From the Pastors' Desk | June 2025

I think it was during the second year we were there that Pittsburgh Theological Seminary invited local painter Dai Morgan, who was also a United Methodist minister, to be its first artist-in-residence. A room in the chapel building became his studio for that year, during which he occasionally preached at chapel services, was a guest lecturer in classes, and participated in the seminary community. The seminary hosted an exhibit of his work, which gave the students and others an opportunity to talk with him about his paintings.

He also taught a class about religious art, which I attended with a friend, just for fun. It was non-credit, open-to-the public, and just a few evenings… but it made a big impression on me. I learned a lot of things about religious (and particularly Christian) symbolism that helped make sense of what seemed like odd details in traditional art. Dai showed us art from various times and place, and let us see how the works reflected different perspectives. He gave us a little better sense of how to look at a work of art, what to look for. I was fascinated by what I saw and learned. Most of all, I gained a new appreciation for the gifts that art can offer for the life of faith, and for the community of faith. I didn’t quite realize it at the time, but looking back, I appreciate how formative that experience was for me, and how much the love of art has influenced my ministry and especially inspired my reflections on Biblical texts.

It wasn’t too long afterward that Jerry and I came across a simple Bible study curriculum that used small, inexpensive reproductions of paintings as starting points for discussions about gospel stories. (It may have been Dai who told us about it.) We used it for some Bible studies with folks in the small church where we were student pastors – folks who were mostly not big on reading – and discovered that art could engage people in ways that words sometimes couldn’t.

We’ve carried that lesson with us throughout our ministry, and it’s informed the way we’ve approached preaching, Christian education, Bible study, retreats, and personal growth over the years. I’m sure it contributed to the realization that an art project dedicated to an environmental theme would be a great way to bring faith and creation care concerns together.

This year’s Art Festival exhibit on “One Planet” does that in a powerful way, I think. Maybe that’s what got us thinking again about how impactful art can be… at the same time as we were thinking about summer worship. We like to plan a whole season at one time – for the sake of both efficiency and some coherence. In the summer, we usually try to plan sermons that are engaging and meaningful but with a somewhat less seriousapproach than we’d take during, say, Lent. We agreed that art would be a perfect vehicle for summertime reflections on the Word.

Presbyterians have always focused very much on the written Word. We’ve always been big on literacy and education, emphasizing the Bible for everyone, and some of our theological ancestors were quite suspicious of art in a church context. Of course, no art can take the place of the Bible for us. But art can be a wonderful window into scripture. We can consider what the artist was trying to convey, and why. What “moment” in the story is shown? What’s in the picture? What (or who) is left out? What’s the mood? A work of art might prompt us to ask new questions, wonder about things we hadn’t considered before, notice details we’ve previously missed, or imagine ourselves in the story. Or it might make us think, “I’d paint (or sculpt) this differently.

This summer we’re going to hear a variety of scriptures from both testaments and consider some diverse works of art that we hope will serve as windows to the rich layers of meaning we find in the Bible. We hope you find it engaging and inspiring.

And we hope you have a summer filled with beauty and blessings!

–Pastor Janet

P.S. The other thing we came away with, from the particular year of seminary, was a painting by Dai Morgan – the first piece of art Jerry and I bought, an anniversary gift to ourselves. We were poor seminary students (and parents), and the purchase was only possible for us because of Dai’s generous attitude about art, and his conviction that it should be for everyone. He said that he’d rather have a piece of art hanging on someone’s wall, being enjoyed, than sitting in his studio, even if the price only covered the cost of his materials. That’s why we have a lovely still life painting, worth probably ten times what we paid for it, which we treasure today… along with a conviction that art is for sharing.

From the Pastors' Desk | May 2025

Theresa Coty O’Neill opens her poem, On Hope : “This is the same planet on which I took/ my first steps….” Of the thirty-three entries into this year’s art festival, hers is my favorite. Her affection for the earth comes through in this opening line and throughout the poem in images and stories. In her final story/ image she writes of the death of her two day old son and closes with these words: “Burial made me think differently/about the way the earth reclaims us,/in all our fledgling guilt, in all our innocence.”

Her poem encapsulated what artists and poets have been trying to communicate to us about the earth: that we have a relationship to it, sometimes characterized by guilt in our treatment of the planet, and sometimes by an “innocent” unconscious awareness of the blessings we receive through it.

This is the thirteenth year of the Westminster Art Festival, thanks to an initial grant from the Beim Foundation. Jim McKim, a member of its board and of this congregation urged us to come up with a project that would bring together children and the arts. It’s gone through a number of changes over the years, but Jim’s encouragement and the hard work of Lindsey South, Joey Burgam and Lynn McFarland built a solid foundation for current members of the team to work with.

I’m humbled by the way in which the art community has come to embrace this festival. For the second straight year, we received over fifty visual art entries in addition to the poems. For the first time, there was more art than we had space to hang. But more important than its success are the countless ways in which artists and poets have challenged and encouraged us to think about our relationship to the planet. They remind us that we have not treated the earth well, that we have sometimes pretended to be its master when we ought to be its steward. They remind us that the earth gives and provides without thought of return: ground to walk on, air to breathe, beauty to inspire. I love that we can put an environmental theme out there that the community beyond the church helps us interpret.

I am so grateful to pastor a church that blesses me, seeks the welfare of the faith community, and wants to be connected to the community beyond the church. The mutual blessing of church and artists and poets is among the beautiful aspects of the festival. But the ultimate hope is that together we will mend our relationship to the earth, that we will awaken to the earth’s “(re)claim” on us.

So I hope you’ll come to some of the events and interact with the artists and poets as we celebrate this “one planet” on which each of us have taken our first steps.

Peace, Pastor Jerry