commission4mission banners

We have produced three roll-up banners for display at future events and exhibitions which briefly describe recent commissions, as an additional means of promoting our work of encouraging the commissioning of contemporary art by churches.

The banners tell the stories of comissions by Caroline Richardson at St Peters Harold Wood, Rosalind Hore at St Edmunds Tyseley, and Henry Shelton/Richard Paton at All Saints Hutton.

We plan to use these banners for the first time in our forthcoming exhibition at the Crypt Gallery in St Martin-in-the-Fields (4th - 17th July). 

Colours & Stations of the Cross (2)

Colours & Stations of the Cross is a commission4mission exhibition at All Saints Maldon: Saturday 16th – Friday 22nd April 2011, 10.00am – 4.00pm.

Colours & Stations of the Cross features Stations of the Cross by Rosalind Hore combined with pottery by Harvey Bradley. Harvey's pottery has been designed to complement Rosalind's Stations through its use of colour.

Rosalind Hore

Rosalind Hore is a sculptor and painter of Christian subjects – Christ figures, nativity sets, Ecce Homo, Stations of the Cross etc. She works in clay, plaster, concrete (figures can also be bronze cast at the foundry). Her paintings are mostly in acrylic of the events in the life of Christ. Her work can currently be seen St Edmund Tyseley, St Laurence Upminster, and St Mary Goring-by-Sea. Rosalind seeks to express exaggerated emotion in her work through the use of elongated stylized figures, strong colour and sweeping folds, which exaggerate both movement and emotion.

All these characteristics of her work are apparent in these Stations of the Cross. The Stations of the Cross have been a big influence on her and her work. For this series she has used the traditional sequence of 14 pictures or sculptures depicting the following scenes:

1. Jesus is condemned to death
2. Jesus is given his cross
3. Jesus falls the first time
4. Jesus meets His Mother
5. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
7. Jesus falls the second time
8. Jesus meets the daughters of Jerusalem
9. Jesus falls the third time
10. Jesus is stripped of His garments
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross
13. Jesus' body is removed from the cross (Deposition or Lamentation)
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb and covered in incense.

Although not traditionally part of the Stations, the Resurrection of Jesus, as is common nowadays, has been included as a fifteenth station. Each of the Stations in this series are 34 x 42 inches, painted in acrylics, and feature three rose buds as a sign of the Trinity.
Harvey Bradley

Trained as a designer, Harvey Bradley is a long standing and selected member of Anglian Potters – a prestigious association that exhibits members work in such venues as Ely Cathedral, All Saints (Jesus Lane) and Emmanuel College in Cambridge. As well as contributing to these, Harvey has shown work at Chichester Cathedral, Spring Harvest, New Wine and Greenbelt with the Christian arts group Veritasse.

Harvey’s pottery series uses a new sequence for the Stations of the Cross, as follows:

1 Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane – yellow, blue and green
colours of a hopeful garden overshadowed by a hopeless plan

2 Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested – brown, ochre and black
an earthly radical sets in motion loves trusting betrayal

3 Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin – stripes of blue, black and orange
religious order and logic threatened by revolutionary notions of Love

4 Jesus is denied by Peter – gold and grey
the loving wealth of a new way stumbles to emerge

5 Jesus is judged by Pilate – stripes of blue and black
Pilate’s clean-cut authority warped by political compromise

6 Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns – ochre, red and black
earthly vengeance on a passive form

7 Jesus takes up His cross – red, yellow and black
the carpenter lifts His earthly gift and transforms a crooked symbol

8 Jesus is helped by Simon to carry His cross – cream, brown and green
practical love breaks through a tyranny of hopelessness and hate

9 Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem – blue, orange and yellow
even a powerless Creator witnesses to the future promise

10 Jesus is crucified – black and red
stark clashes of light and dark – a ring of blood encircles a world of disbelief

11 Jesus promises His kingdom to the repentant thief – yellow, orange and blue
a cosmic reality breaks through the darkest experience of man

12 Jesus entrusts Mary and John to each other – blue, red and yellow
from the dark, gentle caring begins a new weave of sharing

13 Jesus dies on the cross – brown and black
the earth collapses – a cosmic utterance of silence lies on a lonely cross

14 Jesus is laid in the tomb – orange, black and yellow
earth’s static time sinks in the spirit of man to prepare for a creative song

15 The resurrection of Jesus – yellow and blue
nature’s spirit re-awakens, bounding to the joy of our Creators call

Dedication of 'The Baptism of Jesus'

Yesterday, Revd. Jonathan Evens dedicated 'The Baptism of Jesus' by Rosalind Hore which his family have donated to St Edmunds Tyseley, through commission4mission, in memory of his father, Revd. Phil Evens, Vicar of Tyseley from 1989 - 1999.

Jonathan introduced the painting and its donation to the congregation as follows:

"The painting that is to be dedicated today has come to be here through commission4mission, a Christian Arts organization which aims to encourage the commissioning and placing of contemporary Christian Art in churches, as a means of fundraising for charities and as a mission opportunity for the churches involved. commission4mission promotes the purchase of works of art by churches through donations given in memory of loved ones. This painting has been donated by our family in memory of the Revd. Phil Evens, in remembrance of his ministry here as your Vicar.

The artist who created this painting, Rosalind Hore, is a sculptor and painter of Christian subjects – Christ figures, nativity sets, Ecce Homo, Stations of the Cross etc. She works in clay, plaster, concrete (figures can also be bronze cast at the foundry). Her paintings are mostly in acrylic of the events in the life of Christ. She has been an art teacher throughout her working life, has taken part in the Cambridge Open Studios (creating a sculpture garden and art gallery at her home) and has led art groups and projects in the parishes where she has lived. She has a sculpture in the Bible Garden at St Mary's Goring-by-Sea and another currently displayed at St Laurence Upminister, where her husband is Rector.

Rosalind’s painting of ‘The Baptism of Jesus’ sees water, fish, cross, crown, dove, fire and light – all the signs and symbols of Jesus’ future ministry – swept up together to coalesce around the baptised Jesus. Vigorous movement and vibrant colour combine to depict the glory of the Son who is here commissioned by the Father and empowered by the Spirit."

Jonathan then reflected on those two aspects of Jesus’ baptism – the Father’s call and the Spirit’s empowering – using thoughts and prayers from material that his father had in his ministry at Tyseley. Click here to read the full sermon given by Jonathan.

The prayer of dedication used was as follows: Lord Jesus, we thank you for the vision of you which we see in this painting. We pray that, as we see it week in, week out here in St Edmunds, it may inspire us to respond to the call of God on our lives and to pray to be filled with the Spirit in order that we live out that call in our daily lives. We thank you for Rosalind Hore and for her response to you which created this painting. We thank you too for Phil Evens, in whose memory it is given to this church, and for his example of following your call in his life. Lord Jesus, we dedicate this painting of your baptism to you and your glory in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The next dedication of a commission4mission commission will be a thanksgiving for the creation and witness of Caroline Richardson's fused glass windows at St Peter's Harold Wood as part of the Evening Service at the church on Sunday 9th January 2011 at 6.30pm. The preacher at the service will be Rt. Revd. Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford.

Dedications of recently completed commissions

We now have details for dedications or thanksgivings for each of our three most recently completed commissions:

• The dedication of 'The Baptism of Jesus' by Rosalind Hore will be at St Edmund's Tyseley, 10.00am, Sunday 2nd January 2011. The dedication will be by Revd. Jonathan Evens whose family have donated the painting to the church in memory of his father, Revd. Phil Evens, a former Vicar of the Parish.
• A thanksgiving for the creation and witness of Caroline Richardson's fused glass windows at St Peter's Harold Wood will be part of the Evening Service at the church on Sunday 9th January 2011 at 6.30pm. The preacher at the service will be Rt. Revd. Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford.
• The dedication of etched memorial windows by Henry Shelton and Richard Paton at All Saints Hutton will take place on Sunday 27th March 2011 at 11.15am. This service will be led by the Ven. David Loman, Archdeacon of Southend.

Commission: Fused glass windows at St Peters Harold Wood

Caroline Richardson has just installed our fifth completed commission at St Peters Harold Wood. This commission was for 14 fused glass panels set in steel frames forming two windows; the left window on the theme 'I am the light of the world' and the right on the theme 'I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.' The commission commerorates the completion earlier this year of a major building project at St Peters Harold Wood.

Our earlier completed commissions are:

• Crucifixion and Do this in remembrance of me, paintings by Henry Shelton for the St Lukes Chapel at Queens Hospital Romford (September 2009). Tree of Life, fused glass windows by Caroline Richardson, are also in the St Lukes Chapel;
• Stations of the Crown of Thorns, a set of fifteen paintings by Henry Shelton, for St Pauls Goodmayes (July 2010);
• The Baptism of Jesus, painting by Rosalind Hore, for St Edmunds Tyseley (October 2010) and will be dedicated on Sunday 2nd January 2011 at 10.00am; and
• Etched windows by Henry Shelton for All Saints Hutton with icongraphy depicting Saints Cecilia, Martin of Tours, Peter, Mary, Paul, James the Great, and Margaret of Antioch. A service at which the Archdeacon of Southend will dedicate the windows is planned for Sunday 27th March 2011 at 11.15am.

Future commissions include a holy water stoup for St Margaret Great Ilford and a mosaic for St Johns Seven Kings.

Commission dedication: 'The Baptism of Jesus'

The dedication of our third completed commission – the painting ‘The Baptism of Jesus’ by Rosalind Hore will take place on Sunday 2nd January 2010, 10.00am, St Edmund’s Church, Reddings Lane, Tyseley, Birmingham B11 3DD.

Rosalind Hore’s painting sees water, fish, cross, crown, dove, fire and light – all the signs and symbols of his future ministry – swept up together to coalesce around the baptised Jesus. Vigorous movement and vibrant colour combine to depict the glory of the Son who is here commissioned by the Father and empowered by the Spirit.

The painting has been donated in memory of Revd. Phil Evens, a former Vicar of Tyseley and father of Jonathan Evens, and was chosen by the congregation from a selection of works by commission4mission artists.

Revd. Steve Simcox, Vicar of Tyseley, says, “I think this painting will be very special in St Edmund’s Church. We have mounted the painting … so the prominent thing that is seen as you enter the church is the painting.”

Memorial: 'The Baptism of Jesus'

Rosalind and Michael Hore with 'The Baptism of Jesus'

Steve Simcox, Vicar of St Edmund's Tyseley with 'The Baptism of Jesus'

The Sanctuary of St Edmund's Tyseley

Jonathan Evens recently delivered Rosalind Hore's painting The Baptism of Jesus to St Edmund's Tyseley where it is to be hung as a memorial to his father, Revd. Phil Evens, a previous Vicar of the church.

The present incumbent, Revd. Steve Simcox, was thrilled to receive the painting and showed Jonathan where it is planned that the painting will be hung once the area has been redecorated. Their intention is that it will be the first thing seen by visitors to the church on entry to the worship space. Jonathan also discussed the possibility of a service of dedication for the painting which would incorporate service resources and other materials written and used by his father.

'The Baptism of Jesus' at St Edmunds Tyseley

The Baptism of Jesus by Rosalind Hore is to find a permanent home in 2010 at St Edmund's Tyseley. The painting is to be donated to the Birmingham-based church by Jonathan Evens as a memorial to his father, Revd. Phil Evens, who spent 10 years in Tyseley as Vicar of St Edmunds.

The painting was chosen by the congregation from a selection of works by commission4mission artists which were provided by Jonathan.

Revd. Steve Simcox, Vicar of St Edmunds, says, "I think this painting will be very special in St Edmund's Church. We plan to mount the painting ... so the prominent thing that is seen as you enter the church is the painting."