Re-imaging faith & contemplating art

I'm looking forward to speaking at St Luke's Maidenhead on Thursday 27 September at 7.45pm. I'll be giving an illustrated presentation on 'Visual Art: re-imaging the Christian story'. Details here.

In my talk I'll be arguing that the Gospel story needs to be told afresh for every generation. Art used by the church similarly needs to be re-imaged and re-imagined for each generation. My ordained ministry has provided a wide range of opportunities to engage with such re-imaging and I therefore want to share some examples from the churches with which I have been associated to explore the benefits to the Church of engaging with this re-imaging.

In the talk that I gave last Thursday at the HeartEdge church & culture event on visual art at St Cuthbert's Edinburgh argued that the kind of looking that is needed to view art has significant synergies with the practices of prayer and contemplation in the Christian tradition. In the talk I highlighted the ways in which slowness, stillness and silence aid contemplation in both contexts and suggested that paying attention begins with an immersion in dimensions and details before considering sources, context and responses.

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Michael McDermott - Carry Your Cross.