Tuesday August 18, 2020
The Rev. Anne Williamson
Create
‘Create’ – Art and the 19th Amendment
My grandmother was an artist – a painter, a writer, a sculptor. The house I share with my sister has a number of her paintings on the wall and we both have small bronzes of dolphins she sculpted – there is also a life-size version.
DB Campbell – 1950’s
When I was a little girl, I had hoped to inherit the art gene from her but when I was sixteen, I discovered that my grandmother was actually my father’s stepmother…no art gene to inherit but I did receive from her a love and appreciation of art in all its forms. Any artistic ability I have, I inherited from my mother!
Art, whether paintings or sculpture, music or poetry, dance or drama to name but a few, is a gift from God who is our Creator and invites us to be co-creators. Whether it is all the aspects of human creation we think of as ‘art’, or creating community and a better world, we have the privilege of being co-creators with God.
At the end of August an amazing piece of art, a statue, will be dedicated in New York City’s Central Park to honor three women who played important rolls in the Women’s Suffrage Movement: Sojourner Truth (1797-8 to 1883), Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902).
None of these women were alive to celebrate on August 18, 1920, when the state of Tennessee becoming the 36th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, which gave women the vote (it takes ¾ of the states to ratify an amendment to the Constitution – there were 48 states at the time) but their dedication and commitment to women’s suffrage paved the way for future generations to bring the effort to a successful conclusion.
The non-profit group Monumental Women (www.monumentalwomen.org) commissioned the statue, and Meredith Bergmann, sculptor of the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument, said: “Like the women I’m portraying, my work is meant to raise questions and to provoke thought. My hope is that all people, but especially young people, will be inspired by this image of women of different races, different religious backgrounds and different economic status working together to change the world.”
Creating takes many forms, art is one of them and creating, whether sculptures, prayer shawls, holding crosses, flower arrangements or community, is an invitation to be co-creators with God, to make the world ‘a more joyful and beautiful realm’.
A prayer by The Rev. Vienna Cobb Anderson
Bless the creators, O God of creation,
who by their gifts make the world
a more joyful and beautiful realm.
Through their labors
they teach us to see more clearly
the truth around us.
In their inspiration
they call forth wonder and awe
in our own living.
In their hope and vision
they remind us
that life is holy.
Bless all who create in your image,
O God of creation.
Pour your Spirit upon them
that their hearts may sing
and their works be fulfilling.
Amen.