Jolomo (John Lowrie Morrison), who will paint 'Jesus is raised from the dead'.

The Archdiocese of Glasgow Arts Project (AGAP) said a record number of artists have signed up to take part in the annual art exhibition which takes places during Lentfest.  The festival, which began as a pilot in 2007, has been hugely successful in attracting the participation of a wide range of supporters.  Lentfest 2012 boasts a strong line-up with artists such as Peter Howson, Jolomo (John Lowrie Morrison), Anne Devine, Sandy Moffat and Richard Demarco joining the ranks alongside regular participants like Sarah T. Bookless, Brendan Berry and David T. Collins.

Lentfest Director, Stephen Callaghan explained: “The popularity of the exhibition topic illustrates the timelessness of Biblical subject matter and the diversity of the artists will no doubt ensure a wide range of interpretations.  We’ve never had so many artists take part and not all of them are Christian so it will be interesting to see what they come up with.

The Stations of the Cross and Resurrection are a set of 28 images which are traditionally used in the Catholic Church to reflect upon the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  “The “Via Crucis” (Way of the Cross) is better known, but there is evidence of a tradition called the ‘Via Lucis’ (Way of Light), which takes us up to the Descent of the Holy Spirit and this deserves our attention too because the Christian story does not end with suffering and death but with hope and enlightenment.”

Archbishop Mario Conti, the festival’s patron, added: “I am delighted that we have the support of the University of Glasgow Chaplaincy for this exhibition and I hope that many will take advantage of the opportunity to visit the exhibition during Lent and use it as a means of reflection and prayer.”

The twenty-eight artists who will depict the Stations consented to have their names entered into a draw to be allocated their particular subject.  The twenty-ninth artist is sculptress, Kate Robinson, who is working on a three-dimensional reflection on the Crucifixion. This will complement an installation featuring ancient Roman nails, of the type used in the practice of crucifixion, which are housed by the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow, and which will be on display in the exhibition space during the exhibition.

The full list of participating artists and their subjects is available on the AGAP website.

During the meetings stewards will work in the areas of worship, conference room, documentation, press office, sound, and other administrative and support tasks.

The Central Committee of the World Council of Churches meets every 18 months to monitor and set directions to the Council’s work. The meeting brings together about 150 church representatives, advisers and observers from WCC member churches and associated organizations worldwide. Twenty-five stewards will help to make this event happen.

Before the meetings, stewards follow an ecumenical learning programme which exposes them to the key issues of the ecumenical movement worldwide. The last phase of the stewards programme, following the meeting, focuses on designing ecumenical projects which stewards will implement back home.

Being a steward means hard work, but it is also a unique ecumenical experience of togetherness with young people from different churches, countries and cultures.

Applicants are invited to send in the completed application form to the WCC youth desk no later than 15 March 2012.

More information on the WCC stewards programme

Download the information brochure (pdf, 400  KB)

Download the application form as pdf (150 KB) or as MS Word document (80 KB)

I have been honoured by being invited to give the first in what is intended to become a series of lectures on the eve of St Mungo’s Feast. The series is to carry the name: ‘The Molendinar Lectures’. The Molendinar, of course, as every Glaswegian knows, or ought to know, is the stream or burn, now for the most part culverted, on the north west grassy banks of which a Christian settlement was established before the sixth century, having the typical topography of an ecclesiastical site – a hillock by running water. This burn continues to make its hidden journey into the Clyde by Glasgow Green.

I have entitled this lecture, put together at rather short notice, as the ‘Tale of two Cathedrals’. What I have to offer is a pot-pourri of information which has this Christian settlement, particularly the Church that for more than 700 years is built upon it, as a sort of visual aid. Of course I don’t need to illustrate it here with an overhead projector, since St Mungo’s Cathedral is well known to all of us and is one of the great ornaments of our city.

I may tease you with the mention of a second Cathedral and you wouldn’t have to try terribly hard to guess that it is St Andrew’s on the Clyde, because I don’t want to limit myself to an architectural or historical survey of one building only, but rather to broaden my canvas so that theological and sociological colours merge even into etymological ones, and all can be added to this pot-pourri to give it the sort of description that so often one finds on a bottle of wine with reference to taste. Though with a pot-pourri my metaphor has to do with the nose and not the tongue! Mind you etymology would suggest that the tongue is likely to be the instrument more interested than the nose in what I have to say!

Of course, I am teasing you, and I will tease you further by saying that really my title should be: “Two Cathedrals and one Church” – though not three buildings; the bright ones among you will already have got my meaning even before I look at the etymology of these words.

Let me come to the point: The word “church,” is from old English. It has its etymological root in the Greek word “kyrios” which means Lord. We are familiar of course with that word from the Kyrie Eleison which survived even within the Latin Mass, when, not for the last time, the Church, taking into account the language of the people, changed its liturgical tongue in this case from Greek to Latin. Our word “church” survives from the Greek “kuriakon” the Lord’s House, rather as the Italian word “duomo” survives from the Latin “Domus Dei,” the House of God.

The St Mungo Festival will celebrate the death of the saint who founded the city, as well as the birth of the city.

Schools and churches will be among those taking part in the commemorations, which will start on Saturday, and will also mark Glasgow’s links to Wales.

• Full story at the Evening Times.

The Festival this year marks the 14^th centenary of the founding of the City of Glasgow, whose roots can be traced to the presence of Mungo at the site of the present Cathedral near the Molendinar Burn. Mungo (or Kentigern) died between 604 and 612.

THE VITA KENTIGERNI (Life of St Mungo)
Saturday January 7 from  12.00 – 12.45 in the Mitchell Library

Dr Laurence Whitley and Archbishop Mario Conti reading from the Vita Kentigerni

We celebrate the Life of St Mungo in words, music and song. As people arrive in the Library, they will be greeted by the sound of the harp then welcomed by Bailie Catherine McMaster.

There will be a short reading from the Life of St Mungo in Latin and in English, and the songs and music this year will be led by some of St Mungo’s Bairns, Carissa the harpist, and the St Mungo Singers. The children will sing a new song (by Liz Bovil) about Mungo the pilgrim and the event closes as the choir leads us in ‘Let Glasgow Flourish.’

A new element in this year’s Mungo events (and the inspiration for the new song) will be the link between Hoddom, near Lockerbie, and Glasgow through St Mungo.

According to the Life of Kentigern by the monk Jocelin of Furness, it was at Hoddom that Rydderch ap Tudwal, ruler of Strathclyde met with Kentigern on his return from exile in Wales.

Inauguration of the commemorative plaque at Hoddom, 2011

Other accounts claim that St Kentigern came to the Dumfries and Galloway region from Glasgow and as bishop founded a church and monastery at Hoddom. There is evidence that Hoddom was the site of an important monastery, and that this monastery probably had contact with a number of other early Christian churches in the British Isles and Ireland.

The Festival this year marks the 14^th centenary of the founding of the City of Glasgow, whose roots can be traced to the presence of Mungo at the site of the present Cathedral near the Molendinar Burn. Mungo (or Kentigern) died between 604 and 612.

ECUMENICAL EVENING SERVICE
Sunday January 8 at 6.30 pm in Glasgow Cathedral

Some of the St Mungo Singers during a previous St Mungo Service in the Cathedral

This ecumenical evening service, on the Sunday before St Mungo’s Day, is the brain-child of Dr Laurence Whitley, Minister of Glasgow Cathedral, and Archbishop Conti, and is organised jointly by the Cathedral and Glasgow Churches Together with the support of Glasgow City Council.

It will begin with ‘Let Glasgow Flourish.’ Representatives of the City and the Churches of Glasgow will be joined by the Bishop of St Asaph (a St Mungo foundation in Wales), Rt Rev Gregory Cameron, who will speak about the link with Wales and the 1400 anniversary of the death of St Mungo and the birth of the City.

The service provides an opportunity to thank God in word, song, dance and music, for St Mungo’s life and influence on Glasgow, and to pray for the city’s people and leaders.

Music will be provided and led by the St Mungo Singers, Russkaya Capella, the Rutherglen Salvation Army Band, with piper and harpist.

Sixteen dancers aged between 10 and 16 from the Visual Statement performing arts company will depict the spirit of the city and highlight St Mungo’s coat of arms and his return to Glasgow from Hoddom after exile. Choreographed by Danny Dobbie and accompanied by Handel’s ‘For Unto Us A Child Is Born’, this symphonic dance is both energetic and moving, while paying reverence to the venue and the celebration service.

A wreath will be laid at the Tomb of St Mungo on behalf of the City.

The Festival this year marks the 14^th centenary of the founding of the City of Glasgow, whose roots can be traced to the presence of Mungo at the site of the present Cathedral near the Molendinar Burn. Mungo (or Kentigern) died between 604 and 612.

BALLET AT THE ST ENOCH SHOPPING CENTRE
Friday 13 and Saturday 14 January from 12 noon till 4 pm

Visual Statement

Sixteen dancers aged between 10 and 16 from the Visual Statement performing arts company will be depicting the spirit of the city music and dance, and highlighting St Mungo’s coat of arms and his return to Glasgow from Hoddom after exile

This original concept especially devised for the event will be an ey- catching and beautifully choreographed performance which will wow shoppers and passers-by as they view the uplifting and inspirational performance and hear the tranquil music from Vanessa Mae’s ‘ A Little Scottish Fantasy’ concluding with Handel’s ‘For Unto Us A Child Is Born’.

The performance, choreographed by Danny Dobbie assisted by Brian McIntyre and Wendie Reid, will be a modern symphonic dance piece featuring the city’s coat of arms – the Bird, Bell, Fish and Tree. The performance will be a collage of the characters and the usually unseen ‘spirit of Glasgow’.

Central to the performance will be ‘The Seal Of The City’, a metal movable sculpture commissioned by Visual Statement and designed by Andy Scott. The dancers will dance on, inside and around this structure to add an extra dimension to the performance.

Tomb of St Mungo

COMMUNION AT GLASGOW CATHEDRAL
Friday 13 January at 11 am
All are welcome to  communion in the St James’ Chapel of the Cathedral.

SCHOOLS SERVICE AT GLASGOW CATHEDRAL
Friday 13 January at 12 noon
Pupils from Whitehill Secondary and St Mungo’s Academy will meet with the Minister of the Cathedral, Rev Laurence Whitley, and Bailie Catherine Mc Master for a special service of dedication round the tomb of the saint. It will finish with the laying of a wreath on behalf of the youth of the city.

MASS OF ST MUNGO
Friday 13 January at 7 pm in St Mungo’s Church, Parson Street, Townhead
In this year of St Mungo’s 14^th centenary, the Mass of St Mungo clearly has a special significance for the Archdiocese of Glasgow. Archbishop Mario Conti will concelebrate the Mass with priests of the Archdiocese, the Gospel will be sung, and the music will be led by the St Mungo Singers, school groups, piper, harpist and ensemble.

Watchnight Over Glasgow

This atmospheric event is now well established as a Hogmanay feature, combining vigorous praise with meditative words and music.

There is meaningful spiritual challenge to the year ahead, and there will be the opportunity for those to attend to convey their prayers asking forgiveness for the past and expressing hope for new fortitude in the future.

There will be an interview with Robert Donald of Glasgow City Mission, who is the organiser of the Night Shelter currently operating seven nights a week  for people who have nowhere else to sleep. Half of the offering taken on the night will be given to this project.

The event also features Soundbite with Ramsay Shields and soloist Marjorie Fullarton.

Parking provision at the Cathedral is good. Leave Castle Street by the narrow road at the traffic lights between the Royal Infirmary and Cathedral Square then turn right near the Cathedral to park in the Square.

The event is sponsored by Hope Alba.

A scene from last year's Carols for Peace event

Most of the Christian denominations in the city will be represented at the event, organised jointly by the Glasgow Churches Together group and the Lord Provost’s office.

Monsignor Gerry Fitzpatrick, of St Leo’s RC Church, Dumbreck, is making last minute preparations for the music for the gathering where prayers will by led by the Rev Sandra Black, Moderator of the Presbytery of Glasgow and minister of Toryglen Parish Church.

The skirl of the pipes will echo out through the Chambers as will the stirring sound of the Rutherglen Salvation Army Band and the singing of the celebrated St Mungo Singers. They will all be part of the gathering, which take place in the Banqueting Hall and which will include a harpist and a small music ensemble.

Monsignor Fitzpatrick said: “It’s an open invitation. Everyone is welcome to Carols for Peace which was established ten years ago when the troubles in the Holy Land were particularly intense.

“It continues as an annual celebration and whilst it is a joy-filled event it includes prayers for people everywhere afflicted by violence, war and any kind of distress.”

Glasgow Lord Provost Bob Winter will be represented at the gathering by Bailie Catherine McMaster, and people from churches right across the city are expected to attend.

There will be a formal procession of civic and church representatives and, a ‘Proclamation of Christmas Approaching’ will be read. A carol will then  be sung and the Moderator will lead this prayer:

Father, as we celebrate the coming of your Son among us

we gather here, united in spirit with our sisters and brothers

in the Holy Land and throughout the world.

We acknowledge your love for all your children,

And we pray today that the whole human family
may be drawn more closely together in love and peace..

There will be a reception in the City Chambers after the service at which seasonal refreshments will be provided. There is no charge for people wishing to attend this event.

As well as the Salvation Army Youth Brass Band, the ‘Army’ welcomes special guests the Lord Provost, entertainer Michelle McManus and soloist Matt Ramsay. For more information call 0141 779 5000.

Accept this Gift for Glasgow ...