This month my position as Bishop Otter Scholar comes to an end, after 3 years in the role. My time has been full of new adventures in word and image, and I have met and engaged a variety of wonderful people from within the Diocese of Chichester and beyond. I’ve just re-read my blog post as I started in September 2017, and remembered the introduction to the role offered by a pilgrim experience of Chichester (as mediated through the Alight app). None of us know which way our paths will take, but I was grateful then, and more so now, for the words of Bishop Martin Warner reflecting that we come to God not by navigation, but by love. I hope that the markers of what I achieved in the role are characterised by love: certainly my own love for the subject of theology and the arts has grown through the gift that is the patronage of the Bishop Otter Trust.
It is an almost exceptional thing, this Trust, existing through a historical and shared vision of church leaders to support such intellectual enquiry. I hope it continues to support it, because through it is also raised the picture of a love in action, of creative encounters and thoughtful conversation between artists, academics, congregants, teachers, curators, students and clergy. In duller language, we might call it ‘cross-platform exchange’, in church-speak, ‘community or missional outreach’. I’d like to call it love. I extend my gratitude in particular to Bishop Martin and Professor Ben Quash, respectively my line manager and mentor in the role. The Bishop’s support and encouragement was real, practical, and always enthusiastic (as was that of his staff at the Bishop’s Palace, Chichester), and with Ben at King’s College London I also benefitted from generous and engaging conversations around praxis and research from an academic community. Long may these conversations continue, in new and wider directions! I close with Bishop Martin’s report:
Sheona Beaumont has been the Bishop Otter Scholar 2017 – 2020, working with the Diocese of Chichester to make its artistic inheritance more public. Her scholarly interest in photography and biblical commentary has been a feature of her work. She has regularly published articles in a range of media and has explored her subject through visits across the diocese.
In particular, she initiated a challenging discussion with the organisers of the Brighton Photo Biennial, arguing the case for a Christian contribution, and has given support to the restoration project at Berwick Church and its work to engage local communities. Sheona has also continued to work towards the publication of her doctoral research on the theology of photography for Bloomsbury.
Among her achievements has been the Visual Theology conference, held in Chichester in October 2018, and the imminent publication of conference papers under the title, ‘Transforming Christian Thought in the Visual Arts: Theology, Aesthetics, and Practice‘ (Routledge, 2021). In Chichester Cathedral the Lent 2019 exhibition by Alys Tomlinson, entitled ‘Ex Voto‘, also broke new ground for cathedrals in the UK. It showed the work of an internationally successful photographer, and her use of black and white photography with landscape, still life, and portraiture connected to three pilgrimage sites in Europe.
Sheona’s work has widened our awareness of the visual in the Christian tradition. She has challenged us to understand how little we recognise the important contribution of photography to this awareness. In 2019 and 2020, Sheona’s design of the diocesan Christmas card has used that contribution in order to connect with an ancient text, its manuscript transmission, and the work of the angels in our redemption.
We have benefitted in many ways from Sheon’a capacity to make us look, and think, and imagine, and to see afresh what we thought we knew. We are immensely grateful to her for all she has given us.
In 2021 the Bishop Otter Scholarship will be suspended as we review the impact of the Covid pandemic.
Bishop Martin Warner
Header images (l-r): Visual Theology conference at the Bishop’s Palace (2018); Sara Mark at the Chapel of the Ascension, University of Chichester (2018); Alys Tomlinson at Chichester Cathedral (2019). Photographs by Sheona Beaumont.
