The Witness Project

When Pilgrim Church was forced to close due to Covid-19 in March of 2020, the Sacred Arts Ministry began to wrestle with how it might engage the congregation and the community in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.. Seeking inspiration, it hired Michael Dowling, founder of SPOKE, a non-profit dedicated to the healing and transcendent power of public art.

The team created a series of activities to help members look at their own responsibility in perpetuating social and racial injustice and what they could do to make a difference. Those activities included a ritual washing of the church’s front steps symbolizing a fresh start on our work on these issues, and the creation of mosaic panels which raised questions about justice (currently installed on the front of the church). The final piece of the project was the creation of a documentary film,