Our parish has just recieved a set of 4 banners and they are beautiful. I have seen these banners used in worship at the now closed View Hill church in Bendigo, and I fell in love with them. With our large worship space here at Christ Church it is wonderful to have something to use to brighten and fill this space.
The banners are such fine beautiful silk that the just float in the air gentley and elegantly as they are waved.
The meaning of the colours has been gone into in great depth by the company who makes them (Out of Our Minds Banners). The seven colours of the rainbow can be seen to represent the Holy Spirit in seven characteristics, the Lord, Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Knowledge, and fear of the Lord, just as the temple lampstand “menorah” does according to Isaiah 11.2 and Revelation 4.5. The seven colours of the rainbow have been linked to the seven branches of the menorah.
I was a little more pragmatic in my choice of banners. I chose the blue one to represent water – river, sea or sky, such as in our gospel story last Sunday with Jesus walking on the water. The green one I chose to represent growth, spiritual growth individually and as a church, for songs about the vine and the branches, and the 23rd psalm “in pastures green”. The Red orange yellow one is to celebrate the Holy Spirit, and will be wonderful at Pentecost or any other time to represent fire. The rainbow banner represents God’s promise of restoration but the colours are so beautiful they also represent joy, and this banner is ideal for our first hymn on Sunday Joyful, Joyful.
I hope the older children will find creative ways to use the banners in our Sunday service or at Café Church. And that any of us who enjoy them will take them up, in procession and celebration, storytelling and singing, for colourful and expressive worship.
The children certainly enjoyed the banners on Sunday and waved them during the recessional hymn but I didn’t think to take a photo. Luckily I remembered to take the banners out to Nyah Church, and took photos at the end of the service there.