St. Andrew’s welcomes Seguin art-installation
(Seguin) — A special blessing has been added to Seguin’s Squirrel Trail Program. On Sunday, the congregation at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in downtown Seguin officially introduced Father Pecan to the local community.
Father Pecan marks the 11th squirrel to be introduced as part of the Seguin Commission on the Arts’ community wide project that features the larger than life stone squirrels. Each squirrel is sponsored publicly then painted and placed at various locations around town.
Leading the unveiling Sunday morning at the corner of River and Nolte Streets was Stephen Shortess, the senior priest at St. Andrew’s. Shortess says Father Pecan did not disappoint leaving everyone with a good first impression.
“And when that black cloth came off and to see this shiny vibrant squirrel that was artistically beautiful but also matched our church traditions and to see the humor and the laughter on peoples’ faces, it just brought a lot of joy to my heart and I think also people from the community who came to see our unveiling as well,” said Shortess.
Shortess says folks won’t have any trouble spotting Father Pecan and hopes that when folks do stop by, that they too will know his sole purpose.
“He’s wearing a black cassock with a white surplice and a priest stole. It’s a red stole so red in our tradition would mean Holy Spirit of God which right now in the church, we are kind of hearing the stories of Pentecost before we get to the actual celebration of Pentecost and it kind of means that we are a church that is going out into the world to spread some hope and some love and some good news and that’s really what we hope Father Pecan is all about and what we hope our church is all about and we hope our community can come over to the town of Seguin or from the surrounding (area) and see Father Pecan and know that we are a church that loves them and that wants to spread God’s love to them as well,” said Shortess.
Shortess says although the church did not set out to create a Father Pecan, they are grateful to Artist Robin Walker for providing him with a sense of humor.
“I think Father Pecan kind of started as a little bit of a humorous joke and then, me and Robin got together and then a little bit of levity became a reality and it worked out well and Father Pecan comes with a mission statement. If you read our plaque, it says ‘He comes to pray for a town full of nuts.’ We just thought God somewhere must have a sense of humor and we have a sense of humor and this world needs to laugh a little bit more and we just kind of made that vision again a reality for the community — we hope, we pray,” said Shortess.
Painting a squirrel for the trail program, however, is nothing new for Walker. In fact, Shortess says Walker’s other squirrel is just across the street.
“Robin Walker is a church member and to quote her, she also painted the squirrel that is actually in the town square. I believe that is the Guadalupe River Squirrel and she says ‘well, my other squirrel needed a squirrel to talk to so I painted Father Pecan’ which I thought it was cute and funny as well,” said Shortess.
Father Pecan, again, is just the latest in a list of squirrels that have found a home around town. Shortess says he hopes the momentum for this project continues one squirrel at a time.
“I think the Spirit of Joy was the first church and their squirrel, I believe, is named Joy and I think they were an inspiration to us and hopefully, we will be an inspiration to other churches or other places. There’s a lot going on in the world but the world is still full of beautiful people with beautiful talents and if we can get together as a community and do something as relatively small as adding these beautiful squirrel statues that speak to art and speak to community, image what else we can do. Maybe this is the first step in motivating and building a better community for all of us,” said Shortess.
The city program currently has around 15 more squirrels that are scheduled to be unveiled over this next year.
The opportunity to sponsor the next batch of stone squirrels is still available. The cost is $2,500 per squirrel. Each sponsor is responsible for covering the cost of the artist that he or she personally selects to paint the squirrel.
Those interested in participating in the program are asked to contact the Seguin Main Street Program at 830-401-2448.
Other squirrel locations include the Seguin Public Library, Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church, Schertz Bank & Trust; Seguin’s Central Park, Seguin’s Hike & Bike Trail just behind St. James Catholic Church, the Meservey Group PLLC, Starcke Park East, Park West, Bauer Park and the Women’s Federated Club Building.