Christ in the Wilderness - Stephen Cottrell reflecting on the paintings by Stanley Spencer

You may have by now noticed that Stephen Cottrell is one of my favourite writers, and it should be no surprise that I am going to wax lyrical about this book…

I have a great fondness to Stations of the Cross, there seems to be an extra richness that comes from an artist responding across a set of works.  Stanley Spencer’s pictures, which form the basis of this book, might not be stations in a formal sense but they are of the same family.

The pictures have an innocence and yet also multiple layers of meaning - and I think I should take a moment to give due credit to them as the starting point of the book.  To encounter the pictures on your own would be a rich experience, but to have Stephen Cottrell alongside you gently offering some thoughts on, and around, the works takes the encounter to the next level.

I think one of the great things is the way that he mixes the theological and academic with incidents from family holidays or other everyday events.  This really embeds a truly incarnational understanding of life – “incarnational” is such an overused word in the church today that it is largely a worn out word and means nothing much at all.  But with Cottrell the essence is recaptured, holding the whole range of human experience in the presence of God.

Of the paintings I think the one I keep coming back to is “Consider the Lilies” in which a rather fat Christ is on his hands and knees looking down at simple daisies – this is the Genesis 1 moment, “God saw that it was good”, but captured in a way that brings it from the supernatural into the realm of our own experience.  And this is perhaps the overall achievement of the book.

Here I Am by Richard Giles

Having read and not really enjoyed The Art of Tent Making, I did however decide to get hold of this book which many of the contributors mentioned. 

There was a particular idea that Giles understands the “priesthood of all believers” as a collective identity not a stand alone quality of each individual that I really wanted to follow up.

This idea is mentioned in Here I Am, but if is not the dominant theme and at one level I was a little disappointed by that.  It is a personal and idiosyncratic account of priesthood and at that level it was really refreshing, having read a lot of the standard books on priesthood and vocation that a mostly bland, glib, soulless, monochrome…

The chapters are short and punchy and this is the ideal companion to the Christian Priest Today. A different but compatible vision.

What is clear is that Giles has a pretty robust understanding of the role of the priest (or presbyter as he demands they are called).  The guiding hand of the priest is, for him, a strong one and the metaphor of the tough love of parenthood seems to be the one that spring quickest to his mind. 

This is ok in the right hands, and I think it is clear that Giles balances this assertive nature with a servant heart – but in other hands it could well be disastrous.  This worry, I think unfortunately, comes from my increasingly low view of the clergy, en masse.  Before anyone gets the hump - I continue meet and know some exceptionally gifted clergy and I am privileged to count many of these as friends – however I sadly feel they are exactly that “exceptional”.  When I go to various levels of Synods the vast majority of clergy I encounter are anything but an inspiration – and one of the (many) reasons why I currently have no interest in following a path to ordination is because I have no desire to become one of “them”.

The Old Ways By Robert MacFarlane

Reading this book was a little triumph over the capitalist machine, Amazon sent me an email recommending it, and so I got it out of the local library…

Robert MacFarlane begins with some general reflections on walking, and cites numerous philosophers who have mused that “real” thinking can only be done while walking – “I can only meditate when I am walking” said Rousseau, while Nietzsche is quoted “Only those thoughts which come from walking have any value.”

This draws on a strong sense that the pace of walking is in tune with the natural rhythm of life and thought.  From my experience of walking Northern Leg (Student Cross) over the last few years I can certainly testify to the special relationship there is between some really deep thought and walking the road. 

He then goes on to recount for a number of walks which he has made.  The first is down the Icknield Way from Cambridge passing through my old home of Baldock, which gets a mention (just!). 

One of the most powerful walks is out on the mud flats off the edge of Essex, it seems to be a transgressive act to walk out where the sea should be and yet there is a draw towards this landscape [sic].  He quotes William Fox who found “cognitive dissonance in isotropic spaces” and once again I’m thinking of Northern Leg – those days we spend crossing the Fens are all important to the experience.  There is a blankness that allows the mind, away from the distractions of our hyperactive 21^st Century lifestyle, to settle on what is important. 

This year I missed the days on the Fens, and found that on those days while I was back at work there was a nagging sense of claustrophobia.  I hope that my colleagues didn’t notice the wild look in my eyes, wistful to be away and out there - even as the wind bit and the snow came down.  Having walked Northern without the Fens I now realise that is not the exquisite beauty of Castle Acre that is my favourite place, it is a mile out from the Daffodil Barn, when lunch is just around the next bend in the road (aka 3 miles away!).

There are other powerful chapters, for example when he walks in Palestine, when the land is contested and the “open road” has become an oxymoron, but towards the end of the book I got a bit lost in the chapters devoted to the poet Edward Thomas.

It is a rich book, and there was one of those blissful ironies that as I read it the radio was reporting a study that Brits walk for an average of only 9.5 minutes a day – no wonder we are so often an unthinking society…

Walking on Waste by Mike Jenkins

Walking on Waste

This is a powerful collection giving an insight into a Wales ill at ease with itself, removed from the chocolate box image of tourist Wales or the glass façade of Cardiff Bay. 

Some examples

Platform Couple

While winter clings like frost on glass

here, in mid-morning brightness, a couple

seek the shade of platform-shelter to pass

the dragging hours with the cans’ hiss-pull.

They’re would-be escapologists of Valley Lines;

as others leave, each with a sense of purpose

neatly stacked, they slurp fast and bind

and they’ll try to break free before the time

when the brew is sunk; they throw

the empties onto tracks, it appears

as if they’ll fall before they know

the way to travel outside their cares.

And if they stumble, who’ll halt the driver,

who’ll stanch blood spurting like lager?

The Kind Exit

We need the bed.

To make way.

Over eighty, I’m afriad.

Economics.

Reality.

A quick injection.

Diamorphine.

The kind exit.

Save your bills.

No Old Folks’ Home.

Waiting lists, of course.

Pressure from above.

We’re not to blame.

Pneumonia.

Caught on the ward.

The old people’s friend.

We need the bed.

Oxygen. A drip.

Even water’s spat out.

It’s for you to decide.

One way or the other.

Euthanasia?

We deplore the word.

Other priorities,

Bed-blocking.

It’s for the best.

Crack the whip.

Sign here.

Keep your capital.

Move somewhere nice.

I apologize.

We need the bed.

Anglesey, The Concise History by David A. Pretty

Anglesey: The Concise History : The Concise History (History of Wales)

In this enjoyable read David A. Pretty gives us 9000 years of history in just 156 pages and therefore, without criticism, one must note that this is a selective history of Anglesey. 

It is also a very “traditional” selection, with many decades whizzing past during which the only comment is about who was elected MP.  Industry gets a mention as does education, but mainly in terms of who was in charge rather than giving a sense of the “lived” experience of the ordinary Anglesey people.

There are notes on the changing dynamics of the religious life of the island, from the stronghold of the druids to a bastion of Methodism and now a seemingly listless present.

But it is the ability to give a narrative arc across the centuries which is the strength of this volume.  That very long term trends have been determinative in the make up of island life is drawn out in a way that much “modern” historical writing with its micro focus fails to do.

Clergy Robes by Andrew Atherstone and Dressing for Worship by Dick Hines

Clergy Robes and Mission Priorities (Worship Series)
 Dressing for Worship: A Fresh Look at What Christians Wear in Church

Grove Books have a well deserved reputation for providing high quality and accessible material which enriches the life of the Church by encouraging thoughtful engagement in key issues among the general reader. 

Andrew Atherstone’s Clergy Robes and Mission Priorities can therefore only be understood as the exception that proves the rule.  His starting point is that Clergy Robes are a barrier to Mission, however he advances no evidence to substantiate this.  Instead this is an unremitting tirade against the rules of the Church of England based on the assumption that those who uphold these rules are backward, blinkered, and ignorant.

Dick Hines’ Dressing for Worship, which is amongst Andrew Atherstone’s bibliography, is a much more worthy offering.  It is a useful foundation for considering the position of the Church of England on clergy dress, acknowledging the deep tradition of giving clergy distinctive outfits and the many positive arguments in favour of the retention of this practice.  It does also give space for consideration of the down side of this practice and the reasons why some feel that the obligation on clergy to robe should be removed.

Travelling Light by Mike Lees

Travelling Light: Dramatic Reflections on the Life of Jesus by Those Who Knew Him

This collection of short dialogues based on Biblical stories provides some useful material to enliven services.

They are solidly written but perhaps stay a little too safe, and one or two of them rely too heavily on clichés, these are a good starting point for those who want to try out some dramatic readings within worship – they are going to be invaluable in finding ones feet and building confidence.  

That said I feel that you would quickly get to the point where you would want to do more, to write you own dialogues and to push the boundaries of what the disciples were thinking. 

Drama is often most powerful when used to allow a congregation to think the “unthinkable” – to give motivations to the actors within Biblical stories that are beyond the sanitised versions that we have often become over familiar with.