Virtual Lenten Small Group session 2

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.

 

 

Art Installations Lent 2019

To begin, our art installations this year were characterized by two very different formats for our two worship spaces. We envisioned a set of five pieces for the sanctuary that spanned the (liturgical) east wall of the nave, the lectern, table, pulpit and were complete on the opposite wall. Thematically it was one large-scale piece, in 5 segments. The idea was that over the six weeks of Lent, elements of the pieces would be let go as we passed them in the Sunday readings. We used a similar color scheme in the fellowship hall, and used a six-part plan, but the panels were much more closely configured on a single pole hung on a wall. For the thematic elements we selected vivid images from any/all of the weekly lections though in reality most Sundays we actually hear only the gospel lection read in worship. Because of the peculiarities of our worship life we switched Lent 2 and Lent 3 this year. What follows is based on how we executed everything. From the Bible readings we got, in order of the weeks: eagle/wings (Psalm 91); water (Isaiah 55); stars (Genesis 15); fence (the prodigal son story in Luke and the imagined fence that must have corralled the swine with whom he dwelt for a time); oil/pitcher (when Mary anoints Jesus in John 12). Finally the tree will be removed to reveal a cross that will carry us through Holy Week. Here are some pictures of the final products. We are much-indebted to the many hands that helped bring this off!

The sanctuary:

The fellowship hall:

Folk immediately noticed the missing eagles in the sanctuary. With the blue (water) gone for the second week, things look rather stark already. Some folks have had a bit of a hard time wrapping their heads around "letting go" of certain Bible images, but we hope that repetition of the concept that we are letting go for a time as an act of spiritual discipline will begin to resonate more fully with them.