Lonnie Lacy for Virginia Theological Seminary

Keep Ye Not Apart was created by Lonnie Lacy for the Virginia Theological Seminary Christmas card for 2005. Lacy says, “I wanted to capture something of that moment when Advent shifts to Christmas, that moment of holy collision between our deepest longing and our deepest joy. It is, after all, a moment that calls us to our best selves, and we cannot help but to enter into it and to receive with the greatest of humility, wonder, and love.”

This piece found its primary inspiration in the following lines written by fellow VTS seminarian, Lynn Holland:

Receive, rejoice! Keep ye not apart,
enter in with a child’s heart.
Love and serve the least of these,
for as ye do, ye shall receive.

Hymn #79 “O little town of Bethlehem” also captures the sense of this painting, particularly verse 3:

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

Lonnie Lacy is an M.Div. student from the Diocese of Georgia in the Class of 2006 at VTS. While his primary artistic medium is web design, he also enjoys working with acrylics, pastels, and watercolors and has recently taken up iconography. He and his wife Jay live in Alexandria, Virginia where Lonnie is studying for the priesthood.

Lynn Holland wrote the song “Receive, Rejoice,” a portion of which inspired this piece. Holland is an M.Div. student from the Diocese of Virginia in the VTS Class of 2007. She is a songwriter who is particularly interested in monastic spirituality and religious community.”

Lonnie Lacy
Email: LLacy@vts.edu

Parish: Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, Virginia