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can you hear the call?

Friday, January 1st, 2016

Happy New Year! Yesterday, we said goodbye to Narnia and replaced it with a whole new allegorical creation in our window…

‘Can you hear the call?’ is the opening line of a poem which we’ve displayed on the floor of the farmyard barn our bottom left hand domestic goose is about to leave. The poem brings to life his story through his own words:

Can you hear the call
as the wild geese fly over?
Its sound stirs me awake
to a future I can now remember.

I was made for more than farmyard walls
enclosing safe, muddy ground.
I was made for more than domestic comfort,
more than feed looked for and found.

I was made to hear the call;
to know its meaning and act on this belief –
that I was made to follow
the lead wild goose’s lead.

So I don’t just hear the call,
I listen.
And I let freedom’s stirring win.
Feet leave drudgery for joy
and my wild flight adventure begins!

It’s life-filled belonging,
it’s height and speed and view,
It’s rush of air in lungs
so now I’m also asking you:

Can you hear the call
as the wild geese fly over you?
Can you hear the call?
And are you coming too?

The poem is inspired by the truth its author (Liz Baddaley) first heard from the artist who has created our window’s flying geese (Barbara Macnish). Even if a domestic goose has been held in captivity all its life, if wild geese fly over and it hears their call, it will respond and take to the skies…

This story has subsequently been shared again and again in our community and has spoken to a number of our pray-ers on different levels…

But our desire in bringing it to life in our window is to invite those beyond our walls to think – at the start of another new year – about listening to the call to more that rings out clear to each one of us, if only we will listen, understand and respond…

You can have a look through more of our windows by visiting our art of love made known page, or by browsing through this category on our blog.

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He is on the move: Happy Christ-with-us

Monday, December 21st, 2015

It used to be… Always Winter and Never Christmas…

The snow scene that greets Lucy and the other children when they come through the wardrobe doors into Narnia is more than just a beautiful setting for a story…

In Narnia, under the reign of the self-appointed evil Queen Jardis – otherwise known as the White Witch – it is always winter but never Christmas.

Narnia really is in the bleak midwinter – her ground is literally hard as iron… no new life can grow. Creatures are turned to stone. And fear blankets the whole country.

Snow is beautiful, but endless winter spells death – and in this story it acts as a picture of evil’s dreadful, strangling grip; of a world under the wrong rule.

…But now: Spring is coming because Aslan is on the move!

Did you know that C.S. Lewis deliberately wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as an allegory? In it Aslan represents Jesus… When he comes to Narnia – when he is “on the move” – everything starts to change. The ice starts to thaw and evil begins to lose its grip.

Life bursts forth – spring starts to blossom… everything begins to be restored. And we start to know the Witch is losing for sure, because Christmas comes…

Christmas – Christ with us: Jesus with us: God with us – or in Narnia… Aslan with us.

2,000 years ago, Jesus moving – God coming to be with us in our world (with all its wintery brokenness) was the start of a spring of restoration dawning… the start of the whole world’s story changing forever.

We all know more chapters follow this one – in Narnia and in our world – but Advent is all about celebrating the start of the thaw… and looking forward to the day when winter can never come again.

This Christmas…

…it would be possible to feel overwhelmed by just how much winter the headlines testify to being left around us.

But we must remember Isaiah’s words. There is only one government that will never stop increasing – only one power that will last. And that is Jesus’.

And he is on the move – he is always on the move. The evidence is always all around us if we look with faith-opened eyes and Spirit-softened hearts.

So, this Christmas, take time to remember just how much he is transforming.

In the last few weeks alone, Myanmar has seen an extraordinary breakthrough with a new government, the last Ebola patient was discharged in Guinea and extraordinary beauty has come from ashes in Paris.

Every time we used our daily prayer for COP21 during the International Climate Talks, we connected once again with the sense we had first had in the prayer time that inspired its creation – that these would be the talks to come of age. And we meant it every time we gave thanks for the bravery of this city in continuing to host the talks after all it had been through, and of the world leaders who overcame fear to come.

This 21st round of Climate Talks had more prayer surrounding it than any of the others. It was time. And on Saturday night, a breakthrough agreement was reached which not only went further in some areas than even the campaigning organisations had asked for, but which also built in the views of poorer countries like never before.

As many of our partner organisations have already said, the agreement is far from perfect – and it is a step rather than an arrival. But it is a triumph – in and of itself, and also because it is a victory for hope. It reminds us that transformation can come, and is coming, and really will come to every broken situation and seemingly impossible challenge – in his perfect timing.

Spring always wins – the increase of his government knows no end. So this Christmas, receive his very good comfort and joy, for he is on the move among us.

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the lion, the witch and the sanctuary

Tuesday, December 1st, 2015

It’s been so exciting putting together our latest creative outreach window (and door!). What a joy and privilege to bring to life this moment from C.S. Lewis’ most famous and well-loved allegorical story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe…

It’s best seen in person as we can’t possibly capture all the different elements in one picture for you – from fur coats, animals turned to stone and Turkish delight through to a tree and forest canopy bursting to life again now Aslan has come.

But here are a couple of close-up shots that might help a bit:

What’s it all about?

Well besides giving away a beautiful piece of art which brings to life something so well-loved and Christmassy…

We’ve chosen to feature Lewis’ story to provide an intriguing way in to the Christmas story’s truth and beauty this year. The poster in the left hand side of the window explains it all…

Here’s what it says:

It used to be… Always Winter and Never Christmas…

The snow scene that greets Lucy and the other children when they come through the wardrobe doors into Narnia is more than just a beautiful setting for a story…

In Narnia, under the reign of the self-appointed evil Queen Jardis – otherwise known as the White Witch – it is always winter but never Christmas.

Narnia really is in the bleak midwinter – her ground is literally hard as iron… no new life can grow. Creatures are turned to stone. And fear blankets the whole country.

Snow is beautiful, but endless winter spells death – and in this story it acts as a picture of evil’s dreadful, strangling grip; of a world under the wrong rule.

… But now: Spring is coming because Aslan is on the move!

Did you know that C.S. Lewis deliberately wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as an allegory (a symbolic story)?

In it Aslan represents Jesus… When he comes to Narnia – when he is ‘on the move’ – everything starts to change. The ice starts to thaw and evil begins to lose its grip.

Life bursts forth – spring starts to blossom… everything begins to be restored. And we start to know the Witch is losing for sure, because Christmas comes…

Christmas – Christ with us: Jesus with us: God with us – or in Narnia… Aslan with us.
2,000 years ago, Jesus moving – God coming to be with us in our world (with all its wintery brokenness) was the start of a Spring of restoration dawning… the start of the whole world’s story changing forever.

We all know more chapters follow this one – in Narnia and in our world – but Advent is all about celebrating Christmas and the start of the thaw…

Special thanks to all our core team for their hard and creative work on this window. But most especially to the amazingly talented Alison Hodson who has brought our dream of turning our front door into the wardrobe into Narnia to life!

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GLOWing reports

Monday, November 2nd, 2015

We had a brilliant time giving away gifts bearing the message of #MadeToGLOW on Saturday, and received delighted responses from the children and parents who received them… And then, early on Sunday morning, we did a rapid changeover in our window… from before to after:

Our gallery of stars features 27 famous ‘saints’ – and a 28th catch all to represent the huge cloud of witnesses who might not be as famous to passers by – who have shone so brightly in the sphere they were placed that they transformed it with the light they carried.

You can read about everyone who’s featured below… and we recommend you do. It’s an incredibly inspiring and uplifting experience, and we’ve been thrilled to see so many passers by doing exactly that yesterday and today.

But meanwhile, here’s a photo of the accompanying larger poster which introduces people to the source of the light all the people featured in the window are glowing with:

And, just as we promised, here’s a bit about each one of our featured stars…

C.S. Lewis

Inspired by THE LIGHT to write stories and books that lead others to THE LIGHT. We are all: Made to GLOW

William Wilberforce

Inspired by THE LIGHT to end slavery in his time. We are all: Made to GLOW

John Newton

Inspired by THE LIGHT to leave running slave ships and write Amazing Grace. We are all: Made to GLOW

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Inspired by THE LIGHT to write poetry celebrating the beauty of God’s creation. We are all: Made to GLOW

Martin Luther King JR

Inspired by THE LIGHT to fight for the truth that all races are equal and made in God’s image. We are all: Made to GLOW

Mother Teresa

Inspired by THE LIGHT to leave everything behind to care for the destitute in Calcutta. We are all: Made to GLOW

George Frideric Handel

Inspired by THE LIGHT to compose The Messiah and to give the proceeds to orphans. We are all: Made to GLOW

Rembrandt

Inspired by THE LIGHT to paint God’s loving welcome in the Return of the Prodigal Son. We are all: Made to GLOW

Elizabeth Fry

Inspired by THE LIGHT to make prisons more humane. We are all: Made to GLOW

Eric Liddell

Inspired by THE LIGHT to run his very best at Olympic level, and feel God’s pleasure in it. We are all: Made to GLOW

Edith Cavell

Inspired by THE LIGHT to care for soldiers from both sides in WWI and to help allies escape. We are all: Made to GLOW

Florence Nightingale

Inspired by THE LIGHT to ‘do good for him alone without reputation’ through nursing. We are all: Made to GLOW

Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Inspired by THE LIGHT to stand up for the truth and care for others in disobedience to the Nazi regime. We are all: Made to GLOW

Abbess Hilda of Whitby

Inspired by THE LIGHT to lead a community committed to prayer, hospitality and spreading the word about THE LIGHT through Yorkshire and beyond. We are all: Made to GLOW

Abbé Pierre

Inspired by THE LIGHT to become a priest, join the French Resistance in WWII and found the Emmaus movement to help homeless people. We are all: Made to GLOW

William Tyndale and John Wycliffe

Inspired by THE LIGHT to translate the Bible into English so that everyone could understand it. We are all: Made to GLOW

Nelson Mandela

Inspired by THE LIGHT to fight for an end to apartheid. We are all: Made to GLOW

Blaise Pascal

Inspired by THE LIGHT to use his outstanding scientific mind to write about THE LIGHT so others could understand more. We are all: Made to GLOW

John and Charles Wesley

Inspired by THE LIGHT to write new hymns set to the pop tunes of the day so people who didn’t go to church could hear about God’s light and love. We are all: Made to GLOW

J.S. Bach

Inspired by THE LIGHT to write ‘reverent music’ through which God’s ‘gracious presence’ could be felt. We are all: Made to GLOW

Nicolaus Copernicus

Inspired by THE LIGHT to ‘seek the truth in all things’ as far as ‘God granted that to human reason’ which resulted in the first pronouncement of the earth orbiting round the sun. We are all: Made to GLOW

J.R.R Tolkien

Inspired by THE LIGHT to write allegorical stories to reflect the battle between good and evil, and to lead C.S.Lewis to faith in Jesus Christ. We are all: Made to GLOW

Corrie Ten Boom and her family

Inspired by THE LIGHT to hide Jewish families in a secret room in their house when Holland was occupied by the Nazis. We are all: Made to GLOW

Lord Shaftesbury

Inspired by THE LIGHT to pioneer free education for poorer children, reform factories and asylums and fight for better housing for everyone. We are all: Made to GLOW

Johannes Kepler

Inspired by THE LIGHT to pursue astronomical and scientific and to ‘think God’s thoughts after him’. We are all: Made to GLOW

Michaelangelo

Inspired by THE LIGHT to bring to life many biblical stories and to believe that ‘spiritual value could be found in all natural beauty’. We are all: Made to GLOW

William Temple

Inspired by THE LIGHT to write Christianity and Social Order setting out a vision of love and justice reflecting Jesus’ teaching which became the British Welfare State. We are all: Made to GLOW

Billions of ordinary people

Inspired by THE LIGHT to do amazing things, small and big, seen and unseen, here and all around the world, today and for hundreds of years before us. We are all: Made to GLOW

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ready to GLOW again

Wednesday, October 28th, 2015

The fairy lights are hung; the pumpkins are carved with hearts and stars; and our beautiful 7ft angel sculpture is back, with a new make-over and a pool of stars at her feet… it’s official, we are ready to GLOW with THE LIGHT OF LOVE all over again.

Our 2015 Made To GLOW window has gone up today and it’s the first of our art of love made known creative installations that we’ve repeated, following such a great response to Alison Hodson’s amazing glowing angel sculpture last year…

But new things are coming over the next few days too...

Just like on Valentine’s and Yorkshire Day, we’ve designed and made some creative gifts for our community of pray-ers to give away on Saturday afternoon and evening:

But this weekend we won’t be in the town centre giving them out together. Instead some of us will be taking some home to give out in our respective neighbourhoods – especially to anyone who might knock on our doors.

Then very early in the morning on Sunday 1 November, there’s a surprise coming… the pumpkins will come out of the window and they’ll be replaced by a stunning, glowing gallery of stars – we can’t wait to share it with you as soon as it’s made.

Whatever you’re choosing to do, or not do, this weekend, God bless you.

Our prayer is that Jesus shines the LIGHT OF HIS LOVE brightly through you, so you can do what you were made for – and GLOW BRIGHTLY to transform the darkness around you.

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beauty’s meaning

Tuesday, October 6th, 2015

At the very end of last week we put the finishing touches to our new art of love made known window. Ilkley began its annual Literature Festival on Friday, and so we’ve focused on authors too…

The window seeks to bring to life the following quote from The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis:

‘The books and music in which we thought beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it wasn’t in them, it only came through them and what came through them was longing. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not yet found, the echo of a tune we have not yet heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.’

which has inspired many of the creatives associated with the Sanctuary in their thinking and practice about how the arts can point to God.

Throughout the window display, to decorate it, we’ve used pages from Lewis’ own books and used gold features coming through them to symbolise the deeper, greater beauty that is coming through them.

The window also features a poster with the following text about C. S. Lewis, explaining some of the reasons why he is one of our very favourite authors:

Narnia! – and the seven decades of joy, insight and creativity for adults and children its creation led to*
Aslan and Lucy – and how they help us understand more about God and following him
His inspiration to us as creatives – in writing allegories and through his literary theory about
‘sub-creation’
His generosity – inspired by his faith, he gave away 70% of his income once he started earning a lot
How contemporary his writing feels when you read it today and how it still helps us live out our faith
How he brought hope to our whole nation – during World War II he gave a series of broadcasts to the nation about the basics of Christianity which brought hope to many people during a very dark time (The book that came from these, Mere Christianity, is still helping huge numbers of people understand more about our faith even now, more than 70 years later)
How he faced a lot of pain, trauma and loss in his life and didn’t try to explain that away – instead he grappled with how to hold together God’s love and human suffering and wrote about it in a way that again is still helping millions of people facing difficult circumstances

*Did you know? The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe began its life when Lewis was just 16 and he saw in his mind’s eye a picture of a fawn carrying parcels… and then in his 40s he thought “I think I might write a story about that!” Makes you think…

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sheet music for ‘We are in Christ’ now available

Friday, October 2nd, 2015

Thanks to our brilliant volunteer scorer Cherry Gilbard, we’ve been able to add our latest sheet music file to our songs page. This means you can learn We are in Christ – our worship song of repentance and prayer for unity in the church – even more easily than before.

Visit our songs page to download the mp3 audio, chord sheet and story behind the song as well as the sheet music. And to browse the other songs we have available to bring more of an outward focus to worship and prayer.

We also have creative prayers and a selection of written prayers and meditations on this topic. Find them all quickly on our search by issue page.

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happy yorkshire day!

Friday, July 31st, 2015

Tomorrow is Yorkshire Day and the Sanctuary is almost ready to help Ilkley give thanks for God’s own county… For weeks now we’ve been busy making plans and preparing goodie bags to give out to hundreds of Ilkley-ites tomorrow – and it’s been a real labour of love.

Tonight a few of us are meeting to pray for Yorkshire – there will be plenty of celebration but we’ll also be chatting about some difficult things we believe break God’s heart – as well as ours. And we’ll be praying blessing on every village, town, valley and city in our region.

Then tomorrow morning the balloons will go up, and we’ll be giving out gift bags to passers-by and people around Ilkley’s town centre… these bags contain gifts (a unique celebration postcard and badge) that feature the art work on display in our Yorkshire Window. (Pictures of gifts below.)

This amazing, giant painting (see above) is the Sanctuary’s moveable mural and is usually to be found on our prayer room’s back wall, rather than in our window. It was painted as a gift for our centre by Ilkley based artist, Alison Hodson and inspires us with a reminder of Ilkley Moor’s beauty every day – so what better visual to use as the inspiration for all our gifts on this special day of celebration?!

On the back of the postcard we’ve started a list of all the wonderful things we want to celebrate about God’s own county… but of course we couldn’t even squeeze half of Yorkshire’s brilliant people and places into an A6 space, so we’re hoping passers by will be able to help us…

We’ll have glass paints with us tomorrow morning and everyone is invited to come and write what they want to give thanks for onto our celebration window.

We hope you’ll come to 6 Church Street tomorrow… We’d love to see what you’d choose to write on our window as the thing you want to celebrate about Yorskhire. And we’d be really happy to put a gift bag into your hands.

Thank you – you are part of what makes us thankful to live in God’s own county! God bless you.

And now, here are those pics we promised you…

Gift bag:

Postcard – front and back

Badge: (scarf model’s own!)

Behind the window… baskets of 250 goodie bags waiting to be given out tomorrow:

PS A very big thank you to:

– Alison Hodson for freely giving her beautiful painting not just to the Sanctuary but to the whole of Ilkley and beyond. And also thanks to her husband Nic, who has helped us hang it.

– Claire of Pear Tree Flowers, Ilkley for growing and giving such beautiful flowers to bridge the gap between art and life.

– The Sanctuary’s amazing team of pray-ers and volunteers who’ve been so generous with their time and skills to design gifts, write copy, guillotine tags, fill bags, twist white roses, pray, man the interactive window tomorrow and of course – give out the gifts that are currently patently waiting at the foot of the mural.

– Everyone who’s given so generously to the Sanctuary so we can afford to share our celebration with people in Ilkley.

– Awesome Merchandise, Leeds who provided such a brilliant production service.

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the secret beauty of sand is revealed

Wednesday, July 1st, 2015

Today we’ve finished our centre’s second story window… and what a labour of love it has been! On the hottest day of the year, we’ve been out the front in direct sunlight literally writing extracts of the story onto the window for everyone to start reading… We’re also offering people the full story to take away, but don’t worry you’re not going to miss out – it’s also available as a download here too – The Secret Beauty of Sand.

A beach, bunting, buckets and spade, jewels and brightly coloured poetic prose all cluster around the centre-piece of the window, which is an incredible sculpture hinting at one of the allegory’s central characters – an incredible rock man artisan…

We are hugely grateful to Barbara Macnish for the hours of work she has put in to designing and bringing it to life. And to Liz for sharing The Secret Beauty of Sand with us all.

You’ll find story behind the story here. But meanwhile here are some more photos of its new incarnation!