Remembering the bible: art, humour and gender

When using Remembering the bible some folks accuse me of making the bible up. I'm not sure how these folks think we got a bible in the first place. How do they imagine memory works for 30-40 years after an event (about the time the gospels were written down after Jesus death), even with good oral story telling and oral memory strategies in an oral culture? Just what do they imagine we are referring to when we read, in the written down gospels 'Jesus said...'?

Well here's someone with a good eye for making up the bible: humous feminist Karen Whitehall. She makes collages from the gospel sotries using classical European paintings and photographs of actresses from the 1930-50's. This one is Palm Sunday. See her gallery at:


http://klwcollages.com/index.html


I was looking for Caravaggio's two paintings of 'the not last supper' (or the emmaus Road as some call it) to go with a reflection I am doing tonight and came across these. As a novice blogger it never ceases to amaze me what's out there! She does a good all female last supper with Great Garbo in the central place. It reminded me of an RB session a few years ago doing the Last Supper with an all female group of rememberers. Very moving stuff. Try it sometime yourselves if you can to explore something of what gender says about remembering the bible.

School repeats Crucifixion

Last night's performance of The Crucifixion by Stainer at Silcoates School was sung by a mixed aged choir of around 60 people, outnumbering the audience by quite a few. One of the best things about this school is the way it encourages people of all ages to work together in many different ways.

Although this particular cantata might seema bit old-fashioned (it was first performed in 1887, which was more than half a century after Silcoates first opened) it was actually a very powerful experience. It gaves us all a chance to revist the story, even if the words were not in contemporary English. Malefactors is a word I really use these days and there were one or two other 'Kenneth Williams' moments, but to hear the words of the Bible sung in recitative is an interesting way of topping up your remembered bible.

The last line, sung by the solo tenor, whispering away to silence: 'And he gave up the ghost' was amazing. Yes, he died. Once and for all. As do we all. Don't forget that. Don't water it down. Don't fudge it. Crucified, dead and buried.

Remembering the Bible in Blackburn

Yesterday Revidge Fold United Reformed Church hosted a Vision4life Day for United Reformed Churches in Blackburn. About 20 people attended and spent some part of the day remembering the bible together.

We began with pictures by Dinah Roe Kendall, whose work I have mentioned before. Her two pictures of Palm Sunday and the Family at Bethany provided a good starting point, as participants could easily relate to the vibrant images. You can get them from Piquant here:

http://www.piquant.net/PDFs/postersallegories.pdf

Then we went on to try some of the Vision4life Bible Year Menu activities. Remember anyone can visit the Vision4life web page, view the menu and download materials, even if they are not 'signed up'.

From the menu we did the Jesus life-line and later in the afternoon Kennings and Cookies.

There's a link to the Vision4life website at the side of this page. Some of the participants said...

'A day well spent, an eye opener'

'Reassuring and real'

'Thought provoking'

'Brings the Bible to life'

'Made me dig deeper'

Whilst I understand that 'not everyone would want to do this' if you think you know some people that do then please get in touch.

Meanwhile a thought from the way home on the Caldervale line, after St Francis.

Remembering, after St Francis

Make me a channel of your peace:

where there is chaos,
may patterns emerge;
where there are words,
sentences take shape;
where there are fragments,
stories unfold.

For it is in remembering we forget,
in forgiving we are released to forgive,
and in listening we are empowered to speak;
in fighting we discover our need of peace,
in hugging we gain courage to let go,
and in creating we set free the stuff of life.

[copyright Janet Lees]

Waving or drowning

There was a lovely programme on BBC4 last night about this picture of 'The great wave' by Hokusai of Japan. It turns out that it is one of a series of prints of Mount Fuji made by the artist using a woodblock method of printing in the 19th century. The full series called 36 views of Mount Fuji actually contains 46 prints and can be found here: www.man-pai.com/Grandes_series/Hokusai_Fuji36/hokusai_36_vistas_monte_fuji_e.htm

He made the series in his old age. The prints are just delightful and I find it quite hard to choose a favourite. Each one has such different colours and detail. There's a windy one with people's hats being blown away, in fact there's one for every possible weather or season. Just lovely.

A death in the family

It's now one year since we interred my mum's ashes in the churchyard of St Mary's Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex. It snowed that day and a few hardy villagers came to help us with the task. Today we learnt of the death of another Essex girl, Jade Goodey. I'll not be the first or the last to write about her. I was remembering the hymn by Dora Greenwell 'And art thou come with us to dwell' in which we sing

Thou bringest all again; with Thee
Is light, is space, is breadth and room
For each thing fair, beloved, and free
To have its hour of life and bloom.

I was also thinking of Madge Saunders, who's funeral was held yesterday in Kingston. I found a new photograph of her on another site in which it says she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.



This morning I heard about another well remembered woman. Constance had been a member of Waverley URC until her death in 1994. She had made a small embroidered cross that Harry, my informant, still carries in his pocket. He told me the story today. I hope to find out more about her in the next few weeks.




There's nothing else quite like a death in the family. We need our stories to nudge us further into life even when movement seems impossible. This week's entry in the URC Prayer handbook [still available from http://www.urc.org.uk]/ includes the story of Tony, a builder who built a business on pumpkin finance, a good thing to consider in these credit crunch days. The prayer for today on page 29 reads




Draw us to you,
God of all,
that in our dying
and our living
we may bring
glory and honour
to your name
as we seek to serve you
with integrity.

[copyright Janet Lees, for the 2009 URC Prayer Handbook 'Hush the Storm']

After reading about small fragments of the solar system

I've just finished reading 'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. You can read an exerpt from the book on the authors website, here: http://www.halfofayellowsun.com/content.php?page=excerpt&n=2&f-2
It is a book which has clearly made an impact on many folk who have read it. You can read some of the responses here:
http://www.halfofayellowsun.com/public/yourstory/guestbook.php
and even add your own.
I was given the book by my friend Sarah and it arrived the day after I had my PhD viva two weeks ago. I had only a hazy memory of Biafra, I was a child of about 10 when it all happened but I remembered words like kwashiorkor, although not well enough to be able to spell it without looking it up.
My own African memories are generally of Kenya and of Southern Africa. I have memories of Zimbabwe from several visits in the 1980s and 90s so I was glad when our friend Margaret had some poems written by her lat husband Brian Louis Pearce published this year. Called 'Voices Spits Silence', you can get it on Amazon. The poems were written during 1997-8 when Brian worked as a librarian at the Bulawayo Theological College. They are brilliant.
I also got an email today from Gerald West, my former supervisor at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, where I first learnt about Contextual Bible Study. You can find there stuff here http://www.ukzn.ac.za/sorat/ujamaa/resources.htm
All of which focused my thoughts on these small fragments of the solar system as you can see:

Words come back to us


Words come back to us,
names recur,
memories spring up like new grass.
You live through what you write
and so do I;
hanging on each word,
tongue trying each name,
hands holding each memory.
Neither sticks nor dust,
spirits rise to dance around us.
I join in
hoping the dream will outlast sleep,
hunger or dementia.
But the power of the wind
will blow the dust away
until it collects in another corner
and fertilizes other words.

Dust-dancing Spirit,
whirl us up with your energy
that the heat of memory
may become the fuel of life.

JAL: copyright 18.03.2009

Growing up in a religious family

Some of us do and it is good to hear the voice of one young person, Deborah, who has her own blog: http://deborahdrapper.com/

She also has a rabbit as you can see.

She reminds me of some of the young people I meet when I was researching the views of young people growing up in religious families for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. You can read the report and download it at

http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/religion-beliefs-and-parenting-practices

Last week we did two seminars on this research in Oldham for practitioners working with children. Next week one more in Sheffield. If you are interested in hearing about the research and its implications for front line staff or for faith communities please contact me.

Meanwhile today was my first Assembly at Newsome High School and Sports College [http://www.newsomehigh.kirklees.sch.uk/]

Today was year 9. The deputy head asked me some questions about Lent and Easter, the significance for Christians of this time of year, and the meaning of common Christian symbols associated with Easter like the cross. Three more to do over the next few weeks.

Celtic fashion week

I wonder whether breastplates will feature on the cat walks of Milan, Paris or London this year? This mornings the BBC Radio 4 service was from Belfast and included a version of St Patrick's breastplate [http://prayerfoundation.org/st_patricks_breastplate_prayer.htm]. It made me think that breastplates were all very well for St Patrick but what about contemporary fashion? So I have settled for a t-shirt. The version of the poem with which I am familiar (which dates from at least the ninth century) includes a remembered core gospel as well as the works of the Creator and the Spirit. Only problem with my St Patrick's T-shirt version is I'd need quite a big t-shirt to get it all on.

St Patrick’s T-shirt

I’ll write it here, the Trinity
The three in one, the one in three.

I remember Jesus born in a stable,
Baptised in the river Jordan,
Broke bread, shared wine around a table,
Died on a cross and then rose up
Appeared to friends, the stuff of fable,
Ate again the ‘not last supper’.

I’ll write it here, the Trinity
The three in one, the one in three.

I recall God’s created wonders,
All around me air, earth, fire, water;
And forgiveness for our blunders,
Misuse or pollution of the same.
I recall the Spirit’s action,
Interpreting and then translating
Languages of very faction:
Dancing with diversity.

I’ll write it here, the Trinity
The three in one, the one in three.

With me – Christ!
In me – Christ!
Behind me – Christ!
Before me – Christ!
Beside me – Christ!
Beneath me – Christ!
Above me – Christ!
Winning and restoring Christ,
Quiet and confirming Christ,
In heart – Christ!
In mouth – Christ!

I’ll write it here, the Trinity
The three in one, the one in three,
Always here, upon my chest,
In remembering this, my life is blessed.
But I do need a bigger T-shirt.


copyright Janet Lees 15.03.2009
A version of St Patrick’s breastplate.

Still remembering the Bible: the not last supper

About a week ago there was a poll about books people had not read (!). It seems that 65% of people lied about books they had read. Anyway one of the books people lied about reading was the Bible. Charlie Brooker wrote about this in the Guardian on Monday [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/09/charlie-brooker].
He says
'Potential partners who genuinely adore reading the Bible on a daily basis traditionally don't mention it until later, when they've invited you back to their place to unexpectedly nailgun your hand to the wall while loudly reciting a selection of their favourite parables from memory.'
Now this was not a technique I'd seen referred to in any daily Bible reading notes I've ever seen, nor a method of RB I'd tried myself. I wasn't sure wether to invite him round and see if the same effect could be produced with my staple gun.
However, it did illustrate once again how the Bible keeps getting into the news, even in this rather odd way. As for 'reciting their favourite parables from memory' - Hurray! They have favourite parables in their memory.
On Monday evening I meet six young people at a local Boy's Brigade group. We got started. One said he had a Bible: small red one with New Testament written on it that he got at school. No one else owned up to having one. Anyway I asked them if they thought they remembered anything from the Bible (well from the story of Jesus life of course, I am a gospels woman). No they said. So we got the string and pegs out. Forty minutes later they had remembered this:

Jesus was born in a stable.
Before he was a year old the king tried to kill him but he escaped.
When he was 12 he got lost in a temple.
When he was an adult he went into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights, then he met some fishermen and he told them to fish on the other side of the boat, and they got a net full of fish, and then he went into Jerusalem on a donkey.
The night before he died, he had the last supper with his friends.
He was crucified, but a couple of days later he came back to life.
And then he had another supper with his friends so that was 'the not last supper'.

So there it is. A core remembered gospel generated by 6 teenagers in 40 minutes with a piece of string and some pegs. Not a nail gun in sight. Brilliant!

An inspiration: tribute to the Revd Madge Saunders

The Revd Marjorie Prentice Saunders 1913-2009

Arriving in Sheffield in 1965

At home in Kingston, Jamaica, 2002

Outside Sheffield Cathedral, 1960s

Ordained at St Mary, Jamaica, 1975

I heard from Kingston, Jamaica, this morning that Revd Madge Saunders died in her sleep last night. She was 96 years old having celebrated her birthday last week. Her funeral will be held on 21st March.

I meet her in Kingston in 2002.

Madge was one of those pioneers of whom we say such great things without really knowing the depth, height, and breadth of it all. I continue to stumble across connections to her life and ministry in the most unlikely places.

She did some of her training at St Colm's College, Edinburgh. Her signature survives in the chapel book against her birthday.

She served at St James Sheffield from 1965-1975 heving been the first and only black woman to be ordained at a deaconness in the Presbyterian Church of England. She took leadership of the congegation when her colleague, Revd Robert Gillespie, who had been instrumental in bringing her to Britain, died.

She returned to Jamaica to be the first ordained woman minister in the United Church of Jamaica and the Calyman Islands. Her long and active retirement saw the inauguration of the Madge Saunders Centre, a conference and youth training centre, on the north coast of the islands, as well as many other activities.

In 2002 folks from St James Sheffield visited her and paid tribute to her important ministry in Sheffield: her work for race relations and amongst young people, which had inspired three generations of Sheffielders.

Self giving to the end, she sold a bigger house a few years ago to raise funds for school bursaries for young people to attend high school. She said she only needed a small house.

Her story is told in part in Daughters of Dissent and in This is our story: Free Church women's ministry. I'm sure we will continue to discover more about her.

Please remember her and the current work of the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands [http://www.unitedchurch.org.ky/]

Food for thought

Having finally ground our way through the BBC's Masterchef contest last night (courtesy of 'i-player': http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hzdnj/MasterChef_Series_5_Episode_32/) we food-a-holics in the Lees-Warwicker family, in common with many of our companions in the West, need another food fix (writes novice blogger as she eats toast!).



I was therefore delighted to read the article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in yesterdays Guardian Weekend, about her soon to be published Settler's Cookbook (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/feb/28/yasmin-alibhai-brown-cookbook). Her recipe for Dry Potato Curry reminded me of one we ate when I first visited India in 1984 and her story of return to Kampala was very moving.



So I dream about fusion food, of which we make a lot in our household. First there's Italian fusion and French fusion, products of my time spent as an au-pair in both France and Italy in my late teens and early twenties. I had thought it strange that an 8 year old child should eat pasta three times a day until my own daughter showed everysign of preferring to do the same. As for France, it's in everything from the herbs and garlic to the salad, cheese and wine, and of course the chocolat.

Then there's Asian fusion. This mostly means combinations of spices and red lentils, commonly called lentil mush in our household; another thing Hannah would eat daily if at all possible.



There are earlier attempts at fusion food that have fizzled out. For a while when I lived in Palmers Green about 20 years ago I ate a lot of pilchard lasagna but it rarely if ever appears on menus here these days. It was cheap. I joke about making soup with turnips but actually I hate them. Hannah's good on fairtrade fusion cookies. That's cookies with anything fairtrade in them. They feature on the Bible Year Menu on the Vision4life website in the Kennings and Cookies activity. Why not give it a try?



Then there's British fusion, which I mostly learnt from my mum and gets embellished by all sorts of stuff from anywhere. Last night we had our first Yorkshire Triangle Rhubarb of the new season. you can find out all about it here: http://www.yorkshirerhubarb.co.uk/ruhbarb_triangle.htm

But most of all of course, there's bread pudding: mum's piece de resistance. Once again Guardian Weekend featured a recipe, but it didn't seem to be the one I remembered. These days toast sees off stale bread in our house so there's little opportunity for bread pudding even if I could remember it. Maybe I'll give it a little thought.