Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:17)

Seeds grow wheat
Grain ground to flour
Mixed and baked
Into One
Broken and shared
The spiral dance
Gathering and breaking
Gathering and breaking.

Seen above (and on home-page mastheads): “Jesus and the Beloved Disciple” by John Giuliani.

Readings are from Streams of Mercy: a meditative commentary on the Bible by Ann Kristin Haldors Fontaine (used with permission of the author).

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
(Lamentations 3:22-23)

In the darkness of my days
Your hands on mine
Your sweet words
Bring morning
into my soul.

Seen above (and on home-page mastheads): “Darkness into Light” by Ruth Councell.

Readings are from Streams of Mercy: a meditative commentary on the Bible by Ann Kristin Haldors Fontaine (used with permission of the author).

Those who were my enemies without cause

have hunted me like a bird;

they flung me alive into a pit

and hurled stones on me;

water closed over my head;

I said, “I am lost.”

I called on your name, O Lord,

from the depths of the pit;

you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear

to my cry for help, but give me relief!”

You came near when I called on you;

you said, “Do not fear!”

You have taken up my cause, O Lord,

you have redeemed my life. 

(Lamentations 3:52-58)

Fear drowns
hearts and minds
Building walls
against the sun.

Seen above (and on home-page mastheads): “Darkness of Chartres West Portal” by Gerard di Falco.

Readings are from Streams of Mercy: a meditative commentary on the Bible by Ann Kristin Haldors Fontaine (used with permission of the author).

But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. (Luke 24:29-31)

At table
With bread
Love offered
and received.
Alleluia!

Seen above (and on home-page mastheads): Untitled by Moses Hoskins

Readings are from Streams of Mercy: a meditative commentary on the Bible by Ann Kristin Haldors Fontaine (used with permission of the author).

"...from verbal Rococo to minimalistic silence; from contemplating an Icon or lighting a candle to absorbing the beauty of creation or engaging in the creative endeavour; from doing prayers to being a prayer."

Thanksgiving for the Creative Endeavour

In carving the wood; in sculpting the stone;
in forming the clay                   

Your creative Spirit is within us

In painting the canvas; in pressing the print;

in searching for new ways                 

Your creative Spirit is within us

In the landscaping of the garden; in the toiling of earth;

in the arrangement of flowers        

Your creative Spirit is within us

In making the bread we break and share   

Your creative Spirit is within us

In the making of music with instruments or voices    

Your creative Spirit is within us

In creating new worlds with written words;

in telling stories with pictures  

Your creative Spirit is within us

In joining the dance of the universe;

in moving our bodies to the beat of life  

Your creative Spirit is within us

In the spontaneous and subversive street art   

Your creative Spirit is within us

In the performing of a play; in the routine of a mime;

in the kindness of a gesture  

Your creative Spirit is within us

In the words of our liturgy and prayers 

Your creative Spirit is within us

In being human; in caring for one another and our planet  

Your creative Spirit is within us

We are creative beings made to the image and likeness of a creative God. 

Amen

Seen above (and on home-page mastheads): Olive Tree I by Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga Steele

Words from "Prayer" and "UPrayer: Thanksgiving for the Creative Endeavour" by Ernesto Lozada-Uzuriaga Steele.

Art begins with the courage to make a mark—whether that mark is made with a brush, a pen, the hand, or the click of a lens. Whatever inclination or inspiration exists, it must be partnered with courage—because that first mark is the first breath of the creation of a world-view. With that first mark we are breathing a world-view in repetition, response, or even homage to that First Breath that brought us into being.

And what then, after courage? A promise to continue with this creation until it breathes its own breath, and dreams its own dream. And then, if it is after all to be art, that breath and dream must be recognized outside its own soul, outside its own creation—it must reach out to Other. The images seen above and below are of calligraphic art by Melissa Dinwiddie, who names this world-view she created “Kinetic Metaphor: Three Alphabets of the Self.”

Using marks from the Latin-based English alphabet, the Hebrew alphabet, and the imagined alphabet of her own internal language, she has brought into being a world where there is flow rather than separation, unity rather than division. This is a place you recognize as both of humans and spirits, new to you, but instantly also about you.

The intuitive use of marks and color in this three-dimensional space allow both tactile and spiritual considerations to speak to the viewer. And even though alphabetic tools are used skillfully, we don’t want to “read” here, we want only to “listen” and “feel” as we move as in a dance through the walls and pages of this world-view.

Seen above (and on home-page mastheads): Kinetic Metaphor: Three Alphabets of the Self by Melissa Dinwiddie.

Designer and weaver of tapestries, Pat Williams, has a sign on her loom that reads: “Color, Contrast, Movement.”

“Color choices” she says “are intuitive, and if intuitive doesn't quite work I call on Van Gogh's (among other artists') successful use of complementary colors as a guide. I want my work to have a presence up close as well as from way across the room, therefore an emphasis on contrast is crucial. I want vivid, so I work to define the shapes in their space. Movement can make a piece thrilling and certainly help with the story line.”

The images that follow are examples of wit combined with sensitivity and accomplished technique.

“Orion” (above): “…dreamed feeling of wonderful purpose and goals, of being on a quest; pleasure in living and existence. The constellation of Orion depicted here is fairly accurate, and Orion-the-hunter relates to the woman’s purposeful stride towards her goal. No other constellation contains so many bright stars. People ask what is in the box she carries--they could be tools, could be secrets.”

“Kairos” (above) “…an ancient Greek word meaning the "right or opportune moment," or "God's time." The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos and kairos. While the former refers to chronological or sequential time, the latter signifies "a time in between", a moment of undetermined period of time in which "something" special happens. What the special something is depends on who is using the word. While chronos is quantitative, kairos has a qualitative nature."

“Chicken In A Storm II” (above) “…incorporates metallics with standard (wool) materials. It explores the possibility of choice on a late summer day and finds that in the face of the storm's fury response is different if you are a chicken or a tree.”

Some of the most intriguing images are her portraits—inner portraits. She has embellished her portraits of the women below (left, Meditation; right, Patterns of Thinking) with emotion and depth. She has woven the eyes in these portraits using threads of perception and compassion.

And one of her loveliest portraits is that of “A Good Marriage” (below). “This tapestry” Pat says, was a gift to her husband. “The little squares and rectangles are our atmospheres commingling.

While weaving and tapestries as wall art comprise a majority of Pat’s work, the commission of communion cushions at the altar of Grace Calvary Episcopal Church (installed in February 2010) contribute a new and local focus to a richly spiritual environment. The cushions (seen below) are a series of landscapes set in Northeast Georgia. She writes: “The reason for placing the story locally, rather than the mideast, is that the spirit of Jesus pervades any place where Christians live, and His spirit lives in the hearts of Christians in Habersham County in Grace Calvary Episcopal Church. The series is based on the liturgical year, beginning with Advent.”

Pat considers weaving an anomaly in our culture. She loves the “slowness of the process because it is in direct contrast to our instant everything culture. Slow and lovely involvement. Weaving offers the incredible effect of the textures, depth of surface, the malleability of color combinations, the symbolism of intertwining, and the inevitability of the process. One starts at the bottom and works to the top."

Seen above, all images as named by Pat Williams. On the front-page mastheads are “Chicken In A Storm II” (main); detail from “A Good Marriage” (Daily Episcopalian); and detail from “Homunculus” (Speaking to the Soul).