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From now until February 28, 2007 we’ll send you a free book for each friend of yours that signs up to receive the CopperHouseCURRENT newsletter. It’s a thank-you from us for your help in building this network of shared interested.
Once your friend has signed up at www.copperhousepress.com, simply email clareh@woodlake.com with the name of your friend and let us know which of the five books (listed below) we can send to you. Please include the subject line “sign up a friend” and please provide your address so we can send your free book(s).
We’ll pay the postage.
Thanks in advance for helping to “connect people of the emerging Christian way.”
Five books to choose from (while stock lasts):
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Artists as Agents of the Epiphany
“Send My Roots Rain”: Epiphany Moment with Artist Julie Elliot
Artists often open us to the Holy. Artists are truly agents of the Epiphany, holding up sacred representations of the imagination, to startle, to reveal, to delight, and to inspire. Julie Elliot is just such an artist. Look at her painting, “Send My Roots Rain”.
“Send My Roots Rain” 2001 by Julie Elliot
Mixed media on paper
 This painting by Julie Elliot is included in the book The Spirituality of Art, by Lois Huey-Heck and Jim Kalnin. In the chapter called “Art as Sacerdos” (translated from the Latin as giver of the sacred), Jim Kalnin writes the following.
"Julie Elliot uses layers of spontaneously applied paint to help her visualize a spiritual presence, though she often uses representational imagery. Her painting “Send My Roots Rain,” in which a chair becomes the focal point in an otherwise chaotic field of almost recognizable marks and lines, is a fine example. She wrote her artist’s statement for this work as if the chair itself was speaking to us.
I am alone but not lonely. I am connected to the core of the earth. My roots – fibrous, black, water filled – stretch out to connect and grab hold of what’s next. Water swirls around my head and washes down to a bulb that’s filled with potential. My world is organic: moving, shifting, changing. It moves out and in and around. I wait. All is quiet here. Just me and God and the smell of the earth. I sink into this time and place. Sometimes it is best to do nothing. "(Page 55)
 The Spirituality of Art
Lois Huey-Heck and Jim Kalnin
Northstone, 2006
www.spiritualityseries.com
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Holy Imagination!
Using Art as Impetus for Personal Writing in Community
Imagine: you are a facilitator of a small group in your faith community. The group members want to deepen their relationship with the Holy through the spiritual practices of writing and reflection. There are many ways to bring focus to small-group sharing. Artwork provides a wonderful starting point for personal learning in a small-group setting. Here is a process, for a group of up to eight people, that uses the painting “Send My Roots Rain,” by Julie Elliot.
- Show each person in the group “Send My Roots Rain.”
- Go around the circle asking people to talk about what they find most striking as they look at the painting.
- Ask group members to write for about 15 minutes, becoming the voice of the chair in the painting. Encourage them not to censor themselves, but just to let whatever occurs to them come out onto the paper.
- After people have finished writing, call them back to the circle and invite them to read aloud what they have written. Let people know that they can pass if they do not feel ready to read. After everyone who wants to read has done so, read aloud the artist’s statement (above). Talk together about the artist’s title for the work.
- Finally, ask group members to reflect on and to share with the group what they heard from the others and from the artist, and how that input has changed the way they see the image now.
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Epiphany Retreat for Artists of the Sacred
Intentional Time Away in Community Nurtures the Artistic Spirit:
Lois Huey-Heck in conversation with CopperHouseCURRENT
 Lois Huey-Heck, co-author of The Spirituality of Art, spent the first week of January in community with other sacred artists at Naramata Centre, in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. I spoke with her just after she returned from the five-day retreat.
CopperHouseCURRENT: Lois, what kind of sacred arts were represented by those who attended the retreat?
LOIS: There was a wonderful diversity of arts at the retreat, from drama to liturgical dance and music in many forms. The attendees were/are singers, musicians, composers, visual artists, liturgists, actors, dancers, poets, authors, and storytellers.
CopperHouseCURRENT: Epiphany is a time of revelation and of spontaneous, unplanned grace. Were there some ways that this spirit of Epiphany was alive in this retreat?
LOIS: This event was an epiphany. First, we “came together” as a community almost instantly – it was so important to be with others who share the passions, joys, and struggles of being “spiritual-creatives.” We were steeped in great music in the powerful evening worship times, in spontaneous singing, and in impromptu sessions where accomplished musicians generously “coached” us beginning guitarists, for instance. There was grace in the openness and honesty of the conversation, from “show and tell” to the sharing of stories of celebration, challenge, and hope for the sacred arts – and artists – and the communities we love. We were generously hosted by Naramata Centre. The hospitality of the environment and of the staff contributed greatly to a sense of scared space.
CopperHouseCURRENT: As an artist, author, manager, and spiritual director, what place did this retreat have in your life at this time?
LOIS: The retreat was a “time-out-of-time” between a joyful and social Christmas season, and the return to the fullness of my day job. It was truly something special to be on a creative retreat with others. We gathered for meals and spent the evenings together, but the days were for personal creative projects, and for any shared work or conversation we might arrange with each other. It was a nice rhythm for me, moving between the social/community life and the solitude that I need in order to be creative.
The retreat also affirmed for me the importance of the arts in invigorating the emerging Christian way. It takes many forms of creativity to nurture faith and to communicate good news, and there are some amazing, creative faithful people in service of the gospel – that’s highly encouraging. As a spiritual director, I appreciate hearing personal and community stories of spiritual unfolding, and I love the deep connection between spirituality and creativity. The retreat provided innumerable experiences of this kind.
CopperHouseCURRENT: Were there some ways in which this retreat supported some of the visions of the emerging Christian way?
LOIS: This group of artists is writing music, authoring books, and creating images that both honour the roots of Christian tradition and celebrate the movement of the Spirit in our day. In our day – not in some imaginary vision of a perfect history. This alone makes a huge contribution to individuals and to communities of faith. In much the same way that we now understand ourselves to be part of an ongoing creation and as being co-creators with God, we are in the process of discovering and creating the forms of 21st century Christianity.
So the arts help articulate the faith, they reflect and uphold the tradition, and they also have the ability – and responsibility – to communicate all of this with enthusiasm. For me, the emerging Christian way is a hugely hopeful “movement.” It has given me a way to reconnect with my Christian roots and is helping me to find my wings. The arts are playing a huge role in what I hope will be a kind of spiritual renaissance for a relevant – and energetic – Christianity.
Another aspect of the vision I want to touch on briefly is openness not only to Christian ecumenism, but also to a deeply respectful approach to interfaith initiatives. A wonderful current example is the way world spiritual music is finding its way into our singing. When we can share our images and music – as well as our words – we increase our sense of unity with each other, and our sense of connection to Oneness.
CopperHouseCURRENT: Did the artists who attended leave with some intention to keep this kind of retreat alive?
LOIS: Yes, we do carry the intention to “keep on.” We plan to continue to support each other through the year; to network with other artists and with those looking for artists to provide leadership and skills, largely through a newly-planned website; and we plan to make this retreat an annual event. We have also started talking about how we might support other groups of sacred artists who would like to network in similar ways. And so we go out from the sacred place of retreat into the season of Epiphany feeling encouraged, energized, and eager to continue to serve life through our creative gifts.
How to Build a Retreat for Artists of the Sacred (Epiphany in the Making!)
- With a group of local sacred artists, make a list of musicians, singers, songwriters, actors, dancers, poets, authors, storytellers, liturgical dancers, visual artists, composers, playwrights, potters, carvers, fabric artists, filmmakers, photographers, and other artists who use their creative artistry as a form of spiritual practice and ministry in a faith community.
- Contact everyone on your list with a proposal for a four- or five-day retreat at which the participants would do the following:
- spend time working independently on their current projects
- spend time talking about what it means to pursue a ministry in the creative arts
- worship together, drawing on the gifts of creative leadership present in the group
- sing, dance, play, or engage in other spontaneous activities
- share together insights and epiphanies concerning the role of the artist in the faith community, and the role of faith in the life of the artist
- Contact a retreat centre with a proposal for a co-sponsored event, where the cost of the retreat would be shared in some way by the community of artists attending and by the retreat centre.
- Ask one or two people from the group or invite an outside resource person to facilitate the retreat, especially the times when the retreatants come together for common time.
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Epiphany as Celebration
Spreading a message of radical love
Epiphany Day is celebrated on or near January 6 in the Western church. As a festival day, its colors are white and gold and its symbols are the star and the spreading light.
The epiphany we celebrate is the spreading of Jesus’ message of radical love. It is a breakthrough in understanding, which is why we call a fresh insight an “epiphany.” The message of love and vulnerability came as a radical alternative to the models of power handed down from the ancient world, including Greek “rationalism.” This message, and love itself, was extended beyond the original community. In a time of intense tribalism, this was a radical idea. In our day – of rabid nationalism and allegiance to the cruel god of corporate interest (tribalism in a suit), and vested religious interest on all sides – this message of radical love and inclusion is still profoundly counterculture. It’s one of the main things that keeps me hanging on as an “emerging paradigm” Christian, when I have been discouraged by the damaged and destructive aspects
of the faith.
The Day (or Feast) of Epiphany is when we remember the story of the Magi, who follow a star in the heavens to find a baby born in humble circumstance. We hear about these visitors from the East, people from another culture altogether, who come, in the words of author Bruce Sanguin, to “pay homage.” Appreciating the open way in which the Magi approach this event he writes, “The Magi notice ‘a star at its rising.’ The symbolism is important. Here we have a wise people scouring the night skies not for signs that they have the Truth, but for signs of the truth wherever the truth might choose to show itself...”
Artists and other prophets can do this – turn our perceptions upside down and open us to the new things God can do. The season of Epiphany (the period between January 6 and the beginning of Lent) is an opportunity each year to attend to the places where we have closed our hearts to others who believe and see differently.
Lois Huey-Heck, from the chapter “Art and the Seasons of Life,” in The Spirituality of Art
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What’s Your Passion?
Response from Michael Simmons, Pastor, Spring Creek UCC, Rockford, Illinois
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Dear Tim,
In response to your question in the October issue of CopperHouseCURRENT
, “What are you passionate about?”; I am passionate about enriching the musical language of 21st-century worship, in both Christian and interfaith settings. So much “contemporary” Christian music is “thin” musically and theologically. It speaks to simple feeling and thinking, and that in itself isn’t necessarily a problem – unless that’s all the church speaks. We need a musical language that has the richness characteristic of earlier periods in Christian history – for example, Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress” – and the new insights of the “emerging new way,” and the new sounds of a multi-ethnic society, and… Even those in our congregation who plead for “the hymns we know and love,” respond with willing energy to new hymns that engage them intellectually and emotionally – and that are singable,
too. When I find a new hymn or choral anthem that does that, I am so excited I can hardly stand it! That’s what I’m passionate about.
I look forward to more CopperHouseCURRENT!
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Michael:
Thanks for your clear and passionate statement! It just so happens that the Summer edition of CopperHouseCURRENT will focus on music in the church. This is timed to come out just after The United Church of Canada and Wood Lake Publishing release a new collection of songs called More Voices, a supplement to the United Church of Canada hymnbook, Voices United. The music in this collection was chosen as a response to the exact concerns you have raised. |
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Calling Church Musicians Everywhere!
Rising to Michael’s Challenge
Michael Simmons’ letter (above) challenges musicians and poets to do these three things:
- Enrich the musical language of 21st-century worship, in both Christian and interfaith settings.
- Create a musical language that combines
- the richness characteristic of earlier periods in Christian history
- the new insights of the “emerging Christian way”
- and the new sounds of a multi-ethnic society
- Write hymns that are singable and that engage people intellectually and emotionally.
- Where is this contemporary hymn writing happening?
- Who are the hymn writers we should be watching and encouraging?
- What are some prime examples of hymns that meet these characteristics?
- Are there Internet sites that we should know about that offer resources of word and music?
Send responses to Tim by June 1st for inclusion in the summer CopperHouseCURRENT.
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LINK
Making Intentional Internet Connections with the “Emerging” Community
A letter came from Bob Cornwall, Pastor of First Christian Church of Lompoc, Santa Barbara, California.
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Tim,
I just finished reading Brian McLaren’s book, A New Kind of Christian, and have a couple more of his books on my shelf to read. I’m curious as to how you see the emerging Christian way in comparison to the emergent church movement, of which McLaren is a leading voice. I see some similarities between McLaren and Marcus Borg, but they come at things from very different starting points, one being liberal the other evangelical. I’ve made a few comments on this on my blog – http://pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com
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Bob,
Last June I attended Summer Seminars, a program of The Center for Spiritual Development, which is sponsored and hosted by the Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. Brian McLaren and Marcus Borg were two of the three presenters for the sessions entitled “The Church in the 21st Century.” As I listened to the presentations by these two authors and teachers, I was hard-pressed to identify any way in which the two differed substantially from one another. After the sessions, I asked Marcus if he experienced any significant difference between himself and Brian, and he, too, acknowledged that he was in essential agreement with everything Brian had presented.
Tim.
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Having received this letter from Bob Cornwall with a link to his blog, I was curious to see what he had to offer. I found a blog called “Ponderings on a Faith Journey: The Thoughts and Opinions of a Disciples of Christ Pastor and Church Historian.” Bob ranges over an immense catalogue of topics, all the way from a reflection on the feast of the Epiphany, through a call for peace in the Middle East, to a theological reflection on the passing of President Gerald Ford. Woven into his easy-going and thoughtful style is a theology highly attuned to the emerging Christian way. Clearly well-read and highly attentive to the affairs of the day, Bob’s writing is accessible and engaging. Well worth a visit!
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Coming Next
Lent
 Focus: Reclaiming the Power of Story
Interview with a leading storyteller and author
New Publication: Lectionary Story Bible — Year A
Bibliodrama: powerful storytelling leads to transformative Bible study
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