We publish a Parish Magazine 4 times a year and in each Magazine there is a letter from Jonathan Smith, the Vicar at St John's. Here is the Harvest 2006 letter:
Recently I have been to see the Kandinsky Exhibition entitled The Path to Abstraction which has been shown over the summer at Tate Modern. I am certainly no art connoisseur but I do, from time to time, avail myself of the opportunity of visiting some of the marvellous exhibitions which are mounted by the major galleries. Visiting Tate Modern, the old Bankside Power Station, is itself a joy. I really enjoy the walk over the Millennium Footbridge with its vista of St Paul's Cathedral one end and Tate Modern the other. Two buildings, entirely different in appearance and purpose and yet both having a brilliance of architectural design and form.
The Kandinsky was certainly a challenge as we traced his early movement away from recognisable form and observation of landscapes into fully abstract compositions. Sometime in the early 1900s Kandinsky began gradually stripping away the imagery of likeness and began to use expansive and vibrant colour instead. He did this so as to stimulate emotion in the viewer and he surely succeeded. Those who like their art to be a faithful representation of what the eye sees will no doubt be infuriated by and dismissive of Kandinsky. I, though, was entranced and in trying to analyse why I felt so drawn to his work I have concluded it is because of the bold, daring, even reckless use of colour.
Such an appreciation of colour has set me wondering about the use of the senses in the way we approach worship of God. Do we, I wonder, ever pause to give thanks for the senses, the extraordinary medium by which we apprehend and indeed are a part of the intricacy of the created world? Sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste are tools we can so easily take for granted until, whether through accident or the ageing process, they are diminished or lost altogether. It is often said that people who have the misfortune to be born lacking one of the senses develop an acute intensity in the others. God has created us as beings with soul, mind and body and we should not restrict our worship of Him to a cerebral exercise. Many things can mediate the presence of God: the sight of the sun sinking over the horizon, the cry of a new born baby, the feel of a smooth stone in the palm of the hand, the smell of freshly baked bread, the taste of a freshly picked strawberry.
As we approach the autumn with its wonderfully rich kaleidoscope of colours, textures and smells let us endeavour to apprehend God in all His fullness in and through all that He has made.
