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In this video Betsey Steele Halstead walks through basic elements of visual design and how they work in the context of gathered worship.  This is a great resource for thinking through how to work with the visual arts and design in an existing church building.

As Sojourn is in the process of 40 days of prayer, an artwork keeps coming up in my mind.  Sojourner Michael Diaz made the sculptural piece ‘The New American Standard’ for the Holy Lands exhibit at the 930 gallery earlier this summer.

This artwork looks exactly like a traditional prayer kneeler found in any kind of Christian chapel.  There is a simple wooden cross on the wall.  The only other objects that are part of the piece are a new Bible, New American Standard version, and a small shelf with three plastic Viewmasters.  If you aren’t familiar, Viewmasters are toy slide viewers that allow you to click through a series of small illuminated images when held up to light.   The commercial use of Viewmasters in the 70’s and 80’s, at least as I remember it, was to sell postcard-style images of Disney World or Sea World.  For this piece the artist has found a way to make his own Viewmaster slides of images from holy sites in Israel.  The images are mostly of market places surrounding the Holy Sites – hundreds of holy water containers for sale, endless rows of saint statues, and money changing hands.

The combination of symbols in this artwork offers a lot of directions for interpretation.  The context of the white wall gallery and the plastic oddity of the included Viewmasters make it clear that this is not a typical place for genuine prayer. The images hidden inside the Viewfinder tie the meaning together and reveal the substance of this artwork’s ambition.  The title, ‘The New American Standard,” further clues us in to the irony intended by the artist.  The New American Standard is a specific English translation of the Bible, but the phrase also is easily understood to represent the high standard of American living and the ever increasing felt pressure to meet that standard. The artist is tying together American consumerism with Israel’s tourist economy and showing how religion, and specifically prayer, is thwarted as a result of ‘the lust of our eyes’ and the subsequent release of finances.

Coming from a Protestant background, in a tradition that is weary of the ‘stuff’ of religion, Michael Diaz has pointed out the inevitable results of comingling the search for God and stuff.  We end up with a spirituality attached to plastic and detached from any environment conducive to genuine prayer.

Someone recently shared with me a definition of prayer I like very much.  As understood by philosopher Dallas Willard, “Prayer is talking to God about what He and I are doing together.”  Surely the American standard of seeking new stuff all the time gets in the way of healthy communication to God.

On June 27, 2009 The Shotgun Fest returns to Germantown.  It will be located at St. Therese and go on from Noon - 9:00.  It's a small neighborhood festival with music, food, and just hang out time with neighbors.  This year they are also offering free booth space for artists and crafters.  You might have to do some searching to figure out how to get involved because I don't have the correct contact information unless you have a myspace.  Here's the shotgun fest myspace page.

The music schedule looks pretty good too:

Steve Halla, local master of art and theology, recently found himself in the unenviable position of being put on public radio to talk about art and spirituality with fabric artist Penny Sisto and former Speed museum director Peter Morrin on NPR's State of Affairs.  I say unenviable only because I know I wouldn't want that pressure of being on live radio talking about something so tricky to talk about.

All of the participants had good insights, given their particular backgrounds, interests, and spiritual practices.  One challenge of such a conversation in that context is to say anything substantial without being pigeon-holed as a narrow-minded fundamentalist.  The other challenge is to say anything substantial without dwindling into a meaningless gooey spiritual-ness, but it's worth a listen.

You can listen to the program on the State of Affairs website.