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Ripley Chapel Arts & Spirituality

We are proud to re-dedicate our newly restored Ripley Chapel. Please join us for a new chapter in our church’s history!

Due to public health concerns surrounding Covid-19, we have suspended group activities, including most Ripley Chapel programming (with exceptions noted below), until further notice. However, we encourage you to join us for our livestream worship each Sunday at 10:00 AM, in addition to other online events throughout the week. Please explore our offerings here!

Join us for Ripley Presents, an arts and music showcase featuring local and regional artists.

Ripley Presents: Artist/Activist Willie Baronet’s Signs of Humanity

Please join us for an all-church documentary Watch Party!

Friday, February 19, 7:00 pm

On Friday evening, 2/19, please join us for an all-church Watch Party – where we can, from the safety of our homes, watch the same film together! The watch party format allows us to communicate with chats and comments along the way. We will be viewing artist Willie Baronet’s moving Signs of Humanity, a documentary film that explores interrelated themes of home, homelessness, compassion, and humanity. Baronet has purchased more than 1,800 homeless signs since 1993, and he uses this collection to create installations to raise awareness about homelessness. In 2014, Willie and three filmmakers drove across the country, interviewing more than 100 people on the streets and purchasing over 280 signs. Signs of Humanity is a film about that trip.

How will we watch it together? Closer to the event, we will provide a link to the documentary watch party. If you are a member of Amazon Prime, the film is free of charge. If you are not a member of Amazon Prime, you can also join the watch party by renting the film for $3.99. The proceeds will go to Baronet’s organization, We Are All Homeless. For all participants, the documentary can only be seen (in the watch party) on a computer web browser. You can also choose to watch the film on Amazon Prime at any time.

Why are we watching Signs of Humanity? On Friday, February 26, 7:00 pm, Ripley Presents will host an interactive Zoom presentation with Artist/Activist Willie Baronet and his project entitled We Are All Homeless. Willie will offer his passionate reflections, sharing the stories of people on the streets, interweaving them with themes like purpose, mission, creativity, leadership and the meaning of home. Willie tells us, “My relationship to the homeless has been powerfully and permanently altered. The conversations and connections have left an indelible mark on my heart. I still wrestle with personal questions regarding generosity, goodness, compassion, and guilt.”

Ultimately, in late fall 2021, Ripley Presents will host an art installation of Willie Baronet’s homeless signs in Ripley Chapel. Please contact Jane Ring Frank, with any questions.