A Spirituality of Beauty
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A Spirituality of Beauty
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| A Prayer
O God">
Return to Episcopal
Spirituality A Spirituality of Beauty O God, whom saints and angels delight
to worship in heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek
through art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on
earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, and make them
worthy at length to behold it unveiled for evermore; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen. -Book
of Common Prayer, p. 819
"Since the earliest centuries, the church has
employed sign and symbol and image to draw men and women more deeply
into the life of Christ. ...As we experience God's creative hand through
the work of these visual artists, perhaps we will see with greater
clarity our own identity and charisms as a community of faith, and know
more fully what we are to share with our world." -The Most
Rev. Frank T. Griswold; Presiding Bishop and Primate; The Episcopal
Church. -From his welcome to the Episcopal Church and Visual Arts
website. Here are links to organizations and resources.
The Ecclesiological
Society - The Society had a major influence on
the development of church architecture during the mid-nineteenth century.
The site has interesting links and resources. The Episcopal Church
and the Visual Arts - A web gallery of artists Anglican
Cathedrals - A tour of those in world capitals "The potential influence of artists on contemporary
approaches to religion and spirituality is immense. Although
artists seldom command regular audiences the way clergy do,
their work is widely distributed through the mass media and in
galleries, museums, bookstores, and retreat centers. People
look to artists for inspiration because they seem to have
expressed something of everybody's person struggles or simply
because they articulate fresh, surprising, even shocking
views. "But the main reason for the current interest in
artists' spirituality is that American culture itself is
deeply unsettled. While a sizable minority of the public
continues to participate regularly in weekend religious
services, most Americans believe it important to make up their
own minds about spirituality. They may hold the clergy in high
regard but feel it is equally important to absorb the wisdom
of poets and musicians....Artists provide models of how to say
something about one's experiences of the sacred when rational
discourse comes up short. "Artists' life stories...sometimes reveal an intense
spiritual journey behind a work of art. Their narratives are
full of sadness as well as joy, failure as well as success,
questions as well as answers. They show the importance of
reflecting on the brokenness of life in order to find
coherence." |