Home | Previous | Next
This sculpture by Fenwick Lawson commemorates the effort to preserve Saint Cuthbert's body. After Vikings raided Lindisfarne, Cuthbert’s body was exhumed in 875 and carried by monks throughout Northumbria until they finally settled at Durham in 995. A stone “White Church” was then built to house Cuthbert’s shrine. This wooden statue resides in St. Mary’s Church on Lindisfarne and a bronze version of the statue stands in the city of Durham, providing an allegory for this century-long odyssey.
God desires that we share in the fragility and beauty of material creation, giving us a kinship and responsibility to our fellow creatures. While fleeting, our earthly lives touch others — both human and nonhuman — in countless ways and the resonances of our worldly actions extend well beyond our deaths.
Consider Isaiah 55: 10-11.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
This picture is used with the permission of Naaz Nomad, who reserves all rights of ownership to this image.