I am a vicar in a rural part of England responsible for 4 village churches with 3 church schools and am chaplain at another school. I am interested in art and spirituality as well as mental health. In a previous parish I worked half time as a mental health chaplain in a psychiatric hospital mainly with the elderly. I have been married to Terry since 2013 and have 2 adult daughters from a previous marriage.
My dabbling in art started whilst on retreats and on quiet days (untutored and just playing in the art room) and has developed when going on specific art/craft themed retreats. I now attend an art group each week and am gaining in skill and confidence. I have been a member of the Creative Arts Retreat Movement, which unfortunately is no longer active, although they have a Facebook group/page. I have led a quiet day in one of my churches with the aim of encouraging others to have a go at being creative and prayerful.
Are We There Yet? was a major project that had worked on for many years. It is the title of a book about my recovery from depression and features my creative work. The pictures and poems are on a pdf downloadable from this site and the back story was published in August 2022.
If you look through my blog you will see that many of my creations are tagged or categorized as ‘art’. However, it is plain to see that some are of more artistic merit than others. This is because much of my work is done with the emphasis on prayer and what I feel God is saying to me rather than me setting out to do a painting. I have now categorised the better ones, from an artistic point of view, ‘favourties’ and created a page where the blogs about them will appear.
In 2020 I aimed to create something artistic in my prayer and art journal based on the coming Sunday’s readings and to blog my thoughts or even the sermon. However as 2020 has turned out, I started doing Artful ELF as a way of reaching out during lockdown. It didn’t take off as well as I had hoped, but I had fun making them. Advent also got taken over by the doodle a day and the preparations for Christmas were more complex than most years. My serious art took a bit of a break. At the start of 2022 I decided to read the whole bible and journal. It has taken longer than hoped mainly because of the journalling taking up time rather than the reading.
I am now training to become a spiritual accompanier (spiritual director).
I hope you enjoy my blog. Please comment and share, if you feel anything is worthy of such an action.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 