Easter - 2007
Return to Worship and the Arts home pageWe purchased new artificial palms (durable & easier to move, which were placed on either side of the chancel for Palm Sunday. Lenten wreaths were fixed with red streamers; detail is shown below. We used a standard white cloth to adorn the Table (instead of the red ones of the past two years). Our red Passion/Palm Sunday parament was draped from the pulpit, as depicted in the middle panel below.
For the remainder of the week, the palms were removed from the sanctuary. In preparation for Good Friday, all adornment was removed from the Sanctuary at the end of our Maundy Thursday Service (with the exception of the urns and branches). The first two panels below show the table decorations for our Maundy Thursday Agape Meal and the arrangement of a footwashing station for the sanctuary service (respectively); the final panel shows the Good Friday sanctuary at the conclusion of the service.
A special set of pictures and description of the Great Vigil of Easter for 2007 is presented elsewhere.
For Easter morning, the chancel was adorned with lilies propped on different-sized cardboard boxes. The large boxes were the same ones in which the lilies were delivered. White sheets were draped over the boxes, and white gauze was folded in around the lilies to complete the effect. The new chancel palms were placed behind the cross for backgound color and to remind us of the palms of the preceding Sunday. To accent this central display, we again used our pulley system to raise floor-to-ceiling strips of gold satin and gauze at both sides of the chancel. This theme was reinforced by adding a gold satin runner over the white linen cloth covering the Table. The completing touch was placing gold Alleluia! banners around the sanctuary above the sanctuary wainscoting. An interesting effect is created when ambient air currents cause these banners to move, reminding us of Holy breath or spirit. The movement of these banners prompts us to reflect that, truly, "Jesus Christ is risen, Alleluia!"
