I expect the Christmas catalogues are falling through your letter box like snow just at this moment. Turn to any of them that feature interior decoration and you will no doubt find the designs of William Morris, an artist, poet, novelist, and interior designer who inspired the ‘Arts and Crafts movement’ and still decorates our homes today. He was a man consumed with a vision of beauty and social well-being that he explored in poetry, painting, interior design, typology, and radical politics. A saint is ‘A man, a woman, or a child of the eight Beatitudes’. So said Pope John Paul 11, If so, a saint is someone who has an all-consuming vision that drives whatever it is they do be it at work or at home, at prayer, or in politics. Every dimension and every aspect of their life will reflect the vision that first inspired them to pick up a paintbrush, write a poem or weave a tapestry. You may be surprised at my choice of saintly occupations. William Morris was not a man who we might conventionally call a saint, but a man consumed with a vision of beauty and social well-being that he explored in his poetry, painting, interior design, and radical politics. His vision was not of a world to come, but a world in an imaginary medieval past where there was community, craftsmanship, and a courtly code that dictated relationships between rich and poor, men and women, employer and employed. This was the world that Morris attempted to establish in his workshops and wrote about in his poems and novels. Morris preached in the streets and in his old Oxford college, from the soapbox to society lectures he proclaimed his faith in this vision of idealised medieval England. Today William Morris is remembered for his glorious designs for wallpaper, tapestries, typefaces, fabrics, furniture, and stained glass windows. His company, Morris & co covered every decorative art form and profoundly influenced interior decoration throughout the Victorian period. He was the archetypal medieval artist craftsman setting out to master his craft before any new project so that he could instruct the apprentices personally. We may want, or may not want to call William Morris a secular saint. He certainly would not welcome the idea, but in pursuit of his vision, he embraced a whole world of art and architecture and left a legacy of great design and decoration that is still with us today. In this sense, he is a saint, in that he is driven by a vision of beauty that expresses itself in a multitude of art forms. In the same way, the saints, whose vision is of Christ, express and live out their lives in pursuit of expressing his beauty. ‘ Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, Be all else but naught to me, save that thou art; Be thou my best thought in the day and the night, Both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.’ A couple of examples of saints who lived out their lives and expressed their faith in different ways illustrate the different ways we can express our vision of Christ’s beauty. One of my favourites is Saint Don Bosco, the patron saint of conjurors, who taught by love and magic. After Mass in his village church, Don Bosco would gather the children of the poor around him and tell them Bible stories, illustrating them by juggling and sleight of hand. St. Don Bosco is important because he shows us that a vision of holiness, can still be expressed without wearing a hair shirt. A saint is someone who makes goodness attractive. The Anglican tradition, following St Paul, who addresses his congregation as saints, encourages us to pursue the same vision of holiness. Some of these saints are famous, even if we know next to nothing about them, but the vast majority of the saints remain unsung. In a society that fawns on celebrities, in which merely to be known matters much more than being known for anything, in particular, it is important that we give thanks for those hidden and forgotten saints. The saints who sustain our local communities and churches. This includes all of us in whatever way we choose to serve God, inspired by a vision of service as we see it Christ Jesus. Saints come to mind as we read the Beatitudes and the beatitudes come to mind as we think of the saints. Pier Giorgio Frassati was a wealthy young man from Turin who was dedicated to social action on behalf of the poor and marginalised. He was often heard to say, ‘charity is not enough; we need social reform’. He died of polio at the age of 24. The story of his life and death influenced the young Karol Wojtyla, who as Pope John Paul 11, described Frassati as ‘A man of the eight beatitudes'. All the Beatitudes are contained in each one of them and each of them embraces the rest. Soren Kierkegaard’s exposition of the sixth Beatitude, Purity of Heart is to will one thing, is a commentary on them all. The saints – though this is not to explain them – are those who ‘will one thing’, who are undivided in their intentions. This single-minded quest in pursuit of a vision of beauty is no easier for monks and nuns than for those of us ‘in the world’. It’s hard to ‘will one thing’ when you are struggling, or ill or even alone you’re your thoughts, but the lives of those who even in the struggles of life and indeed often through the struggles remind us that in pursuit of a vision of beauty we make goodness attractive. Rev. Simon Brignall We continue in prayer for healing: At every moment of our existence, You are present to us, God, in gentle compassion. Help us to be present to one another so that our presence may be a strength that heals the wounds of time and gives hope that is for all persons through you God. We pray for all who have undergone a stroke, or cancer (especially for those who have recently been diagnosed and are struggling with this heavy load) and all those we know and love in our communities that are in need of general health being restored. We thank you for the recovery of so many and into God's loving hands in faith we bring for God's continued healing: “The power of our prayer is not in our praying but in the One to whom we pray. God is the perfect Father who loves to give good things. Prayer is a precious privilege.” I heard the voice of Jesus say, ‘I am this dark world’s light. look unto me, thy morn shall rise, and all thy day be bright:’ I looked to Jesus, and I found in him my star, my sun; and in that light of life I’ll walk ‘till travelling days are done. Words Horatius Bonar (1808–89) Rev Simon Brignall I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
Ralph Vaughan Williams 1872 – 1958 Ralph Vaughan had a keen ear for the music of England, collaborating with the folk-song collector, Cecil Sharp, he turned some of their collected folk-song material into tunes that we know and love today. There are too many to list but among them, they include Kingsfold, Forest Green, Monk’s Gate, and Shipton. Of his own original compositions, Down Ampney, Sine Nomine and Salve Festa dies are still widely used today. The new English Hymnal, into which these tunes found their way, was the brainchild of Rev Percy Dearmer, who wanted to rid the Anglican Church of turgid 19th-century hymn tunes and felt that Vaughan Williams, then in his early 30s, was the musician to help him. Dearmer cleverly reeled Vaughan Williams into the two-year project by assuring the composer that the project would only take two months. Initially, reluctant Vaughan Williams later admitted that his work on the English Hymnal had been ‘a better musical education than any amount of sonatas and fugues'. Crucially, it was tunes that Vaughan Williams discovered in the preparation of the English Hymnal that inspired the Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis (1910), Dives and Lazarus (1939), and passages of the opera the Pilgrims Progress (1951). The hymnal itself set new standards and brought fresh sounds to the English-speaking world. Ralph Vaughan vowed that the new hymn book would contain only ‘tunes of worth’. He was particularly dismissive of Victorian tunes with their sentimentality and ‘Germanic nature’. In the end, he was obliged to appease critics by adding an appendix of Victorian tunes well known at that time, He called it the ‘the chamber of horrors’. None of this, it would appear has anything to do with our passage today, but, I believe there are some interesting connections. Our passage from Luke’s gospel is about a judge who will not listen to the appeals of a poor widow. Widows had no voice in the ancient world as they had no male to speak for them. They were ignored and thought too unimportant to pay attention to. All this can be said of English folk music at the time of Vaughan Williams. Folk music was the poor relative of proper continental orchestral music which was the mainstay of the British musical calendar, but Vaughan Williams wanted to discover a genuine English voice and looked at the lowliest and most humble of musical forms and found riches beyond his dreams. He listened to the poor and was rewarded with music that in his hands was transformed into the masterpieces like the ‘Lark ascending’. The same is true of small voices when taken up by God they become his material with which he shapes the world around us. Troubled Times The Parable of the Persistent Widow, as this short parable is often called, reflects the concerns of the small, vulnerable Christian communities in the early days of the Church. These were times when these communities were often under attack from outraged religious groups, whether pagan or Jewish seeing their way of life and even their businesses threatened by this new upstart faith. Just read the accounts in Luke’s second book ‘The book of Acts’ about the situation the Church faced in Jerusalem, Ephesus, Philippi, Antioch, Corinth, and Colossae. Christians were imprisoned, executed, outlawed, and ostracized from polite society. In this situation, the leaders of the early Church needed to reassure their small communities that God had not abandoned them and that the promises of a new age dawning had not been false. Persistent Prayer Luke reached back into his store of parables told by Jesus and gave us two parables on faithful persistent prayer. The kind of prayer the Church would need to sustain itself through this testing time. The parables, as they often do, depend on the contrast between two extremes. Here we have the unjust Judge compared to the Just God and the self-righteous Pharisee compared to the humble tax collector. The message the parable teaches us is that we pray not to a distant deity unconcerned for us but to a loving Father who hears our prayers. We come to Him not to demand our rights but to receive his love, waiting on Him, trusting Him for our every need. Good Justice? The first of these parables sketches for us two figures who I think represent the situation of the Church as Luke understands it. Here is the vulnerable small Church community struggling to survive in a hostile world. As they raise their voice in prayer they ask themselves does God hear, does God care, or is God like this Judge, unconcerned with the suffering of the poor? To them, at this moment God seems more like the unjust Judge who ignores their pleas for mercy. Jesus wishes to compare the judge to whom this poor widow appealed to the Father God to whom we pray. Bad Judge! Jesus tells of a judge who, ‘Neither feared God, nor cared about men’ in other words he had no respect for the law, nor did he respond to the needs of those who came before him. Further, he took his time, delaying his judgment, maybe because he was waiting for some kind of bribe! Faced with a judge like that why bother to ask, or as Jesus implies, faced with a God like that why bother to pray? Faced with injustice, and suffering in the world, many are tempted to ask, “Why pray?” Prayer and Protest The portrait we get of the Widow is very interesting. It appears that she was quite a feisty lady! The full meaning of the parable is not apparent to us because it is hidden in the Geek original. The Judge complains that the widow has blackened his name by raising such a fuss about the injustice done to her. The phrase translates as: “Yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so she will not beat me down by her continual coming” Luke 18:5 In the Greek original ’Bothering me’ is translated as: “because she has given me a black eye, I will give her justice!” That could mean she has blackened his name or literally has assaulted him! This points us to an important dimension of faith – it is active. It does not merely wait on God to act but goes out to create a new world, by protest if necessary! The Apostle Paul was certainly very active in protesting his rights as a citizen of the Roman Empire and appealed to the Emperor for Justice. The Church too eventually achieved recognition as a ‘Religio Licito’ a legal religion, permitted and recognised in law. The Church has always been and should continue to be a Protest movement seeking justice and truth through the renewal of each one of us and of society as a whole. St Francis of Assisi protested against the corruption of the Church and preached a gospel of renewal. Luther likewise started a movement we today call the Protestant Reformation because it has its origins in his call for the Reformation of the Church. The Faith that sustains us. The parable of the persistent widow gives us an insight into the faith that sustained the early Church. It was a faith sustained by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The God who we know in Jesus Christ came preaching God’s Kingdom of justice and peace, and the life he lived was consistent with the words he preached. He cared for the sick and suffering, the vulnerable in society, and he reached out to the unloved and unlovely. Finally, he suffered for us, offering himself in our place, the Just Judge who actually pays the penalty that is due to us! As the hymn so wonderfully puts it, ‘Love and justice mingle, truth and mercy meet. This was the God in whom they placed their faith. A faith that not only persisted in prayer but protested for justice. The early Church survived the fiery trial and handed on to the next generation this living faith rooted in prayer, praise, and protest, seeking always to establish God’s Kingdom of Justice and peace on Earth. The Father God to whom Jesus put his faith in the darkness of his own time of trial was the God who even in an unjust world hears the cry of the suffering, a God who in Jesus Christ has already responded with his ‘Yes’. The question that Jesus asks of those who hear the parable is a question for every generation of the Church as we in our turn are asked to hand on the faith of Christ as we have received it. “When the Son of Many comes, will He find Faith on Earth” Luke 18: 8 Could it not also be said of Vaughan Williams that he heard the voice of the poor and had the faith to turn that humble music into the praise of God? Rev. Simon Brignall In faith, we continue in prayer for Rory and Clare. Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions. Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, that you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen Rev Simon Brignall I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
You may have heard the news earlier this week that the professional footballers association is going to be auctioning their famous painting, ‘Going to the match', by Lowry at Christies this month. The painting is expected to raise £8 million. The Mayor of Salford is appealing to the football community to raise the funds so that it can stay on display at the Lowry gallery in Salford. During his lifetime Lowry’s art was not considered of much worth but with the years there has come an appreciation, even love for his portrayal of Northern life in all its gritty reality. I remember the song ‘Matchstick men and matchstick dogs’ that got to the top of the charts and made Lowry into a household name and northern icon. We may think that the figures are clumsy, the colours are dirty, and the details are sketchy, but that’s just my opinion! However, none of that matters because his art is loved and valued not for the artist's skill but for what it is. All art is valued for itself not for the cost of the materials or even the skill of the artist. Its value is in the eye of the beholder Our value to God and God’s love for humanity is very much the subject of this discourse in Luke’s gospel. Friends, not Servants Luke tells the story of a servant who does his job well. Does he get a reward? No! Jesus makes the point that when a servant does his job he is only performing his duty. He doesn’t expect praise, or thanks, because he is only performing his duty. Jesus tells this story because he wants to contrast the way the world works and the way that God works. God calls us friends and not servants, Jesus often referred to us as ‘Children of God’. We are valued by God not for what we do, but for who we are, his children. Not great faith but great love The disciples were given a challenge by Jesus. “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says ‘I repent’, forgive him” Luke 17: 4. The disciples reply, “Increase our faith” Luke 17: 5. They knew how difficult it was going to be to live up to his high standards and they asked for faith. Jesus replies: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and it will obey you” Luke 17: 6. Jesus knew that their faith was as small as a mustard seed, but he also knew that his Father’s love was great. Moved by love not need God’s love is seen to be indiscriminate, He blesses all with His gifts because He loves all His creation. We might expect Jesus to be motivated by pity or need, or maybe by the faith of those who came to him but that would be to misunderstand God’s love. God’s goodness is not in response to anything we do but flows only out of His love for us. Nor is His response in proportion to our faith in Him. His response exceeds our expectations and efforts – the mulberry tree obeys us! It is not our needs, our efforts, or our faith that moves God, but as Paul tells us ‘because of His great love for us, God made us alive with Christ’ Rom 5:8. So what is to stop us from taking advantage of His love, nothing, we can walk away without ever stopping to thank and praise Him, as did nine of the lepers. The leper who returned to Jesus threw himself at Jesus’ feet. It was an act more of worship than thanks. As children of God, we love and serve Him not because of what we can get out of Him, not even for what He gives us but because of who He is, our Father God. When we look at all the great characters of the Bible; Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, - we see men and women like us who often fail and get it wrong, but God never gives up on them because He loves them as they are and asks them to offer what they have. Like the Lowry painting, we may not feel it is great art but that’s not the point, it is loved and valued for itself by those who see in it something of intrinsic value. Its value like our value to God is in the eye of the beholder; in God’s eyes, we are infinitely precious. So it’s not our faith that produces results, nor even our best efforts, but God’s faithfulness to us, even in our weakness that transforms us and makes us what we should be. It is because we know that we are loved and accepted by God that we can offer Him our best knowing that He can do great things with us. He makes us more than just servants He makes us His friends. Rev Simon Brignall The seven days of Creation Scripture, art, poetry, music, meditation, clay Seven Wednesday afternoons at Lady Lucy Cottage, Coln St Aldwyns 5th October: Light and darkness Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions. Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, that you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
Were you a ‘Middle child’ between your high-achieving elder sibling and your adored younger one? If you were you may have felt unloved according to many child psychologists. Our place in the family matters, and many ‘middle children suffer because they feel overlooked. The eldest is praised, the youngest is adored and the middle one is often overlooked. Parents will know the anguish of trying to love all equally. Parents do of course love all their children, but nothing can overcome that sense of inadequacy that many ‘middle children feel. Often it is overcome by ‘acting up’ and getting noticed. Middle children can often be fussy, badly behaved, and ‘foul-mouthed’ according to research reported by the ‘Times’. We’ve seen it all and we recognise it as the signs of a child wanting attention. The Ambassadors. Hans Holbein the Younger 1533 If ever there was a painting that shouted ‘look at me' it is this one. Two young men with all their finery paraded in front of the trappings of power and wealth. One is a bishop and one is a diplomat. They are on a mission to persuade Henry VIII to remain within the Catholic fold of Europe. Think Brexit! But Holbein has a subversive message for us hidden in the symbolism of the painting. The upturned globe at the bottom of the painting and the Celestial globe at the top suggest a Europe in turmoil. This is the time of the Reformation when European powers are struggling for supremacy and Henry VIII is a key player. The diplomat is French and the Bishop is an envoy of the Pope. Both hope to persuade Henry VIII to side with the Catholic vision of a united Europe. But note the broken cord of the lute and the hidden image of the crucifix, behind the curtain, which suggests that all is not right with the state of Europe. Holbein, as a follower of the Humanist philosopher Erasmus, condemned the religious controversy that was tearing Europe apart and in his hidden symbolism makes us aware of the futility of these political power games. The upturned globe contrast with the Celestial globe which shows the constancy of the heavenly order. The crucifix reminds us of God’s love for all Humanity outside of the political struggles for power. And finally, the hidden skull reminds us all that we are equal in death. All these references suggest that Holbein wanted to make a point. Political positioning is the reverse of the gospel message of love. Where do I sit? This is the story behind the parable that Jesus tells: It’s a story of children acting up, trying to get the attention of God. That was the game being played by these dinner guests, much like any child they wanted the limelight so they vied with one another in the “Look at me” game. They played the game by different rules then. It may seem strange to us but the competition was to be the ‘Holiest’. Being holy isn’t quite as fashionable now as it was then, but these were different times. The Pharisees through their self-denial and legal rigour wanted to appear world-denying but in the cultural setting of their day, it was actually a form of conformity. It was fashionable to be ‘puritanical’ because most people could not afford to be. The Pharisees earned valuable status points by conforming to the religious traditions of the day and so Jesus drew attention to their self-seeking behaviour when invited to a dinner party. Instead of honouring the other guests they would vie for the positions of importance and exclude those who did not fit in. It was a game of ‘Snakes and ladders’ played with rules we recognise today - recognition came with the prize of social superiority. The game played at the dinner table has even entered our language: “How far up the salt?’ referred to the position of guests in relation to the salt, which was in times past a precious commodity. The closer to the salt, the more exalted the guest. 'I love you'. The point of Jesus’ parable is not to condemn, that was the game played by others, but to change the rules, so we see him choose out of the crowd the most despised and rejected of all the dinner guests at the dinner party, a man with ‘dropsy, a disease that caused the body to swell and weep fluid. Jesus often singled out the most unlovely and unlovable person in the crowd and said in a way that no one could mistake “I love you” God, like all parents, is desperate to get his message across “I love you”. You don’t have to fight for attention. “I love YOU!” is the message to all His children. Sometimes before we believe in God we must be reassured that He believes in us! Rev. Simon Brignall We pray for all who seek healing, either physical or spiritual. Remembering especially Rory and Clare. Prayer for Ukraine God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today, and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace, for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear, That you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen St John the Baptist, Coln St Aldwyns, St Swithins, Quenington and St Nicholas, Hatherop Churches IMPORTANT NOTICE Cirencester Deanery Plan ConsultationThe Cirencester Deanery has drafted a plan in response to its financial problems. Within the plan, there is a proposal for Coln St Aldwyns, Hatherop, and Quenington to lose their minister post. HAVE YOUR SAY Consultation meeting open to all 7pm, Wednesday 31st August Poulton Church Please attend to support the future of your local church Revd Simon Brignall, CHQ Vicar chqvicar@gmail.com Christian Walker, CHQ Deanery Synod Representative christianwalker32@icloud.com I am contactable from Thursday to Sunday.
