This bronze statue showing Jesus in his best baggy jeans has proved a hit outside Our Lady Immaculate and St Phillip Neri church in Uckfield.
Posted on 05/26/2009 12:38:14 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
Father David Buckley unveiled the £35,000 seven-foot high bronze statue at the Our Lady Immaculate and St Philip Neri Catholic church in Uckfield.
Cornish's sculpture was funded by money left by Winifred Gregory, 87, a member of the congregation who passed away last year.
Christ is wearing jeans and a shirt billowing in the wind while his hair and beard are neatly and fashionably trimmed.
Father Buckley said: "You are always looking for new ways to enrich people in the experience of Christianity and it is good people can be open-minded to appreciate it.
"On the continent you often encounter modern representations of Jesus but it is not so common over here. We wanted a figure of Christ not in suffering but dynamic and welcoming.
"We felt this design summed up the spirit and activity of Christ perfectly and I think it speaks for itself.
Members of a congregation committee opened a competition last year to find a winning statue to mark the church's 50-year anniversary.
Mr Cornish's design was the overwhelming favourite with more than 200 voting in favour last May and only 14 parishioners against.
The statue will be hoisted 100-feet in the air later this week to sit at the top of the church's bell tower after a gold leaf halo has been added to the head.
Mr Cornish, who is based in nearby Lewes and whose work has been bought by The Prince of Wales in the past, said: "The sculpture is simple and direct and I hope it sums up the feeling that Christ is always with us and that we are not to be afraid.
"His clothing is being blown vigorously to add the sense of him being alive and his strength in defying earthly cares.
"The clothing is loosely contemporary in order to
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
This bronze statue showing Jesus in his best baggy jeans has proved a hit outside Our Lady Immaculate and St Phillip Neri church in Uckfield.
There’s something cool about tasteful, respectful but yet contemporary depictions of Jesus.
Okay, this brings up a theological question: Would Jesus wear Levi’s, Wranglers, or a less expensive generic brand?
;^)
Too weird. At least his boxers were not exposed.
I guess this will make it easier for Apple to now say that Jesus used a MAC. We’ll probably be seeing that commercial soon.
Whatever.
But to say it “sums up the spirit of Christ” I think is rather.... pathetic.
I guess we should be grateful that the jeans aren’t following current fashion.
I don’t see a problem with it.....
I like it. A lot. Very graceful and very reverent, IMO.
“In Germany they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist...”
Isn’t that exactly equivalent to saying “In Russia they came first for the Nazis, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Nazi...”
Those do not look like the jeans worn today. The clothes depicted are very baggy.
Until the age of Computer Graphics I wondered why
Jesus came at that time in history when there was
no way to record Him other than in text. Now I
realize that if Jesus came now, and His miracles
were taped, anyone could claim they were digitalized
“tricks”.
Ah... the wisdom of our Mighty God.
It looks like Jesus is saying: “What’s happning peeps! Gotta give a shout out to all my brothers from other mothers....PEACE!”
Given that Jesus was poor, I would think He'd go with something secondhand or generic if it was new.
“Okay, this brings up a theological question: Would Jesus wear Levi’s, Wranglers, or a less expensive generic brand?”
Whatever was on sale at Goodwill. ;)
I intially thought I would not like the sculpture, but I think it’s OK. Jesus was both fully God and fully man (still is, I guess.) Depictions like this emphasize his human side a little more, but that’s fine. He wore the men’s clothing of his day. I suppose if he had come today he would wear today’s men clothing.
I like it. It evokes the pain and torture of his final moments on the cross, yet suggests an unleashing and freedom of the spirit.
I don’t see anyone depicting Abraham Lincoln
in sagging jeans and wearing a nose ring.
This is just silly. They ALWAYS forget to
remember that Jesus is an historical figure.
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