Josefina de Vasconcellos - Weight of our Sins

Don McCullin to unveil a Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture at Bishop's Palace next month.

The "Weight of our Sins" was created by the late Josefina de Vasconcellos and has gone on permanent display by the moat side in the Palace grounds.

The sculpture depicts eight children bearing the weight of the cross and each child is symbolic of a crime against children in today's world. They include a youngster suffering from AIDS, a teenage boy on drugs, a baby victim of genocide, a child blinded by a land mine and a homeless nine-year-old.

The unveiling will take place on 29th March at 11am and pupils from Somerset schools have been invited to attend. The event is being sponsored by Save the Children.

At the same time an exhibition of Mr McCullin's photographs will open in the Conference Room in the Palace (until 30th April).

Josefina de Vasconcellos, who died in 2005 aged 100, completed the original plaster version of the work in 1999 and the final resin sculpture was presented to the palace by Professor Romaine Hervey, a friend who had promised to find it a permanent home.

Other examples of de Vasconcellos' work are in St Paul's Cathedral, London, Coventry Cathedral and the Peace Park in Hiroshima.

The message of God's love permeates her work and she was convinced that if people loved God they would love and respect one another and that this was the way to world peace.

It is hoped the school children who see the Weight of our Sins will find it an inspiration for word, art and music.

Donald McCullin, who was overseas correspondent for the Sunday Times Magazine from 1966 to 1984, is regarded as one of the greatest living war photographers. He is also widely recognised for his photographs of urban poverty and his powerful landscape images.