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Sometimes I’m glad to be an Episcopalian… Wait… That sounded grudging… Let me try again… Nearly all the time I’m glad to be an Episcopalian… There… That sounds better.

Today I’m happy with my choice of church for this reason – our tradition likes art. Think about that. Music? Love it. Poetry? You bet. Dancing? Bring it on. Movies? Pass the popcorn. Thanks to our ancient Anglican heritage, we celebrate that God is an artist, that he creates beauty for the sheer heck of it, and likes it when we enjoy life-enhancing human endeavors.

It is no coincidence that many of the world’s greatest playwrights, painters, writers, and musicians have been Anglicans. We get it. We know that God does not speak only
through the Bible and the church, but also through the human imagination. We understand that an artist may not be trying to reflect the nature of God as they work, but
they will inevitably do so, because they are partnering with the Great Artist in producing something that is true and beautiful.

The key Christian doctrine here is ‘Incarnation’. God became a human being in Jesus. God, who is spirit, became material. A shocking thought. But it means that material
things, physical things, bodily things, human things cannot in themselves be evil. If they were intrinsically sinful, God could not have become human.

This Lent St John’s will be celebrating the arts, and in particular how artists have portrayed the Cross (hey, it is Lent) in creative ways (even if they haven’t meant to). For
five Wednesdays at 6 p.m., beginning on March 12, we’ll be enjoying a simple Lenten supper together in the Parish Hall, followed by a presentation on The Cross in some
artform.

Here’s the schedule:
March 12 – The Cross in Film
March 19 – The Cross in Theatre
March 26 – The Cross in Literature
April 2 – The Cross in Music
April 9 – The Cross in Fine Art

Come expecting to be entertained, stretched, educated, and above all – fall into a deeper understanding of what God did for us on the Cross, and a more passionate love
for Christ.