Monthly message (June 2010) - Nature and art

Dear Friends,

The orange and red glow, reflected pink on the clouds as the sun sets, can take your breath away. The swirl and crash of the sea can resonate within and broaden your soul. The many greens of the forest can draw you into a peace that refreshes your ability to think, decide, smile. As summer finally creeps over the horizon we hardly need reminding how beautiful, resourceful and freely given the earth is. All around us the flowers begin to bloom and colour and scents awaken our senses.

The earth has always inspired human beings to artistic response … whether it be with colours in paint, fabrics or photographs, music or poetry … or the simple arts of noticing and appreciating natural things as you walk among them. The earth and we humans live in relationship with one another … relationship that is often expressed in art.

Now, of course, the natural world faces some of the greatest challenges in human history … real challenges that are changing things dramatically. Recent United Nations reports raise the alarm over the harm caused to the earth, not just by climate change, but by pollution and over use of natural resources. Forests, seas, the land and the many creatures that live on it with us are all showing signs of damage.

This month the Churches Together in the Westbury Area, of which we are one, are holding a broad and varied Arts Festival that celebrates that intriguing and enriching relationship between us and the earth. If the earth inspires people to art … we’ll be asking … can art inspire people to care for and cherish the ever more fragile earth?

The CONNECT 2010 Arts Festival (18th – 27th June) will bring events, from bread making to woodland walking, from singing to strawberry teas, from the arts and crafts of painting and photography and more … to the sticking and gluing that intrigues the young!

At Trinity-Henleaze URC we’ll be holding two events.

On Wednesday 23rd. June, 7pm, Dave Bookless, who is Director of the UK branch of the international Christian conservation organization, Arocha, will be here talking about his book, Planetwise, and speaking about the work of Arocha.

And on the Saturday 26th June, we’ll take part in the Arts Trail … with a mixture of exhibition (painting, flowers, photographs, knitting!), and arty projects to join in with, on the theme of ‘The shape of the Land.’

More information on these events, and the whole program, is available on the CONNECT 2010 leaflets which you’ll find in church.

As the earth inspires art … can art deepen our love of the earth and help us to find new ways of caring for it? I hope so.

I hope you’ll enjoy the CONNECT 2010 Arts festival … and invite your friends and neighbors to enjoy it too.

Yours,

Tracey.