When There Are No Words

This piece was created as an amalgamation of two significant losses. I was dealing with one in a pastoral role and struggling how to comprehend the loss and provide comfort. A friend remarked how giving tears and time in this instance at great personal cost was truly the 'coalface of love'. After another significant loss I recalled this phrase as I sought to find words and painted this piece digitally. The glowing embers of a fire are depicted shining through the ashes and blackness that fire creates.

​This piece of digitally created mixed media is a depiction of how words of great spiritual import and life can be homogenised and weaponised within religious settings to create cages for the hearer rather than the freedom that they should bring. 

For too many, the thing they are left with after time in ministry or within church settings, is paradoxically, PTSD. A place which proclaims Jesus and should bring healing, wholeness and community all to often causes deep emotional, mental and spiritual scars. The use of spiritual words and places is juxtaposed with the damage done. This image captures what is done in Jesus name. Are the blood drips His, or our own?

​This bold abstract has startling energy and power. The fury of one who has had attempts to silence her story? Or maybe the raw power of a God who can control the storms yet can speak in a whisper (1 Kings 19) 

This bold graphic piece is more of a hopeful call to action. It urges the viewer top consider how within our church settings we can seek unity while avoiding uniformity. Too often secondary issues cause a homogenisation of culture and squeeze out and other people  who do not conform. This is an activist call to consider how we can generously give each other space for expression and difference  while we hold gospel truth.

This is a transcript of the spoken word written by Sophie to express the pain of church trauma, and learning how to trust again.