Art has long been used in worship spaces to teach, illuminate, and inspire. In recent years, art has been pulled out of a lot of worship spaces for many reasons. While we aren’t going to dwell on those reasons, but I’ll give a few examples: it’s too “traditional” to have all that art in worship; it’s not “seeker” friendly; it costs too much; we don’t have any artists in the community; and we’ve only seen it done poorly, so we don’t have good inspiration to do it well. These are pretty good reasons. Some of these reasons will be addressed, but the main purpose of this article is to show off some good art and “art.”
The church where I grew up started an artist’s group called “The Bartimaeus Project.” This was to inspire the closet artists to come out and display their wares. A rotating art gallery was created using pieces from the internal community and some from outside the community. Not every piece was religious, but everything was someone’s art.
This group evolved and started working together to create art in the worship space. They designed banners, and I believe they even worked on some new paraments, as well. Because these people were artists of varying levels, they had an eye for what was beautiful and they learned from each other. A whole new community was formed and the church was transformed because of it.
Another church I am acquainted with has done something similar. This season of Epiphany (about to be eclipsed by Lent), they hung star-shaped Christmas ornaments in the skylight immediately outside their worship space. This served as a constant, non-worship reminder to follow the star in their lives outside of worship, outside the church, and in their so-called real lives.
When we think about decorating for worship, whether we decorate the worship space or not, let’s not forget that the whole building, the whole church grounds, is open to engaging worshippers and passersby. This way we can use the talented resources in our midst and hold on to the traditions of our particular parish.
I’m curious, what has worked for you in decorating?
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