CHURCH ENVIRONMENT
“We try to bring nature into our church – the seasons are celebrated, enjoyed and elevated. Our side shrine altar near our chapel is decorated for each of the natural and liturgical seasons: the themes, tones and feelings of each season are visually highlighted.”
.
Those words are from “One year in the Life of a Parish”, written by Michael Doyle for the Journal of the Liturgical Conference in 1986. It sums up how we prepare and decorate for our liturgy. Decoration of the church is done each week. Any time a liturgy is celebrated other than Sunday, we take care of the environment as needed beforehand. We work with a decoration schedule, listed by liturgical season. This schedule lists the icons to be used, the color of the altar cloth and vestments, the number of candles needed and whether incense or holy water will be used. On major feasts, such as Easter and Christmas, many hands are needed in preparation of the environment.
Some of the members of our wonderful Church Environment Committee, otherwise known as “The Green Team!”