Once a year, my church has a big art show. It started 22 years ago as a hot dog stand alongside the even bigger Coconut Grove Art Show. Now the St. Stephen's Art Show rivals the bigger show in quality, if not quantity. It also draws artists from all over the country, and it has its own charms - a shady oak grove setting being high on the list. An admission price one tenth that of the bigger show is also a draw.

For some of our artists, a church setting is meaningful, charming, or at least quaint. A surprising and growing number of artists bring a work of art into the church early Sunday morning to be blessed at an Episcopal Mass. After the Mass, our priest puts on her baseball cap, and she and an assistant take a censor out and walk the show in sneakers and full regalia, swinging church incense into each booth, praying with artists who want to pray, laughing and talking with an array of show patrons, a few of whom tag along for a while. It's a tradition not to be missed.

For the next few days I, like practically every other parishioner at St. Stephen's, will do nothing but tend to the show. This yearly effort is a glue that binds us in a common effort and a shared experience. It is also, for me at least, an opportunity to think about the connection between art and spirituality. As an "Artist Liaison," I get to talk to many of the artists, and they seldom fail to bring it up. Most will say they like the connection with "church," even if they are not religious.

The experience of creativity can be very close to the experience of spirituality. I believe most artists are religious. They practice it every day.