- Do you enjoy the flowers in church?
- Do they help towards your worship?
- Would you like to join the team?
Flowers in church are to remind us of the beauty and nature of God’s world. Most Sundays you’ll see a single pedestal to the side of the altar but at the major festivals of Christmas, Easter and Harvest, the whole church is decorated. We also have special single pedestals for Ascension Day, Pentecost and Remembrance Sunday. During Lent and Advent there are no flowers to reflect a season of simplicity and reflection.
Easter Flowers
Our church flower team members are Carol Doughty, Wendy Bywater, Sue Parnell, Bev Rolls and Frances Hobson. We’d love to have some new members join us, especially some younger people. No experience is necessary as we can train you, starting with simpler designs.
We work on the single displays individually throughout the year but together as a team at the festivals. We use mainly fresh flowers and greenery but at times we do use silk flowers, especially if the weather is very hot, and sometimes as an addition to the fresh.
We have been using the traditional florist foam, Oasis, but as this is not environmentally friendly, we are having to look at new ways of putting the displays together. We will use up the Oasis we already have but will not buy more – this floral foam is non-biodegradable and has to go to landfill once used. We will therefore be going back to the older, traditional ways of arranging the flowers and you may well notice a difference in the type of displays in church.
Pentecost flowers
Flowers are not cheap and although the church finances allow for the cost of flowers, we do welcome donations towards the cost at Christmas and Easter and are grateful for any received.
We mostly use greenery from our own gardens but buy flowers for the displays. If you have an allotment or garden where you grow your own flowers and have some to spare occasionally that could be used in displays, we’d love to hear from you.
Also, if you have a special event such as a birthday or anniversary and would like an arrangement, we are happy to do that for you for the cost of the flowers – just speak to one of the team. – Sue Parnell
This article originally appeared in the St John’s Messenger. If you would like to discuss contributing a future article please contact news@valebenefice.org.uk.
