Art acquisitions
As part of the renovation of Turku Cathedral, new church art will be commissioned for the Cathedral. The Turku and Kaarina Parish Union is organising calls for professional artists for a memorial and church textiles to be commissioned for the Cathedral.
As part of the renovation of Turku Cathedral, new church art will be commissioned for the Cathedral. The Turku and Kaarina Parish Union is organising calls for professional artists for a memorial and church textiles to be commissioned for the Cathedral. Everything should be ready by the advent 2028.
The application guidelines are available in Finnish and Swedish on their respective pages.
Background to the memorial to be commissioned
Dean Aulikki Mäkinen:
“The churching of women has both Christian and non-Christian roots. In the Middle Ages, the Western Church considered a woman who had given birth to be unclean. It was customary for a woman to undergo churching as a rite of purification. According to medieval sources, however, women regarded churching as a celebration in which God was thanked for the child and asked to protect them. The custom continued until the end of the 19th century, even though women were no longer considered unclean.
Many women who had given birth outside marriage also came to Turku Cathedral to be churched. Increasing numbers of young women moved from the countryside to the city in search of work. Many of them had little protection or security. Children were born, some out of love, others as a result of rape. Giving birth to a child outside marriage was considered shameful, and the stigma affected both the woman and her child.
The Church, too, perpetuated a moralistic and judgemental attitude towards these girls and women. While churching was an important celebration in the life of a married woman, for an unmarried servant girl it was a humiliating and frightening experience. At an already difficult moment in her life, she was subjected to a priest’s admonishment and questioning.
As a follower of Christ, the Church should have supported, helped and encouraged these women. Yet this rarely happened. What might a young and timid servant girl have thought as she came to Turku Cathedral to be churched beneath its vast and imposing vaults? What kind of Church did she encounter there?
The new work of art in Turku Cathedral brings these women to the fore: those who were left without protection, humiliated and oppressed. At the same time, it asks what responsibility the Church and Christians have towards all those who are humiliated and despised in our own time. Who are they, and do we have the courage to raise our voices in their defence?
Jesus says: ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:40 (CSB).”
Church textiles for the Sharpshooter’s Chapel
The church textiles to be commissioned are an altar cloth, chalice veil and burse for the new central altar in the Sharpshooter’s Chapel in Turku Cathedral, as well as a stole and chasuble worn by the officiating priest. All of these textiles will be produced in the four liturgical colours of the Church year: green, white, violet and red.
In both their visual appearance and colour palette, the new textiles must harmonise with the church textiles designed by textile artist Dora Jung in the 1960s and 1970s for use at the Cathedral’s high altar and pulpit. This will allow the textiles, with the exception of the altar cloth, to be combined with the existing textiles when necessary.
In addition to their visual appearance, attention will be paid to the textiles’ durability, ease of care and comfort in use. In particular, the chasuble must be comfortable to wear even in hot summer weather.