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. The rest of her time is spent enjoying her daugher Ella's company and exploring rural Cambridgeshire.

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Tom&Tammy Rene Crawford & Belle

20 Jan 2009 16:03

 

I think this is a great idea, I did something similar at my church in California where we put pictures of our children or unsaved friends & family. It is powerful and with the theme of the dove and the beauty of the stained glass effect in the widow can you imagine how the light of glory could shine through on every one of those request.... Awesome! Blessings, Tammy Rene'

Katy Stokes

20 Jan 2009 16:50

 

This sounds like a great idea -- practical and creative. In a somewhat similar vein, the youth in our church create "stained glass" Christmas windows every year around our church. We have a number of larger square windows throughout our building on interior and exterior walls. In small groups, youth create their own window for the season using watered-down acrylic paint and clear sheeting. It's a great hands-on, creative way to brighten the building for the season. Thanks for the great new worship site! -- Katy from Midland, MI USA

James ambler

31 Jan 2009 12:41

 

the pictuer looks good in the window. and Tim Drye did a good job of it when he put it up. It looks bright and strong i hope everyone likes it from james