60 mins

The Churches and The Festival

Photo: iStock

FESTIVAL OF THE SACRED ARTS

An Edinburgh chapel is introducing a new element to the month-long Festival Fringe this summer: a week-long focus on the sacred arts.

The Edinburgh Festival of the Sacred Arts, showcasing sacred music, iconography, loral art and religious poetry, will take place in St Vincent’s Chapel, an Episcopal church in Stockbridge.

The week will open on Sunday August 12 with a celebration of 1929 Scottish Liturgy, using William Byrd’s famous four-part Mass, at which the Rev Professor David Fergusson, Principal of New College, will be the preacher.

The Chapel will be open throughout the week. An exhibition of icons, curated by Basia Mfindewicz, Director of Edinburgh School of Icon Painting Exhibition, will run from Monday to Saturday, with icons on sale, and two practical demonstrations to introduce this highly distinctive art to potential iconographers.

Two evening recitals will ofer audiences a chance to hear rarely performed works by major composers. On August 12 the Edinburgh Quartet will play Joseph Haydn’s ‘Seven Last Words from the Cross’ in Haydn’s own arrangement for quartet. A special feature of this performance is the interspersing of newly commissioned poems by the young American poet Jennifer Rawson.

On August 16 Coro Vincenzo, under the direction of Leslie Shankland, will perform The Resurrection Story by the 17th century German composer Heinrich Schütz, along with music by Bach and Byrd.

An especially unusual contribution to the Festival is a celebration of loral art. ‘Floral Art for the Feast Day of St Mary’ is a one-day event on August 15 involving six of Edinburgh’s Flower Guilds. Floral arrangements will relect events in the life of the Virgin Mary, viewed in the context of recorded Marian music.

In conjunction with the Cornerstone Bookshop at Edinburgh’s West End, the congregation of St Vincent’s Chapel will provide the readers for an afternoon session devoted to ‘The Anglican Tradition of Poetry’. This long tradition includes many of the greatest names in English poetry, from John Donne in the 17th century through Christina Rossetti in the 19th to T S Eliot and R S Thomas in the 20th.

The Chapter House Singers will close the Festival on Saturday August 18 with Choral Evensong, a centuries old Christian liturgy that has inspired a large number of gifted composers, from the 16th century to the present day.

St Vincent’s Chapel, across the road from St Stephen’s Church, is in its third year as an oicial Fringe venue.

Full details of the week-long programme, which is directed by Professor Gordon Graham of Princeton Theological Seminary, can be found at www.edinburghsacredartsfestival.org

JUST FESTIVAL

Described by The List as ‘Edinburgh’s fastest-growing festival’, the Just Festival returns for its 14th year with a multicultural, multi-faith programme of music, theatre, dance, exhibition and conversation centred around St John’s Episcopal Church at the west end of Princes Street.

Founded in 2005 as the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, the festival’s mission statement is to ‘create a space for dialogue and platforms for engagement in local, national and international questions of social justice, equality and identity, both from the religious and non-religious perspectives. In line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it celebrates humanity in all its diferences, promoting the exploration of new perspectives with the aim of reducing religious, political and social intolerance’.

Among the conversations in this year’s event, on August 14 at 6pm the former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Very Rev Dr Derek Browning will be in the chair to discuss whether people of faith can engage in politics in 21st century Britain without compromising their religious principles.

The panellists will be the former Head of Christian Aid Scotland, the Rev Kathy Galloway, and Dr Dave Landrum of the Evangelical Alliance.

There are also conversations on the legacy of Nelson Mandela, 100 years after his birth; assimilation among LGBTQ communities; the ethics of aid; faith-based courts; loneliness; and ‘ierce females’. There are talks on the life of a funeral director, ‘every girl matters’ with a focus on girls in Malawi, Zambia, Nepal and India (including panellists from EMMS International)

The music programme includes ‘Crow’, a stage show by vocalist Bird Radio based on Ted Hughes’ poetic work of the same name; the multicultural all-woman band ADAAWE; Sounds from the Gold Coast with the Ghanaian group Alabaster Box; and Harmony Choir, a choir which tackles the stigma around mental illness (with proceeds to mental health charities).

The Edinburgh Quartet, performing at the Festival of the Sacred Arts

Assembly Hall

The Very Rev Dr Derek Browning, who will chair a discussion at the Just Festival

In theatre, running for most of the festival there is a production of the award-winning apartheid-era play The Island. Where Are You Really From? explores issues of identity, culture and labels through the stories of asylum seekers and refugees living in Scotland. The dance show ‘Shelter Under My Shade’, created for this year’s Refugee Week, follows the stories of three pregnant women: a Syrian woman journeying to the UK, a British woman describing her struggle with poverty, and the biblical story of Mary visiting Elizabeth to share her good news.

Many of the ‘conversation’ events are free but ticketed, while tickets for music and theatre events range from £5-£15. For details visit www.just-festival.org

THREE WOMEN

One of the highlights of this year’s Heart and Soul celebration during the General Assembly was the video installation, ‘Three Women’ at St Cuthbert’s church.

Minister, the Rev Peter Sutton, was inspired to pursue the piece after seeing it while carrying out a winter chaplaincy in the Alps.

“I first saw the piece in Berne Cathedral and as a father of five daughters it made me realise how precious and special the gift of children is and also the responsibility that comes with being a parent. I wished they had been with me to see it,” he said. “Now that it’s in Edinburgh that dream has come true.”

“St Cuthbert’s has always had a great tradition of exhibiting exceptional pieces of art,” he continued. “In 1903 it was the first building in the UK to install a stained glass wfindow by Tifany of New York.

“The response has been amazing, particularly from all our international visitors who have seen recent Viola retrospective exhibitions at the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Grand Palais in Paris, at which Three Women was a key exhibit. ”

“Bringing Bill Viola’s art Installation Three Women 2008 to Edinburgh is the latest example of this. I was particularly delighted that Bill Viola’s Studio chose this piece to be in Edinburgh throughout the summer months. It creates a sacred feminine space in our sanctuary as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women in the Church of Scotland. My youngest brother runs his own arts PR agency and when he came to my ordination and finduction last June he saw the glory of the Kirk of The Castle Rock and noting the Tifany wfindow went to work with his colleagues at Blain Southern Gallery in London to see if it might be possible to have a Viola piece in St Cuthbert’s.

“It has also allowed St Cuthbert’s to link up with St Paul’s Cathedral in London which is the only other place in the UK to have Viola installations on display.

“During this Year of the Young Person it has been wonderful to set up an educational outreach programme to Edinburgh pupils and students to engage with the work. Presbytery have given us a grant to employ an Intern to curate the work whilst Edinburgh City Centre Churches Together and the Society of the Friends of St Cuthbert’s have helped make the loan possible. We were also delighted that the Lord High Commissioner, a keen supporter of the arts, was mesmerised by it during his visit as part of Heart and Soul.”

Heather Gregg is working with St Cuthbert’s on this project in particular as she has a special interest in art, having curated various exhibitions of contemporary Easter art, in churches, including the recent “Signs of Life” exhibition at St Andrew’s and St George’s West in April.

The piece is nine minutes long, and shows a mother with two teenage daughters moving towards the viewer, in slow motion. Gradually they emerge into clarity, and just as gradually, disappear back through a curtain of water and walk away again, becoming blurred and findistinct again in the process. There is no sound.

Art pieces will have diferent meanings for the viewer. Because this video is in slow motion, it slows down our viewing and thinking, it gives us time to think and gives us space for contemplation.

Both churches and art galleries have that rare quality of quietness and space to think, so diicult to find in busy modern society.

Right beside the video piece is Anam Chara, a chapel area set aside for prayer, where it is possible to light a candle, or continue to sit quietly and contemplate or pray. Anam Chara means soul friend, and sometimes the prayer is to remember departed loved ones.

“It seems particularly appropriate to have a video of three women, especially featuring two young people, in the year when the Church of Scotland celebrates 50 years of ordained women, and the Scottish Government have designated 2018 as the Year of the Young Person.”

St Cuthbert’s will be part of the Edinburgh Art Festival from July 24 – August 26.

THE FRINGE

Yes, it’s that time of year again. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe continues to grow – 10 years ago there were 31,000 performances of 2050 shows; by last year it had grown to over 53,000 performances of 3398 shows.

To put on that many shows you need a lot of venues – over 300, in fact – including many of Edinburgh’s churches, which have been providing spaces for the Fringe since its inception, when all the purpose-built halls were taken by the main festival.

In these venues you can experience music from all over the world, drama, comedy and children’s productions. The extent of each church’s involvement varies: some merely extend their existing activity, or host a single show or company.

For instance, Murrayield Parish Church, which for four days becomes home to Jo Jingles’ show Jo Visits the Seaside (August 8-11, three shows each day); and Mayield Salisbury hosts Edinburgh People’s Theatre’s farce Cambusdonald Royal (August 3-18, not Sundays, times vary).

At the other end of the scale, some churches become major venues, with extensive programmes throughout the month.

St Andrew’s and St George’s West deinitely falls into the latter camp, with a musical programme of 49 diferent acts, mostly classical but also jazz and big band, musicals and opera, and new Edinburgh choir Audacity making its Fringe debut on August 22.

In fact, most of Edinburgh’s prominent city centre churches are involved, as well as some from further out such as Stockbridge and Leith.

The Church of Scotland is, of course, also involved in the Scottish Storytelling Centre, which hosts theatre, children’s shows, music and poetry.

And of course you couldn’t round up the Church of Scotland’s involvement in the Fringe without mentioning the Assembly Hall, one of the most prestigious venues on the Fringe and host for the month to many of the biggest names in comedy.

Ffinally, it’s worth remembering that many of the city’s churches are open at other times too, whether for services, to have a look round or for a moment of private relection, providing much-needed oases of peace and quiet amidst the chaos that is Edinburgh during the festival. ¤

Full details on all Fringe events at www.edfringe.com