I facilitated a "virtual" Lenten small group this year. "Something music- or art-related," was about all I had to go on. I decided to keep it simple: select a lectionary Bible verse and then curate a piece of classical music and a piece of visual art to go with it. I created a weekly video in which I introduced the Bible verse, music and art piece. With each video I provided links to listen and view the art and music I emailed the link to that to all the participants. Their "participation" in the group consisted of viewing my video and then exploring the music and art piece on their own. I encouraged participants to use the comment section of each of my videos to share their reflections, whether they were on the Bible verse, music or visual piece. Ultimately it seemed to go well. There were some humps getting everyone comfortable with the format, but most everyone managed to get involved eventually.
One of the participants is a visual artist, retired now, but still quite active with his work. Once the small group was announced, along with the format, he said he would offer his reflections on the Bible verses in the form of a piece of his own visual art. I thought this was very cool. I placed his image files in my photostream and put links in the video comments for everyone to click through and view.
Below is his first reflection (week 1/session 1 was an overview with instructions and without links to other art). I'll share his other work in separate posts.
