News from the Studio

My rate of blogging has slowed, but not because I'm not doing anything. Nope, I'm furiously throwing pots as the days of my sabbatical keep ticking away. I've got about a week to work in the studio before I close up shop. I've had a great summer working at Kevin Lehman Pottery here in Lancaster. Kevin does fantastic work, and I'm glad to have spent more time with him.

Meanwhile, one of the happy coincidences of the summer was getting connected to the Central PA Potters group, who happen to have a group show opening this fall.

So, today I sent off a little box of pots for an exhibit at Clay Place @ Standard (formerly The Clay Place in Pittsburgh). The show opens Friday, October 7, for any of you W. PA folks. Here's what I sent off to the exhibit..

Oxford Circle Visit

Yesterday I took a rainy drive into the edges of Northeast Philly to worship at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church. I had heard some good things about this multiracial urban church. And I have had the chance to meet their pastor, Leonard Dow a time or two. CMCL Senior Youth will remember him as the preacher at last year's ACC Youth Retreat. He's a fantastic preacher -- really one of the best I've heard in a long time. He manages to combine a strong black preaching style with solid Anabaptist theology informed by contemporary culture and his local context (click here for a little bio on him from EMU).

The church has also founded a community development corporation, which owns the building the church new meets in. It's a 40,000 square foot former medical clinic. Obviously they've done lots of learning on the job about being a landlord and have worked hard to take good care of this community asset. I got a mini tour of the place yesterday, and heard some great stories about the work they do.

Interestingly, the neighborhood and church are directly adjacent to a huge, huge military storage facility. Some of it is still functioning for that purpose, but after World War II, most of the barracks connected to the facility were closed. Some of these were turned into subsidized housing. That's why the church is there. Church planters from Lancaster Mennonite Conference started a Sunday School ministry near the housing projects 50 years ago.

One more thing. I want to mention that the offices of the Oxford Circle Christian Community Dev. Association include a little gallery space for artists. Right now they happen to be hosting part of an exhibit by an installation/performance artist from NYC named Gene Schmidt. The exhibit is called Lovetown PA, and involved spelling out the famous "love" passage from I Corinthians across the city of Philadelphia. It's awesome.

He did a similar work called Manhattan Measure a few years ago that involved literally measuring the entire length and width of the island of Manhattan on foot with yardsticks. Also awesome.

I'd say this visit was the highlight of my weekend, except we had also taken a day trip to the beach on Friday and hosted a pool party for Esmé's birthday on Saturday. So I've been having a blast all weekend.

Liturgical Arts Week

So I'm sitting in the "living room" at Seattle Public Library. It's got to be the coolest library on the planet.

I'm here in transit for one of the more exciting weeks of my sabbatical. I am participating in a Liturgical Arts Week at the Grunewald Guild, up in the mountains outside Seattle.

The workshop features Jan Richardson, and artist, clergywoman and writer. Her work has been an inspiration to many at CMCL, and we've used her writing from time to time in worship. The week should be not only inspirational, jogging me out of my comfort zone, but I think I'll actually come home with fresh artwork created at the workshop. Should be a great time, with fruitful outcomes for myself and the congregation.

Here's a poem from her book, In Wisdom's Path (and a lovely prayer for a week creating art in the mountains!):

God of eye and ear,
of taste and touch,
of smell and of every sense
and source of knowing,
bless me not
with sight alone
but bless me also
with ears to hear
your voice
and tongue to taste
your essense
and nose to breathe
your fragrance
and fingertips to touch
your nearness
and heart to open
that door which is wisdom,
which is wonder,
which is all.