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"For as the earth brings forth its shoots
      and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
            so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
                 to spring up before all the nations."                           
                          Isaiah 61:11

Liturgical Streamers
Calvin College Chapel/ Woodlawn Christian Reformed Church

Woodlawn Christian Reformed Church began the project of designing liturgical streamers with the belief that visual art should join the musical arts and the rhetorical arts as one of the media expressing God's praise in worship.  In pursuit of this belief they determined to work as follows:

• We will seek to make any new installation compatible with and complementary with the chapel's existing beauty.
• We will work in cooperation with the worshiping community of Calvin College.
• We will put a priority on art that reflects the seasons of the liturgical calendar.
• We desire all of the visual elements of our worship to work in harmony with one another.
• We will pursue art that will have a kaleidoscope of variations allowing for flexibility in design and liturgical expression.

The streamers that you now see in the college chapel make several allusions:

• The motion or movement of the streamers refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst.
• The tent-like ceiling panels refer to our pilgrimage on earth and the place of our gathering together as a worshiping community.
• The curve of the bottom edge of some panels reflects in a more organic way the growth within the fellowship of believers.
• The varieties of the different colors and textures convey the diversity of God's people.

Color, like music, plays an important role in the life of God's worshiping people.  For this project the colors were chosen based on a variety of correlations.  First, they were chosen to complement the message of the seasons during the church year.  Second, they were selected in relationship to colors seen in nature.  Third, they also needed to complement the natural, organic sensibility of the building's architecture.   And finally, they were chosen so that they could interchange with one another, allowing for more permutations and flexibility.  The various colors of the streamers will be initially combined in the following ways:

Advent:  Alternating 20ft. blue and violet streamers and swags. 

• Blue, the color of the sky, conveys the message of hope.  Blue is used during Advent, a preparatory time of waiting and watching.  It may also be used for a baptism.
• Purple, expresses somberness and solemnity, penitence and prayer. 

Christmas and Easter:  Four bays with 23ft. ivory white streamers, each with three 23ft. gold streamers, four alternate bays with 18ft ivory and gold patterned streamers. 

• White is the color of purity and completeness.  White reinforces the message of joy and the resurrection. 
• Gold represents value and worth, symbolizing the incarnation and resurrection as events that give our lives meaning and worth.  Using the gold streamers in sets of three references the Trinity.

Epiphany:  Alternating 23ft. citron, olive and English green streamers and swags with ivory white streamers. 

• White and gold continues the message of Christmas joy.  
• Green is the most common color seen during the year.  As a symbol of growth it emphasizes the need to extend Christ's kingdom through missions.  The curved edge of the panels represents our individual and collective need to grow and mature as disciples of Jesus Christ. 

Lent:   Alternating a variety of 23ft. green and 20ft. violet streamers and swags. 

Day of Pentecost:  Alternating 23ft. and 18ft. ivory white streamers with gold streamers in four bays, with a progression of 15ft. adobe, 12 ft. zinnia, and 9ft. garnet streamers in alternate bays. 

• Red communicates the strength and power the Holy Spirit gives to God's people.  The progression in the panels from darker red, to a lighter red, then to white evokes the movement from sin to suffering to triumph.   Red is also a reminder of the blood Christ shed for our sins.  The diagonal lines of the panels reflect this emotional pain and suffering. 

Season of Pentecost:

• Summer colors:  Alternating a variety of 23ft. green and 20ft. blue streamers and swags. 
• Fall colors:  Alternating a variety of 23ft. green and 20ft. coral streamers and swags.  The coral panels are added to reflect the season of harvest and gratitude.

The streamers are hung from a series of metal rods in each of the eight ceiling bays.  The architectural drawing shows the catwalk and placement of the rods:

The project participants from Woodlawn Christian Reformed Church included:
Shirley deJonge, liturgical streamer designer (former art teacher)
Jim Korf, grid designer (professor, Communication Arts & Sciences, Calvin College)
Art Gritter, fabric supplier (Gritter and Westveer Draperies, now Creative Windows)
Rev. Peter Jonker, pastor
Rev. Mike Abma, pastor