Anti-War Art Stirs Controversy in Congregation : Religion: Grisly display at an Episcopal church drew complaints from some parishioners. In a compromise, the works are covered by white sheets during worship services.

The art is hard to look at.

It depicts tiny skeletons and bloated, dead children stuffed into sardine cans surrounded by bullet shells. A clay and sausage-skin sculpture of a mother lies prone with its abdomen slit open, revealing tiny toy soldiers. And staring blankly over it all, the drawn, distorted image of a skeleton hangs on a wall with its arms outstretched in an attitude of crucifixion.

The point, according to Heather Green, the artist who mounted the show and created much of the work, is to focus on the tragic effects of war and famine on human beings, especially children.

But some members of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach, where the art will be shown until May 26, see it differently. To them the art is disturbing and intrusive--an unwanted distraction from worship and contemplation.

They complained to the church administration, which ordered the show removed. Local artists and their parish supporters reacted with anger, threatening to organize a demonstration. And after days of negotiations, the sharply divided congregation is now faced with an unusual compromise: the spectacle of art covered by white sheets during worship services.

“I don’t need to be reminded of horror,” said Pat Svendsen, one of those who complained. “(The art) is abominable. It belongs in a museum, not the Episcopal Church.”

Don Feher, chairman of the church’s Friends of Art Committee, which brought the show to the church, considers the institution a perfect place for it. “During the Iraqi war,” he said, “there was a reporter who asked which side God was on, and the answer was that God is on the side of the suffering. If that’s true, where is there a more appropriate place for an exhibit on children and suffering than in the church? I think it goes to the core of our theology.”

Indeed, the controversy has roots in the history of St. Luke’s. Located in a downtown area plagued by crime and surrounded by the homeless, the church is well known for its forums, lectures and outreach programs. One of them is an ambitious art and music program run by the Friends of Art Committee with the support of a church-based nonprofit agency called the Academy of Music and Arts at St. Luke’s, which, among other things, provides studio space for an annual artist-in-residence.

Last year Green was chosen for that position, Feher said, because of her “ability as an artist and the strong statements of her work.” Known locally as a political and social activist whose creations often address issues of social concern, Green, 42, describes her work as “confrontational.”

In a written statement submitted before the opening the current show on April 21, Green said it was designed to “express my viewpoint and emotional response to the anguish, devastation and futility of war” in a way that would “confront the viewer(s) and compel them to question the prevalent reality that war is used as a solution.”

The exhibition consists of two parts. One show, entitled “Children of War,” displays the paintings, drawings and sculptures of 17 artists, including Green, in the parish hall across a courtyard from the church’s main sanctuary. The other show, called “Dignity,” consists of 20 paintings, drawings and sculptures, all by Green, exhibited in the sanctuary and a tiny chapel adjoining it.

The head of the rectory, the church’s 12-member governing body, received the first of several letters from parishioners criticizing the show. Sensing trouble, Bob Treese, president of the arts academy’s board of directors, formally requested that the art be removed--a request that was supported by the church’s interim rector, the Rev. Joseph Reeves.

“This is a sanctuary,” Treese said, “but it’s being invaded by these sociopolitical statements. It interrupts the freedom of worship of parishioners.”

Reeves declined to comment.

But Feher and the Friends of Art Committee came to the exhibition’s defense. And after several noisy meetings, the two sides reached a compromise: The exhibition could stay put until May 26 as long as the works in and around the sanctuary and chapel were kept draped during church services.

Currently, Green said, the exhibit can be seen by appointment only during the week and on Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. Most Saturdays, she said, attendance is sparse, consisting of curious passersby and art students assigned to write papers on the controversy.

Sundays, on the other hand, the church is generally well-attended by parishioners.

Green says she is getting used to the shrouds.

“I’ve decided that the draping of the work is a very powerful statement that evolved from the show itself,” she said. “It’s not censorship--it’s a statement about how people deal with reality. They hide it from their eyes, pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s a microcosm of the country.”