Full Circle

It’s exactly a year since I started this series of reflections exploring faith through the arts. The time has come to draw a few conclusions. It’s been a wonderfully creative twelve months for me and those I work with on The Space Project in St. John’s. There’s been the series of Arts Weekends during Lent, the new play about Christina Rossetti, our second annual Arts Festival and the start of rehearsals for “Our Town.” Throughout the year I have found inspiration from exhibitions, live theatre, films, television drama and documentaries, novels, music and poetry-the whole range of arts which so enrich our lives. I have been nurtured too, by that hidden life of personal devotion and the rhythm of corporate worship in my church across the road pulsing steadily through the changing seasons in Sussex. All this is of course a gracious gift which repays us a thousand fold whatever we invest in it. It’s also nearly the end of the first decade of the new millennium. Ten years ago I was approaching forty and languishing in mid-life despair. I remember listening to the celebrations along the Thames on the radio and wondering somewhat dramatically if I would survive much longer into the new era. A couple of years later The Space Project was born out of that time of darkness and now, after half a dozen years of being at the forefront of St. John’s outreach to the wider community, it has been established as a registered charity. Looking back I recognize that crisis was a calling to release the powerful surge of creativity in myself and others especially within the context of the local church. In his eloquent and moving memoir, “Opening Doors and Windows,” the theatre director and Anglican minister James Roose-Evans writes, ‘Creativity, like a stream or river, will always find its outlets.’ Yet somehow the stream gets silted up both in individuals and institutions and the process of releasing the flow can be painful. In the same chapter of the book the author observes, ‘True creativity is closely linked with the inner spiritual life of each person. Yet strangely this is an area in which the Church in general shows little interest.’ I think this is true of our society generally. So many of my sixth-formers complain that education seems to have become about ticking boxes, rather than using their own imagination. So many of my colleagues and friends feel stifled, rather than inspired, by their work-place. This presents the Church of the new millennium with a real opportunity and an exciting challenge. As Roose-Evans goes on to say, ‘the majority of people posses, no matter how unused, real creative and imaginative faculties, so that the question is less one of educating people to appreciate the fine arts than of providing facilities and environments in which they can be and are actively encouraged to use their own creative faculties.’ At key points in its history, the Church has very much fulfilled this brief; the Mystery Plays in the medieval period are an excellent example of how ordinary craftsmen were encouraged and inspired in this way. Today, as the unseemly spectacle of talent contests with their preening panellists and melodramatic process of eliminating competitors threatens to turns us into a nation of couched potatoes, the Local Church can be the provider of these facilities and environments where true creativity and spirituality can flourish. This has certainly been my experience working on the Space Project in recent years. Let me leave you with just three examples. Today I was called by my friend Carl as he was doing his pub-rounds for Carlsberg in the lorry through the ice and snow. ‘They all need their bleedin’ Christmas booze,’ he moaned down the phone at me. He was calling to check his rehearsal time for a sketch for our Carol Service on Sunday. He then proceeded to recite his duologue down the phone with his work-mate gingerly standing in for our other actor. I think being part of the Space Drama Company keeps Carl sane although he continues to struggle with the Sunday services at the church. More significantly his creativity and larger than life personality are finding an outlet through St. John’s and we are all the richer for it. One of the cast members of “Our Town” Cordy does not go to our church or any other one as far as I know. Her marriage ended recently so I suppose this must be a very challenging phase of life for her. I met her at a dinner party some months ago and she told me that when she was young she really wanted to go to Drama School, but couldn’t pluck up the courage to give it a try. She now works on the other side of the camera in Television. I invited her to play a central role in the play which she remembered loving many years ago. She is coming on fine in rehearsals and proving to be one of the warmest, most encouraging members of our company. She may or may not start coming to the church but in reality she is already a big part of it. A man called Jon, a relatively new member of the congregation has started coming to ‘Open Space’ this year, a monthly workshop exploring faith through the arts. Jon is a builder by trade, but I have been particularly struck by his talent as a writer, as I mentioned in an earlier chapter. At our last meeting I set people the task of writing a short scene for the family service on Christmas Day featuring Mary and Joseph in the stable on the morning after the birth. Our vicar asked if I could provide a brief sketch which illustrated how the provision of food, a bath and fresh clothes for Mary can be seen as a metaphor for the hope of the Christian faith. Within less than twenty minutes Jon had scrawled the following scene which is a fitting climax to this book and will grace our service on Christmas Day. It’s not just a good short-sketch considering how little time it took, it’s also great theology!


Everything You Need - by Jon Ogan

Joseph takes hold of Jesus from Mary trying to take control of the situation

Joseph- Right my little man, let’s get you wrapped up and tucked away so I can sort out your poor Mum. I’ve got some water warming up over the fire, so we can get her cleaned up….

Mary- (Smiling) I’m fine!

Joseph- I’ll get some bread from the pack and some figs. You must eat.

Mary- (Smiling) I’m fine, Joseph.

Joseph- I’ll get my rug. You can sleep on that-at least it’s clean.

Mary- Joseph, I’m fine.

Joseph- How can you be fine? You must be exhausted and ache all over!

Mary- Honestly, Joseph, I’m fine.

Joseph- You must be hungry.

Mary- I’m fine.

Joseph- Surely you want to wash yourself, get cleaned up?

Mary- (Picking up the child) I’m fine Joseph. Stop fussing!

Joseph- Come on, Mary, wash, eat and sleep!

Mary- (Looking at Jesus) I’m fine. He’s everything I need.