JE. You are also a painter yourself and the walls of Bishop’s Lodge are decorated with your work. Can you say a little about your own art; its styles and motivations?
DH. I am inspired by landscape. Most of what I paint has its inspiration in landscape. I can’t help but be influenced by landscapes and townscapes. As early as I can remember I have enjoyed walking in the countryside. I also enjoy mountain climbing and grasp any opportunities to get out into wide open spaces. My ministry has mainly been urban and time in the countryside is a counterpoint to where I’ve tended to live in my ministry. But I’m also inspired by colourful, busy townscapes and the quirkiness of that as well.
JE. Your interest and engagement with the Arts has public and private aspects to it. Do you see a kind of synergy there with the public and private aspects of faith?
DH. I am at my most integrated and feel most myself when I am painting. I find painting challenging and demanding but extremely therapeutic. It is a spiritual activity but too much romance can be talked about painting and prayer. Essentially, I feel most fully myself when I am painting.
JE. It is often suggested that the contemporary Church has not engaged with the Arts well. Through your ministry as a Bishop you see a broad range of ministry being undertaken in parishes and at the diocesan level. Do you see an interest and engagement with the Arts as you travel around and have you found ways of encouraging that engagement where you have found it?
DH. I think there is a big need to re-engage with the Arts. The Church has had a lengthy and happy marriage with the Arts in the past but this has eroded in recent times.
A good example of what can be done is The Last Supper murals I commissioned for the Chapel of St George’s Crypt in Leeds. This is an example of taking ‘high’ art into a project that was for homeless people. We were juxtaposing art with those who are excluded in Leeds society. Steve Simpson, the artist, painted The Last Supper in the round such that the paintings of the Apostles would be on the wall next to contemporary worshippers. He worked from photos of some of the homeless people so there was a sense of the present day inhabitants of the Crypt being points of reference for the Apostles. This is taking art into a public space and enabling daily interaction from those using the space. It was also part of creative writing workshops that encouraged creativity in those using the Crypt.
I also designed a stained glass window for the 150th Anniversary of St George’s. As part of a re-ordering of the Church we took out some gallery seating and uncovered clear glass in the base of a lancet stained glass window. We then needed to complete the window and the challenge was to create something contemporary but that was also fitting in terms of colour, tone and leading so that the window would read as a piece and have integrity.
JE. How could a greater engagement with the Arts be encouraged by the Church and what would be the value of such an engagement?
DH. I agree with Rowan Williams that the Church needs more artists and “that artists are not special people but every person is a special kind of artist.” I think that there is great scope in the Church encouraging creative expression in everyone as this is a way of helping us to be fully human. Where appropriate that flowering of artistic expression can be expressed in Church as, for example, an outflow of worship. We are fellow-creators with God and need to remember that he is creator as well as redeemer.
The relationship between Church life and music has sustained through the centuries but the connection been Church and theatre has suffered. There is great scope for dance and drama in Church, as well as the visual arts. There is great scope for recovering those connections that have fallen into decline.
There needs to be a toughness of regulation as to what objects of art become permanent features in a Church. Hence the proper activity of Diocesan Advisory Committees whose responsibility it is to ensure that the heritage of our Churches is enhanced over the decades. However, there is great scope for pieces of art and scripture to be located in Church as well as dance and drama. There is a particular challenge when art is to be a permanent fixture in church buildings but you can do anything temporarily!
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Aretha Franklin & Mavis Staples - We Need Power.
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