The canopy has been a collaborative effort from the start, and the project was been designed in such a way as to invite involvement by as many people as possible and in a diversity of ways.
It has marked many moments, and for some people they will be very personal and private. The anonymity of the installation intentionally facilitates this, whilst still providing people with a way to see their contribution as part of a whole. There are many stories of making angels, discussing those moments, viewing the canopy, #SensingSpirituality and being inspired through contact with the project that are unknown to individual participants and the St John’s community who have participated in, hosted, and supported this project that could be made known though. These stories are part of what makes than canopy special, and more than just a beautiful collection of colour.
So, if you have time, please will you write down your recollections of the experience before they fade? If you have a memory which identifies someone else, please check with them before you send it to me. If you would like a story to be recorded, but not published outside the Quartz or St John’s community please let me know too. Don’t worry about making it into a fancy story, I can wordsmith the fragments of thought into an article and a record of the process. Pictures are also welcome!
Finally, I know there are people who have stories of their encounters with the canopy who this will not reach. I need your help in this too! Please invite the people you know to send in their thoughts too.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, please get in touch!
There is a story told of an estate owner. He managed his land by letting it out to tenants. Each one held a plot, and they had freedom to develop it as they saw fit. The story doesn’t say how much help each of them got in establishing themselves, but other stories let us assume that the owner was generous. They knew they were tenants, and that the owner would one day decide to collect the return on his investment.
However, when the owner sent other servants to claim the rent, the tenants had changed. Some had sublet the property, others had automated production. All of them had forgotten the owner of the land. the servants were abused and sent back empty handed.
The estate owner sent out more servants to remind the tenants and collect the rent. This time the tenants abused the servants and filled social media with posts to sway public opinion. The servants’ reputations were attacked and they were portrayed as foolish idealists.
So, the estate owner sent his son and heir. The reckoning was that this would remind the tenants of how it had been in the beginning, and give them one last chance. Like going himself, but leaving an opening to show leniency.
Even then, however, the tenants closed their minds to the reality of the situation. They killed the child and claimed that the land was their freehold. Confident in their control of the narrative they edited the owner out of the story, and sought to continue their lifestyles in comfort for perpetuity.
How do you think the landowner acted?
Of course he kicked the tenants out, their anguish and frustration was epic. They were in the wrong though, and once this came into the light no amount of PR or spin could cover up their treachery.
This is the way it is with all political and religious leaders who forget where authority lies. This is the message of Saturnalia, or the baptism of John and something Dickens tried to tell his readers. Those who seek to gain the world will lose it, but those who are willing to be broken will find life. It is a story for those who are in positions of privilege, may all of us be given the grace to see ourselves as we really are.
There is another story though. This is a story for those who are broken, all who seek, and everyone who wanders with their eyes open.
Even in the mirk there is light. This light has always been here, and it distinguishes those who have their eyes open from those who choose the wrong pill. This light is a seed at the beginning of time. It is God herself pregnant with creation. The quantum of solace that links heaven and earth. Not everyone recognises it, and those you might expect to get it, are often the ones who find it hardest to adapt their lives to this deep old magic in the present moment.
For those that can though, it is the baby’s cry at the birth of Love itself. It is the light from a star formed by the conjunction of heavenly bodies becoming visible in the humblest of places. With even just the smallest amount of humanity shared in a relationship, many frustrations can be worked through. This story is the good news that God shares humanity with creation, and has placed the seed potential to become children of God within the womb of time. The most ordinary thing we know of can become divine.
So today is an invitation to co-create. Follow the star, and see where it leads.
It’s the week before Christmas and the canopy of Angels is almost complete. I’m writing on the sunny side of the solstice having just installed many Angels made at Dumfries High School.
This has been a collaborative work! We have had angles made in pubs and cafes. Angels sent in by post and online. Angles crafted from exquisite origami paper and precious thoughts folded into Angels made from scraps.
All symbols have many meanings. It is as much their vagueness which makes them powerful, as is the particular meaning they carry for a particular person. The rainbow represents hope, inclusive society, beauty seen in nature where sunlight and rain mingle and a link between heaven and earth. I could continue, but as I continued I would move from the public sphere into my personal views and story.
Each Angel has been made by a person folding paper. Some have written their thoughts, hopes, or prayers on the Angels. Others have simply let the folding mark the moment. All these moments have been gathered into one work of art that is bigger than any of us could have managed on our own. All those moments and meanings mingle and are lifted up. Now we can sit back, and become aware of something bigger.
Perhaps when people look at the canopy they will wonder about what each angel could mean for the person who made it? Some will pray, and some won’t. But here is a symbol within which, for this Christmas, we have all met and shared some space.
Hopefully as the sun returns we will soon be able to share physical spaces again! When we do, hopefully we will remember to respect and value each persons particularity, and take time to discover the language that let’s us live diverse lives in unity. A glorious rainbow of life.
There is still time to get involved and contribute your Angel!
Due to Covid precautions the building is open to walk in less often than usual, but we will arrange some times for people to view the canopy during January. You are, of course, also welcome to the services – details here
This video clip has been made for the Sunday before Christmas. The canopy is almost complete – and just waits for a star to appear for Christmas day.
The development of the canopy
Angels have been contributed by individuals and groups throughout Dumfries, as well as the community of St John’s. They have been folded in homes, cafes, coffee shops and pubs around the town. There is still time to contribute, A batch is being prepared in Dumfries High School, and we can collect the Angels to hang them for you.
The canopy will be installed throughout January, please look at the St Johns website diary to find out when you can view it in person. We would usually have the building open for you to drop in during daylight hours, but Covid conditions mean that this may not be possible.
This year, we are folding Angels. Angels are often described as messengers of God. In Nativity plays children will dress up as Angels and sing songs of good news. They will represent a message of peace and hope.
For some, this will be enough. For others there is a need to think more deeply about it.
Do Angels carry messages both ways, are they looking out for us? When Jesus is recorded scolding his followers for turning away parents with their children, he is also recorded as saying “…For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven…” Matthew 18: 10
To me, that sounds like Angels are holding open a hotline to God, and guess who gets priority?
Perhaps people are more used to the idea that we can all communicate with God directly, or that we should be able to. Political terms such as ‘kingdom’ are often used to describe concepts like heaven, and God is often described as something like a king. Our politicians are in our houses on TV screens, we can e-mail them and vote for them or not. They want to create an image of accessibility. How many people seriously think that they could have a direct line to the UK prime minister though? Or that if they did, that the occupant of that office would take time to listen to them?
Pause for a moment and imagine a world where such access is possible and think about what that would be worth. Is this what Jesus is saying Angels provide with the creator of the cosmos?
There is an obvious gap between our experience of life and what we hope the ideal life would be like. Heaven to come, and the life we experience now. This difference has been described as the presence of sin. You have read this far, so take a moment longer while I explore this technical term. I’m not going to try for a definition, but in order to better understand this, both intellectually and emotionally, here is a medieval thought experiment.
Imagine a person in Hell for committing one sin. A criminal in prison for one crime, or a person knotted up in their mind with regret for a mistake. Then contemplate the many things we have done wrong in thought word and deed, and in what we have failed to do. As your awareness increases, remember that this what you have been set free from. The purpose of the experiment is not to beat yourself up, or wrap yourself in guilt – rather it is to remind you of the value of forgiveness and freedom.
As an artist, in the course of folding angels, and teaching others to do so I have discovered that this is helping me examine my life through the frustration involved in creating. This is less about personal guilt and more about the creative process. The canopy of Angels bulges, pregnant with the potential of creation – but in any birth there is a messy time of frustration. (here is a passage you may not have connected with childbirth before)
There is an obvious gap between a sheet of paper and a folded angel. If you want the angel you need to fold some paper. As you fold you become aware of the gap there is between where you are now and where you want to be. If you are teaching someone, especially with reduced physical contact to to Covid, then you become aware of the desire to reach over and just fix it for them.
…You knew how to do this last week! how can you have forgotten… How can I make this symmetrical? … I can’t do this!… crafts are not my thing …
When you fold, fold the feelings and prayers you have for people into the paper. If learning the origami and following the instructions fristrates you in this simple task, let that become awareness of the feelings we all experience in the complicated task of living well. When you teach allow your awareness of your frustration, and desire to make things right, to help you imagine God’s desire to make things right. Let yourself imagine and feel the frustration in creating humans who can find their own way, rather than just being playthings.
If it all gets too much, rest. Humans are far more precious to God than paper Angels, and yet all of these are numbered and identifiable in the level of detail at which God is creating. Let yourself become aware of the experience of God carrying you when you can’t walk. Or sitting with you if you don’t even have the energy to be moved. You have a hotline to heaven.
As the motley crew of folded angels spread along the net in the roof of the St Johns building many small moments are becoming a rainbow of colour. The thoughts, frustrations, hopes and prayers of many people with different political views, metaphysical beliefs, and approaches to spirituality are combining to make something memorable.
On several occasions we have used stars. This post combines work from several installations and settings. We adapted our approach for each setting to work appropriately with the setting.
In a general sense we used the craft of making paper stars as a way to help participants reflect on “Wishes” and work out which of those thoughts could become genuine “Hopes”. Using a physical craft activity to provide a focus for developing skills in understanding the collection of invisible thoughts and feelings which make humans more than just skin and bones! The task also encouraged some rational thinking and critical self evaluation.
Part of the Display in Dumfries High School
We provided several methods for making stars and engaging with the activity. For those who were skilled with words, and perhaps less keen on the technical demands of the task, we provided options such as using poetry to express themselves or a guide to critical evaluation and self led reflection that could then be applied to customise ready made stars. For those who think with their fingers, or when presented with the opportunity to experiment we provided materials fro them to fold and glue stars as they took some time for reflection. The cut out a shape with scissors – snowflake – stars left lots of room for imaginative exploration. some people preferred to work in silence, and others found that their ideas flowed when they chatted with each other. The sky is vast and there are many ways to fill it with stars.
In the Church community setting this approach could be taken deeper into the Christian tradition. Because everyone there had chosen to be there, and had some level of interest in Christianity, we explored the symbolism of stars more fully. Specific hopes associated with Christmas could be explored, and texts studied – as well as the ways in which we can hope for Gods help in our daydreams and visions becoming refined and made into reality.
The stars were displayed in the Schools we worked with, and also as part of the large canopy in the roof of St Johns building. Other star related activities we explored included a talk about the astronomical observations around the time of Jesus birth, their significance, and also a banner inspired by the view of the stars from the door of St Johns on each Sunday in Advent. Stars were embroidered, knitted and ironed onto fabric using a heat press.
Hanging Stars
The Advent Banner
Four Sundays
A Star Chart For Each
Different Techniques
One Hanging Banner
The work with the school was carried out according to “Time for Reflection/ Religious Observance” guidelines. These provide an excellent framework for activities involving #SensingSpirituality in community settings. You can download the activity pack below:
We are folding a Canopy of Angels this Christmas. We are doing this to invite people to mark moments from the past couple of years, and to mark this moment in time entering Christmas 2021. All are welcome to join in, and by working together our personal thoughts can be carried up as part of something bigger.
This has a myriad of meanings for Christians, but is also something we can join in with the wider community in doing. The building can be used to help carry everyone’s thoughts and form a whole community art installation. Who knows what it will look like? We have an idea, but this is a collaborative project that will be shaped by everyone who gets involved.
To help give an idea of what it might look like, ands how what we can do if we work together, we are posting some of the ways we have used the canopy idea in St Johns and working with other groups in the past. The first is “The Canopy of Flames” in 2015
The Pentecost “Canopy of Flames” was our first experiment. People wrote their passions on flame coloured ribbons. The flames were lowered as the congregation took communion together. It (and other uses of fire by Quartz) even features in this Phd thesis by Rebekah Dyer of St Andrews University.
We worked with St Ninians Primary School to help the pupils reflect on how they could express their passions, or things that made them feel good about being alive, using words and art.
The flames were woven into a banner at a later “Interweave” event
This Christmas Quartz is creating a large scale installation in the roof of St. Johns Church Building.
In the run up to Christmas, we are going to fill the ceiling with a rainbow of Angels. Each one can be a response to Covid, a way to mark a memory, and a prayer carried in a message to God. Each Sunday in Advent we will add more Angels, and they will stay up throughout the Christmas season.
Interesting things are also being planned for Candlemas.
We are going to make the Angels using origami. They will be all the colours of the rainbow. For those who would like to participate but are worried about their origami skills we will have people to help you. We will also have Origami angles made you can write on, and shiny silver and gold angels ready cut out so that everyone can make this project sparkle.
Just as in the past when we have installed “Stars of Hope” and Pentecost flames in the building, we invite the whole community to be involved. We will produce an info pack with folding instructions and guidance on how to make this process a mindful moment. The Church will be open during services so people can see the canopy take shape, of course, and also at other times which will be advertised on this site and elsewhere.
To whet your appetite, here is a gallery of images of other Angel artwork and canopies around the UK and beyond.
“Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.”
