I've been reading further for information.  I wonder if the banners have been used in any UC churches?  Its certainly something different.

http://http://propheticscribe.hubpages.com/hub/The-symbolic-use-of-praise-and-worship-in-the-church

I am not a fan of traditional Christology. I celebrate Easter as a Festival of Tranformation.

Sorry, the link isn't available to my knowledge.

Arminius

Thanks for your response. However, the traditional Easter services are still celebrated around the world. I suppose its what people are most familiar with. Would you knock Good Fri. and Easter Sunday right off the calendar?

 If you were invited by the UC to preach on either day can you give us a brief sample message of what you might choose to say?  Don't make your vocabulary too fancy. Give us  something the old country farmers  might understand?  I appreciate the old and the new such as Neo's writings i.e. Alice Bailey.

Hi stardust:

No, I wouldn't knock Easter or Good Friday off the Calendar.

A brief example of my Easter message:

Christ died, Christ has risen! Like the ancient Phoenix who died and rose again from his ashes three days after his death.

What does this mean to us?

Could it mean that our old self has to die in order for a new self to be re-born? And what exactly is this old self that has to die, and the new self that is reborn?

Could our old self be the separate egocentric self, disconnected from God? And the new self be re-connected with God?

What is this connection with God, anyway? Is it imagined? Or is it real?

Is the disconnect between us and God imagined or real?

I feel and think that our connection with God is real, and the disconnect an illusion. Of the many illusions we humans harbour and nourish, the illusion of separation from God is the worst. The illusion of separateness has to die in order for the god-connected self to be reborn!

The old, separate, egocentric self has to die in order for the new, godly self to be reborn! Christ's death and re-birth symbolize that.

etc., etc., along this vein.

 Arminius

You passed.......I'll give you an A +  ........thanks!

I think Easter is still very important in our lives, it represents promise for a humanity that seems more and more spiritually bankrupt as the years go by. It also represents one of the three main full moon celebrations of Spring.


But with that said, I personally don't participate in any of the traditional Easter services. We give the kids (teenagers) some chocolate at their breakfast place setting on Easter morning. And even then, they get up at different times in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon.

so what's the typical emotional progression of a Christian during Easter?

Maundy-Thorsday: anxiety in anticipation & Last Meal with condemned

Good Friday:  the planes hit the World Trade Center.  Your loving parents die in a horrific poutine accident.  The Light of Everything, Mankind's Salvation, dies. Enter Kubler Ross stages

Holy Saturday:  Witness the dark night of the soul, holding on to the Message and your fellown against the monster in the dark...

Rebirth Sunday:  gobsmacked, surprise, extreme highs

Easter Monday:  new purpose, still high off of the Truth being forever

I'm not sure what you mean by liturgical banner.  You seem to refer to it as something new.  We've used litergical banners in the UCC churches I've been associated with for years.  We also use litergical colours - purple through lent, red on Palm Sunday, black on Good Friday, white on Easter. 

Last Sunday, after church, we stripped the sanctuary of all decorations, and draped the alter and table with black.  On Easter Sunday, the worship space will be decorated in white and gold, with Easter lilies.

Many in our congregation, as well as those taking part in the service, wore black or dark colours.  On Sunday, if the weather cooperates, we will be dressed in spring colors.

Yes, these  symbols of my faith are important to me.  It is also important that I journey through holy week - wave palm branches in church on Palm Sunday, eat a communion meal on Maundy Thursday, attend worship on Good Friday, and the Sunrise service on the river, the Easter breakfast and the 11:00 oclock service on Easter day that will climax with the choir inviting anybody from the congregation to join them for the Hallelujiah Chorus. 

I also plan my meals according to the day.  Today we ate fish.  Easter, a day of joyous celebration we will have an Easter egg hunt for the children and an extended family meal with ham as the center piece.

These are symbolic things, of course, but filled with meaning for me.  I think that without Good Friday and Easter there probably wouldn't be a Christian faith.  I can't imagine being a Christian and not observing Good Friday and celebrating Easter.

Thanks, stardust.

Easter, to me, is a festival of transformation. At my previous congregation, I actually preached a transformation sermon, not on Easter but on Transfiguration Sunday. I posted it here on blog:

http://www.wondercafe.ca/blogs/arminius/transfiguration-sermon-lumby-united-church

seeler

I hadn't seen this banner moving and  suspended in the air  before in a church. Do you mean you use  the same thing at your church?  Is it helium?   It reminded me of an Olympics ceremony  where they did gymnastics  using ribbons. Or also something that might represent a spirit in a movie. It is different, maybe I'm behind the times. Like Neo I don't go to traditional Easter services either but they  sound very nice.

Arminius

Very good blogs. I read a few of them. I always forget to read the blogs.

The item in the original post made me recall my kids running around wavinglengths of toilet paper!  I suppose in a church setting it is meant to represent the Spirit flying about wherever it wishes.  Different from a wall hung banner, which is what I am accustomed to - or the decorative banner carried at the front of a religious procession in some Anglican/RC traditions (it would also be on a pole).

seeler

I just watched the video again. Its rather dark in the video  so I missed seeing that the banner is attached to a long pole or stick that somebody is holding.  No wonder I was sort of mystified....:)..I wondered how it stayed up there in the air by itself  floating so high!

LOL@kaythecurler....toilet paper.....??? ....the church might not be pleased. I was intrigued by it, we have to look closely to see the pole in the dark.

You are right, Stardust.  This is an unusual banner.  The ones I'm familiar with are hung on walls or from the balcony rails, or carried in on a dowel between two people.

One Easter Sunday, I filled balloons ( on strings) with helium. Went to church early and got them on a table covered with purple cloth, Took some doing, I must say. Little note attached,"Don;t Touch".

At a point in the service with the children, everyone yelled "Alleluja" I whipped off the cloth and the balloons raised as one to the top of high ceilings. Strings hung down and bobbed through the Easter Service. Someone said .,"I will never forget that Easter morning and the joy of everyone when the cloth was pulled off."

 with all my stories there is more but I willleave that for another day.

Crazyheart

That's cool, original, unforgettable..........terrific surprise.....

Happy Easter to All  

Thx seeler. I thought I was behind the times . 

Stardust ... Happy Easter to you too, and all at wondercafe!