Start:Stop - All that is seen and unseen

Pillars of Creation - Image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

Hello and welcome to St Stephen Walbrook where on Tuesday mornings we start the day by stopping to reflect for ten minutes. Please stay as long as your schedule allows. Today our reflection is inspired by the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope which took place on this day in 1990. We begin with a short Bible Reading. 

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

Start:Stop - Talking the talk and walking the walk

George Grotz, Metropolis, 1916

Start:Stop at St Stephen Walbrook enables busy people to start their day by stopping to reflect. Ten minute reflections are repeated on the quarter hour, from 7.45am until 9.00am every Tuesday morning, beginning with a reading from scripture, followed by a reflection based on an event from this week in history, with space for silence and prayer. You can hear a recording of this week’s reflection at this link and read the script below.

Good morning and welcome to St Stephen Walbrook and our Start:Stop reflection. Today is the anniversary of the birth of master-storyteller Charles Dickens, whose Night Walks through the streets of Victorian London provided the inspiration for novels and short stories that revealed his concern for the poor and the oppressed. 

Dickens had an on-off relationship with the church into which he was baptised. Though, by his own admission, at times he struggled to do so himself, he was highly critical of those who attended church every week to say the creeds but who seemed to fail to act upon them. People who “talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk.”

A criticism shared by the author of the First Letter of John, writing to the church in the first century. His readers are exhorted to live the word - through acts of righteousness.

Our reading this morning is from the second chapter of the First Letter of John.

Start:Stop - Role Conflict and Joseph's Dream

Joseph's Dream by Georges de la Tour (1628-1645)

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

Role conflict is a significant cause of stress. It can occur in the workplace when we face seemingly incompatible expectations - for example, conflicting deadlines set by different supervisors or clients. Role conflict may also arise when there is ambiguity or overlap between the different roles we fulfill; for instance, where a manager has to discipline members of a team who they consider to be their friends. 

It’s not just at work that we encounter role conflict, but within all areas of life - and particularly where different areas of our lives meet. This can often be the case at this time of year - returning home for family gatherings we may have a role as siblings and children as well as parents - all at the same time.

It isn't always a third party - another person - who places these pressures upon us; it is just as likely that role conflict arises from expectations we place on ourselves or from a desire to conform to overlapping societal and cultural “norms” - to have, for instance, a successful career and a happy family.

This week our gospel reading confronts us with multiple role conflicts. What can the example of Mary and Joseph teach us about the conflicting roles we embody in our lives? 

Start:Stop - We cry to you Lord

Roy Lichtenstein, Crying Girl, 1963

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

Start:Stop - The Pride Busters Raid

The Flood, Norman Adams, 1961

Introduction

You can hear an audio recording of this reflection at this link. 

Hello and welcome to Start:Stop in the beautiful surroundings of St Stephen Walbrook. Every Tuesday morning we start the day by stopping to reflect for a few moments inspired by an event from this week in history, through the lens of a reading from scripture, with time for reflection and prayer - all lasting no more than ten minutes. You’re welcome to stay for as long as your schedule allows. 

In the early hours of 17th May 1943, 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command executed “Operation Chastise”. The mission was immortalised in the film “The Dam Busters”.

On being awarded ten thousand pounds after the war in payment for his design, the inventor of the famous "bouncing bombs", Barnes Wallis, refused to accept the cash; reputedly explaining his decision by quoting this passage from scripture:

Start:Stop - Social Poets. Celebrating the foundation of The Samaritans.

The Good Samaritan, Jared Small, 2013

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

Two weeks ago Pope Francis addressed a meeting of those working to promote social, economic and racial justice across the world. He described them as Social Poets, because they are creating “hope where there appears to be only waste and exclusion.”

The recent history of St Stephen Walbrook owes a great deal to one such social poet; Chad Varah - who on 2nd November 1953 took the first call from someone contemplating suicide, on what became the world’s first telephone helpline. The organisation that we know as The Samaritans was born.

Our Bible reading is the Parable of the Good Samaritan, from the Gospel of Luke.

Start:Stop - Role conflict: a Marian perspective

The Virgin Spanking The Christ Child - Max Ernst (1926)

Role conflict is a significant cause of workplace stress. It can occur when we face seemingly incompatible expectations - for example, conflicting deadlines set by different supervisors or clients. Role conflict may also arise when there is ambiguity or overlap between the different roles we fulfill; for instance, where a manager has to discipline members of a team who they consider to be their friends. 

It’s not just in the workplace that we face role conflict, but within all areas of life - and perhaps especially at the point at which the different areas of our lives meet. Nor is it always a third party - another person - who places these pressures upon us; it is just as likely that role conflict arises from expectations we place on ourselves or from a desire to conform to overlapping societal and cultural “norms” - for instance, to have a successful career and a happy family.

This week, the church remembers the birth of Mary, the mother of God; who is also the Blessed Virgin Mary - someone who embodies the ultimate role conflict. 

What can the example of Mary teach us about the conflicting roles we embody? 

The gospel reading set for the Nativity of the Mary is from the Gospel according to St Matthew, chapter one, beginning at verse eighteen. 

Start:Stop - Re-clothing God?

A facemask on a carving on the refurbished Shrine of Amphibalus in St Alban's Abbey

This week the church celebrates Alban, the first recorded British martyr, who famously sheltered a priest fleeing persecution by the Roman authorities, helping him to evade capture by swapping cloaks. When the Romans found it was Alban beneath the priest’s cloak, he was sentenced to death. 

Little is known about the priest that Alban sheltered, whose life is also celebrated by the church this week. Even his name remains a mystery.  As a result of a medieval mistake, he became known as Amphibalus (a Latin word for 'cloak').

The restoration of a shrine to Amphibalus in St Alban’s Abbey was completed during the lockdown, on which one carving has been reclothed - in a face mask! A small reminder of how we re-clothe stories using familiar images from our own day. 

Start:Stop - Out of the deep

Sunrise III, Arthur Garfield Dove, 1937

Hello and welcome to our Start:Stop reflection, when we stop for a few moments and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. Our reading this week is Psalm 130.

Start:Stop – Lord, do you wash my feet?

Sadao Watanabe - Washing the Disciples Feet, 1988

Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. You can hear an audio recording of this reflection here. During Lent at our informal discussion group, we are exploring the Gospel of John - do join us via Zoom on Thursdays at 7.30pm if you can.

This week we arrived at the start of what many see as the second half of John’s Gospel - the ‘Book of Glory’ or the Book of the Passion. Here, the pace of events slows and the focus changes. John has spent the first part of his Gospel describing, through signs and teaching , Jesus’ love for the world. Now he focuses on Jesus’ love for his followers. For the next five chapters, John describes Jesus speaking only to the disciples; teaching them - and us - how to follow him in faith after his death and resurrection. His first lesson takes place during the Last Supper.

Start:Stop - The Weeping Woman

Weeping Woman, Pablo Picasso, 1937

Hello my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, in which we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. 

One of the (many) anxieties I had while exploring the possibility of training for the priesthood was ‘crying on the job’. The nervousness that the upper lip will go limp just at that moment when people are looking for a sign of strength, not sadness. I’d been in the choir, or acted as verger at several funerals and found it hard to hold back the tears; unlike our vicar who always seemed to maintain his composure (during the service at least). But when the tiny coffin of a child – Gabriella – was carried through the church, I looked up and saw him wipe away a tear. Some time afterwards, I realised how senseless my anxiety had been; that one silent tear spoke to me more loudly than any words could have done; and I heard it.

Start:Stop - Lessons from Lockdown

Rythme, Joie de vivre, Robert Delaunay, 1930

Hello and welcome to our Start:Stop reflection, my name is Phillip Dawson. You can find an audio version of this reflection here.

At Morning Prayer this week our New Testament readings are taken from St Paul’s letter to the Philippians. The letter was written whilst Paul was being held for an extended period under house arrest in either Ephesus or Rome. But despite his personal circumstances there are no grumbles here, only gratitude - every section of the letter is overflowing with joy. Paul explains how the restrictions of life under lockdown seem to be opportunities, not obstacles - even the “fake news” some are spreading about the gospel doesn’t seem to get him down;

Start:Stop - Raising the bar

The Creation of Animals - Paul Nash, 1924

Hello and welcome to this week’s Start:Stop reflection, helping you start your day by stopping to reflect for ten minutes. Through Lent we have been exploring the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, using as our guide the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book “Saying Yes to Life.” Our reading this morning describes the sixth day of creation:

Start:Stop - We see furthest in the dark

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

Good morning! I hope you are all safe and well. This is our Start:Stop reflection for Tuesday 24th March in a slightly different format than normal. The church is now closed. Please visit our website where you can find details of how we hope to continue to offer services throughout the coronavirus pandemic. 

Through Lent in our Tuesday morning Start:Stop reflections, we have been exploring the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, using as our guide the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book “Saying Yes to Life.” Our short reading this morning describes the fourth day of creation, when God created the day and night:

Start-Stop : Head in the clouds, feet in the water

Urizen, from Europe, A Prophecy by William Blake, 1794

Start:Stop at St Stephen Walbrook offers busy commuters in the City of London the chance to start their day by stopping to pray and reflect for ten minutes. This is my reflection for Tuesday 10th March 2020. Good morning and welcome to Start:Stop. Our readings and prayers will last around ten minutes and you are welcome to come and go as your schedule dictates - please don’t be disturbed if others do the same!

Through Lent we are exploring the creation story in Genesis using the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book “Saying Yes to Life.” Our short reading this morning describes the second day of creation, when God separates the waters to create the sea and sky:-

Start-Stop : A Song for Anna

A Song for Simeon - by Edward McKnight Kauffer to accompany T.S.Eliot's poem, 1928

Start Stop at St Stephen Walbrook offers the chance for busy commuters to start their day by stopping to pray and reflect for ten minutes. Reflections start every quarter of an hour on Tuesday mornings from 7.45am with the last reflection starting at 9.00am. This is the script of my reflection from Tuesday 4th February 2020.