Dean R. Heetderks

A few weeks ago, a product-engineer friend of mine and I were talking about church banners. He designs office furniture, so he is aware of the multitude of materials that are available to designers. Why, he wondered, do we often restrict our worship visuals to felt hangings, which we iron as perfectly flat as we possibly can? Why is this medium so universally accepted and why is, say, a wooden or metal sculpture less so?

In the front of the church where I worship, we have always had a beautifully proportioned cross that is mounted against a light-colored wall. This wall is lit from both sides, and where the light mixes in the middle, there is the most interesting vertical stripe of light. Because of its prominence and the lighting, I wanted to do something with the cross--something different than our usual crown of thorns and purple cloth, perfectly draped for Easter. Something for Advent.

Weddings are a lot of work! One aspect of my own wedding that was the biggest shock to me—and probably to anyone who has helped plan a wedding—is how much time and energy are focused on an occasion that is over after a few short hours. All that effort sometimes feels like a waste of time and talent! So what follows is a banner design that—though constructed specifically for a wedding—can be used throughout the year to illustrate the theme of Christ-centered relationships.

In "Signal the Sacraments: Lord's Supper Banner," we showed you a design for a banner that could be hung for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In this issue, we've included a design for use on Sundays when the sacrament of baptism is celebrated. Compared to the communion banner, baptism should have been easy, right? Doves, rainbows, babies, drops of water—symbols abound. As it turned out, of the two, this was the more difficult to design.

After the grand visual displays of Advent and Christmas, it is often tough to get anyone excited about creating visuals for the start of a new year. Here is one that is not too difficult to make. With all of the hoopla surrounding the turn of the new century, this visual serves as a reminder that everything—including time—is held in our God's protecting hand.

Brief notes on the banner's construction and a downloadable pattern can be found below.

Too often the wedding production seems to get cluttered with a parade of professional people--musicians, florists, photographers, coordinators—all doing a "perfect" job in a mechanical way. Perhaps that's why it's always rather pleasant to discover exceptions to the rule--to leam, for example, that so-and-so's mother made all of the bridesmaids' dresses or that the brothers of the groom wrote and sang that very touching, yet slightly off-key song for the service or that a favorite niece made 487 of those hand-decorated cupcakes.

The dramatic description of the wind and tongues of fire found in Acts 2 was the inspiration for this Pentecost banner, designed by Norman Mathias for Covenant Christian Reformed Church of Sioux Center, Iowa. The banner was submitted by Joanne Alberda.

This baptism banner was designed by Ardy Klassen of Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was constructed with the help of some of her fellow church members — Barb Veeneman, Connie Van Dyke, and Jane Buma Haverkamp.

Banners. Different people have different opinions about this form of liturgical art. Some folks don't like the idea of anyone being allowed to hang "just anything" in front of the sanctuary. Others are grateful that someone took the time to change an otherwise drab setting. Some people wish the banner-maker would stick to counted-cross-stitch. Others would have liked the pink a little more mauve to go with the cushions of the chairs up front.