Some inspiration from Stella Bristow

You may wish to create a worship display occasionally instead of a flower arrangement, using materials relating to the theme of the service. Creating displays requires a squirrel mentality – an eye for seeing potential in a piece of wood or a stone and in other people’s rubbish as well as your own! As you gather items together, you may need to dedicate some storage space to your collection.

For many of the displays described here, I have suggested the use of fabric as a basis. This will be your most expensive item, but don’t skimp on it. If you intend to create floor or table displays, be prepared to buy between 8 and 10 metres of specific colours. You can always fold or bunch any surplus and drape it so that it doesn’t look too organized, but you can’t make it go further if you don’t have enough. You don’t want it looking like a tablecloth!

Start with basic colours that reflect creation, so have a variety of browns, blues and greens. These will give you a background or base for most displays. You can then add other colours to represent seasonal variations: reds and yellows for Pentecost, gold and silver for Advent and the Christmas season, materials such as tweeds and hessian for Lent. There is a wonderful variety of cloth available today – shiny, sparkly and plain, with lovely textures and weights. Indian sari shops and market stalls usually have exciting and inexpensive fabrics.

A display is intended to create an impression of something, not a true visual representation of it. Let people use their imaginations. If someone asks, ‘What does it represent?’ ask what they see in it. As worship progresses, links will be made.

The use of subtle lighting and candles can help displays to ‘live’, but be aware of safety precautions. When using tealights, it is safer to use a simple gas lighter than matches or attempt to light them from each other.

All sorts of things can be used in displays: greenery, plants, shells, stones, sand, earth, figures, pots, candles and other visual aids. If you can’t find fresh greenery and plants, don’t discount fake ones. Some excellent artificial plants can be obtained from garden centres and, mixed with a little real foliage, can appear very realistic.

Where you have plenty of space, make your displays a good size so that people can see them. There is nothing more frustrating than being a few rows back in a room or behind a church pillar and unable to distinguish the visuals. Ideally, worship in the round, with the display in the centre on a large table or the floor. Where this is not possible, use your imagination. You could have several ‘stations’ or build a display and invite people to come forward and view. I have never yet been to a church where this has been impossible. Try some of the displays suggested here and, even better, experiment with your own.

Small can be beautiful, too. Some lovely little worship centres can be made for a small-scale group meeting or congregation or for your own quiet corner at home. Use a low-level coffee table with material and, perhaps, flowers, candle or tealights or an appropriate artefact, but keep it simple.

Read about more ideas for worship centres in Stella Bristow’s excellent book Sensing God (ISBN: 978-1858523194).