Eager to support artists in Ukraine, Professor Richard Cummings had an idea. He curated an exhibit entitled We Are Together: Icons of Hope and invited twenty-one artists…

Truly, it was an accident. In a moment of juvenile horseplay I slammed into the glass shelves mounted on our dining room wall and sent Mom’s entire collection of porcelain teacups and saucers crashing to the floor…

“How do you like my collection?” Unsolicited, the man’s question is a bemused accusation. Stopping to grab morning coffee, I had parked next to a tired Malibu and he’d seen me peering through its windows…

Dear Sister-in-Law Dawn, Detritus, the word, has attitude, and I am confident you introduced the term to me. The way I remember it…

By Cameron Anderson Our father was failing. So we, his six children with three spouses, quickly gathered at Congregational Home. It was a Sunday morning. Arriving in ones and twos, we signed in at the registration desk of his assisted living facility and made our way down the familiar hallway to Dad’s room. He was asleep; peaceful it seemed, but breathing weak and slow. He never woke to greet us.… Read more: Last Testament

By Cameron Anderson The watercolor sketch above is a plein-air rendering of Rover Island. I painted it on a rainy June afternoon in 1991. According to locals, Rover has never been settled. It belongs to an archipelago of 36 islands—the Les Cheneaux Islands—that string along the southward side of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near the Canadian border. The regions’ indigenous people named these islands the “Onomonee” or “Anaminang,” that is, The… Read more: On Liminality

By Cameron Anderson In 2009 the painter Bruce Herman’s father and mother, William and Ruth Herman, died without warning. As an act of tender remembrance he completed Painting of the Artist’s Father in 2010 and in 2011, Painting of the Artist’s Mother. Bruce explains, “Those paintings of my deceased parents opened a path for me to paint all of my loved ones and friends—and this resulted eventually in the collaborative… Read more: An Ordinary Saint

By Cameron J. Anderson Once there was a way to get back homeward,Once there was a way to get back home,Sleep pretty darling, do not cry,And I will sing a lullaby.—Paul McCartney, Golden Slumbers Lifelong, Sir Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) was employed as a clerk helping to produce the official record of the Parliament. But he is best known for his avocation: an abiding desire to address the dehumanizing impact of… Read more: Finding Shalom

By Cameron Anderson It was my wife, C. K., who christened the first day of December “December Fool’s Day.” December 1st is my birthday, and those who know C. K. will recognize the pronouncement as evidence of her affection and wit. As our family grew, we paused each year between Thanksgiving feasting and the playing of Handel’s Messiah to celebrate December Fool’s Day. Born in 1953, I turn 70 today.… Read more: December Fool’s Day

By Cameron Anderson Especially in recent months it’s been all the fashion to deconstruct one’s faith, to wake up to the Church’s many problems and incongruities and conclude that earlier theological and ecclesial commitments are now inadequate, even mistaken. Amid all of this unraveling, a workshop held at Upper House on Saturday, October 21,stimulated fresh insights. The day-long event, entitled Beauty for Ashes, was led by visual artist and sculptor… Read more: Thickly Woven

By Cameron Anderson Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.—Ecclesiastes 2:11 From birth, Bible-believing churches had been my spiritual home, but when I headed off to college and then graduate school to study visual art, I chose secular… Read more: A Garden Tragedy

By Cameron Anderson Plant gardens, eat what they produce.—From a letter to the exiles in Babylon, Jeremiah 29:5 The opening chapters of Genesis attempt nothing less than to describe the beginnings of the whole created order. But within this grand theological narrative we also gain insight into the blessing and burden of work. Genesis 1:1-2:4 and 2:5-25 features two accounts of creation. They tell us that the first man and woman… Read more: Tending the Garden

By Cameron Anderson The heavens are telling the glory of God;and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.Day to day pours forth speech,and night to night declares knowledge.—Psalm 19:1-2 (NRSV) Promoters described the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Fair as an “Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music” and that August more than 400,000 concertgoers swarmed the fields of Max Yasgur’s farm in White Lake, New York to take it in.… Read more: The Garden We Long For