"Dear church:
We're a rogue music/art group that would like you to host us for an evening of 'artsy stuff'. We won't have an altar call or gospel teaching, no small group signups or church announcements. Oh, we're also keen on desecrating--er decorating your altar... interested?"

Ok, so perhaps our initial solicitations aren't this belligerent, and of course we don't desecrate (I have had to explain why a ball of yarn was strangling St. Marks' altar, though). The conversation with our hosts and collaborators has always come from a place of sincerity and respect for the space and the church body that operates there. We also come knowing that art in the church is too often dismissed or marginally supported. Those experiences are in many ways the reason we set out to do this as an independent, inter-denominational organization. So now you can see how artists develop their self-righteousness.

Consequently, I imagine that churches receive us with a bit of skepticism and concern. And rightfully so, churches are holy places, artists are notoriously unruly--no wonder we don't get along. Hopefully that can change, for the church without beauty is dogmatic dust, and art without meaning and structure is trivial and perverse. So it is with heavy baggage that both artist and clergy collaborate in the creative realm... Gets me wondering if the folks running the Sistine Chapel objected to Adam's balls on their ceiling.

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Jen Grabarczyk, the lead visual designer for UH02, attended our practice last night and sketched up this little piece.

We've found a host for UH02, Seattle First Presbyterian. They meet smack downtown and their space boasts a 1,200+ seat sanctuary that rarely gets use these days. There are fine people running the church now, which has sadly seen its share of hardships in the last dozen years and as a result is a smaller community. It is odd to witness all these incredible structures nestled in the shadows of skyscrapers, still plugging away, serving and loving the people of the city. Their humility and heart are remarkable. They have come to terms with the failures of the urban church at large and recommitted their mission to looking outwards instead of in, no easy task. Harry, their musical director, noted how the church structure itself was a testimony of the bunker mentality common to previous generations of believers here in Seattle. The building is mostly windowless, walled with thick concrete; the architectural narrative being that the outside world is a dangerous and hostile place. So now we shall hope to draw the city into the bunker, throw up lights and art and the biggest music we can muster, all in the name of the beautiful.