‘I think if one is a committed Christian, in the environment in which we lived here [Changi], if Christianity means anything to you at all, this is the time when it becomes real. That is my experience. To work on the murals was a religious experience for me. An experience that I had never known before and to some extent that I had never known again.’ The words of British painter Stanley Warren (1917-1992), reflecting on his experience as a Prisoner of War in Changi during World War II, may strike a chord in our time. In St Luke’s Chapel, built by POWs in Changi, Singapore, he painted a series of five murals, from Jesus’ birth to the Ascension, holding onto his faith in the midst of extreme circumstances.
Does faith reveal its actual value in the most challenging circumstances? What did Warren mean by having a ‘religious experience’ while painting the murals? Was the art he (and others) created in the camp a medium to convey Christian hope, an end in itself, or something else? How can Christian faith through art help see not only beauty but also the humanity of those we could reduce to being ‘enemies’ and help find common ground?
Join us as we contemplate the paintings and wrestle with the questions they inspire.
The Revd Dr Stephanie Burette is Chaplain at both Lady Margaret Hall and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Her research specialises in the works of British artists in the first half of the twentieth century, mostly in wartime. Prior to arriving in Oxford, she served in Durham as Chaplain and Solway Fellow at University College and the Department of Theology and Religion, St James Episcopal Church in Florence, and St George’s College and Cathedral in Jerusalem.