Living, Loving, Learning

Last week I was in Liverpool for the first Leeds Diocesan Conference.  Being 'on Sabbatical' I had mixed feeling about going, but managed a compromise by which I visited a Liverpool Art Gallery each day (Walker Gallery on Tuesday, Tate North on Wednesday & Lady Lever Gallery on Thursday).  I'm not a fan of the new Diocese.  On the web-site Bishop Nick claims ""Our vision is to equip confident clergy to enable confident Christians to live and tell the good news of Jesus Christ in West Yorkshire and the Dales."  As far as I can tell he said it and while many of us consider this a ridiculous and counter-productive claim, no-one has publicly challenged it so there it sits, our 'Diocesan Vision Statement'.  Arriving in Liverpool on Tuesday I found myself relating to a Simone Martini painting in the Walker Gallery  - "Jesus in a Teenage Strop": 

The label actually records its title as "Christ Discovered in the Temple" but looking carefully at Jesus, as Joseph returns him to his mother, any parent can recognise the emotion the artist has in mind:

Anyway, two days later, at the final Eucharist, Bishop Nick announces that he has seen the light (well actually a secular marketing company had pointed out how ridiculous the Vision Statement was - the Holy Spirit working through C21st channels).  So now we have a new Diocesan Mission Statement (or was it a 'tag-line'? the jargon defeats me).  "Living, Loving, Learning".  I could hardly believe it.  A statement I could sign up to.  A Christian message that can inspire rather than criticize.  Perhaps the Diocese will be alright after all.

It brought to mind an image I had seen recently of Mary teaching the Christ-child to read.  The idea of the 'Word'  being taught to read words by his human mother had intrigued me.  The love conveyed in this exchange between parent and child was touching.  Perhaps such a painting could be a visual metaphor for the new Diocesan Vision?

Going back to the Walker on the way home I was disappointed to discover the image I vaguely remembered was actually a sculpture (by an unknown artist of Northern Italy) rather than a painting, and as a result perhaps failed to convey something of the emotional bond between Mary and Jesus: 

An internet search revealed a somewhat warmer painting of the same subject by Pinturicchio:

In the background to the left you can see the Holy Family as refugees fleeing for their lives to Egypt so it is even more an illustration of Living, Loving & Learning.

Another version of the same subject, this time by Carlo Maratti, is in the Hermitage something to look forward to next week?