ARTWORKS by pupils from 4 Loughborough schools were displayed in All Saints’ with Holy Trinity, Loughborough, last weekend, as a part of festivities celebrating “the wealthy cultural diversity of the world”.
Over three days, 900 people saw the exhibition, We’re All Saints. Around 40 per cent of tourists were under 16.
The church, which became an Intercultural Worshipping Community in 2019, began its We’re All Saints project in September, and commissioned artist Eddy Aigbe to create 4 paintings of “saints, inspirational people, each ancient and modern, from the Christian faith world wide”.
One of the paintings depicts St Martha of Bethany, which Mr Aigbe described as containing “bits of Martha, bits of us, bits of Loughborough”.
As a part of the church’s broader initiative to explore interfaith and interculturalism, a collaborative project with 550 school pupils was then developed.
Children from Loughborough C of E Primary School created triptychs of inspirational people including Martin Luther King and the founding father of Islamic Relief, Dr Hany El-Bana, and members from their very own families.
Students aged eight and nine from Rendell Primary School made a 30-piece “stained-glass” installation featuring inspirational people including Rosa Parks and David Attenborough.
At Cobden Primary School, pupils of the identical age built an installation of greater than 90 lightbulbs, answering the query “who lights up my life?” Visitors were capable of design their very own lightbulbs as a part of the artwork.
One of the 240 students at Rawlins Academy who contributed to the exhibition, based their work on the fairtrade movement, drawing a chocolate bar and the Earth. In total, 240 students from the academy contributed.
Under the direction of Dr Karen Sung, Masters’ students from Loughborough University designed medieval-style “murals for the twenty first century”.
The weekend also included a concert of classical Indian music featuring Bhindarjit Neer (tabla), Daljit Neer (voice and harmonium), and Kretthika Parthiban (veena), and string players from the Loughborough Schools Foundation. Mr Neer also spoke concerning the plane crash in Ahmedabad that killed 242 passengers (see separate story).
A national RE Adviser, Lat Blaylock (Interview, 24 May 2024), who worked on the We’re All Saints project told the Church Times that he was “moved” by Mr Neer’s words. “It was a likelihood to recollect and pray for those caught up within the Indian air disaster, tragically near many in Leicester diocese.”
The Bishop of Loughborough, the Rt Revd Saju Muthalaly, presided on the Sunday eucharist. The project manager, Kate Burns, who led the initiative, said that his sermon “summed up and communicated the center of the project, that God invites us all to be saints, in all our diversity and to return together across the heavenly throne in worship”.
