CREATIVE CHURCH
Arts and Church
Black Isle East Church of Scotland seeks to reflect the many examples of creativity found in the Bible and down through the centuries of Christian experience. As the artist Alistair Gordon makes clear in Why Art Matters to Christians, we are following God’s own model of creativity in the art that we create as Christians.​​​
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We have regular activities like the ‘Crafts Group’ and the ‘Make a Joyful Noise’ Music group who are engaged in creative responses as Christians – as are those involved in our ‘Summer Specials.’ Reflections around the arts are stimulated by periodic gatherings of our ‘Creative Collective.’
Creative Worship
Creativity is a part of our worship for services on Sunday and at other times: we draw on visual arts, music, words, in digital media and in poetry and contemporary readings of the bible - sometimes in interactive or dramatized forms. At times, we draw on material by specialist groups like Engage Worship - but we also include items from those within or connected to the congregation - like the poems of the late Sheena Munro with Christian themes.
MAJN Music Group – Seasonal Activities
The Make a Joyful Noise Music Group enhances church music and performs items during selected seasons of the year. MAJN helps the congregation learn new hymns from Church Hymnary 4, God Welcomes All and from Christian contemporary church music; we also use 100 Carols for Choirs and Songs of Taize’ materials - as well as various sources to encourage an awareness of music from the world Church. MAJN has found the Royal School of Church Music's Voice for Life series a great help in developing musical skills and learning more about singing music with others in a church setting.
Creative Collective
The Creative Collective exists as a forum to stimulate projects and inspire the creative activities of the church in the Sunday worship but also in other aspects of church and community life. It includes those with interests in music, the visual arts, crafts and photography.
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From the time of the Old Testament, following the example of Bezalel and Oholiab, artists within the people of God, have met and interacted to encourage one another, develop skills and inspire the coming generations. The Creative Collective is an occasional group which meets a few times a year.
Summer Specials
Our ‘Summer Specials’ events have included presentations with art works by the Rev. William Mather on the role of art in church contexts and how art can both encourage and challenge us in our Christian lives and spiritual growth.
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‘Summer Specials’ have also included creative media presentations: like the showing of the TV film Out of the Ashes: CT Studd, Cricketer and Missionary followed by a ‘cricket tea’.
The minister, Warren Beattie, was one of the “talking heads” interviewed by the presenter, actor Andrew Harrison, for this award-winning ‘docu-drama’ directed by Garry Wilkinson: see trailer: https://vimeo.com/246270983
200th Anniversary Stained Glass Panel
As part of the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the church building, the congregation commissioned a stained glasswork from the local artist Erlend Tait - whose parents have been part of the church community.​
To celebrate the church’s bicentenary, Erlend uses the idea of using flowers and plants found locally with symbolic Christian meanings. These have been organised into the four seasons of the year, representing the passage of time; the number twelve is repeated in the border and in the number of different plants.
The overall layout of the cross echoes the pattern in the upstairs gallery windows and that on the Pictish Rosemarkie Stone. Starting with Summer at the base, the flowers and plants grow upwards through Autumn and Winter towards heaven, with Spring at the top, the season of Easter, to symbolise rebirth and Christ’s Resurrection.
Rosemarkie Church 200th Anniversary
The Crafts Group decided to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Rosemarkie Church Building by engaging in an embroidery and sewing project. It was decided to put the church in the foreground and to surround it with embroidered flora reflecting the flowers and shrubs that grow wild in the local district.
The design and concepts for the church and surrounds came from the Chair of the Crafts Group, Sylvia Brooks, who has prior experience in such activities with information about the local flora from Douglas Willis a retired elder with a deep knowledge of the Black Isle’s nature and geography; a team of people from the church Crafts Group were involved in the sewing and embroidery - Linda Simpson, Violet Stewart, Ethel Urquhart, Helen Donald, Aileen Fraser, Aileen Norval, Margaret Macsween, Hillary Murray, Anne Fiddes and Sylvia Brooks.
The Crafts Group have produced a striking image that reflects the church’s setting in the local environment.