Calling All Visual Artists

Word of Life Mural by Millard Sheets, 1907-1989.
From the Art in the Christian Tradition Collection at Vanderbilt.

Here at CtK we tend to do a pretty good job of celebrating the musical gifts of members of the congregation. Last Sunday we enjoyed an anthem by the adult choir, and a new mini wind ensemble played along with a couple of the hymns. This coming Sunday, the Sunday School choir will sing, and worship will be lead by a group with contemporary instrumentation.
That said, there are lots of folks with gifts in the VISUAL arts as well, and this summer, we'd like to celebrate and appreciate those gifts through a series of original bulletin covers. Anything that can be scanned, or have a a photo taken of it, will work. So, if you are a painter, sculptor, photographer, calligrapher, fiber artist, mixed media artist, drawer, scrapbooker, etc., and you are interested in participating in this series, please let Pastor Lindean know!
The goal is to have an original cover every Sunday June-August, inspired by the readings from the Revised Common Lectionary for the day. It could be the Old Testament reading, the Psalm, Epistle or Gospel lesson that inspires you. We hope each artist will also write a brief statement about their work and the inspiration behind it. Questions? Talk to Pastor Lindean.
Not a visual artist? Encourage someone who is, enjoy the growing "gallery" in the narthex and social hall, and be sure to thank those who do participate in this series.

Summer Dreamin'

All this cold weather has me perusing the gardening books at the library and thinking about fun things to do this summer. How about you?

Here are some great ideas for summer 2010:

Go to camp! It's not just for children and youth anymore. Both Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp and Christikon have Family Camps and camp experiences specifically for adults. Check them out! There are so many great opportunities!

Camp not your thing? Prefer to spend some time working on or learning some new artistic skills? Check out the Grunewald Guild, a community of art and faith. The Guild, located in Plain, Washington (not far from Leavenworth, and only a few hours northeast of Seattle) is one of my favorite places on earth. I've only been there twice, but can't wait to go back! My first time there I spent a week learning calligraphy in the morning and "fabric embellishment" in the afternoon. The second summer there I spent the mornings in a creative writing class and the afternoons in "clay paper sculpture." Swing by my office sometime and I'll show you the results.

Children of God

Happy 6th Day of Christmas!

We're busy getting those "end of the year" things done here in the CtK office. Good times!!

And like every week, it's sermon preparation time!

Here's the latest comic from Agnus Day, a fun lectionary comic I subscribe to by email. The Gospel reading this Sunday is John 1:10-18.

Enjoy!

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

The day between

Holy Saturday is a strange day. Not much happens in many congregations today (though if a congregation has an Easter vigil, there's A LOT happening). At this point we do not have a tradition of the Easter vigil, so apart from a dedicated crew setting up the worship space for tomorrow morning, and a couple of folks reading for Cover-to-Cover (our congregation's attempt to read the whole Bible during Lent - we didn't quite finish - good thing Easter lasts for 50 days!) there hasn't really been a lot of activity here.

Grant and I ran by Costco to get bagels (our donation for tomorrow morning's brunch) and there was TONS of activity there.

Consider this latest edition of Cafe - the zine for the younger Women of the ELCA crowd. (Yes, you can still read it, even if you don't fit into that "younger woman" demographic.) It begins with some wondering together about Holy Saturday, and continues with how art can be a sign of rebirth to new life. Let me know what you think.