Christ in the City – Week 5: Presence in Another’s Pain with Richard Nelson.
Last week Rev. Kyle Boer led us in a discussion about presence with our own pain. This week, we are turning outward. Richard Nelson will invite us into thinking about presence with other people’s pain, drawing upon his experience in working with individuals re-entering society from incarceration. We encourage you to bring your companion journal as well as an open mind.
Richard Nelson is the Executive Director of Project Restoration In Progress a nonprofit dedicated to assisting returning citizens transitioning back into society. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts from Hope College, where he graduated magna cum Laude. He is currently advancing his expertise by completing a Master’s Degree in Clinical Counseling. Richard is driven by a lifelong passion for service and a dedication to reducing crime through proactive and preventative measures. He also works at Mediation Services, a nonprofit that serves underserved communities with dispute resolution. He believes that integrity, creativity, and empathy shape how we work and are the foundation for building relationships and making communities safer.
Pietà by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, 1864
The government of Napoleon III kept Carpeaux busy with official projects, involving decorative sculpture and portraiture, but it is clear from the evidence of the private moments that he occasionally seized to sketch sacred subjects, as here, that he would have been one of the most powerful of all religious artists had he been freer to exercise this repertory. Mounding the clay pellets and pressing them into shape in mere seconds, his entire attention is on the Virgin Mary’s maternal embrace, to the virtual exclusion of Christ’s legs. A related drawing in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, is dated 1864. (The Met, NY)
