Cryptic Meg

In a previous blog post, I described a new series of events at our church that Nicholas and I have helped put together. On each fourth Sunday of the month from Easter to Advent, instead of having a traditional church service we have donned our walking boots and ventured out to different locations in our beautiful Dartmoor parish, always returning to the church at the end for a time of reflection and a bring & share meal.

Our little organising committee decided to end the series with a “creative day”, as there is a tremendous amount of artistic talent in our small parish, and we thought people might enjoy this way of responding to the series.

We started the day with an audio-visual presentation of the walks we had done, prepared by a keen amateur photographer in our number, which reminded everyone of the places we had visited and introduced the idea to anyone who hadn’t been on the walks. Then everyone was invited to try out whichever artistic station took their fancy.

I was amazed with the number of artists who came together to help us. There were stations for trying out watercolours, linocuts, painting, flower-arranging, and Nicholas led a group in composing a church anthem! Everything was themed to our church and the walks, and the artists did a fantastic job in coming up with ideas that were appropriate for beginners. I was utterly obsessed with the watercolour station (led by a friend I know from choir), and spent hours very slowly getting the knack of it.

Photos by Lorna Howell

At the end, we came together to sing our new church anthem and read out poems. People could then either keep their creations or put them on a wreath with a little model of the church at its centre. This was then hung up in the church.

Photo by Lorna Howell

I decided to keep my watercolour trees and river because I was quite delighted with them! They are currently on display on the piano (a temporary art gallery!).

Thus concluded our “Special Spaces” series. We were really thrilled with how it all went, and we are already excitedly planning a similar programme for next summer and autumn with an environmental theme. We’ve seen quite a lot of people who wouldn’t come to more traditional services, and it’s been so great to bring everyone together in the spirit of community, reflection, and appreciation for the natural world. We are very fortunate in our little corner of Dartmoor, and well we know it!

A word cloud of people’s responses to the series