All is Love: A Trinitarian Hymn

Thursday 25th October, 2018Tuesday 20th November, 2018 ~ Chris Ellis ~ 3 Comments

Here is a new hymn text which grew out of a Trinitarian reflection on John 1.1-18. I have a feeling that a couple of the verses are still in process of development, so any suggestions would be grateful received. In the meanwhile, if you wish to field test it in worship then you are welcome to reproduce it provided you acknowledge authorship and source (crammedwithheaven.org).

All is Love

Before the time when time began,
   before the cosmos came to be,
God lived in love and love was all
   and love o’erflowed the One in Three.

The Father spoke and glory shone,
  creating both the day and night.
The Word of God was life for all,
  eternal, undivided light.

Though sin has done its spoiling work,
  with life corrupted, love ignored,
our Christ has come, redeeming all:
  a life laid down, a love outpoured.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill my heart,
  repair my life, renew my will,
that I may know and share your love
  and Christ may all my living fill.

I worship and adore you, Lord,
  I praise you, Father, Spirit, Son;
for you are mine and I am yours,
  eternal Love, beloved One.
                                        Christopher J Ellis

Tunes:           Tallis’s Canon
                      Come Together (Jimmy Owens)

A New Beginning

Wednesday 10th October, 2018Wednesday 10th October, 2018 ~ Chris Ellis ~ Leave a comment

Scotney Flowers

Welcome to the new-look crammedwithheaven.org blog and website. If you have been here before, or if you are a follower and have wondered about the site’s inactivity, then I am happy to announce a new beginning.

Not only do we have a new and clearer appearance to the site, but the content has been revised and refocused. Most importantly, in its new era there will be regular blogs and an expanding fund of resources on some of the pages.

When I began the blog in 2011 I was on study leave in Italy and was reflecting on art and spirituality. You can still find my musings my Italian Journey page. Since then I have done a lot more painting and, I hope, a lot more praying. You can find some of my more recent art works through the GALLERY menu and there will still be a focus on the visual arts in this site. But I now want to both widen the range and sharpen the focus of crammedwithheaven.org.

The range of my musings will continue to embrace art and spirituality but will now also include poetry. In the spirit of a reflective practitioner, I want to both practise these things and reflect upon them. The static web pages will offer resources for worship, together with some of my paintings, poems and prayers. There will also be a small number of pages dedicated to the academic study of these creative areas and their relationship to praying and doing theology. The now-to-be-regular blogs will offer a mix of reflection, study and artistic creations of one kind or another. So:

PRAYER, PAINTING AND POETRY

– REFLECTIONS, STUDIES AND RESOURCES

I hope you find this new era of crammedwithheaven.org both interesting and useful. If you do then please tell a friend!

Pentecost: from Grand Finale to New Creation

Friday 13th May, 2016 ~ Chris Ellis ~ Leave a comment

A couple of years ago I was invited to visit Palestinian and Israeli Christians and had the opportunity to visit Nazareth, where a large modern church stands on the traditional site of the annunciation. This beautiful building, the largest church building in the middle east, is enhanced by many modern works of art presented as gifts from around the world. While many different cultures and artistic traditions are represented, the common theme is Mary the mother of Jesus – the story of the incarnation begins with her willingness to carry in her own body the one who will carry the sins of the world for our salvation.

The church has a number of large bronze doors on which are depicted scenes from scripture and one which caught my eye portrays the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It is a powerful image which presents the twelve apostles, together with Mary, welcoming the Spirit who is represented both as a descending dove and as flames. Go Naz BA Pentecost Door d’s presence is both powerful and empowering and leads to worship and witness. On a lighter note, the image also reminded me of the finale of a West End musical, with the star at the centre and arms raised!

As an Evangelical, I have sometimes wondered about the Catholic emphasis on Mary and the encounter with this image was no exception. It reminded me that often, in Catholic art and Orthodox iconography, Mary is represented as being present with the disciples when the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost. It sent me back to my bible to check whether this was ‘just a tradition’ and I found that the apostles returned to Jerusalem after the ascension of Jesus and, staying in the upper room, indeed ‘all these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers’ (Acts 1.14). And then the Pentecost story itself begins in Acts 2.1 with ‘they were all together in one place’.

The story of Jesus’ life on earth begins and ends with his mother and the Holy Spirit. At the beginning, she has to give permission for God the Holy Spirit to conceive the earthly life of Jesus within her body. This is new life, a new creation made possible by Mary’s ‘Yes’ of courage and trust, as well as the work of the Spirit. At the end, when Jesus is no longer physically present on earth, the same Spirit of God comes to give powerful faith to a group of dispirited disciples and empowers them to witness to Jesus across the world

We too are invited to welcome the Holy Spirit into our hearts and lives. Just as Mary’s ‘Yes’ made possible God’s new creation of Jesus within her, so our ‘Yes’ to the Spirit makes possible God’s re-creation of us in the likeness of Jesus. God’s presence in our lives takes on the appearance of Jesus, as the word of love becomes flesh in our lives and actions. Come, Lord, Jesus, come!