Arts & Environment
The A & E committee prepares our beautiful church and grounds for various liturgical functions throughout the year. Usually the enhancement of the environment is a visually orientated task, but it also includes enticing the other senses through coordination with other liturgically appropriate means, such as incense burning and sound production.
This ministry offers the opportunity for those with artistic talents to obey and serve the Lord and congregation. In doing so, self-expression, within liturgical guidelines, is possible and talents are revealed and developed. We also need those with physical stamina to move things into place. We can never make the environment perfect for any occasion, but each environment can serve the dual purpose of imperfect offering and opportunity for enhanced worship.
We meet our goals with a multi-pronged pre-planned approach. Supplies are purchased in advance and reused as often as possible. Some goals only require a few people to complete and at other times (e.g. on Holy Saturday; after the fourth Sunday of Advent; before Christmas), there are teams of volunteers who are instructed as needed to complete the various projects. Our goals are reached in an eclectic process that is difficult to quantify and requires flexibility as plans do change at the last minute. Fortunately, some tasks, with repetition from year to year, allow a consistently good result, improvements in processes, and yet experimentation with new ideas.
With God as the focus of the ministry we are serving all in preparing His temple and the congregation for liturgical services. We serve Him as individuals by using and developing our talents as He instructs us to do in Scripture.
The liturgical committee meets regularly to formulate plans that include directing our actions (currently on Wednesday mornings). We do not hold regular meetings even though our events take place throughout the year, because most of our events are seasonal. We communicate as needed.
Volunteers donate time and talent. Supplies are paid for in the church budget and with seasonal offering for flowers. There are formal liturgical training programs through various sources. However, the numerous, critical, and unnamed volunteers for this ministry are trained “on the job”.
