Start:Stop - Making it out of lockdown

Henry Moore inspects the altar at St Stephen Walbrook

You can listen to an audio recording of this Start:Stop reflection at this link.

On Monday the Prime Minister announced that places of worship will be able to reopen across the country from Thursday 3rd December, provided that social distancing restrictions remain in place. This means that we should be able to gather around our altar once again to receive the Eucharist. 

There is a wonderful black and white photograph of the church taken towards the end of its reordering, showing Henry Moore inspecting the altar he sculpted. Standing with one hand on the flat surface, the artist is leaning down towards the side of the altar, looking intently at it as if in conversation with the stone itself. The image reminds me of “The Makers” a poem by Dorothy Sayers, in which a stone speaks to an architect and craftsman, revealing the interconnectedness of our lives and reminding us of the ultimate source of life; the Lord, our Maker.

Lessons in Lockdown - Making it through

Jesus the Carpenter, 1963, St Paul's Goodmayes - photography by Jonathan Evens

A 'Daily Devotion' for St Stephen's Rochester Row.

“The Makers” is a wonderful poem by Dorothy Sayers, used as a dedication to her scripts for ‘The Man Born to be King’ - a series of radio plays on the life of Christ, first broadcast by the BBC in December 1941. The poem reveals the interconnectedness of the creative process and reminds us of the ultimate source of our creative spirit – the Lord, our Maker.

Start:Stop - Why Work?

Office in a Small City - Edward Hopper, 1953

Hello and welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, my name is Phillip Dawson. Under normal circumstances we would be repeating this short reflection in church every quarter of an hour; commuters on their way to work would drop in as they pass by, starting their day by stopping to reflect for a few minutes. For many, the journey to work at the moment is a somewhat shorter affair - and finding an appropriate environment in which to work may be more of a challenge than it was a few months ago! For those who have been furloughed during the coronavirus pandemic, there is an expectation that they won’t do much, if any work – at least not paid work for their employers.

In our reflection this morning we will be exploring our relationship with work. We begin with a short passage from scripture, to which the editors of the bible we use in church have chosen to add the rather ominous title “Warning Against Idleness.”

You can listen to a copy of this reflection here.