Quartz at St Johns Dumfries
We are working away and sticking peoples symbols to mirrors. Every ‘Nugget of Joy’ will contribute to the overall effect.
This Sunday, the 18th of December, will see the first component of the artwork installed.
As well as for regular services, the building is open for prayer and reflection between 10.30 and 4 each day. You are welcome to drop in and watch the light being gathered and reflected – shaped by all who have contributed.
Are you drawn towards these things? Set aside some time to reflect on them in this talk.
The new testament collection of books is a record of the working out in practice of the idea that when religious institutions are silent or distracted, God is still moving and inspiring. Or perhaps at this time of year, Jesus would say that the harvest is plentiful but those who work at harvesting are too few. *
Why is that in our place and time? I love history and heritage, but compare the ceremonies that accompanied the olympics in London or the commonwealth games in Glasgow with how the church of England presented itself at the Queens funeral. There was evidence of spiritual growth keeping pace with history unfolding, but it was hidden behind King James’s translations and victorian showmanship that Monty Python ineffectually satirised when I was a child.
Do you love God’s earth? While we sing harvest hymns, people are gluing themselves to things as an act of passive resistance protesting against the systematic exploitation of the environment by the privileged few.
Do you have a heart for the lost? Some church elders and vestries are still discussing the moral appropriateness of what consenting, committed, adults call marriage. Meanwhile hate mail is being pushed through LGBT+ letter boxes and community groups are sewing blankets to keep pensioners warm in beds left cold by politicians wedded to profiteering from carbon fuels.
Whilst church congregations are striving to preserve their experience of comfort and normality, artists, social entrepreneurs, and those who live in the fringes, are seeking radical creative solutions.
Our christian tradition spans centuries of change. We have access to the heritage of recording God at work, creating, that reaches back even further into pre history. This should be fertile soil to nourish the roots of creative solutions. What is preventing people from taking root?
Do you recognise the prophesy, healing, and freedom from captivity in my introductory list?
In what ways are you working as the invisible church, and where do you see God’s spirit at work outside the building s and communities we call church?
Do you want the congregation you come from to grow, or to see “The kingdom come” through new language, practices, and in places foreign to you?
What does an invisible harvest look like?
*(Various reasons for the current scarcity of workers in UK fields have been proposed: the consequence of farmers betraying locals by employing cheap international labour, persecution of traveller communities, Brexit blocking European migration for work, locals unwilling to work long hours for low pay, cheap imports of fruit by supermarkets from places with less protection for workers – meanwhile the fruit rots in the fields while people queue at food banks).
Sunday at Kirkcudbright Art and Crafts trail.
It was a busy day, with three of us working all the time. Since it was so busy, there have been less words written to describe it!
– no rain so we were able to put up the bunting and have the tent fully open with the chairs out. The Haikus were a bit more random, and the syllable rule was not always followed, Nonetheless we had some good conversations.
A highlight of the day was when a person picked up the postcard of part of the Dream of the Rood and I said that this was the poem on the Ruthwell cross. Her eyes lit up and she said she had been christened at the church there! It was a bit spine-tingling for both of us. The labyrinth also provided some people with time and space to reflect, it is a very accessible activity and they were able to use it on their lap whilst sitting on a chair.
Quartz has been using Haiku this weekend as part of the Wordsmith Crafts CiC setup at Kirkcudbright Art and Crafts trail.
The following is taken from notes written by Kate, who has been leading this activity.
We have been giving people a space to stop. The whole of Kirkcudbright becomes a walking trail and on Friday we had a couple of chairs to rest in which were appreciated.
I have experienced people being surprised by what they have achieved, that they have come up with such a profound haiku. One lady took ages, told me lots about her life and the struggles she faced. She was in tears when she finished her poem, and it was a lovely poem for her sons.
Another experience I have enjoyed was asking children if they know what haiku were and wathcing their parents being really impressed that their child knows all about them.
We have a bowl full of words on cardboard strips. Having words provided means that people encountered words they weren’t expecting. One lady was ambushed by the word forgiveness- we had a brief conversation about it but I suspect more thinking and heart-searching happened after she left.
In addition, giving people the opportunity to write their own words allowed one girl to ignore all the rules and simply state “My name is Bee”. One man wrote a lovely poem about someone special in his life. Young twins who hadn’t learned to read yet enjoyed picking up words they liked the look of, and then the adults watching re-ordered them, #SensingMeaningfulness.
Saturday was wet and windy to start so there were no haiku for the first few hours, but some lovely ones arrived with the sunshine later on. It was great to see parents and children working together – parents were happy to help without taking over or changing things that they thought weren’t quite right.
During the morning haiku hiatus, the finger labyrinth we also have on the table, being made of glazed pottery and therefore much more waterproof, came into it’s own. Some had seen one before, but many learned to use one for the first time. I had a great half-conversation with a lady who was trying to get her son to do it as he had had a difficult day and she thought it would help him.
Not everyone felt able to stop for long, but we had many brief conversations about laying burdens down safely and picking them up in a different mindset. I felt able to say that I speak to Jesus in the middle.
More to follow! Sunday and Monday still to go.
As well as the Quartz area Wordsmith Crafts has a workshop where people can become 5 or 10 minute apprentices and learn to make copper armbands. This is a hands on encounter with millennia old skills. Conversations about value, time, and our relationships with the people who have contributed to making the Scotland we know today.
There is also a shop area where artists associated with WSC can exhibit and sell their work. This helps support the artists, and fund the installation at the trail – any surplus will be directed to helping people access the full resources of their Heritage through other projects.
What does a typical 3 Months in Quartz look like?
This is a bit like asking what typical weather is like in a Scottish day. There will be a recognisable constant of four seasons, and at certain times of the year it is more probable that one will dominate the others. It is quite likely that all four will be experienced in one day though, and it is useful to learn to sunbathe with a wooly hat on.
Likewise, Quartz aims to develop spiritual literacy both within and beyond the St Johns community. It does this through using the arts to help people identify, explore and express spirituality. There is a recognisable consistency to this.
Working like a lead artist in a collaberative enterprise, I involve and support a loose collective of people in doing this together through projects and events – as well as developing my own practice through physical installations, experiental opportunities, and things like this website.
The substance of this adapts with context, follows up leads and opportunties, and also seeks to be ‘present’ in the community to generate opportunities that can be followed up. There is no blueprint, and although there is a Way, the path is discovered and made through walking.
The first phase of the project involved activities such as leading assemblies and RMPE classes in five local schools, attending a youthwork networking meeting, assisting with planning and leading at an experimental service in St Johns. We also put on larger scale multi media experiences. As Quartz we also developed ways of interacting at festivals through the use of things like labyrinths and weaving. Through this we helped people on the street to visualise #SensingSpirituality. In the background time was also set aside for mentoring a handful of young artists and providing hospitality for a student through an international ecumenical arrangement.
The context for this was found in long term background work with the D&G education commitee, and a national review of Religious Observance (RO) provision by the Scottish Government. St Johns was therefore placed to assist in the development and roll out of policy as well as provide continuous professional development training for staff. The support of a team within St John’s, allowed us to experiment with creative worship combining contemporary culture, inherited arts, and the church tradition handed down to us in ways which involved all ages. A long term professional engagement as Wordsmithcrafts with the living history and heritage sectors, provided a summer of events for the young artists to test their skills at. There is also a thriving Arts and Crafts sector in D&G and Dumfries hosts the largest free youth festival in Scotland. When opportunities arose to participate, we experimented. We used the framework for Time for Reflection within schools to develop guidelines for #SensingSpirituality activities in the wider community in ways which encouraged participation by people of all faiths and none without compromising their integrity.
The overall shape of activity was also influenced by the academic and Church calendars. This led to increased Quartz activity during school terms, and left room for the other Wordsmithcrafts activities not directly related to St Johns during the summer.
The previous post has a more practical description of what all of this looked like! And if this account is mostly of the first phase of the project there are probably three more recognisable phases to follow as the context and people involved changed.
If you were part of this stage, please use the comments option below to add your memories!
The spiritual practice of gardening.
For some the step forward will be the experience of working with their hands, growing things, and encountering a primitive world to balance a lifestyle of technology and 24/7/365 artificial light. By relinquishing their acknowledged position of dominance they can restore the relationship.
For others it will be access to education, birth control and the technology of overconsuming cultures. In being freed from the vice of poverty they will be able to care for creation. In gaining practical control they will be able to restore the relationship.
A video made for Harvest, but packed full of thoughts for every season.
Take some time out to reflect. Find your balance, then start to walk.