The Advent: The Creativity Issue by Cathedral Church of the Advent

ISSUE

2 2016

MADE IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

THE

ADVENT A MAGAZINE OF GOOD NEWS

THE

Creativity ISSUE

C A L L I G R A PH Y C O U RT E SY O F E M I LY C O E

PUBLISHER

Andrew C. Pearson, Jr. Matthew C. Schneider Tom Martin W. Brandon Bennett Hawley M. Schneider Charles R. Ritch II Mary Berkeley Pritchard James Henderson

EDITOR ART DIRECTOR A S S I STA N T E D I TO R PHOTOGRAPHER COPY EDITOR PROOFREADER EDITORIAL INTERN

VESTRY Stephen K. Greene ■ SE NIOR WA RDE N Troy C. Haas ■ J UNIOR WA RDE N James A. Bradford ■ CLE RK Hewes T. Hull ■ TRE ASURE R James S. Andrews; Frederick W. Bromberg; R. Kane Burnette; Frances A. Cade; Martin B. Clapp; Kathryn W. Corey; Charles W. DeBardeleben; Jay M. Ezelle; Denson N. Franklin III; Rachel B. Fry; Judy F. Greenwood; Mary R. Hanson; Leland Hull, Jr.; C. Duncan Hulsey; Julia W. King; Todd W. Liscomb; Shannon B. Lisenby; David S. McKee, Jr.; Jane G. Menendez; J. Claiborne Morris, Sr.; Katherine J. Nielsen; Fontaine H. Pope; Oscar M. Price IV; Emily C. Pruet; Michael T. Sansbury; Caroline M. Springfield; Robin A. Wade III; Louise W. Yoder CLERGY Andrew C. Pearson, Jr. ■ DE A N R. Craig Smalley ■ CANON PASTOR AND DAY SCHO OL CHAPL AIN Deborah R. Leighton ■ CA NON MISSIONE R A ND DIRE CTOR OF WOM EN’ S M INIST R IES Matthew C. Schneider ■ CA NON FOR PA RISH LIFE A ND EVA NGELISM Zac Hicks ■ C ANON FOR LITURGY A ND WORSHIP Adam A. Young ■ CUR ATE Katherine P. Jacob ■ DE AC ON The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of our contributors and do not always reflect those of the Cathedral Church of the Advent. All copies of The Advent magazine are free of charge. If you would like to support the future of this advertisement-free publication, we welcome a contribution of any amount. Email us at magazine@cathedraladvent.com for more information. THE ADVENT is a trademark of the Cathedral Church of the Advent. Copyright © 2016 by the Cathedral Church of the Advent. All rights reserved. This publication or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations. Printed annually in the fall in Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

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ART ON THE COVER : SPICE ART INSTALL ATION COURTESY OF STEPHEN WATSON PHOTOGRAPH BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

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ADVENT A MAGAZINE OF GO OD NEWS

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C O N T E N T

Creativity ISSUE

D E P A R T M E N T S 6 Dear Reader by Matt Schneider

COMMON PRAYER

9 Contributing Artists

66 Featured Artist: Interview with Stephen Watson on Liturgy and Art

HEART FOR THE ‘HAM

12 Interview with Buddy Palmer and John Lankford on Birmingham’s Current Historic Moment

72 Story of a Song by Jeremy Moore

20 Birminghumans: Amanda and Britt Thames, Raven Dewitt, Blake Burrell, David Dionne, Julie Maeseele

76 Books for Cultivating Creativity by Cort Gatliff

POETRY

78 About the Cathedral Church of the Advent

30 Collect for Carol, Gelatin-Silvered by Laura Cotten

80 Program Elevator Speeches

THE LIST

OUR STORY

58 Carol Has Doubts Over Tomato Aspic by Laura Cotten DISPATCH FROM ABROAD

60 Photo Essay from Lebanon by Fadi BouKaram

88 Ministry Highlights 92 Advent Stuff 94 Retrospect: From A Feast of Good Things by the St. Agnes Guild 96 A Good Word by Andrew Pearson

F E A T U R E S 34 On the Creator and Sub-Creators by Mark Gignilliat 38 Art of Failure by Sam Bush

42 Theological Reflections of the Consumerism of Creativity by Brandon Bennett

48 Conversation with Dan Siedell on Creativity and the Church

46 Meditation on Sanctification by Bryan Helm

5 6 From Essentials of Spontaneous Prose by Jack Kerouac

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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SARA BECK AND CRAIG RODERICK

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PHOTOGRAPH BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

DEAR

READER MATT SCHNEIDER

mong the many wonderful stained-glass windows at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, my favorite one is easy to miss. It’s in our small side chapel above the Communion table. The window depicts a resurrected Jesus in the city of Birmingham. You can make out two buildings flanking him in the artwork: a steel mill, symbolic of the city’s industrial heritage, and a hotel to honor the chapel’s donor, who was a hotel owner. This vintage window resonates with our present vision at the Advent. We have a heart for Birmingham—a love and concern for the city where God has placed us. This window also played a central role in this issue of The Advent magazine. When contemplating what our featured artist, Stephen Watson, would make for our cover, he and I walked around the Advent’s campus searching for inspiration. He was intrigued by the Birmingham-centric nature of the window and was drawn to the factory with its smoke pattern. I enjoyed collaborating with Stephen on this project, and his art now makes me see our window in new ways. You can read about Stephen’s creative process in the Featured Artist interview. Creativity has become a major driving force in Birmingham, especially in the city’s current historic 7

Matt Schneider is on the clergy staff at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, where he is the pastor of the Five O’Clock congregation and oversees the church’s newcomers’ ministry, including the Inquirers Class. He is married to Hawley, a professional portrait photographer, and they have two daughters, Eden and Zoë. Matt is also the editor of The Advent magazine—he’s hoping there will be at least two more issues.

moment of renewal. And creativity influences not just the arts, but also education, entrepreneurship, and urban planning. This is why we’ve attempted to explore the topic of creativity in this second issue of The Advent from a variety of perspectives. We’ve done so by wrestling with this theme in the written content and by creating new works of visual art. I’m delighted with what we’ve produced. Marty Balencie is another Birmingham artist I’ve met in the past year whose work strikes me as particularly creative. Like Stephen, Marty creates using everyday objects. His primary medium is blue painter’s tape, which he painstakingly tears into tiny pieces to make portraits, typically of other artists. Since he often works with musicians, we put Marty in collaboration with Jeremy Moore, a local recording artist, who wrote a personal essay for us about the story behind one of his songs. In the pages that follow, we also have a theologian’s essay on the biblical vision of creativity accompanied by his wife’s painting. There’s poetry that was made in collaboration with a collage artist, inspired by archival material. Further afield, we have a photo essay from a Lebanese photographer, who gives us a glimpse of the church in one area of the Middle East. Closer to home, we shine a light on Birmingham’s creativity movement in an interview with two nonprofit leaders aiming to see our city flourish in spite of many hurdles. We even have a contrarian voice that calls into question some of the motivations behind the current creativity trend. Our featured interview is with modern art critic and theologian Dan Siedell. Dan has helped me think about creativity in completely new ways, especially with respect to the Christian message. Often when Christians grapple with art, we stick to things that are merely safe or pretty. Dan forces us to see beauty coming from unexpected places. He also challenges us to stop viewing creativity as a means to an end and to start seeing it as the love and labor

of making things for their own sake—even when this implies risk, vulnerability, and often failure. These are tensions that artist Charlotte Wyatt captured in a watercolor inspired by the interview. The themes of unexpected beauty and uncomfortable creativity are at play in Birmingham. Our city is marred by its past, overlooked by outsiders, and blighted at its core by the effects of demographic shifts during the mid-twentieth century. Can anything good come from Birmingham of all places? We certainly think so. These themes also characterized the Savior of the world. As the prophet Isaiah foretold, Jesus was one who “had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” This is a description of the very creator of the universe, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. This is the marred man of sorrows who also makes all things new, even suffering offenders like us. Again, I draw your attention to that small, stained-glass window. Here is Jesus, right in Birmingham. New hotels, hip foodie restaurants, and innovative collaborations—as encouraging as they may be—are but foretastes of the beauty and creativity we find in Jesus, who will one day make a new heaven and earth where no more effects of a fallen world like blight, injustice, and division dwell. Even now he creates in us new hearts and begins to wipe away our tears so we may respond by living as free creatures.

Matt P. S. If The Advent magazine has touched your life in any way and you’d like to help sustain its future growth as an advertisement-free publication, we welcome your charitable contributions. If you’d like to give in support, please email us at magazine@cathedraladvent.com for more information.

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A R T I S T S

As an artist and photographer, Marty Balencie experiments with new materials in order to create innovative portraits and pieces of art that tell a story and evoke wonder. He stumbled upon using blue painter’s tape as a medium in the last couple of years, and seeing people’s reactions has inspired him to continue trying new things. mbalencie@gmail.com Sara Beck and Craig Roderick are a husband and wife collaborative team, seeking to create photographic art with striking visual impact. They often shoot at night or in low light, choosing subjects with intense color, and using printing techniques such as presentation on acrylic to amplify their art’s impact. americanroadtripphotography.com Emily Wilde Coe is the artist behind Wilde Art Co. She was born and raised in Birmingham and grew up at the Cathedral Church of the Advent. She attended Auburn University, where she graduated with a degree in architecture. She currently works with Williams Blackstock Architects while also devoting time to her art. Emily enjoys drawing portraits as well as honing her calligraphy skills, exploring a wide variety of writing styles—she adores the ability to bring beauty to words on a piece of paper. When she is not drawing, Emily loves to spend time with her husband, Matt, daughter, Adelaide, and new baby boy, Oliver. instagram. com/wildeartco

Mollie Everitt teaches visual art at the Advent Episcopal School. A Mississippi native now transplanted to Birmingham, she is spending time exploring the city with her daughter, Amelia, and her dog, Fonda. mollieclaireveritt@ gmail.com Naomi Gignilliat spent her childhood roaming the farmlands of Wisconsin. Though she currently resides in the urban center of Birmingham with her husband and four children, the pastoral setting of her childhood continues to influence her work. Naomi studied art education and has taught high school art in Greenville, South Carolina, and Fife, Scotland. She works with oil as well as pen and ink, and her current work in oil focuses on clouds and landscape representative of the beauty and tensions of this world and the hope at the end of the journey. naomigignilliat@gmail.com Birmingham photographer Virginia Jones is a former teacher who credits her first trip to Paris in 2007 as the inspiration for what has become her second career. She maintains blogs and presents photo talks regularly on both the cities of Birmingham and Paris, and her images have been featured in a variety of publications, including B-Metro magazine. Since 2009 she has chronicled the Lyric Theatre’s restoration, and she recently turned her lens toward the historic Pizitz Building and Thomas Jefferson Hotel restorations. virginiajonesphotography.com Jared Ragland’s photographic and found-image work is rooted in his lifelong exposure to the landscapes, people, aesthetics, and storytelling traditions of the South. A former White House photo editor under the Bush and Obama administrations, Jared currently teaches and coordinates exhibitions and community programs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His work has been exhibited internationally and was recently featured in The Oxford American, The New York Times, and TIME. Jared is

a graduate of LaGrange College and holds an MFA from Tulane University. jaredragland.com Emily Rice is an artist and illustrator from Alabama. She graduated from Birmingham-Southern College, specializing in fine arts and Spanish. Art has always acted as her voice. It is her playful reaction to everything outside of her control. Art forgives and heals. Someday Emily hopes to live abroad, making art with her cat, Mandolin. emilyriceart.com Wayne Stadler is a Canadian photographer, designer, and burner (frequent Burning Man participant). He is currently on a full-time road trip, constantly creating more photography. Follow along at wayneontheroad.com or discover new work at waynestadlerphotography.com. Sarah Soule Webb’s life has been colored with pastels, charcoal, and paint for as long as she can remember. Raised on the water in Pensacola, Florida, she started her professional career as a child, painting fish on driftwood and old pieces of docks. Her works adorn homes throughout the Southeast and are known for a vibrant, casual style, depicting stylized images of beloved places, people, and slices of life. Sarah’s “Sanctuary” series includes meaningful images of stained glass and architecture of many beautiful churches in Birmingham and around the world. Her “Cartography” series features cities in an abstract style that juxtaposes real geographic features with a looseness that encourages viewers to connect with the artwork. sswstudios.com Charlotte Wyatt is an artist and freelance designer in Birmingham. She received her BFA at Samford University in 2014, where she studied art and graphic design. Specializing in watercolor, she seeks to use art as a means of communication—to visually communicate that which has value, depth, and ultimately hope. charlotte@charlotterenee.com

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FIVE LOAVES, TWO MEN, ONE GOAL: JOHN LANKFORD & BUDDY PALMER ON CREATIVITY IN Bâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;HAM

As we explored the theme of creativity this year, two leaders in the Birmingham nonprofit world I wanted to speak with on the topic were John Lankford and Buddy Palmer. It turns out they did not know each other before we sat down for coffee at Woodlawn Cycle CafĂŠ. I was excited to connect them since they both have similar interests and abilities. John is the founder of Urban Avenues, which has two subsidiary ventures: Fish Camp Films and Five Loaves. Buddy is the President and CEO of Create Birmingham. Just to start, would each of you say a little bit about who you are? Buddy, you start and tell us about you and Create Birmingham. Buddy Palmer: I have been in Birmingham for about eight years. I came to join an organization called the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham, which grew out of a community cultural plan over a decade ago, looking at the needs of the nonprofit arts and cultural community in relation to the larger community. During the recent economic recession, we noticed that although the nonprofit cultural sector was really struggling, there was still this incredible energy around food, music, and the commercial side of creative enterprises. So we saw an opportunity to dive deeper by asking what might be possible if there were an organization thinking about creative industries. We were very fortunate to receive funding from three local foundations to enter into this playground and re-launched as Create Birmingham with a renewed vision. Our mission is to invest in imagination and invention. Imagination is the educational and workforce development side, where we engage with people during the important 12

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early stages of concepts. We think of invention as both a noun and a verb on the path of developing those concepts. John, what’s your story and the story of Urban Avenues? John Lankford: I grew up in Birmingham, and I’ve seen how the city’s scar tissue has blossomed into some great things over time. I’ve watched that story unfold, and it has really motivated me as an entrepreneur. I’ve primarily been in the healthcare world for most of my career, but I began the path of figuring out what Urban Avenues could be about fourteen years ago when I owned a manufacturing company in east Birmingham. Through my employees, I saw the hidden beauty and potential that was surrounding their lives in ways they might never have noticed because they were living on the edge of poverty, just surviving. A lot of them were lost because of the economic, racial, and geographic barriers that occur in the city. So the idea for Urban Avenues was to create a collective of cooperatives made up with real people investing part of their lives in education, creativity, or businesses as entrepreneurs and PHOTOGRAPHS BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

leaders. Every venture we take on and build has economic development, education, and beauty at the center. Can you flesh that out a bit? John: We had a collective event across the city about three years ago when we brought in people from around the country and had discussions on how food, beauty, and economic development all relate to sustainability. The day after the event, a small group of us got together around the table and over a period of a couple hours developed a concept that we now call Five Loaves, which is a pop-up food venture that includes students from across the city—both in poverty-affected areas as well as wealthy areas—to co-create. They learn how to use their imagination to develop their own recipes and ingredients, and they create an experience that is educational to the people who are sitting around the table. The guests hear these young people’s stories about their communities, which they tell through the food. The young people you work with are primarily from Fairfield, right? John: That was really where we started. Now we cross-pollinate, so we’ve got some students from Woodlawn and the Oak Mountain area. We’re now also talking to some students from Homewood High School, and they’re all working to build these pop-up ventures and developing relationships and a keener sense of how to use beauty and education in a real business environment. After we do an event, we evaluate how it worked, so these students who wouldn’t ordinarily have any exposure to the fundamentals of business are learning these skills. We also invite respected local chefs like Rob Bright from Edgewood Catering, Wil Drake from Woodlawn Cycle Café, and John Hall from Post Office Pies to work with the students. We’re partnering young students with local entrepreneurs in the midst of what they’re creating so that the students gain seeds of entrepreneurship, and they get an opportunity to relationally connect with people like Wil and John who are years ahead of them. What about you, Buddy? What’s happening on the ground with Create Birmingham? Buddy: Our CO.STARTERS business program is something we’re running in Woodlawn. Many people don’t really know how to take concepts and move them forward. There’s no shortage of exciting ideas, but getting ideas to market is 14

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’ HAM very different. We got the idea for CO.STARTERS from a business development program in Chattanooga, where the program was created there. We looked at it and loved it, so we asked REV Birmingham if they wanted to partner with us to license it for Birmingham, and they did. We just launched our eighth group with twelve to fifteen people in each one. It’s a great curriculum. It really takes people a long way. It’s a very intense ten weeks that you spend together, and within the network collaborative relationships always form. Can we talk about the historic moment Birmingham is in right now? What is that about? John, do you have any thoughts? John: The sense of relational connection that’s now developing in the city is exciting. Take this café we’re in. It’s exciting that Woodlawn Cycle Café has become a hub where people come to from around the city to meet and to know each other in a different way. That’s actually the primary focus of Urban Avenues too—inviting and drawing people across the former boundaries of their community into what is now our community, this larger community. Connecting people relationally is an interesting point. That’s what both of you do well. I know you do this, Buddy, because you’ve done it for me, playing a mediating role. Do you have any thoughts about people like yourselves who are connectors? Buddy: Absolutely. It’s an intentional strategy, and I want to relate it back to Birmingham’s historic moment. There’s not only a national but also a global demographic trend toward urban centers. So we have to be careful not to take what’s occurring here for granted and as special to Birmingham because it’s happening all over the place. We have to seize the trend for Birmingham and figure out what is special about the city, what’s going to keep the moment and move it forward. Cities like Austin, Portland, Seattle, and Chicago that are really firmly fixed with a creative foundation have organizations and individuals in both public and private leadership who are able to move strategies forward and to think about connections. They drive the big picture. So I’m so glad we’re having this conversation. Because Birmingham is of a size where those introductions and collaborations can be easier, it’s an advantage that we have right now, and we have to fight against territorialism and protectionism. What are the main obstacles, and is there a ceiling we’re going to hit? Is this just a bubble that’s going to come to an abrupt end? Or do you think there’s a way to sustain this energy continually? John: If we’re intentional in recognizing this moment, we will really prepare ourselves for a sustainable future in Birmingham. If we’re about the things that are not simply trendy but have root systems in people’s identity, and we connect with those things, and we’re intentionally disciplined about the way we build these connected structures that we’re talking about that are relationally based, then twenty years from now people will evaluate Birmingham on the quality of its artists and businesses that have populated the city and who 15

have gone to other parts of the world because of what we are doing today. That requires an intentional discipline of equipping people with programs like CO.STARTERS and with informal networking opportunities like what Urban Avenues is doing as well. Buddy: Create Birmingham has a report, our creative industries document, which demonstrates that it’s not enough to just create jobs in creative industries if Birmingham students are not equipped to take those jobs when they become available. This document would be a failure in its implementation if only a certain segment of Birmingham’s population benefits—if only a certain segment or class of people with access to investment and certain kinds of education are the beneficiaries of the growth of this industry. Yeah, of course, a lot of this straddles racial lines, right? I’m constantly aware of the possibility for something like gentrification. How do we do what you are talking about and still keep gentrification at bay? John: There’s a grittiness that’s going to be required to avoid the natural pathway of gentrification. That grittiness is going to mean that the people in our city are going to have to see each other as peers in a more collective way. That’s where the racial barriers still have a significant impact on us. Until that playing field levels to a significant degree, then not only is gentrification a real possibility, but also a return trip down the same path of misunderstanding and mistrust that can hide amidst the nuances of civility and cripple our real opportunity for lasting change. What we’re trying to do with our creative ventures is take young people and put them in peer relationships where nobody has a leg up on anyone else as far as their ideas or their experience or their ability to create. They have this experience of depending on each other, and nobody’s bringing anything to the table that’s ahead of someone else. Until we experience more of that as a city, which is going to take time, I don’t know that there’s any easy pathway past some of the racial and economic challenges we face. Do you see any appropriate role that churches could play in all that we’re talking about? Buddy: One of my heroes is a guy named Bill Strickland, who has a nationally honored nonprofit, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, that works with Pittsburgh youth. He was a child in inner city Pittsburgh who was heading down a bad path until he passed the ceramics studio in his school and stopped in the doorway to watch the school’s ceramic teacher at the wheel. The teacher invited him in, let him try the wheel, and he was hooked. That moment changed his life forever, and he is still an active ceramist. He talks a lot about hope that comes from beauty. We all have creativity. It is a part of our soul and essence that the church can speak to. John, any thoughts? If we are all going to be honest about the church and what the church has to offer, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is an immeasurable well of hope for all the 16

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’ HAM things that we’re fighting for as far as an ultimate leveling ground for a peerto-peer recognition of respect, dignity, love, and growth—all things that really are at the core of ultimately solving what we are fighting for. At the same time the church has done great damage too. Say more about that. John: There has been a great deal of well-intended moral fortitude that has turned into judgmental condemnation for a lot of people who are in creative communities. So there has been a natural disenfranchisement that has occurred over time, creating a lot of mistrust. Some of our greatest creators don’t feel like they have a home in the church and don’t feel like they can trust people in the church. That’s SOME OF OUR a huge problem because it’s not at all the reality of the Gospel. Christ was constantly going to G R E AT E S T the places where people have the greatest pain, C R E AT O R S have the greatest need for hope, for recovery, DON’T FEEL for a sense of joy amongst those deep pains. LIKE THEY Unfortunately, we as the church have walked away from a lot of that over time. The good H AV E A H O M E news though is we have a great opportunity to IN THE CHURCH take steps back into those communities with AND DON’T deep love and humility to say the language of FEEL LIKE THEY faith may need to change to be more close to CAN TRUST the language of authentic living. With Urban Avenues, we avoid a lot of the Christianese PEOPLE IN THE words but talk about dignity, trust, respect, CHURCH. and beauty. Those are all just as much at the heart of Christ as words like grace, justification, and sanctification, but they’re meaningful to people who have been hurt by the church. Now there’s a level of collective trust that can be formed around the city to create a safe space for creatives to have community and to understand faith in a different way. Buddy: Thank you for a brave statement, and I agree with you 100% with some sorrow. Thinking about creativity, the same injustice is also being committed to the very notion of creativity, about who is creative and who is not. In the nonprofit world where I work, we’re seeing a lot of friction since things change slowly, and they need to change. They’re not changing nearly fast enough as we see an increasing colorization of America, really more so than ever before, a true melting pot. Who owns creativity and who owns art? What do those words even mean? It’s a pretty fascinating time to be looking at this. John: If you open the conversation to creating really safe pathways, that’s a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish at Urban Avenues. As I said, we avoid Christian clichés with a lot of what we do in our events and what we do with our sector leads and what we do with our actual ventures. This is not because 17

we are avoiding the Gospel. We believe that the Gospel has the power of life that changes all of us. But we want to communicate that message and think about it in ways that are honest and authentic. I struggle with that because there is a lot of cultural baggage that comes with really profound language that is important to my life. But I know that for some people it alienates, so they might not even want to listen to what I have to say. You have to find new words to be equally persuasive. John: Words really matter. They connect concepts to the heart, and you’re right, they’ll also flip the switch off for some people when we go down a path that connects them to earlier negative experiences. The church has unfortunately done a bait-and-switch where it’ll start doing culturally inclusive, creative, and relevant work, and about halfway down the path the other agendas start popping up. Creatives have naturally developed antennae for when this happens. Many have a jaded sense that if the church says it’s taking any sincere approach to really embracing the creative community, then they need to be careful. They’re afraid the church will say what they want to hear for only so long, and then it’ll spin around to see how many people it can convert in the process. I don’t mean to be crass because I do think the Gospel is our life, and I would be lost if it weren’t for Christ’s rescue of me. But Jesus is incredibly authentic. He never minced words, just always walked down a path that he’d complete in the most difficult places and with the most broken people. We as a church have got to take that commitment seriously, and that’s where we’re going with the creative community conversation. 18

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’ HAM One thing that’s important to me as a pastor who works with art and creative people is for people in the church to actually be interested in those subject matters and the people who are creating. They’re not pawns in our game or a means towards an end—that person, that form of artwork, whether it’s food or film or the chef, is the end in and of itself. And our relationship with them or the topic on its own is OK. Would you say that that’s true? John: Absolutely. That relationship matters to me, and the person matters to me, and their story matters to me, and their sense of dignity and worth matters to me. That’s true love. If love is what’s driving the endeavor, then let’s find people with passion for art, who love food, love music, love medicine, business, all the other disciplines that are out there. You pursue them for who and what they are. Is there something that is burning on either of your hearts that you want to do that you haven’t done yet? Buddy: To a very large degree we have stripped imagination and creativity out of the public school classrooms. It breaks my heart, and there should be a joy to learning that I find is missing that has been driven back. It’s so complicated, but certainly public education is damaged. There is a lot of work that needs to be done and one piece is to bring excitement about the process of learning back into the classroom. The arts are an incredible thing we can still do without giving up reading and math. These subjects can become fully integrated when you know how to do it, and this is a strategy we can help build back into Birmingham city schools. What about you, John? What’s an unrealized project for Urban Avenues? John: Elaborating on Buddy’s point, we’re all artists. Realizing this is so freeing and so energizing. Similarly, all of us have an entrepreneurial spirit somewhere in us, and we find so often that people are frustrated and bogged down midstream or even early in their careers just doing something to make a living but can’t find a passion. So one of the core things that drives me is opening people’s ideas to entrepreneurship in all aspects of their lives. It can also be part of how we reinvest in our community midlife or at whatever age you are. You don’t have to wait until you get to some point and say, “Now I’m going to get to do what I really am passionate about doing.” Instead with this idea that we’re all creative, if we collectively partner together, all of us can activate that entrepreneurial spirit at our core and invest time each week in something that is changing our community and opening up creativity, education, and a sense of a broad economic worth. Thank you two so much. Buddy: Actually, what I want to know next is when are we going to meet again, and what are we going to do together? John: I think there are a lot of paths we can run down together. 19

BIRMINGHUMANS AMANDA AND BRITT THAMES OW N E R S : DAV E N P O RT ’S PI Z Z A PA L AC E

y grandparents started Davenport’s in 1964, and it was the second pizza place in the South really. So nobody really ate pizza back then. They lived right across the street in an apartment,

and they went around the neighborhood and tried to introduce people to this new idea of pizza. We haven’t changed a lot. People want to recognize the place as it has always been, so we make a point not to make a lot of changes. There are of course some things over time that need to be updated or changed, but as far as the menu, décor, and feel of the restaurant, we want to keep them exactly the same. Most of our customers want that. As far as creativity goes, we cut our pizzas in squares, which makes our pizzas different."

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BIRMINGHUMANS RAVEN DEWITT CHEF

want to spread my passion for cooking vegetable-based food to my fellow Birmingham residents. There is only one vegetarian restaurant here, which is pretty sad for a city of our size. It’s my dream to change that by opening

another vegetarian, or perhaps the very first vegan, café in Birmingham. I want to show Southerners that plant-based cooking isn’t this awful, boring, health food. I want to show people that it can be filling and heartwarming—not only good for your body, but for the entire planet as well. Based on the reactions that people have had to my food, I don’t think my mission should be too challenging."

BIRMINGHUMANS BLAKE BURRELL DESIGNER

think there are certain rules that we inherently understand in aesthetics. I’m trying to explore those, to dig into them. I like to see what’s possible within the confines of the rules because if you break the rules too hard, you just end up

making something that’s ugly. Visual aesthetic is something that adheres to our primal and natural understanding of balance and direction, so if we see something that’s bigger on top than it is on the bottom, it doesn’t feel like it should stand up. There’s a part of us that’s intrigued by that, and there’s value there. But in general we just inherently don’t like it. I’m tapping into the primal things that we all like."

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PHOTOGRAPH BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

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HEART FOR THE

’ HAM

BIRMINGHUMANS DAVID DIONNE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF RED MOUNTAIN PARK

any Birmingham stories have their roots in the soil of Red Mountain: industry, the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War, the iron and steel for America’s industrial ex-

pansion in the 1880s, the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the material that supplied and made the arsenal of democracy during World War II."

PHOTOGRAPH BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

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PHOTOGRAPH BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

HEART FOR THE

’ HAM

BIRMINGHUMANS JULIE MAESEELE TEXTILE DESIGNER

’m a mom of two, born and raised in Belgium. After I graduated as a textile designer, I made modern rugs and shoes, among other things, and I worked with Muslim women for a nonprofit organization where we exchanged

cultural textile heritages. In the summer of 2014, I relocated with my family to the U.S. After finding peace in my new location, I finally started doing what I love the most: making clothes using upcycled fabrics and incorporating hand embroidery. To challenge myself I asked a local sock company in Fort Payne called Zkano to reuse their leftover knits. I love the quality of their socks made with organic cotton in bold colors and patterns. Although it’s a challenge to work with such material, I really enjoy creating my own fabric while repurposing these rejected socks."

P O E T RY

Collect for Carol, Gelatin-Silvered By Laura Lilly Cotten On the day we agreed to scrounge for a muse, I found parishioners posed for 50’s picnic pictures, a mother resting her hands on the shoulders of her small daughter, as one might tuck her hand into a convenient pocket. Her daughter stood smiling at the ground while adults laughed at the photographer’s long-lost joke. In this and others, Carol is named in ink. Here they are one, Carol’s head clean disappears in her mother’s apron, and I imagine the two becoming again one body, as their hands might have folding ingredients to prepare plates for picnickers. Perhaps before the ’51 picnic, she’d prayed for intercession—holy child, all purity— not to live but be lived in. What she might hold still is the smell of water wimpled under boxed gelatin like bones and glue. Powder gaining mass through dissolution. Perhaps she’d been responsible for carrying the aspic but let it slide off her lap, to be squished on the floor of their station wagon, wrecking the rector’s favorite dish, making a mess of her mother’s pride, and shattering her shot at sainthood. Maybe it was much later—her forties!—teaching Sunday school that Carol learned the truth about the saints. But Carol, the curate said, you are a saint. Realizing then she wasn’t disappearing but emerging feet first renamed for a moment before being tucked back among collected souls waiting to be reborn.

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“EMERGING” (2016) 8” X 10” ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT COURTESY OF JARED RAGL AND ARCHIVAL MATERIAL COURTESY OF THE BIRMINGHAM, AL A . PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES

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Creativity ISSUE

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FEATURES

C R E AT I O N BEYOND THE CHAOS By

Mark Gignilliat

eauty emerges from nature’s deepest design. Nobel Prize winning physicist, Frank Wilczek, makes this claim in his recent book A Beautiful Question. According to Wilczek, nature’s basic structure contains a symmetry and complementarity requiring beauty as a description. If there is a Creator, then Wilczek suggests we should think of him primarily as an artist. For all of the leftbrain activity necessary for a physicist’s work, there is an aesthetic dimension to the project as well. Math and art range into each other’s territory at the subatomic level. These insights

PA I N T I N G C O U RT E SY O F N A O M I G I G N I L L I AT

OUR DESIRE FOR BEAUTY REFLECTS OUR HUNGER FOR THE T R A N S C E N D E N T, E V E N W H E N WE ARE UNABLE TO PINPOINT AND IDENTIFY THIS DESIRE. go as far back as Pythagoras. They go as far back as “let there be light.” When God creates, he measures; he paints; he sculpts. Two questions worth exploring emerge from Wilczek’s description of our Creator God. One, if we are to think of our Creator as an artist, what are we to make of human creativity in relation to the unique character of God’s creating activity? Two, if the world is God’s canvas and nature’s deep design is beautiful, then how should we understand the elements of our world best described as ugly or chaotic? Though both of these questions are worthy of deep exploration, I would like to scratch the surface with the following thoughts. The act of true creation belongs to God alone. The Bible does not equivocate on this claim. Only God creates. How then should we understand human creativity in relation to God’s creative action? I think J. R. R. Tolkien rightly identified his own literary achievements as acts of sub-creation. He understood that creation—creating out of nothing—is limited to the agency and activity of God. Human creaturely activity in the production of beautiful things remains an act of sub-creation.

These creative efforts reflect the glory of our Creator because acts of human production, beautiful and momentous as they are, build with the good gifts of an already created and material world: clay, paint, words, syntax, notes, sound, dance, bodies. God creates. We sub-create. Tolkien’s ordering of divine creation and human sub-creation has biblical warrant, especially in the Hebrew terminology of the Old Testament. Translating words from an original language to a target language is tricky business. Where one language system may have two words for a concept, another language might have six. For example, the English word “create” is used with both human and divine subjects. However, the Hebrew word for create— barah—has only one grammatical subject—namely, God. Humans can form and fashion and build, all terms with meanings akin to create. God can do these things too. Only God, however, can barah: “In the beginning, God created (barah) the heavens and the earth.” Human creativity remains, therefore, a derivative activity, leaning on and flowing from the materiality of the world God

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created. Thus, within a Christian frame of reference, the arts are freighted with metaphysical significance. “Beauty,” David Bentley Hart insists, “is also the startling reminder, even for a person sunk in the superstitions of materialism, that those who see reality in purely mechanistic terms do not see the real world at all, but only a shadow.” Our desire for beauty reflects our hunger for the transcendent, even when we are unable to pinpoint and identify this desire. Even Arthur Schopenhauer, doleful as he was, recognized the aesthetic reach of music as that one location where the suffering of our existence transcends itself. Every encounter with beauty taps into our deepest longings for more, a kind of transcendent whisper: Psst, hey you! Yet despite the transcendent itch the arts may encourage, a nagging question remains about the kind of world God’s canvas is in our current moment. This nagging question takes us to the second question raised in our introductory comments. On first hearing, Wilczek’s claim about the inherent beauty of our material world might sound Pollyannaish. I assure you it is not. Nevertheless, we do well to remember the elements of our world best described as ugly or chaotic. Wilczek ob-

serves and writes about subatomic reality. We reside in the world where atoms collide into each other, often with violent and damaging effects. Even here, art has something to teach and evoke. Negative space and shadow complement form and light. The former are required to fully appreciate the latter. We might, therefore, think of these unsettling aspects of the arts as directing us towards a future beyond the chaos. Whether it is Monet’s idyllic lily pads, the harmonic tensions of Bach, or Mumford and Son’s pounding banjo, the arts elicit a yearning for more. Human acts of creativity press on us. They refuse neutrality. They freight our world with a metaphysical presence, calling on us to enter into the brokenness of our world in the hopes of a final beauty only God can create. Our world is God’s canvas, yet the broken elements of our world leave us yearning for him to paint again, for him to make all things new. All of our sub-creative activity lends itself to this future glance. In time, the beauty of nature’s deep design will be the beauty of its surface reality as well. In the meantime, however, the arts tap into our deepest desires for more, thrusting us forward toward our Creator God, maker of heaven and earth.

Mark Gignilliat teaches at Beeson Divinity School and serves his local parish, the Cathedral Church of the Advent. He is married to Naomi, has four children, and talks about fly-fishing with little evidence to show for it.

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PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF WAYNE STADLER AND BURNING MAN (“LOVE” SCULPTURE BY ALEXANDR MILOV)

FREEDOM TO FAIL By

Sam Bush

or a few years, my church in Charlottesville has been hosting an event called The Makers Series. We take thirty small cafĂŠ tables out of storage, top them with nice tablecloths and candles, set up every lamp we can find, and turn our fellowship hall into a jazz club. We set up a small stage where three local artists come up one at a time to briefly present their work. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had songwriters, filmmakers, painters, quilters, furniture builders, web designers, dancers, performance artists, and improv actors, each inviting us into their creative process. After the presentations, we open the floor for discussion with the audience. Hopefully, we help people feel inspired to dance more freely, to take acting classes, to sing a little louder, even to fail. The Makers event is designed to connect everyday people with art, in large part by allowing the artists to talk about

THESE MOMENTS OF FAILURE OR DISAPPOINTMENT ARE THE G ATEWAYS TO UNINHIBITED FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.

their processes in honest and vulnerable ways. An artist’s process is usually hidden from the world. Any time the general public encounters a work of art—be it a song on the radio, a book on the New York Times Book Review, or a painting in a museum—it is a finished product. There’s usually no hint of elbow grease, no indication of how many times the artist had to start over, no record of how often she lamented going to film school instead of law school. However, these struggles are a more accurate depiction of the creative process than the cinematic idea of someone waiting on a stroke of divine inspiration. Some of our presenters have been high profile, accomplished artists, yet even they have openly shared about the times their dreams were shattered or when the achievement of their dreams wasn’t nearly as glamorous as imagined. A co-producer of the blockbuster film Life of Pi once admitted to us that most of her fourteen-hour workdays were spent in an indoor pool in front of a green screen. Often, however, these moments of failure or disappointment are the gateways to uninhibited freedom of expression. The failure somehow leads to freedom and can even be a precursor to tremendous success and critical acclaim. Any time a person encounters failure they have experienced a kind of death. Yet Christianity tells us that from death comes life, the kind of life that is no longer afraid of dying. The key lesson, of course, is learning how to die, which involves practicing the art of surrender and vulnerability.

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One of my favorite presenters last year was Joel Jones, an improv actor and founder of the Big Blue Door storytelling series. According to Joel, the number one rule of good storytelling is never present yourself as the hero of your own story. Unfortunately, this principle goes against every single person’s instincts. By nature all of us feel an intense need to justify our own existence, and we are compelled to tell impressive tales that highlight our own mastery, whether we’re catching the biggest fish, landing the cleverest punch line, or traveling to the most exotic places. Yet according to Joel, the key to telling a story that reaches the beating heart of a real person is vulnerability. What irony! The thing that gives alluring power to a story is the very thing we are most afraid to admit about ourselves. Here lies the pastoral purpose of The Makers Series: By creating a safe place where we can be honest with ourselves and with each other, we can begin to feel less afraid to embrace the freedom God gives us to fail. God refuses to flinch in the face of human failing. As Paul explains in Romans 5:8, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” It is a direct message, a straight shot to the heart of human pride and the cornerstone for understanding the true meaning of grace. With each Makers Series, we hope to convey the message that art is not the special property of an elite group of professionals. By the grace of God, all of us are free to create and free to fail. Whatever song we choose to sing, it is a response to God’s love, not an audition to earn it. After all, if anything has the power to warm up one’s vocal chords, it’s the story of God’s grace for sinners.

Sam Bush is the Music Minister at Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, VA, where he is an avid amateur birdwatcher. He and his wife, Maddy, got to see a blue grosbeak and an indigo bunting on the same day a few weeks ago, and it might have been the best day since his wedding.

CONSUMING C R E AT I V I T Y: A THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION By

Brandon Bennett

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"FEARSOME TO BEHOLD” ( C H A R C O A L O N PA PE R , 2 0 1 1 ) C O U RT E SY O F E M I LY R I C E

merica is abuzz with creativity. Visit any bookstore, browse a podcasts app, search YouTube for “creativity,” and you will soon encounter a plethora of options on unleashing your creative potential. To see this democratized creativity in action, simply enter a local artisanal coffee shop, order pour-over Ethiopian coffee and a from-scratch doughnut, then delicately snap the perfect Instagram. At least, that’s what I do, and if my general observations are correct, many Americans are following a similar pattern. The point is that nowadays everyone can be and is a “creative,” a word almost certainly imbued with spirituality. Joshua Rothman observes in The New Yorker, “Every culture elects some central virtues, and creativity is one of ours . . . Few qualities are more sought after, few skills more envied. Everyone wants to be more creative—how else, we think, can we become fully realized people?”1 Yet why the proliferation of this particular quality, and might Christian theology have anything to add to the creativity conversation?

T HE U P T ICK I N CR E AT I VI T Y FI R ST. Christianity’s doctrine of the eschaton, which

states that God has appointed a particular resolution for all creation, had until recently influenced much of Western thought, even when it was severed from the remainder of the Christian narrative and merely served as a borrowed concept. Just consider the Progressive Era under President Theodore Roosevelt, a time marked by social activism and reform because Americans dreamed of some better world. That is, their story was going somewhere. However, personal conversations, social media posts, and academic discourse demonstrate that few in society still hold this hopeful outlook. Whereas the modern world—that period beginning with the Renaissance and lasting sometime into the 1900s—spoke much of “progress” and posed a possible future, the postmodern lament is that we have no future and, just so, are going nowhere. In postmodernity, the world lacks a structured togetherness—a shared, plotted narrative that has an endpoint in sight; hence the increasingly felt, nihilistic angst. A variety of discussion topics provide some evidence: “At such and such a time, the sun will burn out, and humanity as we now know it will become extinct;” or, for another example, the fear of the dystopia awaiting us humans grows in proportion to technology companies’ investment in artificial intelligence (A.I.).2 Or take the song “Hero” in which Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger expresses the same feeling this way: “Someone told me that love would all save us. But how can that be? Look what love gave us: a world full of killing and blood spilling. That world never came.” Like much contemporary religious discourse in the West, the predominant characteristic is sheer hopelessness. Shared visions of prosperity, like the classic American Dream, no longer have the staying power they once held for many, for, quite simply, the postmodern self is a storyless self with

1 Joshua Rothman, “Creativity Creep,” The New Yorker, September 2, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/books/ joshua-rothman/creativity-creep. 2 See Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). 43

virtually no tomorrow in sight. So in a world that has no overarching story, the individual is now forced to reinvest the world with meaning in some way, and it is here that consumerism presents creativity as a viable option for the postmodern.

AN ALREADY STANDARD OBSERVAT ION, CONSUMERISM has for some time

pervaded American society, which is characterized not so much by gathering and hoarding goods but more with the endless pursuit of them, casting them aside nearly as soon as they are picked up.3 Because Americans tend to be fascinated with the new, the individual is seemingly always pursuing the next best thing. To use my own love affair with technology as an illustration, as soon as one product is released, I eagerly await its next iteration. Therefore, in our rush to buy the new, what better for us to purchase than the ability to craft more of it? Again, Rothman is perceptive: We live in a consumer society premised on the idea of self-expression through novelty. We believe that we can find ourselves through the acquisition of new things. Perhaps inevitably, we have reconceived creativity as a kind of meta-consumption: a method of working your way toward the other side of the consumer-producer equation, of swimming, salmon-like, back to the origin of the workflow. Thus the rush, in my pile of creativity books, to reconceive every kind of life style as essentially creative—to argue that you can ‘unleash your creativity’ as an investor, a writer, a chemist, a teacher, an athlete, or a coach.4

A N D HE IS N OT A LONE I N T H I S OPI NIO N . William Deresiewicz writes in The At-

lantic, “What we’re now persuaded to consume, most conspicuously, are the means to create.”5 In other words, we have added just another commodity to the list of goods to be bought and sold, and our continual pursuit of goods has led us to the making of even more. Unmoored from a concluding narrative, the contemporary self with its formless identity is shackled in perpetual flight, and this consumption of creativity helps partially fill the void that remains in our near-purposeless world. To be sure, there is much to be celebrated about the spirit behind creativity. It surely is a corrective to the myriad problems of consumerism. In an economy that has given us stereotypical ills like nutrition-less, mass-produced food or human labor that is now a mere cog in the machine of production, this creativity conversation does indeed promote transcendence, purpose, and depth within a system gone awry, however beneficial that same system may also be. And almost in contradiction to the hopelessness of our day, creatives are those who dare to dream of a renewed world—what could be. Still, it would be naïve to assume that the creativity obsession 3 On this distinction, see William Cavanaugh, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), 47.

4 Rothman, “Creativity Creep.” 5 William Deresiewicz, “The Death of the Artist and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur,” The Atlantic, January/February 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497/. 44

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LIKE MUCH CONTEMPOR ARY RELIGIOUS DISCOURSE IN T H E W E S T, T H E PREDOMINANT CHAR ACTERISTIC IS SHEER HOPELESSNESS.

is not simultaneously driven by a consumerist, and thus religious, impulse.

N OW F O R T H E CO N C LU D I N G theological re-

marks. One of Augustine of Hippo’s contributions to Christian theology is his observation that the human being is a desiring subject, one who must direct its love toward something. Because created things are not ultimate, they are to be used, but only God is to be enjoyed for his own sake.6 Since the Triune God alone is the Supreme Good, it is fitting that desire must ultimately be aimed towards him; in short, desire should find its telos, its end, in God. But in our case, if the 21st century Western world lacks a story, thereby no longer envisioning a future, then the current American outlook has no room for a telos beyond the present. And if there is no telos outside today, if the human is going nowhere, where will desire be directed? For in a consumerist society with no end in sight, an individual’s endless desire coincides with limitless need of goods.7 As theologian William Cavanaugh writes, “The consumerist spirit is a restless spirit, typified by detachment, because desire must be constantly kept on the move.”8 Always craving more and then discarding, the contemporary American self can neither see past today nor truly rest. Just so, consumerism is a potent force to be reckoned with.

MIG H T I T B E PR ECI SE LY at this juncture that the Church stages a radical message in our

day? Amid our world fraught with meaninglessness, God’s love in Jesus Christ strikes a surprising chord of hope, for in the death and resurrection of Jesus, Jesus’ Father reveals himself as the Storyteller who narrates a plot line that is indeed going somewhere. Because Jesus, though once dead, now lives, his love reaches beyond even death itself, and he announces that he is liberating us futureless postmoderns to a real future of justice, love, and beauty in all its rich and varied expressions. In the Gospel, the Father offers his creatures the radiant love that he has always had for the Son, and their Spirit lets us in on their future—the love that the Father and Son have for one another. Because this Triune God affirms his creation and is “making all things new” (Rev. 21:5), even we restless consumerists can find our particular destiny in God’s own abundant self-giving. As this narrative opens to the goal where every culture finds its home, God himself gives us a telos: their community of love that truly satiates all our desires. And if that is the promised fulfillment of all our human stories, why would we not dream big, imagine, devise new ideas, and, yes, also create?

Brandon Bennett serves as Young Adult and College Minister 6 Augustine, On Christian Teaching, Book I. 7 Cavanaugh, xii. 8 Cavanaugh, 47.

at the Advent where he endlessly consumes pour-over coffee. He is a wannabe techie, an enthusiast of all things England, a lover of mayonnaise, and an unashamed fan of Taylor Swift.

Bryan Helm holds an architectural degree from Rice University and an MBA from the University of Virginia. Following twenty years in the energy industry, he came to work for Paul Zahl, former dean of the Advent, as Administrator in 1998. Bryan began attending the church in the late 1970s after friends forced him to the Advent’s Lenten Preaching Series—it’s still his favorite time of year.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY VIRGINIA JONES

BROUGHT TO COMPLETION By

Bryan Helm

ased on a literal translation of the Latin root words, sanctification refers to the process of becoming more holy or righteous. We can think about it as growing or maturing in faith. Another take on this is to think in terms of obedience to God’s will. Yet another is to see sanctification as “the process of God’s work within us by means of which we grow into the fullness of the redeemed life.”1 A communion prayer in The Book of Common Prayer asks, “Unite us to your Son in His sacrifice, that we may be acceptable through Him, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” This last way of seeing is especially helpful because it emphasizes the priority of God’s work in the process of sanctification. Early in my faith, I understood this. I knew that it is God who keeps us blameless and who guides the process of our becoming more holy. I wouldn’t try to take credit for this understanding. Most likely, it was simply due to my naiveté and simplicity at that point. But I was happy and confident that God would guide me in the growth and maturity of my faith and that he would do so at his own pace and timing. I was both confident and patient. But somewhere along the way, I began to lose sight of this understanding. I still grew in my appreciation of the work of Christ as the only thing that justifies us, that allows us to stand before God. However, on a practical day-to-

day level, I began to worry that I wasn’t doing the right things, thinking the right things, or feeling the right things. In short, I worried that I wasn’t showing any improvement. There were always so many things that didn’t seem good enough: Did I get enough work done today? Did I say the right thing? Do I care enough about the earthquake victims in Katmandu? Should I send a check? And I just didn’t seem to be getting any better. Dwelling on these thoughts quickly led to impatience, confusion, and despair. Thankfully, I’ve recently returned to my earlier understanding that sanctification is God’s work and he proceeds with each of us at his own pace and timing. As Paul explains, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”2 God has called each of us according to his purpose, and he has promised to bring to completion what he has started. What Jesus accomplished on the Cross will be worked out in each of us. Be grateful. Be patient. Be confident.

1 An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-friendly Reference for Episcopalians, Robert Boak Slocum and Don Armentrout, editors; Church Publishing (2000). 2 Phil. 1:6 (ESV) 47

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Interest in the relationship between art and Christianity has grown in recent memory. There are many leaders, artists, pastors, theologians, and authors in the church who’ve explored artistic topics or put it into practice in their local context. After engaging with Christianity and the arts for about a decade now, I’ve found no better living person on the topic than Dan Siedell. He wears many hats as an art historian, critic, curator, professor, and theologian. His most recent book is Who’s Afraid of Modern Art?: Essays on Modern Art and Theology in Conversation. I would say that if you’re going read one book on the topic of art and Christianity, this should be it. So since we are exploring the topic of creativity from a theological perspective in this issue, Dan was the person I wanted to talk to most. We met for this interview in Downtown

Manhattan while he was spending time teaching a course at The King’s College, where he is Presidential Scholar of Art History and Criticism. Otherwise, Dan lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he is Visiting Professor of Christianity and Culture at Knox Theological Seminary. I want to talk to you about creativity since it seems to be a buzzword both inside and outside the church right now. What do you think about creativity? D: I think it can be an overused word outside the church, and probably an underused word inside the church. Creativity outside the church is kind of a code for freedom of expression, thinking outside of the box. Meanwhile, there’s a sense that the church tries to steer clear of creativity because it means change. As an art historian, I’m personally interested in modern artists and how they think about what it means to create something. They don’t talk about creativity. They talk about making a painting. They talk about how they organize their life around making something that is creative, but their work manifests other kinds of characteristics like risk, the threat of failure, the reality that creative endeavors will be

M AT T S C H N E I D E R

S T I TC H I N G O N T H E U N D E R S I D E O F T H E C A R P E T: DA N S I E D E L L O N B E AU T Y A N D C R E AT I V I T Y

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misunderstood, overlooked, marginalized, and the difficulty of living a life that is creative in the context of a world or social structures that are not creative—that are streamlined, that are looking at the bottom line. So in the popular way of thinking about creativity, those are utilitarian tools that help you do what social structures want you to do, to maximize profit and efficiency. But the creative lives lived by painters, sculptors, musicians, and chefs are different. Their creativity actually goes against these expectations. In Christian settings right now, when it comes to creativity, there is a lot of talk about “the good, the true, and the beautiful.” It’s as though most Christians want to focus on beauty alone, which seems reductive in a chaotic world. Can you speak to this? D: When people talk about beauty, they often just mean whatever is familiar and comfortable. That’s not beauty. Thinking about beauty means thinking about where it comes unexpectedly. It’s beauty as darkness. It’s the surprise of seeing. Think about hearing beautiful music that emerges out of the drone of noise. We are surprised. There’s no consistent universal category like the medieval notion of beauty with balance. It’s simply just trying to figure out how we account for the fact that this person, painting, or experience is beautiful. You can’t, but you’re trying to figure out how to understand it. You can say a beautiful person has certain qualities, but then you could look at another person and think, “Oh! Wow! That person is beautiful, but they don’t have those qualities. They have this other thing. Well, let’s add that.” There’s always something that defies. We don’t think Tom Waits or Johnny Cash songs should be beautiful, but they are. It’s just not conventional beauty.

It seems like the insular church conversation about the good, the true, and the beautiful might overlook that there’s beauty even in the cross— the unexpected, paradoxical place. D: Yeah, that’s the place where the Roman centurion says, “Surely this is the Son of God.” And the evidence is the resurrection. I had an artist friend tell me that a seminary commissioned him to paint a picture of the resurrection. What’s interesting is there’s a whole tradition in history of painting the resurrection, but if you actually look at the biblical account, Jesus is a gardener. He doesn’t appear in the kind of the splendor that we often see. You don’t even recognize him. The ladies only recognize him when he speaks to them. He’s communicated from person to person. That’s beauty, but it’s a very different kind of experience. So let’s ask the painter to paint the resurrection in this way. There’s a discomfort here, and of course the seminary’s not going to want a painting like this. But they should want a painting of him as an ordinary gardener. D: They should, but institutions naturally operate under these kinds of ideas about goodness, truth, and beauty. I’ve actually begun thinking about beauty as something that is eschatological—promised beauty to come. In the church, people talk about beauty with a capital B, but maybe the way to think about it is the beauties with a small b. The beauty of a well-prepared meal, a really wonderful glass of beer, or a painting that you see that gives a kind of a glimmer of fulfillment. It’s a little bit of a foretaste. I think that kind of humility is important, but from the beginning it requires us to abandon the abstractions like creativity and beauty. Let’s just look at this glass of beer, this glass of wine, this meal, that painting, and tie it up with the

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ILLUSTR ATION COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE W YATT

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traditions of those specific practices. Once you learn about how creativity is manifested in those particular practices, it unlocks a standard medium of incredible potential that is lost when you just talk about creativity with broad strokes. But what happens when you actually have a chef talk about creativity from his or her perspective of making decisions about what to do? Or a painter talks about the kind of decisions he or she is making on that canvas and how to continue to live life thinking along those lines? Let’s talk about curating. What do you see is your role as a curator? D: There’s a theological resonance in the sense that what I do is give a work of art a future. I give it space to breathe. I give it the potential to find its audience, and that can take place with a painting by Cézanne in the Museum of Modern Art that was painted in 1885. I remind my students all the time that of all the pairs of eyes that have been addressed by that painting since 1885, in that particular moment they stand before it, theirs are the only eyes that matter. That painting is addressing them. Yes, it’s a piece of art history and education, but it’s actually doing something too. It’s addressing them as human beings at that moment. Your role as a curator is to remind them of that present address? D: To reveal that. Or if I’m working with a contemporary artist who is making work, I am wagering that the work has a future. I give the artist opportunities to present work in a context where they might not normally be able. I give them space to be able to push some boundaries or to do work that they wouldn’t normally do. There are many utilitarian aspects of a museum with the headphones, people going for education, culture, or sightseeing. All of those things are fine, but when you get right down to

it, what those works W H AT W O U L D of art are there for A C T U A L LY H A P P E N is to address singular individuals. IF PASTORS So the work I do as PREACHED NOT a curator is to try to stress this point AS LIBRARIANS that it’s really about R E G U R G I TAT I N G you. You can say whatever you want C O M M E N TA R I E S , about Cézanne and B U T A S C R E AT I V E his influence in art history. You can PEOPLE? look at that artifact as an example of the birth of modern art, but Cézanne didn’t paint that painting for art historians. He painted that painting for a suffering, hurting, desiring, hoping, and loving human being that stands in front of it. My hope and desire is to take all of that learning and funnel it in such a way that it shines a spotlight on the relationship between the work of art and the person. There are all kinds of different ways that I try to do this with different artists. If it’s work that looks like art, I try to make it look less like art to make it strange so the person looking at it is looking at it again in a new way. They’re not putting aside all of their concerns and all of their emotions as a human being. They need to bring it all with them to that work. As a preacher, I resonate with what you are saying a lot. When I preach, I try not to think of the people in the pews as a group, but I want my sermons to address each individual in a way that they feel like I’m having a one-on-one conversation with them. D: I think there’s a tremendous connection with preaching. Art operates as a way to kind of keep us in the present. We live between our ears in the nostalgia of the past or the aspiration and

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fear of the future, so being present is difficult. That’s what social media shields us from—being present. But what a painting, stand-up comedy act, poem, or a piece of music wants to do is to be present—now, today, at this moment—to experience what is taking place. It’s these gifts in this moment. Even musician Jack White in an interview talks about his music as, in some sense, preaching. I’d say preaching in the sense that he’s opening an experience that this is a celebration of life, to say yes to life. What would actually happen if pastors preached not as librarians regurgitating commentaries, but as creative people? How would homiletics classes change if they were reading poets talking about how they make poems, how they think about the world, and how they are thinking about the poem while they are going to the market before picking up their kids from school? That aspect of preaching is important—that it’s not just a lecture but also that there’s something aesthetic to it.

and all you need is good exegesis that somehow flips a switch. Exposition of the Bible doesn’t work like that. How long does the church have to be wrong generation after generation for it to finally sink in that this is not working? There may be some presuppositions about exegesis that somehow culture is separate, but that’s certainly not the case. A person who sits in the pew more than likely has a particular relationship with a film that has offered them meaning, but they don’t know how to understand it in relationship to the Gospel. Or they feel guilty about it. They feel that God is not active and present there. Can you talk about where you see God’s activity in your world? D: If God is mysteriously and miraculously present in culture, then there’s going to be experiences in which the painting isn’t going to be preaching Jesus Christ, but it’s offering an experience that may trigger and grow something that’s already been planted. You can’t predict that. It rips open a certain sense of a transcendent and indescribable yes to life in which life is now seen not as condemnation or a trial but as a gift.

I had a conversation recently with a really well known and respected pastor. I talked to him about what I do both as a preacher and pastor in terms of artistic and cultural engagement, trying to reach people who are on the fringes, that my preaching has a fair amount of cultural artifacts in it. He told me I was wasting my time, that what I really needed to do is stick to exegesis and Bible study—that it takes too long to talk about culture and art to get people to the place of coming to faith, that I need to stick to the no-nonsense of expository sermons. What’s your response to that? D: That’s a shame because the Gospel’s not no-nonsense, and every person that sits in the pew has personal emotional relationships with cultural artifacts that form their life. You either take it as a point of departure, or you pretend it doesn’t exist, pretend that we’re blank slates

There’s a Leo Tolstoy short story called “Where Love Is, God Is.” It’s a title that resonates with what you just said—where love is, God is. Absolutely, God is active, present, and doing God-like, miraculous things in the mundane aspects of the world. If we take seriously in Colossians 1 that all things were created in and through Christ, what is not included in that phrase “all things”? Paintings, poems, pieces of music—all of those things—are included. God is no less present in the secular world than he is in church. People aren’t taking off their secular skins when they go to church. Luther often talked about Christ being preached by

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the lowing of the cows and that a leaf can bear witness to Christ. In the history of modern art there is a very strong religious character of people who cannot find belief in the God that is manifested in the church. If you’re in Paris in the middle of the 19th century, it might be hard to believe that God is in the Catholic Church with those clerics and that institutional structure. Instead they go to art, and they believe it offers something deeper, that there’s a deeper religion that offers salvation of some kind. The church has often seen this as idolatry and as a rival. For me, all it does is show the power and truth of art. It’s that altar to the unknown god, that sense that the word and sacrament ministry can name that god as Paul is naming the unknown god in his sermon on Mars Hill. But the yearning, the desire, the openness that’s been ripped open is already there through culture. I know from my own experience there have been times when I just can’t tolerate—you could say, I just don’t believe—the preacher. But I can believe a song. At that moment I believe God. I don’t exactly understand the experience. It seems to be the case that in certain moments a song is compelling in a way that it brings God to me, not in the sense of knowledge about God. But in the sense that I’m a creature, and every breath I take is a gift from him. It’s amazing, and I’m filled with such gratitude. That’s what I think the beauty of culture is in terms of providing moments when people can say life is hard, but I want to know where this meal came from. To have somebody talk about it who’s devoted their life to cooking, that’s wonderful, and it’s an affirmation of life. That’s the aspect of love that Tolstoy was talking about with “Where Love Is, God Is.” Then it seems to me that your role as a pastor and a Christian is to do what Paul did on Mars Hill and name it. What is that feeling? What is that longing? Not that you dismiss it or use it as a step that gets you to 54

discourse about intellectual saving knowledge. No, it’s even deeper than that, to say knowledge and exegesis comes out of love and a quest to say yes. Even the great modern theologians like Karl Barth were trying to account for this incredible experience. What would your advice to the church be with respect to all we’ve talked about in terms of creativity and art? D: I certainly don’t want to be in a position to prescribe that the arts make better churches. Thinking about culture in the way that maybe we’ve talked about isn’t necessarily an ingredient for well-balI FIND THE anced churches, but WHOLE ASPECT if there are church leaders who have O F S AY I N G those desires and C U LT U R E I S interests, and who have congregants I D O L AT R Y T O B E who have that desire, KIND OF A RED don’t steer them away from it. Go further HERRING. into art and culture rather than questioning whether they’re valuable or useful or not. I find the whole aspect of saying culture is idolatry to be kind of a red herring. For example, I was listening to an interview where Marc Maron interviewed John Lurie, a musician and an actor in Jim Jarmusch’s films. Lurie was in this really interesting band called The Lounge Lizards. He said he wanted to play the saxophone because he was trying to find God in the saxophone. That’s amazing! We need to dive deeper into that kind of thing. D: Deeper! Not reject it, but just go deeper. Unveil the mechanics. What we so often want to do is to step back and be systematic theologians, taking a kind of God’s eye view. Why not have

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{ their unrealized projects are. So what’s your unrealized project? D: My unrealized project is to find the voice that in speaking the same words cuts across the various bodies that I interact with inside the church and outside—to say one thing that touches those various audiences with a single approach to art, that does not necessitate me putting one hat on and taking one hat off to think about the audience. I think in some way this desire is what motivates me. Just having this conversation excites me with such potential. I feel this incredible basic experience when I talk about relationships that I have with works of art. It’s almost something deeper than the secular and the church. It’s a deeper unity of humanity. I’ve learned over the years to abandon the idea of speaking systematically and putting it all together. A German philosopher named J. G. Hamann said that we stitch on the underside of the carpet. We don’t see the beauty, how God is putting it all together. What we see are those little bits and pieces of yarn. We see the fragments, the empty spaces, and the fissures. I try to feel more comfortable in those fragments and not feel that everything has to be brought together. There is just this yearning on my part that there could be a voice that reveals a deeper fullness of humanity that’s not colloquial. To put it another way, a writer like Jack Kerouac said, I go into myself so deeply that I believe that by going into myself that there’s a connection. Then I speak to everybody.

someone come to church and talk about what it means to breed dogs or brew beer or make paintings or write poems? Have them talk about it in specificity and communicate their passion for it. I believe this type of thing could unlock people’s curiosity, creativity, and imagination to help them think about the specificity of the work they do. Ezra Pound said somewhere that you can learn about the history of music by studying just one single canto. You don’t need to know the arts and culture in general. Is there someone at your church that makes things? Whatever those things are, have them talk about it from that very specific, passionate, individual insider view. I’m confident that it will unlock and create connections for people. I’ve done that in a seminary class I teach on the arts. The pastors who are taking these classes, they’re not art people, but all of a sudden at some point during the class there are all of these interesting connections to their preaching. On the other hand, the tendency can be for artists to feel a pressure that nobody wants to hear about the specific mechanics of what they do. So they try to back-peddle and work in abstractions, which just funnels into the same thing we talked about earlier in terms of the good, the true, and the beautiful. Instead, get somebody to really unpack the mechanics and pragmatics of what they create. What does it mean? What’s involved in being a painter on a daily basis? How are you as a painter thinking about painting when you’re living your life? These endeavors have a perception of being luxury items that are not useful. But those for me are the practices where the truth is. It’s the stuff that you think you can do without, the so-called entertainment, leisure-time stuff that doesn’t seem to fit in the work-a-day utilitarian world.

My favorite line of that Kerouac piece is where basically he was saying what you said—go deep, blow deep inside of yourself so that the reader can’t help but feel a sense of “telepathic shock and meaning excitement.” So your unrealized project, therefore, is telepathic shock—to excite meaning in your audience. D: I like that!

Last question, and I’m stealing this from a curator you introduced me to—Hans Ulrich Obrist. He asks people he interviews what 55

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JACK KEROUAC PORTRAIT COURTESY OF SARAH SOULE WEBB

In the 1950s Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs asked fellow Beat author Jack Kerouac to explain how he wrote The Subterraneans in three days. The following are verbatim excerpts from his brief response, which originally appeared in The Black Mountain Review (1957, vol.7).

Not “selectivity” of expression but following free deviation (association) of mind into limitless blow-on-subject seas of thought, swimming in sea of English with no discipline other than rhythms of rhetorical exhalation and expostulated statement, like a fist coming down on a table with each complete utterance, bang! (the space dash)—Blow as deep as you want—write as deeply, fish as far down as you want, satisfy yourself first, then reader cannot fail to receive telepathic shock and meaning-excitement by same laws operating in his own human mind. … SCOPING

The object is set before the mind, either in reality, as in sketching (before a landscape or teacup or old face) or is set in the memory wherein it becomes the sketching from memory of a definite image-object. SET-UP

Begin not from preconceived idea of what to say about image but from jewel center of interest in subject of image at moment of writing, and write outwards swimming in sea of language to peripheral release and exhaustion—Do not afterthink except for poetic or P. S. reasons. Never afterthink to “improve” or defray impressions, as, the best writing is always the most painful personal wrung-out tossed from cradle warm protective mind-tap from yourself the song of yourself, blow!—now!—your way is your only way—“good”—or “bad”—always honest (“ludi crous”), spontaneous, “confessionals’ interesting, because not “crafted.” Craft is craft. … CENTER OF INTEREST

Time being of the essence in the purity of speech, sketching language is undisturbed flow from the mind of personal secret idea-words, blowing (as per jazz musician) on subject of image. PROCEDURE

No periods separating sentence-structures already arbitrarily riddled by false colons and timid usually needless commas—but the vigorous space dash separating rhetorical breathing (as jazz musician drawing breath between outblown phrases)—“measured pauses which are the essentials of our speech”—“divisions of the sounds we hear”— “time and how to note it down.” (William Carlos Williams) METHOD

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was an American novelist, poet, iconoclast, and the voice of the Beat Generation. His spontaneous method of writing was heavily influenced by jazz, especially bebop.

JACK KEROUAC

ESSENTIALS OF S P O N TA N E O U S P RO S E

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“ S T. A G N E S W I T H L A M B ” ( 2 0 1 6 ) 8 ” X 1 0 ” ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT COURTESY OF JARED RAGL AND

P O E T RY

Carol Has Doubts Over Tomato Aspic By Laura Lilly Cotten Each April for the Advent picnic, Carol’s mother made tomato aspic, a dish that tasted like its name, the rector’s favorite. Carol was still too small to have to help but tithed her time, head bowed slicing pimentos and sprinkling Knox gelatin on cold —Never warm!— water. Her mother eschewed the recipe in A Feast of Good Things, citing instead Mrs. Roy M. Lilly’s, which called for chopped celery stalks not seeds and olives over beef extract. We have roots, she told Carol sluicing sauce the colors of her hometown dirt, clay and pollen, into the Bundt pan that made a molded ring. But Carol felt rootless. Not like South Georgia oaks, sunk in sooty soil secure to twist and writhe assured . . . Of what? While waiting for the consommé to chill, Carol consulted her Little Book of Saints. What, she wondered, caused some to sing, others to lack sight? She stared at St. Agnes, smiling from the love in her soul and bold to death, the one who said, I can’t recant my love for Christ, and suffered death to patron-saint both gardeners and girls. Hers, Carol thought, her patron saint, and prayed to be like her, suspended between worlds, an olive in red jelly, a witness witnessed both by angels and by men. In later years she’d learn to wait, heeding Mrs. Lilly’s last advice: Takes a while to congeal.

Laura Lilly Cotten is a teacher who grew up in South Georgia. Her grandmother’s recipe for tomato aspic can be found on p. 115 of Pines and Plantations: Native Recipes of Thomasville, Georgia. By the time you’re reading this, Laura and her husband, Graham, will be adjusting to life in Michigan and missing the Advent.

J D E I D E H . A N E L D E R LY WOMAN COVERING HER HEAD IN CHURCH WITH A WHITE MANTILLA B E L O W A N I C O N O F S T. CHARBEL , LEBANONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FIRST AND MOST V E N E R A T E D S A I N T.

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PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF FADI BOUKAR AM

P H OTO E S S AY: CHURCH E X AG G E R AT E D I N MOUNT LEBANON BY

FADI BOUKARAM

n Lebanon, identifying as Christian is seldom a religious statement. It is more often political. By the end of the fifteen-year civil war in 1990, Christianityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the three largest denominations being Maronite Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy, and Greek Catholicismâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;lost its majority status after a large number of its constituents emigrated to Europe, Australia, and North America. Now a minority group, even if a substantial one, Lebanese Christians increasingly resort to exaggerated signs of religiosity to signal their presence and mark their territory. They wear bigger Crucifixes, commission larger statues, and more frequently celebrate Masses and vigils outside.

Born and raised in Beirut, Fadi BouKaram had an idyllic, bomb-sheltered childhood. He was a very serious student and eventually received graduate degrees in engineering and business to prove it. Then teenage rebellion finally struck in his thirties. He decided to give it all up so he could focus on telling stories through photography.

( A B O V E ) Z E K R I T. A L ARGE CRUCIFIX FOR SALE. THE CAR TOO. (RIGHT) BIKFAYA . A GIRL PL AYING SOCCER ON HER F I R S T C O M M U N I O N D A Y.

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BRUMANA. A GREEK CATHOLIC BEDOUIN ATTENDING CHRISTMAS MIDNIGHT MASS.

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(LEFT) OUR L ADY OF LEBANON, HARISSA . WORSHIPPERS CONGREGATE BEFORE THE EVENING V I G I L O N T H E L A S T D A Y O F M A Y, T H E M A R I A N MONTH, AT OUR L ADY OF LEBANON SHRINE (TOP) SABTIEH. WITH THE INFLUX OF SYRIAN REFUGEES, MOST OF WHOM ARE MUSLIM, RESIDENTS IN THE ASSYRIAN QUARTER IN A SUBURB NORTHEAST OF BEIRUT HUNG A CRUCIFIX ON THE P O W E R L I N E S T O M A R K T H E I R T E R R I T O R Y. (ABOVE) OUR L ADY OF LEBANON, HARISSA . THE SMALL CHURCH BELOW OUR L ADY OF LEBANON B A SI L I C A G E T S M O R E V I SI T O R S T H A N I T S C A PA C I T Y. T W O T V S C R E E N S W E R E I N S T A L L E D O U T S I D E ITS DOORS FOR PEOPLE TO FOLLOW THE MASS INSIDE. A PRIEST IS ALWAYS PRESENT FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO CONFESS.

LITURGY + MUSIC

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Our cover artist for this issue is Stephen Watson, who is an assistant professor of visual arts at Samford University. He is also an active artist who works almost exclusively with spices to create installations. After we asked Stephen to create an original design for the magazine cover, he took inspiration from a stained-glass window in Meyer Chapel at the Advent, which is fitting since an important element of his art is an interplay with the church, specifically worship.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

MATT SCHNEIDER

Featured Artist: Spice Artist Stephen Watson on Making Worship Strange

Stephen, tell us about your spice art. S: Spices came to me about three years ago when I was doing a series of works for a church in Tuscaloosa working with the pastor’s sermon series. I got inspiration each week from the passage and thought about how I might manifest that theology materially. I brainstormed each one with the pastor because I wanted to make sure what I was doing was liturgically aligned with what would happen in the sermon. I would create something in the lobby of the church, and it would be on display on Sunday. Then it was torn down right after the service, so they were site-specific, day-specific, and service-specific temporary artworks. Can you describe for us an example from one of these Sundays? S: Well the spice art, which you already asked about, was one of the very last installations I made for a sermon. The passage was from 2 Corinthians 2:14 about going forth as a triumphal procession, spreading everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. I pondered how I might manifest that verse materially, and I couldn’t get past the idea of Christians being the aroma of Christ. I thought about using incense and other similar things. Then I arrived at thinking about ways of using powdered spice. The artwork ended up being on the steps outside the church in a checkered pattern. I installed it after the service began when everyone was inside the building. I was outside throwing cinnamon, mint, and myrrh on the steps very quickly. At the conclusion of the service, the congregation was invited to use that exit and walk on those steps as they were leaving. I had a little sign right by the exit that said, “You are invited to walk upon the spices decorating these steps. May they symbolically anoint your feet, and 68

through you may the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of Christ spread everywhere as you leave this place.” What was your liturgical intention for the series, specifically the spice installation? S: If I could interrupt people bodily, I might be able to reach them mentally or emotionally. So by creating a physical impediment in someone’s path, it becomes very hard to think about the everyday things that usually occupy our minds.

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When you are walking on cinnamon, mint, and myrrh, it is such a weird thing to do that your brain gets interrupted. I believe church should be strange enough that it elevates the congregants to a higher level of thinking and feeling. That power is accessed a lot of times through the body, and I think that’s the point of liturgy, that we might be bodily engaged as a way of getting into our minds and hearts.

pieces. For the magazine cover, that one is made up of about 180 individual pieces. On each one I dispense layers of spice, and then I arrange the pieces into one single artwork. I use Plexiglas because it doesn’t permeate, so the spice doesn’t soak in and warp the material. It also protects the floors, and it keeps the process adaptable. I can change my mind about a design and move things around instead of just putting it directly on the floor. I choose spices based on color, aroma, and texture. They have to be able to come out of the container in an even way to create a nice surface. There’s an element of ephemerality because the installations are not permanent. The spices aren’t glued down or preserved in anyway. They’re built on site and destroyed after the show. It always has a bit of tragedy. The works have also become the way I explore concepts. It’s a highly adaptable medium. The magazine cover is Birmingham-specific, and the factory motif is from one of the stainedglass windows at the Cathedral Church of the Advent. I just did a show up in Washington that was about art and math. I had a show with Ravi Zacharias about art and lament. I have a show this fall about art and entrepreneurship.

Have you worshiped in an Episcopal church? We kneel all the time, and we stand a bunch. S: No, I haven’t, sorry. Maybe I’m in the wrong tradition. But that’s the point, right? That’s why we call people to do things that are out of the ordinary. Otherwise, we’re just sitting in the pew, and the sermon is happening, and the worship is happening, but we’re really just thinking about the same old things we normally think about. So that project was the genesis of your working with spices exclusively? S: What happened was I fell in love with spice. As some artists fall in love with paint, I fell in love with spice. The thing about spice was that as a raw material it was already lovely before I did anything to it, and it smelled wonderful. It was pregnant with meaning, and as an object it was so accessible that I didn’t have to stand by it and explain it. I gave the people some statement to get it started, but I think it was such a meaningful experience for them on a visceral and aesthetic level that the concept was just so readily available. They even walked on it and took the aroma with them.

Talk about the ephemerality. How do you feel about that? People often talk about realism, how they want art that’s really real. What they mean is that they want art that looks like life. They want to be able to recognize it visually. I would say my work is very realistic though. I’m just advocating for a different kind of realism, not visual but conceptual. What is more realistic? A bronze sculpture that lasts a thousand years, or a bouquet of flowers that is enjoyed and then discarded after a few days? I love realism, but I’m not talking about a captured, imprisoned thing—like taxidermy.

Describe what your spice installations are like now. S: I cut out individual shapes of Plexiglas, and the designs end up like a collection of puzzle 69

I’m talking about something that exists with us in life in the room. It was built here, and it lives here for a little while. Then it’s gone, and that feels really realistic to me. Therefore, the real way to experience your art is in person, and it’s temporary. So what we have on the cover has something missing. S: Right, the thing you have on the cover is half of it. You’ve got the visual, but it’s limited on a tactile level. It’s rendered permanent, but it’s not in its true habitat. I’m honored that it’s on the cover, but it’s just different. I think you could still experience it on a realism level in your imagination because I’m telling you this thing was built, and it was destroyed twenty-four hours later. People can make that leap, but I wouldn’t say that the magazine cover is the fullness of what the work is because the camera limits you. You don’t get the aroma or the ephemerality, and those are huge parts of it. I want to bring us back to talking about the liturgical place where your spice art originated. Do you see any connections between what you’re doing and what Christ did at the Last Supper when he said, here’s some bread and wine; eat and drink? Have you thought about that? Yes. It’s a failure to imagine the human person as incased by a throwaway body, that basically we’re this kind of entombed soul inside a shell of a body that doesn’t matter, that has no purpose. That is just unfortunate because our embodiment is so important for the way we’re engaged spiritually. It’s almost like we can’t get most effectively to our souls except by means of our bodies. We’re not just brains or hearts on a stick. Protestants like to relegate the Christian experience just to the mind, so we’ve advocated 70

for this really stripped down, disembodied faith that can be a great disservice to the faith because of its abstractness. It does not really engage our hearts. It rests in the head, but the mind doesn’t direct human lives. Our hearts direct our lives. Ultimately, the things that you truly love are the things that affect your heart, not the things that you just happen to think about. Jesus realized how inseparable the human soul and body are. That’s why he came as a body in the first place, but it’s also why he gives us so many tangible experiences. He wants to get at our souls through the body. What you’re saying reminds me of a quote I like from Anglican theologian Ashley Null, who is a Thomas Cranmer scholar. Cranmer was the chief architect of The Book of Common Prayer, which we use in our worship tradition. In explaining Cranmer’s approach to liturgy, Null says, “What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. The mind doesn’t direct the will. The mind is actually captive to what the will wants, and the will itself, in turn, is captive to what the heart wants.” S: Right, that’s the thing we’ve done though. We’ve decided that the brain is more trustworthy than the heart, but I don’t think that’s true. I think our heads lead us astray just as much as our hearts do. Both are broken. We like to think that the brain is that thing inside our skulls, protected from the world and from any kind of delusion or temptation. Meanwhile, the heart is that corrupted messed up part of me. But your brain is just as bad. You brain leads you astray just as much. Any final thoughts? S: As much as my work is for the public, it is for me too. Making these things is generally very

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ley when the cayenne is in my eyes, and the turmeric has stained my hands, and I have a headache from breathing it all day. The artwork is half-finished, and I don’t know if it’s going to be any good or not. But then it kind of rises again. My headache goes away because I got some sleep and drank some water and got away from the spice for a little while. It ends up being a great kind of reorientation because I have to rebuild it every single time. For me to continue to show it or to continue to see it, and not merely in photograph form, I’ve got to put my hands back to it and build it again. It ends up being this bodily disruptive, mostly unpleasant experience, but it’s also humbling. I do this unpleasant task and build this thing that may or may not turn out. Then to go even further I leave it vulnerable because it sits on the floor with no protection, not glued or sealed, and it always gets walked on. The first one was the only one people were invited to walk on. Since then people have not stopped walking on it. I feel like with what you’re describing there are some parallels to worship. S: Yeah, and evangelism. It is our responsibility to go out and share the good news, but not so much our job to force people not to step on it. “Here’s the truth, but don’t you dare step on it!” People often ask me, “Why don’t you put up some really big partitions? Why don’t you put up a flashing light?” Well, that would be visually compromising, and I’m a visual artist. I can’t afford anything visually unnecessary. But that’s trying to entomb the thing again, trying to make it last longer than reality will allow. Every time it has been prematurely destroyed by the public. Every time. I mean it’s so strange that it happens that way.

unpleasant. The final product is pretty nice, but when I’m talking about all this body stuff, I’m not just advocating for endless pleasure. It’s both sides of the body; it’s both the suffering and the pleasure, and the artwork tends to put me in my place a lot. This is probably true of all artists. But every time I start one of these spice things I think it’s a great idea and everybody will love it. But let’s say it takes four days to build one. Around day two I start to tell myself this is so stupid. Why do I make art like this? Why do I make it so complicated? Why am I wasting all this time? I have to go to every location where I make my artwork, and I have to re-purchase all my supplies every time. There’s this low val71

JEREMY MOORE

My Perfect World

ury duty seemed like a great idea when I received the summons. I had a few days off from playing shows and the courtroom antics in movies have always intrigued me. I wanted to be selected since deciding someone’s trial outcome is a great responsibility. After all, justice should be upheld, and only half of us were going to be chosen to determine what path the defendant’s life would take. Thirty of us answered the lawyer’s shower of questions. How did we feel about marijuana legalization? Had we ever been pulled over? Did anyone in our families struggle with alcohol or drug addiction? What other crime had we seen in our families? We openly confessed our connection to those who struggled with alcohol addiction or attempted suicide. People shared about friends and family who had been convicted of murder, rape, and molestation. I hesitate to talk to strangers in my favorite coffee shop, much less tell them the dirty and shameful secrets of my or my family’s life. However, there we all were, listening as people shared the most joyless moments they had experienced. I realized in that moment just how wide the gap was between the worlds I grew up in and the one I was hearing about in the courtroom. I grew up the son of a pastor, and if the doors were unlocked to the church building, I was there. My childhood mostly consisted of my three brothers and I running through the acre of woods in our backyard. The creek that ran through it was the setting of hours of swimming, catching minnows, going hunting with our BB guns, and going “off the grid” with a hatchet, making trails to far away lands. My parents loved me unconditionally, punished me for the things I did wrong and rewarded me for the things they were proud of. There wasn’t a moment I regretted, and I had no fears—aside from the irrational fear of a monster that lurked under my bed at night.

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P O RT R A I T O F T H E AU T H O R I N B LU E PA I N T E Râ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S TA PE COURTESY OF MARTY BALENCIE

My brothers and I weren’t yet molded WHY AM I SCARED by the world’s opinions. We lived free of TO ADMIT judgment, lies, and insecurities. We lived in a world where we didn’t have to hide or H AV I N G S T R O N G have our guard up at all times. It became EMOTIONS OR TO very easy growing up in that safe environment to be cut off from the harsh realities A S K S E E M I N G LY of the world. Looking back, so much of that OBJECTIONABLE culture sheltered my brothers and me from the pain and suffering people just over the QUESTIONS hill were dealing with on a daily basis. INSIDE CHURCH In my twenties I developed a deep interest in self-evaluation, self-expression, and WA L L S ? honesty to a fault. As a result, I experience a rub between my two worlds. The first consists of the life I grew up with as a child and still encounter in much of church culture today. The second is made up of the realities and hardships that produce raw, unfiltered emotion. That rub has boiled down to this question for me: Why am I scared to admit having strong emotions or to ask seemingly objectionable questions inside church walls? A while back, I found myself explaining to a mentor just how much I was questioning the church culture I was currently experiencing. It was impossible for me to support the churchgoing experience that involved nothing more than an hour-long, simplistic service where many of the churchgoers used dishonest self-preservation tactics to maintain worth and value, where vulnerability was too much for God to handle. Because of these sentiments, God didn’t seem so real to me anymore—at least not like he did when I was a kid. I had become accustomed to operating on the fear that people might find that monster under my bed and mock it. In preparation for recording my debut album a year ago, I wrote a song titled “My Perfect World.” In it those two worlds finally had the chance to go head to head, and I hoped the finished product might provide a few answers for my discouraged soul. Verses of seemingly endless problems, issues, and cultural insensitiveness essentially wrote themselves. After all, twenty minutes in any

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courtroom will provide enough processing material to overcome any writer’s block. It seemed as though there were too many problems to know where to stop. Wrapped around the complex verses, a simple chorus emerged, “Kyrie Eleison.” These words from an ancient Christian liturgy translate to a simple, yet profound cry: “Lord, have mercy.” Lord have mercy for the issues caused, problems created, hatred harbored, and sadness inflicted. THE QUESTIONS “My Perfect World” calms my soul. It cerT H AT B A F F L E tainly has not fixed all the problems, but it slowly helps me make sense of my worlds. REASON, THE It gives me hope for tomorrow. It gives me S A D N E S S T H AT hope that maybe the problems do not overwhelm the one who has the answer. Perhaps CRIES HARDER the answer is simple: Return. Return to the THAN LISTENS, childlike faith Jesus references in Matthew 18 that is free from judgment, insecurities, and THE ANGER walls guarding pride. Love without hesitation T H AT B L O W S U P or reservation and live as children imitating their Father. Hold onto truth while allowing CALMNESS, THEY true, vulnerable emotions. Be slow to offer D O N O T C AT C H quick fixes to complex problems. For God does not lose sight of his children. GOD OFF GUARD. The questions that baffle reason, the sadness that cries harder than listens, the anger that blows up calmness, they do not catch God off guard. May we, as his children, extend this confidence, power, peace, and love when we encounter our own fellow jurors. And if we fail at this extension, may we always return to one prayer: Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy.

Jeremy Moore is a singer/songwriter from Birmingham who loves the art of storytelling. For him, touring is really just a disguise to find his favorite local brewery, coffee shop, or body of water to swim in.

L I ST

C U LT I VAT I N G C R E AT I V I T Y By Cort Gatliff A QUE ST I ON PEOPLE I NEVI TABLY ASK in any conversation about creativity is whether or not creativity can be taught. Is creativity doled out by God upon conception, or are there ways we can actively cultivate a creative spirit? As a writer who has never felt particularly gifted in the creativity department, I ponder these questions often. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve mercifully found that creativity is similar to faith: certain habits and disciplines lead me further up and further in. Just as I can make choices that form the desires of my heart, creativity is something I can nurture and shape. Over the years these books have guided and helped me develop a richer understanding of creativityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the Creator.

C O R T G A T L I F F is a writer and editor. He lives in Birmingham with his wife, Abby. He is both hopeful and terrified that one day his prayer journal will become a posthumous bestseller.

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Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Walking on Water : Reflections on Faith and Art

Culture Making : Recovering Our Creative Calling

A Prayer Journal

by Anne Lamott (1994) Within the pages of this little instruction manual for aspiring scribblers, you’ll find as many meditations on the life of faith as on the life of writing, which is just one of the many reasons this book lends itself to regular rereadings. For the past four years or so, I’ve made a habit of reading it, in one sitting, every January 1. With her signature self-deprecating wit and wisdom, Lamott uses the art of writing as a lens through which to explore larger questions about creativity and faith. “This business of … being a writer … is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?”

by Madeleine L’Engle (1980) What makes art Christian art? What makes an artist a Christian artist? While it’s clear L’Engle has spent a significant amount of time contemplating these questions, one gets the sense that she isn’t too concerned with arriving at a tidy, black-andwhite conclusion. Instead, she prefers to dwell in what she considers to be the divine mystery that is creativity. The role of the Christian artist, she says, is the same as that of a Christian: “We are to be in this world as healers, as listeners, and as servants.” If you are an artist, a Christian, both, or neither, you’ll want to return to this book time and again for guidance; once will not be enough.

by Andy Crouch (2008) Culture, at the most basic level, is what we make of the world. When it comes to determining how we should engage with certain aspects of this world, we often gravitate toward extremes: condemn, critique, copy, or mindlessly consume. Crouch, in this manifesto on culture and creativity, argues that instead we should strive to be artists and gardeners, creators and cultivators. “If culture is to change,” Crouch writes, “it will be because some new tangible (or audible or visible or olfactory) thing is presented to a wide enough public that it begins to reshape their world.” This book provides a much needed reminder that whether we’re making an omelet or directing a film, we should aim to create and cultivate cultural artifacts that communicate truth and beauty.

by Flannery O’Connor (2013) Audiences rarely have the chance to bear witness to the inner struggle of an artist trying to create. We read the book or watch the film or see the painting, but we miss out on the actual creative process. This intimate look at the prayer life of the great Southern writer Flannery O’Connor gives readers a glimpse into the mind and soul of a young woman trying to find her way in the world both artistically and spiritually. Although O’Connor probably never imagined her journal would be published, her private thoughts will help the artist and non-artist alike contemplate and appreciate creativity on a deeper level. 77

O U R S TO RY

PERSONAL STATIONERY FROM HUGH AGRICOLA, RECTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE ADVENT FROM 1 9 6 6 T O 1 9 74 , A N D H I S WIFE, ELSIE NELMS AGRICOL A. PREVIOUSLY T H E C U R AT E U N D E R JOHN TURNER, AGRICOLA BECAME THE RECTOR AFTER TURNER’S SUDDEN DEATH IN 1966. BECAUSE AGRICOLA HAD A KNACK FOR LEARNING NAMES, HE REQUESTED THAT THE DIFFERENT UNITS OF THE WOMEN OF THE CHURCH TAKE ON NAMES OF FEMALE SAINTS INSTEAD OF NUMBERS—A CUSTOM THAT THE WOMEN’S GUILDS STILL RETAIN.

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ARCHIVAL MATERIAL COURTESY OF BIRMINGHAM, ALA. PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES

ABOUT THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF THE ADVENT The Cathedral Church of the Advent was founded in 1872, one year after the city of Birmingham was founded, making the Advent one of the oldest churches in the city. Our 3,700-member congregation comprises one of the largest Episcopal parishes in the United States, and since 1982 the Advent has served as the cathedral for the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama. The Advent is a Gospel-centered church, with a “living, daring confidence in God’s grace” (Martin Luther) evident in our many programs and ministries. Holding to what the Letter of Jude calls “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints,” this Gospel focus finds the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus ever and only at the center. The most comprehensive summation of our traditional Anglican doctrine is found in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. The “fruits” of our theology are: A HEART FOR THE GOSPEL When we say we have a heart for the Gospel, we mean that we are passionate about lifting Jesus up in his life, death, and resurrection. Only Jesus has the power to change the heart of a sinner. A HEART FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT HEARD THE GOSPEL There are still people in the world (even in Birmingham) who have never heard the Gospel. In obedience to Christ, and with a compassion for others, we (who are consciously aware of our own sinfulness) put forth this message of Christ’s love for those who have never heard. A HEART FOR THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BURNED BY THE CHURCH Many in our culture have had an experience with the Church that has turned them away from the faith. A majority of those whom sociologists call “Nones”— those who claim no religious affiliation—say they grew up in the Church. Jesus has a particular love for those burned by the Church. A HEART FOR THE CITY OF BIRMINGHAM The Advent has been a presence in Birmingham from its very beginning. We are a vibrant congregation full of talented and creative believers in the Lord Jesus. We have always sought to bring the transforming power of grace to those in need around us, and we have also worked to bless the city through the arts, historical preservation, and community involvement. The Gospel touches all areas of life, and we have a heart for the city that God has called us to minister to. In all of these things we pray that Jesus Christ is glorified and that he might use us in Birmingham and beyond.

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ILLUSTR ATION COURTESY OF MOLLIE EVERRIT

E L E VATO R S P E E C H E S ADULT EDUCATION

for academic excellence, and it continues to do so under Headmaster Palmer Kennedy’s leadership. Boasting above a 90 percent average score on national standardized tests, the pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students do not merely achieve success but are also well-rounded as a result of the school’s training in music, art, religion, foreign language, technology, and athletics.

Standing squarely in the tradition that emphasizes the ministries of preaching and teaching, the Advent has a robust, year-round adult education program. In addition to numerous classes at 10:10 am each Sunday morning, there are quite a few special events and programs held throughout the year. Whether it is traditional Bible study or the consideration of theological and cultural intersections, the Advent’s adult education focuses on the Gospel and its proclamation of Good News for sinners.

Advent Episcopal School, info@adventepiscopalschool.org, 205.252.2535

Gil Kracke, gil@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3516

ADVENT HOUSE Located between Highland Park and English Village at 2317 Arlington Avenue, the Advent House is a center for prayer, teaching, and respite. It is home year-round to the Advent House Prayer Ministry, and for six weeks out of the year it serves as a meeting place for the Advent’s Grief Recovery Group. Additionally, it is used as temporary lodging by visiting missionaries, seminarians, and guest speakers. Anyone—church member and community resident alike—is welcome and may request prayer for healing or discernment from God.

THE ADVENT BOOK STORE As an extension of its work of preaching and teaching, the Advent has a small but vital bookstore. Not trying to be all things to all people, the Advent Bookstore knows its niche, providing books and other resources that reflect a living confidence in the Gospel. In addition to books, the store maintains an attractive selection of art, gifts, music, and other items. Cindy Funderburk, bookstore@cathedraladvent.com, 205.323.2959

Kathy Logue, kathylogue@gmail.com, 205.410.4622

ADVENT EPISCOPAL SCHOOL

ARTS + CULTURE SERIES

Founded in 1950 as an outgrowth of the Sunday School program, the Advent Episcopal School shares a common purpose with the Advent to make a difference both in and outside the city of Birmingham. It has become a nationally recognized school with a reputation

The Arts + Culture Series is a forum for exploring common ground between everyday life and the Church, primarily through performances, talks, and conversations with artists, authors, musicians, cultural critics,

and community leaders. The series has an outreach focus, seeking to foster relationships and ongoing dialogue between the Church and the Greater Birmingham community in compelling and accessible ways. Each gathering typically features high quality refreshments and offers opportunities to converse with the guest and others gathered over their artwork or other cultural topics. Matt Schneider, matt@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3502

Cathedral Choir sings for the nine and eleven o’clock Sunday services, Choral Evensong, and concerts throughout the year. Interested singers with choral experience and proficiency in reading music may schedule an audition. Fred Teardo, teardo@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3506

THE CATHEDRAL CONCERT SERIES AND MID-DAY MUSIC

BIBLE STUDIES The Advent has numerous opportunities for Bible study. While an Advent small group is typically a closed group of the same, few people who gather each week to study and pray together, we also have several opportunities for weekly, open Bible studies. They are usually larger than a small group; there are some for men, some for women, and others for both. The Advent’s Bible studies meet regularly, though at varied schedules, and tend to have consistent leaders each week. The style of the group—conversational or more lecture-oriented—typically depends on the group’s size and its leader. The Advent has a talented team of engaging and faithful Bible study leaders, all of whom love the Gospel message and wish for others to mine the riches of the Bible. Gil Kracke, gil@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3516

The Advent’s special music events are a vital part of its music ministry. By offering such events, not only are we able to expand the opportunities for our parishioners to experience sacred music, but we are also able to extend our ministry to the community at large. The Cathedral Concert Series is committed to bringing the very best artists and ensembles in the world to present concerts of sacred music in Birmingham. The Cathedral Choir is also featured performing extended sacred works. Concerts are typically at 7:30 pm on select evenings or on Sunday afternoons at 3:00 pm. The Midday Music series is primarily dedicated to presenting local musicians and particularly serves as a ministry to downtown Birmingham. All programs are on Fridays at 12:30 pm and are thirty minutes in length. Fred Teardo, teardo@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3506

THE CATHEDRAL RINGERS

THE CATHEDRAL CHOIR The Cathedral Choir is a semi-professional ensemble, comprised of both professional and volunteer singers. The choir plays a vital role in the life of the Advent and stands as a model of musical excellence to the parish, the Diocese of Alabama, and the Birmingham region. In many respects, the choir is its own small group, whose members are drawn together by their love of music and the choral tradition. The 82

The Cathedral Ringers is the Advent’s adult handbell choir, performing with a five-octave set of Malmark handbells during Sunday services (monthly from October through April) and at concerts in the Midday Music series. The handbell choir welcomes new members who have a basic ability to read music, regardless of handbell experience. Fred Teardo, teardo@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3506

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THE CHILDREN’S CHOIR

and UAB. In addition to supporting students in their life on campus, we also wish to help them become integrated into the life of the wider church body.

The Advent aims to develop a nationally renowned children’s chorister program (grades 1-6) committed to musical excellence, catechesis, and the Gospel. Through structured curriculum and service to both the Advent and the greater community, choristers learn the fundamentals of music and musicianship as well as the music of the Church. The Children’s Choir sings in the nine o’clock Sunday service several times from September through April. By learning musical settings of the Psalms, the Gospels, and other passages of Scripture, choristers receive a unique education in how music can teach the Word of God.

Brandon Bennett, brandon@cathedraladvent.com, 205.443.8560

Cranmer House Located at 2814 Linden Avenue in the heart of Homewood, Cranmer House serves as the Advent’s Over the Mountain meeting place. In addition to housing the youth ministry team’s office, this convenient and informal space has a large gathering space, a lobby with a meeting area, a conference room, and a nursery. A variety of Bible studies, discipleship groups, and other events, like the Advent Theological Lecture Series, occur here.

Fred Teardo, teardo@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3506

Gil Kracke, gil@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3516

CHILDREN’S MINISTRY Seeking to serve as a partnership between the home and the church, the Children’s Ministry at the Advent comes alongside parents and grandparents by sharing the Gospel with children. We desire that by the power of the Holy Spirit they might recognize both their sin and God’s faithfulness to rescue through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. Sunday School classes communicate this message via age-appropriate activities, including storytelling, art, games, music and Children’s Chapel. Additionally, special programs are offered seasonally throughout the year: a Posada during Advent, the Walk to the Cross on Palm Sunday, and Vacation Bible School during the summer.

CURSILLO Cursillo, which takes its name from a Spanish word that means “little course,” was originally a renewal ministry in the Roman Catholic Church. In the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, Cursillo occurs five times a year for a threeday weekend at Camp McDowell, though its impact reaches beyond these individual weekends. Filled with community building, song, and learning, each weekend aims to provide attendants with a tangible experience of grace while they learn some of the basics of Christianity in a relaxed and fun atmosphere. Deborah Leighton, deborah@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3511

Elizabeth Wilson, elizabeth@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3547

DAUGHTERS OF THE KING

COLLEGE MINISTRY

Daughters of the King (DOK) is a national organization devoted to prayer, service, and evangelism, and the Advent shares in this mission and vision. The local chapter

The College Ministry seeks to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to students in Birmingham, ministering primarily to Birmingham-Southern College, Samford University, 83

at the Advent prays for the Church catholic in addition to the needs and concerns of our own congregation. Each Daughter (or member) takes an oath to commit to regular prayer, which is signified by the cross that every Daughter wears daily with its Latin inscription that reads, “With heart, mind, and spirit, uphold and bear the cross.” Prayers are guarded carefully, reviewed regularly, and revised as needed. Daughters at the Advent convene at various times of the year to pray with each other and are available year round for any who are in need of prayer. The website for DOK can be found at doknational.com. Julia King, juliaking@bellsouth.net, 256.239.2350

service guilds that care for an array of things, from preparing the altar to tending the gardens. The ECW also serves the Birmingham community through many programs, perhaps the most recognizable of which is the Lenten Lunches ministry. Through this enormous undertaking of feeding our city—body and soul—the ECW raises tens of thousands of dollars that go directly to fund the Advent’s outreach programs both at home and abroad. Tamara Sansbury, tamara.sansbury@gmail.com, 205.249.3523

FELLOWSHIP GROUPS

EPISCOPAL CHURCH WOMEN & GUILDS The Episcopal Church Women (ECW) at the Advent is part of a larger, church-wide body of women committed to one another and called to be witnesses for Christ. The guilds provide a variety of opportunities for women, including age-similar guilds that meet regularly for study and fellowship and also multi-generational 84

Fellowship groups are a great way to meet people from the Advent or to spend time with good friends. The meetings may be held in homes, at a venue, or at an event. There is usually something wonderful to eat, and often a brief thought or reflection is offered by a staff member, other Adventer, or guest. The available groups are “Twenty-somethings” (ages 22–29), “Saints & Sinners” (ages 30–39), “Happy Mediums” (ages 40–49), and the “Advent Boomers” (ages 50–69). Each group usually meets two to four times per year. THE ADVENT

PHOTOGRAPH BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

Sandy Blalock, sandy@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3519

Bible studies, occasional events, cookouts in homes, lunches at the church, and one of the semiannual four-day backpacking trips. All of these are done to allow the Gospel to equip men with the confidence and courage needed for day-to-day life.

FIVE O’CLOCK WORSHIPING COMMUNITY

Gil Kracke, gil@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3516

The Five O’Clock Sunday worship service is a modern expression of traditional Anglican liturgy in keeping with the ethos of the Advent’s morning services while in a more informal environment. The music is primarily hymnody set to updated musical arrangements, accessible and fresh for today’s ears, with a band leading congregational singing. Worship lasts about one hour with monthly fellowship suppers following the service. Nursery care is provided for small children, though children of all ages are welcome and encouraged to join us for worship. This service currently meets in the Refectory at the Advent.

MISSION AND OUTREACH A life lived in service of our neighbor is a natural expression of faith when we are transformed by the Gospel. As we recognize our own sinfulness and the brokenness of the world around us, we are invited by our Lord to participate in his wondrous work of reconciliation. With specific interests in Christian leadership development and ministry to unreached people, the persecuted church, and the poor, the Advent partners with local and global ministries to proclaim Christ’s redemptive power over all things.

Matt Schneider, matt@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3502

Bethany Rushing, bethany@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3512

LENTEN PREACHING SERIES AND LENTEN LUNCHES For more than a century, the Advent has hosted the Lenten Preaching Series and Lenten Lunches, a series of sermons and lunches prepared by parishioners every weekday during Lent. Preachers from around the world attract both those who work in downtown Birmingham and those who make a trip especially for this unique opportunity. One of the Advent’s most intensive and expansive ministries, the Lenten Preaching and Lunches nourish both body and soul.

NEWCOMERS MINISTRY The Newcomers Ministry welcomes new people to the Advent community. If you are looking for a church home, interested in transferring from another church, or considering Confirmation as an adult, please join us in our Inquirers’ Class. The fall class begins in September, and the spring class begins the first Sunday in March, culminating with Confirmation in early May. The class meets during the education hour from 10:10 to 10:50 am. There are also occasional offerings of the class offered Sunday evenings as announced.

Gil Kracke, gil@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3516

Sandy Blalock, sandy@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3519

MEN’S MINISTRY The Men’s Ministry at the Advent keeps the Gospel in front of men as they go through their varied lives. This occurs through men’s weekly 85

NURSERY

RALLY DAY PICNIC

The nursery provides young children, aged six weeks through two years, with a safe, loving Christian environment, which, in turn, gives parents respite and time for spiritual renewal. Because the nursery is a child’s earliest contact with the church, we seek to plant the seeds of the Gospel through prayers, Bible verses, and songs of praise on Sunday mornings while older children participate in crafts and circle time. The nursery is located on the second floor and is available during the nine, eleven, and five o’clock worship services.

Rally Day falls on the Sunday after Labor Day. Hosted by the Advent’s vestry, it is the kickoff for the Sunday School and program year. The entire congregation celebrates at the Birmingham Children’s Zoo with an evening picnic accompanied by an animal exhibit, merry-go-round, petting barn, bingo, and the classic cake walk. There is a lot of food, from barbecue to cotton candy to snow cones. No reservations needed.

Becky Rothrock, rebecca@cathedraladvent.com, 205.443.8552

Sandy Blalock, sandy@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3519

SENIORS MINISTRY

PASTORAL CARE Pastoral care is simply one of the ways that we care for one another at the Advent. Whether in times of celebration, such as baptisms or weddings, or in times of trial, such as before surgery or during times of illness and grief, we seek to come alongside one another. In addition to the clergy, there are numerous volunteers from the church who participate in bringing the Good News to and caring for both new and familiar faces. Robin Turner, robin@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3500

For those aged sixty and older, the Seniors Ministry at the Advent cultivates an environment of togetherness in Christ and also promotes various opportunities for service, fellowship, and worship. This ministry interacts with the entire congregation while focusing on the unique gifts, freedom, and perspective this time of life may offer. Participants enjoy a variety of activities, including meeting for meals, sacking lunches for the homeless, assisting in outreach ministries, praying together, and sharing stories. Katherine Kilpatrick, katherine@cathedraladvent.com, 205.443.8559

SMALL GROUPS

PASTORAL COUNSELING Life can often be exhausting and overwhelming. Periods of trial, loneliness, sadness, fear, grief, and more are common parts of the human experience and often take their toll on many of us. The Pastoral Counseling ministry exists to come alongside those who are weary and burdened, and we desire to offer guidance, help, and relief. Robin Turner, robin@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3500

Small groups are one of the best ways to be involved at the Advent. God created humans to be relational, and we need others to help us apply the Gospel to our lives. Typically consisting of ten to twelve people, the Advent’s small groups provide a place to connect, to encourage one another with the Good News of Jesus Christ, to study the Bible, to pray communally, and to serve others. Fontaine Pope, fontaine@cathedraladvent.com, 205.443.8562

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STEWARDSHIP

singing old hymns. We don’t do these things for aesthetic reasons or because we like Elizabethan English. We do them because they convey the Gospel message that “Christ Jesus came to save sinners.” Rite I not only tells us the truth about our own condition, but it also tells us about the marvelous grace of Jesus Christ manifested in his death, directing our thoughts and worship toward him and away from us. We use Morning Prayer because we believe preaching is central to worship. We wear the cassock and surplice not to set ourselves apart, but that you might not gaze upon our own garments. And the hymns we sing are more about God than they are about us. Sunday worship times are 7:30 am, 9:00 am, and 11:00 am in the Nave. For information about the Sunday 5:00 pm service, please see “The Five O’Clock Service.” We also hold a weekly Communion service on Wednesdays at 12:05 pm in Meyer Chapel and a monthly service of Evensong in the Nave during the academic year.

The Advent promotes the fundamental principle of spiritual giving: free acts in which we willingly and joyfully share our treasure, time, and talents. Clearly, such a posture extends beyond tithing (giving away a percentage of what we earn) to include how our time and talents are offered to others—from leading a small group to living missionally in one’s vocation. But it certainly also entails giving of our money: as we make a pledge, we are making a promise to be present financially at some point in the future, giving away what God first gives us. Biblical principles foster and reinforce this understanding of stewardship, as we steward what God has provided to support the needs of his church and extending the Gospel elsewhere. Denson Franklin III, dfranklin@bradley.com, 205.521-8246

WOMEN’S MINISTRY

Andrew Pearson, andrew@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3510

Recognizing that women are frequently called to serve and volunteer in various ways in family and social life, the women’s ministry committee provides multiple opportunities throughout the year simply for women to do nothing but receive from God. Some of these opportunities include spring and fall coffee socials with special guest speakers, a Christmas event in the first week of December, and a weekend retreat at Lake Martin every August. Women on the committee are also involved in leading various Bible studies, healing prayer groups, and a two-year-long discipleship class overseen by the clergy.

YOUTH MINISTRY The Advent’s Youth Ministry seeks to meet students with the Good News of what has already been accomplished for them in Jesus. As we partner with parents and all generations of the Church, students are invited to rest, learn, and be encouraged through our weekly Bible studies, breakfast groups, Sunday School, dinners, trips, and other outings. Amidst all of the pressures and anxieties of the world today, we look to the comfort, peace, and joy of a lifelong relationship with Jesus Christ.

Deborah Leighton, deborah@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3511

Cameron Cole, cameron@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3545

WORSHIP SERVICES The Advent is a traditional place, using Rite I, alternating between Communion and Morning Prayer, wearing traditional clerical attire, and

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I L O V E L E N T V I N TA G E C AT H O L I C PA M PH L E T PUBLISHED IN THE 1950S BY THE CATECHETICAL GUILD

M I N I S T RY H I G H L I G H T S LENTEN PREACHING AND LUNCHES

those who live and work in the city and suburbs of Birmingham, and even those who come from farther distances. We encourage you to come and bring friends, family, and co-workers—all are most welcome.

or more than a century, the Advent’s Lenten Preaching Series has embodied this word from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (10:17). In a real sense, Lent at the Advent is both a time and a place for this word to be heard, as the Gospel is preached and received, marked and inwardly digested. The earliest known services of weekday Lenten Preaching occurred in 1908. For much of its history, the Advent’s succession of rectors and deans have retained a notable emphasis on preaching, making this series a natural, central aspect of their ministry in Birmingham. Today this living tradition continues with men and women coming from around the world as preachers. Though drawn from different denominational traditions, the “word of Christ” is the simple refrain in each sermon: the Gospel of God’s love for sinners. Even in the early days of the series, the Advent quickly recognized that midday sermons paired well with a meal, so preaching and lunches during Lent have gone together for quite some time. But then the Lenten lunches really came into their own in the 1980s as throngs of Adventers began serving robust meals at each meeting. An enormous undertaking, the lunches remain a great opportunity for people to connect with the thousands of guests who are served each Lent. We are grateful for the opportunity to make our Preaching Series and Lunches available to

Gil Kracke, gil@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3516

CHILDREN'S CHOIR

red Teardo, the Advent’s Music Director, has overseen Children’s Choir ministry for two years. His current focus is to grow this ministry, and he sees an opportunity to build a nationally renowned chorister program committed to musical excellence, catechesis, and the Gospel through structured curriculum and service to both the Advent and the Birmingham community. Fred explains that as a pastoral musician, nothing is more gratifying to him than seeing the light bulb of a child’s mind turn on after working hard at a musical concept for a while. It’s even more fulfilling when a chorister has a revelation about Scripture because singing it made God’s Word come to life. He also views the choir as a team sport. Children learn about commitment, discipline, and teamwork— skills that will endure their entire lives. The music they learn teaches them Scripture in a unique and memorable way that will serve them for a lifetime. They also learn to understand and appreciate the traditional music of the Church, and some may even go on to be leaders in adult choirs. Children in the choir

learn the great music of the Church through singing the classic hymns and anthems of the Anglican choral tradition. They also take an active part in the liturgy and gain a better understanding of what we do during worship through their participation. Children in first through sixth grades are invited to enter the Children’s Choir program. The choir maintains a regular Wednesday afternoon rehearsal schedule with first and second graders rehearsing 3:30-4:25 p.m., and third through sixth graders rehearsing 4:30-5:25 p.m. The choirs sing in the nine o’clock Sunday service several times from September through the end of the spring, including the services of Advent Lessons and Carols, Christmas Eve, Easter Day, and Choir Recognition Sunday. Fred Teardo, teardo@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3506

A MESSY INVITATION TO MISSION & OUTREACH

he terms mission and outreach may conjure up different mental images. Perhaps you have a picture of a foundation officer sorting through grant proposals to determine the best return on investment. Or your idea may be of young people building wells in foreign countries or even adults in hairnets serving soup at a local shelter. While none of these images are wrong, they are missing the true beauty of mission and outreach: friendship. Friendship is more difficult than our typical approaches to outreach. It’s messy when we invite broken people to see our own brokenness. Yet in that mess we see the Gospel at work. The best friendships exist where each

person realizes they have something to give and something to receive. There is mutuality. It has less to do with what we do—analyzing impact, building a well, or serving a meal— and everything to do with understanding and appreciating the story of another person who is made in the image of God. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, problems at work, a tough financial situation, or uncertainty about the future, we need something heartier than soup when we encounter suffering. We need Jesus with skin on—brothers and sisters to walk with us through the darkness, point us to Christ as our Rescuer, and remind us of the hope we have as children of the living God. Friendship is an extension of God’s grace to others. It says, “I’m hurting, too! You are not alone.” When we encounter the frazzled mom in the checkout counter, the man asking for a sandwich on 20th Street, or the elderly woman sitting alone at the park, how might we engage in friendship? As those who are redeemed by a gracious Savior, we have much to learn from one another, much to give and receive, and much joy to share in. Grants, wells, and soup are good, but friendship is better. Bethany Rushing, bethany@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3512

GOSPEL-CENTERED YOUTH MINISTRY: A PRACTICAL GUIDE

ameron Cole, the Advent’s Director of Children, Youth, and Family, recently published Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry: A Practical Guide, a book that had

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small start, which involved thirty-one youth pastors, began to take on new life and gained momentum. Today Rooted is incorporated as a separate nonprofit organization. The ministry, which seeks to encourage, equip, and educate student ministry leaders, now includes a blog, national conference, and other publications. As of 2015 the blog had over seventy writers from around the world and a readership of 40,000. The most recent conference in Chicago included 250 youth pastors from thirty-six states and five countries. The dream of publishing a manual on Gospel-centered ministry constituted a major part of Rooted’s mission. In April 2013, around a breakfast table in Orlando, Cameron outlined his ideas for a book with Rooted’s leadership in pencil on a legal pad with ketchup stains on it. Three months later, Collin Hansen, editor of The Gospel Coalition blog, called to say TGC and Crossway, publishers of the ESV Study Bible, wanted to collaborate on a few projects, one of which was a book about youth ministry. Collin asked how long it might take to generate a rough sketch, to which Cameron replied, “One hour.” He quickly typed up the outline from the ketchup-stained legal pad. Three months later, Crossway accepted the proposal, and a team of writers from the Rooted community got to work on the process. In 2016 Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry has been the top selling youth ministry book on Amazon. We hope and believe this publication will significantly further Frank Limehouse’s original vision of seeing the culture of youth ministry nationwide practiced with the Gospel as its core.

its beginnings within the walls of the Advent. In early 2010, during a conversation about Michael Horton’s book, Christless Christianity, Frank Limehouse, the Advent’s former dean, decided he wanted to share with the broader church the Gospel-centered approach to youth ministry that had been practiced for decades at the Advent. The first step in that process was hosting a conference called Rooted, which gathered a small group of youth pastors for the discussion of the role of the Gospel in youth ministry. This

BOOK COVER COURTESY OF CROSSWAY BOOKS

Cameron Cole, cameron@cathedraladvent.com, 205.226.3545

ADVENT STUFF

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I N 1 9 9 0 , T H E F O U R T H Y E A R O F T H E C H R I S T M A S P A G E A N T A T T H E A D V E N T, C A T H E R I N E S C H I E S Z F O U N D P L A N S F O R R O L L I N G W O O D E N S H E E P A N D C O N V I N C E D T H E B U I L D I N G S U P E R I N T E N D E N T, E R N I E M A R T I N , T O F A B R I C A T E T H E M . E R N I E S U D D E N L Y D I E D S O O N A F T E R C U T T I N G T H E S H E E P O U T, S O A N O T H E R S E X TON FINISHED THEM. IN 2005 CATHERINE MOVED TO FLORENCE, AND TWO SHEEP WENT WITH HER . THE ADVENT KEPT THE OTHER TWO. ADVENT MEMBER CLIFF JENKINS MADE TWO MORE TO GIVE US A FULL H E R D O F F O U R . T H E S H E E P ’ S N A M E S A R E L A R R Y, F O R L A R R Y G I P S O N , T H E A D V E N T ’ S F O R M E R D E A N W H O A L L O W E D T H E N A T I V I T Y P A G E A N T ; E R N I E , F O R E R N I E M A R T I N , W H O M A D E T H E F I R S T F O U R S H E E P ; C L I F F, W H O M A D E T H E L A ST PA I R ; A N D C AT H E R I N E , W H O H A D T H E O R I G I N A L I D E A . MANY ADVENTERS CL AIM CHRISTMAS SEASON HASN’ T BEGUN UNTIL THEY HEAR THE SQUEAKING SOUND OF THE SHEEP COMING DOWN THE CENTER AISLE. THE SHEEP SQUEAK BECAUSE THE WHEELS ARE ON WOODEN DOWELS THAT RUB AGAINST THE BASE. THERE IS A RUMOR THAT A WELL-INTENTIONED SEXTON O N C E O I L E D T H E W H E E L S T O K E E P T H E M F R O M S Q U E A K I N G T O E V E R Y O N E E L S E ’ S D I S M A Y. W E H A V E I T O N G OOD AUTHORIT Y THOUGH THAT THE SHEEP’S WHEELS HAVE NEVER BEEN LUBRICATED.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

RETROSPECT

OVER THE YEARS, WOMEN OF THE ADVENT HAVE PUBLISHED SEVERAL COOKBOOKS, OFTEN IN REL ATION TO OUR LENTEN LUNCHES. THIS ONE, A FEAST OF GOOD THINGS, WAS PRODUCED BY T H E S T. A G N E S G U I L D, W H I C H W A S O R I G I N A L LY O R G A N I Z E D I N 1 8 9 6 F O R T H E Y O U N G E R W O M E N OF THE CHURCH AND WAS ONCE THE L ARGEST GUILD IN THE CHURCH.

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ARCHIVAL MATERIAL COURTESY OF BIRMINGHAM, AL A . PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES

CAPACITY TO CREATE By Andrew Pearson

Andrew Pearson is the Dean of the Advent. He is an avid golfer, outdoorsman, and reader. He is married to Lauren Saddler Pearson, and they have three daughters, Lily, Mary Cabell, and Ware.

t the Advent we talk a lot about creativity, which is strange for a church. Not many Christians want to encourage creativity for fear of where it might lead, equating creativity with a dangerous, non-conformist attitude. Meanwhile, those who do talk about creativity rarely see it manifested in the life and ministries of their churches. We see it differently. The very first thing God does in Genesis 1:1 is create: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And after his creation out of nothing, he declares it “good.” It is in this context that God created us in his own image. As such, we are all equipped with the capacity both to create and to find delight in beautiful things. Therefore, to thwart creativity is to stand in the way of what God created us to do. It is very easy for us to associate creativity in the church solely with the visual or performance arts and thus make efforts to incorporate liturgical dance ensembles or paintings in our Sunday services. But creativity can express itself in a myriad of ways from how we budget to how we minister to shut-ins. So often we demean this kind of creativity as mundane, but God is at work in the ordinary. Above all else though, we take heart in the creative power in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. John’s Gospel tells us that in the beginning all things were made through the Word of God, and without him nothing was made. So it is that when we preach the Word of God, namely Jesus Christ, it is a creative word. It is the primary means by which the Holy Spirit draws people to faith in Jesus Christ, and they are made new creations. This creative preached word sends people out into the world to live into God’s calling on their lives. At the Advent we have no guild for the arts because it would be squandering what God has given us, keeping it within the walls of our building. Creativity is something to be lived out. Rather than form a committee, we see our parishioners sitting on the boards of local arts organizations, creating their own art, and creatively solving mundane problems at home and in the community. We see people giving back to our city because they understand their call in Jesus Christ. This is not a gimmick. Creativity has been a part of who we are since the Advent’s cornerstone was laid at the very birth of our city, and we continue to encourage and delight in it. This is, after all, what God made us to do.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY HAWLEY SCHNEIDER

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ADVENT A Magazine of Good News @cathedraladvent /cathedraladvent #adventbham magazine@cathedraladvent.com adventbirmingham.org/magazine Made in Birmingham, Alabama By the Cathedral Church of the Advent