The plight of the people of Haiti has called us to generosity in the sharing of our treasure. We take stock of all we have and give what we can. But we are also called to consciousness and prayer. The Rev. George Clifford (a café contributor) in his blog Ethical Musings says this:
Prayer in the wake of a disaster is vital for three reasons. First, prayer connects people with one another. On a strictly human level, praying for an individual or a group focuses the attention of the person praying on that person or group. Continuing to intercede or give thanks for that person or group, keeps that attention – to a greater or lesser degree depending upon the intensity and frequency of prayer and competing claims – focused on that need. Prayer, if nothing else, ensures that we do not forget the needs of the disaster victims.
Prayer, however, is not merely about the psychological dynamics of the person praying. Prayer connects people with God and one another across the spatio-temporal matrix. In some way that I do not pretend to understand, prayer establishes or enhances a relationship between the one praying and the one for whom prayer is offered. Process theologians may conceptualize this happening in God’s mind; Christian theologians more rooted in historic formulations may conceptualize this relationship happening through divine intervention. Proving the connection occurs let alone explaining the mechanisms by which it occurs lies well beyond the frontiers of knowledge today.
As artists, we find the means and occasions to pray in, by, and through the work we do. It is in the smoothing of paper and the mixing of paint, it is in the whisper of stone or wood shavings, and it is in the recycling of found items. It is in the beginning and completion of creation. This process we refer to in various ways: “art is a sweet unconscious prayer” says James A. Mangum; Barbara Desrosiers says: “allowing divine energy to flow, baring your soul before God as you work is prayer in a pure form;” and for David Orth it is: “…not talking, not listening. What it is, is Dwelling. In this Dwelling, everything is welcome, and nothing goes back out the same.”
However we acknowledge the connection between prayer and our work as artists, it is undeniably a mission of spirit and beauty. We partner with the collective consciousness of the Divine, and in this participation we act as both receivers and transmitters.
We join all of the physical and spiritual caregivers in Haiti, we offer the prayer of new creation as we go into the various places of our work and pray in and through our art.
Shown above: Still Mind by Shin-hee Chin. Seen on the home page masthead, 89 and 90 from Shin-hee Chin’s Psalms series. Seen on the Daily Episcopalian masthead, 81, and on the Speaking To The Soul masthead, 91, both from Chin’s Psalms series. About her work she says: “On the level of technique and material, I appropriate and valorize craft techniques such as stitching, random wrapping, and binding. The techniques have an important meaning for me both as a compositional device and as an obsessional activity. In experimenting with a variety of ‘domestic’ media such as clothes, threads, and paper, my hands participate in the process of the intricate linking of the irregular pattern of threads that form vein, skin, and scar. In fact, one can see the process through the complexly interwoven and intricately entangled threads covering the work.” Read more here. Shin-hee Chin is Assistant Professor, Art and Design Department, Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas and a member of The Artists Registry @ ECVA.