They are both big canvases, 48" by 36" and they were painted over ten years ago. I have hung them in the nave of the church, the first painting near the altar and the second near the back. I will be bringing in some smaller paintings next Sunday for the narthex.I feel deeply touched and moved by how well received the paintings are by people in the church. They seem to help people in their worship and this is why they are there. They are also for sale, in a passive sense. I am not going to aggressively market them and I feel this would be especially inappropriate in church, given the way Christ cleansed the temple during his life and ministry. However I have announced that if anyone does buy a painting that half the proceeds will be donated to the church's homelessness and street ministry.
St. Anselm's is the first church on my forty-five year journey as a Christian where I don't feel in some way unsafe. I feel completely part of the community there. It would be a waste of time to dwell on the sins and offences of the previous churches I have been connected to. Where I am now I feel that I am in a warm and welcoming community and that this is a place where I can grow and flourish with others. It has been just over a year since I found myself on their doorstep, a refugee from my home parish where I spent nearly seven years feeling treated as an unwelcome outsider.
Following the coffee hour I did my usual walk in the forest with an hour and a half break in a café patio where I worked on my current drawing while sipping an ice Americano and enjoying a cinnamon bun. I resumed my hike, simply dazzled by the light and colour of the June foliage.
Eventually I will stop being so angry at many of the parishioners at St. Paul's Anglican. Not yet, but I can see it coming.
The hot and spicy cabbage is cooked now and I am letting it cool.
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