Every Sunday at 9:00 AM there is a quiet gathering here in Trinity�s Cathedral Hall, in the heart of downtown Cleveland. We converse, play checkers, rest, make music, and read the morning paper. We have Bible study and share a meal. Sometimes students from the CSU School of Nursing come and check blood pressure or provide flu shots. Sometimes we make art. On a cold winter day, we may number over two hundred. These brothers and sisters in Christ are primarily homeless and unemployed, seeking food, shelter and fellowship. And that is what we hope they find here.
Believing that we are all broken, longing for home and community, I have come to experience the healing process of making art as a way of building community. I was invited to consider how we might use that idea with the A Place at the Table here in the cathedral. Unsure of how to get started, I began by drawing portraits, and witnessed a miracle of transformation. As I drew, I was drawn, into the heart of God, seeing God�s face in every person. As each �invisible� person experienced being �seen�, they, in turn, began to look at themselves differently.
Now when we gather, there is a table of �stuff�: paper, pencils, pastels, paint. All are invited to make pictures in response to a theme, or to create freely. We share our images and words and stories, keeping a community journal. We are getting to know more about each other, and more about how we are a community of imaginative, vital individuals made in the image and likeness of God, the Creator. The art table has become a kind of altar where we offer the gift of our own creativity.
We focus on community art images of transformation. We have created a painted earth flag, an oil pastel community mandala, patchwork parade banners of light and shadow, plaster masks, raku ceramic praying hands and prayer vessels, painted, pieced billboards of hope, and an urban collage garden. We don't know where this is all going, but the process feels holy, and every Sunday morning is a little experience of the Kingdom, of home, of heaven on earth. We invite you to �Come and see��
Go to www.maryannbreischinc.com to see more of Mary Ann�s work
