Remember

Thursday 2nd February, 2012Tuesday 16th October, 2018 ~ Chris Ellis ~ Leave a comment

Remember

‘Remember in the dark what you learned in the light’

Darkness folds in and smothers hope:
directions disintegrate,
perspectives perversely shift,
space spins,
thought telescopes
character crumbles.

The fish limp in poacher’s bag,
gagged hostage, foetal-folded,
bundled in the boot;
the scanned patient stripped and still,
torn between truth and mercy;
the unsleeping sleeper staring
at the unfriendly ceiling.

When nothing can be seen,
but fears dance like shadows at the stairs’ turn,
when action melts into gearless stare
and plans dissolve into passivity.

Now is the time:
when there is no looking forward
and the present is ominously stalled.

Now is the time to look back:
to remember daylight,
shafts of light casting clear shadows,
sparkles of sun lighting dark textures,
the search of memory bringing echoes of faithfulness,
of wisdom explored,
promises kept,
love’s embrace.

To remember the light
and wait for the light;
when pathos becomes patience,
when terror becomes trust,
when darkness dazzles with wonder and grace.

Christopher Ellis

Photograph: Sunset in West Bridgford 15.1.12

Italian Journey Art Show

Friday 23rd December, 2011Saturday 24th December, 2011 ~ Chris Ellis ~ Leave a comment

In early December I staged an exhibition of a dozen paintings which I had completed since my Italian journey earlier this year, together with a handful of earlier works. The show was exhibited at West Bridgford Baptist Church, Nottingham.

As well as the oils and pen and wash paintings, I included a number of photographs, a display of the books I had read and the sketchbooks which I had used while travelling. This was an attempt to feed back to the church some of the work and benefits of my sabbatical study leave – someone even read my sabbatical report!

Here is a gallery of the paintings and few pics of the exhibition.Click on an image and use the arrow keys or a further click to take you around the show.

Grand Canal, from the Academia Bridge, Venice

Grand Canal and Salute, Venice – after Peter Wileman

I will also have some paintings in an exhibition in Nottingham in January. Here are the details –

COLOUR

OF MONDAY

New oil paintings from

Nottingham Art Studio

14th – 20th January 2012 10am – 4.30pm

Nottingham Society of Artists Gallery Friar Lane, Nottingham, NG1 6DH

New resource for studying spirituality

Friday 7th October, 2011Monday 14th November, 2011 ~ Chris Ellis ~ Leave a comment

I didn’t hear the thud – but then it was too big for the letterbox as well as being a weighty tome. I was delighted to receive my contributor’s copy of the Zondervan Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (edited by Glen Scorgie, Zondervan 2011) which arrived this week.

With over 850 double-column pages it claims to be comprehensive and is certainly extensive. As you would expect with this publisher, the perspective is evangelical. However, the scope is catholic and presents information about a broad range of topics relating to spirituality and offers suggestions for further reading which are not limited to one part of world Christianity.

Contributors who may be known outside North America include Eugene Peterson, Dallas Willard and Jim Packer, as well as the Baptists Clark Pinnock, Glen Hinson and Glen Stassen and the Pentecostal Simon Chan.

The first two hundred pages or so contain over thirty essays offering brief introductions to various themes and topics. These include approaches to the study of spirituality, biblical foundations, historical and confessional traditions such as ‘Byzantium and the East’, together with topics such as mysticism, music and the arts, transformation, grace, ministry and spiritual formation. The dictionary entries cover the remaining six hundred pages.

I also have on my shelf a (contributor’s) copy of the New SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (2005), edited by Philip Sheldrake – whose contribution to the study of Christian spirituality I have greatly appreciated and from which I have richly benefited. The SCM book, like its predecessor edited by Gordon Wakefield, is a fine resource which offers authoritative introductions to a range of topics. However, I have, at times been frustrated by its silence with regard to some evangelical themes which are a part of the story and experience of Christian spirituality.

The new Zondervan dictionary offers guidance from a different perspective, both in its theological ethos and, more particularly, in the scope of subjects covered. Used together, these two books offer a rich and comprehensive dictionary treatment of Christian spirituality.

For example, in the Zondervan dictionary entries on Horatius Bonar and E M Bounds appear alongside entries for Bernadette of Lourdes, Bernard of Clairvaux, Anthony Bloom and Bonaventure. Zondervan entries which are not included in the SCM book include Conviction, Keswick, Revival, W J Seymour, Oswald Chambers and Glossolalia. The Zondervan selection also includes certain theologians who have influenced contemporary spirituality theology including Barth, Bonhoeffer, Gutiérrez, Rahner, Pannenberg, and Sobrino. Interestingly, there are also dedicated Zondervan entries (which are not to be found in the SCM book) on Gregory of Nyssa, John of Damascus and Søren Kierkegaard. These entries suggest, with many others, a focus on prominent people which could well lead dictionary browsers to discover their respective writings for themselves – a good and accessible move!

Of course, many topics appear in both dictionaries such as, Hesychasm, Monasticism, and Prayer of the Heart. Even when the Zondervan contributor is cautious or critical, the tone is never other than generous, as in the article on Yoga. There is provocative and fruitful reflection on such topics as Postmodernity, the Name of Jesus, Masculine Spirituality and Prayers for the Dead.

A further distinctive of the Zondervan dictionary is its attempt to encourage its contributors to include reflections on how the topic in question has practical implications for living a spiritual life today. It’s academic rigour is clear but its pastoral application is also in evidence and this will make it attractive to church ministers and other Christians who want to delve further into aspects of Christian spirituality. The reasonable price should also help it reach beyond academic circles and thus enrich the wider church and encourage Christian disciples in the life of faith.

The book carries commendations from various well-known writers including Richard Foster, Marva Dawn and Leighton Ford. Here, to close, is one by Christopher Cocksworth, Bishop of Coventry: