The Holiness of Beauty
The architect Christopher Stroik suggests that the real power of sacred architecture is not in its beauty, but rather in its ability to mirror and serve the spiritual life of the pilgrims who journey to it.  Stroik believes that the real test of the greatness of any sacred architecture in not in the number of tourists who visit, but rather the number of pilgrims who are drawn to it for prayer, or intercession or devotion.  Sacred architecture is not ultimately evaluated by its “good lines and proportions”, but rather how it calls and shapes an individual at prayer or a community at worship.  Stroik suggests that even those who venture to a sacred site for just the aesthetic experience, have their spiritual and emotional batteries charged in some way.

Likewise, Rabbi Hoffman makes the distinction between tourists and pilgrims.  Hoffmann suggests that these are places in which we cross a portal and leave behind our titles, our debts to one another, our day to day affairs, and enter as equals.  Sacred sites serve our spiritual journeys and transform us from people with distinctions into a pilgrim people on journey together.  Hoffmann believes that these can also be places that help us focus our attention, our prayers, and our concerns at the feet of an intercessor who will help us shoulder the burden or empower us for the journey.

Beth El
Rabbi Laurence Hoffman outlines three ways in which we recognize a place as a scared site.  The first is seen in the beauty of some physical geography.  Rabbi Hoffman calls this a place of inherent sacredness.  This is a place in which people instinctively recognize the hand of God.  Humans are drawn to lakes, rivers, deserts, prairies, and mountains.  All these places are also markers of all primal religious traditions and the foundation stones of more modern spiritual practices.  We need only climb to the summit of a mountain to observe the wonderment of hikers now perched silently on the rocks of the summit.  This kind of sacred site transforms our collective souls and slows us down to see and to ponder.  This is a place in which there is universal consensus that we are witnessing God’s hand in our world … this is indeed holy ground. 

The second kind of sacred site we recognize is a place in which God was once made present in human history.  Hoffman calls this a place of historical sacredness.  Sacred texts are filled with descriptions of such places, and humans often mark these sites with shrines for pilgrims and seekers to visit.  But this type of sacred place might also mark the location of some courageous human action empowered by the spirit of God.  Such a site might be a battlefield in which liberty or freedom was won, or a courthouse where justice was secured, or a place where a community came together to serve the needs of the least among themselves.  Anywhere God’s presence was experienced, any place that brings us together or where God’s justice prevails is indeed holy ground.

Hoffman suggests that there is also a third way that a place becomes a sacred site.  These are places that are works of the imagination and human craftsmanship, and when completed, God is invited to move in.  Hoffman call these places of human construction creative sacredness.  Certainly, the myriad of churches and cemeteries that dot our local landscape are examples of this kind of sacredness.  Built by the local faithful who had the audacity and the confidence that God would not only move in but would sustain the works of their hands.  Whether these constructions be grand or small, these creative works of the community become recognized, in time, as holy ground.      

Ora et Labora at Thomas Chapel
Thomas Chapel shifted from being an active site of creative sacredness when the congregation transferred its energy elsewhere in 1972.  But human intuition suggests that a place’s sacredness is irreversible.  For nearly 50 years Thomas Chapel has retained its creative sacredness “in potential”.  This place has had the good fortune to be well built, looked after by a few local historians and visionaries, and guarded over by nearly a century and a half of saints and sinners, enslaved and free spirits who worshiped their God in this place.  So, the question becomes, “Can Thomas Chapel make a return as a place of creative sacredness?” 
 
Certainly, going back to its prior use as a worshiping congregation is probably not an option.  The congregation’s energy refocused elsewhere for a variety of reasons.  The chapel’s rural isolation, a lack of amenities and programming, a struggle to sustain pastoral leadership, the cost of maintenance, and changes to ways Methodists came to understand church and worship all worked in tandem to foster a decline in both participation and creativity.  While those reasons were certainly grounds for evolution and change, the loss of this place does not have to be inevitable or irreversible.   
 
Portiuncula Guild’s desire to restore Thomas Chapel as a place for assembly, retreat, meditation, prayer, and yoga is rooted in the growing awareness that love, mindfulness, and the search for truth are ultimately deeply anchored in a ministry of imagination and pilgrimage.  The work of renewing this local landmark is also rooted in the growing hope that creative folks and spiritual seekers of all denominations and all faiths can find common values and in turn create the possibility of conducting a dialogue with one another to build mutual respect and charity.  Because the creative life and the intentional spiritual journey changes you, grows community, fosters social change, and shapes our world for the better.
 
The path forward is not entirely clear.  Art and faith are never simply an expression of the believer’s imagination because the practice and discipline of both art and spirituality shapes the imagination.  The creative process and the spiritual quest are both forms of meditation and prayer and thus, critical avenues of insight.  Art and faith are shaped in the doing … ora et labora.  Like St. Francis and his early followers, we will seek to find our way in the doing of prayer and work.  The transformation of the chapel and grounds would necessitate a broad range of artists and craftspeople … carpenters to landscapers, painters to blacksmith, brick layers to designers, etc.
 
Portiuncula Guild is a faith-based association of creative folks and spiritual seekers working at the intersection of faith, craftsmanship, and creative expression.  The intent of the guild is to build mutually supportive creative relationships, foster conversations around the connection between art and faith, as well as seek out artistic collaborations in which art can engage the entire community in the spirituality of the art making process.  Portiuncula Guild’s work at Thomas Chapel is not to create a church in a traditional sense.  Rather, the guild seeks to provide a place for creative folk who want to expand their spiritual life, as well as any spiritual seeker who wants to explore new ways that the sacred and the imagination come together.

When Francesco Bernardone stripped and stood naked in the center of Assisi’s piazza in the summer 1206, his family and neighbors thought he was mad.  Witnessed by his father, the bishop of Assisi, childhood friends, and a host of curious onlookers, Francesco (or Francis) gave himself wholly and completely to the service of God by renouncing his father’s wealth, the privilege afforded by economic systems of his time, and the religious and political institutions that could had given him sanctuary.  He set out on a life unsupported by all the social systems that had once provided for his livelihood.  At last, Francis was untethered, displaced, and exposed.
 
The spiritual journey which brought Francis to this moment in the city piazza began years earlier when he was wounded during a military confrontation with a neighboring province.  During his convalescence, Francis reflected on his life and the brokenness of the world in which he lived, and he searched for a deeper and more authentic way of living.
 
Praying before the crucifix in the church of San Damiano, Francis heard the voice of God commanding him to “rebuild my church”.  Francis took this call literally and set out on a church rebuilding program to revitalize three abandoned churches around Assisi.   Francis grew to love a cherish these churches because they symbolized both the simplicity of lifestyle he wanted to model for his followers, as well as the healing power of shared work and community. 
 
When others joined him, Francis recognized he was not alone, and that the call to rebuild might have broader meaning.  Francis drew a myriad of seekers also looking for something new.  In the work of rebuilding these little churches, and caring for the needs of those around them, Francis and these early seekers began to discern a direction for a new way of seeing life and faith. 
 
One day this scraggly band of seekers attended mass at the rebuilt church of St. Mary’s of the Angels (nicknamed the portiuncula, or “little portion” by the local villagers) and they heard the gospel of the mass proclaimed:
 
“As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff for laborers deserve their food.”
 
In this gospel passage, these spiritual seekers recognized a way to navigate the complex, and often destructive social systems that surrounded them, and to live a life more authentic to what the creator intended.  Francis and his early followers discerned a life of work, service, inclusiveness, and prayer founded on the apostolic mandate of radical simplicity and poverty.  They believed that intentional community that was untethered, displaced, and exposed could be a powerful witness to a world too often fueled by greed, selfishness, social status, and political factionalism.

PORTIUNCULA GUILD is a faith-based association of creative folks and spiritual seekers working at the intersection of faith, craftsmanship, and creative expression.  The intent of the guild is to build mutually supportive creative relationships, foster conversations around the connection between art and faith, as well as seek out artistic collaborations in which art can engage the entire community in the spirituality of the art making process. 
 
Giving the medieval idea of an artist guild a modern twist, members of the Portiuncula Guild seeks to not only support one another in life, faith, work, and mission, guild members also promote each other’s vision to a wider world for the use, and benefit of, and in service to the entire community. Core activities of the guild are providing opportunities for retreat, meditation, and prayer, and occasional festival gatherings for creative seekers of all denominations and all faiths, offering hospitality and providing occasions for dialogue and conversation for all seeking a deeper spiritual, religious, imaginative experience within community.  In addition, guild members are committed to exploring and experimenting with the creation and celebration of innovative and inclusive opportunities for gathering, contemplation, prayer, life cycle rituals, meaningful learning, community building and social change. 
 
The Portiuncula Guild is not a church in any traditional sense.  It is simply a place for creative and spiritual folks who want to expand their spiritual life, as well as those who a explore new ways that the sacred and the imagination came together.
 

• The Guild is coordinated and overseen by a Board of Trustees, with consensus decision making among guild members.
• Every year, at our dedication service, we re-commit ourselves to our mission and work of the Guild for the coming year. 
• Every month we gather for worship or some spiritual practice. 
• Every day we offer ourselves the chance to engage in creativity, prayer, and reflection.
• Every creative encounter presents an opportunity to grow community, foster social change, and experience the divine.

Watch and Wait...for Balance
“Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”  Advent heralds the coming of a new beginning, a new world order characterized by an upended status quo – an evening out, a leveling, a balancing.  In anticipation of this time, we watch, we wait, we hope, we prepare.
 
On the mat, we explore balance through movement and mindful breathing.  By intentionally practicing physical balance (and imbalance), we watch/wait/hope/prepare for a deeper balance in our lives and in the world. 
 
What brings you balance?  How do you manage imbalance?  What are your roadblocks to finding balance?  How do you apply lessons learned from balancing on the mat to life off the mat?
 
Pose
While practicing the balance pose Vrksasana or Tree Pose, yoga teacher J. Brown suggests “being prepared to fall out with a smile on your face.”  This cue is a reminder to be content regardless of whether or not you “stick” the pose.  The imbalanced parts of poses are just as important, if not more important, than the balanced parts.  Wobbling and falling out of balance poses are not mistakes. Rather they are a critical part of the practice.  Learning to be content (smiling, breathing, non-judging) with imbalance on the mat, can develop equanimity which is transferable off the mat.  So that you can approach times of imbalance in life with the same smiling, breathing and non-judging contentment.
 
Here are some links to balancing practices you may want to try:
Three Versions of Tree Pose, Baxter Bell, youtube.com
It’s All About Balance, Dianne Bondy, youtube.com
Finding Your Balance Off the Mat, Dianne Bondy, yogainternational.com

e·qua·nim·i·ty
/ˌekwəˈnimədē/
noun: mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation.
 
Breathe
Victorious Breath aka Ujjayi Pranayama is the simplest of breathing techniques to balance the breath.  It involves taking deep inhales and slow exhales on an even count.  As the breath passes in and out of the nostrils through a slightly constricted throat, it makes a soothing, ocean wave sound.  Ujjayi can be used as part of meditation, in concert with yoga poses, or any time you need to calm yourself.
 
Find more instruction on Ujjayi Pranayama here:
Learn the Ujjayi Breath, an Ancient Yogic Breathing Technique, Melissa Eisler, chopra.com
 
Practice
You can make your home practice something you look forward to by creating a unique and special environment in which to practice.  In addition to having a dedicated spot to practice, this can be achieved by paying attention to the sensory aspects of your practice area.  In particular, aroma can be helpful to get you more focused on your practice.  You may want to start with a pre-mixed aromatherapy room spray (available locally at Health Nut Nutrition in Wyndhurst).  Once you figure out what scents you like best, you can try mixing your own essential oil combinations.  Here are a couple of links with guidance for using essential oils:
 
What You Need to Know about Essential Oils, Laine Bergeson Becco, experiencelife.com
How to Use Aromatherapy in Your Yoga Practice, Julie Gondzar, doyouyoga.com
10 Homemade Air Freshener Recipes, Jill Winger, theprairiehomestead.com

MEB

The themes of watchfulness, waiting, anticipation, and expectation are central to the season of Advent and contemplative practices (prayer, meditation, fasting, mindfulness, yoga, etc.) are helpful tools to root one's self in these themes.  Rather than focusing on doing , these practices emphasize being - stilling the mind and body to allow gratitude, balance, joy, and change to come.  I am offering Watch and Wait, a four week yoga practice series at Bower Center for the Arts (Wednesdays, November 28, December 5, 12, and 19, 5:45-7:00 pm) Connecting deliberate movement and breath, this gentle restorative flow is a time to honor the change of seasons outside and in.  Each practice is a combination of movement, rest, and guided  relaxation. Each week will also include resources for your home practice – readings, pose suggestions, meditation and journal prompts.  I will be posting these materials here for easy access. 

Here's week 1:

Watch and Wait...for Gratitude
On his “10% Happier” podcast, ABC correspondent Dan Harris interviews author and speaker Shawn Achor about gratitude.  Achor, who studies positive psychology, discusses the effects of gratitude on the human body and gives ideas on how become more grateful.  He says that, much as we build strength in muscles by using them over time, gratitude builds when you practice it regularly.  One idea he shares is to take a few minutes each day and think of 3 new things you are grateful for.  Write them down.  Use them as a focus for your meditation and/or yoga practice.  In time, you will have a long list of blessings.
 
Listen to the entire interview here.

Pose
“Find a comfortable seat.”  This is a common invitation in yoga classes.  However, sitting for an extended period is often awkward and uncomfortable.  Just as each person’s body is different, each person’s ideal sitting posture is different.  The quest for a comfortable seat is a great lesson in observation.  Take some time over the next week to explore different postures.  Sit in a chair, on the mat with legs crossed, on your knees, etc.  Follow your breath and observe.  What do you find comfortable?  What is distracting?  What props do you need?  How do you feel?
 
Take a look at the following for more ideas on sitting comfortably:  
 
Finding a Comfortable Seat, YJ Editors, Yoga Journal
5 Steps to Finding Ease in Sukhasana, Charlotte Bell, Yoga U
To Fix That Pain in Your Back, You Might Have to Change the Way You Sit, Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR

Breathe
In yoga, we use the breath to focus and center our practice.  Controlling the breath sends a message to your brain that you are safe and able to relax.  The parasympathetic nervous system is activated, heart rate slows, and digestion is calmed.  One of the many tools available to aid in this practice is mantra or breath prayer which involves the repetition of a word or phrase that is connected to inhaling and exhaling.  Try one or more of these breath prayers (or use another of your own choosing) with your practice this week, saying in your mind the first part of the prayer on your inhale and the second on your exhale:
 
Thanks / be             I am / grateful             Give / thanks
 
Practice
You can create a sustainable home yoga practice by focusing on doing what you love—what makes your feel good, what helps center you.  Keep it simple and make it special by having a set place to practice and gathering the props you need for practice.  Everyone can benefit from the use of props in practice, regardless of experience.  Props offer access to greater space, freedom and stability.  Consider investing in the following props as you continue to build your practice:  mat, blocks, strap, bolster, blanket, tennis ball, eye pillow, sandbag, meditation cushion.  You Yoga Journal and Yoga International offer many creative uses of props.

“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation of all abundance.” 
Eckhart Tolle
 
MEB

Our friend and mentor Bobbie Crow died in early March.  In tribute, the following are some reflections on her influence on our work and ministry along with some of her artwork and some of our own art inspired by her.

Bobbie Brooks Crow awakened in me the desire to see and to seek the spiritual in art.  This assemblage pays homage to a friend and art mentor and a small pen and ink sketch she did in church on the first Sunday in Advent many decades ago.  Bobbie sings in the choir of Grace Episcopal Church in Chattanooga TN.  It is her habit to bring a small sketchbook to capture images from the scripture stories or the pastoral message that catches her imagination. On this particular Sunday in late November the apocalyptic words of a prophet crying in the wilderness caught her attention.

Bobbie’s image of the prophet John the Baptist juxtaposes him next to a fruit bearing tree.  John’s words are not just angry rhetoric … he is ready for the great pruning.  The world has gone so terribly wrong and only a direct intervention from God can save possibly save humanity.  John announces a world on the threshold of transformation.  The red gash across his neck hints to the cost of his prophetic message and his discipleship. 

While John’s words were aimed directly at his brother Jews and their empty words and actions, his message resonates in all ages in which God’s gift and promises are not made available to all in God’s creation … to act justly and walk humbly with God.  For Bobbie, the tree is Christmas tree and a reminder of humanity’s perversion of God’s great act of love (bad fruit as witnessed in commercialism of the incarnation and the Nativity event), but the tree is also a sign of hope that points toward God’s original intent for creation (good fruit as witnessed in the right relationships embodied in the story of Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life).

The technique I utilized for this homage is an assemblage of found and recycled objects. The style is in the aesthetic, as well as form, of narrative totem poles found in many primal religious cultures around the world.  I these traditions, the form is simplified to only the elements critical to the ethical narrative … in this case eyes to see injustice, a mouth to speak truth and a hand to carry out God’s work within creation.
-VPE

Karen Armstrong begins her book “Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life” by identifying the human struggle in which we must constantly seek a balance between the “old brain” or “reptile brain” that we carry with us from our primal ancestors and the “mature” brain into which we have evolved as Homo sapiens.  The latter is capable of compassion such that the Buddha identified in the Four Immeasurables – maitri (loving kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy), and upkesha (even-mindedness).  Conversely, the former is driven by what Armstrong refers to as the Four Fs – “feeding, fighting, fleeing – and for want of a more basic word – reproduction.”  Armstrong’s premise is that compassion is like a muscle and must be exercised to help it grow stronger.

Compassion comes when we recognize the sacred in ourselves and in others.  Armstrong highlights three biblical stories in which the characters come to such a recognition – Sarah and Abraham’s encounter with the strangers at the Oak of Mamre, Jesus appearing to the two on the road to Emmaus, and Jacob wrestling with the angel.  Each story revolves around the themes of hospitality, unknowing/knowing, and recognizing the divine in others.  In particular, the climax of Emmaus story occurs as the disciples offer hospitality and a shared meal with the stranger.  The unknowing becomes knowing through acts of compassion.  Bobbie Crow's Road to Emmaus sketch, which hangs in my studio, serves as a reminder of this truth and inspired my Road to Emmaus mosaic.

Moving forward toward a compassionate life, we are required to direct compassion toward our fellow human beings.  Armstrong recommends a Metta mediation using the Four Immeasurables – directing each of the four toward others.  Using the example of Greek tragedies, she also makes a powerful argument for the importance of art in developing compassion.  She writes, “Compassion and abandonment of ego are both essential to art…Art calls us to recognize our pain and aspirations and to open our minds to others.  Art helps us…to realize we are not alone; everybody else is suffering too.”

Bobbie Crows obituary refers to her using the title "Collaborative Artist."  Indeed for Bobbie, the art making process was about abandoning ego and welcoming strangers.  She was known for orchestrating monumental public art pieces created in part by a community of people.  Spreading a large canvas on the ground, she would create gesture outlines using paint squeezed from a plastic bottle.  Then armed with buckets of paint and a brush duct-taped to the end of a broom stick she would invite passersby to add color to the canvas.  Handing the brush to folks she would say, "Here.  Make your mark." 
-MEB

Goose Creek Studio was pleased to partner this year with a dozen or so local businesses, community organizations and the Town of Bedford to bring renewed life to our beleaguered farmers market.  Under the leadership of a management team and our new market manager, the growth of and changes to the market have been no less than miraculous.  Good things happen when the community comes together, and as a result, the market has become a place of community pride and witness to the entrepreneurial spirit of local area farmers and artisans.

But this is not a reflection on the local farmers market, but an exploration on the transformative power of art.

Early in the market season, we asked local photographer Robert Miller to shoot images of vendors and shoppers, as well as the rich variety of produce and products that would be for sale.  We commissioned Miller for the task because we wanted more than just a visual record.  We wanted him to capture the new life and the renewed energy emerging from the market and this collaborative community spirit.  We had long admired the work Miller has done documenting events at the Sedalia Center, Bower Center for the Arts, 2nd Fridays, Centerfest and of course, our own events at Goose Creek Studio. In his engagement with this community over the past several years, Miller has revealed the transformative power of the photographic image to build community identity. 

Miller’s work creates a very different kind of art exhibition and a fresh way of seeing.  His work is not stagnant or isolated to the obscurity of the white walls of the art gallery, but is a living art found regularly in the local newspapers and his consistent social media posts. He has a talent for capturing the vitality and creative spirit of an event and getting those images back out into the wider community, and thus, his art engages us in ways traditional art exhibitions rarely do.  Gallery shows are often quiet and somber affairs as individuals silently contemplate a picture on the wall.  Miller’s social media posts of events he has photographed provide a very different way of encountering the visual image.  Miller creates a community conversation that is more dialogue and discovery than aesthetic contemplation.  The community claims ownership of his work as they see themselves, their friends and the vitality of their community in his images.  In many ways it hearkens back to an older understanding of the artists/artisan as a servant of the community’s ritual moments.

Miller’s photographs are not just documentary, they are an art form.  He intentionally manipulates and filters the events that he shoots.  A recognizable hallmark is his use of very bright and saturated colors.  For Miller, the art making process only begins with what he sees through the lens and the click of the shutter.  The power of his art is not just in his ability to choose a moment in time, compose a balance composition or even master the mechanics of his camera.  The art making process really happens after Miller gets home and starts to process his images and weaves his shots into a more all-inclusive storytelling.  The processing of his images post event becomes a critical component for making the image speak beyond the particulars of a moment in time. 

Great art is never solely about the artistic skills of an individual. Rather, great art captures and communicates something important about a particular time or people.  And in that desire to communicate, great art seeks truth and is often willing to bend the visual particulars to seize the narrative thread.

For Miller to capture the essence of an event, he needs to literally change or embellish what the camera has captured.  We all do the same thing in our own story telling and remembering. In fact, manipulation, embellishment or hyperbole are often critical ways to emphasize the role of an individual or the narrative of a story. “My grandma made the best cookies in the world.” The truth of that statement is not in the verifiable accuracy of the facts or grandma’s culinary skills, rather, the statement communicates the quality of a relationship.  The true superiority of grandma’s cookies can only be understood in the depth on a relationship to her, and to communicate the depth of that relationship requires creative emphasis.  If we focus only on the detail, we can miss the essence and the transformative power of a story.  Great art often communicates in much the same way.

In the same way Miller manipulates the image digitally to capture the truth in his seeing.  Digital manipulation, filters and rich saturated colors are his tools for storytelling by serving as a way to concentrate on the narrative action.  Miller understands the relational complexities of any event and works to capture a rich variety of vignettes. A single image can never hold the weight of an entire community gathering.  And since the camera can only capture a momentary vignette within the rich complexities of ongoing actions, objects and relationships, Miller’s documentation of an event must be viewed through holding the multiple images together as a single thread. 

When photographing a public event, Miller focuses his camera on people in relationship to one another, in relationship to their career or trade, or in the expression of their individuality or personality.  He weaves each vignette he captures into the larger mood of the day. A series of ordinary moments that take on more universal qualities and a more complete story of who and what this community is or seeks to become.

In an arts community with an almost obsessive preoccupation with the more established forms for celebrating merit is artistic achievement … the gallery exhibition, sales or awards, Miller is forging a new (and maybe healthier) way for art to engage the community and for the community to encounter the transformative power of art.

The message Miller communicates is not focused on an individual or object, but rather in the space that is created between the individual and object.  Miller’s images communicate a quality of a relationship.  His art is about shaping community identity by crafting images of who we are and what we do.

- MEB & VPE