Taiwan Church News 3775 Edition July 1 ~ 7, 2024 Weekly Topical PCT Women Retreat Camp See the Faith by Christian Arts Reported by Lin Wan-ting from Kaohsiung The PCT Women’s Ministry Committee held its annual “National Women Retreat Camp” at Kaohsiung Branch of Chunghwa Telecom Training Institute from June 27 to 29, 2024. It’s the first time ever for the PCT Women Retreat Camp to rally on the theme of Christian arts. Responding to the initiative of Thursdays in Black, an ecumenical campaign to care for victims of gender-based abuse or violence, all retreat camp members complied with the dress code in black. Quoting Romans 1:20, Rev Lien Chang-mei, secretary of the PCT Women’s Ministry Committee, gave a sermon entitled as “Look˙See” at the opening service of the retreat camp. “Why human are able to appreciate God’s beauty in His creation?”, Rev Lien asked the audience, “it’s due to the marvelous gift blessed from God and then we are able to praise and respond to God through arts and many other creative ways”. She prayed Holy Spirit to open the assembly with artistic visions to enjoy the abundant glamour and grace springing from God. After the opening service, Ms Chen Fei-fei, director of the PCT Women’s Ministry Committee, introduced the leaders of women ministry of each presbytery/ethnic district conference to the participants. On June 27, Mr Luo Song-en, a part-time lecturer at Department of Fine Arts of Tunghai University, was invited to give a key-note speech, with the theme of “Prayer with Open Eyes – Spiritual Care via an Artistic Gaze”, introducing the audience to reflect the faith through classic Christian paintings. In his lecture, entitled as “Why do we need to care about icons? The spiritual insights of Christian arts”, Mr Luo indicated “Christian arts is not only limited to paintings of the Christian Saints”. While he was studying in Germany and focused on Christian faith as the theme of visual arts, he acknowledged that an in-depth understanding of Christian faith and church history were the more solid foundations to help his studies. He also found the Christian arts desperately needed to do a “modern translation” for the public to appreciate. Mr Luo pointed out that both the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church had their respective historical traditions of contemplation and iconic spirituality, which could also be studied from the disciplines of optical neuroscience or anthroposophy. To explicate that human vision is a function of “selection/creation” by the brain, Mr Luo briefly explained the visual processes in which “light shines on objects, and then the human optic nerve receives/transmits the input signals, processes, connects, judges, and finally produces the output visual images.” Mr Luo emphasized “there is a radical difference between ‘look’ and ‘see’, as the process of “creation” has already been built in-between.“ “It has nothing to do with whether you have the artistic capability to be creative or not”, he remarked. Mr Luo expressed that from an anthroposophical perspective, “spirituality refers to the ability to contemplate and connect experiences/feelings to God, which is not strange to Christians”. For example, he explained further, “after the people see the vast swathe of starry sky, and later figure out the mystery of the laws behind the universe, they are touched immediately to learn the truth that stars move according to the laws which do not succumbed to human will”. “This is the very kind of spiritual thinking”, he said. In Catholic contemplation, Mr Luo indicated, “seeing icons is not about appreciating art, but looking carefully at the suffering Jesus, the heartbroken Mary, the grieving disciples and etc., reflecting about the Bible stories and teachings of Christ, contemplating and waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit and etc.” Using a number of classic Christian paintings as examples, Mr Luo also invited the audience to watch, mediate and share their thoughts on these art works. Translated by Peter Wolfe |