We had a group outing to the Sheffield Cathedral for the Ecology of Hope exhibition
When we arrived, we went straight into the Cathedral cafe where Carrie kindly paid for drinks for us all. Whilst we were having our drinks, Carrie got us to think about what pictures, words or objects come to mind when we think of hope and put us into pairs to write or draw our ideas and these are going to be added to one pf the exhibition pieces! We started the tour by looking at three large canvas paintings of sky, which Carrie talked about. She put a dot of scent on each of our wrists and asked what we could smell and explained that someone had designed the scent to smell like what ‘hope’ smells like to them personally. We looked at a large hut that was shaped like a tulip bud that was opening. On the walls inside were lots of words and pictures that some domestic violence sufferers had wrote about hope. We took it in turns at sitting inside and listening to some relaxing Celtic-style music. It did feel very peaceful.
We went down to the chapel where Carrie showed us a broken heart shaped mirror on a tomb stone conveying that we all sometimes feel hopeless and heart-broken and then went to read out a Psalm. We all wrote something down that we were worried about or something that we wanted to see changed and rolled the papers up and put them in glass jars and later the Cathedral staff are going to pray about them all and burn them. We ended by looking at a piece of metalwork that Carrie herself had made from silver and jewels. Each thing represented what Carrie was praying for. She then read out some of the inspirational things that people had written about hope. It was a very nice event and we HOPE that Carrie will get the funding to do this again next year and on a bigger scale.
