​Camino Companions 
Camino Companions is an adventurous invitation for everyone – in-person and online - to join in a spiritual pilgrimage to explore faith, discern a rhythm of life and put your faith into action.

Our 93 pilgrims were commissioned on St Cecilia's Day on Sunday 22nd November 2020 and will journey together until St James's Day on 25th July 2021. Whether or not you signed up for the pilgrimage, you're very welcome to make use of the materials below.
​Your Camino guides are Lia Shimada (facilitator and mediator), Mariama our curate and John our Associate Rector
​What’s the invitation?  ​
  • On the first Tuesday of each month, to attend the weekly Tuesday evening Silence and Eucharist at 6:00pm and meet afterwards with the whole Camino Companions group for input and discussion on a variety of topics, reflecting on the reality of life in the light of God’s presence.  
  • To join a Camino ‘group of six’. These meet however often, wherever and however (online or in person) the group decides.  There is a short set liturgy for each group and topics to discuss. 
  • Develop your own rhythm of life in conversation with your group. Each person makes their own pattern, to live as creatively and holistically as possible, including  Eucharist, Silence, Conversation and Action to be interpreted in whatever way feels right for you.
7. JUNE 2021 - FAITH IN ACTION
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Having looked specifically at Earth Justice last month, we now look more broadly at the topic of Vocation, Calling and putting Faith into Action. How do these words resonate with you? Do you have a sense of personal vocation or call to a particular kind of life or work? How do you put your faith into action? On the spectrum of ‘being’ and ‘doing’, where do you tend to sit? How might God be calling you to challenge your usual tendencies? What helps you to listen to God’s call in your life?

This month, Petra introduces Deep Abiding Prayer as a way to help awaken awareness of life’s inter-connectedness, and to live, love, lead, and serve as instruments of healing and peace. From Wed 3 June, you will be able to catch up on the guided session on our YouTube channel here, and you can read Petra's helpful introduction here.
Faith in Action Resource List
​Online resources make it easier than ever to increase our awareness of justice issues. Here is a small selection of short videos that may lead you towards new areas of interest.
Author and spiritual director Becky Eldredge speaks about the Ignatian concept of Contemplation in Action (1:47 minutes)
Activist Franchesca Ramsey shares her 5 tips for being an Effective Ally focusing on issues of race and the Black Lives Matters movement ​(3:30 minutes)
Professor of Political Science Melissa Michelson speaks about How to be an Ally for Social Justice focusing particularly on LGBT issues (11:30 minutes)
​A short film commissioned by Church Action Against Poverty, inspired by the stories of those with lived experience of poverty during lockdown (4 minutes)
In 2019, renowned feminist activist and author Silvia Federici offered her views about 'the State of Feminism Today' (8 minutes)
An introduction to the Social Model of Disability by Inclusion London (14:41 minutes)
What Social Justice actions will YOU take?
Currently at SJP, you could get involved in:
  • FEAST - our weekly indoor socially-distanced meal for people going through homelessness or living on low incomes (read more here)
  • Home for Good - our team of community support volunteers to help people who have recently been homeless and are now settling into new housing (in collaboration with The Passage Charity; register your interest with Claire Wright & Julia Chalkley to be notified when the next training event will take place) 
  • Our Black Lives Matters book groups have just begun to read Ben Lindsay's We Need To Talk About Race. You can read more about this project here, and register your interest for the next series of groups and further projects.
  • We will shortly start organising our response to the Living in Love and Faith materials on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. If this is something you'd like to be involved in, look out for further announcements in our Weekly Update later in June.
  • There are always other assorted volunteering opportunities to help support and contribute to church services and - as we emerge from lockdown and social distancing - we will welcome back our altar servers and other volunteer teams. If you contact our churchwardens Deborah and Trevor, they will let you know where we are currently in need of more volunteers.
In terms of wider campaigns and volunteering opportunities:
  • Team London maintains a directory of volunteering opportunities across the capital (and other towns and cities will often have a central volunteering database)
  • Spare Hand was set up at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic to help link volunteers with community organisations across the UK
  • For a substantial volunteering opportunity in England and Wales, take a look at the Citizens Advice Bureaux network, which offers a free generalist advice service at 270 agencies across the country. They helped 2.8million people in 2019-20 and are always looking for more volunteers.
  • Scroll down to review last month's resources for dozens of inspiration ideas in the interrelated realm of Earth Justice.
6. MAY 2021 - EARTH JUSTICE
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We have a bumper crop of resources for you to explore this week, including videos, books and resource lists. We start with contributions from our own community about inspirational Earth Justice actions we are already taking in the realm of prayer, lifestyle change or love of nature.
​Eleanor Butler
I have started composting. I bought a beehive composter to look nice as it’s at the front of our cottage. It came flat pack but I got it assembled in spite of not being good with screws and nails. 
​Brian and Tessa Curnew
​Our StreetBox on Earth Day, fruit and veg from Edible London, which works by sponsorship, passing them from market surplus to foodbanks, with a box also for donors (you never know what you’ll get). AND, also very worthwhile is ‘Who Gives a Crap’ toilet paper. 
​Lucy Savage
I was in the fortunate position of being able to have solar panels installed 7 years ago.
I’ve massively cut down on meat eating, this is linked with volunteering for The Felix Project, a food collection and redistribution charity.
I sign petitions whenever it seems right.
I’m  trying to educate myself further by attending any webinars etc on the subject.
I’m trying not to use the car for local errands - lockdown has encouraged this! 
​Miriam Mackie
My new practice over the winter happens on my local walks. I live only a few moments from woodlands and meadows, ponds and trees in Epping Forest. I watch everything as I go by - and this only works if I am on my own - I let one sight arrest me. It might be the way the sun glints onto branches, or the intense green of the moss on the floor of the forest. It might be a whole vista of white may blossom, or the delicate icy frost tracing a leaf. However familiar, however many times I have been here, there is a new growing, changing, blessing. 
I stop. And look. And stay, and look some more. I am "beholding", for as long as I can. The longer I behold, the more I see, and the more I feel the deep rootedness of God's creation, the blessing of it, and ourselves a part of it.
​Jill Demasi
Instead of buying my favourite drink - kombucha or fermented tea - I am making it myself and use the bottles from the shop brand I used to buy over and over. I also share it with my neighbour who loves it. I started this in August 2020 when my daughter bought me a keg to make it in. 
I also now make my own dog treats without preservatives and plan to give the saved money to Barnados. 
We only buy make up brands that are ethical to the environment 
I don’t buy lunches out…make at home so no paper or cups. Plus I use my own thermos and tea cup!
I don’t buy any new clothes except vintage and my own brand. 
I grow lavender and sage to use in my drinks. 
Pic1: homemade fermented tea with Azul the cat!
​Dee Hetherington
In lockdown 2020, I celebrated the St James’s Easter dawn Eucharist on Crab Hill. 
I go up to Crab Hill which is near where I live, particularly for sunset, and pray for the world. The tower you can see is Crystal Palace. I am with the birds who are finding their roosts for the night and aware of God's creation and how beautiful it is.
The second picture is of my wildlife pond on my allotment where I dug out a root and used the hole it created for a pond and wilding area. The level of the water is low as we have had very little rain.
Joyce Henderson
My personal learning info… a certificate for the wee lockdown courses I have done. Also, I helped clear up after an Extinction Rebellion action, declared and joined Culture Declares and do my best to promote ethical travel with any company that employs me and asks me to travel. Therefore, I’m off to Marseille (for essential work!) by train and also any meeting that can be done on zoom has to be on offer. Bikes to work schemes have to be mentioned and limiting email ‘thank you' messages too!
In the block of flats where I live, the council wouldn’t give us a communal food recycling bin… so one of us just went out and bought one and let the council know. The council now collect our food waste.
Also, since last July I have been clearing out my father’s house in Scotland. Everything that is possible to be recycled has been recycled via charity shops, freecycle and the local animal rescue centre has taken old linen and towels. No skip required. Anything going to the local tip has been divided into scrap metal, wood etc…
Betty Harris
1. Several years ago I signed the "no flying" pledge, although my sister lives in America and we're very fond of each other. I made one last visit before I signed and told her what I was doing and why
2. My husband and I became 99% vegetarian. If we're socialising and the hostess has prepared a meat dish I ask for a very small portion and pile on the veg. 
3. We've never had a car so we continue to walk and use public transport. We do mention to friends how lovely it is not to have to worry about parking. When necessary we take a taxi.
4. We shop carefully, avoiding foodstuffs that have been flown in out of season, such as raspberries which are in the shops all year; we only buy them in late summer/autumn
5. We now look for Fair Trade Palm Oil as I understand many other brands are produced in a way that damages the planet.
6. Our vegetable food waste, cabbage stalks etc. goes in a bucket that's collected by the council to make compost.
​Francesca Snow
On my terrace of 12 houses, 3 front gardens have been left wild and mine has window boxes and shrubs and plants to include bird feeders and cover for sparrows. 
I do not use, any chemicals or pest control, apart from the cat who doesn't do bird.
My garden is flowers for the bees and undergrowth for the frogs. Last year there were 5, this year who knows. 10 yrs ago I counted 22, with frog spawn, but now no more.
A local house removed their pond and the bird house which had housed blue tits for years. I will continue to feed and keep my pond and the baskets and just hope no one insists the trees are reduced or removed.
Evening meals are 3 fish per week, 3 meat and one vegetarian.
My focus is to preserve what's left of the natural environment.
Lia Shimada
With a 2-year-old and a newborn, we go through A LOT of nappies. Long before Brecon was born, Jonathan and I decided that we wanted our nappy consumption to contribute as little as possible to the global landfill problem. Inspired by another SJP family, we researched the options, amassed what we needed, and off we went. Reusable nappies are brilliantly adjustable; they shift in size to fit a growing infant, from the earliest days all the way to toilet training. One day in the far-off future (or so it feels at the moment ....) both Brecon and Julian will be on the other side of infancy and toddlerhood. We will run their nappies through one final overnight washing cycle, and then we will pass them along to another family. 
Photos: Peter Rabbit and Ping the Panda are modelling Brecon's favourite nappy designs
Penn Smith
I’ve mastered my reaction to eating insects. Crunchy Critters packets are narrow so that you can’t see what you are eating. If you like Twiglets or Cheese Puffs you will like these. I’m planning on trying Cricket gravy next from ‘Bugs for Beginners’.
www.crunchycritters.com 
​Helen-Claire Burt
Since watching David Attenborough’s ‘Witness’ documentary I have adopted some new habits. I buy sunflower heart seeds to feed the birds in my garden, I joined WWF, I eat veggie more regularly each week and I signed up for eco-friendly toilet roll with Who Gives a Crap! I went with the philosophy that a few new small regular habits would still make a difference.
​Julia Chalkley
1. Many canal boat and camper van trips have taught me how little water is needed for all daily requirements when it is strictly rationed.  Much of this discipline can be continued at home too: a bath is a luxury (shortly to be removed altogether and replaced by a walk-in shower) and showers are not necessary every day, three times a week is plenty - you need surprisingly little water in a basin to have a good strip wash!  No-one near me has complained yet...
2. I’ve signed up to an ethical savings account with Triodos Bank
3. I am thinking about natural burial rather than cremation - to put it bluntly I would rather what is left of the body after the organs have been removed to be compost not ashes and given back to the earth.
Anon
I Trying to avoid products containing palm oil
Taking trains instead of planes
Opting for more layers rather than heating
Noticing packaging and making more conscious choices to reduce consumption of plastic
Stopping to look at nature, in all settings
Supporting The Woodland Trust, WWF (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust), and local green spaces
Meg Portal
I have been praying about environmental issues at compline sometimes, particularly after the eco church events, giving the statistics that came up - 95% of ecological disasters involve water, for example.
I also suggested I could get my nephew an app to identify fungi and mushrooms to celebrate his graduation, but haven’t heard his response to that, yet(!). I asked the council to remove two of the black bins they gave us for incinerated waste, so now we manage with one bin every 2 weeks for 3 (smallish) flats and recycle the rest. I try to pick up rubbish I find when I go for walks. I often complain that there are too many cats that are eating all the songbirds!
Heather Williams
No air travel
I don’t run a petrol-driven car - so no car, a bit unusual in West Surrey
Stingy usage of household energy (gas and electricity) and water 
Favour 2nd-hand (charity shop) clothes
Vegetarian
Correct use of Council household recycling facilities
Keepcup for take-away coffee
​Carol O’Connor (with fellow bookseller Kathy Koslowski)
At the bookshop I manage here in Melbourne, St Peter's Bookroom, I'm actively promoting the use of Keep Cups when we go fetch our take-away coffees!
Marilyn Daish
When thinking about this, the catchy title KICK OUT THE PRINT-OUT came to mind. I've made efforts, as have most of us, to reduce waste and recycle carefully. This hasn't posed a hardship as the council has kindly obliged with veg and paper/cardboard/ glass/recyclable plastics etc boxes. Then I had to consider what I had personally done if anything to reduce waste without being spoon fed the means to do so and the one thing that springs to mind concerns my efforts in the past year to reduce printouts of my poetry. I was printing every draft of every poem and a lot of trees suffered as an indirect result - not to mention a growing paper mountain as a direct result! Now I have drastically reduced the use of my printer and also tackled my fears of losing my precious poems in the system without printed backup!  Not an easy feat as I am generationally challenged by not having paper back up of important documents. See photo of my makeshift placard!
What Earth Justice actions will YOU take?
Click HERE to view an Earth Justice Action Resource List, including ideas for personal action, participation at SJP, and 9 other wider campaigns in which you may wish to get involved.
Earth Justice Video Resources
​Thomas Berry  – The Great Story - the universe as a cosmic liturgy. Bullfrog Films.
Author, farmer, priest and “geologian” Thomas Berry helps us to understand that the Universe is a communion of subjects not a collection of objects. He reminds us that we are living through the greatest extinction spasm of the past 65 million years. Berry urges us to change our ways. His values are rooted in a sacred cosmology which includes the entire natural world. The mountains, rivers, birds, fish, all living organisms are not there for our use but for a union which is needed for us to become who we are.  "I am not myself without everything else." 
Hannah Malcolm Theology and the Environment (8 minutes) Winner of the Theology Grand Slam 2019 which aims to engage young people in theology and our world.
Scriptures have testified to the renewal of the world. Grief at the destruction wrought is vital but so too is hope. 
Larry Rasmussen Earth-Honoring Faith. Talk based on the book Earth Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key.
Larry Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, New York City and visited SJP in 2019.
Michael Dowd –  Ecology as the Heart of Theology
First 5 minutes – introduces Michael Dowd’s ideas.
A pro-future, post-doom eco-theologian with a passion for supporting others in deeply adapting to abrupt climate change and societal and ecological breakdowns. Website: https://postdoom.com
Repowering London. Brixton renewable energy project.
(2 minutes).
Tackling fuel poverty with renewable power, while showing the true democratic involvement of people power in the energy system. The Brixton scheme provides solar panels and skills up young people in cooperation with local communities in a part of London affected by drug-use and gang culture.
Click HERE for links to 5 more video resources, including Robin Wall Kimmerer, Nikki Silvestri, Ade Adepitan and Matthew Fox.
Further reading for a deep dive
  • The Body of God: An Ecological Theology and A New Climate for Theology by Sallie McFague
​These works flesh out what we mean by an incarnational understanding of creation and providence.  Her model of the world as the body of God highlights the ways in which human beings can be part of the flourishing of all creation. 
  • Joy-in-Enough by Mary Grey, UK eco-feminist liberation theologian, author of Sacred Longings: Ecofeminist Theology and Globalisation and co-founder of Wells for India.
Click here to read a short talk by Mary Grey given at the launch of the Green Christian campaign Joy-in-Enough. Awakening to a new economics.   https://joyinenough.org/  
  • Earth Honoring Faith. Religious Ethics in a New Key, by Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics  at Union Theological Seminary, New York City.
Advocates an alliance of spirituality and ecology, in which the material requirements for planetary life are reconciled with deep traditions of spirituality across religions, traditions that include mysticism, sacramentalism, prophetic practices, asceticism, and the cultivation of wisdom. How we change our ways so the planetary community can flourish.
  • God Unbound: Theology in the Wild by Brian McLaren, an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian, and pastor.
He is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity”. Theology is at its best when it is in conversation with the wild world that flourishes beyond our walls and outside our windows and cities. In God Unbound the author follows his love of nature to the Galapagos Islands. There, he pays close attention to the flora and fauna around him but also to what is happening within him, how the natural world awakens his soul. The result is a sparkling and engrossing theology which refuses to remain indoors.
  • Ecology Must Be the Heart of Theology.  A lecture by Rev. Michael Dowd,  an eco-theologian and pro-science, pro-future ‘evangelist’.
This event write-up gives a summary of Michael Dowd’s approach. https://www.sustainabilityaction.net/michael-dowd-ecology-must-be-the-heart-of-theology/ Anthropocentrism has led us to defile primary reality — the climate, forests, soils, seas, and life upon which we depend. And now we are in the early stages of the Great Reckoning. The good news is that this may also be the Great Homecoming — the prodigal species coming home to Reality. By shifting from human-centred to life-centred measures of progress and success we can, once again, become integral members of the community of life. The website http://thegreatstory.org/new.html includes interviews on topics such as Post-Doom compost theology.  
  • From What is to What if. Unleashing the power of the imagination to create the future we want by Rob Hopkins of the Transition Network.
Has many examples of local communities acting now in the sustainable ways we will need in the future.
  • Meditation for Earth Day from Franciscan Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation.
Sherri Mitchell, Native American attorney and sacred activist for environmental protection and human rights shares two particular terms which offer us some much-needed Indigenous wisdom and compassion. View here.
5. APRIL 2021 - PRAYER
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This month our blog is full of prayer, starting with six very different versions of The Lord's Prayer. Which is your favourite?
  • Sister Janet Mead (1973)
  • Roy DeLeon - Body Prayer (2012)
  • Only Boys Aloud Welsh Choir (2013)
  • Rescue for Refugees - in Aramaic (2015)
  • Stellenbosch University Choir - in Swahili (2018)
  • Amira Willighagen - young Dutch soprano (2020)
Three short powerful videos on prayer
  • A Prayer for Women : Remember Your Daughters - a poem composed by writer and advocate, Rachel Asproth, which centralizes the work, stories, and experiences of women who have been silenced and erased by the powerful (March 2017)
  • Rowan Williams (erstwhile Archbishop of Canterbury) speaking to Aled Jones (2010)
  • Prayer is the greatest freedom of all by Benedictine monk Father Giles (2019)
Two versions of The Jesus Prayer (our guided prayer for April)
  • Sister Tereza Vodjana of the Greek-Catholic Sisters Missionaries of the most Holy Redeemer in Ukraine
  • The Valaam Choir singing in Slavic
Further reading for a deep dive
There are many 1000's of books on prayer. Here are four accessible and practical books on prayer from the modern era
  • J. Neville Ward, The Use of Praying (1969) - Neville Ward was an English Methodist minister who served a 5-year term at Hinde Street Church in the West-End of London and wrote over a dozen books including this clear practical guide to the different intentions we can adopt in prayer.
  • Sister Wendy Beckett, On Prayer​ (2006) Sister Wendy became a TV celebrity for her art history programmes, and in 2006 she published this short but profound book on prayer. She said it was her most difficult book to write. While her art history was mere opinions, she felt that her convictions about prayer were matters she 'would be prepared to die for'.
  • Ruth Burrows OCD, Essence of Prayer (2006): Ruth Burrows is a Carmelite Nun from Quiddenham in Norfolk who has written several books on contemplative prayer: 'what God is doing for us in prayer is nothing other than giving us God's very self in love.'
  • James Martin SJ, Learning to Pray: A Guide for Everyone (2020) - the author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, explains what prayer is, what to expect from praying, how to do it, and how it can transform us when we make it a regular practice in our lives.  Martin lays out the different styles and traditions of prayer throughout Christian history and invites us to experiment and discover which works best to feed our soul and build intimacy with our God.
4. MARCH 2021 - JOINING IN THE DANCE THAT IS GOD
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Watch videos of dancers from the St James's community: Heather Williams dancing a solo piece called Ursula's Choice in the Chapel of the Royal Holloway University, commissioned as part of the Great Charter Fair in 2015; and Jules Cunningham in rehearsal for her dance work inspired by the writings of French feminist Monique Wittig, commissioned by Sadler's Wells Theatre in 2018. Joyce Henderson was assistant director on this work with Jules, and also part of the central team that  'choreographed' (not the word she would use!) the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics - have a look from about 19 mins in to remember how that 'moved' the nation/world.
More dance and movement
  • The Dubliners sing The Lord of the Dance (2006)
  • Duke Ellington's David Danced before the Lord, with tap dancer Dario Natarelli (2016)
  • Nuns at the monastery of St Alphonsus in Dublin take on the Jerusalema dance challenge (2021)
Additional material on this month's topic
Picture
Click here to explore the awesome Dancing Saints mural at St Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Completed in 2009, it wraps around the entire church rotunda, showing ninety larger-than life saints, four animals, stars, moons, suns and a twelve-foot tall dancing Christ. The saints—ranging from traditional figures like King David, Teresa of Avila and Frances of Assisi to unorthodox and non-Christian people like Malcolm X, Anne Frank, and Margaret Mead—represent musicians, artists, mathematicians, martyrs, scholars, mystics, lovers, prophets and sinners from all times, from many faiths and backgrounds. As the congregation dances around the altar, the saints dance above, proclaiming a sweeping, universal vision of God shining through human life.
​
Art: Mark Dukes. Photo: David Sanger. Copyright St. Gregory of Nyssen, San Francisco 2021 (with permission)
Further reading for a deep dive
  • Mark Thibodeaux, Reimagining the Ignatian Examen (2014) A short 88-page book that includes 34 different versions of the Ignatian Examen, a prayer to discern the presence of God in our everyday experience, with an introduction, tips and a glossary of Ignatian terms.
  • David Lonsdale, Dance to the Music of the Spirit (1992) An exploration of discernment as dance: 'We hear the Spirit's music in creation, in our own gifts, in life as it unfolds in us and in the world around us, and in the word of God. God's gracious invitation is that we dance to that music.'
  • Layne Redmond, When The Drummers Were Women: A Spiritual History of Rhythm​ (2018) A richly illustrated book recovering the lost history of ancient drummer-priestesses who celebrated women's spirituality, wisdom, and sexuality through ritual drumming. Written by a brilliant female drummer, this book encourages women and men to re-establish rhythmic links with themselves, other people, nature and the divine through the power of drumming.
  • Michael Mayne, Learning to Dance (2001): 'My theme is dance: the dance of life; the dance of the cosmos, of the natural world and the tiniest particles of matter; the dance of music and paint and words; the dance of those cruel times which feels like dancing in the dark; the dance of relationships, of forgiveness, friendship and love; the dance of faith; and finally, that hidden dance that some call heaven.'
3. FEBRUARY 2021 - GOD WITH US IN SUFFERING
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Watch videos of a reading of Untitled by James Baldwin (brace yourself for a few seconds of frenetic intro titles!), O God our help in ages past (based on Psalm 90) sung at Westminster Abbey, and our own Alison Beck singing Come Healing by Leonard Cohen (2020)
Additional material on this month's topic
Picture

Click here to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and watch a narrated slideshow in which Andrea Bayer, the curator of European paintings, traces her process of mourning after her parents' recent deaths.

Raphael Soyer, The Artist's Parents (1932)



During February, Joan wrote a reflection of this month's theme which you can read here.
More words and song
  • David Suchet reading Psalm 5 (the psalm Lia used in her 'praying with the psalms' exercise)
  • Mahalia Jackson, God Will Take Care Of You (c1960)
  • Holmes Brothers, Amazing Grace (1992)
Further reading for a deep dive
  • Frances Young, Arthur’s Call: A Journey of Faith the Face of Severe Learning Disability (2014). Frances Young is a Methodist minister, a theologian and the mother of Arthur who lives with a severe learning disability. In 2014, she published this reflective memoir full of hope and help for all who struggle with faith in the face of unremitting suffering.
  • Christopher Chapman, Seeing in the Dark: Pastoral perspectives on suffering from the Christian spiritual tradition (2013) Christopher Chapman is the Spiritual Formation Adviser in the Diocese of Southwark. Here he reflects upon what Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, the medieval poet Hadewijch, Simone Weil and others have to say to us about faith and suffering.
  • Simon Cuff, Only God Will Save Us: The Nature of God and the Christian Life​ (2020) The question of God and suffering, and the way in which God is with us in suffering, has been a fruitful area of modern theology since Jürgen Moltmann published The Crucified God in 1972. Last year, Simon Cuff wrote a very accessible introduction to this complex area of systematic theology, in which he reaffirms 'the God of classical theism' in light of Moltmann's work.
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‘Mélancolie’ by Albert Gyorgy (Lake Geneva, Switzerland)
2. JANUARY 2021 - GOD'S DREAM FOR ME
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Watch videos of a reading of Psalm 139 and of Malcolm Guite reading his poem 'Singing Bowl' here:
Additional material on this month's topic
Picture
Expressing the individual in science and art 
​​For an up-to-date exploration of the modern science of human development and its impact upon morality, public policy, religion, education and law, read David Linden's Unique: The New Science of Human Individuality (2020)

Click here to access a National Gallery of Art activity pack on Expressing the Individual including 22 images exploring how personal identity is shaped, formed, and expressed.
How much of your personal life do you reveal to others? How do you choose to share it?
Diane Arbus, A Young Man in Curlers at Home on West 20th Street, N.Y.C. (1966)
Some music
  • Margaret Rizza, Let Your Beauty Shine in Me Lord (2014)
  • Aretha Franklin, My Way (c1967)
  • Morris Chapman, Be Bold, Be Strong (2010)
Further reading for a deep dive - 3 spiritual autobiographies
  • Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life 1941-43 In her letters and diaries, Etty Hillesum describes her religious awakening and the persecutions of Jewish people in Amsterdam during the German occupation. In the concentration camp of Westerbork, she had unusual experiences of spiritual awakenings and insight: "Those two months behind barbed wire have been the two richest and most intense months of my life, in which my highest values were so deeply confirmed. I have learnt to love Westerbork". In 1943 she was deported and killed in Auschwitz concentration camp.
  • Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) Merton grew up in a non-religious family and reflects on the quest for faith in God that led to his Christian conversion at age 23. He resigned his position as an English teacher and entered a Trappist monastery: "Brother Matthew locked the gate behind me, and I was enclosed in the four walls of my new freedom." Encouraged by his novice master to write down his spiritual journey, the book has sold millions of copies and been translated into 15 languages.
  • Sara Miles, Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion (2007) A witty and accessible modern spiritual testimony by Sara Miles who set up The Food Pantry in 2000, which offers free, fresh groceries to 400 families every Friday at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. ​“Thank God for Jesus. Because, you know, he was here like us, so he knows how hard it is to be a person. He must have a sense of humor about us.”
1. DECEMBER 2020 - THE JOURNEY BEGINS: GOD'S DREAM FOR THE WORLD
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Watch videos of this month's two key pieces of text for prayer and reflection on our YouTube channel here:
Additional material on this month's topic
Some art and images
  • ​Click here for a collection of images of Jesus and Mary from all around world (external link on Pinterest)
  • ​See The Guardian's 10 best representations of God from Alanis Morissette to Groucho Marx here. 
Some music
  • Alex Chellun, As I Wake Up in the Morning (2013)
  • Natasha Atlas and Jocelyn Pook, Adam’s Lullaby (2003) with a slideshow of paintings in the Hudson River School style
  • Richard Smallwood with Vision, Psalm 8 (1984)
Further reading for a deep dive
  • Ruth Valerio, Saying Yes to Life (SPCK, 2019) – The Archbishop’s Lent Book last year. As people made in the image of God, we are entrusted to look after what he has created: to share in God’s joy and ingenuity in making a difference for good. Ruth imaginatively draws on the Creation story in Genesis 1 as she relates themes of light, water, land, the seasons, other creatures, humankind, Sabbath rest and resurrection hope to matters of environmental, ethical and social concern.
  • In theology, this topic of the faith-vision of the world and of humanity is known as theological anthropology. An excellent readable short introduction (112 pages) is The Christian Vision of Humanity: Basic Christian Anthropology by John R Sachs (1991)
  • For a longer and more scholarly read, try Creation: A Biblical Vision for the Environment by Margaret Barker (T&T Clark, 2009)
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