London, 2019
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Joni Mitchell - Shadows And Light.
Saturday, 23 May 2020
Thursday, 21 May 2020
Let me go, because then the Spirit will come
Here's my reflection, with a new meditation, from the Ascension Day Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:
Imagine how the disciples must first have felt when they heard that Jesus was planning to leave them in order to return to his Father. They had had an incredible roller-coaster three years of ministry together with him which had culminated in the agony of watching him die. They thought that they had lost him and that all their hopes and dreams had been dashed. Then there was the joy of the resurrection; the dawning realisation that Jesus was alive, was still with them and was not lost to them after all.
And then the Ascension. The Jesus that they thought they had regained left them. What was that all about? There was so much that they still had to learn? There was so much that they could have done together? Why?
Because Jesus was physically distancing himself from the disciples at the Ascension, there is a similarity to the words that Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene when she became the first to recognise him after his resurrection. As she did so, she naturally reached out to embrace him but his words to her were, “Touch me not.” Why?
There is a strand of theology which is called ‘the Negative Way.’ Within this way of thinking about God all images and understandings of God are consistently given up and let go because they are human constructions that can only show part of what God is.
So, all talk of Jesus as shepherd, lamb, son, brother, friend, master, servant, king, lord, saviour, redeemer and so on goes out of the window because God is always more than the images that we construct to understand him. In saying that, I was speaking of God as being masculine, something which is, again, only a limited human understanding of God. Ultimately, God is neither male nor female but is Spirit and the Negative Way says that in order to encounter God as being beyond our limited imaginations and understandings we need to give up and let go of all our human ways of describing him.
The Ascension and Jesus’ words to Mary seem to say something similar. Jesus seems to be saying to the disciples, “Don’t cling on to me. Let go of me as you know me because, when you do, you will gain a greater experience, less limited experience, of me. Don’t cling on to me. Let me go, because then the Spirit will come.”
To let go of what is safe and familiar and secure in order to be open to encounter what is beyond is both scary and exhilarating. Yet, it has been, in part, a key part of our experience for many of us during lockdown. It is what Jesus calls us to here and it is the way in which we encounter the Spirit in our lives.
The title of a song by the ska band Madness, ‘One Step Beyond,’ became a catchphrase in my previous parish that developed real spiritual meaning by challenging us to go further in living out our Christian faith, to go one step beyond where we are now in the way that we live as Christians. The Ascension seems to challenge us to go at least one step beyond where we are now in our understanding of God. We need to leave the safety, security and familiarity of the past in order to encounter the new thing that God is doing in the present.
The Ascension teaches us that nothing is sacred: not buildings, not books, not actions, not people; not even Jesus as the disciples encountered him! We must always move beyond our understanding of the place, space, people and realisations that we have now because that is how the Spirit comes!
Touch me not.
I am not yours
to have and hold,
in this shape
in this form.
Let go.
Let me go.
Let my Spirit come.
Divine my Spirit,
know me
within.
An absence
that is presence.
A leave-taking
that is arrival.
A loss of God
that is
being found
in God –
being in God,
being one
with God.
Touch me not
as flesh and blood.
Touch me now
in bread.
Consume me.
Let me in,
within,
as wine
divine.
Elements,
Spirit -
I in you,
and you
in me.
I ascend -
human in heaven.
Understanding,
interceding -
humanity
at the heart
of Godhead
filling the
human-shaped
space
in the very heart
of God.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hail The Day That Sees Him Rise.
Imagine how the disciples must first have felt when they heard that Jesus was planning to leave them in order to return to his Father. They had had an incredible roller-coaster three years of ministry together with him which had culminated in the agony of watching him die. They thought that they had lost him and that all their hopes and dreams had been dashed. Then there was the joy of the resurrection; the dawning realisation that Jesus was alive, was still with them and was not lost to them after all.
And then the Ascension. The Jesus that they thought they had regained left them. What was that all about? There was so much that they still had to learn? There was so much that they could have done together? Why?
Because Jesus was physically distancing himself from the disciples at the Ascension, there is a similarity to the words that Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene when she became the first to recognise him after his resurrection. As she did so, she naturally reached out to embrace him but his words to her were, “Touch me not.” Why?
There is a strand of theology which is called ‘the Negative Way.’ Within this way of thinking about God all images and understandings of God are consistently given up and let go because they are human constructions that can only show part of what God is.
So, all talk of Jesus as shepherd, lamb, son, brother, friend, master, servant, king, lord, saviour, redeemer and so on goes out of the window because God is always more than the images that we construct to understand him. In saying that, I was speaking of God as being masculine, something which is, again, only a limited human understanding of God. Ultimately, God is neither male nor female but is Spirit and the Negative Way says that in order to encounter God as being beyond our limited imaginations and understandings we need to give up and let go of all our human ways of describing him.
The Ascension and Jesus’ words to Mary seem to say something similar. Jesus seems to be saying to the disciples, “Don’t cling on to me. Let go of me as you know me because, when you do, you will gain a greater experience, less limited experience, of me. Don’t cling on to me. Let me go, because then the Spirit will come.”
To let go of what is safe and familiar and secure in order to be open to encounter what is beyond is both scary and exhilarating. Yet, it has been, in part, a key part of our experience for many of us during lockdown. It is what Jesus calls us to here and it is the way in which we encounter the Spirit in our lives.
The title of a song by the ska band Madness, ‘One Step Beyond,’ became a catchphrase in my previous parish that developed real spiritual meaning by challenging us to go further in living out our Christian faith, to go one step beyond where we are now in the way that we live as Christians. The Ascension seems to challenge us to go at least one step beyond where we are now in our understanding of God. We need to leave the safety, security and familiarity of the past in order to encounter the new thing that God is doing in the present.
The Ascension teaches us that nothing is sacred: not buildings, not books, not actions, not people; not even Jesus as the disciples encountered him! We must always move beyond our understanding of the place, space, people and realisations that we have now because that is how the Spirit comes!
Touch me not.
I am not yours
to have and hold,
in this shape
in this form.
Let go.
Let me go.
Let my Spirit come.
Divine my Spirit,
know me
within.
An absence
that is presence.
A leave-taking
that is arrival.
A loss of God
that is
being found
in God –
being in God,
being one
with God.
Touch me not
as flesh and blood.
Touch me now
in bread.
Consume me.
Let me in,
within,
as wine
divine.
Elements,
Spirit -
I in you,
and you
in me.
I ascend -
human in heaven.
Understanding,
interceding -
humanity
at the heart
of Godhead
filling the
human-shaped
space
in the very heart
of God.
Do also join us later today at 8.00pm on BBC Radio 4 for a
celebration for Ascension Day. That service will be led by our Vicar, the Revd
Dr Sam Wells, and the Revd Marie-Elsa Bragg, with the BBC Philharmonic
Orchestra, The Daily Service Singers and St Martin's Voices.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hail The Day That Sees Him Rise.
Monday, 18 May 2020
Stepping up to the plate
Here's my reflection from today's lunchtime Eucharist for St Martin-in-the-Fields:
The expression “step up to the plate” refers to “voluntarily assuming responsibility for something.” However, when someone seems to have a particular role or responsibility covered, it is then difficult for others to see the part that they could play or to think there is a need to play their part. That is, in part, what Jesus is addressing with his disciples in his farewell discourse, a part of which forms our Gospel reading (John 15. 26 – 16. 4).
In the farewell discourse and also in many of his parables, Jesus was preparing his disciples for the point when he would leave them. That point was reached with his Ascension. Among the parables Jesus told to prepare his disciples was the Parable of the Talents, where the Master in the story is absent for much of the time. By telling stories where the central character was absent or had left the action, Jesus was saying that he would be leaving and that, when he did so, he was going to entrust his disciples with the responsibility of continuing his mission and ministry.
That was, and is, an awesome responsibility and we can readily understand why, for example, the third worker in the Parable of the Talents was depicted as being paralysed by fear at the prospect of the Master’s absence. However, it also shows the value that Jesus saw in his disciples and sees in us. It is amazing, but true, that God believes in us enough to entrust us with working towards the coming of his kingdom, on earth as in heaven.
The question, then, was whether Jesus’ first disciples (and by implication, all who follow, including ourselves) will step up to the plate and assume responsibility. When the one that was thought of as being in charge and responsible was no longer with the disciples physically, they were made aware of their own responsibilities. Jesus is recorded in our Gospel reading as saying that there were things he did not say to his disciples at the beginning because he was with them at that stage. It was only at the point that Jesus was to leave that it became essential that they heard those things. It was only at that point that they could hear those things.
What Jesus was saying was a version of the popular statement that no one is indispensable, even him. “The graveyards are full of indispensable men,” is another similar saying, popularly attributed to Charles de Gaulle. The reality for Jesus, as the incarnate Son of God, was that he could not personally share his message and love across the known world or throughout history without disciples committed to following him and sharing him with others.
Therefore, at the Ascension, Jesus was like an Olympic torchbearer passing his light on to his disciples and calling them to bear his light. This could only happen when those following him acted as his hands and feet, his eyes, ears and mouth, his body wherever they were. That is essentially the challenge of the Ascension for us, but this challenge is combined with the promise that Jesus will send his Spirit to us to empower and equip us to be his people.
For this reason, the Ascension and Pentecost are intimately linked. The Ascension provides the challenge – “Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples” (Matthew 28. 19) – and Pentecost provides the means - “when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” In this way we have been given the resources needed to fulfil our responsibility. Similarly, in the Parable of the Talents, the Master gave out resources (the ‘talents’) alongside responsibilities. In the same way, after the Ascension, the Holy Spirit came to empower Jesus’ disciples.
Do we recognise that each of us has much that we can give; that we are all people with talents and possessions however lacking in confidence and means we may sometimes be? We all have something we can offer, so how can we, through our lives and work, benefit and develop the world for which God has given humanity responsibility? What resources - in terms of abilities, job, income and possessions - has God given to us in order to fulfil our responsibility to bear his light in this dark world? Through his Ascension, Jesus challenges us as to whether we will be faithful or unfaithful servants? How will we respond?
If we accept the responsibility we have been given, we can then pray for quiet courage to match this hour. We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age; but we can ask that its problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us, its injustices anger us, its possibilities inspire us and its vigour renew us for the sake of Christ’s kingdom come, on earth as in his heaven.
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Holy Cross Choir - uJesu Wami.
The expression “step up to the plate” refers to “voluntarily assuming responsibility for something.” However, when someone seems to have a particular role or responsibility covered, it is then difficult for others to see the part that they could play or to think there is a need to play their part. That is, in part, what Jesus is addressing with his disciples in his farewell discourse, a part of which forms our Gospel reading (John 15. 26 – 16. 4).
In the farewell discourse and also in many of his parables, Jesus was preparing his disciples for the point when he would leave them. That point was reached with his Ascension. Among the parables Jesus told to prepare his disciples was the Parable of the Talents, where the Master in the story is absent for much of the time. By telling stories where the central character was absent or had left the action, Jesus was saying that he would be leaving and that, when he did so, he was going to entrust his disciples with the responsibility of continuing his mission and ministry.
That was, and is, an awesome responsibility and we can readily understand why, for example, the third worker in the Parable of the Talents was depicted as being paralysed by fear at the prospect of the Master’s absence. However, it also shows the value that Jesus saw in his disciples and sees in us. It is amazing, but true, that God believes in us enough to entrust us with working towards the coming of his kingdom, on earth as in heaven.
The question, then, was whether Jesus’ first disciples (and by implication, all who follow, including ourselves) will step up to the plate and assume responsibility. When the one that was thought of as being in charge and responsible was no longer with the disciples physically, they were made aware of their own responsibilities. Jesus is recorded in our Gospel reading as saying that there were things he did not say to his disciples at the beginning because he was with them at that stage. It was only at the point that Jesus was to leave that it became essential that they heard those things. It was only at that point that they could hear those things.
What Jesus was saying was a version of the popular statement that no one is indispensable, even him. “The graveyards are full of indispensable men,” is another similar saying, popularly attributed to Charles de Gaulle. The reality for Jesus, as the incarnate Son of God, was that he could not personally share his message and love across the known world or throughout history without disciples committed to following him and sharing him with others.
Therefore, at the Ascension, Jesus was like an Olympic torchbearer passing his light on to his disciples and calling them to bear his light. This could only happen when those following him acted as his hands and feet, his eyes, ears and mouth, his body wherever they were. That is essentially the challenge of the Ascension for us, but this challenge is combined with the promise that Jesus will send his Spirit to us to empower and equip us to be his people.
For this reason, the Ascension and Pentecost are intimately linked. The Ascension provides the challenge – “Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples” (Matthew 28. 19) – and Pentecost provides the means - “when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” In this way we have been given the resources needed to fulfil our responsibility. Similarly, in the Parable of the Talents, the Master gave out resources (the ‘talents’) alongside responsibilities. In the same way, after the Ascension, the Holy Spirit came to empower Jesus’ disciples.
Do we recognise that each of us has much that we can give; that we are all people with talents and possessions however lacking in confidence and means we may sometimes be? We all have something we can offer, so how can we, through our lives and work, benefit and develop the world for which God has given humanity responsibility? What resources - in terms of abilities, job, income and possessions - has God given to us in order to fulfil our responsibility to bear his light in this dark world? Through his Ascension, Jesus challenges us as to whether we will be faithful or unfaithful servants? How will we respond?
If we accept the responsibility we have been given, we can then pray for quiet courage to match this hour. We did not choose to be born or to live in such an age; but we can ask that its problems challenge us, its discoveries exhilarate us, its injustices anger us, its possibilities inspire us and its vigour renew us for the sake of Christ’s kingdom come, on earth as in his heaven.
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Holy Cross Choir - uJesu Wami.
Sunday, 17 May 2020
Artlyst: Home Alone Together Twenty Five Artists
My latest article for Artlyst is a review of Home Alone Together, an online exhibition at Image Journal:
'The shared, bounded environment in which people now live can be a space of refuge – representing safety from a nebulous, deadly threat, but can also be a pressure cooker. The exhibition recognises that we are all caught up in a strange experiment of uncertain duration, and even those fortunate enough to escape direct loss and trauma are being forced to reckon with new realities – economic, emotional, spiritual – from the (dis)comfort of their own home. In this unsettled moment, the exhibition’s curators – S. Billie Mandle and Aaron Rosen – suggest that artists can help draw our experience into focus.'
My other Artlyst pieces are:
Interviews:
'The shared, bounded environment in which people now live can be a space of refuge – representing safety from a nebulous, deadly threat, but can also be a pressure cooker. The exhibition recognises that we are all caught up in a strange experiment of uncertain duration, and even those fortunate enough to escape direct loss and trauma are being forced to reckon with new realities – economic, emotional, spiritual – from the (dis)comfort of their own home. In this unsettled moment, the exhibition’s curators – S. Billie Mandle and Aaron Rosen – suggest that artists can help draw our experience into focus.'
My other Artlyst pieces are:
Interviews:
- Helaine Blumenfeld: Undulating Structures
- National Gallery Explores ‘Sin’ In New Exhibition – Interview Dr Joost Joustra Curator
- Betty Spackman: Posthumanism Debates
- Christopher Clack: Connecting The Material And Immaterial
- Peter Howson Artlyst Interview
- Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker On The Legacy Of ArtWay
- Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
- Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
- Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
- Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
- Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
- Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
- Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields
- Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar
- Botanical Mind Online: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree
- Salvador Dalí The Enigma of Faith
- Art And Faith A Time For Seeing
- Andy Warhol: Catholicism His Work, Faith And Legacy
- Kiki Smith: Embodied Art
- Art and Christianity Awards A Positive New Millennium Legacy
- Arnulf Rainer: 90th Birthday Exhibition Celebrated At Albertina Museum
- A Belonging Project And Exiles Loss and Displacement
- Robert Polidori: Fra Angelico Opus Operantis
- Art, Faith, Church Patronage and Modernity
- Contemplating the Spiritual in Contemporary Art
- Mat Collishaw Challenges Faith Perspectives With Ushaw Installation
- Waterloo Festival Launches At St. John’s Waterloo
- John Bellany Alan Davie Spiritual Joy and Magic
- RIFT Unites 17 Art and Science MA Graduates At Central St Martins
- Visionary Cities: Michael Takeo Magruder – British Library
- Van Gogh’s Religious Journey Around London
- William Congdon Holy Sites And The Kettle’s Yard Connection
- Mark Dean Premieres Pastiche Mass At Banqueting Hall Chelsea College of Arts
- John Kirby: The Torment Underlying The Civilised Facade
- Curating Spiritual Sensibilities In Changing Times
- Ken Currie: Protest Defeat And Victory
- Bosco Sodi: A Moment Of Genesis
- Bill Viola And The Art Of Contemplation
- Art In Churches 2018: Spiritual Combinations Explored
- Sister Wendy Beckett – A Reminiscence
- Guido Guidi: Per Strada Flowers Gallery London
- Peter Howson: The play is over – Flowers Gallery
- Camille Henrot: Scientific History And Creation Story Mash Up
- Nicola Green Explores Recent And Contemporary Religious Leaders – St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Art And The Consequences Of War Explored In Two Exhibitions
- Helaine Blumenfeld Translating Her Vision
- Sacred Noise: Explores Religion, Faith And Divinity
- Bill Viola: Quiet Contemplative Video Installation St Cuthbert’s Church Edinburgh
- The ground-breaking work of Sister Corita Kent
- Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
- Michael Takeo Magruder: De / coding the Apocalypse – Panacea Museum
- Giorgio Griffa: The Golden Ratio And Inexplicable Knowledge
- Arabella Dorman Unveils New Installation At St James Church Piccadilly
- Can Art Transform Society?
- Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
- Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
- The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
- Polish Art In Britain Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
- Refugee Artists Learning from The Lives Of Others
- The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg
- The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement
- Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition
- Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation
- The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?
Blessid Union of Souls - Home.
Controversy, conversation and community
Here's my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:
The closest I have come to my 15 minutes of fame or infamy was when I attracted the criticism of Archbishop Cranmer – the contemporary blogger, not the 16th century Reformer – by exhibiting a crucified stormtrooper in a church as part of a contemporary exhibition of Stations of the Cross. The blogging Archbishop assumed and asserted that I could not have pondered the question of what that artwork was actually saying about God’s unique sacrifice and the ultimate source of salvation and thereby he contributed to a 5 minute flurry of controversy.
In the Star Wars films, stormtroopers are the main ground force of the Galactic Empire and are on the dark side in that conflict. The imagery of the dark side in the Star Wars films can be seen as equating to the idea that we are all sinners. In our alienation from God we need God to come to us, becoming one with us, living and dying for us. Being on the dark side, stormtroopers would also have that same need. The ‘Crucified Stormtrooper’ therefore provides us with the possibility of experiencing something of the original sense of scandal that Christ’s crucifixion generated. Both in terms of being controversial and also by revealing the dark side of our human nature, something we prefer to keep well hidden.
Some Christians, like the blogging Archbishop, either failed to see or, perhaps, did not want to confront that aspect of sin in themselves. However, many others who saw the exhibition were able to see the opportunity for reflection and dialogue afforded by the images included. Many of those who saw the exhibition described it as 'striking', 'intriguing', 'uplifting' and 'interesting.' It was commended as an extraordinarily broad-minded, human and thought-provoking exhibition in an extraordinary place with others asking that the church reach out to current artists more often. As a result of the controversy, the curator of the exhibition wrote publicly about his own faith while, in a perceptive meditation, a parishioner asked whether the crucified stormtrooper was us, and suggested that the piece created a dialogue about our own mortality.
The exhibition created a conversation about the crucifixion, human nature, mortality and faith in a way that was similar to the discussion St Paul began when he stood before the Areopagus and spoke about an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god’ (Acts 17.22-31). The Areopagus was the rock of Ares in Athens, a centre of temples, cultural facilities and high court, and also the name of the council that originally served as the central governing body of Athens, but came to be the court with jurisdiction over cases of homicide and other serious crimes. In speaking to the Areopagus Paul was giving a guest lecture, whilst also being, in some senses, on trial.
Pope John Paul II likened the modern media to the New Areopagus, where Christian ideas needed to be explained and defended anew, against disbelief and the gold and silver idols of consumerism. Understanding how St Paul did so in the original Areopagus can assist in understanding how we might initiate or contribute to debate and dialogue in our own day and time, whether virtually or in person.
Paul began where people were by referring to the altar to an unknown god which was to be found amongst the cluster of temples around him. He didn’t criticize those to whom he was speaking. Instead, he commended the breadth of their engagement with religion. He didn’t tell them they were wrong by suggesting they were pagans worshipping the wrong god or gods. Instead, he overaccepted their religious story fitting it into the larger story of what he believed God was doing with the world. Nor did he dismiss their culture. Instead, he made it clear that he had heard and appreciated their poets by making connections between those poets and the message he had come to share. In these ways, he began a dialogue with them about the nature of faith and its engagement with their lives and culture. We read that some scoffed but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this’, and some joined him and became believers.
Paul was able to be in Athens because he had a trade – tentmaking – which enabled him to be supported financially as he travelled and which opened doors and provided contacts that might not otherwise have been open to him. In each place to which he travelled he formed new congregations led by those who came to faith. In each place that he visited he went to the synagogue and sought to speak with those at the heart of the Jewish community, but also welcomed those who were on the edge, often Gentiles, slaves and servants.
St Martin’s has a similar pattern for its ministry. We call it the 4 Cs – compassion, culture, commerce and congregation. It is a pattern for ministry that we share with other churches throughout the UK, and the world, through a movement to renew the church that we call HeartEdge. HeartEdge is about churches developing these 4 Cs. Generating finance and impacting communities via social enterprise and commerce. Culture, in the form of art, music, performance, that re-imagines the Christian narrative for the present. Congregations that develop welcoming liturgies, worship, and day-to-day communal life while also addressing social need and community cohesion. We think nurturing each of these is essential for renewal of the church.
At a time such as this HeartEdge churches, like St Martin’s, are seeking to begin and develop a conversation with our communities and nations, as Paul sought to do in Athens and as I sought to do with the Stations of the Cross exhibition. St Mark’s Church in Pennington, within the Diocese of Winchester, have used their churchyard hedge as a site for yarnbombing to focus the attention of their community on Holocaust Memorial Day, Holy Week and Easter, and, most recently, the VE Day anniversary. Organising online community events and services combined with the organisation of knitting and crochet work for the different yarnbombs has placed St Mark’s at the heart of their community while connecting many who are isolated because of lockdown. St Mark’s has demonstrated that the boundaries of ‘church’ should be much more porous than we had previously imagined and so Rachel Noel, the Vicar of St Mark’s, hopes that in this season we will all get so used to worshipping with, and being led by, a variety of people, that we will in future always seek to find ways to include and value diversity and richness.
St Mark’s Pennington has begun a conversation with their community and the wider Church. It is similar here. When we talk about the work that The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields is doing to support those who are homeless in hotel or hostel accommodation at this time, we are sharing our belief in the value and significance of every human being as a child of God. When our Choral Scholars record music to share with other churches in their online services without breaking copyright regulations, we are sharing our belief in the innate creativity of human beings created in the image of a creative God and demonstrating the overflowing generosity of that same God. When the board of our business seek ways to enable that business to survive lockdown and its subsequent impact, we are sharing in the pain and challenges faced currently by all businesspeople while making clear our belief in the value, dignity and ethics of work and working people. When we develop new ways to support congregations and share services in the changed circumstances of lockdown, we are sharing our belief that faith sustains life in each and every season of existence enabling us to live God’s future now.
We seek imperfectly to model these beliefs in our mission and ministry here at St Martin’s, as do all churches in the HeartEdge movement. By doing so, we seek to initiate conversations about what it means to live God’s future now and how we can enjoy a future that is bigger than our past. As with Paul in Athens and the art exhibition in the City of London, so, in our current circumstances, we are seeking to connect compassion, culture, commerce and congregation to draw all engaged in those forms of community into a conversation that explores how we shall now live and who it is that is our neighbour.
When the ‘Crucified Stormtrooper’ was exhibited in the City of London, it seemed that those conversations could only begin on the basis of scandal or sensation. The mainstream media then didn’t seem interested in the ‘good news’ stories of compassionate community engagement that many churches are able to tell. At that time, it seemed as those their interest was only piqued when something controversial was underway.
Now we are in a different season where the ‘good news’ of community compassion and culture, with church at the heart and on the margins, can be heard and is being valued. So, we invite you to join the conversation, to have your say, so that the margins can speak to the centre that we might encounter God in everyone.
As we do so, we will together find a story which connects a series of otherwise inexplicable circumstances, begin to live in that story and then act our part within it. In this way, like those who joined Paul in Athens, we, too, may discover it is the story of what God is doing with the world that reveals where we are and what we are to do.
See the Stations of the Cross exhibition here, read my response to Archbishop Cranmer here and my thoughts on the Church and controversial art here.
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Bruce Cockburn - Shipwrecked At The Stable Door.
The closest I have come to my 15 minutes of fame or infamy was when I attracted the criticism of Archbishop Cranmer – the contemporary blogger, not the 16th century Reformer – by exhibiting a crucified stormtrooper in a church as part of a contemporary exhibition of Stations of the Cross. The blogging Archbishop assumed and asserted that I could not have pondered the question of what that artwork was actually saying about God’s unique sacrifice and the ultimate source of salvation and thereby he contributed to a 5 minute flurry of controversy.
In the Star Wars films, stormtroopers are the main ground force of the Galactic Empire and are on the dark side in that conflict. The imagery of the dark side in the Star Wars films can be seen as equating to the idea that we are all sinners. In our alienation from God we need God to come to us, becoming one with us, living and dying for us. Being on the dark side, stormtroopers would also have that same need. The ‘Crucified Stormtrooper’ therefore provides us with the possibility of experiencing something of the original sense of scandal that Christ’s crucifixion generated. Both in terms of being controversial and also by revealing the dark side of our human nature, something we prefer to keep well hidden.
Some Christians, like the blogging Archbishop, either failed to see or, perhaps, did not want to confront that aspect of sin in themselves. However, many others who saw the exhibition were able to see the opportunity for reflection and dialogue afforded by the images included. Many of those who saw the exhibition described it as 'striking', 'intriguing', 'uplifting' and 'interesting.' It was commended as an extraordinarily broad-minded, human and thought-provoking exhibition in an extraordinary place with others asking that the church reach out to current artists more often. As a result of the controversy, the curator of the exhibition wrote publicly about his own faith while, in a perceptive meditation, a parishioner asked whether the crucified stormtrooper was us, and suggested that the piece created a dialogue about our own mortality.
The exhibition created a conversation about the crucifixion, human nature, mortality and faith in a way that was similar to the discussion St Paul began when he stood before the Areopagus and spoke about an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god’ (Acts 17.22-31). The Areopagus was the rock of Ares in Athens, a centre of temples, cultural facilities and high court, and also the name of the council that originally served as the central governing body of Athens, but came to be the court with jurisdiction over cases of homicide and other serious crimes. In speaking to the Areopagus Paul was giving a guest lecture, whilst also being, in some senses, on trial.
Pope John Paul II likened the modern media to the New Areopagus, where Christian ideas needed to be explained and defended anew, against disbelief and the gold and silver idols of consumerism. Understanding how St Paul did so in the original Areopagus can assist in understanding how we might initiate or contribute to debate and dialogue in our own day and time, whether virtually or in person.
Paul began where people were by referring to the altar to an unknown god which was to be found amongst the cluster of temples around him. He didn’t criticize those to whom he was speaking. Instead, he commended the breadth of their engagement with religion. He didn’t tell them they were wrong by suggesting they were pagans worshipping the wrong god or gods. Instead, he overaccepted their religious story fitting it into the larger story of what he believed God was doing with the world. Nor did he dismiss their culture. Instead, he made it clear that he had heard and appreciated their poets by making connections between those poets and the message he had come to share. In these ways, he began a dialogue with them about the nature of faith and its engagement with their lives and culture. We read that some scoffed but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this’, and some joined him and became believers.
Paul was able to be in Athens because he had a trade – tentmaking – which enabled him to be supported financially as he travelled and which opened doors and provided contacts that might not otherwise have been open to him. In each place to which he travelled he formed new congregations led by those who came to faith. In each place that he visited he went to the synagogue and sought to speak with those at the heart of the Jewish community, but also welcomed those who were on the edge, often Gentiles, slaves and servants.
St Martin’s has a similar pattern for its ministry. We call it the 4 Cs – compassion, culture, commerce and congregation. It is a pattern for ministry that we share with other churches throughout the UK, and the world, through a movement to renew the church that we call HeartEdge. HeartEdge is about churches developing these 4 Cs. Generating finance and impacting communities via social enterprise and commerce. Culture, in the form of art, music, performance, that re-imagines the Christian narrative for the present. Congregations that develop welcoming liturgies, worship, and day-to-day communal life while also addressing social need and community cohesion. We think nurturing each of these is essential for renewal of the church.
At a time such as this HeartEdge churches, like St Martin’s, are seeking to begin and develop a conversation with our communities and nations, as Paul sought to do in Athens and as I sought to do with the Stations of the Cross exhibition. St Mark’s Church in Pennington, within the Diocese of Winchester, have used their churchyard hedge as a site for yarnbombing to focus the attention of their community on Holocaust Memorial Day, Holy Week and Easter, and, most recently, the VE Day anniversary. Organising online community events and services combined with the organisation of knitting and crochet work for the different yarnbombs has placed St Mark’s at the heart of their community while connecting many who are isolated because of lockdown. St Mark’s has demonstrated that the boundaries of ‘church’ should be much more porous than we had previously imagined and so Rachel Noel, the Vicar of St Mark’s, hopes that in this season we will all get so used to worshipping with, and being led by, a variety of people, that we will in future always seek to find ways to include and value diversity and richness.
St Mark’s Pennington has begun a conversation with their community and the wider Church. It is similar here. When we talk about the work that The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields is doing to support those who are homeless in hotel or hostel accommodation at this time, we are sharing our belief in the value and significance of every human being as a child of God. When our Choral Scholars record music to share with other churches in their online services without breaking copyright regulations, we are sharing our belief in the innate creativity of human beings created in the image of a creative God and demonstrating the overflowing generosity of that same God. When the board of our business seek ways to enable that business to survive lockdown and its subsequent impact, we are sharing in the pain and challenges faced currently by all businesspeople while making clear our belief in the value, dignity and ethics of work and working people. When we develop new ways to support congregations and share services in the changed circumstances of lockdown, we are sharing our belief that faith sustains life in each and every season of existence enabling us to live God’s future now.
We seek imperfectly to model these beliefs in our mission and ministry here at St Martin’s, as do all churches in the HeartEdge movement. By doing so, we seek to initiate conversations about what it means to live God’s future now and how we can enjoy a future that is bigger than our past. As with Paul in Athens and the art exhibition in the City of London, so, in our current circumstances, we are seeking to connect compassion, culture, commerce and congregation to draw all engaged in those forms of community into a conversation that explores how we shall now live and who it is that is our neighbour.
When the ‘Crucified Stormtrooper’ was exhibited in the City of London, it seemed that those conversations could only begin on the basis of scandal or sensation. The mainstream media then didn’t seem interested in the ‘good news’ stories of compassionate community engagement that many churches are able to tell. At that time, it seemed as those their interest was only piqued when something controversial was underway.
Now we are in a different season where the ‘good news’ of community compassion and culture, with church at the heart and on the margins, can be heard and is being valued. So, we invite you to join the conversation, to have your say, so that the margins can speak to the centre that we might encounter God in everyone.
As we do so, we will together find a story which connects a series of otherwise inexplicable circumstances, begin to live in that story and then act our part within it. In this way, like those who joined Paul in Athens, we, too, may discover it is the story of what God is doing with the world that reveals where we are and what we are to do.
See the Stations of the Cross exhibition here, read my response to Archbishop Cranmer here and my thoughts on the Church and controversial art here.
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Bruce Cockburn - Shipwrecked At The Stable Door.
Saturday, 16 May 2020
Windows on the world (278)
Painswick, 2019
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King's X - Out Of The Silent Planet.
Friday, 15 May 2020
HeartEdge – Living God’s Future Now
This week’s events included Sally Hitchiner, Lorenzo Lebrija and Adrian Harris continuing their conversation digging into the practice of how churches can build community online. Their conversation ranged from consideration of those excluded from online church to ways in which different congregations in a team or parish can be linked online. Lots of ideas and resources were shared by the panellists and those attending. Also discussed was the developing understanding that this is not a short-term blizzard but a long-term winter, so we need to adjust and plan accordingly. A video of the workshop can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/theHeartEdge/videos/799420843797633/.
The focal event for ‘Living God’s Future Now’ is a monthly opportunity to join Sam Wells in conversation with a leading theologian or practitioner, to explore what it means to improvise God’s Kingdom. In the first of these conversations Sam was joined by theologian Walter Brueggemann. Their conversation began by considering ways in which the Old Testament uses the theme of pestilence and exile in terms of God discovering new ways of being with us. A key insight was the idea that the Beatitudes and Isaiah 19, among others, open out God’s blessings beyond a chosen people. Reactions and responses included: ‘A huge thank you for hosting this and sharing your wisdom’, ‘This has been excellent and so uplifting, with much to think further about’ and ‘This was such a generous offering’. The video of this conversation can also be found at the HeartEdge facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/506026059544325/videos/561911944690976/.
Workshops coming up include a Nazareth Community workshop at 3.00pm on Monday 18 May. This will provide: an introduction to the Nazareth Community’s simple way of life; prayer and silence; a shared lectio divina; Q&A; and time for participant’s own reflections. Tickets are free. To receive a Zoom invitation please email: Catherine.Duce@smitf.org.
‘Church and Commerce: Relationships, Resilience and Recovery’ is on Thursday 21st May at 10.30am on Zoom. This workshop will explore enabling commercial relationships that inspire cooperative action to heal and transform our communities. To receive an invitation, please email Ben.Sheridan@smitf.org.
Then, together with our partners YourNeighbour.org there will be a Leaders Lunch with Sam Wells at 12.15pm on Friday 22nd May. Sam will be speaking on “Meeting the Abundant God in the Scarcity of Lockdown”. Bring your sandwiches! The lunch will be hosted on Zoom. Please register to attend at https://yourneighbour.org/online/leaders-lunch-with-sam-wells.
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Buddy & Julie MIller - Thoughts At 2AM.
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