Greasy Chip Butty: A Love Supreme

By Julian Sullivan

You are invited to make a journey of exploration through an exciting landscape of life and faith. Let the chemistry of urban life surprise and inspire you. Let it challenge your deepest sense of self knowledge and belief.

Experience the best of humanity where you expect not to find it and share the pain that defiles the beauty of unique human beings. Join us as we explore pathways to wholeness and healing for people and communities and learn never to lose hope.

We believe in the art of the possible, the value of instant improvisation, and that out of the mistakes we will make, we can produce something beautiful. Learn to go beyond horizons of our own making and discover more than we can ask or think.

Take time to savour the art, which offers fresh insight into time-honoured stories of courage and faith in desperate situations; of joy and celebration; of compassion, perseverance, and dogged determination; deep contentment at the fulfilment of endeavour. Encounter the fragrance of generosity of spirit; and the love which embraces injustice and suffering, transforming them beyond all we can imagine.

Join me on this journey that has no end but just gets better. As we walk together, we may discover pearls of great price, and not a little humour on the way.

“Greasy Chip Butty is a textured, local authentic history in a very real and rapidly changing place. Those stories deserve to be studied and celebrated and the wisdom garnered from them needs to be widely shared.” – Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford.

“What a great read! A moving and wonderful example of doing narrative theology on the hoof … reflecting on change, risk taking and adventure.” – John Thomson, Bishop of Selby

“I read Greasy Chip Butty with delight and new learning. A kaleidoscopic and impressionistic narrative which, through the lens of music and art, shows how God has been at work in one specific neighbourhood of Sheffield.” – Pete Wilcox, Bishop of Sheffield.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: May 24, 2024
• ISBN: 9781398440500

Julian Sullivan

Julian Sullivan was born in 1949 in Winterbourne, Bristol. He discovered his early passion for drumming, ranging from rock to jazz. Raised in the Catholic faith, he experienced a life-changing renewal of faith in his early 20s. He pursued a degree in geology, worked as a teacher, and felt a calling to ordination in the Church of England. Training in 1980 led to gritty urban ministry from four years in Southall to 26 years in Sheffield, with three years in Wells, Somerset—no less challenging—in between. Now retired, with his wife, Veronica, and grown-up family, he enjoys beekeeping, playing jazz, chorale singing, walking, gardening, and worship with their new church. Any profit for the author from the sale of this book will go to the Sheffield Urban Theology Union.

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About the Author

Picture 2

Photo: Yo Tozer-Loft

Julian Sullivan was born in 1949 in Winterbourne, Bristol. He discovered his early passion for drumming, ranging from rock to jazz. Raised in the Catholic faith, he experienced a life-changing renewal of faith in his early 20s. He pursued a degree in geology, worked as a teacher, and felt a calling to ordination in the Church of England. Training in 1980 led to gritty urban ministry from four years in Southall to 26 years in Sheffield, with three years in Wells, Somerset—no less challenging—in between. Now retired, with his wife, Veronica, and grown-up family, he enjoys beekeeping, playing jazz, chorale singing, walking, gardening, and worship with their new church. Any profit for the author from the sale of this book will go to the Sheffield Urban Theology Union.

Dedication

To my family: Veronica, Luke and Oliver, for keeping me sane. Pam and Eric, for their unflinching love and support. The congregation of St Mary’s Bramall Lane, Sheffield, and the people of the parish, who have taught me more than they will ever know, of the grace and mercy of God. The Rt. Revd David Lunn, who invited us to Sheffield in the first place.

Copyright Information ©

Julian Sullivan 2024

The right of Julian Sullivan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The story, experiences, and words are the author’s alone.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398440487 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398440494 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781398440500 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2024

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

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Acknowledgements

Sheffield Urban Theology Union, especially, Revd Dr Ian K Duffield, Revd Dr Robin Pagan, Revd Dr Christine Dutton, The Revd Dr John J Vincent, founder of UTU, who helped me wrestle this material onto the page. The Rt Revd Dr John B Thomson, Bishop of Selby, for those creative conversations. Sandy Ingrams, who proof read early versions of the text.

All who helped our project, St Mary’s 2000, come to fruition: my predecessors: Revd John Smith and Deaconess Maureen Olphin.

St Mary’s 2000 Steering Committee: Karen & Andy Cribb, Rebecca Maddox, Kate Khoaz, Giles Morrison, Canon Jane Bolton. The Rt. Revd Jack Nicholls, The Rt. Revd. Stephen Lowe, (recalling the trust they put in us!) Revd Dr Michael Bailey, Cathy Dean and Brigitte, Martin Purdy of Apec Architects.

The Diocese of Sheffield: Tony Beck, Diocesan Secretary, John Biggin, Chair of Diocesan Finance.

The Sheffield Church Burgesses Trust: Sheffield Town Trust, The European Regional Development Fund. Richard Caborn MP and Paul Blomfield MP.

Sheffield United Football Club, who gave us a home for over a year.

Those who put the vision for the centre into practice with imagination and skill: Revd Graham Duncan, Sue Green, Jo Watts, Dave Wilson, Estelle Clayton, Aroose Uppall and last but not least, Cyril Parkin and Peter, our caretakers.

The Shoreham Street TARA.

Our inspirational artists: Helen Whittaker, for the stained glass pilgrim window and figures; Brian Peacock for The Prodigal and other paintings in the South aisle; Keith Tyssen, designer and silversmith, for works in silver and base metal, funded by Sheffield Assay Office; Lucy Lauener for her nave installation, The Thread that Binds.

Lifelong friends Peter Biggs and Ian Wills who encouraged my fledgling faith. Alan Wilson, Neil Turton, Peter Ingram, and Richard Holroyd, fellow ‘Reprobates’ gathering at Candlemas each year at Alton Abbey for over 30 years through thick and thin. Abbot Giles and the Benedictine monks of Alton who gave encouragement at an early stage of this book.

Foreword

The value of a priest’s ministry is inversely proportional to the length of their entry in Crockford’s.

The words are not mine, but those of Archbishop Donald Coggan. I first heard them as a curate and they have stayed with me. For those who may not know, Crockford’s is the directory of all the clergy in the Church of England, and each entry lists the posts a priest has held and the years they held them. Coggan’s dictum does not always hold true in experience – but, surprisingly, often it does.

Julian came to St. Mary’s Bramall Lane in 1990 and retired after a long and distinguished ministry of some 26 years during my final year as Bishop of Sheffield. He was loved within St. Mary’s and deeply respected across the wider diocese and the Church of England for the depth of his commitment to the parish of Bramall Lane, his investment in the buildings, and in all that happened there.

Over his years at St. Mary’s, Julian built a team, created a place of beauty and reverence, and flexibility, and developed a range of innovative ways to serve those in the wider community. I am delighted that Julian has now been able to reflect on this long story of ministry and offer his wisdom to the wider Church of England. The story of the Church of England is not the story of bishops or dioceses, which come and go, but the living story of local communities, priests and people, often woven around particular buildings.

There are times when those local stories go wrong. But also many times when they go well: when there is careful, prayerful mission, year after year, which is both ordinary and remarkable at the same time. Those stories deserve to be studied and celebrated and the wisdom garnered from them needs to be widely shared.

The Greasy Chip Butty is textured, local, authentic history in a very real and rapidly changing place and Julian has told the story well.

The Rt. Revd. Dr. Steven Croft

Bishop of Sheffield (2009-16)

Preface

The strains of Annie’s tune by John Denver reverberate in the streets around Bramall Lane, home to Sheffield United Football Club, better known as The Blades. It was the Greasy Chip Butty Song, volubly and raucously rendered by loyal fans, that welcomed us as a family to Sheffield (Full text and explanation follows in chapter 1).

As Vicar of St Mary’s Bramall Lane, I began writing this book in 2007 to tell the story of this stimulating inner-city neighbourhood and a church that has been navigating changing times since it’s opening in 1830. After the second world war, St Mary’s was the first church in the UK to take the bold and controversial step of creating a community centre within the church walls, as part of rebuilding post-war Britain. This was how we found it in 1990 by which time the place was ready for a makeover. My first efforts to document the story ran into the sand when I realised I was too close to events to be able to harmonise them effectively. Now, 15 years later, I have a clearer perspective to tell the story properly in my own way.

I served St Mary’s from 1990 to 2016, 26 of my 33 years in full time ministry since training for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, from 1980-83. Four years in Southall, west of Ealing introduced me to the rich flavours of multiracial city ministry. Three contrasting years in the delightful rural city of Wells, Somerset, confirmed my calling to a more urban setting. Before ordination I enjoyed a somewhat chequered career aspiring to be a professional jazz drummer. Finding faith in Christ, and having a degree in Geology and Geography, I taught for five years while touring extensively throughout the UK and USA with the gospel band Meet Jesus Music, gravitating towards parish ministry in the Church of England. Veronica and I were married at St Mary’s Bermondsey in 1980, have two grown-up offspring – now our best friends – and have just celebrated 41 joyful years of life together.

Rooted in the dramatic historical record of St Mary’s Bramall Lane and its pioneering work, I hope this book will be of interest to those who love city life, have faith or none at all, and know the neighbourhood around Bramall Lane in Sheffield – one of the most colourful parts of the city. In the wider church, I’d like it to appeal to those interested in the history of an industrial urban parish since the war, along with those engaged in inner city ministry and the opportunities it offers.

The book makes a case for the value of parish ministry at a time when it is in some neglect, especially in inner city areas when it is vital to be rooted and grounded in the local community, walking the same streets, breathing the same air, sharing the concerns of those who live there. Those who work in urban settings have for many years been at the cutting edge of many issues now coming to the fore in contemporary debate: immigration, ethnicity, sexuality, mental health, unemployment and the environment. St Mary’s has certainly been at the edge of all those blades.

This is the story of a positive model of urban parish ministry, a piece of history in one particular place, telling the story using a fresh approach with the use of art and music alongside an improvisational way of working. Throughout it all, I have tried to provide a fresh take on aspects of faith that have sustained me through the highs and lows, the tragedies and joys, of my own ministry. Well-known works of art, support an autobiographical theme and my own reflections on what happened. And so much has happened in Bramall Lane in the last thirty years. As vicar and jazz drummer, as art lover and improvising pioneer, as an urban dweller and enthusiast, let me tell you all about it.

Introduction:

Art, Music and Improvisation,

In City Life and Faith

Pictures work for me. Art has always helped my understanding of life and faith. In paintings, I find a free and liberating approach to things hard to comprehend, especially scripture and making sense of what it shows us about life. A picture helps us to meet the characters of the biblical stories, to enter another world and in so doing to live more fully in our own.

I often find my reading of the biblical stories proscribed by what has been written about them or influenced by the way one tradition or another finds meaning in them. A picture helps us to stay with the story in our own imagination and become more fully immersed in it. This provides the opportunity to experience the story in a renewing way, to see it, to taste it, to bring it alive for our present.

Throughout a third of a century engaged in urban life and faith, I have encountered a number of well-known art works which have proved surprisingly to be sacramental experiences with insights on time present, time past and time future, feeling towards, touching, eternity. They have sustained and enriched my own profound love of the written word of God as it illuminates Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.

The art/pictures in these pages are more than simply illustrations. I have included them because they have helped my grappling with the tensions, idiosyncrasies, and paradoxes of urban life and my own approach to ministry, which owes much to jazz invention and improvisation. This, in itself, is a paradox. Even the freest jazz players will tell you, good improvisation is never Uh, just do what you like. Improvisation always involves a tradition, a link with the history of the music; long hours of dogged practice and perseverance to hone musical dexterity and technique; finally, comes the risky playing ‘in the moment’ to create something authentic, challenging and even astonishing to the ear.

Dave Brubeck, legendary jazz pianist, identified three types of jazz musician. There are those who produce brilliant solos, the same every night; they’ve learned them. Those who recycle ideas in different ways to sound different each night but actually are simply dipping into a ‘bag of tricks’. But the best are those who take risks, are fearless and able to make mistakes. That seems to me to be the closest to living by faith I can imagine. Are we not all called to this? As a jazz drummer, I feel the challenge and the invitation not just in playing music but engaging in ministry too.

There is a playfulness in the arts which helps to keep a sense of perspective when living from day-to-day in unsettling times of political and social unrest. We are currently bombarded by a myriad of crises: national uncertainty over Brexit; wars and rumours of wars; environmental destruction on a global scale; powerful, capricious and unpredictable leaders causing deep international insecurity; global movement of peoples escaping war, poverty, persecution trying to find a future. Since writing this, with very few exceptions, all the nations of the world have been overwhelmed with the Covid-19 Pandemic. It has totally eclipsed life as we know it and reduced us to ‘two-word’ phrases: Lock-Down; Social Distancing; Self Isolate; Herd Immunity; Zoom Fatigue; New Normal. What will the new normal look like in the wake of the pandemic? It will take all our ingenuity and inventiveness to shape the future, and draw on our ability to play, explore, improvise, to dream new dreams and discern where the Spirit of God may lead us. We will need people of faith and vision to engage prophetically with the challenges that loom before us and seize new opportunities for growth and renewal. Don’t waste a good global crisis!

Playfulness is part of our human nature. We were born with it. Not for nothing did Jesus say, Unless you become like a child, you cannot inhabit the kingdom of God. Matt 18:3). When we were very young, ‘going out to play’ was an excitement in itself. What are we going to do? Where are we going today? Where I grew up there was a quarry with a deep, mysterious pool. Dropping rocks from a great height, hearing ‘kerploosh’ echo around the rocky space, clambering around the steep edges of the quarry face, daring to look down, provided endless avenues for adventure. There was a river for paddling and filling your boots with cold water, netting sticklebacks, watching a stray water vole going about its business, constructing and racing little wooden boats. In winter, we took to the toboggan slopes with homemade sledges or walked gingerly on the frozen River Frome on magical frosty clear sunny days. The viaduct carried the greatest magnet of all for young boys and girls, a railway. Putting pennies on the line to flatten them out of shape, piling chips of ballast and hiding in the bushes to watch as they were pulverised by the next leviathan. We cannot go back any more than we can make water flow uphill, but we can rediscover and release some of the qualities of childhood.

Charles Baudelaire defined genius as nothing more than the creative ability to recapture childhood: Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will, childhood equipped now with man’s adult physical means to express itself, and with the analytical mind that enables it to bring order into the sum of experience, involuntarily amassed. (Charles Baudelaire. The Painter of Modern Life. 1863)

Art, drama and music release the child in us insofar as they help us to rediscover that openness, receptivity and imagination to look and listen afresh to what is going on around us and with renewed understanding to deal with our immediate circumstances. The bare necessities of city life call for invention in many different ways as this book will show. This may be what people are reaching for when they say "Think outside the box." But I’m not sure that’s possible if you think you are inside a box! Step outside the box.

Whatever Jesus meant by asking us to become like children to enter the Kingdom of God, what follows is an exploration of the way in which particular images have helped me to approach the Bible in fresh ways. And to show how they have released my imagination and playfulness and made possible an approach to life and faith in the context of the inner city in a way that echoes the jazz improvisation that I know and love. I agree with Robert Gelinas:

Jazz is more than music. It is a way of life in which improvisation, mutual responsiveness and creative tension are central to the way in which we respond to the call of God.

Finding the Groove: Composing a jazz-shaped faith.

Robert Gelinas, Zondervan, 2012

So come with me, with the aid of paintings, playfulness and jazz improvisation to St Mary’s Bramall Lane, on the edge of Sheffield city centre. And let the story begin with the prominent east window of St Mary’s Church, which helps set the scene for my tale.

A Note About Entr’actes.

Entr’acte means literally ‘between the acts’. It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous with an intermission (this is nowadays the more common meaning in French) but it more often (in English) indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production. This is the intention behind the images shown in this book. They are not meant as direct illustrations of the text except where indicated, as in the case of details of the east window in St Mary’s.

At one level, they perform the same function of musical entr’actes between chapters, a space to reflect. In the Psalms, the word ‘Selah’ often appears on its own and is taken to mean Pause and calmly think of that. Each entr’acte invites you to look beneath the surface, ask questions and play with the material in your own mind.

At another level, the pictures relate to the book as a whole. They are all images that have baffled, inspired and encouraged me in my own journey of faith. I invite the reader to imagine we are standing together in front or each of these images. In our conversation, I will say what I like about the picture and how it has inspired me directly or indirectly in my life and ministry, mainly in inner city neighbourhoods. I will draw out themes that have helped to make sense of the scriptures insofar as they have had a bearing on what I/we have tried to do at St Mary’s Bramall Lane in Sheffield. That is only half the conversation and ideally I would like to hear the thoughts of you the reader in reply.

There is no substitute for standing in front of the paintings themselves, or reading the scriptures directly. I assume you have access to a Bible, but should you find yourself passing the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square! However, all the art works are available online where they can be explored more fully. Your trouble in doing so will be well rewarded.

You may conclude that my interpretation of the art works doesn’t go far enough, but that’s why we have Gombrich. (The Story of Art, Leoni Gombrich, Phaidon, 2007) I am more interested in their value as unique and uplifting ways of dealing with questions of life and faith on our journey from day to day.

Chapter One

A Time Caught in Coloured Glass

Picture 3

Detail from St Mary’s Pilgrim Window based on Psalm 84. Helen Whittaker: Barley Studios, York.

"How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord,

my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God."

(Psalm 84:1-2)

Contemporary stained glass uses techniques pioneered way back in the 12th Century to create striking modern images today. This is what Helen Whittaker has achieved in the east window of St Mary’s Bramall Lane. When we commissioned her to design a new stained glass window for St Mary’s, we got more than we bargained for. She included two figures in copper panels on either side of the window, emphasising the theme of pilgrimage, placed to stimulate dialogue with the viewer and the stained glass. The pilgrim figures are shown in traditional medieval robes. To the left, a female beckons us towards the window, inviting us to consider the journey we are making in life and bidding us to explore what the work says about it. To the right, a male pilgrim, further along on his journey, suggests that mood of settled calm, when a person has weathered many storms in life and reached a state of equilibrium and peace.

The figures provoked controversy. However, when you engage a creative artist, you cannot rule out elements you don’t understand, or else why commission the work in the first place? Helen delighted, surprised and challenged us with her abstract design and the work continues to show signs of doing so for all who see it, for many years to come. Figures and window together appear different in changing light and in a deeper way have new things to say in fresh circumstances, to challenge, excite and reassure the viewer.

Picture 4

East window-stained glass and pilgrim figures in copper: Helen Whittaker 2008 St Mary’s Bramall Lane, Sheffield

Inspired by Psalm 84, the window in its colour and movement reflects the energy of the church and community in which it is set. With an underlying theme of journey, it is also a profound image of life at a time of accelerating change and upheaval, in which we struggle to find our centre of gravity.

As you gaze at the window, you will find playfulness and mystery in the design, looked at more deeply, a mathematical pattern emerges which gives a unity and stability which in spite of first appearances is anything but haphazard. The mainspring of the design is a sweeping spiral echoing that of a snail shell, uncoiling in the same ratio, known as the Golden Mean. This is the mathematical ratio of 1:1.6, which is found all through the natural world and echoed in our own art and design. It is at the heart of our traditional idea of beauty and proportion, sometimes called the Divine Proportion because it is embedded in creation. This exciting and enchanting reality beckons us to see through the surface appearance around us, to discover the Deep down things that poets like Gerard Manley Hopkins evoke in their writing.

Many feel swept along by powerful forces beyond their control. This work acknowledges our sense of imbalance while expressing a deeper stability, a place of refuge in the midst of the storm.

As the work was commissioned to speak to both church and community, it was important that the window had something to say to everyone. Some would have preferred a specific image of Christ or Mary Magdalene, to whom the church is dedicated. Would not a pictorial biblical theme be more fitting, after all that is what stained glass in a church traditionally offers? However, the majority of people using the building during the week will be of many persuasions. People are often used to seeing their life as a journey and many will value the idea of pilgrimage or Hajj in their own faith. Moreover, we are fellow travellers, increasingly drawn together by shared anxiety about the planet, the future of our nation and many other concerns.

The window is for everyone seeking to understand our common humanity and our shared predicament which surely must include anyone who hasn’t found an effective way of escaping or blocking out reality, try as we might! Yet, the abstract design is thoroughly grounded in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. In that regard, it is interesting to hear what visitors say about it. The window was conceived to delight the eye with the beauty of its design and draw the viewer into an internal conversation about the work. What is its meaning, what does it represent, what is it saying?

Folk are drawn by the kaleidoscopic array of colour and sweeping design and remark on its beauty. Someone said: My life is like that. Another remarked: My favourite place is in the eye of the storm.

Isn’t that an angel?

Could be.

Everyone asks what the orange keyhole means. It’s the door referred to in the psalm: I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Psalm 84:9). When they hear there are pilgrims in it, they ask Where? Brief directions lead their eyes to the lower central panels of the window where three pilgrims, two adults and a child disguised in cubic abstraction, emerge to gasps of Oh yes, I see them now! Like the pilgrims in the psalm, they travel through a fierce landscape. As they go through the dry desert valley of Baca, they make it to a place of life-giving springs. They bring life wherever they go. They can do this because their strength is in their God. (Psalm 84:4)

It’s always dangerous to ask children what they can see. One group found a teddy bear! But that is the delight of a work that all can enjoy and find images that draw them to look more closely, and question more deeply.

In broad terms, the lower part of the window evokes the landscape represented in the psalm, through which pilgrims make their way towards the dwelling place of God. Originally Psalm 84 was sung by pilgrims on their way to worship at the temple. Every pilgrimage is a metaphor for our own journey through life. It is a powerful theme all through scripture: Abraham sets out, not knowing where he is going; God’s people journey from slavery to freedom, but the journey takes longer than expected; Paul’s missionary journeys and the early spread of the gospel owed much to good Roman roads to travel on. But above all for Christians, it is the journey that Christ makes to Jerusalem and to the Cross. His journey on earth, completed with his return from whence he came.

Picture 5

The play of light from the winter sun makes the colours flow onto the mullions, (vertical stone shafts) and project onto the North wall of the sanctuary.

Picture 7 Picture 6

We make our own journeys in life and recognise this as a feature of our humanity. Many members of our congregation have travelled from dangerous places in the world with harrowing stories to tell. Now that they have reached us, we become fellow travellers with them as they find their feet, dealing with the shock of a new cultural context. The journey from Africa is many thousands of miles, but the journey from being African to becoming African/English takes many years and calls for endless patience and imagination. For our part, the journey of growing understanding and harmonisation is equally challenging. (See chapter 15)

Some see a cross in the huge sweeping downward and horizontal curves which fill the window and reach beyond the confines of the sanctuary in which it is set. It is this same design which suggests to others an angel reaching out to embrace all before her. The life and love of God overwhelms the joy and pain of our world and in so doing transfigures and transforms it. The life giving cross is the source of our peace as we face the unknown together, enabling us to go from strength to strength, singing for joy to the living God.

Christians can struggle with change, singing: Change and decay in all around I see, but what about ‘Change and renewal?’ Rejuvenation is the challenge to the church in this age. It is significant that our pilgrims in the window are adults and children. We need the energy and encouragement of fresh insight that our children and young people bring to the journey, especially those of us who have been on the bus a long time. We do not travel alone, so it is important to reach out to fellow travellers.

The inclusion of a new east window at St Mary’s Bramall Lane came several years after completion of a total refurbishment of the building in which it was gutted, cleared out, rethought and rebuilt internally, not to mention considerable external works. The aim was to change so as to meet the needs of the twenty-first century in this part of inner city Sheffield. As with so much that happened at St Mary’s, the art work took us by surprise, coming about almost playfully as the renewed building, having opened in 2001, found its stride, opening up new opportunities and uses for the neighbourhood and the city. It has come to represent not just the reimagining of a particular place but the story of the lives of those who lived and worked in the vicinity. It has come to speak of momentous changes in the second half of the twentieth century and the energy of a people and their community with a story to tell. That story has no end, and as we face the tumult of Britain’s changing relationship with Europe and the nations of the earth, and with itself, this art work is able to express the fierce landscape in which the country finds itself, and I dare to suggest, our own search for meaning in the midst of momentous events. Although, the kaleidoscope of colour may at first seem random and haphazard, there is an underlying harmony of mathematical relationships based on the ‘Divine Proportion’. This relationship exists throughout all nature, hinting at the possibility that something greater is here. As the ground shakes beneath our feet and everything shifts, where is our centre of gravity, our equilibrium? It feels rather like looking for the first beat of the bar in a dense jazz composition.

The symbolic pilgrim family within the window, make their way to worship God in the time honoured place of encounter, the Temple; alluded to in the psalm as ‘The Courts of the Lord’. It expresses an all-consuming longing to be in the presence of the living God. To achieve this, they must travel through fierce, inhospitable desert landscapes, the valley of Baca, where they discover springs of water to sustain them. They go from strength to strength, inspired by their vision: A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere! They persevere through their faith, Happy is everyone who trusts in you. These characters have a profound satisfaction of knowing to whom they belong. In struggles and difficulties, in the midst of the storm, they know their centre of gravity and can encourage each other as they journey together.

Stained glass is such a powerful medium, coming alive each day, radiant in colour, changing with this turning world and its aspect in relation to the sun. As I write on All Souls Day 2018, the sun is lowering in the sky, giving a pearl like purity to its light that makes the colours dance and overflow onto the surrounding stonework, enlarged in this new quality of light (see photos). Yet, it is also unpredictable, as the clouds roll in, obscuring the light source, the glory fades for a time, and every night goes to sleep. Here is a deep resonance with our own journey of faith and human experience. We can know days of piercing clarity when we can grasp the way forward, but then the clouds roll in and we can be lost in the minutiae of day-to-day detail which have to be worked through painstakingly to achieve our goal.

A quick glance at the glass itself reveals a range of colour from warm oranges and yellows, to cooler blues and greens with different textures of glass, sandblasted surfaces with subtle marks and deep indentations. These combine with sweeping gestures in the design to create a sense of cross currents and restless movement.

A brief explanation of the significance of the temple.

Solomon built the temple. At its dedication the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. (2 Chronicles 5). Solomon prayed But will God indeed reside with mortals on earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built. (2 Chron 6 :18). It was understood by the early Israelites, that God was not confined to the temple, but saw it as God’s home on earth. and a place where prayer could be made: 2Chron 7:15: Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all.

Our pilgrim family is highly focused on the dwelling place of God. "How lovely is your dwelling place O Lord of hosts! My soul longs for the courts of the Lord … Happy are those who live in your house … For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God