An Introduction

Most of us have a calendar on our phone to remind us of events and our country’s official holidays. I’d guess that most of us also decorate our homes at least at Christmas, and we often have another favorite holiday or two to bring out some festive trappings. And some of us enjoy adjusting our home décor to align with the changing seasons - in my home, it’s the throw pillows and blankets in the living room that signal a new time of the year.

A conversation on seasonal home decoration got me thinking…why not also celebrate the feasts and seasons of the church calendar? At my PCA church, our liturgical fabric that drapes over the cross and across the communion table changes color throughout the year. The green, purple, and occasional red, white, and black serve as simple visual reminders of the time of year, and contribute to the tone of our worship services. If we enjoy adding visual cues in our home to frame our thoughts and be a background to memories, wouldn’t the great themes of Advent, Lent, Holy Week, and Ordinary Time also have a place in our houses?

Enter: this collection.

While there is a large catalogue of historical church art over the last two millennia, for this project I wanted to focus on recently-created art purchased from living artists - some even here in our own region!

You won’t see a lot of Scripture-word-art. The Protestant branch of our faith tradition has historically tended to avoid anything resembling iconography, arguably to our detriment. With this in mind, and as there is an abundance of Scripture-text Christian art available online, for this collection we’ve leaned away from word art (with a few exceptions) and toward image- and symbol-based work.

The collection is curated to avoid literal representation of people or historical events, instead leaving space for rich symbolism, wonder, and curiosity.

Lastly, I kept a regular home and family budget in mind. Since the idea would be to (eventually) collect a few pieces to rotate in your own home, most of these pieces are around 8x10”-16x20”, and many come in a variety of sizes.

I hope you enjoy!

~ Tiffany

Christian church traditions and feasts vary by tradition and denomination. Here is a blog post written by leadership at my PCA (Presbyterian Church of America) church, explaining our approach to the church calendar, and from which I drew the main sections of this collection.

Note: while we’ve scoured the Internet for original art and legitimate sellers, we do not assume any responsibility or liability for the websites linked here, or make any claim about the artists’ faith or legitimacy. Viewers are advised to proceed with discernment before purchasing from an unfamiliar seller or source.