‘Winter’
The Visual Worship home group at St Barnabas has been exploring the world of our emotions this term and seeking to express and understand them through a working sculpture. We have been helped along the way by the poem "Season of My Soul" by Helen Steiner Rice. It is a poem which draws parallels between the flux of our emotions and the changing of the seasons, recognising that these are all a part of God's creation. In so doing it helps us to own our own periods of despondency as much as those of joy, the times when we feel barren along side the times when everything seems so rewarding.
The life of our emotions is seldom static and we are planning to develop the installation as the year progresses. What you can see now (in the aisle beside the music group) is our preliminary evocation of winter; a time in which the 'flurry' of life's business can be stripped away, when the hope of spring and the warmth of summer are not there to comfort and distract. It is a time when we may feel exposed or laid bare. Paradoxically, it can be a time of great growth as we turn back to our core and learn to trust in the great invisible truths putting our faith in:
'the substance of things hoped for;
the evidence of things not yet seen.'
The roots of trees grow particularly in winter laying a foundation for strength and nourishment in the spring and summer and this is but one reason why the winter of our souls is such an important time and should not be neglected.
The piece which you can see is a 'core;' an inner structure, laid bare but partially hidden. It is open to interpretation and several interpretations from members of the group are on the wall adjacent to the sculpture. We have found that these pieces can work a little bit like parables; one gets caught up in the making of the object and then you gradually realise that your imagination has appropriated the image to convey something to you or to express something which you feel in a unique way. This often takes time and space - please feel free to spend some time pondering and do add any comment which you may have on the blank sheets provided.
