PILGRIM IMAGES IN ART

Jewish Pulpit
Kishnev, Moldova

This picture has more deeply impacted me than any other. In fact, until now this picture hangs on the walls of only a very few friends. It’s meaning was just so deep and felt too personal for me to release to the public. It tells a story, however, now to be shared.

It was here, arrested, transfixed in the ruins of this synagogue, standing with no roof and open to the sky, that if ever I saw a picture that was a prayer it now stood before me. The three of us had come thousands of miles on a mission, to breathe life into the preaching of the Jews, that they may once again be like Paul of old, that once again the world would know the fire and zeal of the preaching that only the Jews can bring. And now there stood before me this Jewish pulpit, enduring the destruction of the years, still ascending to a yet unrevealed plane.

This depiction of this Jewish pulpit stands not only out of focus but also out of time. It speaks of a history past while crying out for a history yet to be fulfilled. My profound hope is that this picture will become a prayer for you, that with every seeing of it you will cry ever so deeply for the destiny of the Jewish people, for He who watches Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.

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David Fitzpatrick as pastor, speaker, author, and life coach, has dedicated much of his life to the pursuit of meaning, purpose, and understanding. He is a long time Franklin resident whose work has incorporated extensive travel. It was in 1995, during a year-long stay in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with his wife and three children that he began to capture in black and white images some of these simple expressions of the spirit.

They are gathered from such diverse places as the ruins of churches in Ireland, the cemetery of Tchaikovsky in St. Petersburg, an abandoned synagogue in Moldova, Christ Church in Jerusalem, as well as the statuary of Prague and Vienna. Since then he has expanded his black and white portfolio to include scenes of serenity from the wilderness of Cape Breton and vignettes of light and color from mornings in the gardens of Lindisfarne, the Fitzpatrick family home created as a spiritual sanctuary.

In the intention of the photographer, the force of Pilgrim Images is not only in the deep meaning of the photograph, but also in the depth of the beholder that is given expression through these scenes. These images serve to stir the deep worth within the soul, and call us upward.