Films for lockdown

At a recent church Sunday Zoom meeting, Alan asked what films St Chrysostom’s people have been watching during lockdown. Some commented that they had found it rather difficult to concentrate at the moment, not surprisingly. Here are some of the films and TV programmes we have enjoyed:
 Notes on Blindness [U] (2016) recommended by Admos This is a very moving film tracking the experiences of a man (John Hull) born with sight who goes blind before the birth of his son. Admos comments that the film is about him trying to make sense of his condition, adaptations to his life and the frustrations he has. As you watch it you actually almost can feel and share his life.

The White Crow [12A] (2018) Recommended by Kenson. Kenson describes it as a film about Nureyev, the famous Soviet ballet dancer who defected to France after a ballet tour at Paris. Packed with romantic and political drama, actual ballet scenes, and (most importantly for me) Ralph Fiennes speaking fluent Russian throughout the whole film.

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert [15] (1994) Recommended by Edward. Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret. Edward said that it made him laugh like a drain pipe! Edward also suggested, for suspense the Alien series.

La La Land [12A] (2016) Recommended by Fliss While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future. Fliss comments that it is a great feel-good movie, full of songs, dancing and a bit of good old romance.

About Time [12A] (2013) Recommended by Mtr Kate At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think. Kate describes it as a delightful, heartwarming film, which encourages us to make the most of every moment.

Maigret [12] (beginning 2016) and Poirot [12] (1989-2013) recommended by Fr Ian Maigret starring Rowan Atkinson in the lead role, based on novels by Georges Simenon, set in Paris during the 1950s. Poirot starring David Suchet as Poirot, based on novels by Agatha Christie. The cases of eccentric, but sharp, Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Fr Ian commented that he is enjoying revisiting these this with Dominic.

The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society [12A] (2018) Recommended by Lucy  In the aftermath of World War II, a writer forms an unexpected bond with the residents of Guernsey Island when she decides to write a book about their experiences during the war. Lucy enjoyed the film enormously and was very pleasantly surprised.

Echoes of Easter

St Cuthbert’s Isle, Lindisfarne, January 2020

I look back, back through Eastertide, back through the appearances of the Risen Christ– in a quiet garden, in a tucked-away room, on the road to Emmaus, in breaking of bread, the sharing of wine and at the water’s edge.

In them I hear the echoes of my own special places and moments when God’s peace and presence have drawn close.

In a Quiet Garden – during this glorious spring, after a lockdown day of working from home, I step into the garden and sink into a deck chair, I gaze at the sky, at the opening buds, at the spring blossom. I listen to bird song, I tune into music. Stresses and strains are eased away, sometimes with sighs too deep for words. A deep peace trickles its way through my being. It feels like the Risen Christ at work to touch and to heal.

In a Tucked-Away Room – “work from home” office packed away for Maundy Thursday, time set aside for the high points of Holy Week: a Chrism Mass from the Diocese of Southwark, the Divine Office chanted by Worth Abbey monks and spoken by the clergy of St Elisabeth’s Reddish… moved to tears as the depths of my being are reawakened by the touch of God, by the gaze of Christ.

On the road to Emmaus – swept back over thirty years –weighed down with huge burdens of my failings as I travel alone through France, but those burdens suddenly lifting, vanishing far, far away as I climb into the heights of the Massif Central one glorious July afternoon. Such peace – such contentment – such knowledge of God’s forgiveness.

Breaking Bread and Sharing Wine – Maundy Thursday evening, a lockdown service about to begin, “Facebook live notices” popping up from Manchester, from Mirfield, from London, the world coming together to celebrate this incredible gift. I’m overwhelmed with joy and gratitude – caught up into the mystery of the flow of God’s Love throughout humanity.

By the Water’s Edge – St Cuthbert’s Isle, Lindisfarne, from Easter back to Epiphany, watching the sun go down over the tidal waters. Lying down on the bench, feeling the wind, hearing the waves. God coming close, washing my insides aching like worn-out feet, putting (literally) a new song in my heart – “Hail Gladdening Light…”.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia !

Thank you to Fr Mark Chilcott for writing for us this special and inspirational reflection on Easter in his life. 

Rise again, yes, Rise again

The Resurrection, by Gustav Mahler, was the choice Kenson Li made for a poem about Easter to be read at Vespers in Eastertide. Kenson remarks:

An autographed manuscript of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony

This poem concludes Mahler’s monumental  2^nd Symphony, “The Resurrection”. (Listen to the symphony here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MPuoOj5TIw, watch from 1:07:00 for the chorus singing the poem)

Listening to Mahler’s 2^nd Symphony, especially live in a concert hall, is always a profound experience. Gustav Mahler takes the audience through a journey of life, death, and resurrection in 90 minutes of extraordinary music. One can really feel that one has gone through the darkest valley, and at last, as if led by the very hands of the composer, into the glorious light of Easter. I still remember the first time I heard the symphony was in St David’s Hall, Cardiff, some years ago. I was simply overwhelmed by the transcendence of the music. I did not just listen to 90 minutes of music, I experienced the beauty and meaning of life by immersing myself in the beauty of God’s creation. I believe that in the strange times we currently live in, we too can make life colourful and beautiful by making time to listen to music, reading, and perhaps, admiring paintings on online galleries.

This poem is very poignant for me. My grandfather passed away when I was in my second year in university, and because of assignments and exams, I could not go home for the funeral. It is very upsetting that I could not be there to see my grandfather off, and it does sometimes seem to me that he simply vanished. I had this poem read in his funeral in lieu of my presence. Many people who attended the funeral remarked how touched they were by the words of the poem.

To this day this poem, and this symphony, is still my comfort, and to me, the most appropriate music to signify and celebrate the immeasurable Easter Joy we experience every year as Christians. I know many people are experiencing this because of the restrictions on attending funerals. I hope this poem and the music Mahler wrote will also become for them a source of strength, to journey on with hope, knowing that through Christ’s resurrection, we have been promised that death on earth is not final, and we will meet again on the day of universal resurrection.

“The Resurrection” by  Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (first two verses) and Gustav Mahler

 

See the land, her Easter keeping

Easter Week, by Charles Kingsley was the choice Sandra Palmer made for a poem about Easter to be read at Vespers in Eastertide. Sandra remarks:

It was a strange Easter Day. No communal triumphal joyful singing of Jesus Christ is Risen Today or Jesus Lives thy Terrors Now, no sense of the church bursting into life with Easter colours and flowers after a subdued Lent, no children racing round the pews collecting eggs.

Easter Week by Charles Kingsley

But I am finding this Easter season  meaningful in a new, quieter but more intense way. The seeds in my garden ‘so long in darkness sleeping’ are coming to life .

Day by day I am noticing  small resurrections as plants bud and flower. Birds sing. Blue tits visit, as does a robin . A solitary butterfly flies across each day .

There are many reports that, with the reduction in road and rail traffic, nature is being renewed.  We live in a time of tragedy and fear as did those first disciples but Easter reminds us of hope of renewal.

And not only a hope of renewal of the earth but also a hope of renewal for our unjust world. Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) was a Christian Socialist . His faith gave him hope of a renewal of society – that,  too , is my Easter hope .

Today I saw Mary among us

An unusual thing happened to me today. Paul, from Church, asked people to send to him images of Mary which they liked. He is preparing a presentation showing different representations.

I’ve visited several Marian shrines and at some I’ve bought a statue of Mary depicted in the form she is venerated there. So I decided to photograph some and send them. As I uploaded the images I looked at the face of one in particular and saw in it a member of the congregation. It was extraordinary! I looked at the statue to check but curiously the photograph was not quite in focus and in looking at it my eyes had resolved it a little differently to the face of the statue.

The image I saw was of Mary as a young woman among us. An everyday smiling young woman living her life in our day, in our community. As I looked I thought of the extraordinary things ordinary people, women and men, are doing in our community, in our day. People are showing acts of kindness, working in hospitals and care homes to help others live, doing everyday menial tasks to help and support their families, friends and neighbours. Love, saying ‘Yes’ to life, is all around us in these troubled days. Some women, in particular, are working and living in situations of great self sacrifice – caring for children and relatives and working too – often working for lower wages than men.

A US Muslim poet wrote a meditation on Mary:

Today I saw Mary as an ordinary young woman among us. I saw Mary as a young woman who said Yes to God, and did the wonderfully everyday work of making God’s love and life real in our world. To her I light a candle.

Fr Ian

 

The Risen Christ in the ‘Indian Way’

This striking painting by the Indian artist Frank Wesley (1923 – 2002) shows the Resurrection appearance of Christ to the fishermen, as described in St John’s Gospel. (John 21).

Wesley was born in India and studied art in Lucknow, and later Japan. He had a passion to illustrate Biblical scenes in what he described as ‘our own Indian way.’ In 1973 he emigrated to Australia, continuing to paint. The missionary and artist Naomi Wray knew Frank Wesley in India and here she makes some comments about this painting.

“The risen Christ stands in the sand on the bank, speaking to the two disciples still seated in a small fishing boat just grounded.

To still their obvious fear, he holds his right hand down, palm outward in the Indian gesture of blessing, showing the stigmata from the nails by which he was held to the cross.

His palm is covered with saffron paste, signifying his suffering, and we are reminded that such paste is utilised in sacrificial worship in India. Christ’s single flowing garment is also saffron ….

The disciples are the color of their boat, a rich brown which indicates life as it is, and reminds us that they went back to their old occupation after Jesus’ death ….

At the far end of the land upon which Christ stands, the ground gives way to blue and brown mixed and one feels that there are villages there and cities – the whole world stretched beyond.

The gold leaf of the sky, which indicates the living presence of God, is applied over a base of vermillion, the colour for joy”

Around the world in the Coronavirus: A wide world at home

Lots of people are posting photos from their daily walks on their Facebook pages . I love to see the trees in blossom, the open fields and my favourite beach in Sydney. It reminds me that there is a wide world out there .

My own world is confined to the house and garden as I have a suppressed immune system and am therefore one of the 1.3 million who can’t go outside their own home at all. I have taken to walking from front to back door when I’m talking to friends. Yesterday I covered three miles.

Then I remembered that, with a little imagination, I too can see a wider world by looking in the pictures on my wall and the features of my house. A Japanese wall print takes me to a Japanese tea room . Stare into a painting by my sister and I see kangaroos among the trees.

My bookshelves become a branch of the local library . Fortunately it has a good section of cookery books. My kitchen is no longer a kitchen but a cafe. I am so lucky in having a garden – like many I am learning to enjoy the small changes each day brings. The garden nourishes me but so does looking at the interior of my house with fresh eyes.

As a primary school teacher I have long valued children’s play . It is how they learn and grow . And now in this crisis I am learning the value of being playful myself: playing in transforming my hall walk , playing by wearing hats for Easter Sunday dinner, playing by ‘ ‘going to the cinema with popcorn’ rather than just plonking myself in front of the television. It is all giving me fresh insight into the words of Jesus found in Matthew18. 3 ‘ ‘except you become as little children ye shall not enter the kingdom of God.

Sandra Palmer