A week away...

I took most of last week off. I came in for a few hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but other than that, I spent the week at home catching up on things that I wasn't able to do because of my Easter prep (like sleep!).

I hadn't planned on taking time off from my blog, but in addition to my time off from work, I spent almost the entire week off the Internet as well. It was a nice break. Sorry I didn't give you readers a head's up, though. It was sort of a last-minute decision.

I did mention in one of my posts before Easter that we had done the Stations of the Cross for Good Friday at my church. If you are unfamiliar with the Stations of the Cross, it is essentially a remembrance of the key events in the last day of Christ's life, leading up to his death and burial. You can find out more about the stations HERE.









We did the stations as a self-guided experience. When people arrived, they were given a candle and a guide in our lobby and then invited into our main auditorium. When they entered they found a room lighted primarily from the 400 candles we had set up around the room at each "station." At each station there was a picture depicting the event (inspired by THESE from England), as well as a table with candles, a bible opened to the passage of Scripture that talked about those events, and other decorations suggesting the event.









People were invited to read the Scripture passage describing the event at the station. This was in their booklet. Also in the booklet was a reflection about the station and a prayer they could pray. People continued around the room through all the stations.

After they reached the final station - Jesus' burial - they then went to the center of the room for communion around the cross. There they were reminded that it did not end at the cross... Easter Sunday was still coming. They were invited to take communion and to light their candle and leave it - maybe as a symbol of their renewed commitment to Christ, or as a prayer, or in memory of someone.









In addition to the candles, the tables, and the artwork, we had The Passion of the Christ playing silently on our screens. The audio for the day was a collection of Gregorian chants and meditative music.

We were open from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. I was thinking that if we had 100-150 people show up it would be great. We had close to 500 people go through! It was really an awesome day.

Next year we will probably add kneelers at each station and at the cross. It was something that you really wanted to do and our floors are pretty hard (carpet on concrete). Also, I will probably light each station with gobos with a break-up pattern and uplight the cross. I also want to make our whole stage area a screen for The Passion and use the screens for static art shots.

Anyway, it was a great day and the perfect way to start the Easter weekend. We will definitely be doing it again next year.