I found this on my desktop – someone sent a link to it on YouTube a while ago. I can’t for the life of me remember if I posted it at the time. If not, enjoy. If I did – enjoy again!!
Apr142011
Apr52011
Rev | The Gospel and Social Change
If you managed to catch the sitcom Rev last year you will have seen Tom Hollander depict the sometimes hilarious and sometimes harrowing reality of inner city ministry. He has been interviewed in The Guardian about his experiences of vicarage life growing up. He juxtaposes the stereotypical view of church with the radical experiences of his father:
My own father was a genuine radical and our breakfast table conversation tended to be less about the church roof or the jam tarts for the local fete and more about the gospel as an instrument for real social change or whether my Dad was going to get arrested on his next direct action against an MoD weapons facility (which he usually did, to my acute childhood embarrassment, with a group of Dominican friar mates of his, often all dressed in monastic habits. The shame).
Mar312011
The Church and The Arts
It is very topical to talk about the arts here in the UK as a lot of funding has been cut. Earlier today I read Phil Ritchie’s blog, who like me is a priest in the Church of England. During prayers this morning we both remembered John Donne who was a poet, a priest and the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. This inspired Phil to asked the question “where are today’s poet priests”? When I read this it opened up a much broader issue for the church to consider:
‘How are our churches cultivating todays artists, musicians, poet’s, singers, songwriters, sculptors, glass blowers….. our artists’?
Historically the church was the main place that cultivated the arts. It funded the arts. It commissioned the arts. It inspired the arts. *God* inspired the arts. People looked at the majesty of creation and artistic expression poured from within. When people read the scriptures, poetic expressions overflowed. As people contemplated the awe and wonder of God, the notes flowed onto the manuscripts. You need only walk into one of the many museums in the UK and you will see the great works that the church has cultivated and inspired throughout the ages. The church was the hub around which the arts rotated. Music was created on the church’s instruments. Glass was crafted for it’s windows. Stone was carved for display in, on or around it’s buildings. Art was painted to hang inside or even painted straight onto the walls of it’s chapel’s, monasteries and Cathedral’s.
When I was training for ordination I was lucky enough to do a placement at a church where they carved the prototype pillars for Durham Cathedral. With the modern church there is a financial reality that causes me to marvel that there was an era in which Durham Cathedral could be envisaged, never mind created.
The modern world comes with all sorts of things that people didn’t predict. They said that in “the future” we would have vast quantities of free time with which to enjoy ourselves. Now that we are here and now firmly planted within “the future” the reality is that we have less free time than ever before.
Where are today’s poet priests?
Whether ordained or lay the modern church is struggling with a financial reality and an administrative reality that leaves little time for the arts. As parishes are placed together with reducing numbers of both ordained and lay alike, “the job” becomes increasingly time consuming. This is coupled with the propensity in all modern world workplaces for paperwork. Everything must be filled in, signed in triplicate and sent to the correct office to be stored in the appropriate filing cabinet…. for each church that you are working with. For those who work for the church this comes with an additional emotional constraint that plays upon the sense of guilt about these things.
An unending task with an emotional attachment? Ponder that for a moment if you will.
When we contemplate the arts and their place within the church we have to ask how much they are currently valued by the church. For many, the arts are a guilty secret that is indulged in when a sneaky couple of hours off are partaken of one evening whilst no one is looking. If we engage with them more often we are often perceived to be elevating our self-indulgence above our calling to serve ‘the church’. This is why I know several people who were musicians in the ‘previous life’ that they ‘gave up’ before ordination.
If this is the reality in which the modern church lives, how do we perpetuate the “rich tradition of priests who fulfilled this part of their vocation through poetry” and other art forms into the future?
Mar12011
To Hell With Rob Bell
I’ve been pretty busy at the moment. I missed out on the whole “Rob Bell nuclear winter” that the internet experienced over the weekend due to the above advert. There will be much debate about the Systematic Theology of the after life. This will no doubt continue to chunter on until the returning Eschaton arrives and cracks some heads together.
I am intrigued by the book and look forward to reading it. However, what has actually stirred within me is a question about the way in which ‘the church’ operates. How do we as Christians deal with each other in a world of social networking? If social networking is to be a useful tool for communicating the Christian faith within the world in which we live, what are we saying about ourselves? Rob Bell made it into the top ten trending topics on twitter because of the above advert. @robbell became the focus of much abuse based upon the suppositions people have made about the theology contained within this as yet unpublished book. It is perceived as a threat to the orthodoxy and status quo of bible belt America.
Unfortunately, @robbell is a web designer from the UK. @robbell has become the focal point of a campaign of abuse misdirected at @realrobbell. And with this incident the world exposes the truth about how disciples are really known.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
#fail
Sorry @robbell and @realrobbell. Sometimes we suck.