Light of the World

Episcopal Church & Visual Arts (ECVA) has published online its Advent Exhibition, Light of the World, which opens with my favorite Christmas scripture: 

"When peaceful silence lay over all,
and the night had run half of her swift course,
your all powerful word, O Lord, leapt down from heaven,
from the royal throne." Wisdom 18:14,15

Curator, Peggy Parker, selected the work of 30 artists who work in multiple disciplines, each addressing the theme of the coming of Christ as the light of the world.  My work above included in the exhibition, Dominus Illuminatio Mea, is an image of bracelets introduced into our church by a former member.  It was a nice idea, but I have yet to see that illumination happen in that venue.  

But we keep on wearing our bracelets and keep on asking. 

ECVA Call: Light of the World

           

As director of exhibitions for Epsicopal Church & Visual Arts (ECVA) I want to share the latest call with you.  Traditionally the Advent exhibition has been one of the most beautiful exhibitions we have all year, and it was during Advent 2001 that I discovered and first submitted work for the ECVA exhibition entitled Out of Darkness.  It was a beautiful time of my life when I was discovering the Episcopal Church and all its lovely Advent tradtions. 

I created the image above as a header for the call.  The cross is one I found at an antique shop years ago and bought for almost nothing.  I wish you could see the beautiful natural designs on it - it reminds me so much of a celtic theme of birds and nature and makes me think of St. Francis' Canticle of the Sun (All Creatures of Our God and King).  I occasionally wore this cross on a short black velvet ribbon for awhile until I gave it to my Sweetie to be used as a verger's cross.  It reminds me of many happy times when light flooded our life and nave; it is an appropriate symbol of the warmth of Advent or any time our souls call for Light:

" I am the light of the world. If any man follow me, he shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life ." John 8:12

Advent, the beginning of the church year, occurs during the darkest days of Winter when the lush beauty of nature has disappeared and our souls long for warmth. During this season we prepare for the coming of Light from Light through treasured rituals of greening naves, lighting advent candles, lessons and carols, reflection and meditation. These Advent traditions serve as symbols for our search in darkness for the mystery of life-giving light.

How do we find and manifest that light? Lux Mundi, the Light of the World .
ECVA calls for images that give vision to longing for light in the darkness and growing anticipation of the birth of Christ.

How do we find this light in our inner landscapes? How is His light manifested in your heart? During this season of darkness how do you imagine the coming light of life for all to see?

Exhibition Publication Date: November 30, 2008
Submissions Deadline: November 1, 2008

Symbolic Diabolic

               

In a church I have loved with all my heart I recently went on sabbatical from taking the Eucharist in an effort to find substance over form.   When the liturgy becomes theatre I still enjoy the show, but what I long for is love.  Love does not come from waifers we order from Almay or wine bought on Base and stored in sticky jugs in the sacristy cabinet.  It does not even arrive with the proper placement of these elements. 

I love the symbols of my church.  I hate the meanness of my church.  The opposite of symbol is the diabolic.  Symbols integrate; the diobolic disintegrates.   As we move toward Advent we prepare for the next disintegration, the yearly fight over greening the nave.  Who, By God, will get their way this year?  Yet this and all fights are not about greening naves.  The fight is about who owns the church, who can take back their church and who keeps undesirables outside the gate. 

What are the crosses of my church?  Different expressions of the same Truth, alike but different; beautiful forms disintegrating under corrosive fear; form seeking to unite, yet disintegrating in substance.  Because of me.  Because of you.  Because tensions are too high, and we keep on crucifying and know not what we do or do not care what we do. 

Violence continues to unite us in a primitive form of "us and them" bonding at my tiny church beautifully placed in the Southern landscape in the home of the brave and the free.  But we know not freedom of soul.  Rene Girard's Scapegoat Theory is played out year after year in a 150 year old stone church, and its crosses and membership disintegrate while nestled in the arms of dogwoods and hollies, two of nature's lovliest symbols of love.  The potential will break your heart; the meanness will break your spirit.

I do not think that my church is so unusual.  I think it is this way everywhere.  It is more common than unusual to hear stories of people destroyed in churches where they went in search of love and found fear instead.  The symbols disintegrate before their eyes, and they tentatively, if at all, re-enter houses of worship seeking theatre and a private form of worship that seeks first to do no harm or suffer no harm.

Faith looks to the past.  Hope looks to the future.  Love is right now.  It may be the greatest of of these, but only if we have eyes to see.    

If the Eucharist will not resurrect me, maybe avoiding it will. 

ECVA Portraits Of The Self

The ECVA exhibition, Portraits of the Self, just launched.  Check it out.

December at Emmanuel

The postcard for December events at my parish was finished tonight.  Here it is. 

Same Church; New Image

As anyone who reads this journal knows, I am an Episcopalian.  Last year this time I created symbols for use by The Episcopal Church USA in the Image Shop offered at no charge for parishes to use for local publications.   My symbols are offered along with those of three other artists selected to provide images. 

I worked mainly on symbols for the sacraments of the church, but my favorite designs were Episcopal Shields.  I had a great deal of fun imagining different textures and edgier images to represent the church.  I am pleased that a church in Washington State wants to use the "Old Paint Shield" for t-shirts, and a Delaware church planter wants to use the "Stone Shield" for church signs.  The image used here is "Shiney Plastic Shield" which somehow reminds me of old toys,

I will be posting the other shields and am working on a new "Neon Sign Shield". 

Hallelujah for Sacred Sensuality

My church is a small one, a tiny stone church nestled in azaleas, hollies and dogwoods in the Southern landscape.  Inside we do all the things Episcopalians do, but we do it in what is considered "high church" style, sometimes referred to as "anglo-catholic".  That means that we attend to many precise liturgical details - like dressing up for company and observing well worn traditions infused with meaning that deepens for the observance with each passing year.  It is the equivalent of using our fine china for guests, lighting a yule fire at Christmas and hanging flags and lanterns in the garden for the 4th of July.  Do not misunderstand.  We are not putting on the dog or being superstitious; we are sacramental...very sensually sacramental.

A sacramental faith is one that observes worship in a particular form and with particular objects, or matter.  Form and matter.   We cross, bow when the processional cross passes, kneel, reverence the altar, use bees wax candles, incense, sanctus bells and so on.  We use our bodies and words to demonstrate deep spiritual truths (form), and we lovingly infuse our worship with objects of beauty to delight the senses (matter).  In the words of Richard Hooker, a sacrament is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace."   Ah, can it be said any sweeter for those who have ears to hear?  I think not.

To this day there is resistence to sacramental worship.  I am not sure that I will ever understand why thoughts are superior to actions, why casual is superior to ritual, why beauty and ancient actions inspire fear.  Is it the fear of the sensual?  Has so much of Christianity bought into the idea of the spiritual good and physical bad?  You should see a funeral at my church.  We are in the Baptist Bible belt.  Baptists come to our church and reject the Eucharist!!!  Reject the body and blood of Christ because of how it is packaged.  They often reject the Prayer Book, reject the kneeler and ultimately reject the Eucharist.  I have purely felt the resistance and antagonism. 

But I do not care.  I propose that we heartily celebrate sensual pleasures. 

God made us with eyes, ears, noses, skin and taste buds.  This is how we were so wonderfully made, and I am weary of apologizing for being human with a heart that swells by visions of light streaming through windows and delights in the musical sighing of the reed.  Hallelujah for our senses; hallelujah for sensual pleasures; may we savor existence and celebrate sensuality no where more than in our worship, remembering that Christ made a bridge between the human and the divine where we may freely pass back and forth.  That should happen during worship, and it does happen in my tiny stone church nestled in azaleas, hollies and dogwoods in the Southern landscape where the veil is thinnest during the Eucharist and the bridge beckons saints on either side to meet in the middle.         

The Sacred And The Profane

Much has been written about the concept of the sacred and the profane.  I will not wade into those waters, but I will offer an image. 

Muted Beauty

This morning Linda and I prepared the altar flowers for tomorrow, and we used hydrangea from my garden and agapantha Linda found.  The arrangement is beautiful in a very understated way because the hydrangeas are past their peak and have become muted shades of blue-green and pale pink.

Sometimes the greatest beauty is found in quietness. 

Episcopal Cafe

There is a new blog created by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Episcopal Cafe, and it is so worth going to see.  A mixture of news, art and spiritual writing, it is beautiful and entertaining.  Check it out.