art, play, a church, and a benedictine chapel

A friend of mine asked me to review a church’s art-worship experience for CIVA’s blog: the link is here.  Here are a few thoughts from that review; I have to say, it was a delight to create… (all photos are ones I took and edited with instagram filters.)

In a warm, faithful chapel on the grounds of a Benedictine monastery in Hingham, Massachusetts, the congregation of Church of the Cross Boston engaged in an expression of art and play. A diverse body of doctors, theologians, musicians, social workers, engineers, teachers, students, retail workers, veterinarians and others, together dropped to their knees around a raised altar and played with children’s blocks building structures large and small. Purposed piles of blocks were marked out at various stations around the center, and groups formed to make castles and fortresses, sky rises and small villages. As blocks inevitably fell, the sound of wood crashing on the hardwood floor was met with a collective echo of “Aww!” Care was placed into every inch of the tiny building project; while great heights were attempted with a combination of intention and abandon, joyful expression, and raptures of laughter.

The chapel’s modern architecture was complemented by the sharp edges of the temporary miniature structures that grew into the natural shape of the space. There seemed to be a sacred pull to get on one’s knees in awe of the sovereignty of God and the beauty of His holiness. Vaulted ceilings and gilded images of Mary and Jesus and of St. Benedict carrying his Holy Rule emphasized this draw. Stations of the cross painted in simple yet solemn pictures on the sides of the chapel walls served as essential reminders of the season of Lent. A solid, wooden cross with a painted image of Jesus on one side and a carved image on the other provided a visual reminder of Him on whom the purposeful play was centered. Worship music, experimental jazz,  and pre-recorded scriptures and quotes played in the background. In this space a body of believers was able to, as John Milton stated, leave off the soul’s “severe schooling” for a while and engage in “delightful intermissions”. In this intermission, the participants were present in the space while simultaneously shuffling aside their titles and accolades, and with child-likeness, created structures made by assembling 1,400 wooden blocks in a corporate act of worship.

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2-4, ESV)

The foreman, creative visionary and worship leader of the Play Project, Shannon Sigler, knows well the “re-alignment,  surrender, and, ultimately, welcome childlikeness” there can be when the serious weightiness of adulthood encounters the imaginative, faith-filled make-believe of a child at play. As an artist, a theologian and a mother of an energetic toddler, Shannon has immersed herself well with the “mental reorientation” that occurs when approaching Christ with childlike faith. Her experiences playing with her son Eli provided a new frame of reference for what it means to be a child in the presence of God. This proved very evident in how she involved  the congregation in an earnest, communal act through the creation of a sculpture. On the purpose of the project, Shannon states, “This playful experiment, as I call it, will seek to discover an affective side to a community’s engagement with God. It will call those of us living in a very intellectual city into a place of light-hearted play. It will encourage a childlike embrace of the things we can’t quite wrap our minds around. “

“Good liturgical art is art that serves effectively the actions of the liturgy…” Nicholas Wolterstorff  (Art in Action)

The end of the retreat offered time for reflection on the retreat as a whole and, specifically, the Play Project. Rector Mark Booker thanked Shannon for taking the risk, a risk in inviting the church to worship through playing with blocks. One parishioner noted that the whole group participated in joyful activity as beings made for creativity. For two hours on a sunny Saturday, one church actualized an art installation, not as professional artists but as blithesome children. Light danced in through the great windows onto the cream colored blocks of rudimentary shapes, and they were molded by mature hands into one sculpture made for one purpose – praise of the Father. Members of Church of the Cross for these moments re-imagined worshiping Christ while shifting the paradigm from that of busied, burdened adults to the wonder and unquestioning faith of a child. For those two hours, a faithful little kingdom of natural wood blocks stood as a fixed reminder of how Jesus calls us to enter into His Kingdom – simply, joyfully, purposefully.