Richard Adams

Encouraging visual arts in the life of the Episcopal Church in The Diocese of Vermont
Home Events Artists & their work Featured Congregation Join! The Diocese of Vermont Cathedral Arts (Burlington) Stone Church Arts (Bellows Falls)	Richard Adams Retired Episcopal priest, canonically resident in Vermont The Rev. Richard C. Adams is a retired Episcopal priest living in Hinesburg. He has served as a Tutor and Fellow at Seabury-Western and General seminaries, on the Navajo Indian reservation, as a college chaplain, and as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Quinnipiac University. He is a member of the Temple of Understanding (a group sponsoring religious dialog) and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley, CA. August 6 – Feast of the Transfiguration, Mixed Media on gesso panel, 11” x 11”, NFS ‘August 6’ is dedicated to my longtime friend and mentor Filmer S.C. Northrop, Professor Emeritus at Yale University. The icon relates to the ironic coming together of three events on August 6 which reflect this interplay: (1) the A-bomb at Hiroshima with its destructive use of nuclear energy, (2) the anniversary of Jamacian independence, and (3) the Feast of Transfiguration, celebrating the vision of Jesus as the Son of God and the “Cloud of Glory” of the Divine Presence – given everywhere. Each of these events related to the revelation of the logos of God, (1) throughout all creation as praised by the Gospel of John (1:1 ff) and as scientifically discovered in math physics (E=MC2), (2) in human equality and the “rights” which follow, (3) in Jesus as the Christus – the “All Man” (humankind) in Serbian Saint Nikolaj’s phrase. If the vision of God can mean to see as God sees (Rilke), then a meditation on August 6 can suggest the spiritual resources for the ecological vision, the political vision, and the ecumenical vision needed in our day. The Dormition of the Mother of God Mixed Media on gesso panel, 11” x 11”, NFS ‘The Dormition of the Mother God’ is dedicated to the memory of my own dear mother, Myrtle, whose warm and caring touch I recall from days of early childhood, and in the hour or her death. Surely the bonding of human touch, in various ways, relationships, and occasions can be one of our deepest emotively moving moments of trust, love and communion. In the icon the Blessed Virgin hands her life and her hands into the hands of the Lord at the moment of her death and Resurrection/ Assumption. She is the first fruits of humankind who are destined for deification. In the icon, the Virgin is surrounded by figures suggestive of Blessed Mother Theresa’s Order of the Sisters of Charity, who, following her, minister to the suffering and the dying. In the Beginning, Mixed Media on gesso panel, 13” x 13”, NFS ‘In the Beginning’ is dedicated to Joseph Campbell, whom I studied with at Columbia University. It is the first in a series which correlates the ‘hero journey’ so well presented by Joseph with some of the festivals of Christianity. This particular icon relates to the beginning in God of the cosmos and of our own lives and creativity – understood as an unfolding not only of our past, but always, everywhere and everywhen, in the here and now moment of eternity.

Encouraging visual arts in the life of the Episcopal Church in The Diocese of Vermont

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Richard Adams
Retired Episcopal priest, canonically resident in Vermont

The Rev. Richard C. Adams is a retired Episcopal priest living in Hinesburg. He has served as a Tutor and Fellow at Seabury-Western and General seminaries, on the Navajo Indian reservation, as a college chaplain, and as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Quinnipiac University. He is a member of the Temple of Understanding (a group sponsoring religious dialog) and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley, CA.

August 6 – Feast of the Transfiguration, Mixed Media on gesso panel, 11” x 11”, NFS

‘August 6’ is dedicated to my longtime friend and mentor Filmer S.C. Northrop, Professor Emeritus at Yale University.

The icon relates to the ironic coming together of three events on August 6 which reflect this interplay: (1) the A-bomb at Hiroshima with its destructive use of nuclear energy, (2) the anniversary of Jamacian independence, and (3) the Feast of Transfiguration, celebrating the vision of Jesus as the Son of God and the “Cloud of Glory” of the Divine Presence – given everywhere.

Each of these events related to the revelation of the logos of God, (1) throughout all creation as praised by the Gospel of John (1:1 ff) and as scientifically discovered in math physics (E=MC2), (2) in human equality and the “rights” which follow, (3) in Jesus as the Christus – the “All Man” (humankind) in Serbian Saint Nikolaj’s phrase.

If the vision of God can mean to see as God sees (Rilke), then a meditation on August 6 can suggest the spiritual resources for the ecological vision, the political vision, and the ecumenical vision needed in our day.

Adams - 2 The Dormition of the Mother of God
Mixed Media on gesso panel, 11” x 11”, NFS

‘The Dormition of the Mother God’ is dedicated to the memory of my own dear mother, Myrtle, whose warm and caring touch I recall from days of early childhood, and in the hour or her death. Surely the bonding of human touch, in various ways, relationships, and occasions can be one of our deepest emotively moving moments of trust, love and communion.

In the icon the Blessed Virgin hands her life and her hands into the hands of the Lord at the moment of her death and Resurrection/ Assumption. She is the first fruits of humankind who are destined for deification.

In the icon, the Virgin is surrounded by figures suggestive of Blessed Mother Theresa’s Order of the Sisters of Charity, who, following her, minister to the suffering and the dying.

Adams - 3 In the Beginning,
Mixed Media on gesso panel, 13” x 13”, NFS

‘In the Beginning’ is dedicated to Joseph Campbell, whom I studied with at Columbia University. It is the first in a series which correlates the ‘hero journey’ so well presented by Joseph with some of the festivals of Christianity. This particular icon relates to the beginning in God of the cosmos and of our own lives and creativity – understood as an unfolding not only of our past, but always, everywhere and everywhen, in the here and now moment of eternity.