A matter of perspective

The Episcopal Church Welcomes YouI’ll begin by thanking Ann for sending the link to a Wall Street Journal article titled What Ails the Episcopalians by Jay Akasie. The article appears online in the “Houses of Worship” column on the Opinion webpage. The article states that Jay Akasie is “a journalist and Episcopalian” living in New York.

Jay’s article has evoked a strong critical response from those who attended the General Convention. Rather than tell you what to think I encourage you to read the article for yourself. Remember: just because it is published by the Wall Street Journal (or any newspaper or news service) there is no guarantee it is accurate. The critical responses (which I encourage you to read as well) especially point out factual errors in the opinion piece.

The article in question

Three responses to the article

I am more hopeful than ever about the desire of our Episcopal Church to seek and know God’s will and then have the courage to act upon that knowledge. I am more hopeful than ever that we will find a way forward together even if we don’t agree with each other on specific items.

7/13/12—Maturing in wisdom and age

Jesus matured in wisdom and years, and in favor with God and with people. Luke 2:52 CEB

Introducing 2 new items for our blog

Luke tells us that when his frantic parents found Jesus (who had been lost to them several days) in the Temple they reprimanded him, brought him home, that, in her heart, Mary treasured all she had witnessed, and finally that “Jesus matured in wisdom and years…” (Luke 2:52)

  1. From time to time those of us who post here will offer an “Aside, Link, Quote, Status update, or other short note” as part of OUR “maturing in wisdom and age.” These will be shorter than a full post. They will be a “quick read.”
  2. As you may remember we make our posts within a particular “category.” In the right hand column you will now find a convenient drop down list titled “Go to this category.” Use it to take you to those posts (and quick notes) in a specific category (like Art & Music).

Let us know what you think about these additions. Thanks for being part of the Sunday Morning Forum at St. Margaret’s in Palm Desert, CA.

Texts of terror

Sacred Scripture, Violent Verses: How Should We Read the Bible’s Texts of Terror?

The sacred scriptures we use contain lots of violence (just recently our Sunday lectionary texts have featured a number of beheadings and this Sunday 7/15 we hear Mark’s account of the death (by beheading) of John the Baptist).

Daniel Clendenin explores our sometimes uneasy relationship with scripture, especially these “texts of terror” a term first used by Phyllis Tickle to describe them. Go to Sacred Scripture, Violent Verses: How Should We Read the Bible’s Texts of Terror? This is the essay for the week on Journey with Jesus (a weekly E-zine I frequently visit; the archived material is wonderful, too). ~dan

Herod and Salome | Art for B Proper 10

Mark 6:25 At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

Herod and Salome
ROMANESQUE SCULPTOR, French
(active c. 1120 in Toulouse)
Herod and Salome
c. 1120
Stone
Musée des Augustins, Toulouse

Click image for more information.

Commentary by Hovak Najarian
(Previous post July 15, 2012)

The word capital is known to us as both a monetary term and as the location of a seat of government. Unless a person is familiar with architecture, the head of a column may not come to mind. Stone columns were at first replacements for tree trunks but as architectural forms developed, psychological as well as physical factors came into play. At the bottom of a column a supporting base gives it the appearance of resting on the floor, not growing out of it. The “capital,” an embellishment at the top of a column, gives it a sense of completeness. Capitals of Egyptian columns were often in the form of lotus blossoms. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian are names given to capitals used by the Greeks; these are familiar to us today because we continue to see them in classical revival architecture. In Romanesque church architecture, capitals of basket weave and intertwining vines were often carved but also they depicted biblical events. In Herod and Salome we see a detail from a capital that was once in the cloister of Saint Etienne, Toulouse, France. [The cloister was destroyed completely and this relief is now in a museum in Toulouse.]

In the familiar biblical story, Herod was attracted to his brother’s wife, Herodias. She decided to divorce her husband and marry Herod. John the Baptist was quite vocal in stating this marriage was unlawful; this angered Herodias so she asked Herod to imprison him. When Herodias’ daughter danced at Herod’s birthday banquet, Herod was pleased immensely and promised her anything she would ask. Her mother, who despised John for criticizing her marriage, told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Herod felt he could not go back on his word and granted the wish.

This relief of Herod and Salome is on a capital that was placed on double columns next to a wall. On the front (not shown) is a scene of a table set with food and people are gathered there to celebrate Herod’s birthday. Around the corner on the left side (pictured here) we see Herod seated with his step-daughter standing next to him; her feet are crossed at the ankles in a dance position. Herod’s left hand is placed gently under her chin in a tender moment as he looks at her in admiration. In this relief, she is child-like and unlike the “Salome” depicted usually as a seductive symbol of wickedness. This event is given in narrative form and is completed on the opposite side. On the right side of the capital, (around the corner from the banquet scene), John the Baptist is leaning over being beheaded.

Note

In the Gospel of St. Mark the name of Herodias’ daughter’s is not given. Historian Flavius Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, supplied us with the name “Salome.” The “Dance of the Seven Veils,” said to have been performed by her, also is not mentioned. This dance is likely the result of transferring and embellishing the story of Assyrian and Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar’s visit to the underworld. On her way she shed a piece of clothing as she passed through each of seven gates. Because of its emotional content, the story of Herod and Salome often is told with vivid imagination and has been exploited in all of the arts.

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© 2012 Hovak Najarian

Herod and Salome (detail from The Feast of Herod capital) c.1120, Limestone, Gilabertus de Toulouse (12th century)

Commentary by Hovak Najarian

Related post B Proper 10, Art for July 15, 2012

The word capital is known to us as both a monetary term and as the location of a seat of government. Unless a person is familiar with architecture, the head of a column may not come to mind. Stone columns were at first replacements for tree trunks but as architectural forms developed, psychological as well as physical factors came into play. At the bottom of a column a supporting base gives it the appearance of resting on the floor, not growing out of it. The “capital,” an embellishment at the top of a column, gives it a sense of completeness. Capitals of Egyptian columns were often in the form of lotus blossoms. Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian are names given to capitals used by the Greeks; these are familiar to us today because we continue to see them in classical revival architecture. In Romanesque church architecture, capitals of basket weave and intertwining vines were often carved but also they depicted biblical events. In Herod and Salome we see a detail from a capital that was once in the cloister of Saint Etienne, Toulouse, France. [The cloister was destroyed completely and this relief is now in a museum in Toulouse.]

In the familiar biblical story, Herod was attracted to his brother’s wife, Herodias. She decided to divorce her husband and marry Herod. John the Baptist was quite vocal in stating this marriage was unlawful; this angered Herodias so she asked Herod to imprison him. When Herodias’ daughter danced at Herod’s birthday banquet, Herod was pleased immensely and promised her anything she would ask. Her mother, who despised John for criticizing her marriage, told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Herod felt he could not go back on his word and granted the wish.

This relief of Herod and Salome is on a capital that was placed on double columns next to a wall. On the front (not shown) is a scene of a table set with food and people are gathered there to celebrate Herod’s birthday. Around the corner on the left side (pictured here) we see Herod seated with his step-daughter standing next to him; her feet are crossed at the ankles in a dance position. Herod’s left hand is placed gently under her chin in a tender moment as he looks at her in admiration. In this relief, she is child-like and unlike the “Salome” depicted usually as a seductive symbol of wickedness. This event is given in narrative form and is completed on the opposite side. On the right side of the capital, (around the corner from the banquet scene), John the Baptist is leaning over being beheaded.

Note

In the Gospel of St. Mark the name of Herodias’ daughter’s is not given. Historian Flavius Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews, supplied us with the name “Salome.” The “Dance of the Seven Veils,” said to have been performed by her, also is not mentioned. This dance is likely the result of transferring and embellishing the story of Assyrian and Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar’s visit to the underworld. On her way she shed a piece of clothing as she passed through each of seven gates. Because of its emotional content, the story of Herod and Salome often is told with vivid imagination and has been exploited in all of the arts.

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© 2012 Hovak Najarian

The Ecstasy of St. Paul, 1649-50, Oil on Canvas, Nicolas Poussin (1594- 1665)

Commentary by Hovak Najarian

Related post B Proper 9, Art for July 8, 2012

Hovak Najarian

At the end of the fifteenth century, Renaissance artists had opened the way for an expansion of ideas but the direction art would take was not clear until the latter part of the century that followed. Whereas Renaissance artists retained a connection to classicism, the art that began in the late sixteenth century and lasted until mid-eighteenth century – referred to collectively as “Baroque” – moved beyond classicism into an area of drama and fantasy. During this time the boundaries of art were pushed and the classical images of the Renaissance gave way to exuberant and ornate forms. Often painting, architecture and sculpture were coordinated for dramatic effects that tended to overwhelm the senses. It was a time when technical difficulties did not stand in the way of artists. Light and shadow, perspective, foreshortening, and virtually all other problems dealing with the creation of an illusion of three dimensions on a surface had been overcome. Artists could give free reign to their ideas and imagination.

In 1624, Nicolas Poussin, left Paris to settle in Rome and through his work became the most renowned French artist of the seventeenth century. In subject matter, he became attracted to mythological as well as real life heroes of ancient Rome and although it was a time when art tended to be full of unbridled activity, his work tended to be restrained; his working methods were deliberate. When asked about his well thought out compositions, he said, “I am forced by my nature towards the orderly.” During the mid-1630s, in addition to painting subjects from mythology and history, Poussin turned his attention to subjects from the Bible.

In The Ecstasy of St. Paul, Poussin depicts Paul being escorted by three angels as he starts his journey heavenward. The lead angel is pointing the way. In organizing this composition, Poussin was faced with a problem of how to deal with so many arms, legs, and angel’s wings. He resolved the problem by having some of the limbs out of sight and connecting others by touch. Paul, in the center of what seems to be an entangled scene, is in a laid-back position with arms raised. The angel on the left has a hand under the knee of his right leg. The angel on the right, whose face is in shadow, has a hand on the ankle of Paul’s left leg. The uppermost angel is touching his left hand lightly as if to guide him upward but no real lifting is being done. The angels are there primarily to accompany Paul while a sweeping landscape and billowing clouds serve as a backdrop. Below them are the symbols associated with Paul; a book that represents the word of God and a sword. The sword indicates he was at one time a persecutor of the Church and then, after his conversion, took up the Sword of the Spirit; the bound book refers to his epistles.

Note

“Baroque” first came into use as a somewhat derisive term. It was used in France to mean something unusual, bizarre, or even poorly made, but the source of the word is unclear. It may have come from the Spanish word berrucco for an irregular (uncultured) pearl or from the Portuguese barroco for hilly or uneven ground. The root of these words may be from the Latin verruca meaning a slight flaw. In view of the turning, undulating, and convoluted shapes found in a great deal of Baroque art, any of these suggested origins are plausible.

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© 2012 Hovak Najarian

Lessons learned at St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic

Lessons learned at St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic

Here is a real-life example of what it means to be a “missional” church. This is posted by the Episcopal News Service.

Lessons learned at St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic

Here is a real-life example of what it means to be a “missional” church. This is posted by the Episcopal News Service.

Come Holy Spirit

Fifteen years ago The Rev. G. Bradford Hall, 4th rector of St. Margaret’s, died. Brad’s oft prayed sermon prayer, iconic of his service and inspirational to the service of many of us, was simple, direct, compelling.

Come Holy Spirit,
Come with your fire and burn us.
Come with your rain and cleanse us.
Come with your light and reveal to us.
Convict us, convert us, consecrate us
Until we choose to do something with our lives.

Many who remember Brad and his prayer and others who encounter the prayer anew ask where did Brad get it.

A year after Brad’s passing his collected sermons were published in THE JOURNEY HOME…Make It A Good One and in that book compiler Peggy Herz Smith tells of the source of ‘Brad’s Prayer’.

Brad and Carol Hall were living in Coronado, California, when they decided one Sunday to go to a nearby Methodist Church. Brad didn’t like what he heard in the sermon that day, so he wrote the minister a blistering letter. The minister, whose name was Tom Warmer, invited this stranger to his office to talk about his anger. “Once over my initial feelings toward him, I found in Tom a warm, sensitive, accepting person,” Brad later wrote. “We talked more, I shared more … and before long I had poured out a tearful confession of guilt, anger, fright, hope, anxiety. I was totally embarrassed and planned to flee, but Tom accepted who I was and where I was. It was a turning point for me and, as I reflect on it now, a real conversion experience. I joined his church the next Sunday. In this church I experienced my Protestant reformation. I heard Bible stories, attended Sunday school and listened to great preaching. With the talent of a great Wesleyan preacher, Tom brought these stories alive not only to me but to the whole town. His church was packed every Sunday.” It was from Tom Warmer that Brad first heard the prayer which he was to use so often during his ministry. He changed the wording occasionally, but never the heart of the beautiful words: “Come Holy Spirit, Come with your fire and burn us … Convict us, convert us, consecrate us … Until we do something with our lives.”

I thought I’d track Warmer down – offer my thanks for his influential prayer – but I didn’t have any luck. An internet search yielded the church but when I called I was told that Tom Warmer was no longer at that Methodist Church and they heard that he had a ‘store front’ church downtown somewhere. A brief conversation with a retired Methodist Minister acquaintance confirmed that Warmer had left the church. So I left it at that for a dozen plus years.

Renewed interest, this year, in ‘Brad’s Prayer’ prompted me to search again. Online I did find Coronado Community Church and on their website they acknowledge Pastor Emeritus Tom Warmer.

Here’s their website http://www.coronadocommunitychurch.org/

I especially like their statement of “What We Believe”

We believe God speaks in many languages and has revealed divine truth in the major religious traditions of the human race. Our central belief is that Jesus Christ is Lord. But in proclaiming that Jesus is the way and the truth does not preclude that his way may also be manifest in religions that do not worship him as Lord. We believe there is a mystery of how God works in our traditions exceeding our knowledge and control. We celebrate the revelation of God presented in the Holy Bible and trust God’s Spirit to unlock how we are to understand divine truth and apply it to our lives.

Thanks again Tom.

B Proper 8, Art for July 1, 2012

OVERBECK, Friedrich
(b. 1789, Lübeck, d. 1869, Roma) Click to open Web Gallery of Art Artist Biography and to explore other works by this artist.

Christ Resurrects the Daughter of Jairus
1815
Pen with black ink over pencil, watercolour, 307 x 373 mm
Staatliche Museen, BerlinClick to open Web Gallery of Art commentary page. Click image for large view.

Related art commentary by Hovak Najarian.

Christ Resurrects the Daughter of Jairus, 1815, Pen/ink and Watercolor, Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869)

Commentary by Hovak Najarian

Related post B Proper 8, Art for July 1, 2012

In the early nineteenth century there were two, often opposing, stylistic directions in art; Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Neoclassicists turned to the works of the Greeks, Romans, and the Renaissance as the basis for their work and made art an intellectual pursuit. It was the official art of the academies in France but the romanticists of this time preferred to follow their hearts and often painted subjects having dramatic content. Friedrich Overbeck was born in Germany where a tendency toward romanticism was strong. As a mature painter his subjects were usually Biblical and like the romanticists, they contained emotional content but he lived in Rome and as seen in Christ Resurrects the Daughter of Jairus, he was influenced greatly by the classicism found in Renaissance painting.

As a young man, Overbeck studied art at the Vienna Academy and it was during this time that he recognized his desire to bring a spiritual quality back into art. In 1909, while still a student, he and others of likeminded values founded a group called, “The Brotherhood of Saint Luke,” and imagined being like medieval guild painters. A year later he and his friends went to Rome where they decided to live in a former monastery and remain somewhat in seclusion like monks. They were joined by several other German artists who shared Overbeck’s desire for spirituality in art. Because they affected Biblical manners in their clothes and hair styles, they soon were dubbed, “Nazarenes.” Rome became Overbeck’s adopted home and he lived there for the remainder of his life.

Overbeck had long admired the work of Albrecht Durer and when he arrived in Rome he studied the works of Raphael as well. The influence of both of these artists is evident in Christ Resurrects the Daughter of Jairus. The robes are very much in the style of Raphael and, in the tableau-like dramatic setting and composition it has elements in common with Durer’s woodcuts. Overbeck’s subject for this painting (which is primarily a drawing with added watercolors) is based on accounts in the Gospels in which a patron of the synagogue, Jairus, asks Jesus to come to heal his dying daughter. By the time Jesus was asked, however, his daughter may have been already dead. When Jesus arrived at Jairus’ home, a wailing crowed was there and they laughed when they were told the girl is not dead but asleep. Jesus sent them out and took the girl’s hand saying, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” Overbeck’s painting depicts the moment when the girl rises up in bed looking pale and gaunt. Her eyes are still closed.

In this painting, the figure of Christ gets our attention immediately; he is in a dark blue robe and placed in the center of the painting. The figure of Christ also serves as a visual barrier that keeps our focus on the left half of the painting where the miraculous event is occurring. Jesus is holding the girl’s hand and at the same time he is looking directly at her face. Behind the girl with his hands clasped is Jairus and off to the right and away from the immediate action is a passive group of figures that came with Jesus; they are waiting quietly as Christ takes the girl’s hand and asks her to get up. Farther back are figures leaving as they exit through an arched opening; it is likely these are the last of the people told by Jesus to leave. Like the neoclassicists, Overbeck has kept his composition cool and uncluttered; our eyes move to different areas of this painting with ease but we always return to the interaction between Jesus and the girl.

This exceptionally well-balanced composition does not break new ground in art, yet in Overbeck’s painting there is subdued color that gives it serenity. It gives us a story without overwhelming us with details. There is a sense that he wanted to depict this event simply and honestly without taking attention away from it with excessive visual effects.
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© 2012 Hovak Najarian