Simeon: Learning to wait well

During a Candlemas Retreat at St Columbas Woking we had space and opportunity  to do our own thing.  So I tried my hand at an 'icon', using oil pastels on an A4 art sheet (larger than my normal A6 pad).  More a impressionist painting than a proper, spiritual 'writing' of an icon. It was based on, or rather 'inspired' by an actual orthodox icon:   

  Holy Righteous Simeon the Receiver of God

I loved the cheek-to-cheek intimacy in the picture. As always the Christ-figure looks more a small adult than a child. And Simeon does not look that old... 

Simeon, if you remember, is the old man, who is on the scene when Jesus is presented in the Jerusalem temple (Luke 2:22-40).   He is described as 'righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him'.  

  

When he sees the Christ-child he proclaims what is now called the nunc dimittus or 'Canticle of Simeon'. He declares, among other things, Jesus to be 'a light to lighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel'.    

I played a version Harry Christophers Ikon album 'The Sixteen'  during the 8 o'clock communion service on Sunday  You can listen to a sample here 

Here is another YouTube version sung by Aled Jones with Ben Crawley - Nunc Dimittis

Learning to wait well 

Watching and waiting

for Salvation to appear,

for the Promise to be fulfilled,  

for an Infant to be born. 

Recognising the small and insignificant One 

for what He is in all His potential.

And being content....

It is enough.  

Help me to be content,

with small beginnings

even when time seems to be running out.  

Haiku Prayers

I like the simplicity of Japanese haiku poems (17 syllables in 3 phases -  5,7,5)... 

Lord let your servant

depart in peace, for my eyes

have seen Salvation

Simeon watching
for salvation to appear,
Learning to wait well

sacred:space - The Puzzle of Evil

The last sacred:space evening (Sat 28th April) was led by Mike Cope in the NAWKI style - Church but 'NotAsWe KnowIt' 

And the theme was the Puzzle of Evil. It was an excellent, thoughtful evening.  Mike had help from 3 friends Alan, Shona and Ivan.

They explored the theme by means of video, image, discussion, conversation, music, song - a rich multimedia of thought-provoking material.  A heavy topic with a light touch. With space to think and reflect using various prayer stations...

The content was rich, mainly dealing with the problem of suffering rather than evil per se.    Drawing from negative theology (or apophatic as opposed to catathatic theology), we see an 'imperfect reflection' (through a  glass darkly). To the standard question 'if God is so powerful, why is there so much suffering,  the standard answer is 'free will'.  Augustine called this a 'better explanation than any other philosophy'    
But John Hick argues that 'if the price of being human is suffering then the price is too high'
(All of this was on an simple video which I will post once I have the link)

Alan had a number of pointers to potential answers .....

• The film the City of Angels   (Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan) an angels who falls out of heaven and experiences humanness - love and pain together
• Eli Weisel's picture of the young boy hung by Nazis - who took a long time to die - 'where is God?' someone in the crowd asked - 'There he is on the Gallows'.   Either God is dead, hung like the young boy, or he is involved in suffering. 
• Bonhoeffer argued that only a Suffering God is of any use 
• Grunewald's Triptych of the 'Crucifixion' in the chapel of a hospice for leper

The pointing finger of identification, the leprous skin of Christ who became 'a curse'; the purity of the praying women, and the Cross like a giant Crossbow shooting the Christ-arrow to hit the Divine target.  The image of the Divine lamb that was slain..... all point to God's involvement in our suffering.

‘A god who cannot suffer is poorer than any human. For a God who is incapable of suffering is a being who cannot be involved. Suffering and injustice do not affect him. And because he is so completely insensitive, he cannot be affected or shaken by anything. He cannot weep, for he has no tears. But the one who cannot suffer cannot love either. So he is a loveless being’                       Jurgen Moltmann   (1974) the Crucified God

 
 As I said, the evening was thought provoking. Yet it was in the simple acts of lighting a candle, or writing a prayer or dropping stone in water, that somehow provided a way forward in the face of such huge, unanswerable, puzzling questions......

Special FX church

The image is a bit of a doodle that became a version of Rublev’s Icon of the Trinity crossed with a hint of Eric von Daniken ‘Chariots of the Gods: I remember asking 'was God an Astronaut’ as a youth)

The mysterious visit of the 3 men/angels in Genesis 18, who somehow represent the Trinity in Orthodox thinking, lends itself to a bit of speculation, full of mystery.

My picture came about as a result of drawing the halos which somehow looked like space helmets, and it sort of took off from there...... !

I can vividly remember watching the Apollo moon landings, so maybe in our age its appropriate to portray the church in these cosmic terms...

A MISSION-SHAPED GATHERING

CMS was hosting a visit by 4 Korean clergy, who wanted to look at Mission Shaped Church. We attended the Fresh Expressions and Pioneering conference run by centre for Pioneer Learning It was too good an opportunity to miss.

Over 50 participants gathered from mainly from Europe - Scandinavia, Germany, France,

Scotland. US and Canada: Australia and New Zealand. Plus the 4 Koreans.

The centre is run by Dave Male with input from Andrew Roberts on the Mission Shaped Ministry (MSM) course, Adrian Chatfield on mission-shaped spirituality. Bishop Graham Cray on the mission shaped movement; and Mike Moynaugh on mission-shaped theology. Everything was mission shaped. Even the sandwiches were mission shaped (they were nice triangles!)

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Fresh Expressions is often abbreviated as FX. For me that is Special Effects (I remember the movie of that name and FX2 the deadly art of illusion. Maybe that is what the Church is seeking to do - add some special effects making it more trendy, more audio-visual, more sexy, more appealing in the 21st century. enabling church to take somehow off.

Special effects can be gimmicky, all about lights and tricks and illusions. there can be expectations on pioneers to be similarly gimmicky.

Yet I was struck by how 'ordinary' many FX churches are : Messy church; Cafe church; Network church; rural church; Cell-church run by people who are trying to be essentially Mission-Shaped.

We visited Thirst a Friday morning Cafe Church meeting in a school and Cambourne, an ecumenical (Anglican Baptist Methodist URC) Church which started in a garage and a Doctors surgery and now has an expandable A-frame church building in the middle of a new Estate. And there was nothing gimmicky about them. They were ordinary people trying to make the church relevant to their context.

PIONEERING - TO BOLDLY GO

Like the star ship enterprise, there is a sense of pioneering being about 'going boldly where no man has gone before' A lot is experimental and exploratory, tentative and partial informal and flexible.

Pioneers are people who don't quite fit in with the centre, and like to push out into unexplored territory, they are happy on the edge.

IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!

Graham Cray reminded us its not rocket science. a Fresh Expression is defined simply as 'a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church'

The Archbishop of Canterbury coined the phrase Mixed Economy to describe the range of church, traditional and modern , fresh expressions Not either or but BOTH/ AND. "celebrating and building on what is mission -shaped in traditional forms of church and finding new, flexible appropriate ways to proclaim the Gospel afresh to those who do not relate to traditional ways" Permission has been given to allow Church to take off.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Back to the Trinity and Rublev's ICON. Mike Moynaugh reminded us that the Missio Dei originated in the Tri-unity of God, drawing us into Communion. Mission is the eternal decision of God the Trinity 'communion in mission;

which the church takes and becomes 'community in mission' The church is misisonary and 'becomes missionary by attending to each and every context in which it finds itself' - 'The word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood'

There is a sense that in Church, (FX or not), we are creating something 'other worldly', because in church we encounter the Divine....  sort of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'

An Impression of Madonna and Child

I was inspired to draw an 'impressionist Icon' whist at Hillfield Friary in Dorset.

It is based on a print they had on sale in the shop.

It was also inspired by the sacred:space evening in Woking when Anton Ponamarev from faith2share came and spoke on Windows on Eternity: Orthodox spirituality of Icons

Icons are used by Orthodox churches around the world, with c 25o-300 million believers. That makes them probably the most common Christian art form. They are not idols that are worshipped, but are used as a means of 'veneration' - to focus the mind on the subject of the icon. A window on heaven.

Perhaps the most famous icon is the Vladimir Madonna and child

which acts as a sort of prototype for other icons .

interesting how the Christ child always looks like a 'little man'

in our sacred:space, we discussed about what is the difference between an Icon and a painting and looked at various examples. Sometimes it is unclear. But Icons are genearlly two dimentional, flat, no shadow.

There are conventions in painting an icon none of which I followed. My picture is more impressionistic in style so maybe it is neither a painting nor an icon. But it was insprired by faith....

It seems appropriate to end with an orthodox version of the Magnificat, the Song of Mary (in English) as it anticipates the 'upside-down Kingdom'

The Song of Mary English (Eastern Orthodox Divine Service):

My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour;

For he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.

For behold, from this day all generations will call me blessed;

For the mighty one has done great things to me, and holy is his name.

And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts;

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has exalted the holy;

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent empty away.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his seed forever.