This is a worship idea that helps us come together as a Church, bringing our personal thoughts to God and yet at the same time creating something larger together.
In preparation before the worship time, choose an image that fits your theme, and draw an outline of this image on the hard plastic with a marker pen. Our artist, Tim Drye, made the outline of a dove, copying a small stained glassed window in the chancel of our church, to fit with our theme of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus.
Within a worship time, encourage your congregation to cut out pieces of cellophane, or write on already cut-out pieces, anything that you feel your community needs to express before God (in our particular context, we asked people to write their hopes and fears for the new year). You can then stick the pieces up on the piece of hard plastic, within the image outline, showing how your community together creates a large and beautiful picture. Fit your stained glass art in a window of your church or meeting place. Your prayers will then be present and visible in your building, allowing the sun to shine through them.
Credit to Tim Drye of St James, Hemingford Grey, for this idea.
Sara co-leads engageworship.org together with husband Sam, drawing from her experience in music, worship and youthwork. She is also a mum of two wonderful children and they all live in groovy Luton.
