A small group of us spent a delightful and rich day in Catford exploring the theme of 'Art and Prayer', on 5th June. We enjoyed a range of activities,starting with looking at a wide variety of wonderful images from the Methodist Church's art collection. This illustrated great diversity of styles, and helped inspire our own work. (NB many of the originals will be on show at Wallspace in the City of London over coming weeks- see below- and we also hope to organise another event working with some of this art at a future date.) We then moved into a meditation using a text from Isaiah as a starting point, and moving into a powerful contemplative making activity. We were able to spend some time exploring the prayerful space within the modern and unusual St Laarence's Church, and then each made a large 'prayer station' intended for group/public use, rather than private use. Some of us were rather dubious about this initially, but the exercise was a very positive one, both the making and the sharing of our responses . While everyone's response to each image was different (and sometimes surprising), all of them helped open a spiritual space for us.
This event focused primarily on Christian understandings of prayer, and on experiencing how art has been and can used in prayer. I hope in future we may build on this to explore some other traditions too, and also explore what different traditions and those outside organised religion mean by prayer, and different views and experiences on how art may behelpful for prayer - or not - and vice-versa.
Some other participants' comments....
‘introduction and reflection were very helpful in quietening the spirit’
‘a lot of space to participate in the activities’
‘the Stations exercise was excellent... very powerful’
‘sharing was important’