Spirited Times - June 2009

From year to year, the Art & Environment Committee volunteers bring beauty and focus to our worship space in a variety of ways:

choosing and hanging the material for each season

selecting the plants and flowers

arranging and re-arranging the elements of the sanctuary; and (the ever popular) storing and saving it all.

Art and Environment members deliver an Easter space

By Dennis Osgood

Whether you attend liturgical celebrations at Church of the Holy Spirit frequently, are able to attend only on special occasions, or visit us through family or friends, experiencing the design and environment of our Worship Space can be a unique and different experience.

Many of us have been nurtured in the typical Catholic Church design, cathedral like, with high ceilings, stone altar, many statues, stained glass windows, and all things “centered” and in a permanent location.  Here at CHS, the design and architecture of the Worship Space is focused intentionally on the center of this community – the living members of the body of Christ – who gather around the table each week for various liturgical celebrations.

The environment of the Worship Space is meant to enhance our celebrations rather than overpower them.  This presents a challenge to those of us on the Art & Environment Committee each time we plan a design for one of the many liturgical seasons of the Church year.  We must choose the seasonal material, hang the material, select the plants and flowers, arrange and rearranging the elements of the sanctuary, and store and save the materials so that they can be reused from year to year.  And we come together to make this all happen not as professionals, but as a group of volunteers who share our God-given talents.

Easter 2009 (see photos) was no exception.  Many of us on the committee have been doing this for several years; others joined us this year for their first early-morning experience.  We gathered early on the Saturday morning before Easter to transform the space from the stark, bare area of Good Friday to a space arranged with cream, gold, and lavender material and with flowers of every color and texture.  Our hope for those newly welcomed into the Church at the Easter Vigil and for all who gathered on Easter Sunday that the environment of the space added to your celebration of the risen Lord into your life – not only on this is day that the Lord had made, but throughout the Easter Season.

Interested?  If you’ve enjoyed watching these transformations, consider joining the Art & Environment Committee, or helping us when you can.  Leave your contact information at the at the Parish Office, and we will be in touch.

Photos by Mark T. Hoske