The broken made whole

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth …before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. – Ecclesiastes 12

A new fountain, created as reborn souls are out of shattered pieces, has made whole the memorial garden at Trinity Episcopal Church.

In a Nov. 6 ceremony on All Saint’s Day, the fountain, completed by Candace Springer with the help of fellow artists, was dedicated, the focal point and final punctuation mark for a garden long in the making.

Springer worked in the style of mosaic popularized by a Frenchman at the turn of the last century called “pique assiette,” from a French phrase meaning "stolen from plate.” On his daily walk to work the man would pass by a large mound of discarded china which he took home piecemeal to turn into beautiful mosaic murals.

Springer learned the technique from a good friend, Becky Savitz, an expert in it. “She told me she liked creating beautiful things from broken and recycled pieces and that she thinks of Christ’s work in the individual as pique assiette,” Springer told the congregation. “He takes something broken in each of us and makes it whole and beautiful again. It struck a chord.

Together with Patti McCartney, a member of the vestry instrumental in securing church approval five years ago to create the memorial garden, Springer traveled in May 2010 to Tallahassee where she and McCartney selected a 650-pound concrete fountain delivered the next month by Gary Ulrich “and a few brawny men of the vestry.”

Springer first practiced on a smaller project with an unfamiliar adhesive required of an outdoor piece to be filled with water. She envisioned a design that incorporated fish because of the recognizable Christian symbolism and the importance of fish to the area.

On Nancy Luther’s suggestion, Springer worked with local potter, Anne Eason, whose bright school of fish with raised fins and scales radiate life to the bottom pool while representing the 12 apostles.

The church’s rector, the Rev. Martha Harris, provided for the fountain a collection of stones and shells she had picked up in the past two years on her pilgrimages to the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland.

“I was happy to incorporate these found objects from the natural world and they became the inspiration for the shoals in the bottom pool,” said Springer. “The shoals represent the obstacles we encounter in the world as Christians and must learn to maneuver around and through.”

Harris also helped select the biblical passages on the front and back of the fountain, one from Song of Solomon. 8:6 "for Love is strong as death" and the other from Matthew. 11:28 "and I will give you rest.”

Among Christian symbols in the fountain are crosses which imitate the crosses in the stenciling of the church, the alpha and omega, the chi rho christogram, and the ivy vine taken from a Wedgwood china pattern earlier donated by Luther to the church’s Penny’s Worth thrift store. .The vine is used repeatedly by Jesus in parables, such as John 15.5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”

Apalachicola artist Kristin Anderson’s trinity design is the focal point of the top pool, emanating from trefoil and turning back into itself in an infinite progression. “I chose to execute her design in many shades of gold leaf so that the tiles would reflect as much light as possible,” said Springer. “Many parishioners contributed pieces of china in varying shades of white which I used as background throughout the fountain and are indicative to me of the varied folks that form our congregation.”

In her remarks to the church, Springer paid thanks to friends, Ann Bruce and Kem Toole, who served as sounding boards for her ideas, and husband, Ed, who donated workspace in his outdoor shed for the bottom pool, and space for the smaller pieces in their screened-in porch.

“As I wrestled with plagues of a southern nature - mosquitoes, carpenter bees, wasps and raccoons which invaded my workspace - my patience was sorely tested. I only wish I could have harnessed the energy of the insect world for my work,” Springer told the congregation. “For weeks during the cold of last winter, I had to suspend work altogether. The summer heat was less of a hindrance but remained a reminder that we are powerless against the vicissitudes of Mother Nature.”

She also told of the nerve-racking move of the fountain to the church by Ulrich and his crew, made easier by his patience and experience. Finally, Jon Hooper hooked up the electricity for the fountain pump, which now keeps the water gently circulating.

“Please know that this is your fountain, not my fountain,” she said, in her thank you to the congregation. “As Martha (Harris) so aptly put it in her sermon last month, whatever we do in the church is done in the context of family. We are not alone in our endeavors. There is always supporting cast; there is always help, encouragement and a way to make things happen when it doesn’t seem possible.”

Origins of the garden, dedicated in March 2010 by the diocese’s bishop, The Right Rev. Phillip Duncan II, date back to 1998, when memorials left in Robert Crozier’s name became seed money for a garden where ashes of church members could be buried in a tranquil setting between two historic buildings, the sanctuary and Benedict Hall.

Moved by her own life-threatening illness, McCartney worked with a committee to gather ideas from landscape architects and others for a garden “that does not look like a cemetery or columbarium. It has become a place of worship and we hold services there when the weather is nice,” she said.

The project broke ground in 2008, and was given a foundation from more than 4,000 19th-century bricks from the ruins of the Apalachicola State Bank, destroyed in a Nov. 2008 fire. Volunteers from the church and St George Island Lighthouse Association spent four weekends handcleaning the old mortar from the bricks.

Entrance to the garden from the Seventh Avenue gate features a pathway lined with engraved bricks given in memory of deceased loved ones and friends. Many of the birth dates are in the 18th and 19th century and include the names of old Apalachicola families.

“The fountain is the culmination of these past years of work and financial contributions by so many people,” said McCartney. “It is also a sacred place, a place of beauty, a place for reflection, a place to honor and remember loved ones.”