Heather K. Sisk’s sculptures on Mary Magdalene as spiritual guide, first exhibited at General Theological Seminary in 2012, are now on display in the lobby of the seminary’s Christoph Keller Jr. Library.
Sisk completed a master’s degree in spiritual direction in 2010 and has returned to General as an MDiv candidate.
Sisk says of her sculptures:
Mary Magdalene as disciple, witness, and prophet is one of our strongest role models for understanding the elements that emerge as one enters into a spiritual journey. This installation explores the arc of The Magdalene’s witness through healing, discernment, abiding, and transformation.
For hundreds of years the emphasis on her character as a prostitute has overshadowed her vital role as a close follower of Jesus and the first witness to the resurrected Christ; obscuring her significant example of spirituality. These four sculptures are dedicated to spiritual elements I believe The Magdalene exemplifies for us, and are always intended and extended for the community in her prophetic exclamation, “I have seen the Lord!”
These elements do not follow in a necessary order but cycle within us as we grow into deeper awareness of the movement of the divine encounter.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
