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Heaven’s
Herd of Holy Goats
at St. Michael's Episcopal
Church
Bon Air, Virginia
by Anthony W. Creech
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One goat lived on a parish family’s porch roof for
several months,
rendered here in a watercolor image
of the Bon Air Victorian
Day Parade |
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Goats?
Creative inspiration can arise in the oddest
of places. For a parishioner at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in the Richmond
neighborhood of Bon Air, Virginia, inspiration hit inside a Saks Fifth
Avenue department store. Don Spriggs wandered into Saks looking for a hat
one fall day in 2005 and came out with eighteen goats donated to the church.
Goats? Yes, goats – in this case goat shaped mannequins that had
been used by the store as part of a display of cashmere
garments. |
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This of course begs the question, why goats? “Well,” explains
Don, “there was just something charming about these little
fiberglass things. When I saw them in the store, I had the strongest
feeling that God was trying to tell me something. I just knew that
there was some way we could put them to use at St. Michael’s.”
This was just the seed. Don’s first idea was a tip of his
new Saks hat to a public art project that
had occurred city-wide about five years previously. |
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That effort – called “Go Fish!” – involved
various local artists decorating large fiberglass fish which were then
displayed all over town. After months of public display, the fish were
auctioned off to raise money for various charitable causes.
Similar projects had occurred in other cities (cows
in Chicago, for example). Don thought, “Why not do the same
thing at St. Michael’s with the eighteen goats?” This
idea was immediately greeted with enthusiasm from the congregation. |
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Vincent Van Goat in the making |
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