Calling all Digital artists and Computer doodlers!

There’s a lot going on at Emmanuel! New tables in the Narthex with blooming geranium centerpieces where we can sit and enjoy coffee after the service; even tables in the Nave behind the banks of pews, where worshippers can find a safe place for their coffee cup and a firm surface for their child’s colouring page; a new meeting room to accomodate some of the new user-groups with whom we are now sharing our space; bright new flooring; a new vision statement in crimson and teal over the Nave door. I am reminded of the scene in C. S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew when Aslan sings the new world Narnia into existence, a world so filled with life at that moment that “everything, even a lamp-post, comes to life and grows; a world “of many colours … fresh, hot and vivid!”

Even on our altar and in our overhead projection of lyrics and worship guidance, we’ve seen a quick parade of colours: white and gold, and then red, and then gold again, and now green. Those changing colours on the altar hanging demonstrate the fervent liveliness of Emmanuel, for change is the one constant character of everything that is alive. They also represent our stability: the deep roots of tradition and orthodoxy from which we draw sustenance for our lives. As we move through the Church year we change the altar hanging: blue during Advent, white-and-gold for Christmas, Green for the Sundays after Epiphany, purple for Lent, white-and-gold again for Easter, red for the Day of Pentecost, white-and-gold for Trinity Sunday, and then Green again for the long summer of the Pentecost season. Some churches have many more “paraments” — that is, ornamental ceremonial items made from cloth. They drape not only their altar, but also pulpit, lectern, candle-stands, sanctuary wall, and even their clergy, in the ceremonial colour of the season. Colours have been used on church to mark the changing of Church seasons for 1,600 years. The precise sequence of colours we currently use is drawn from worship practices that predate the turn of the first millenium.

It amuses me that the overhead screen-projection from our tech-booth computer shares anything with the liturgical practices of the ancient church, but of course it does. Those screens are a guide that helps us participate together in worship. Worshipping together is the very essence of “liturgical” worship: “liturgy” is literally “the work of the people.” So it makes sense that they, like the altar “parament”, should use the ancient cycle of colours to help anchor us spiritually in the liturgical year, in the holy cycle of kairos: sacred time. That’s the philosophical consideration of what we are doing with the overhead slide-show. Naturally there’s a practical, technical consideration as well. Any slideshow, including Google Slides which we are currently using, needs to import graphic files to serve as backgrounds. For the main sections of the liturgy — equivalent to the headings you see in your bulletin — we are using a new background derived from the national church’s new logo and vision statement that Emmanuel Community Church adopted at our AGM this past February. A different background is used for Lessons, and then a coordinating suite of backgrounds is used for songs. Using liturgical colours in those backgrounds re-emphasizes our connection through the centuries, to the church in every time and place.  Using liturgical colours proclaims that even something as new-fangled as computer projection, is rooted in the Church’s tradition as long as it contributes to the worship of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So, where do those backgrounds come from? The main one was created by one of our members tweaking colours using a graphics imaging programme. The white-and-gold image used for the seventh Sunday of Easter were created from a member’s photograph of sunrise over All Saints Russian Orthodox Church here in Calgary. And, of course, the end slides for the Dismissal are a photo of sunrise over our own church building during our Easter sunrise service. For other backgrounds, in the absence of background artwork from our own congregation, backgrounds can be hunted up on the internet. “Abstract River”, which is a set of backgrounds that we use in the “green” seasons for song lyrics, is an example.  We need to be careful, of course, to respect any copyright restrictions or attribution requirements that their creators attach to those images. And of course, other organizations download and use the same generally-available screen backgrounds. There’s always the risk that we may find ourselves sharing a look-and-feel with some group that holds very different values.

That’s not a risk that we need to take. Our God is abundant with god’s gifts, showering god’s people with talent, inspiration and opportunity. But God never gives the whole of any gift to a single person. We need to listen to one another and appreciate each other’s gifts, if we are to enjoy as a community all the abundant good God has planned for us. That is as true in worship arts as in any other field. One person may have the gift of building slides and templates from background graphics, and another have the artistic gift of creating those graphics, or even the gift of creating beautiful backgrounds using traditional techniques like watercolour or pastels that can then be scanned for use in worship. If you are thinking you could create background images similar to the ones illustrated here, it might be that God is calling you to do exactly that. And our worship team, who create the custom-built slideshow for each worship service, can undertake the technical steps to bring that background from paper, or a GIF or JPG, to the overhead slides where it can enrich our worship for years to come.