COMPLETED PECTORAL CROSS
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
There are numerous biblical accounts using the analogy of Christ as The Good Shepherd. One of the most familiar is from the Gospel of John when Christ said, "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me". Christ as the Good Shepherd serves as a perfect pastoral life model for a bishop leading and unifying a flock.
While in the conceptual stage of the design process, before any drawings were put on paper, I had presented the idea to Doyle of using the Good Shepherd as the Christ image. During this time we found ourselves at Camp Allen for different events one weekend where a few ideas were shared in casual passing. He came out of a service and handed me a torn piece of paper on which he had written "Hebrews 13:20-21". It was the reading in the service and served as an affirmation of the Shepherd imagery. When home I looked up the verses which read, "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever."
THE LION AND LAMB
The familiar lion and lamb imagery has developed from a combination of biblical verses from Isaiah to symbolically convey a message of peace. The verses paint a picture of ferocious beasts (like the lion) feeding and lying with gentle animals (like the lamb). The depiction in the cross with a lion and lamb lying together at the feet of the Good Shepherd reminds us that peace and unity is available to us through our Great Mediator.