Swallowed up by Life
Collaborative Printmaking
TEAM BUILDING WORKSHOP WITH MCC
October 2019 — Cornwall, PA
I was invited as a Teaching Artist to a planning retreat for the East Coast Program Coordinators of the Mennonite Central Committee. The director asked me to lead a creative project to build interdependence between the coordinators as they gathered to articulate program goals for the upcoming year. We began by reflecting on the 5th chapter of 2nd Corinthians. I highlighted the imagery of the “tent which is our earthly home” and the longing for it to be further clothed “so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” Paul writes later in the chapter about our Christian role as “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” toward reconciliation and a calling out of new life in that which is redeemed by God. I previously prepared linocut blocks depicting an image of a tent. I challenged each participant to visually depict in word or image what their ministry looks like when God’s message of reconciliation is received by those to whom they minister and they begin to no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (vs. 15) They were each given a linocut block and were asked to draw their word or image in the open spaces. The result is an singular printed image of their collaborative vision of newness and life for the ministry of MCC.
