Category Archives: Books

On the Beach

August 5, 2022Books, chaplain, Chaplaincy, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorizedchaplain, Chaplaincy, Christine Hales, icons, Kingdom Arts Ministry, Mick Hales, ministry, prayerMichael Hales

The big news for Christine and myself was a trip to Boston for a family memorial for Christine’s mother, who passed at the beginning of the year. It was good to visit with Christine’s family, many of whom we have not seen for several years.

Part of the celebration was to visit the family beach and try the freezing waters of the North East. For some reason going to the beach, seems to be the place, where family can become ‘Family’. The awkwardness of distance and time passed evaporates into the present. The past goes and future is held at bay. The barriers to the basics of life are lifted and everyone is drawn into the present moment. Somehow the beach encourages freedom; even an emotional cleansing.

Christ used the beach setting after his resurrection, to minister to Peter who had denied him three times, with both forgiveness and commissions. He also sat in boats to preach to crowds on the shore. He was recorded as being found at the beach early in the mornings. The beach is where two worlds meet, that of land and of water. It is a place of restoration and I believe where the Kingdom of God is near and active. Of course God is omnipresent, everywhere, but perhaps I am just more open to His creation at the beach. I know when I first walk on to a beach, I am drawn into prayers of thanksgiving for what God has done in my life, even before my feet touch the water. It is interesting that the first mention of the Holy Spirit in the bible says, ‘And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.’ Genesis 1:3.

I notice when doing memorial services and there is a photo presentation of the past life of a loved one, there are three main locations where time has been captured; beside a Christmas tree, at a family dinner and on a beach. The beach shots seem to be the most honest portraits, less contrived and awkward.

Recently I have been ministering to a man, who is not a believer in Jesus Christ but says he would like to be, because his wife who recently passed was and he wants to join her when he dies. He finds the story of Jesus very confusing and hard to believe, he tells me, ‘It just does not make sense, it seems to me if there was a God He could make everything go smooth, you know, everyone would believe in the same God or religion, or whatever. You know there just seems to be constant war around the world, and I think most of them have to do with religion.’

I’m wondering, if I could get him to the beach, perhaps he could believe in God without needing to understand God first. But the bible says, ‘faith comes through hearing, and hearing the word of Christ.’ Romans 10:17, and there is no mention of needing to be at the beach to preach.

Maybe, just maybe, I need to go to the beach before I preach, if you get my drift.

Really, please pray for my preaching, I have never found it to be a walk on the beach, not yet.

And here’s a link to Christine’s iconography Newsletter– perfect summer reading!

Sending love and prayers to you all!

Michael and Christine Hales

Mick’s Photography Christine’s Icons Christine’s icon Classes

God Loves Diversity

August 31, 2020Books, chaplain, Chaplaincy, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministryChristian, Christine Hales, church, Florida, God, Healing, Kingdom Arts Ministry, Mick Hales, ministry, photography, prayer, religion, WorshipMichael Hales

God Loves Diversity

Black and White or color?

The older I get the more I realize that there are multiple variations of color and multiple variations of black. I am so glad it is so because it gives us so much more to be creative with.

Christine’s News

Christine had a wonderful on line iconography class with more than 40 students, many of which signed up to do her next class in September. In fact she did such a good teaching method that people have been asking her for advice on how to do on line classes. There was a time when the in person classes in New York and California were getting cancelled because of the virus, now she creatively has found another answer to that.

Michael’s News

Finding the answers to our problems during the Covid 19 attack has meant for many of us looking at our lifestyles totally afresh. People are moving away from cities to more rural lifestyles because they are now able to work on line and not trapped to commuting possibilities. We are doing ‘church’ online, mostly participating in Holy Trinity Brompton [HTB.org], which is 3,500 miles away in London, every Sunday. I am preparing online services for my community at Freedom Village every Sunday and doing considerably more preparation than I was when conducting them in person [‘Vespers at Freedom Village’, on You Tube].

So the lesson I am getting in this peculiar time is, there are other ways of doing things and thinking about things than just Black and White, right or wrong. God is such a good teacher in His creativity, His endless variety of flower forms, of sunsets, of people and the way they perceive the world. There is no doubt God loves variety through the multitude of ways He expresses that. So that should be a lesson for me as well, to love variety in all people and not think one color is superior to another, particularly not my own. The good Samaritan is a great example of stepping out to help someone different from himself.

Luke 10:34-36

³⁴He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵And the next day he took out two denarii^[^c^] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ ³⁶Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

In September I will be leading an Alpha class for the residents at Freedom Village, we cannot do it on line as it would be too much of a challenge for the residents technically. However, with masks, strict social distancing and no dinner, we will be doing it in person. My main helpers are in their nineties and that is the age for most of the guests. I am hoping Alpha will make as much of an impression on them as it did for me, as an introduction to the nature and workings of the Holy Spirit. I am excited to see how it develops. I am also grateful for Nicky and Pippa Gumble, at HTB, who have brought via Alpha so many into knowing the love of Christ.

We are praying for you and love to hear how you are doing so we know specifically how we can pray for you! Until next month,

Love and prayers,

Michael and Christine

Mick’s Photography Website Christine’s Icon Website

Transitions

March 1, 2019Books, chaplain, Icon Retreats, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, Uncategorizedchurch, Florida, prayer, religionMichael Hales

Dear Friends and Family:

Somehow February always comes to an abrupt end, I keep expecting there to be a few more days in the month, so that is my apology for this coming a day later than I had hoped.

We celebrated their 25^thwedding anniversary with a dolphin watching boat trip. Part of the cruise led past Old Cortez village, which apparently is the only surviving active fishing community in Florida.

Christine taught an introduction to iconography at St Peter and Paul Apostles Catholic Church to a group of women which is a new venue for her. She has a busy month coming up with teaching in Sarasota, New York City and Ghost Ranch, NM. She also had a flying visit to St Thomas’ Parish, in Upper Marlboro, MD, to deliver and attend the blessing of an icon she had written of Pauli Murray, a former member of that parish, who was an American civil rights advocate, feminist, lawyer and ordained priest. Christine has more commissions coming in which is so exciting and her book ‘Eyes of Fire’, continues to gather great comments and reviews as more people get the opportunity to read it. One of Christine’s recent students just got back to her saying she wished she had read the book before taking the class and she could have had a deeper understanding of how significant iconography is.

This has been an exciting month with my starting the new position of Chaplain at Freedom Village, in Bradenton. It’s a senior living community close by Blake hospital where I also volunteer as a Chaplain.

This new job carries a broad job description including preaching and leading Sunday Vespers service, Bible study teaching, coordinating and conducting memorial services, hospital visitations and getting to know a community of about 900 people.

There’s lots of opportunity to pray for people which I enjoy tremendously.

Sadly, some of the situations people face are heart rendering and all one can do is be present with them in silent prayer. Some of the more emotional experiences are for sons and daughters, faced with decisions about whether it is time to abstain from further medical treatment for their parents and allow them to pass over.

In a senior community many are facing end of life situations and those with a faith in God have so much more peace through the hard times. This community has a great spirit and many live very full and positive lives for many years. Seniors are though, facing very real difficulties as the body slowly or sometimes suddenly start to fail. The fact is getting old is not easy, in fact it can be a very challenging time of life, when we no longer have the physical resources to face challenges, we need the emotional and spiritual strength to do so.

Visit the Elderly

Loneliness is a killer. That is true all through our lives, but it is especially so in old age. Memories of delivering, ‘meals on wheels’ to shut-ins in rural New York gave me the full experience of old people living alone and slowly loosing any contact with the outside world except through the television set which played constantly day or night. As our society has become more mobile the support from extended family in our later days is often not a possibility. The children have moved out of state for work or education and their own families keep them fully occupied.

It is not a surprise that James talks about the need to not forget the elderly or orphans as we practice our different streams of Godly worship, James 1:27,

‘Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.’

Please let us know how we can pray for you and also hold us up as we go through these transitions in our lives.

We love hearing from you, and look forward to all that God is going to do in this new season in our lives!

Blessings and prayers,

Michael and Christine Hales

Mick’s Photography Christine’s Icons

November 30, 2018Books, chaplain, Icon Retreats, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministryart, church, icons, photography, prayer, religionMichael Hales

Kingdom Arts Ministry Blog: November 2018

Thankfulness Becomes Gratitude.

I will always remember sitting with Christine in church, this Thanksgiving morning, and realizing how profoundly thankful I was to be there. I had a deep resonating gratitude. My thankfulness developed into a well of gratitude which I still draw from weeks later.

Part of it came from a safe arrival at 3:30 am that same morning after a 1300 mile cold drive from New York, part of it came from a wonderful sermon on how we are called to be thankful as Christians at all times, but most of it came from being with Christine and worshipping together.

Icons

Christine has been very busy with icon commissions and has recently completed one on the ‘Harrowing of Hell’ where Jesus is pulling out of death and hell Adam and Eve and the saints who passed before His i resurrection. She has also been working on a large ‘Blessed Mother’ icon for St Patrick’s church near Palm Beach.

Harrowing of Hell Icon by Christine Simoneau Hales

I have been so grateful to have time to thoroughly read her book, Eyes of Fire, and receive the richness of her experience, strength and hope from it. Her book is a really valuable tool to understand what Icons are, how they relate to contemporary art and their place in our spiritual lives. For those people who are Christians but cannot relate to Icons this is a ‘must read’ to get an understanding of this whole rich spiritual life.

Thankfulness

There is a song line which says, ‘we do not know what we have till it is gone.’ Sadly, there is a lot of truth in it. Being thankful for what we have, whether relationships, possessions, security or freedom to worship the God of our own choice, is a directive Christ gives us so we can live life in all its fullness. When there is no thanks in our lives ‘for all things’, whether good or not so good, there is a lack and where there is a lack the demonic will try to fill it with something else, perhaps alcohol, food, medications, sex, shopping, watching TV: the list goes on. Each one of these ‘fillers’, when used in a balanced and righteous way are part of a full life, but when they are used to fill a lack or emptiness they can become addictive and destructive, a part of the demonic’s arsenal.

From Thankfulness Turns To Action

Volunteering in a homeless day shelter this week, I got to pray on the street for a lady who was donating some clothes to the shelter and also looking for her brother, whom she had not seen for a year, but she knew he had used the shelter in the past. We prayed in the street that she could be reunited with her brother. She was so grateful for the prayer that she decided to immediately start to volunteer at the shelter. Thankfulness had moved to gratitude and was causing her to take positive Godly action, to donate her time to help those in need.

When praying for the sick, most of my prayers are just thanking God. Repeating over and over again, ‘Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus for your presence.’ When we are in a place of gratitude with the Holy Spirit the demonic is pushed out and healing can take place. That is why even when something horrible has happened, if we can stay in a place of gratitude and in contact with God, the demonic is not able to use that horrible event to cause further destruction by attaching unforgiveness, or resentment, anger, envy, hatred, revenge; anything to keep the horror of the event alive and burning in our lives. Anything that keeps us from having peace.

But that is not God’s will, as we read in Colossians 3:

¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Please keep us in prayers as we move into this new season in our lives, that we may always be thankful for what God is doing in our lives.

Also please let us know how we can pray for you.

Love you all,

Mick’s Website Christine’s Icons

Click here to Purchase Christine’s Icon Book

Love, not Fear and Hate

November 1, 2018Books, chaplain, Icon Retreats, icons, non denominational ministry, Prayer ministry, UncategorizedAmerica, art, Bible, God, homeless, Icon book, Jesus, prayer, religion, Revival, WorshipMichael Hales

Dear Friends and Family:

Icon Class at Immaculate Conception Seminary

Christine had a wonderful Icon writing retreat at the former Roman Catholic Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, in Lloyd Harbor, NY.

It was a privilege to be able to spend time in a seminary building which had so many priests pass through its doors for many years. Although no longer a seminary, as such, a lot of retreats and teaching classes continue in the extraordinary building and grounds.

Icon Painting Class with Christine Hales

Christine was teaching Iconography to a wonderful group of students keen to learn how to write an icon and practice this spiritual discipline over the Columbus Day weekend. The building has an extraordinary collection of religious paintings, stonework, ironwork and all manor of crafts and a deep presence of prayer.

Eyes of Fire Getting Great Reviews!

Christine’s book has been getting wonderful reviews and is #1 new release in spiritual books on Amazon!! If you have not had a chance to order a copy yet please go for it.

It is wonderful to see how God has worked through her struggle as an artist to come up with a vibrant position to talk to artists as wells Christians. This is a well resourced book for this who are interested in writing Icons, but it is also a deep revelation of her walk and faith in using the gifts God has given her.

Here are two links for you to get a copy. Book of the Month Club and direct link to Amazon. Get your copy today!!

Our Move is Coming Along!!

We achieved a major move from the Hudson Valley, NY, to Bradenton, FL. It is by no means completed yet but the major part has been done.

Paintings and photographs preparing to move

Moving is thought to be one of the five most stressful situations normal life offers. Certainly driving a heavy loaded truck 1400 miles is stressful, let alone all the packing and now unpacking, all the decisions about what should be kept and what should be given away or discarded.

We were Blessed though, we knew where we were going and that people at our destination were glad we were coming.

Our thoughts and prayers though go out to the much maligned people who have lost a safe place to live in their homes in Honduras and as best they can are travelling on foot to find a safer life. This is the ‘Caravan’, desperate people fleeing because they no longer have safe homes. They have become a political football for the Trump administration to build fears about immigrants, even though they are still one thousand miles away from the US border travelling by foot, 5200 troops are being sent to ‘guard’ the borders. President Trump has described the coming midterm elections as the ‘Election of the Caravan’. It is alarmist rhetoric which is fueling hatred in our country leading to political and anti semetic violence.

As a Christian I have to say this is not of God. As a Christian I have to say this nation is heading in a hedonistic direction which is contrary to its values of the past.

As a Christian I refer to scripture,

Isaiah 58:6-8 English Standard Version (ESV)

⁶“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed^[^a^] go free,
and to break every yoke?
⁷Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
⁸Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Children learning Franklin D Roosevelt's Four Freedoms — Children learning Franklin D Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms

It is worth going back to Franklin D Roosevelt’s speech known as the Four Freedoms made in January 1941, where he talks of the freedom of speech and expression, that every person can worship God in his own way, freedom from want and freedom from fear. These four freedoms he declared are for everywhere in the world and attainable in our own time and generation. America seems to have turned in on itself and lost the vision of a caring leader of freedom in the world.

This is a time where prayer for this nation, with all of it’s power and wealth, for all of its responsibilities to the world as a whole, would be guided by the Holy Spirit and a heart of love not hatred and fear. Let us all come together and seek before God His wisdom on the direction of this nation in prayer.

Love and Prayers,

Michael and Christine

Eyes of Fire

October 10, 2018Books, iconsart, Byzantine Icons, Catholic art, Episcopal, Icon book, icons, Jesus, prayer, religion, religious artMichael Hales

Hello Friends and Family:

We are excited to announce the publication of Christine’s new book, “Eyes of Fire” on Amazon. Here’s the link in the USA:

We are going to make the Kindle edition free for two days, October 11 and October 12. It is also on Amazon in the UK for our UK friends- also free Kindle on Oct 11 and 12.

One thing we would ask, is that you leave a review on Amazon- it can be just a couple of sentences, but Amazon will notice and perhaps if we get enough reviews, they might promote it.

Christine has worked hard all summer on this and we are delighted to be able to share it with you!

From Michael: This book is really significant in that it ties together not only Christine’s personal journey but also reveals what Art in our world today has rejected. This is a work from the Lord through Christine and it is worth every hour of its conception.

Love and prayers,

Michael and Christine

Photography

Icons