Altars For Everyone—and Every Budget

Financial funding, time, and resources come under the umbrella of budgets. We think most frequently of a financial budget; however, time and other resources also are items for budgeting. We wonder whether we are stretching our personnel, both paid and volunteer, to the breaking point. This concern is linked closely to time and time management. The hours in a day have not changed, but the demands on our lives often have increased. How much time can we expect from an already overstressed parishioner? Creating beautiful altar art need not consume every waking hour. Simplicity of design and good planning can overcome the time-crunch demon.

In this budget-conscious time for most of our local churches, we look for ways to trim financial costs for various activities. Salaries, health insurance, building expenses and maintenance, educational programing, and missions command much of the available funds. Rarely are there funds for items such as altar art. When we consider worship art for the local congregation, one of our first thoughts focuses on the monetary expenses. Will we use this resource enough to make a financial investment in supplies? How much should the initial investment be and for what should the funds be expended? What are the other options for finding supplies without spending a large sum of money? These are important questions for the local church and should be considered carefully before beginning an extended program of worship art for the altar.

While it is helpful to have a small fund to purchase basic supplies, budgetary constraints do not need to be a hindrance to meaningful worship art. If you begin simply, perhaps borrowing the base fabric and using items already found within the church or through local church members, beautiful altar settings can be created. Other sources of funding may be considered, such as undesignated Memorial Funds, various fund-raising events, and donations from church members.

Grace UMC, Nassau made available to the Worship Arts Team some undesignated Trustee funds. The limited size of the funds required some very careful planning. Often, making known the need for specific items, such as fabrics or candles will spark donations to the "cause."

As with every new project requiring supplies, the concern arises about the initial "startup" costs. Before launching into a major campaign to acquire items for worship displays, consider some critical issues.

Frequency of Display

Is this display for weekly, festival days only, or specific seasons?

How often will a worship center be created? Will this be an occasional endeavor? Will it primarily focus on festival days or the high holy seasons? Any way you look at this, the expenditure of funds will depend upon whether this is going to be an ongoing program or a one-time only situation.

Creating altar art for a limited time is generally the best way to start. Most of the time a pastor or worship leader will request a visual art presentation for a specific Sunday. This is a good way to get your hands into it. As your confidence builds, you will feel freer to create more frequently, including designing some progressive displays, particularly for specific themes or seasons. With the increase in design and the response to the endeavors, more funds may become available.

At Grace UMC, Bradford, Stephanie has been designing at for several years. She increased her frequency of designs from occasionally (usually for the high holy days) to most Sundays during the year. When the pastor requested a setting featuring "Groundhog Day," Stephanie found a small stuffed animal in her daughter's collection and saw the possibilities of creating a groundhog emerging from the snow-melted hillside.

Stephanie takes the summer months off to spend traveling time with her family, important rest and regeneration time. Even on vacation, though, she is ever on the look-out for fabrics, materials, and other items she believes might work in future worship settings.

Available Space

What is the height, depth, and width of the space?

Another consideration must be the requirements of the actual worship design area. For a smaller space, the needs are minimal. The larger the space; the greater the needs. So our budgetary concerns encounter spatial demands. The following questions come to mind: Is your display limited to only the top of the altar? Does the altar back up against a wall or a panel? Can you use height to create some displays? How much room is available on either side and in front of the altar? If your altar/worship center is at the center of a round or arena seating design, what kind of space can you use? How will people from all sides of the worship center view the display?

Along with the question of the basic space, you want to consider how to create "levels" or "risers" for the designs. Careful consideration of the area will determine how best to use items such as boxes, crates, smaller tables, and stands to become part of the staging for the designs. Is there room around the altar area for these risers?

At Grace UMC, Bradford, the space varies. We worship in the sanctuary from April through December; January through March, worship is conducted in the Gathering Room (Fellowship Hall). In each of these rooms the space is very different. When designing, Stephanie needs to know where the worship event will take place and how much space she will have available. She is also aware of the proximity of the congregation to the altar. In the Sanctuary, the chancel area is raised somewhat above the main floor level. The visual distance from the front row of the congregation (that is, the pews) is about 15 feet. The altar backs up to a panel on the wall on which a permanent cross is affixed. The Gathering Room places the congregation on the same level as the altar area and only about 6 feet from the altar itself. The moveable altar is backed up to sound reduction (cloth-covered) panels, so Stephanie can use height. Her limitation is the ability to extend the design any further than 4 feet from the altar itself.

Timeline

How much time do you have to create and complete the design?

We talk a great deal about budgeting time, not wasting but using our time carefully. In this busy world, time is a precious commodity. How much time will you have to devote to the planning and implementation of creating worship arts? Include planning, implementation, and also the removal of the design and storage of items. Most visual artists are responsible for the whole scope of the designing process, not just the design itself. Don't be too ambitious when you start. You are just learning how long it will take you to gather the materials and set up the altar. In the beginning, simplicity is best. Establish a timeline with the pastor/worship leader to provide you with the opportunity to prepare and execute the design effectively.

Stephanie is a busy teacher, mother, and wife. Her time is limited, and so she needs to know how much time she will have for specific designs. Often the request for the visual art display, or the information from the pastor comes to Stephanie in the form of e-mail. The ideas or themes are suggested, along with the Scripture references. The lead time for Stephanie can be a few days to several weeks. It is easier for her to work alone on a short schedule than it would be for a whole team.

For the Nassau worship team, a lot of lead time is essential. This team plans elaborate designs, using the abilities of a host of people. They enlist team members in the creative aspect, the actual creation of the designs, and the gathering of artifacts. This team requires at least a month advance notice in order to do their work.

Personnel

Can you do this alone, or will you need some help?

Much of what you decide about help depends on the size and complexity of the space in which you have to work. Obviously it is much easier for a solo designer to achieve a meaningful display if the space is limited to a small worship area. However, if you are in a large sanctuary with a deep chancel area, it is helpful to have some assistance. Generally the visual artist creates the design, and helpers implement it under his/her direction.

Although Stephanie does much of the actual planning and execution of designs herself, she often enlists the help of her daughters and husband to "lug in some rocks" and other heavy items. She involves them in creating some of the special items, such as masks, or paper stepping stones for various scenes. Extended family offers other artifacts, such as plants, to add to her designs.

In Grace UMC, Nassau, the worship team gathers to discuss the themes suggested by the pastor. They talk about the basic designs, the materials at hand, the special talents of some of the members that might be employed in the creation. Quilters in the congregation are a good source of both fabric and expertise in fabric selection. Appropriate meetings are held during the time allotted to check on the progress of designs. The day the design is set up, various committee members take photographs and make notes of special needs for the display. Following the completion of the design work, the team disassembles the design and stores materials. Regular monthly meetings are often the norm for this worship team.

Choreography

How many people will be moving in and through the allotted space?

Look at your area for designing. Think about the personnel who use this space during the worship service. Will the pastor/worship leader need to move in and out of the space? Do the church ushers bring the offering forward to be placed on the altar during worship? Is there another place that they could leave the offering after the prayer of dedication, or can you incorporate a place for the offering into the design? Will various worship leaders, musicians, and others need to use some of the available space?

Stephanie is very much aware of the space in both the chancel and the Gathering Room. The Sanctuary chancel has much more room to create extended displays. The pastor locates activities at the front of the chancel and Sanctuary. Ushers bring the offering plates forward for the dedication of the gifts and tithes and then return them to the rear of the Sanctuary. Occasionally the pastor will request an opportunity to move in and out of the design area.

The Gathering Room offers other challenges, with much more movement near the worship center. The congregation sits within 6 feet of the worship center. The children come forward for a time with the pastor. Consider some of the hazards presented to the flow of the worship service and the safety of the participants by close placement of a design.

Record-Keeping

How will you keep track of the work you have done and the resources you have used?

This may sound like an annoyance to do, but you will eventually find it helpful if you plan to continue creating worship displays. As with any collection, things can get out of hand as you accumulate artifacts. Knowing what you have available and where it is stored saves both time and frustration. Stephanie has a "mental record" of what she has available in the "holy hardware" closet at church and also in her home. However, someone filling in for her might not know what the resources are.

The worship team in Nassau maintains a notebook. One section contains an inventory of all of the material, including such items as floral/vegetation (artificial), rocks, and wood. There is also a "catch-all" section for individual items that defy description. The team takes photographs of each worship setting and keeps them with a list of the resources used. This proves to be very helpful in preventing design repeats or to find a design, used some years before, which would work for a new event.

I recommend making an inventory list of the fabrics, candles, sacred artifacts such as chalices, patens, crosses, baskets, and boxes, and any other items you feel are necessary. A three-ring binder is a good record-keeping tool because pages can be added and deleted easily. Place photographs of each altar setting in acid-free sleeves, which are created for three-ring binders. It is helpful if each photograph is labeled, detailing the event or Sunday for which it was used (such as Advent 1) and the actual date of usage. A listing of artifacts, fabrics, candles, and any other information pertinent to the design should accompany the photograph. To make retrieval easier, I use binder dividers for the named season (that is, Advent, Epiphany, Lent). When I want to refer to work previously done for Advent, I just go to that section of the binder for the resource.

There is no doubt that this is a lot of work, but it is a wonderful long-term resource for both the designer/design team and the church to review the work that has been accomplished.

Primary Considerations

Holy Hardware Inventory: Purchased or Donated

The phrase "Holy Hardware" is borrowed from Becky Waldrop of the Liturgical Design Institute at Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville. She referred to her storage room and its worship arts contents as Holy Hardware, and that concept captured my imagination. Holy Hardware consists of all the various items you will use in worship arts displays. Becky's Holy Hardware room was filled with shelf after shelf of beautiful items. Racks for fabric, as well as very large rolls of fabric, were available to the designers. Staging materials and some additional lighting resources were offered. Most of us cannot aspire to such a wonderful storage space and so many items. Becky assured me that these were gathered over long periods of time. Her recommendation and mine is to begin with the basics.

Fabric

Most of the altar displays require some covering of fabric. A good rule of thumb is to have several large pieces of fabric that can be draped over large displays to form a base for the entire design. I used landscaping burlap, with its rough texture, as one of my most important base fabrics.

Stephanie looks for sales at various area fabric shops. She was fortunate enough to find a gray polyester fabric in a very wide width and a lot of yardage for a very small amount of money (it was on clearance). This gray fabric is most commonly used in her settings for representing rocks or rugged terrain. She also has a wonderful swag of brown velvet, a striped sheer curtain, and a somewhat iridescent green fabric that provide landscape bases. The burlap Stephanie uses is tightly woven fabric-store burlap. Other fabrics she uses are from old clothing, yard sale items, old costumes from the church Sunday school closet. Stephanie also collected some old hospital and other blankets to create bulk in her settings.

The Nassau worship team made an investment in a roll of landscaping burlap, which is a great fabric, loosely woven. It cost about $25.00. Because it is used out of doors, it has a somewhat pungent odor. We just unrolled the fabric and let it sit out on someone's clothesline for a day. The length of this roll is generally about 50 feet long by 54 inches wide.

Quilters are often good sources of both fabric and information about fabrics. The Trustees made available a small fund for the purchase of fabric. It was here that our quilters really shone. They knew how to the most "bang for the buck" in shopping for fabrics. Several cotton options will also work well. Tone-on-tone fabric, with a very small pattern, can offer an interesting textural dimension.

Brocade or other richly woven fabrics are beautiful but should be used sparingly. They require special care and do not lend themselves to many different designs. I use brocade or metallic fabric for Easter or The Reign of Christ. Other festival days suggest simpler fabrics.

As you progress in your designing, you can add a variety of other fabrics. Silky fabrics, particularly in "water" shades are helpful. Used for linings of jackets, these are generally inexpensive and work well as rivers and streams. Netting can be used to simulate clouds.

A word of caution: Beware of brightly patterned fabrics! In most designs these bright stripes or designs will dominate the design and obscure any objects placed upon them. If the specific request is for a setting that is oriented to a culture, choose the fabric carefully, making sure that any other objects will be visible.

Address storage needs as soon as you begin acquiring fabric. Although cardboard boxes will work with many fabrics, mice and other critters can penetrate cardboard. Most fabrics can be stored in inexpensive plastic tubs with tight fitting lids. I use the clear tubs, purchased at a local department store, for storing fabrics that will not easily wrinkle. I label each box with the name and color of the fabric. For the fabrics that wrinkle, I recommend large clothes hangers and pillow case coverings. I drape the fabric over the clothes hanger bar. A hole is cut in the sewn end of the pillow case to allow for the passage of the hanger hook, and the pillow case is slipped down over the fabric. This prevents dust from settling in delicate fabrics such as velvet, velveteen, brocade, and metallic fabrics. Pillow cases can be found at yard sales or often in bargain bins in local department stores. Put a tag at the top of each hanger identifying the contents of the pillow-cased item. Large yardage of fabric can be stored on rolls and covered with cotton sheeting. Landscaping burlap can be folded or rolled.