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Creativity and Spirituality By: Kelly Conkling

“So God

created

humankind in

God’s image,

in the image of

God [they were created]; male

and female God created them…

and God saw everything that

God had made, and indeed, it was

very good.” (Genesis 1:27, 31a)

We are created in the image and likeness of God, and our God is one who creates. It follows, then, that creativity is literally part of our spiritual DNA. Biologically we procreate. Spiritually we reflect God’s creativity. Hildegard of Bingen wrote, “…humankind full of creative

possibilities, is God’s work.

Humankind alone, is called to

assist God. Humankind is called

to co-create. God gave to

humankind the talent to create

with all the world.” As Christians we are called to live into that heritage, that inheritance, that truth about ourselves.

Creativity is the work of the heart; it is the work of the imagination; of the brain and the spirit. It is our call from

God, the chance at participating in one of life’s most powerful experiences: to make something whole from the pieces of our lives.

It is clear that our senses alone, and our intelligence alone, cannot, by themselves, observe and come to know God. It is through our imaginations, and our heart center, that we begin to understand God.

THE CREATIVE SPIRIT

A NEWSLETTER OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – SAN ANTONIO, TX Restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ

October 2016 Editor: Katie Sutcliffe Becker Special Creativity Issue - 2016

In this issue… Holy Spirit has a

quarterly(ish) newsletter called The Voice of the Spirit that features stories of transformation by and about members of our congregation and our life together as a Christ-centered community.

This special issue grew out of a class that The Rev. Kelly Conkling offered in the spring that focused on the book by Tomas Ryan, CSP, entitled Soul Fire:

Accessing Your Creativity. This issue features creative exercises that participants in the class created during and after the class.

Are you working on or have you recently completed a creative project that you would like to share with the congregation? Please e-mail it to newsletter@sentbythespirit.org and if we get enough submissions we can continue to publish special creativity issues!

It is through our imaginations, and our heart center, that we begin to understand God.

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What cannot be seen, heard, felt, touched, smelled, tasted, or logically understood, can still be imagined. So the imagination, the creative force, is an instrument of faith.

This faith becomes concrete – incarnate - it becomes something that can be seen, heard, felt, touched, smelled, perhaps tasted or experienced in other ways, through the act of making. The intentional

act of engaging in a creative activity as a spiritual practice - whether it be cooking, cleaning, writing, or singing - is an act of trying to make known the object of our faith – God.

Photography: to see clearly The following photographs are by Pat Jankowski (left) and Lyn Komada (right).

Found Poetry: to reflect

Using the process of "found poetry," which someone described as a "word collage," is surprisingly easy and always thought-provoking. It essentially uses and rearranges someone else's words (giving them credit) to create new meaning and sometimes even poetry. While the technique was new to me, it helped me understand that inspiration for poetry can come from almost anywhere! - Nancy Roberts

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This excerpt from Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd, was used to create the Found Poetry on pages 4 -6.

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By: Kiki Foster

By: Diana Thorp

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By: Nancy Roberts

By: Nancy Socher

"Creativity is primarily about process, about the journey itself, rather than the end goal. The

spiritual life is much the same, which is one of the places creativity and spirituality intersect: in

tending to and celebrating the process of becoming. We don't ever arrive, at least not in this

lifetime. We continue to unfold and flower and emerge." Christine Valters Painter, PhD

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The picture to the left creates the following Found Poem:

This morning I made coffee

My life shining ordinary too beautiful to bear

Nothing seemed holier than being naturally myself

If this were my last day on earth

I would go into our garden

And experience the common acts of life.

-Picture and Found Poem by Joyce St. John

Mandala: to discern The following mandalas were created by Cheryl North (left), and Joyce St. John (right).

Julian of Norwich wrote, “We can never know God until we first know clearly our own soul.”

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Mandala: (continued)

Jeanne Loggie created the Mandala to the left and described her experience of doing so as follows:

While drawing my mandala, it felt like an automatic response to the quiet meditation we had before we began. I was so surprised how I was drawn to the deep red - I just knew that I wanted a burgundy or maroon color, but didn’t know why. I’m still not sure why the heart is hollow and I didn’t feel the need to fill it in. The spiral circling was also automatic and blue is just the color I was drawn to. I felt a little sad when I was finished; it was strange that “insulated” was the word that

came to mind - almost like my heart was wrapped up in bubble wrap! Imagine my surprise when I discovered the follow: Blue can be a sign of Healing and protection; Deep Red can be a sign of sacrifice and bravery; Spirals can be a sign of constructive or destructive forces. It’s amazing to see how it all came together and how it fits with where I am in my life right now!

Creative Expression By: Kelly Conkling

“The characteristic common to God

and man is apparently… the desire

and ability to make things.” Dorothy Sayers

We are all creators, artists – even if you have never thought of yourself in this way. We all have the gift to imagine. Each of us, as our own unique person, has our own creative journey and we must each find our own way whether it be through the visual arts, poetry, music, gardening, housekeeping, cooking,

teaching, counseling, nursing and doctoring, or running a business.

Creative exercises – especially artistic ones – open us up to God, open our hearts to the stirrings of the spirit, free our creative imaginations and allow us to see deeply into our own hearts and the heart of God. This creative spirit, fostered and cared for within us, flows outward into our own lives, our relationships, and the world around us.

Frank Schaeffer writes in Addicted to Mediocrity: 20th Century Christians

and the Arts, “Remember that as a creative person, the important thing is to create. Who sees what you make, where it goes and what it does is a secondary

consideration; the first is to exercise the talent God has given you.”

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Photography: to see clearly

Photograph above by Jeanne Loggie.

Photograph on left by Penny Herrero, photograph on the right by Sherry Lott.

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Photography: (continued)

The photo on the left was taken by Sally Lindsey.

When ask what she found most striking about

the class, she responded as follows: It's the

encouragement, inspiration and sharing I get

from the other participants. We had one day

during the summer when Tonya came with the

two Emilys and we all just jumped in with the

Shibori dyeing. Emily and Emily showed us the

tie dye technique they learned at

CampCapers. We can take risks trying

something different like Penny dyeing two

different sets of curtains just to see what would

happen, or just being together and laughing a lot.

Food for the soul.

Paint to Music: to express Paintings by Joyce St. John (left) and Pat Jankowski (right).

Matthew Fox says that “[creativity] is where the divine and human meet.”

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Creativity, Spirituality, and a Prayerful Life

By: Kelly Conkling

“When we engage in a creative

activity, we are seeking to connect

to God, the great creator, artist to

artist.” Douglas Eby

Creativity, as a spiritual practice, is an act of living. Ellen Dissanayake, an anthropologist, suggests that the act of creating is actually a biological need that is basic to human nature. She describes creating as “making special.” Creativity encompasses the whole of our lives. Every act in which we “make special” can be a creative one: our play and our improvisations, how we relate to others, handle difficulties, find solutions to problems, how we approach our work and the hobbies we pursue. Matthew Fox, in his book Creation, explains that “When I’m operating at my best, my work is my

prayer. It comes out of the same place that prayer

comes out of – the center, the heart.”

Living a creative life, practicing the presence of God in and through all of our daily activities, is living from the heart, and living “creatively is a

choice. Creativity is not a particular gift given to

certain people only. It is a personal choice and a

cultural choice…. We choose whether to let creativity

flow or not ….. In theological terms, it is a matter of

letting the Spirit in, the Christ in.” (Matthew Fox)

A favorite quote of mine says “the most visible

creators I know of are those artists whose medium is

life itself. The ones who express the impossible –

without brush, hammer, clay or guitar. They neither

paint nor sculpt – their medium is being. Whatever

their presence touches has increased life. They see and

don’t have to draw. They are the artists of being

alive.” Our life is a work of art. It is the greatest artistic collaboration we have with God.

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Prayer: Gracious God, we give you thanks for the many blessings and creative gifts that you have already bestowed upon us through

your Holy Spirit. Open our hearts, we pray, that we may yield ourselves to you, to your empowering presence; that we will be all

that you have created us to be, and that we will do all you have created us to do. This we ask in Christ’s name. Amen.

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Collages: for self-awareness

Collage above by: Nancy Socher

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Collage above by: Mary Sipich

Thomas Aquinas wrote that “Natural objects, created by God, reflect and give witness to their creator. And the strongest and most direct ‘image

of God’ is the human being, created in God’s image.”

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Photography: to see deeply

Photo above top by Nancy Roberts, above bottom by Marsha Thorp, below by Katie Sutcliffe Becker.

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CREATIVITY? By: Julie Whatley

When I heard Kelly was offering a class on creativity, I thought: I can’t sing, dance, paint, or do crafty things, I’m just not creative. I mentioned this to Kelly, and her response was, “God created you, and God is in you, so you are creative – everyone is.” So I decided to get the book, “Soul Fire, Accessing Your Creativity,” by Thomas Ryan and go to the first class.

The book was an inspiration and a great guide. Ryan starts by saying the book is aimed primarily at those of us in “the second half of life,” because we have more time to explore, discover and nurture our creativity. Ryan also said we all are creative, but for various reasons our creativity may have been stifled , buried or suppressed while we attended school, pursued a career, raised children.

The exercises in the book and the projects Kelly gave us started us on the way to awakening our creativity, (for those of us who didn’t feel we were creative.) Painting to music was one of my favorite classes, though I won’t be framing any of my “masterpieces.” But I did find a creative spark in writing poetry as a way to express some soul felt experiences.

I am so glad I took a chance to be creative. And I look forward to continuing the journey, and the poem below is part of that continued journey:

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Poetry: as a way of life

This poem was created by Mary Sipich during the Sunday worship service on June 26, 2016.

She shared it with members of the class in the following e-mail note:

Good Evening everyone. If you were in church this morning, you heard the beautiful music we had. During the orchestral intro of the first song, I closed my eyes and just listened. In my mind’s eye, I was ‘painting’ a picture of how I was feeling. As choir began singing, I wrote the following:

I felt such turmoil

It filled the room with more and more urgency

It covered the air in agony

Then I heard it; a light sound

Something fling above

The urgency became resolve

I am strong; WE are strong

The sounds have become more even

Sweeping me away with Him

We were meant to live for so much more

I must say, I was quite surprised at how easily this came. Just one more example of what happens when you open your mind to the possibility of creativity!

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The Class By: Cheryl North The creativity and spirituality/prayer class was wonderful! As a person who does not feel the "creative" skill as one of the major gifts that God has given me, I have learned that "creativity" is a "gift from God" to each of us. It doesn't have to be a recognizable piece of art or sculpture, or the piece of work that causes people to say "wow". It could be the "piece" that allows you to communicate with God and yourself. Kelly teaches us all that aspect of creativity so well! I try to keep that idea in my mind as I attempt to broaden my prayer time to include new ways of expression. Thank you, Kelly!

Above: Class participants creating Mandalas.

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The Creative Journey Continues In their desire to continue exploring the creative process, a number of participants began meeting on a regular basis over the summer to explore a variety of creative expressions like Japanese tie-dying, marbling paper, and making sun prints.

Mrs.

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Kindle the Flame: Creative Play Please watch for the sign up for the next Kindle the Flame creativity make-and-take class. No date has been set yet, but will be announced in the weekly e-mail and with a sign-up sheet in the back of the church. Several participated on October 1, 2016 and it was a great success.

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Worship and Mailing Address: Church Phone Number: 210-314-6729

11093 Bandera Road, San Antonio, TX 78250 Church email – Holyspirit@sentbythespirit.org Church Staff: The Rev. Jason T. Roberts – Rector The Rev. Kelly S. Conkling – Asst. Rector

jroberts@sentbythespirit.org ext. 101 kconkling@sentbythespirit.org ext. 102

Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit RESTORING ALL PEOPLE TO UNITY WITH GOD AND EACH OTHER IN CHRIST

www.SentByTheSpirit.org

____________________________________________________________________________

Worship and Mailing Address: Church Phone Number: 210-314-6729

11093 Bandera Road, San Antonio, TX 78250 Church email – Holyspirit@sentbythespirit.org

Church Staff:

The Rev. Jason T. Roberts – Rector Mr. Eddy Martinez – Youth Minister

jroberts@sentbythespirit.org ext. 101 Jeanne Loggie – Church Administrator

The Rev. Kelly S. Conkling – Asst. Rector jloggie@sentbythespirit.org ext. 103

kconkling@sentbythespirit.org ext. 102 Mrs. Tonya Kramer – Secretary and Lead

The Rev. John Padgett – Priest Associate for Nursery Teacher, ext. 100

Adult Formation, jpadgett@sentbythespirit.org tkramer@sentbythespirit.org

Mr. Chris Bendrell – Music Minister Ms. Cheryl West – Children’s Music Teacher

cbendrell@sentbythespirit.org cwest@sentbythespirit.org

Ms. Jen Gil – Children and Youth Minister Ms. Abby Amick – Accompanist

youth@sentbythespirit.org Ms. Deborah Ewald – Sexton