As newspapers report on conflicts and unprecedented alliances between African and North American Anglicans, a group of priests and laypeople from the Diocese of California are reaching out and learning more about African Christianity. The current exhibit of photographs on view at Gallery 1055, 1055 Taylor Street in San Francisco, documents their encounter with the Ethiopian Church, one of the most ancient forms of Christianity. During Timkat 2006 (The Feast of the Epiphany), these California pilgrims traveled to Ethiopia where they met ordinary believers, monks, priests and the Patriarch Abune Paulos. They read icons and prayed in the holy churches of Lalibela, St. George’s Cathedral in Addis Ababa, Debre Berhan in Gondar, St. Mary’s in Axum and in the monasteries of Lake Tana. They looked for what we share in common as Christians widely separated by our culture and daily life. The current exhibition, Ethiopia Calling, shares their discoveries.
~ Courtesy of diocal.org

The artist is documentary photographer Malcolm C. Young. He writes, "The Lilly Foundation provided a grant that made it possible for our family to explore Africa in 2007. We visited old friends and made many new ones, but the centerpiece of this adventure was our pilgrimage with other Bay Area priests and laypeople to Ethiopia for Timkat, the Feast of the Epiphany.

"Many twelfth century Europeans believed in the myth of Prester John and his distant, peaceful kingdom, at one with itself and surrounded by Muslim nations. I felt drawn to Ethiopia in large part because of my own myth. I wanted to experience the holiness of God in Christ outside the context of European and North American culture. I, perhaps unreasonably, hoped to draw nearer to the heart of Christianity by reaching beyond the culture that so deeply influences my experience of the world. This was not a missionary trip or for the purpose of relieving poverty or suffering. We traveled as pilgrims and found our faith deepened.

"To understand how Ethiopian Christians practice their faith we learned the stories that orient them. We read histories about failed European colonial efforts to suppress the church and about Ethiopian Christological controversies in the Middle Ages. We heard stories about the saints who built one of the first Christian kingdoms in the world and about the Axumite Empire that controlled Red Sea trade in the years after Christ’s birth. The Patriarch of the Ethiopian Church told us that Christianity began when Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch in 41 CE (Acts 8:27). We encountered important traditions inspired by the Hebrew Bible. New friends told us how the Queen of Sheba went to Solomon’s court and how Menelik, the son she had with him, brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia.

"In our church Epiphany commemorates Jesus’ baptism, the journey of the magi and the coming of Christ’s light into the world. At Timkat Ethiopians also celebrate God’s generosity in giving them the Ark of the Covenant. Each church brings out its ark to public gathering places where thousands of people receive blessings with holy water. The Ethiopians we met did not seem to regard themselves as God’s chosen people, but they did have the strong sense that God has especially blessed them.

"This experience of holiness inspires the striking piety that we witnessed as visitors. In California only a few people in their twenties worship in Episcopal churches. In Ethiopia it is not uncommon to see young people kissing the doors, walls and gates of churches. The young people we talked to were embarking on arduous pilgrimages. They fasted regularly. They sought out blessings by monks and priests who carry ornately designed hand-crosses. They removed their shoes and wore special garments in church.

"For most Episcopalians today a church’s holiness comes from the gathered body of believers who are created in the image of God and blessed by the spirit of Jesus. In Ethiopia, the presence of the ark makes the church holy. This in part explains why so many churches have circular or octagonal designs and concentric regions of holiness expanding from the ark at the center. Genuflection, prostration, dancing, loudly-chanted prayers, processions, a strong reliance on rhythm and drumming make church a more physical experience in Ethiopia.

"A few days before we left home, Ethiopia invaded Somalia. This reminded us how political realities always influence the religious situation. When we asked the patriarch why young people in his country have such a strong faith, he talked about poverty, the terrible effect that AIDS is having on society and also about the communists who controlled the government until a few years ago and sought to suppress religion.

" If you are interested in reading the journal we kept in Africa or seeing other pictures you can find them at www.malcolmcyoung.com"
"Ethiopia Calling" is on YouTube here

~ Malcolm C. Young

About the Artist Malcolm C. Young is a photographer, theologian, and Episcopal priest in the Diocese of California. Educated at U.C. Berkeley and Harvard, he currently serves as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos. He is the author of the forthcoming book The Spiritual Journal of Henry David Thoreau (Mercer, 2009).

Eglise Saint-Jean Baptiste de Bourbourg
Chapel of Light/ Chœur de lumière
More images here

"A Jewish atheist from North London might not appear to be the obvious choice to restore a medieval French chapel. But Sir Anthony Caro, who has made his name from works of steel rather than stone, has been given the job of restoring the war-damaged Roman Catholic church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Bourbourg, near Dunkirk in northern France."

Ruth Gledhill of the The Times (UK) continues, "However, when you see what the 84-year-old former pupil of Henry Moore has done with light, water, steel and wood you appreciate the logic of the commission, for this is not so much a repair job as a work of art. The church was a victim of friendly fire: according to local legend, during the Second World War, a British pilot on his way home suddenly came to the awful realisation that his plane was going to crash. Rather than land on the houses, he steered his aircraft at the church, crashing into the choir end of the nave. The main body of the church was restored but the choir was left in ruins. " Read her entire Nov 8 2008 article in The Times online here.

Caro's agent in London, Annely Juda Fine Art, eleased this information in a press release to coincide with the chapel's dedication in October 2008," Over a period of several years, Anthony Caro has been working on a major series of sculptures and architectural features to form the restoration of a chapel at Bourbourg in Northern France, about 12 miles east of Calais. The 'Chapel of Light' adjoins the Church of St Jean de Baptiste.

"During World War II, a damaged English aircraft crash-landed on the roof of the church in order to avoid the houses in the town, and set it on fire. The church itself was restored, but the choir was separated by a wall from the body of the church and left in ruins until ten years ago.

"Caro was commissioned by the French Ministry for Culture and Communication to make a sculptural installation that would bring new life to the redundant choir. Specifically for the project he has designed and built two huge oak towers each about 18 feet high. These towers are to be used for musical performances and to allow exploration of the church space. Caro has also made a concrete baptismal font and a spectacular series of steel, wood and terracotta sculptures to fill a series of niches in the walls of the apex of the choir. Various other sculptures complete the east and west naves, linked through a doorway to a large exterior sculpture in corten steel. The sculptures follow the themes of The Creation (relating to the baptismal font) – culminating in The Paradise Garden.

"Anthony Caro recognises that this monumental project is an exceptional opportunity for an artist. He stated, ‘The light in the church is wonderful and it is such a privilege as an artist to be given such an entire space to work with’. Not since Matisse’s Chapel in Vence has another artist been given this opportunity in France. "

On View: Choeur de Lumiere (Chapel of Light) by Sir Anthony Caro. Scupture, 2008. Installed in the war-damaged Roman Catholic church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Bourbourg, near Dunkirk in northern France.

Hat Tip to Episcopal Cafe ace reporter, Ann Fontaine.

On View: Parade of Humanity: Border Milagros by Alfred J. Quiroz. Mexican side of the border, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, installed 2004. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Theological Aesthetics and The Recovery of Silenced Voices
Cecilia González-Andrieu, Ph.D.
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles CA

In March 2004 something unexpected appeared along a stretch of land the Tucson Weekly called “an ugly wound cutting some three miles across Nogales”[1]. In a moment of intense incongruity, several large enigmatic figures materialized on the Mexican side of the fence separating the U.S. from México.

“The wall is military surplus,” explained the newspaper noting its war-like nature, “made of corrugated helicopter landing pads that U.S. troops once laid out in Vietnam’s jungles and in Kuwait’s deserts. The color of an ugly bruise, its sickly green merges with gun-metal gray. The perfect canvas, in other words, for a giant piece of political art.”[2] We, of course, know what these enigmatic figures are…they are milagros. And we know they are profoundly complicated, much beyond “political art.” I begin with this work that the art world calls “public art” but we might more accurately call “popular religion as public art” to give specificity to my proposal.

A proposal advocating the recovery of silenced voices is nothing new to anyone working in the field of Latino/a theology. We are all, in some way, actively involved in this work. We know that a commitment to our quehacer teológico necessitates searches beyond volumes of overly verbose theology in dusty libraries. We have known this for a long time. What is new about this proposal then?

First, this is an invitation from us (and other so-called contextual theologians[3]) to the wider academic community to adopt a rigorous and productive methodology growing out of our experiences of doing theology. Our ways of doing theology respect the variety of ways that our communities theologize. Second, the invitation has depth and reach because it uses the language of theological aesthetics to connect a variety of discourses and disciplines. Especially between the arts and theology, aesthetics is a recognized common discourse. Beyond this, its adoption inherently challenges and effectively dismantles overly rationalistic paradigms. These very same paradigms, set as they have been as the only normative type of theological discourse, have been used to keep “the other” as “other” silent. Third, the invitation comes with a “how-to manual.” While many of us have indeed been involved in doing this work for years, how to do the work is often a struggle. This methodological proposal seeks to minimize the difficulties posed by such radical interdisciplinarity by first articulating and then carefully systematizing a method to make the work of theological aesthetics more accessible.

The final goal is evident as we again look at the border milagros. We will lift voices that are generally ignored, classified as “folkloric” or “political”, or demoted to the category of “affective religiosity” without regard to their very real theological thickness.

Read the article in its entirety, with illustrations and reference noted, here.

This is an excerpt from Dr. González-Andrieu's article "Theological Aesthetics and The Recovery of Silenced Voices" which was originally published in its entirety inthe electronic Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology (http://latinotheology.org) 09/02/2008. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author: Cecilia González-Andrieu is Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. Professor González-Andrieu received her doctorate from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley in the areas of Art & Religion and Systematic Theology. Born in Cuba and raised in Southern California Gonzalez-Andrieu is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University where she studied Film, Spanish and Theology. She has been recognized with awards by the GTU, the Catholic Press Association for her regular column, "De Todo Un Poco" in T he Tidings, and the Hispanic Theological Initiative in Princeton.
Dr. González-Andrieu is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Academy of Hispanic Catholic Theologians of the U.S., and Alpha Sigma Nu., the Honor Society of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. She collaborates on workshops for faith formation and leadership training at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Dioceses of San Jose and San Diego, and LMU's Center for Religion and Spirituality. Her book collaborations include Presente! U.S. Latino Catholics from Colonial Origins to the Present (Orbis), Camino a Emaús (Liturgical Press), The Treasure of Guadalupe (Rowman and Littlefield), and The Sky is Crying: Race, Class and Natural Disaster (Ausburg).