For last week’s Bishop’s School of Prayer, I created two more print-and-colour Bible journaling illustrations. They weren’t used in the end as I (strongly) encouraged workshop participants to create their own.
To download a free copy of these illustrations for your own use, click button:
I’ve just returned from the inaugural Bishop’s School of Prayer, hosted at Launde Abbey by Bishop Martyn Snow. I was dubbed ‘artist-in-residence’ and was responsible for creative input, visual prayer workshops and an artist’s overview of the four-day conference. It was an amazing experience, and I hope it happens again (though probably won’t be annual).
As a ‘corporate act of art’, I created a pair of praying hands and invited attendees to add their own prayers and intercessions. After a short will-they-won’t-they period, they came good and prayers were stuck on steadily over the time at the School. For more details on the making, read on below, but in the meantime here are some pics of the finished sculpture, which will be remaining at Launde Abbey.
As regular readers may remember, I’m going to be artist-in-residence at this year’s inaugural Bishop’s School of Prayer, 9th-13th May at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire. There are three full days, the afternoons of which will feature workshops led by the day’s teachers, myself and the musician-in-residence. I’ve been prepping some potential workshop projects, and here are a couple of experiments that have made the grade:
There are still spaces available for the course, with both residential spaces and day passes. I do hope you will join Bishop Martyn and the other teachers and leaders for what is essentially a three-day conference on prayer.
Today, I went on retreat to Launde Abbey – a space to reflect, be out of contact with the outside world and to re-establish communication with God. The theme for the days reflection centred around Martha preparing the meal for Jesus, and the story of Brother Lawrence finding ways to worship God as he washed dishes for his entire monastic life. I took my iPad, so I could respond in creative worship, and as I reflected on things happening in my life at the moment, I drew on this quote from Brother Lawrence:
Lift your heart to Him during your meals and in company, the least little remembrance will always be most pleasing to Him.
And from this quote from Edmund Morgan, a Welsh Anglican bishop:
… to overcome the temptation to love the praise of men more than the glory of God, your life must be a continual sursum corda; you must ever be groping, fighting, leaping Godwards…
‘Lift up your hearts’ – Latin: sursum corda – is the opening dialogue to the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer. Rarely featured in Baptist tradition, it was a perfect illustration of what I took away with me from the retreat.
[created in Procreate and Inkpad Pro apps on iPad Pro with Apple Pencil]