Hoping to start a discussion, enhance its connections with the wider community and to demonstrate that it values different voices, the First Congregational Church in South Portland is getting set to host its first-ever art show.

The show, entitled, “Images of the Divine,” is open to locals of all ages and level of ability. The church is also offering cash prizes in categories from middle school to college to professional. The deadline to submit a piece for the show is Oct. 1.

“Entrants are encouraged to interpret the theme in their use of light, color, form, figures or pattern,” the church website states and adds that the show will be judged by a panel of three judges.

Mary Anne Wallace, the art show chairwoman, said people are invited to submit one entry each and it must be an original photograph, painting, drawing or print.

She said entrants do not need to live in South Portland, but said that even though “our guidelines do not specify a geographic area we have generally limited our outreach to the southern Cumberland County area.”

Wallace said the church’s goal is have at least 50 artists participate in the show and said the number of entrants was based on the limited size of the exhibition space.

The Rev. Cindy Maddox, who is senior pastor at the First Congregational Church, said the art show “gives us an opportunity to tap into the many creative talents and interests in our community.”

She said the church chose the theme of “Images of the Divine because we wanted to hear from people of other faiths, as well as the vast number of spiritual but not religious folks in our community.”

Maddox added, “We believe that no person or religion has a complete view of the divine – the divine is always more than we can know or imagine. Considering other people’s ways of viewing God helps broaden our own understanding.”

In addition, she said the theme for the art show is also consistent with the slogan of the United Church of Christ, which states, in part, that, “God is still speaking.”

Maddox said the church wanted to include young people in the show because “teenagers often open our eyes to different ways of viewing the world. They don’t have the same inhibitions or restrictions, so they can (often) see what we adults have forgotten or never knew.”

In terms of the church’s goals for the art show, she said, “Personally, I believe that every avenue to the divine is valuable and when we open ourselves to new ways of viewing God, we open ourselves to one another as well. So, I hope this art show will widen our own understanding.”

Maddox also hopes the show does “the same thing for anyone who comes to the exhibit. (I hope) it will help them connect to the divine in new ways, in whatever form that takes for each individual.”

While the art show has not yet been held and the church was forced to extend the deadline for entries, Maddox said it’s her hope that this first exhibition will be the start of an annual tradition.

In terms of an image that brings God instantly to mind for her, Maddox said it’s based on a photo of a woman she once knew.

“I knew an old woman who was just a gentle, beautiful soul,” she said. “One day two young goldfinches flew into her window. She slowly hobbled out to them and picked them up. She thought at first they were dead, but just in case she held them gently and brought them up to her mouth and breathed into her hands. She opened her hands and they lifted up their heads. Just before they took flight the woman’s niece took a picture.”

Maddox said it’s this “picture of these old, gnarled hands gently holding two startled-looking birds (that represents) a beautiful Mother God image to me.”