This season we invite artists–aspiring, experimental, or established–of all ages and craft to explore the misery and the majesty of flesh revealed to us in the miracle of the Incarnation.

Was it a heroic moment for our Savior when he mired himself in the squalor of our sinful world. What else could be done? His beloved was being held for ransom in just this prison. As Athanasius puts it in On the Incarnation:

He saw how the surpassing wickedness of men was mounting up against them; He saw also their universal liability to death. All this He saw and, pitying our race, moved with compassion for our limitation, unable to endure that death should have the mastery, rather than that His creatures should perish and the work of His Father for us men come to nought, He took to Himself a body, a human body even as our own. (2.8)

Because he was willing to enter our self-made hell, Israel’s Messiah became the Savior of humanity. He took to himself a body. And not only to make an appearance, but to bind himself to it and act within it. The path of escape was hewn by metaphysical condescension. 

But this condescension was not a one-way passage. There is an afterword to the Easter story. The body that died to ransom the dead became the first deathless fruit of the redemption harvest. The flesh he became was not the flesh he would become. And the flesh we are is not the flesh we will be. Thus, near the end of his treatise, Athanasius drops this astounding sentence:

For He was made man that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality.

As St. Paul says, there is a particular glory to the resurrected body, the new flesh that will be granted to those whose bodies have died in Christ and are raised to new life with him. Because he took to Himself a body, we know both the depths of ruin that flesh has plumbed, but also the astounding heights to which it may ascend. 

So whether you write, paint, build, sculpt, sew, or sing, we invite you to reflect on the profound mystery of God in the flesh and to create. And having created, to share with the body of Christ your own perspective on the mystery of the Incarnation. 

God has gifted artists

with the limits of the flesh
with the capacities of the Flesh
with the Misery of the Flesh
With the glory of the flesh

If you have been given and have nurtured creative gifts—gifts in the visual arts (from sculpture to painting to glass-blowing to design), gifts in the narrative arts (poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction), or musical gifts (performance, composition, etc.)—we invite you to devote those gifts unto the Lord’s service. We again invite you to make an offering of beauty.

We would love to display your visual art in our Advent Art Gallery, or feature your narrative or musical art in the gallery opening event (and the accompanying arts journal).

If you’re interested

Contact the Arts Ministry Council at ctkartsministry@gmail.com.

We’ll talk details on your project, and any questions you have will be answered!

Deadlines

Sunday, October 18th Deadline to indicate initial interest
Friday, November 6th Deadline for written submissions
Friday, November 20th Deadline for music submissions
Sunday, November 29th Deadline for visual art submissions

(But I’m not an artist!)

If you don’t consider yourself a creative person, or can’t contribute artistically to our Advent Gallery and Event, there are other ways to support this event!

For one, you will be able to sign up to contribute to the spread of hors d'oeuvres and dessert for the gallery opening event! (link coming soon!)

In the meantime, mark your calendars for our gallery opening event on the first Friday in Advent:

December 4, 2026 || 6:30pm
Christ the King Anglican Church

2250 Blue Ridge Blvd. | HOover, AL | 35226

This event will be open to the public, so invite friends and neighbors!