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September 23rd
Unknowing Time
Window on the World
Exploring thoughts and new ideas moves us on . . .
Frances wrote:
I went to a virtual workshop with St Martin in the Fields, ‘Window on the World’ about disability and lockdown.
The advisor spoke about the different ways we view the world due to disability – for people who were lying in bed, those who experience sensory differences, who are neurodiverse, etc. Then a vicar showed us some photos that he had taken where the camera was either looking through objects, at windows to capture a reflection, or pointed at something at an unusual angle, or activities seen out of their windows – wildlife or the swaying of flowers and trees. Then we were asked to respond to the title ‘Window on the World’ in poetry, prose, video, photo. We had only 45 mins!! I was totally flummoxed!! So, I went into my spare room and I found a chess piece, some blue-tac, a stone with ‘wisdom’ engraved on it and some thread. Finally, there was 30 mins of ‘show and tell’.
The idea is that you finish your piece of work and then it is displayed in the church at an event of some sort about disability and lockdown. I can’t remember what or when exactly. Anyway, this is the ‘write-up’ I have sent to the St Martin in the Fields session leader about the video I made:-
The video shows us all in our own castles, leaning on wisdom whilst the world is spins. During lockdown, there have been times of darkness and light but also a sense of the beyond which has meant that we have all had a period of re-prioritising aspects of our lives. The video was taken with the camera looking into a mirror. The mirror reflects the castle and stone with wisdom engraved into it as well as the window. At times, you can see outside of the window.
“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
—Psalm 139:11-12
The video itself is in two halves. The second half is the reverse of the first half so, in effect, it is a reflection of what you have already seen. Both ends of the video are in darkness but, at the core, the light shines through and I resonate with its sheer strength and beauty. I downloaded a video editor during lockdown but I only started trying to learn what to do with it this week. I had no idea that it’s possible to rotate it, reverse it, etc. It’s mind-blowing!!
Frances.
Frances’ video:
September 21st
Two pieces of writing concerned with this month’s theme of New Beginnings.
Starting Afresh by Rosemary – Moving home and settling in.
Beginnings: Taste, Touch and See by Shefali – Thoughts from everyday happenings to the Creation.
Read these in the September Writing page
September 15th
I am sure you realise that Kingdom Arts gatherings are currently cancelled, and it will be well into 2021 before we can even consider starting again. This, is of course a huge disappointment to us all. We do miss our times of worship, prayer, creating arty things and lunch with you and of course, the laughs along the way. However we will not despair as we have a God who watches over us, loves us, and promises us New Life in all its fullness, whatever we are experiencing.
Our theme for this new season is about New Beginnings. Each week we are experiencing new government restrictions that has an impact on our lives, new ways of meeting family, new ways of working, new ways of shopping, new ways of doing Church, we have to find new beginnings for so many things.
We can however, take heart with this lovely encouraging verse from Lamentations 3:22-23 that will give us encouragement, and Hope and Joy.
“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning: great is your faithfulness”
Maybe this will spark some creative writing or music or painting that will inspire you and which may speak to others. Please have a go as we love to receive your work. So many people comment on the variety when they look at our website. If you don’t feel like doing any creative things do drop us a line to assure us you are well.
With Love from all of us at Kingdom Arts.
Rosemary Orr has submitted two short pieces of writing
Conquest and God’s Garden
These can be found on the September Writing page
Some of us enjoy our music -listening, singing together and, sometimes, creating.
You made the heavens
A celebration of God’s world. Enjoy the photographs
September 8th
Hello Everyone. Today should be our first meeting of the new ‘season’, but it was not to be.
David New has continued to ponder the theme of creation from previous months and has called to mind trees from various periods of his life that have been significant for him:-
REMEMBERED TREES
Seven stately Ash
marked the path that ran
beyond the end
of my childhood garden.
Gentle southwest winds
rustling the branches
“had language for me.”
Pollarded willows
edged the banks
of the old mill stream
while we lazed
in the water-meadow field
with vetch and buttercup and buzzing bugs,
eating double-decker sandwiches.
Towering Elms
crowning the hill of
Beckenham golf course
with trunks too big to be hugged
even by us two boys.
Alas the nineteen sixties
swept them all away!
Golden pendules of Laburnum
overhung the pavement
from garden fronts
of suburban brick-box homes;
brightening up
the daily walk to school.
One big Chestnut tree
covered the corner
of the school playground.
Elegant white candles in the spring;
Abundant summer foliage;
And in the autumn,
Conkers galore.
Overwhelming generosity
from the Creator.
And all for fun!
Bright white slender trunks
mark the parking lots
for fossil-fuelled family cars.
But tiny dancing leaves
are no match
for the carbon-footprint need.
Yet still the white bark shines.
David New 2020
Do we have any budding artists out there who might like to illustrate David poem?
. . . or anyone with reminiscences of days gone by?