A Gospel Beyond Words at Convention Eucharist
By The Rev. Holly Antolini

A sunrise unfolds over our heads as we enter the hall for the Convention Eucharist. Then waves seethe under a moody sky. A chalice emerges in a swirl of silver. A dove descends in a circle of stained glass. These are the Visual Preludes, expanding worship at General Convention.

Created by the Episcopal Church & the Visual Arts for the Eucharists of the 74th General Convention in Minneapolis, the Visual Preludes are the inspiration of Phoebe Griswold and sculptor-priest Gurdon Brewster. Under President Mel Ahlborn, ECVA continued its mission of “encouraging visual arts in the life of the Episcopal Church” by building a Web site (ecva.org) and attracting a growing community of artists across the Episcopal Church. This Convention’s Preludes were created in response to the daily Eucharistic lectionary by three artist-curators -- Brie Dodson, Jan Neal and Anne Wetzel -- working with video artist Dan Hardison.

The images in the Visual Preludes spring from the spiritual lives and souls of 135 artists across the Episcopal Church. “Every image is a direct response to God,” says curator and Virginia painter Dodson. She describes how she begins developing a painting, and soon a Scripture verse comes to mind -- a verse that intuitively becomes a shaping force in the painting, in feeling if not in content.

“My paintings are a lot about the unknown,” she observes, “sometimes moving into it, sometimes emerging from it. And they invite their viewers into the unknown.” Maine photographer and Triennium delegate Barbi Tinder finds her images in dawn walks. “I just notice the light,” she says, “and capture God’s artwork.”

“My art emerges in a conversation,” says Virginia deputy and fiber artist, the Rev. Susan Goff. “It tells me what it wants to be. I’m only the co-creator, together with my Creator.”

“People appreciated the Preludes in 2003,” says Director Ahlborn. “By 2006, they were greeted with excitement and longing. I keep hearing, ‘How can we do this in our congregation?’ I think in our current visual culture, this artwork invites us beyond the verbal into a refreshingly new realm of the Spirit.”

Other Virginia artists who contributed to Preludes are: Anne Randolph Rechter, Goodwin House; Adrian Luxmoore, St. Paul's, Richmond; Ginny Runge, St. John's, McLean; Susan Goff and Susan Tilt, St. Christopher's, Springfield; Margaret Adams Parker, St. Mary's, Arlington; Brie Dodson, Debbie Gale and Ed Moore, Trinity, Upperville; Isota Tucker Epes, St. Paul’s, Alexandria.