WALL HANGING
In this wall hanging each disciple is both a unique person and part of a community. The desciples and whoever is looking at the wallhanging are bound together by rays from the cross - the Holy Spirit descending. Behind the heads of the disciples are the hills around Wellow decked in the colours of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter (there are 2 winters). The semi-oval 'rainbow' on which the disciples sit gives a sense of peace, solemnity and blessing. Paul and the 4 evangelists have a book in their hands, others have scrolls.
The wall hanging proclaims, among other things, that the community of Christian faith is a safe place to dwell and is also a centre from which a call goes out to liberate the world into loving and being loved. It is our prayer that the disciples will take part in vestry gatherings.
The wall hanging is adapted from 'The descent of the Holy Spirit,' a Russian icon painted towards the end of the 15th century on which Henri Nouwen meditates in his book 'Behold the Beauty of the Lord - Praying with Icons.
To give them consistency of character each disciple and hill was sewn by an individual person. The colours of the disciples' robes were chosen to follow the meditative observations of Henri Nouwen, 'each disciple has their own way of living and speaking the good news that has entered deeply into their hearts'. The unity of the desciples, he felt, is graphically reinforced by the use of inverse perspective which makes the figures grow larger as our eyes move toward the infinite hugeness of God. The cross, in contrast, is small to fit in with the picture - in the same way that Jesus became man to save us.
