good friday(s)
i participated in and planned 2 good friday celebrations for last week, sharing some ideas between the two. my personal thoughts will be logged here, and a complete breakdown for you alternative worship types can be found at thinkerlabs.ca.
#1
our first good friday at theStory focused on the feelings that one (past or present) may have felt when confronted with the reality o jesus’ death. we titled the morning ‘blood on our hands’.
the framework: elisabeth kubler-ross’ 5 stages of grief: denial/anger/bargaining/depression/acceptance.
the flow: for each stage of grief, we read a statement made by jesus while alive as a human on earth, then a statement reflecting on those words. finally, there was a response at the end of each stage in the form of music, video, reading, or creative response.
the center piece of our gathering was a crown of thorns made of 50ft. of barbed wire (which i obtained free of charge from a fencing guy in town) that hung from the ceiling - roughly 4ft. off the ground. fixed to the crown were 6 wire mesh baskets filled with ice dyed red. directly below the crown, the christ candle from our xmas gathering surrounded by communion elements. all of these items rested on a white sheet that laid flat on the ground.
as the morning progressed, the ice melted first leaving red blotches of ‘blood’ on the sheet, which then progressed to streams of dripping ‘blood’ soaking the sheet. (some of the blood actually dripped into the communion cups…how’s that for a visual?!)
as a final response, participants were invited to take the communion elements , but only after they pressed their thumbs to a red ink pad, leaving their thumb print on the white sheet next to the blood stains. the significance of this action? by accepting communion and becoming apprentices of christ, we give up our identity for his. further, the red ink leaves a stain on the skin, reminding us that christ’s blood is on our hands.
personal thoughts:
i thoroughly enjoyed putting this together as well as participating in it. all the pieces seemed to really fit together. the mood was dark (as it should be on good friday) but in my perception there was a somber yet reflective vibe in the room. watching the bleeding grow more intense as the morning progressed, the extinguished christ candle’s rising smoke, the bread and wine surrounded by a moat of ‘blood’ the sounds of suftjan stevens, U2, johnny cash, underoath accompanying us on the journey through the grief stages, kids participating in the eucharist…beautiful. the imagery drew people in in a way that a lecture couldn’t have on that day.
improvements? the morning was probably a bit too rigid and didn’t allow for the more spontaneous interaction that we are used to. and perhaps it was a little rushed - not enough pauses in between each stage. the jury’s still out i suppose. either way, great contrast from our resurrection sunday gathering where all were in full out participation.
#2
shortly after good friday #1, dom, nate and i hit the road for new hope community church in london where i was speaking at a youth rally.
we set the crown up and the white sheet but this time on a 45 degree angle, because of the configuration of the stage and hook on the ceiling - this wasn’t by choice, but worked out so much better for the venue (because of sight lines, the size of the room and the number of participants). in addition to the crown, in the hallway leading into the sanctuary we set up rows of tables where we placed landmark pictures of the last 100 years depicting the world that jesus came to. the pictures were torn from the book Century: One Hundred Years of Human Progress, Regression, Suffering and Hope...i used them before here in a different context.
in a nutshell, the talk, titled ‘image of the invisible’, was about the image of God in christ, in us, and in others…and how we killed it.
personal thoughts
i felt a bit out of the loop speaking to teens, but once things got rolling i found my groove. being out of control of the other elements of the service (music, flow, etc) made me very nervous. it’s the control freak/perfectionist/’things can only go the way i see them in my head’ in me acting out perhaps. regardless, it was fun and the hijinx that ensued afterwards made for a great night all around. (”in theory, we have enough gas to get home…”)
thankyou
*mark and cheryl for the original idea of the crown that inspired our adaptation.
*theStory for taking the risk as usual.
*robb for helping put the crown together and for the 3 pairs of free gloves. 
*phil for the countless weird errands and requests.
*john, barry & nate for the original photographs
*blair for having me in for the rally.
*katie for the free rickard’s honey brown
*nate and darryl for helping put the pieces together
Filed by Joe at April 11th, 2007 under Creativity