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Hard Times Require Furious Dancing
We believe in celebrating creativity in all its varied expressions, using the Arts as a way of challenging injustice and bringing life, beauty and humanity into a world filled with struggle & pain
Liturgical Transformations
Art has been an integral part of St. James for many years: in early 2000, artist Carol Marples, with the rector Steve Butler, drawing on their creative liturgical experience, began experimenting with different artistic forms in the worship and its space, which developed into ‘liturgical transformations’; the visual changing of the worship environment each new liturgical season. These transformations, have and continue, to include all ages and abilities, creating a strong ownership by the congregation of their worship space, while also offering a creative environment to the many community groups that use the space.
Visual Theology
In our present context the Art surrounding the space, with a central hanging, is interwoven into our worship, often reflecting the focus of the sermons and prayers, creating a Visual Theology for our community. This Visual Theology is deliberately incarnational and hands-on, as the community physically works with traditional and non-traditional art materials - paint, wire, paper, wood, and cloth and quotidian objects - involving a bodily wrestling and engagement with the gospel narratives that speak to us and our world.
Symbolic and ritualised actions
Included in our worship are symbolic and ritualised actions: binding a stick with bandage-like cloth in our prayers to symbolise the healing of wounds in our world; ‘preparing the way’ by erasing a pathway on a scribbly, messy wall; creating and hanging butterflies on our central hanging as a symbol of resurrection.
‘Through this [experience], I learned more in my head, heart and depths of being that I hold on to than I had learned through years of preaching...So for me, art is a means of spiritual understanding.’ 1
Art at St. James is an important expression of who we are: it is about inclusion enabling all members of the community to contribute and take creative ownership of the space; it’s about creating beauty; it’s about taking risks with the space rather than creating perfect aesthetic art; it’s about not staying still but about journeying together as our communal story unfolds.
‘I thought it was absolutely wonderful and inspirational to worship in a room which changes throughout the year…In most places of worship things tend to stay the way they have always been…At St James I got the impression of a community constantly looking for something new that God will do among them – an inspiring experience.’ 2
Carol Marples: Arts and Spirituality Facilitator.
1 Comment from a St.James participant in: Sara Schumacher, ‘From Artist to Participant to Artist: An Assessment of Participatory Art in the Life of the Church’.M.Litt.Thesis in Theology, Imagination and the Arts 31 August 2010. University of St Andrews, School of Divinity. 40.2 Soul Marks Newsletter, Summer 2009. Rev. Camilla Veitch, a visiting URC minister
More images and information can be found on a dedicated page on the Soul Marks website.
http://www.soulmarks.co.uk/home/soul-marks-worshops/art-and-worship/st-james-episcopal-church-leith/
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