Call for Photos: This means you!!!!

Ric Todd asks everyone to pull out their iphone or a camera and submit photos for 
St. Paul's Cathedral Photo Exhibition October 1 – 31, 2016

"EYES TO SEE, Love, Care and Compassion!"

This Exhibition: A call for all members of the St. Paul's Community to participate and submit as an inspiration and sharing the beauty of their surroundings, spiritual lives, a counterbalance to hate, prejudice & fear and the wonders of love, its many forms of compassion, beauty environmental settings and contrasting lovable and unlovable settings. It can be both representational and abstract, both realistic and impressionistic. The purpose of the exhibition is drawn from theme, "LOVE, CARE and COMPASSION." We only ask that you use the simplest tools: YOUR EYES and a CAMERA and with standing in the 21st Century our mobile phones or tablets, which are at a pocket and hands reach as our eyes and mind!

THE COMPOSITION OF THIS EXHIBITION IS ONLY PHOTOGRAPHY

KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER

EXHIBITION DATES: October 1 – 31, 2016
EXHIBITION VENUE: St. Paul's Cathedral Nave & Chapel
SUBMISSION DATES of Artwork for EXHIBITION: September 19, 20, 21, 2016 in the Cathedral Nave 10 AM – 3 PM on each of the above days, work will be accepted.

You may submit no more than TWO FRAMED PHOTOS for this exhibition, the emphasis is on the work and not on the matting and framing used. All submitted work must be equipped with proper hanging hardware attached to them. We also request that you create a label for each submission and tape it to the back of the submitted work. Please include the following information on each label:

1. Your Name
2. Title of the Image, if it has been given a title
3. Your address, phone and e-mail
4. If the is or is not for sale
5. Brief statement about the piece and its relationship to the theme

Evensong under Water

There's an i-phone app called Waterlogue that takes photographs and makes them look like watercolor paintings.  I applied this to several of Sunday's evensong photos , giving a fun portfolio.  Enjoy!

--Susan, blogmaster & photographer

Your Containers or Your Life

Eight people are participating in the current Formation Series track "The Journey of Your Art and Poetry." Each Wednesday night they share with one another how a Lenten poetic or art making discipline is helping them grow spiritually. Facilitator of the group, Mark Turner, offered the following to the group in their second meeting.

“Containers and Life” by Mark R. Turner, 11.5″x8.4″,
mixed media on paper: pencil, pen, collage

My mixed media image has us sitting out with the containers. But, wouldn’t you like to see what that design is like on the layer behind?

There is a story about a wedding celebration which went way beyond an afternoon reception and partied so hard they ran out of wine. Jesus and his disciples were there and his mother tapped him to help out with the pending disaster.

Jesus looked at six major containers: six amphorae each with a capacity of 20 to 30 gallons of liquid. With drink like that the party would have to go on for days even with a large crowd. But they were reserved for religious ritual cleansing water — a technical process strictly observed. He told the servers to fill the containers with water as they were meant to be.

Then he directed the servers to draw some of the water out and take it to the master of ceremonies who, rather than washing in the middle of the party, decided to sip it and was blown away. It was the best wine he had ever tasted.

Needless to say the party went on — and on — without a hitch — except for the couple who really were hitched and whose wedding would never be forgotten. (John 2:1-11)

Everyone truly appreciated those huge containers and never mentioned they had been employed for a much different use than intended. But, then, who cares about containers? It’s what is inside and poured out that matters.

Life is more than containers.

Pots, pans, houses,
Cars, stores, businesses,
Jobs, banks, corporations,
Institutions, systems,
Governments, nations,
Race, class, culture,
Our Way-of-Life,
Religion.

We make them to serve that which really cannot be contained, the spirit which Jesus would later compare to the wind.

All these containers are temporary, but we tend to concentrate on them and forget the on-going party, to keep busy maintaining and guarding the containers while life radiates beyond us.

Peel back the container layer of my drawing and contemplate the uncontainable.

“Part of a Moment of Life” by Mark R. Turner,
7″x5.25″, mixed media on paper: pencil, pen

-  Mark Turner
co-leader, Cathedral Center for the Performing and Visual Arts

Photoessay: Rehearsal, The Laramie Project 10 years later

On Feb 6th, members of St Paul's performed a dramatic reading of The Laramie Project:  10 years later , which required several rehearsals.  These photos taken during the final rehearsal, the afternoon before the performance.

“See Me! Hear Me!” Play Offers Hope

Note: A play offering hope for the difficult, global problem of human trafficking will be performed three times in St. Paul’s Great Hall next week. “See Me! Hear Me!” is Kathleen Thompson’s one-woman show based on actual events which she and others have encountered. Her world-class talents, honed by a long career teaching and producing theater around the world, will entertain and inspire. Here she offers a little background on the show and the issue. More at www.stpaulcathedral.org/seeme

It’s so easy to speak empathetic words about humanitarian needs and compassion for crises. It sounds good for those who hear it. But when the suffering actually impacts your life you are moved to action. One day in 2003, at a gas station on the German-Polish border, that suffering touched me - a story I recount in “See Me! Hear Me!”

I am certain God positioned me only two feet away from the staring eyes of a young girl in the process of being trafficked into Germany at that gas station. I could never emotionally block out or dismiss the message of her eyes which pierced my heart.

What Is Missing?

Twenty years of mentoring young adults in post-communist countries had made me wonder what quality my young students possessed that was different than those I had taught in American universities: the quality of a secure identity was missing.

Intelligent, creative and very gifted young people whose parents had been raised in communism lacked any understanding that they were unique, valued individuals treasured for their own being and not just ‘belonging to the Commonwealth’.

Scripture tells us:

 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;….the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord. Jeremiah 1: 5- 8

An essential aspect of the Judeo- Christian identity is that we are known and formed in the womb by God Who knows us individually, calling us to a unique destiny. God’s gifts are deposited in us to fulfill that destiny and God promises to be beside us.

Identity Destroyed

Human trafficking seeks to break the identity of their victims in order to control them. This is accomplished with physical violence (repeated rape and beatings), humiliation (especially sexual) and dehumanizing behavior toward them. In the victim’s recovery, restoring a personal identity of value is the most resistant part of healing.

It is the church which can offer the most effective remedial help for these victims.

Our identity is given to us by God and cannot truly be ripped from us if we hold this truth, trusting in Christ with intercessory prayer. We, the Church, can do this.

Lessons from the Holocaust

Viktor Frankl, famous Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who survived the horrors of the holocaust, wrote a book which analyzed the characteristic that allowed some to survive their torture and many others to perish. He described the survivors as one’s who held meaning attributed to their life’s journey - a destiny.

God instructed the Israelites to build altars to remember their identity in God. He called them to three major feasts a year to declare and remember their identity in God. The Jews forced into the ghettos and death camps of Europe mandated themselves to remember who they were in God. This knowledge can protect our souls, encourage our spirits and heal our God-given identity, no matter how intensely it has been put on the ‘rack’ to destroy.

This is the hope which my play offers.

Please join us in the Great Hall, Thursday, Oct. 8, 7:00 pm, Friday, Oct. 9, 7:00 pm, or Saturday, Oct. 10, 2:00 pm. After each performance we will have a short discussion and on Saturday guest experts in the fight against human trafficking will be present to address the issues. Tickets are for a suggested donation of $20, a percentage of which goes to the local fight against human trafficking. They can be obtained at www.stpaulcathedral.org/seeme, at the arts table in the courtyard after services and at the door.

Icon Retreat at St. Paul’s Cathedral, June 22 – 26, 2015

Overnight the Great Hall was transformed from meeting space to sacred place dedicated to the craft of Byzantine iconography. For five days, from morning to evening, 21 students set aside their jobs, their errands and their iPhones, and dedicated their time and attention to their chosen icons under the tutelage of iconographer Teresa Harrison.

Icon writing is a lesson in patience, perseverance, and prayer. Quite literally with icons, the medium is the message yes, but what every budding iconographer learns is that the message is also delivered through the process. It is not the finished product that is the gift, but the journey in creating it.

Worshipping with icons can be traced back to the 4th or 5th centuries. Writing icons is an age-old tradition with its roots in scripture, and St. Luke is historically attributed with writing the first icon (of Mary and Jesus). Writing rather than painting because each stroke of paint is meant to be a spiritual word, a layer of paint like a prayer, time for the layer to dry a time for silent meditation, and each repetition of this process a chapter, measuring out the scripture like beads on a rosary.

My icon was the center of my attention for the week. A fixed point around which the class rotated and metamorphosed from 21 individuals to a community of artists reaching out to one another to congratulate, console or commiserate every morning after we met for the Eucharist, led by the Reverend Charles Rines. During this ‘circle time’ we discussed our own spiritual transformations as the week progressed, or prayed for individual healing, or shared how the class provided context for our spiritual lives.

The typical day then continued with an approximately half-hour art instruction from Teresa. Those of us less experienced chose either the Good Shepherd or the Theotokos (literally, “mother of God” and the baby Jesus) to facilitate our instruction both amongst ourselves in small groups, and with Teresa. More experienced iconographers selected an icon of their choosing. It was wonderful to observe these talented people. While the very nature of icon writing is to represent a holy image faithful to color and pose prescribed by centuries of tradition, there are opportunities for artistic license that speak to the creativity of each artist.

Teresa has attended 10 years of retreats led by Iconographer Phillip Zimmerman and one by Russian iconographer Kzenia Pokrovsky and was then inspired to lead classes first for her husband the Reverend Edward Harrison’s parish at St. John's Cathedral, Jacksonville, FL and more recently Christ Episcopal Church in Coronado. She has taught throughout North and Central America for the past 13 years.

Her method of teaching makes the art form accessible to beginners: the gesso boards are prepared months in advance of the class by her carpenter brother, the medium is acrylic rather than the traditional (but more temperamental) egg tempera, and the gold leaf is supplied as commercially available thin sheets affixed to wax paper. Lest this seem sacrilege, those in the class experienced with both techniques affirmed that the modern methods do not compromise the final result.

Each day before lunch, Noonday Prayer was recited by Teresa, and then the group gathered for a meal prepared by Facilities Manager Bob Oslie. This time offered another opportunity for sharing and learning about each other. Seven of us from St. Paul’s, and then there was an orthodox Catholic priest, a Vietnam POW, an ovarian cancer survivor, teachers, a technical writer turned art collector, those with children struck with disease or dying too young…here we learned about the context in which everyone was experiencing the creative process and its relevance to our own struggles as we encounter everyday life.

For me personally there were several lessons. My own tendency to put off decisions that are difficult was something I encountered daily, despite the restrictive color palette of the Theotokos. There were still seemingly infinite choices to make regarding shading, wetness or dryness of the brush, color blending. It was easy to find convenient distractions, notwithstanding the code of relative silence imposed by Teresa. Even with the 40 hours of class time, I found it is possible to procrastinate some of these important decisions until the last day. Then you are faced with prioritizing. Then there is the issue of too much of a good thing, and not enough elsewhere. And when are you really done and ready to commit the whole thing to a protective polyurethane coat?

Physical limitations were another lesson. Some struggled with the issue of sitting for extended periods of time. Others like myself experienced dry eyes and the diopter limitations of my contact lenses. Shedding those, I was dealing with extreme myopia. In time, we all learned to compensate and in some cases join forces to pray for strength and healing.

On the fifth and final day, icons were transported by their owners to the chapel altar for the blessing. The Reverend Charles Rines gave a homily, performed the Eucharist and gave the final blessing. We learned that some icons would be gifts to friends who had requested them, or for family members. For those of us writing our first icons, they would be gifts to ourselves, reminders of a transformative journey.

In the Theotokos icon written by my hand, Mary gazes upon the infant Jesus, or maybe slightly past Him, pondering the miracle of life, or perhaps transcending time and space in understanding already His tragic end. The beauty and the mystery is that we don’t know, and we won’t know, until the icon is put to use in prayer.

• Presented by the Cathedral Center for Performing and Visual Arts
• Photos by Mike Roeder

-Julie McMinn

A week in the icon-writing life (updated)

Iconographer Teresa Harrison returns to St. Paul's this year for the second annual Icon Writing Retreat in the Great Hall, June 22-26, 2015. Learn the ancient, meditative practice of icon writing during a week dedicated to prayer and contemplation on an icon you select and create. Beginners welcome.  

Places are limited, so contact Julie McMinn at jemcminn@gmail.com to reserve a spot if you are interested.  The cost of $400 per student includes instruction, all materials including a pre-prepared gesso board, and lunch for the week. 

The following article appeared last year in St. Paul's Blog.

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June 23, 2014 8:15 am: Here I am live blogging from the Icon Writing Workshop at St. Paul's Great Hall, brought to you by the Cathedral Arts Committee. It's been a hectic year for me so far, so I'm really enjoying the week off from work, to be spent in prayerful contemplation as I write my first icon. Praying that my lack of artistic knowhow isn't too embarrassing or obvious...

Teresa Harrison is our instructor. We gather in a circle for a morning Eucharist led by Canon Richard Lief, who will also be writing his first icon this week. We read the lessons and gospel for the day, and Canon Lief gives a short sermon, beautifully connecting the gospel to the task at hand, the art of icon writing.

After we take the Eucharist, Teresa leads introductions. There are twenty of us, and I quickly surmise that this is a diverse group. Teresa has two apprentices, Kim and Mike, who assist with the class. They also write icons commissioned to Teresa, and will be working on 33" tall commissioned icons in addition to the smaller ones for class.

Other attendees have taken several of Teresa's workshops, and/or collect icons. Mike has brought in one of his icons from his collection - read mini-museum - of over 200 icons. This one is about 200 years old and is exquisitely detailed. He gives a brief description of the scenes portrayed.

Nancy from Idyllwild is a stained glass artist, and has written icons in egg tempera before, but never acrylics as we are about to do. Meanwhile there are others, like myself, who are new to all of this, but may have read a bit here or there, borrowed a smock, and are praying that divine intervention will save us from a gold-leaf related mishap.

I admit, Teresa suggested the icon I'm writing, and I just read about it the night before. Christ the Pantocrater, the oldest depiction of Jesus, from the 6th century. Through that dark period of history (that we are currently reliving) when graven images were destroyed, this icon survived due to its remote location at the Greek Orthodox St. Catherine's Monastery of Mt. Sinai, Egypt. Since the Arab Spring, armed Muslim Bedouins help the monks to guard the art and library while the brothers painstakingly digitize the whole lot as quickly as possible.

I let Teresa pick my icon because I don't want to get in over my head and I figure she has over 12 years' experience teaching these classes. It shows. She is organized, with every students' place set up the day before (large and small brushes, pens, pencils, cups, prepared gesso boards, etc. etc). She has everyone's name and icon memorized, amplified chants playing from her iPhone dock, special icon prayers and rules, and all this without being too didactic or overbearing...in fact she is the contrary, eternally patient, caring and empathetic.

"Growing up as a child of missionaries in Colombia, we took a precarious road to and from my boarding school. We prayed for travelers along that road, that they wouldn't be wiped out by a landslide or fall off the mountain to their death, and amazingly everyone made it through. The journey of writing an icon is a lot like that road...scary sometimes...but rewarding if you just persevere."

I arrange my gesso board (i.e., canvas) with tracing paper and carbon and begin going over the lines of Christ the Pantocrater and thinking about Teresa's Rule #2 of Icon Writing: Paint Like You are Being Watched by Christ Himself. In my case, I don't need the reminder. I can't remember Rule #1 but Rule #2, I've got that one down.

Another rule is to Pray for Guidance in Color Selection. Failing that, Teresa has a detailed color scheme memorized for each icon that she will share with you. I take advantage of this when I begin with the paint. Nancy marvels at the modern convenience of acrylics vs egg tempera. God said let there be Indian Red Oxide, Burnt Sienna and Yellow Light. And, it was good.

At noon we break for the noon prayer and a delicious lunch of chicken Caesar salad and ice cream provided on location by Sexton Bob Oslie. We reconvene at 1pm for some more circle time. Teresa leads a discussion on our observations and reflections regarding icon writing before we return to our places and continue.

From time to time, Teresa gives short demonstrations on different techniques. Some are icon-specific and others are general techniques, like shading contours in a flowing robe, which most people encounter. We are to practice the demo immediately after it's given, and then continue with other parts of the icon. In this way the new teaching is reinforced and Teresa can provide individualized instruction to twenty people writing ten different icons.

In addition, I peek at my neighbors. A lot. I am seated at a table with three others writing the same icon, none of them newbies like myself. I study their icons, thinking..."How did you shade that..." Oh yeah, I think I remember Rule #1 now...the one about Reverent Silence to Reflect. So that means no speaking and more peeking. Another icon writing rule is To Not Be Jealous of Your Neighbor. Pretty close to impossible. But...no rule against peeking. Nancy's taking a break? Peek, peek, peek...

June 27, 2014 1:00pm: The week just flew by. I'm thinking how I got to know some really interesting people, from Coronado, Alpine, Idyllwild, as well as San Diego. Many of us have traveled the world over. It has been for some an opportunity to touch base with old friends in the icon writing world, as well as make new connections.

Others have recently experienced difficult times and felt a need for a break, and I think all have welcomed the workshop as a spiritual retreat from our wild, wired world (although I may have occasionally checked my iPhone as the latest layer of paint dried). One participant relates how the workshop has been a "healing experience" amidst dealing with a debilitating terminal illness, and it's hard to contain my emotions now.

We carry our icons to the chapel for the final blessing today, led by the Rev. Colin Mathewson, and set them across the altar. Each one separately is a lovingly cut jewel, and strung together across the altar they illuminate the spare chapel with an almost palpable light. Then the blessing is given and suddenly the icons go their separate ways, charged with carrying on the centuries-old tradition of prayerful reverence and icon writing for the next generation.

Julie McMinn

The workshop was sponsored by the Cathedral Center for Performing and Visual Arts

New Play Unveils Lent and Holy Week Themes

A significant theater event is happening March 5 - 7 when the play "Pulling Back the Earth" is unveiled for the first time. Twenty years in the making, Mark Turner's play will be presented as "theater of the mind" featuring dramatic readers, folk choir with ethnic percussion and original visual art.

Produced by St. Paul's Cathedral Center for Performing and Visual Arts in collaboration with Horizon Gate Productions, the play features an extensive sound track of music and sound effects.

The drama tells of a young couple banished to "the outer space" for believing other humans exist besides their tribe. On their quest for vindication, they encounter threats that drive them to their limits: unknown sounds echoing in the atmosphere, stars appearing on the earth, fears of demons waiting for the imminent delivery of their first child.

Turner said of his play, "As the characters dig up progressive revelations of language, ancestry, and relations between vastly different peoples, the audience will be riveted to the life and death choices being made for both past and future humanity. The themes are especially appropriate for Lent and Holy Week."

The cast includes Carol Sawyer, Donna Turner, James Paraiso, Margie Oslie, Mark Turner and Steve Heyl.

Featured musician and ethnomusicologist, N. Scott Robinson, Ph.D., employs a wide range of instruments which he has collected from around the world including various frame and wood drums, didgeridoo, Vietnamese jaw harp, Brazilian Berim Bau, bamboo flute and an Mbira Array. As Assistant Professor at San Diego Mesa College, he directs the World Music Ensemble and teaches percussion, Western music history, popular music, and ethnomusicology/world music.

The folk choir features soloists Margie Oslie and Leigh Taylor who capture the soul of the tribe whose story is told.

 A sample of the hieroglyphics from which the story was taken.

Guest artists have contributed specially painted backdrops which will be projected behind the actors. Phil Petrie is an accomplished abstract expressionist with frequent showings in San Diego. Dwaine Best is a long-standing scenic artist at La Jolla Playhouse.

Each performance will be followed by a conversation with the playwright, cast and artists. The Saturday Matinee will be followed by a simple supper and extended discussion to which ticket-holders from all performances are invited.

Performances will be in the Great Hall of St. Paul's Cathedral, San Diego, at 7:00 pm Thursday and Friday, March 5 and 6. The Saturday matinée will be at 4:00 pm followed by a 6:00 pm supper ($5 donation). Tickets may be purchased online at http://stpaulcathedral.org/pullingbackplay, at the information table after Cathedral services and at the door.

-Mark Turner

St Paul's Inside Out!

Did you get a chance to see the transformation of St Paul's for Balboa Park's December Nights event?  By day, we have a mild-mannered neo-Gothic Cathedral, but by night, the building became something really different as the lights cycled through different colors and effects.   Here are a few photos.  You can find more here. 

  Check out the rest of the album!

Lighting up the Cathedral: reflections on December Nights

Last night my husband and I volunteered to help out with greeting visitors to the Cathedral who were drawn to it by the wonderful outdoor lighting display. It was beautiful and later when returning from Balboa Park for December Nights in the Prado, you could see them from the Cabrillo Bridge. We got back to the Cathedral about 9:45 and when we were about a block away, the lights were turned off. It might be better to leave them on for a little longer, since there were long lines of people waiting to get on the shuttle buses that were along Sixth Avenue and the Cathedral lights were within their vision.

Last night turned out to be a more wonderful experience that I had predicted. My husband who was out on the Sixth Avenue side, met a Presbyterian minister who has just moved to San Diego with his young family and was hoping to meet other clergy in the area. My husband assured him that he would find that opportunity at St. Paul's. I am sure each of us that volunteered have other special stories to share.

But what ended up being more special and I would call the whole evening an almost Hallmark TV movie experience, was the connections and experiences that happened not only at the Cathedral but in a jaunt over to Balboa park with a friend from church, her grandchildren, daughter and daughter's boyfriend. Trying to move with the masses of people had an almost Del Mar Fair type of experience. We had not been to December Nights in many years and it has changed. There were members of some religious group that held up multiple yellow lighted signs with Biblical verses on each side. Some of the sign holders would start quoting the continuation of the Biblical passages. It was a little humorous but they were trying to remind people what this season was all about. There were many commercial stands and wonderful conversations with the small business owners. There were there food stands especially around the International Houses and meeting the many volunteers that were supporting their various countries was also great. there were the various music groups performing at the Organ Pavillion, including one group that was from the high school two of my children attended and were involved with. And then there was the lighting of some of the old iconic structures that make our park so special and related to what we were doing at the Cathedral.

But the Hallmark experience last night was the conversations with various people, the connections that were made and also to see the emotional healing of one family that was taking place. It truly made the congestion and time of year worth while because it was not just all commercialism; there was something else in the air. And seeing the Organ pavilion completely filled with people listening to music that was specially about Christmas and Jesus made you appreciate that many still recognize Christmas and Advent for what is and not have to be "politically correct". Also, there were many people visiting the Nativity Creche that has been at the park since I was a young child (1950s) and I am sure many years before that. An atheist group has tried to shut it down several times, but as a Lutheran pastor, familiar to St. Paul's once told me, if you don't agree with something, then don't go there. No one forces people to go to a far end out of the way part of the park and why should we fill forced to always accommodate those that don't like it. If they don't believe in something, then why do they get so upset about our belief in a deity they say doesn't exist.

So thank you to Penny, Jonathan, the Cathedral staff and others who conceived this event and helped get the St. Paul's lighting display done. Maybe we will get a large contributor or two that would enable us to own the display equipment so that it can happen regularly and not have to be rented. Just think of the wonderful possibilities and things that could happen. It is those people that we walk the path with and make connections with that make a difference.

Sue McClure