Last year I worked on a project with the fabulous Paula Gooder to illustrate her nine short stories entitled ‘Women of Holy Week’. The resulting book was hugley popular last Lent, and I suspect it will be again this year, so it’s absolutely not too late to get hold of copies and use them in your church or in your personal devotions, or as a gift for friends. It’s wonderfully readable, and includes ideas for reflection as well as historical / scriptural details drawn from Paula’s scholarly wisdom that really enrich the narrative.
If you would like to use the images alongside the book in worship or Lent groups etc, you can download them from my book illustrations page. There are nine individual paintings, and one large composite image, to be ‘read’ in a spiral direction starting at the top left hand corner, following the order that the stories appear in Paula’s book. Because the stories are all interwoven with each other, so are the paintings – you can enjoy them separately or together.
NB if you don’t have the means to do high quality colour printing you may find projecting the images more satisfying.
As we prepare to enter Holy Week, I wanted to post something about the wonderful collection of stories by Paula Gooder, which explore the events of Holy Week and Easter through the eyes of nine of the women. It was my absolute joy and privilege to provide the artwork for the book. You can buy the book directly from Church House Publishing (and from other online and high street bookshops) and you can also download the pictures (for a limited time only) so you can use them in your own personal reflections or in Church over Holy Week and beyond.
Now it’s almost advent, here are some Christmassy things (NB see also my other post on Advent things) that might be useful. Sorry it’s a bit of a jumble of things all together. Please do feel free to use any of the pictures in any way that’s helpful. I’ve marked whether the words can just be used freely or if they need to go on your CCLI return.
Could be any shed, reallyThis is Mary and Joseph, just after Joseph wakes up from the dream in which the angel tells him they have to leave everything and run to Egypt. Another family at Holy InnocentsAnother mother at Holy InnocentsFlight into Egypt
Some more clipart-y images:
A simple Christmas carol to the tune of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy:
Little baby, sweetly slumbering, Cradled and cuddled in Mary’s loving arms. In the sky are angels gathering, but for now, here below, all is still and calm.
Little baby, our Emmanuel, God with us, one of us, born to be our king. Little baby, while you slumber, Far above you angels sing.
We know you came to save us all… But how can God become so small…? For God so loved all he had made He sent his Son the world to save……
Little baby…
An easy Christmas song for children to sing The tune is ‘Here we go round the mulberry bush’.
Sing of the time the angel came, the angel came, the angel came, Sing of the time the angel came to bring the news to Mary.
Sing of the birth at Bethlehem, at Bethlehem, at Bethlehem, Sing of the birth at Bethlehem, the baby in the stable.
Sing of shepherds from the hills, from the hills, from the hills, Sing of the shepherds from the hills, who came to worship Jesus.
Sing of the brightly shining star, the shining star, the shining star, Sing of the brightly shining star, that led the kings to Jesus.
Sing of the love of God on earth, God on earth, God on earth, Sing of the love of God on earth, that brings us close to heaven.
Star of wonder (Tune: Sing Hosanna) – Christingle song for Epiphany
We give gold for a king, keep us serving, We give gold for a king today, As we give, it is Christ we are serving, We’ll keep serving Jesus every day.
Star of wonder! Lead us onwards, Show the way to find the world’s true light. Star of wonder! Lead us onwards, Shine around us through the night.
We bring incense today, keep us praying, We bring incense to him today. For the needs of the world, keep us praying. Keep us praying to him every day.
Star of wonder…
We bring myrrh to remember his passion, As he shared in his people’s pain, In our lives we will show his compassion, As we live for Jesus every day.
First, do check out www.adventonline.faith for a massive range of newly-created resources, to which I’ve contributed a handful of things, along with dozens of others (it’s all available under creative commons).
Now, some things from me. Please do feel free to use any of the pictures in any way that’s helpful. I’ve marked whether the words can just be used freely or if they need to go on your CCLI return.
Jesus, you’re coming, bringing the love That draws the earth near to heaven above, We’ll wait as the darkness covers the earth, And long for the joy of remembering your birth.
We’ll kindle a flame to shine through the night, Living our lives to shine with your light, And sharing your love in all that we do, your wonderful story is our story too.
Fruit of the seasons, blessings to share, This wondrous creation placed in our care, The city and forest, ocean and land, The whole world is treasured in God’s gentle hand.
We’ll kindle a flame to shine through the night, Living our lives to shine with your light, And sharing your love in all that we do, your wonderful story is our story too.
Love like a circle, love never ends, The love of a God who calls us your friends, A love without price, a free gift of grace, That holds all the world in a heavenly embrace.
We’ll kindle a flame to shine through the night, Living our lives to shine with your light, And sharing your love in all that we do, Your wonderful story is our story too.
When I am feeling dull and grey, and sunshine seems so far away, when I don’t know quite where to start, I remember the stardust in my heart: all it needs is a tiny spark to get me shining in the dark, So Jesus, give me your fire divine to let my little light shine!
Advent Wreath Song (to the tune ‘Father we place into your hands’)
Mothers and fathers of the faith, who lived in times of old, Leaders and judges, kings and queens were faithful, true and bold, Travelers, heroes, shepherds, all with stories to be told: Still they show us how to follow you.
Prophets and seers who spoke the truth in answer to your call, finding new ways to bring your word to people great and small, living their lives to show your love was meant for one and all, still they show us how to follow you.
John, in the desert calling out, ‘The Kingdom has come near.’ ‘Come and repent, and be baptised, there’s nothing then to fear.’ ‘Jesus is coming now, the One you’re waiting for is here.’ Still he shows us how to follow you.
Mother of Jesus, angels called her favoured, full of grace, Holding the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, in her embrace, She is the one whose ‘yes’ helped God to save the human race, still she shows us how to follow you.
And this last verse, for Christmas day, is by my friend and colleague Gill Robertson:
Jesus our Saviour, born a king, we welcome you today, Lord of all time, Immanuel, with joyful hearts we say: You are the Christ who came to earth for us; and now we pray, Help us all to daily follow you.
Another Advent wreath song (tune: sing hosanna):
There’s a story to tell of creation, And the patriarchs’ faith of old, There are stories of prophets and sages, We’ll repeat them ‘til the world’s been told:
Sing together! sing together! Sing to welcome in the King of Kings. Sing together! Sing together! Sing to welcome in the King.
There are stories of sin and forgiveness, Of a Kingdom of truth and love. Of a girl who gave birth to a baby, To fulfil God’s promise from above:
As God’s people prepare for his coming, And remember those days long gone, Our own stories are yet to be written, As we live to make God’s kingdom come:
We will patiently wait for the morning, Through the night we will watch and pray, As we look for the light that is dawning, We’ll be ready at the break of day:
And another Christingle song (tune: My Favourite Things):
Earth is so small in the whole of creation, Continents, oceans And each unique nation, Cultures and languages, All so diverse, All on one planet In one universe!
Thanks be to God For a million reasons, Food on our plates From the fruit of the seasons, All that we have Is a gift from above, Plenty for all if we share it with love.
Light of the world For a people in sorrow, Faith that can give us Real hope for tomorrow, Since on the cross Jesus bore the world’s pain, Bringing new life At his rising again:
When the world seems Full of trouble, God will hear our prayer: Our mission is living as lights in the world for everyone everywhere!
And how here are the pictures:
Mary and Elizabeth, both discovering that mothering is best done in solidarity rather than alone.
There are many ways to pay attention, but one of the ways that I have found myself exploring more recently is paying attention through art. The more I draw and paint, the more I find that it allows me to pay attention, and I want to reflect very briefly on four of those ways:
Attending to one thing I am easily distracted. What I see out of the window or the corner of my eye will always take me away from what’s right in front ot me. Except when I’m painting. When I paint, I often find myself in a state of intense, yet calm, concentration. I’m able to focus on the thing in front of me, and distractions fade away, I lose my habitual impatience, and time starts to flow in a way that isn’t demanding or controlling or threatening. The texture of the paint on the pallet, and feel of the brush on the canvas, the smell of the paint, the way the brush feels in my hand, the emerging image and its shapes, colours and contours: these are my horizson, and I am rooted in the moment in a way that almost feels timeless. I know that painting doesn’t do this for everyone, and that there are many activities that have the capacity to offer something of the same experience. I hope that there is something that does this for you, especially if much of the time you struggle, as I do, to ‘monotask’, or if the circumstances of your life make this hard.
Attending to place In Church of England ministry there is a concept called the ‘cure of souls’. It’s hard to put into ordinary words what this means, but to me it has been a shorthand for the love that I have always felt for the places and their people that have been given to me, as a priest, to love and care for. As a vicar I felt it as I walked the streets of my parish, my footsteps becoming a prayer of blessing on the physical location and all that happens there, as well as in my interactions with the people of that place. It felt as if my presence there was (or, at least should be, if I was doing it right!) a means of God’s blessing. That place, and those people, had my attention, my care. I am now chaplain of a College, and I feel the same way about that as I did about my parish. During the initial COVID 19 lockdown, I couldn’t be in College at all – almost nobody could. And some instinct led me to paint the places I could physically get to. I started by creating some line drawings of the College, to offer as colouring-in pictures on the welfare pages of the College website. Then, I painted my Chapel, and the view from my office window. It gave me back a sense of the place for which I had cure of souls, and allowed me a way to emotionally, psychologically and spiritually reconnect with that place and its community, dispersed though we all were. As I drew and painted, I found my thoughts and prayers echoing the blessing that I would usually express through my footsteps.
Attending to stories Before COVID most of my paintings were biblical. I would use the act of painting as a form of scriptural theological reflection, finding that the process of working out how to convey a story on canvas raised many more questions than I would have thought of without that physical process. Even the question of which moment in a story to choose carries with it a whole set of things to reflect on – and there are some stories that I have painted several times, choosing different ‘moments’. And there are some ‘missing scenes’ that I have also tried to fill out – the gaps in scripture, the parts of the story that we know must have happened, and yet are left to our imagination. I’ve also really loved it when people have asked me to paint a particular story, or part of a story, or missing scene, because it gives me a chance to engage with how the story sounds to someone whose life experience and theology may be very different from mine, and who may be connecting with scripture in ways I’ve not thought of. This paintings below are: the risen Jesus meeting his mother just after he’s seen the disciples in the upper room; the woman with the bleeding, and Mary in the garden.
Mary hugging Jesus after the resurrection when he comes downstairs from seeing the disciples in the upper room.
Attending to people Finally, I wanted to reflect briefly on using art to attend to people – real people. With my biblical paintings I started looking at photographs of real people to enable me to learn how to paint human faces – and this immediately confronted me with how white most of the western art tradition is (and also, that trying to make everyone look ‘middle eastern’ also isn’t quite right either – when we treat people generically we are straying into the territory of stereotyping, which can lead to much worse). I looked back at the wonderful resource ‘The Christ we share’, which gathered images of Jesus from a huge range of traditions and cultures, and started trying to pay more attention to this diversity in my paintings. I stopped looking for a Jesus who looked like me or like the stereotyped image of someone from the middle east, and started trying to see Christ in all people – not just as a theological idea, but as an enacted idea, through painting.
This one’s called ‘the one with the crumby dog’ and features the woman with the sick child who answered back. You go, mamma bear!
This month I have set myself a further challenge. Having become reasonably competent at painting people who do, at least, look like people, it’s another whole level of skill to depict actual people in such a way that they are recognisable! So for Black History Month I am trying to draw or paint or sketch one mini-portrait a day to help me celebrate or learn about someone I hadn’t celebrated or learned about before. I won’t be sharing all the pictures, but I’ll try and share some of them. Here is the first: Alfred Francis Adderly, CBE, who was the first black student at St Catharine’s College, and in whose honour the College flew the flag of the Bahamas on October 1st (and will do so again of October 31st). You can read more about him here. It’s just a pencil sketch, but it’s my first attempt during this BHM to start paying more attention not only to the diversity of humanity, but to particular people from whom I could learn a lot.
All these ways of paying attention are works in progress – but they are things I’ve thought about for a while and never quite felt able to commit to in writing. Maybe something in one or more of these forms of attention-paying through art will have resonated with you. Maybe you’ve not picked up a paintbrush for a long time and this has made you want to try it again. Or maybe this whole post has made no sense at all! Comments and disagreements are always welcome, but remember to be kind, because we are all works in progress, still learning, still making mistakes.
reverendally.org 