HEAVENLY CREATURES.
An exhibition at St Mungo Museum, Cathedral Street, Glasgow
Sometime early this century, St Oswald’s Church received a request for
hospitality via its web site (yes, it did exist). A stranger wanted to be in
Glasgow for Hogmanay. . My daughter Hannah, always one for a laugh,
persuaded me to respond. . I did, remembering St Paul’s saying: “Forget not
to show love unto strangers for thereby some have entertained angels
unawares. “(Hebrews 13.2) This stranger was a young woman from
Chicago, who went out ‘to toon’ with my girls and their friends. She was no
‘Heavenly Creature’, but I am no Abraham either.
A picture of the famous Icon of three ‘strangers’ visiting Abraham, seen as a
symbol for the Trinity, was shown in the exhibition of ‘Heavenly Creatures’ at
St Mungo Museum. In this exhibition were representations from art,
literature, music and popular culture of encounters of men with such
‘Heavenly Creatures’ which we call ‘angels’. The largest example was a
stain glass window depicting the annunciation. . Among examples of popular
culture was a poster of three ‘Charlie’s Angels’, an American Crime drama of
1976.
It was made clear, that the believe in angels is common to many religions,
but also that, although our society is becoming less and less religious,
angels are as popular as ever. Even people who do not see themselves as
religious may believe in them. Billy Connolly has a ‘wee parking angel’ in his
car, and certainly a small angel figure in bronze, which the German
ecumenical organisation ‘Andere Zeiten’ produced and sold to great gain,
proved the popularity of angels. I was given one, and we were told that
Angela Merkel has one on her desk. Little representations like this were
shown in the exhibition, e.g. a Guardian Angel necklace from 2014. There
were, of course, Christmas decorations and cupids and Valentine cards,
symbols of love. These were angels as symbols of friendship, of loyalty,
hope, trust, just popular gifts. One item displayed intrigued me much, it was
a poster for ‘The Daily Citizen Calendar’ of 1915 which depicted a vision of
the future from the battlefield: Angels dressed in flags of the ‘United States
of Europe’. The exhibition wanted to explore the questions why angels
fascinate us, why they are so special, what do they actually do, and what
they look like. Right at the entrance a large birdlike sculpture with a human
head from Zimbabwe showed a ‘Chapungu’, a spirit associated with the
ancestors, which is said to interact between the living and dead.
The introductory film asked Christians, Jews and Muslims for their ideas
about angels.
Believing in Angels is one of the six articles of Faith in Islam. Angels are
mentioned several times in the Qu’ran and Hadith. They are messengers of
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