Sheep and shepherd are master images in Scripture. Sheep appear 400 times in the Bible and shepherd 100 times. As Psalm 23 says, the Lord is our shepherd and we are his sheep wandering, wayward, but greatly loved. But the Lord is also a sheep—“the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” The same double meaning applies to humans also. We are always sheep but some are also invited to be shepherds of God’s flock. The word “pastor” is of course Latin for “shepherd.” Sheep and shepherd were meaningful themes for the founding members of the Pasadena Covenant Church in 1922. All of them were working class Swedish immigrants who came to the United States seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Of the 26 charter members, 18 were women. The church grew out of a women’s Bible study for Swedish women who worked as domestic servants to the wealthy of Pasadena. Almost all grew up in rural farming country. They had been around livestock. When the second sanctuary was built by the congregation in 1947, it is interesting that the children of the founders chose the image of sheep and shepherd for their stained glass windows as a way to honor their fore bearers.

In creating Betsy the Sheep, I decided to use a very common, humble material—cardboard—to represent our past. I wrote the names of the 26 charter members on the inside frame work on one side of the sheep’s body. On the other side of the body, I wrote Psalm 23. On the cardboard skin, I then wrote the names of all the current members of the church community. For the wool coat, I used pages of a Covenant song book to suggest that the sheep exists to sing the praises of the Lord. The songbook that I used was edited by our former music minister Roland Tabell. Music was also important to the early members. In fact the first sanctuary was paid for in part from the freewill offerings collected during concerts given throughout the west coast by the founding pastor who was a singer. Finally the sculpture is named Betsy the Sheep after Betsy Peterson, charter member number 22. She was born in Dahlsland Sweden is 1867, immigrated to the US in 1888 at age 21. She eventually found her way to Pasadena and the women’s Bible study. At some point, she married Mr. Peterson but there is no record of him. By the time the current sanctuary was built in 1947 she had died, but the congregation thought enough of her to name the east stain glass window in honor of her. Children of the church donated their offerings to help pay for the window. Lastly, in constructing the sculpture, I discovered that I ended up hiding much of what makes the image meaningful to me. I think that is also true in real life. Our history, our relationship with God, and even our relationship with one another are hidden. As shepherds, we are called to care for not only the visible parts of the community but especially the hidden parts. Additional Cardboard sculptures can be found here