As we move rapidly through the second half of the year, here’s a re-post of The Angel Tree idea to involve a wide part of a community through those with a creative streak - AND - incorporate the tree more thoroughly into the Christmas story.
At this time of the year it would be good to make a start if it feels a good concept.
An Angel Tree
A Community project - Creation, Creativity and The Crib
There is something very special about one idea inspiring another, especially when the further idea has the potential to engage others and to illustrate a precious part of the Christmas story!
Just before Christmas 2023, I posted a poem with the title O Christmas Tree with Angel Throng: it was inspired by a collection of 70 angel ornaments, which we had made over several years and which now decorated, in entirety, our beautiful tree (other than a set of LED lights and a star at its top). In writing a short introduction to the poem, I suggested there might be a possibility that trees in churches or chapels could follow this concept, thus according the tree a more significant place in the Christmas narrative. As I wrote, I recognised that the accumulation of a sufficient number of angels to completely decorate the rather larger trees in most churches could be expensive…
But then … such a simple idea emerged: the tree could become a community project for Advent.
Here’s how it might work - although every Angel Tree will have its own unique demands!
· # Several weeks before the start of Advent, make it as widely known as possible that the Church/Chapel Christmas tree will be populated with as many hand-made angels as the community can produce. If you call up Angel and craftworks on the web, all manner of hand-crafted angel ideas will be found, among them being knitted, crocheted, macrame, paper-plate, coffee filters, fret-worked, scroll-sawn, cross stitch, glass-painted, paper strip, felted, fan-folded and many, many more.
· # Issue invitations to participate. Make the deadline for receiving angels around mid November, so you have plenty of time to assess how many angels your tree will need to hold. Angels will need to have the name of the maker on them – discreetly of course!
· # Then, on each Sunday in Advent put around a quarter of the angels you have received on the tree. Let the crafters know when their angel will be put on to the tree and that they would be particularly welcome to that service.
ø OR # incorporate unveiling the Angel throng into an already established Crib Service thus potentially broadening the age range of the participating congregation/ fellowship members.
· # If you have a writer in your community, ask s/he to devise a prayer for each week.
· # Have your Christmas Angel Tree near your nativity scene: thus the tree will be filled with ‘hovering’ angels incorporating the tree into the manger story – and invite all the crafters to whichever service the crib is blessed. In this way you will be linking Creation (The tree), Creativity (the crafters) and the Crib (Incarnation and Salvation).
· # Offer simple seasonal hospitality after each dedication service so crafters can get to know each other and encourage them to talk about their particular craft-work to others.
You may like to read the Angel tree poem which you can find by clicking HERE
May your Angel Trees be witnesses of the fellowship that can be engendered through the crafts-people and the Christmas story in your community.
