It’s been marvellous to have the Lindisfarne Gospels in
their ancient home of Durham this summer. Around 90000 visitors have been to admire it, and acclaim for the exhibition itself has been matched by enthusiasm for a huge variety of events being
held up and down the North East during the book’s residency. Among them was a spectacular flower festival
in the Cathedral, Jewels of the North
that celebrated not only the Book and our northern saints but also the life of
the region today.
But nothing will have moved me more than the
performance I attended in the Cathedral last night. It was called The Young Person’s Guide to the Lindisfarne
Gospels. A large cast of children, teenagers and young adults aged from about 3
to 21 gave everything they had to this utterly brilliant interpretation of the Lindisfarne
story. There were colour and light, speech and drama, rhythm and dance, ventriloquism
and puppetry in an entirely convincing alchemy of fact and fiction, fantasy and pantomime, wit and parody.
It was an unashamedly Christian ‘take’ on the Gospels with no attempt to
airbrush out their religious significance as if the book were 'no more' than a landmark in cultural history and great art.
There were many highlights (including the 3-year old in the
front row who kept waving endearingly to his family in the nave). Eadfrith
explaining to his monks why he was writing his Book, the Viking senior management
team launching their campaign, and the Four Gospels Blues with clever montages imitating the evangelists’
portraits in the Lindisfarne Gospels were unforgettable. The commitment of all involved was one hundred per cent. It's clear that the Gospels had vividly taken hold of these youngsters' imagination.
I always find it moving to see young people achieve. We are fortunate
to enjoy this every day in the Cathedral as we listen to our choristers sing
evensong. But the cast of Young Person’s Guide were not like most choristers, except for their talent. The
organisation putting on this performance, ‘Enter’, is a Community
Interest Company (CIC) works with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds
to promote personal and social development through the creative arts.
I learned a bit about the backgrounds of some of these children. You would think there was little hope for them. Yet parents and children tell powerful stories about Enter's impact. For some, the performing arts have brought about a real transformation
of their lives keeping them off the streets, giving them confidence and a lot
of fun, enlarging their imagination, and imparting life-skills that will serve
them in adulthood. It forges them into a community, gives
them something to belong to and helps foster life-giving
relationships. I would not have believed
what these youngsters were capable of if I had not seen it for myself. It takes
inspirational leadership to bring it off, and parents pay tribute on the
website to Enter's staff and how they are touching young lives.
I couldn’t help thinking how all this was a metaphor of how
the church should be a place of inspiration and transformative life. It was
abundantly clear that these youngsters loved what they were doing. It was as if
they had given their lives to it. Isn’t this how Jesus proclaimed the kingdom
of God as a glorious rainbow party that creates a wholly new way of looking at
life?
This morning, as I presided at the eucharist in the
Cathedral, I thought about the previous evening. The exuberance of that evening
had been replaced by the solemn dignity of cathedral liturgy – yet somehow the
vibrations had not quite died away. The music of Stanford is not exactly Elvis
or the blues. But once again, children were excelling themselves through their
singing, and the joy on the faces of the young family who had brought their
child for baptism spoke of the same life-changing power of great performance –
for isn’t the divine liturgy the greatest drama there is? - and the glimpse it
gives us of a world made new.
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