08/24/2007
What One Congregation Can Do
by Ted Jackson
Our friend Ted Jackson from Trinity Episcopal Church in St. Louis, Missouri shares this story of how one congregation is using the arts to bring the MDGs to the people.
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| Trinity parishioners recently assembled an exhibit of original artwork entitled "Bringing in the Reign of God Through the Millennium Development Goals". As a self-defined radically inclusive and progressive congregation, Trinity formed its Arts Committee two years ago to showcase the talents which normally go unnoticed in parish life and to allow these talents to find expression in the church setting. The congregation's first art exhibit, which consists of parishioners' interpretations of the stations of the cross, has traveled to other congregations in the Diocese of Missouri for display. The current project highlights the artists' relationship to the Millennium Development Goals and was intentionally open to all forms of artwork, including poetry, fiction, and music. The artists involved spent copious amounts of time contemplating how they could embody the MDGs in tangible art, a process which is difficult even without a subject as abstract as "eradicate world poverty", one of the goals. For my part, I formed a collage out of packaging from household items he uses. He comments about his project that "consumer culture and advertising draw us away from giving our money to the causes that really need it and persuade us that we are somehow more deserving of luxury goods than our neighbors across the ocean. Deconstructing the packaging of the things I buy from week to week helped me realize how rich we Americans truly are, but how little of these riches we are willing to share with others." For more information on this exhibit, you can email Ted. For more information on artists in the Episcopal Church, check out the Episcopal Church a |
