Prayers

Loving Father, we pray that throughout the world, disabled people may experience dignity, acceptance of equality and self-sufficiency in their lives. We ask both that they be empowered to serve God, and also be at liberty to pursue their faith, and participate fully in worship, free from prejudice, persecution or discrimination of any kind. Help us all, by your Holy Spirit, to work together to do whatever we can to achieve this. Enable us to enter the worlds of disabled people and receive the gifts found therein. (https://www.bristol.anglican.org/news/2015/05/11/ecumenical-prayer-of-disabled-people/)

Creator God, we are your people. We look to the future with optimism and with faith in You, as we pursue our call to provide justice and fullness of life for all disabled people. We pray that every man, woman and child may develop their potential and meet You in themselves and in one another. May we enjoy a totally welcoming community, with You as our centre, joined hand in hand with our sisters and brothers. Enable us to enter the worlds of disabled people and receive the gifts found therein. (http://thecatholiccatalogue.com/prayers-for-persons-with-disabilities/)

Father, you have given all peoples one common origin. It is your will that they be gathered together as one family in yourself. Fill the hearts of humankind with the fire of your love and with the desire to ensure justice for all. By sharing the good things you give us, may we secure an equality for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. May there be an end to division, strife and war. May there be a dawning of a truly human society built on love and peace. Enable us to enter the worlds of disabled people and receive the gifts found therein. (http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=722)

Blessing

May the Father from whom every family in earth and heaven receives its name strengthen you with his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Linda Perhacs - River Of God.

Windows on the world (361)

Brussels, 2016

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Kate Rusby - Only Desire What You Have.

In an open plan office, can anyone hear you when you scream?

As part of further developing the relationships St Stephen Walbrook has with the business community in the City of London, we plan to begin a new series of events in the autumn to explore the place of faith in the world of business.

We are already marketing St Stephen Walbrook, and some specific business-related offers, using ‘plus+’ to talk about St Stephen Walbrook adding value to the City. As a result, this new ongoing series of events will be titled ‘plus+ presentations’.

The inaugural presentation in our new series of plus+ presentations will be given by Douglas Board, founder of Maslow’s Attic, on 21 September, 6.30pm, at St Stephen Walbrook

Douglas Board is a senior visiting fellow at Cass and also writes on management, faith, society and humour, as well as careers. Previously, he was consultant, director and then deputy chairman of Saxton Bampfylde, a top 10 UK search firm. Douglas will share practical, intellectual and spiritual reflections on flourishing at work in a presentation entitled ‘In an open plan office, can anyone hear you scream?’

The format for ‘plus+ presentations’ is: 

• 6.15pm: Evening Prayer (optional); 
• 6.30pm: plus+ Presentation; 
• 7.00pm: Drinks reception & networking; 
• 7.30pm: Close. 

There is no charge for the presentation/reception and no need to book. All are welcome – just come on the day.

Going forward, we plan to run the plus+ presentations on the third Thursday of each month, although the remaining 2017 dates will be 19th October; 9th November. On 18 January 2018, our presenter will be Professor Richard Higginson speaking about Christian entrepreneurs living out their faith.

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Arvo Pärt - Da Pacem.

The House of Sound

House of Sound

16-17 September 2017 | FREE
Saturday 12noon-5pm
Sunday 11am-4pm

Guildhall Yard
London, EC2V 5AE

Travel back in time to experience London as heard by Chaucer, Dickens and Shakespeare in a ground-breaking work that puts back the sounds the City has lost.

As part of Open House weekend, time-travel from medieval to present day London through an immersive sound experience that captures the changing sounds of the City. Composed by Iain Chambers, live performances from 7 musicians played through 22 loudspeakers will tell the story of the Square Mile, revealing the impact of its changing built and social environment.

Performances take place on the hour on Saturday 16 Setepmber from 12noon - 5pm and 11am - 4pm on Sunday 17 September.

Sonic Trail

11-17 September 2017 | FREE

Part of the House of Sound, the Sonic Trail will see ‘Mythophones’ – sculptural speakers – placed around Cheapside for listeners to connect to the locations and their previous incarnations.

One of the Mythophones will be located at St Stephen Walbrook. The river Walbrook played an important role in the Roman settlement of Londinium. Starting in what is now Finsbury, it flowed through the centre of the walled city, bringing a supply of fresh water whilst carrying waste away to the Thames, and dividing Roman London into its eastern and western halves. When St Margaret Lothbury was rebuilt in 1440, the Lord Mayor paid for the lower Walbrook to be covered over. John Stow, the historian of London, wrote in 1598 that the watercourse, having several bridges, was afterwards vaulted over with brick and paved level with the streets and lanes where it passed, and that houses had been built so that the stream was hidden as it is now.

A temple of Mithras dating to the third century AD lay a short distance from St Stephen Walbrook. The remains were found in 1954 during the construction of the Bucklersbury House office block and will be displayed within the new Bloomberg London building.

Prior to the construction of the Mansion House in 1739, the Stocks market lay on the same site, dating to 1282, taking its name from a set of stocks used for punishment. A 1322 decree stipulated that the Stocks market was one of five places where fish and meat were allowed to be sold in London. After Stow's time its character changed, and towards its end was used mostly for selling herbs.

Running time: 4’16"

Running order:

• The Walbrook
• Street vendors’ cries and conversations at the Stocks market
• Tavern conversations
• Merchant dictating a letter

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Thirty Seconds to Mars ft. Travis Scott - Walk On Water.

Disability and inclusion

Here is the sermon I preached at today's lunchtime Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook:

‘In the early 1980s, after decades of steady deterioration, writer and academic John Hull lost his sight.’ As he adjusted to his new condition, he ‘came to think of blindness as one of the great natural human conditions.’ It is, he wrote, ‘just the way that some people are, and the world which blindness creates is one of the many human worlds, which must all be put together if the human experience is to become entire.’ In fact, ‘to believe in the God of all being who is Lord of all life’ means ‘we have to put the worlds together’ because ‘we need each other.’

In today’s Gospel reading (Mark 7. 31 - 37), we see Jesus enter into the world of a deaf man who also had an impediment in his speech. Jesus understands this man’s communication issues and responds to him in ways which aim to minimise his distress and maximise their ability to communicate. Jesus realises that being in a crowd would have been disorientating for this man, so takes him away from the crowd in order that they can communicate one-to-one. Then, he uses the heightened senses that this man possesses - sight and touch – in order to communicate with him. As a hearing person with speech, Jesus could have stayed in his world and sought to use words to communicate. Instead, he uses touch primarily and sight secondarily to mark the places to be unblocked and opened.

Jesus sometimes asks those he heals, ‘Do you want to get well?’ This may seem a surprising question, yet if disabilities, such as blindness or deafness, do create their own worlds, then there is a choice to be made about which world to inhabit. John Hull discovered great insights through entering the world of blindness, so it may be that when Jesus takes this man aside that he asks him which world he wishes to inhabit. On many occasions when Jesus heals, the result of his healing is that the person healed is re-included into society generally and the local community. In Jesus’ time, many disabled people were excluded from the Temple and forced to exist on the edge of society. Following many of his healings, Jesus sends the healed person to the priest in order that the person can be re-integrated into society. Today, we realise that instead of needing to change the person in order to be inclusive, rather we need to change society, both attitudinally and physically.

Fiona MacMillan chairs the Disability Advisory Group at St Martin-in-the-Fields. She says: ‘Historically the church has been amazing at caring for people on the edge of society. For hundreds of years the church challenged, led and changed society through its valuing of those who are powerless. It practiced faith in action by feeding, housing and caring for people who otherwise would have suffered or died through poverty or sickness.

But since the 1960s the disability rights movement has campaigned for greater autonomy, and the Church has been slower than society to respond to what is a significant sector of the population. In the UK today there are about 11 million people with living with a disabling physical, sensory, cognitive or mental health condition, of whom 80% were born healthy and have had to learn to adjust. All of us spend our lives somewhere on a spectrum between the super-fit athlete and the profoundly impaired person, moving and changing as a result of accident, illness or ageing. Disabled people may be an uncomfortable presence in a society lauding strength, but in the Church which professes a paradox of vulnerability we're often objects for pastoral attention rather than agents of change.

The Church of the 21st century frequently fails disabled people, hearing echoes of an understanding that links sickness with sinfulness, mental health issues with possession, and disability as being in need of cure. Pounced on by street pastors, spoken about rather than listened to, regarded as difficult or demanding, costly or time-consuming, it's not surprising that many disabled people are put off going to church – even if we can get in. Access is often focused on getting in rather than joining in – ramps and lifts, hearing loops and loos – with participation seen as a step too far. We are more likely to be known by our needs than celebrated for our gifts.’

Fiona is arguing that, while the Church has at times been effective in offering healing and care, it hasn’t been anywhere near as effective in terms of inclusion, which was the overall aim of Jesus’ healing ministry. We need to do more, as the Church, to put our different worlds together and, as Jesus did, to enter the world of disabled people and then receive the gifts found in those worlds. As John Hull stated, ‘We have to put the worlds together’ because ‘we need each other.’

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Edward Elgar - Lux Aeterna.

Ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out

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

There are two patterns to the ministry of Jesus in these verses (Luke 4. 38 - 44) and we will do well to take note of them in relation to our own lives and ministries.

The first pattern that we see in this story is the balance been ministry and spirituality. The first few verses of the story describe an intense period of ministry. Jesus returns from the synagogue where he has just healed a man to find that Simon’s mother-in-law is unwell. He heals her and then spends the evening healing and delivering many others. We know how busy and exhausted we can often feel through the ministry we do in our workplaces, homes, community and here at St Martin’s. We can imagine how Jesus would have felt following his day of ministry.

In the morning, everyone is again looking for Jesus but he is nowhere to be found. Long before daylight he had got up, left the town and gone to a lonely place where he could pray. In order to pray effectively and well to needed to get away from the demands of ministry and away from his disciples. He needed to be alone with God in order to recharge his batteries for further ministry and that was Jesus’ pattern throughout his ministry; active mission combined with withdrawal for prayer and recuperation.

This needs to be our pattern too. The busyness of ministry here at St Martin’s and in our weekday lives cannot be sustained if it is not fed by regular times of withdrawal for prayer and recuperation. The two are clearly separated in Jesus’ live and ministry and he is prepared to disappoint people, as in this story, in order to ensure that he has the times of prayer and recuperation that he needs in our to sustain his active ministry. This is why we prioritise prayer and spirituality here at St Martin’s, with our range of services, times of contemplative prayer, opportunities for compassionate action, and annual retreats. It is why we have introduced a time of prayer ministry after the 10.00am service on Sundays. It is also one of the reasons why those of us in the staff team may not always be around in the building, because we too need that time and space for prayer and recuperation.

The second pattern that we find in this story is that of ministry and moving on. Jesus has this time of active ministry in Capernaum and then he moves on to preach in the other villages around this town and indeed across the whole of Galilee. The people don’t want him to go. The disciples tell Jesus that everyone is looking for him. They want more of what he has already given them. But he refuses them and moves on to preach to others.

There are two aspects to the pattern of Jesus’ ministry here. First, is his concern for all to hear. That is why he has come, he says, that he should bring God’s message to all. We need that same motivation. The message of salvation cannot stay wrapped up inside this building or our congregation but must go out from here. That is the why St Martin’s has always been a place that has created new initiatives. These initiatives show that Christians have something to say and something to contribute to the concerns that people have and, ultimately, that what we have to say and show is the love of God for all. It is vital that the message and the love of God does not stay cooped up in here but is expressed out there in our community.

That also needs to happen for our own growth and development. We grow as Christians not by staying where we are and being ministered to but by getting up and following in Jesus’ footsteps ourselves; by becoming active ministers of the Gospel ourselves. That is why Jesus constantly challenges his hearers to take up their cross and follow him. William Temple famously said, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” What he meant is that the Church is not about us members getting our needs and wants satisfied; it is instead about equipping and motivating us, the members, to bless others in the love of Christ. That is what Jesus sought to achieve by moving from town to town, village to village and challenging his disciples to travel with him.

We need to mirror these patterns of ministry and withdrawal, ministry and moving out in our lives and our Church. That is why St Martin’s seeks to be a society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members. As we follow Christ, we cannot simply be about getting our needs and wants satisfied but need to be about being equipped by God through times of prayer and recuperation to be signs of Christ outside of this building, outside of our congregation, out where it makes a difference, out in our community and workplaces.

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Taize - Wait For The Lord.