Keep the Dates! Scala Foundation Conference, April 21-22, 2023. Princeton, NJ,

Featuring Aidan Hart, Jonathan Pageau and David Clayton

Scala Foundation will host its next conference on April 21-22, 2023 on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary. The Scala Foundation’s mission is to restore meaning and purpose to American culture through beauty, liberal arts education and religion. The name Scala comes from the Latin word for a ladder. With God’s help we can ascend the the ladder of perfection, like the angels in Jacob’s dream.

This conference, entitled Art, the Sacred, and the Common Good: Renewing Culture through Beauty, Education and Worship. brings together Christians from different denominations with a view to us all working together to evangelize American culture as one of beauty that speaks of the Beauty of God. It will feature a dozen total speakers, including the best-selling author Andy Crouch and the internationally renowned artists Jonathan Pageau and Aidan Hart. I am honored to have been asked to moderate a conversation with my friends Jonathan and Aidan on the renewal of sacred art. We are particularly blessed to have Aidan, my former teacher, coming from England especially for the conference.

In the afernoon session, Elizabeth Black, Principal of St Stephen’s K-9 school in Grand Rapids, MI, will talk about how she has implemented The Way of Beauty into her school. I visited her school this past summer and wrote about it, here.

I was at the 2022 conference as both speaker and attendee and it was one of the most hopeful, constructive and inspiring events of this type that I have attended.

Scala Foundation’s Executive Director, Margarita Mooney Clayton writes:

The goal is to show how traditions in beauty, education and worship, although under threat, are indeed being renewed. Attendees at this event will have the opportunity to:

• Meet internationally renowned artists and prestigious scholars;

• Experience beautiful sacred music, art, and architecture;

• Learn why beauty is essential to personal happiness and civic participation;

• Be inspired by educators who form virtues through beauty;

• Build community with people pursuing the way of beauty.

One attendee last year said:

“The conference was rejuvenating. Inspiring. Encouraging. Enlivening. As an architecture major who went into youth ministry and now doing graduate work in theology, this conference allowed me to connect the dots between art, faith and service.”

The conference begins with a dinner and keynote lecture on Friday night, followed by a full day on Saturday of keynote addresses, panels, and breakout sessions with speakers. Attendees will also have the chance to participate in chorale prayer for liturgy of the hours, to see an exhibit of archives of sacred texts from Princeton Theological Seminary, and see the art of the speakers and other local artists.

Registration will begin in December 2022. Visit the conference website to let them know you are interested and they will send you advance notice of registration!

I encourage all to attend!

St Vincent de Paul

Today is the commemoration of St Vincent de Paul (1581 - 1660).

He was born in France, his story is colorful, to put it mildly. He was captured and enslaved as a boy by Turks but escaped because he converted his master and both went to France. He is remembered as someone who devoted his whole life to the service of the poor, but this meant so much more than simply giving alms. He was aware that all people have both material and spiritual needs and to support his work he founded a congregation of priests for missionary work, groups of laymen to help paupers and galley-slaves, and, with St Louise de Marillac, the Sisters of Charity.  See the article in the Catholic Encyclopaedia.

Here are three very different images of him to aid reflection. First an 18th century baroque style portrait. Second a statue in the church that bears his name in Paris, where he lived much of his life. And third a wax efigy that contains relics. 

When I reflect on how his work was directed to the needs of the whole person, body and soul, I am struck by the fact that all people, rich and poor need so much more than basic material needs. Where there is a lack of human love, which speaks of God’s love, there is no dignity. We all need an environment that speaks of God's love and that envirnment is furnished by a culture of beauty.

The measure of our success in this, it seems to me, is not that the poorest part of the city is as wealthy as the richest. Equality of outcome is neither possible, nor even desirable. It’s measure is when the poorest parts of our cities are as beautiful as the wealthiest. This will be the outward sign that all, including both poor and rich live in dignity and are at home in the world; and that we are a society that really does care about their lives of the least amongst us, both in this world and the next.

Currently we are moving towards the polar opposite, every part of the city is as steadily becoming as ugly as every other. The richest part of town looks like a 1960s housing project ( refer you to a recent posting on the new builds on the Princeton campus). This is a sign that for all the rhetoric, our society has little regard for anyone and assumes that once material needs are met, nothing else matters.

This first step, as it did in the past, with beautiful churches that are open to all. When that element is missing, it is usually a sign that everything else that is important is absent too. When I think of our inner cities and their poorest neighborhoods today, I think we have a long way to go before we can consider ourselves a Great Society. As usual I have to start with myself and ask, what am I doing?

It is my struggle to answer this question satisfactorily that makes this week's article so short.

St Vincent, please pray for me.