The following Artist Statement was included in our church bulletin:
The shopping malls and television stations want you to think that Christmas is already here. Within the walls of our sanctuary, however, we follow a different calendar: the church’s liturgical calendar. The four weeks preceding Christmas day are known as Advent.
Advent is a season of hope and of anticipation. We look to the time when God’s kingdom completes breaking into our world. However, it is not a time of pure hope and joy. We must acknowledge that redemption is necessary because we are broken people. This is a time to remember why we need the Savior and why we long for a world made complete. We practice waiting in Advent, as we move from darkness to light, from brokenness to fullness, from tension to peace.
The Liturgical Arts Committee has created a new set of banners and paraments in hopes of helping our congregation to reflect upon Advent themes. You will notice that the banners evolve over the course of the month, symbolizing our progression towards the event of Christ’s birth. The banners make use of the traditional colors for Advent, purple and blue. As the season progresses towards Christmas, gold and white become more prominent, showing our spiritual growth from dark to light and from brokenness to fullness. You may also note that the fabric has been left with rough edges – this is meant to symbolize the imperfect world that we are living in. The stoles and pulpit cloth were pieced together from random scraps of fabric; we don’t have to be perfect or whole to be used by God.
This is our Associate Pastor, Stephanie M., wearing one of the stoles quilted by Kathy D.
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