Fellowship & Communion

The Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts has a new online exhibit up as part of a year long series devoted to baptism. The current exhibit is based on this affirmation from the service:

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

The image above is James Mangum's "Prodigal Son" a painted wood carving relief based on a painting by Van Gogh. You can see all of the work of the exhibit here: Thumbnails.

Victoria and I will be curating an Advent exhibit. My contribution to the current exhibit is a photo I took in the Dominican Republic earlier this year: And in the prayers. A better version of the same idea was included in the exhibit. Steve Polston tells of his photo below,

Marge has been a member of this congregation since birth — 1923 — and worships in the church several times a week. She is present as often as the doors are open. She does continue in the prayers and the fellowship and the breaking of the bread. Even when there is no literal bread to be broken, Marge offers her prayers as a sacrifice. In this photo, Marge is waiting for the other worshippers to join her in the choir pews.

Picturing the Christ

The icon shown here is called "Compassionate Christ" and is a Navajo depiction of Jesus written by the Rev. John Giuliani. This icon hangs in my office at King of Peace, one of several different depictions of Jesus in my office. A recent Episcopal Church News Service article tells of his work: Monastic painter honors Native-American spirituality. Guiliani says,

Many Native Americans have been converted to Christianity, but in doing so some find it difficult to retain their indigenous culture. My intent is to celebrate reconciliation between the Native Americans and those who brought the mystery of Christ here.

While Navajo, I have the icon as a reminder of the significant impact spending time with Christians on the Seminole reservations in Florida had on my own spiritual journey when I was a college freshman. The other images of Jesus are also significant to me, such as the Christ of the Desert icon pictured here. It is a Syrian depiction of Jesus written by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM. Syrian rockets shot from Lebanon flew over our heads in Northern Israel in 2000 to land in nearby Kyriat Shimona. The icon shows Christ as Syrian, fitting as there was long a Christian presence in that country, which preserved many great early writings of the church in Syriac. To me it represents love of enemy. I know that was not likely in the artist's mind when writing the icon, but the association with the bombs falling on Israel makes that connection for me, as I can recall the air raid sirens and the quite literal rocks red glare lighting up the night.

If I were to paint Jesus, I would want him to look pausibly like a Palestinian Jew of the first century. But when I think of painting the Christ, the risen Jesus present to all now through the power of the Holy Spirit, I find various cultural representations to be appropriate and helpful. For while Jesus was alive for his earthly ministry, if he was in Capernaum, he could not also be in Jerusalem. But now he can be and is present in all those places and cultures, speaking to and through the various cultures in which people come to know Him.

I am sometimes asked where one acquires such pictures. Three sources are: Trinity Stores, Bridge Building Images, and Jesus Mafa.


Victoria, Griffin and my Mom in my office. Pictures of Jesus are visible at center.

Some loveableness in all of us

There is a difference between requiring love of the neighbor and finding the lovableness of our neighbors. Søren Kierkegaard wrote of this in his Parable of the Two Artists in his book Works of Love

Suppose there were two artists, and one said, "I have travelled much and seen much in the world, but I have sought in vain to find a man worth painting. I have found no face with such perfection of beauty that I could make up my mind to paint it. In every face I have seen one or another little fault. Therefore I seek in vain." Would this indicate the artist was a great artist?

On the other hand, the second one said, "Well, I do not pretend to be a real artist; neither have I travelled foreign lands. But remaining in the little circle of men who are closest to me, I have not found a face so insignificant or so full of faults that I still could not discern a more beautiful side and discover something glorious. Therefore I am happy in the art I practice. It satisfies me without my making any claim to being an artist." Would not this indicate that precisely this one was the artist, who by bringing a certain something with him found then and there what the much-travelled artist did not find anywhere in the world, perhaps because he did not bring a certain something with him! Consequently the second of the two was the artist.

Would it not be sad, too, if what is intended to beautify life could only be a curse upon it, so that art, instead of making life beautiful for us, only fastidiously discovers that not one of us is beautiful. Would it not be sadder still, and still more confusing, if love also should be only a curse because its demand could only make it evident that none of us is worth loving, instead of love's being recognized precisely by its loving enough to be able to find some lovableness in all of us, consequently loving enough to be able to love us all.

Note: The artwork accompanying this entry is the work of Hyatt Moore, who painted The Last Supper with Twelve Tribes, a 10-foot wide canvas giclee print of which graces the entry hall at King of Peace. His work exemplifies Kierkegaard's artist who finds beauty in all people.

Life Is Just Outside the Door

A friend of mine from seminary, The Rev. Earnest Graham painted the above as an Easter meditation which he titled "Life is just outside the door." It's at Ernie's blog: Look Both Ways: The Crossroad of Art and Faith.

His main website is also well worth a look: Earnest Graham Illustrator for the work he and his wife are doing on graphic translations of the Bible.

The Last Supper with 12 Tribes

Artist Hyatt Moore talks about his painting The Last Supper with Twelve Tribes which is in the hall at King of Peace. The 10-foot wide print on canvas of the painting was purchased for King of Peace by Mary Root in memory of her parents. The painting which arrived at King of Peace on this day of the church year, Maundy Thursday, in 2004.

I've spoken to the artist on the phone before when ordering the print and when he talked me through how to build the frame, stretch the canvas and hang it. But now after five years of living with the painting, it's nice to hear him once talking about this work.

Also online today, is the sermon I wrote for use tonight in Episcopal Churches with no clergy, where a lay person will read the sermon I wrote that goes with the text on footwashing. I won't use the sermon myself tonight at King of Peace as we are not using the text on footwashing, but on Jesus' sharing the Last Supper in Luke's Gospel which fits with the Passover service which follows our 6 p.m. communion service. The sermon for The Episcopal Church website is online here: Maundy Thursday.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

Light of the World

The Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts has a new online exhibit for Advent and Christmas called Light of the World. At right is Krystyna Sanderson's photograph from the exihibit, Places of Light #3. The full exhibit shows work in a variety of media including textiles as well as paintings and photographs.

There is a Thumbnail Gallery of the images or you can enter through the Curator's Statement, where she writes of the exhibit saying in part,

For Light of the World, ECVA invited members of The Artists Registry to engage in a visual exploration of these images of light, asking them to submit works that “give vision to the longing for light in the darkness and the growing anticipation of the birth of Christ,” reflecting “our search in darkness for the mystery of life-giving light.” In selecting images for the show I looked for works of artistic excellence which give visual expression to the theme in ways appropriate to each artist’s chosen medium. Many of the submissions are appropriate for Christmas and Epiphany as well as for Advent, and the selected works constitute a celebration of all three seasons.

Does God Wear a Cross?

This theological question comes from the Rev. Tay Moss of Church of the Messiah in the heart of Toronto. His congregation just saw the completion an amazing mural project in a children's chapel that turned this wall:


Into this:

It's their artist's conception of a way to interpret medieval art like the Sistine Chapel into a child-friendly space. The one above is the Kingdom of God in Heaven. The opposite wall shows the Kingdom of God on Earth:



More photos of the wonderful space are online here: The mural is finished.

So, now for the theological question. The artist showed God the Father as an old man with white hair and a beard. Then she wondered if he would wear a cross. As Tay wrote,

Susy (the artist) and I are discussing whether this is good or not. She says in "feels right" because she always imagines God and the cross together. Others have suggested that for humans the cross is a symbol of hope but for God is a symbol of suffering. It's a deep question, theologically: what is God's relationship to the cross?

They decided in favor of the cross and so God the father now looks as pictured here. I think there is a theological problem in picturing God the Father or God the Holy Spirit at all, as the Father is not an old man with a beard and the Holy Spirit is not a dove. But when looking at such a wonderful transformation of a space for kids by means of an ambitious art project, I hate to split hairs. But if I were to wax theological on the close up, I would say that having the cross on the neck of God the Father shows the father's love for all of us in a way that seems quite appropriate. What do y'all think?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

Portraits of the Self

The latest online exhibit of ECVA—Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts—is now up at Portraits of the Self. The 40 self-portraits are thought provoking, particularly some which deal with coming to terms with cancer or other life-threatening illness. The portrait above is a detail from the entry by Pat Merriman. I find the second face in the top right to be haunting.

Layers of Meaning

"According to the grace of God given to me,
like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation,
and someone else is building on it.
Each builder must choose with care how to build on it."
I Corinthians 3:10
This is a confession. I have been seing other blogs. I blogged again over the Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts Sketchbook. It's a new reflection based on the photograph at left, which I took in Egypt in March 2004.

I consider the layers of meaning from early Egyptian Khufu, to the later Greek Ptolemies, to the Roman Tiberius, to early Christian graffiti, to my own contemporary photograph. The full entry is here: Christian Grafitti.

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor

Feasts for the Eyes

The Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts has a new online exhibit called Feasts for the Eyes. Curator Judith McManis writes,

My own reaction was probably much like your own.
I looked at all the images, really connected with a few, had almost no reaction to some and thought I actually disliked others. I then read all the stories, knowing how much I needed to know about these wonderful artists and their offerings. I happened to have scheduled a weekend retreat at Holy Cross Monastery in upper New York state and left the images and their stories to ‘simmer’ over that time. Upon looking at them again, I found I really did have ‘new eyes’. Particularly with those that had previously troubled me, I saw new aspects, new layers and new connections with the Spirit.

Her full statement is here: Curator's Statement. Click on any of the pieces shown here at the blog to go to the page about that work. Then you can click on other artists' names in the left column to see more pieces from this exhibit.



Another Feast for the Eyes
Our daughter congregation, The Episcopal Church of Our Savior at Honey Creek, held its first worship service this past Sunday with 75 people present including the King of Peace Ensemble. Photos are online at their blog Sunrise on the Marsh.

Image and Likeness

The latest exhibit from the Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts is now online: Image and Likeness. The curator, Carole Baker notes in her exhibit statement,

Just before Lent ECVA artists were invited to observe Christ’s presence in the world in which we find ourselves. Where might we see Christ as he continues to be present with us through the worship of the Church, our spiritual practices, our daily habits, our homes? As the curator for this exhibition, Image and Likeness, I too allowed this invitation to guide how I experienced the holy season and I found myself pondering several questions:

• What role does the image of Christ play in our understanding of Christian discipleship?
• How do we learn to look for Christ in our lives?
• And how does this practice of intentional observation affect how Christ might be present not only in the things we observe but – and perhaps more importantly – in ourselves?
• Is there a reciprocal relationship between seeing Christ in others and others seeing Christ in us?