My friend told me once that a lot of people in Japan met Christ through the art and music of J.S. Bach 250 years after he died! You can read a lot if you search about this! It's fascinating... It was very inspiring for me, I am not a great artist myself but I do some things here and there... I think the Anglican Church is one of the most engaged in arts, in a beautiful way... How much do you think it is a efficient way to reach to people to let them know Christ... through art that is... How does it work, how can we do it? And if anyone has any more stories like that, I would be so pleased to hear them!
The best, most thorough story one can possibly offer is his own. My first encounter with anything supernatural - let alone with God - was in music. In the exalted heights reached by Palestrina, Bach, Schubert, Rachmaninov, and so many others, I knew there was a reality higher than my own self. This reality was clearly a Being, and at least a Person; how else could such joy exist in a way that we Persons can comprehend? I am no longer an atheist because of the fugue; after the symphony, I cannot be an agnostic. I have come to associate music with the very voice or living force of the Lord. Somehow it is, for me, the very primitive and absolute expression of the "Original Glory" and the "Ancient Majesty", yet within the created world. He accomplishes this through His most beloved creatures: human beings. Note that the very last of all the Sacred Psalms, the consummation of all worship, goes thus: 1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. 2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. 4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. 6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD. Praise of God is associated directly with singing, dancing, instruments, melody, and harmony. Art is so high, so sublime, and hints at such deep profound realities of the soul, of glory, of longing, and of absolute reality, that it is impossible for me to believe in the basic fact of God's existence without at least one sense of sight, or of sound. How ironic that all art is fundamentally human, yet its beauty hints at the divine image stamped inside us?
As for Anglicanism, John Stainer is a prime example of how cherished and high was the old theology we had of the Church, the Incarnation, and the use of music in remembering the truths of the Gospel. Hear his famous setting of John 3:16 ...
I find Anglicans are particularly good at choosing hymns and anthems at Morning & Evening prayer to coincide with the readings. We have the ability to select an "Anthem" toward the end of a service, which can masterfully reflect the Scripture lessons, while also being poetic, rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic! Combine these with some reverent stained glass or paintings above the altar, and you can see how high a virtue art can be made by Christians. The high magisterial Christian Churches tend to be very good in uniting the day's readings & lessons to poetry & music. Here is Bach's (Lutheran) first cantata for this day, Christmas II. The readings at Holy Communion focused on St. Stephen's Martyrdom in Acts 7. The poem, used for lyrics, focuses on Satan trying to overturn the joy of the preceding day's Nativity by killing Christians. It's a pretty solemn message just after Christmas, yet it drives us ever on to love and trust God more!