Grace - fresh vital worship since 1993

February 2010: Be Do (beatitudes vs do-attitudes)

february 2010 grace flyer

A service exploring the apparent contradictions in what jesus said and did. do we only see the christ we want to see? participants were given red or blue glasses as they entered and were forbidden to take them off for the whole service. all graphics and texts were red/blue overprints so that people wearing one colour glasses could only see one set of texts/graphics and were dependent on people wearing the other colour of glasses to describe what they couldn't see for themselves.

the overprinted texts were pairs of seemingly opposed statements by or about jesus. one set emphasised "gentle jesus, meek and mild", the other set emphasised jesus as passionate, confrontational, even harsh. so half the congregation were given a very different understanding of jesus to the other half, and were only able to know about the hidden side by talking to people wearing the other colour of glasses.

A bit of a write up is here

the service was expanded for Greenbelt in the summer on a bigger scale!


Photos

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A service exploring the apparent contradictions in what Jesus said and did, and our own biases. Do we only see the Christ we want to see? Participants were given red or blue glasses as they entered and were forbidden to take them off for the whole service.

The view through the blue glasses. Photo © Dean Ayres.

The view through the red glasses. Photo © Dean Ayres.

Around the church hung graphics and texts in red/blue overprints, so that people wearing one colour glasses could only see one set of texts/graphics. Texts/images in the opposite colour to your glasses appeared black, texts/images in the same colour as your glasses were almost invisible.

The overprinted texts were pairs of seemingly opposed statements by or about Jesus. One set emphasised "gentle Jesus, meek and mild", the other set emphasised Jesus as passionate, confrontational, even harsh. Photo © Jonny Baker.

So half the congregation were given a very different understanding of Jesus to the other half, and were only able to know about the hidden side by talking to people wearing the other colour of glasses. Joel Baker, in the Technics shirt, did all the graphics.

 

We concluded with an invitation to reflect on being and doing like Christ in the season of Lent. Looking at our reflections, wearing the glasses of bias, we were invited to take a red or blue marked wafer to signify that we needed the whole body of Christ, and not just the parts like ourselves.

 

We amused ourselves with the heads of the 'minor prophets' under the gallery.

This photo was used for the cover of the Church Times.

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