THE FOLLOWING PAPER WAS PUBLISHED AS A CHAPTER IN "CHAPLAINCY" EDITED BY GILES LEGOOD AND PUBLISHED IN 1999 BY CASSELL (ISBN 0 304 70295 1). THE CHAPLAINCY IS GRATEFUL TO THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER FOR PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THE CHAPTER HERE.

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Introduction
The Chaplaincy to the Arts and Recreation in North East England was formed in 1968.
Currently it has a team of four chaplains. They work regionally in the dioceses of York, Durham and Newcastle. The Chaplaincy exists to enable the churches in this region to be more effective in relating their ministry and mission to the cultural life of the community.

The Chaplaincy’s aims
The Chaplaincy organizes its work around four aims. The first of these is:

‘To develop a prophetic and pastoral ministry which recognizes and affirms the importance of creativity and recreativity for individuals and society’

Over the years the Chaplaincy has developed an understanding of ‘creativity’ and ‘recreativity’ which underpins its work. The human ability to create is God’s gift. Through it he calls people to join him in bringing joy and fulfilment to the earth and all its creatures. Such creativity is not the exclusive preserve of the artist, though the Chaplaincy’s work focuses on this mode of its expression. All forms of creativity share in the power to re-create. Whether we make music or listen to it, watch football or play it, the experience can he renewing. Theologically, Christians understand this as Christ fulfilling his promise to give us life - and to give it more abundantly.

In his book ‘The Empty Space’, theatre director Peter Brook offers another perspective on this link between creativity and spirituality. His concern is the theatre, but he could well he writing about all the arts. He says:

When Brook claims that theatre has the power to reveal ‘the invisible’ and ‘the transcendent’, he is using religious language. This should not surprise us. God’s Holy Spirit is active in all human communities – opening ‘eyes that are closed, hearts that are unaware and minds that shrink from too much reality’, as Bishop John V. Taylor has put it.

A great theatre director writing about the arts and a Christian thinker describing the work of the Holy Spirit are clearly saying something very similar. Both picture light coming into dark places. Both sense the possibility of new beginnings. Throughout its work the Chaplaincy supports and encourages this natural alliance between Christianity and the arts. But how does it give practical expression to this theological understanding? What follows can only give a small flavour of the many projects which have taken place over the last thirty years.

One of the most important has been the establishment and administration of a residency for an artist at Durham cathedral. To accomplish this the Chaplaincy has developed a partnership which exemplifies its policy of achieving its aims through working collaboratively with other bodies, both secular and religious. Created in 1983, the residency’s aim has been to support an artist at a critical stage in the development of his or her work. Amongst artists, this opportunity is now one of the most sought–after in the country. Those who hold the residency are encouraged to respond to the rich artistic tradition that surrounds them, of which the cathedral is clearly the most profound aspect. The basis of the residency is a dialogue between the artist and this challenging situation, which leads to renewed vision and inspiration. Through the residency the Chaplaincy is witnessing to the value of the arts in human existence and challenging both church and community to recognize them as God’s gift.

Another major project occurred during 1996, the UK Year of the Visual Arts, which was hosted by the northern region. As part of its contribution the Chaplaincy commissioned acclaimed American video artist Bill Viola to carry out a work for Durham cathedral. His response was ‘The Messenger’. In this work a water-bound figure rises from the depths to emerge and take a breath of life, before sinking back beneath the surface. The cycle is repeated five times over a twenty-five minute period. The work explores profound themes of life, death and human becoming. Though not intentionally Christian, it was a site-specific piece, to be placed by the cathedral font, which gave it deep resonances of baptism and new life. Seeing it, a Guardian reviewer was led to write that Bill Viola ‘remains one of the very few Western contemporary artists capable of embodying a convincing sense of spirituality’.

This project achieved many things, including bringing a new audience into contact with contemporary art and a new audience into the cathedral. Though the nakedness of the figure in ‘The Messenger’ caused controversy, it created many opening for exploring the issues it raised with students, churchpeople and members of the public. On television and in the press, in letters and in private discussion the opportunity arose to speak about the quest for what it means to be truly human - and other aspects of the common ground between the arts and the church.

Pastoral ministry is part and parcel of such projects. As any Christian in such a situation, the chaplains respond as representatives of God’s Church. Their experience of work in the arts, however, can valuably inform this aspect of their ministry. It may also he that the seriousness with which the chaplains have taken an individual artists work, or the affirmation they have offered in the past, will mean that their pastoral ministry is more readily welcomed. Friendship and trust do not need to he established first – they already have been.

Many of these pastoral contacts are passing and informal, whilst others are officially recognized and licensed, such as the chaplaincy to Middlesbrough Football Club, which was held by one of our team for over twenty years. Similar pastoral work continues with the Northern Section of the Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain. Moving from fairground to fairground, Showmen are often unable to maintain contact with a local church. In this setting the chaplain becomes the church’s official representative. This leads to many occasional offices and other pastoral work such as visiting the sick or elderly. However, this is not an individual ministry. Here, too, the chaplains seek to build partnerships, involving local clergy wherever possible, so as to strengthen links between Showmen’s families and local churches.

Strong pastoral links also exist with people in the performing arts, especially through the Actors’ Church Union (ACU). In various ways ACU chaplains demonstrate the care and concern of the Church for those onstage, backstage and front-of-house. The Chaplaincy’s Senior Chaplain is currently also Senior Chaplain of the ACU and in this role he arranges the appointment of some 200 chaplains to theatres, film and television studios. He also takes responsibility for many memorial services at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden - the Actors’ church.

From time to time pastoral ministry demands that the Chaplaincy addresses larger issues which are affecting the lives of individuals or communities. Such concern lay behind the conference ‘A Serious Business’, through which people in the performing arts met with chaplains to listen to speakers like Jeremy lsaacs and Sir Timothy West and to debate the future of the Theatre, In a similar way, the trust that has been built tip over the years through pastoral work with the Showmens’ Guild has led to other kinds of involvement in their lives. For example, the Chaplaincy has helped on occasions in negotiations with local authorities about the siting of fairs.

The chaplaincy’s second aim is:

‘To explore and witness to the human capacity for creative and recreative activity as a way of expressing life and seeking its purpose’

Over the years, perhaps the Chaplaincy’s primary response to this aim has been IMPASSE. Its origins lie in the late 1960’s, when Teesside’s heavy industries were in decline and it was clear that unemployment on a vast scale was here to stay.

The negative implications of this situation for human creativity were immense. The Chaplaincy’s first initiative was therefore to establish exactly what those implications were by listening to people without paid employment. It was they who were largely responsible for identifying six basic human needs:

What also became clear was that society was so organized that people had become accustomed to these needs being met largely through paid work. Those for whom paid work was an increasingly unlikely prospect therefore faced needs far wider than a lack of cash. ‘the Chaplaincy worked with them to develop ways in which life could have purpose and meaning with or without paid employment. The name given to the enterprise was IMPASSE - an ironic name. In society we seemed to have reached an impasse. Nationally, politicians seemed to have no answers. But locally, people were prepared to try a possible new way forward.

IMPASSE remains a philosophy, rather than a programme. It adopts a bi-focal approach. It accepts that, in the short-term, individuals have personal needs for fulfilment and creative growth which must be addressed. But it also recognizes the need for long–term change. Society itself has to be challenged to find new patterns of living in community, which enable people to realize their full potential, whether or not they have paid employment. For over twenty years, from bases across the North East (with one also in Scotland), the IMPASSE philosophy took tangible form. Primary figures in the partnership that made this possible were, first and foremost, those without paid employment themselves. But other individuals and organizations were drawn together in the exploration - local councillors, local authority officers, Councils of Churches, representatives of the voluntary sector and those responsible for government training schemes.

Though there were IMPASSE buildings containing well-equipped workshops, they were not ends in themselves. They were not centres for the unemployed, but bases from which the work and philosophy could move out into the community. IMPASSE released resources and the resources released people. One special example was Chris and Stuart Newman, two brothers who built a catamaran at IMPASSE. They then learnt navigation and sailed to the West Indies. For them this was not only a personal challenge, but also a symbol of all that people without paid employment could achieve.

A less spectacular, but equally profound example, was Kit. So depressed by unemployment that he had almost to be pushed into the base by his wife, he found his way into the woodworkshop. A redundant steelworker, he found he had a natural aptitude with wood. Soon he was turning out furniture to the extent that Social Security officers questioned whether he was operating a small industry! He was able to prove that all his work was either for personal use or as gifts for people like his daughter, who was setting up home. In relating the experience, this is how he explained his true motivation: ‘Before I came to IMPASSE I didn’t want to get up in the morning. Now I can’t wait to get in, I have so much to do and so many people to see. I’m so excited, too, because I feel as if I’ve been wasting my life on metal, a dead thing, now that I’ve discovered what I can do with wood - a living material, My skills are even saving me money and, what’s more, they have given me a new, respected place in the community. People come to me for help.’ Without knowing it, he had expressed the six basic needs which discussions had identified years before - and how they were being met through IMPASSE.

New ways to pursue the IMPASSE philosophy are now being explored, most recently through the appointment of a Chaplaincy-sponsored research student at Durham University. He is working with us in investigating the rationale needed to commend IMPASSE more widely.

The Chaplaincy’s third aim is:

‘To encourage an awareness of and a Christian response to, issues concerning the church, arts and recreation’

It cannot he stressed strongly enough that, at every point, the Chaplaincy seeks to relate what it is doing to the parishes and to work in partnership with them. ‘Art in Northern Churches’ is an example of this. Through this scheme, challenging contemporary work is placed in parishes and a dialogue initiated between local people and the artists. Recently, over period of six months, eight parishes were enabled to display sixteen works by leading painters Mark Cazalet and Richard Kenton Webb. The paintings moved round the churches, remaining long enough for parishioners to have the experience of living with them over a worthwhile period. Through meetings with the artists and a final gallery show, church people and visitors were given the opportunity to explore the issues that arise from the making of contemporary art. They also gained a new and deeper insight into the creative process itself. Both painters also spoke of the value they placed on the experience. Responding to the challenges expressed by people meant that both developed their approach to their work.

The Chaplaincy also played its part in bringing the social, economic and cultural issues facing the nation in the 1991 General Election into clearer focus. These became the subject of ‘The Futures We Can Choose’. This series of lectures and discussions, organized by the Churches Regional Commission in the North East, grew from an idea put forward by the Chaplaincy. Such topics as ‘The Future of the Justice System’, ‘Education’ and ‘The Arts’ were introduced by a leading speaker, who was responded to by a theologian. Discussion then followed amongst an audience which included people from all walks of life, secular and religious. The Chaplaincy participated in planning and organizing the initial series and is contributing to the two others which have grown from it.

Because of its wide experience and long–standing involvement in the arts, the Chaplaincy’s advice is also frequently sought, for example, by churches and cathedrals considering the installation of works of art, or appropriate artists to carry them out. Advice is also sought by arts practitioners and many students of all art forms. Chaplains also find themselves drawn into such things as the development of a local government cultural policy and sitting on the management committees of arts organizations.

Over the years the Chaplaincy’s work has also required it to get to grips with a wide variety of government legislation. From our vantage point, we have been able to advise bishops and others on matters as varied as the Gaming Act, the Licensing Laws, the National Lottery, the Broadcasting Act, cross-media ownership and certain types of entertainment, such as stage hypnotism.

The chaplaincy’s fourth aim is:

‘To stimulate and encourage theological exploration of the concept of creativity and recreativity’

As part of its practice, the Chaplaincy has regularly organized conferences to explore aspects of the relationship between the church and the arts. ‘Art and the Spiritual’, for example, marked the installation of Bill Violas ‘The Messenger’ in Durham cathedral. The form of the conference enabled arts practitioners such as film producer Sir David Puttnam and ‘Angel of the North’ sculptor Antony Gormley, as well as Bill Viola himself, to engage in debate with leading theologians. It successfully brought together members of the churches and the arts community to explore common concerns.

This conference took its form from an earlier consultation between artists and theologians which the Chaplaincy had been promoting for some years. The Chaplaincy believes that its theological purpose is best served by building bridges which reach towards those outside as well as those inside the church. The Chaplaincy’s work constantly brings it into contact with people, who without necessarily professing any faith, are clearly on a similar journey. Someone who expressed this convergence, but from the opposite perspective, was art critic the late Peter Fuller. He wrote, ‘Incorrigible atheist that I am... I believe it to be a moot point whether art can ever thrive outside the sort of living symbolic order, with deep tendrils in community life, which it seems that a flourishing religion alone can provide.’

The many partnerships which sustain the Chaplaincy’s work are testimony to this mutually sustaining relationship between faith and the arts. It is not only the Chaplaincy which values these partnerships; invitations such as that extended by celebratory theatre company Welfare State International to chair a conference they were arranging concerning funerals, indicate that there is a much wider appreciation of the partnership developed. Organized for artists, the aim of the conference was to encourage them to make their special contribution to helping people through the grieving process. The Chaplaincy’s participation in the event continued a long-standing relationship.

Conclusion
Sometimes the Chaplaincy’s central concerns come together and find exhilarating expression in a single event, such as ‘Duke Ellington in Durham Cathedral’. Many people are unaware that Duke Ellington was a committed Christian. Towards the end of his life he sought to express his faith in a series of ‘Sacred Concerts’. Taking the great symphonic masses as a model, one of the Chaplaincy team ordered elements of these ‘Sacred Concerts’ as a setting for the Mass. The internationally acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Stan Tracey, a noted Ellington interpreter arranged the music. The Stan Tracey Orchestra then performed the Duke Ellington "Mass" with soloists, dancers and the cathedral choir.

Strikingly, it was an academic expert on Victorian hymnody who commented, ‘The first time I found the Ellington "Mass" extraordinarily exciting, so I expected the second time to he a disappointment. In fact, it was less exciting, but deeply satisfying spiritually. The integration of the music and the Mass was what particularly struck me on the second occasion’.

In the Duke Ellington "Mass" human creativity was celebrated in the work of the performers and those who led the worship. The congregation went away renewed and refreshed - recreated, as we would say. It was an extraordinary experience. But it was only possible within the context of celebrating, in the Eucharist, the divine creativity of the cross and the renewing, recreative power of the resurrection. Here, as in everything, God - creator and redeemer - remains both the inspiration of and justification for the Chaplaincy’s work.