Scottish Catholic Observer

For this year’s SCO Christmas competition, children of school age from across the country are being asked to use the Year of Faith as inspiration in answering the question: Who is Jesus?

For the first time, pupils from primary and secondary schools will be able to submit photographic entries in addition to entries in artwork and poetic formats.

Get involved

In previous years, the SCO team has enjoyed sifting through many entries from Scotland’s talented youngsters, and this year we hope to broaden the range and format of entries and get young people across the country thinking about what Jesus and the Catholic Faith really means to them.

At home and abroad, the Catholic Church has enjoyed an extensive and fruitful relationship with the arts. Only last month, at the screening of a Polish documentary film on the Vatican Museums, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the ‘language of art’ as ‘a language of parables,’ which can ‘open people’s minds and hearts to the eternal, raising them to the heights of God.’

Blazing the trail

The importance of getting creative in the curriculum is something greatly valued by the staff and pupils at St Bartholomew’s Primary School in Coatbridge.

Members of the local community have been assisting pupils at the Coatbridge school with their artwork for a number of years, and have helped St Bartholomew’s pupils work on a number of interesting projects.

“Our community art group has been working at the school for around 15 years,” Graeme Young, St Bartholomew’s headteacher, said. “The pupils enjoy working with them and their support is greatly valued.”

Mr Young added that the group comprises of Catholics and non-Catholics from the Coatbridge area, who all encourage the pupils to express themselves through art.

St Bartholomew’s pupils recently worked on a canvas of the Beatitudes for the school’s new oratory, while Joe McDade, a member of the community art group, produced an icon of St Bartholomew, which was blessed by Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell last month at the opening Mass for            the oratory.

The pupils also recently worked on a mosaic for the introduction of This is Our Faith, the new religious education syllabus for Catholic schools, and they produced a painting of the Titanic to mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship earlier this year.

How to start

The SCO hopes that primary and secondary age pupils throughout the country will be challenged to think about this year’s art competition question, and we look forward to selecting a shortlist of entries that will feature in our Christmas edition.

— For this year’s SCO Christmas Competition, schoolchildren are asked to use the Year of Faith as their inspiration in answering the question: Who is Jesus? Entries can be submitted in the form of poetry, art work or photography. The contest is open to primary and secondary school pupils and prizes will be presented to the winning entries. Submissions can be sent to: [email protected] up until Friday December 14

— [email protected]