Category: The Arts
-
161 Midwife God this Christmas
Above is a Christmas card given to me many years ago by Janet Driver, I recently re-discovered it and made a connection with image below, which might be of a Quaker meeting, but could equally of be wherever two or three are gathered together.
-
160. Let your soul be your pilot
Insight came strangely out of what at first seemed unconnected things. In my recent blog ‘158 Rhosilli Bay’ I found myself mulling on how I can stay rooted in what has already been revealed to me by God in my world, while being open to the Great Mystery of the God of a multitude of…
-
153 A Feral Icon?
The Bible has significant references to boats. The most familiar being the Ark into which Noah and his family took two of every species of animal to survive the Flood and then repopulate the Earth. It was a place of refuge & renewal. Boats feature in the Gospels too. Jesus called some of His first…
-
151 A Polish-Jewish Gift
A Polish Jewish Gift On our visit to Krakow Hannah and I visited the Jewish quarter and in particular the Jewish Museum. During the Second World War Germany invaded Poland and six million Poles were killed, including three million Polish Jews. Almost all traces of the existence of the Jewish community were destroyed. More recently there…
-
150. An Awesome Fact
I recently visited Krakow in Poland with my daughter Hannah, as part of the celebrations of my 80th birthday. Her Polish friend Joanna had recommended Krakow, and so I asked Hannah if her friend might suggest a book or two that would give me a feel for Polish culture before we went there. She suggested…
-
149 Our Vocation
One of my favourite films is entitled ‘Mail for Pastor Jacob’, which is set in the 1970s. It’s about a blind elderly Finnish Lutheran minister, who amongst other things has a ministry in what we might call ‘spiritual direction’ although that phrase is never used in the film. Every morning the mailman cycles up the path,…
-
146 A Christmas Tale
As Christmas draws near I am reminded of a story a friend told me last spring about the events that occurred the previous Christmas in the village where he lives on the other side of Bredon Hill. We met again this autumn and he repeated it. This is the story that he shared. There was…
-
145 Who was present at the birth of Jesus?
I’ve often been fascinated by the characters artists have shown to be present at Jesus’ birth, who they’ve omitted, and the implications of their choices. Clearly Mary and the baby Jesus are there as the primary characters, and Joseph too, albeit in a less significant role if they took the ‘Virgin Birth’ literally, or in…
-
144 The Artist’s Room
I was recently in Sheffield with my daughter Lizzie, and we visited the Graves Gallery hoping to see a favourite painting of mine by Gwen John, ‘A Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris’. It was out on loan, so I bought a postcard instead. It is a remarkable image. It captures what R S…
-
143 The painting behind the painting.
Recently I went with my friend James to an art gallery to see a small exhibition of just three paintings. One of them we both knew well, the other two less so. We spent a long time looking & talking about each painting in turn, and the more we looked the more we saw, and…
A CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITY 