Palm Sunday traditions & chapel decor

[dahlia]

I know that many Protestant denominations will give out a piece of palm today in church. I think we got them in the Catholic Church, but my memory dims. I do know that we kept a piece of palm up all year, until you got another piece.

 

How come Mormons don't do this? Actually, how come Mormons don't do anything in the chapel? No pictures or stained glass (other than the temples), no flowers at Easter or Christmas, no Stations of the Cross (OK, it's probably OK not to have the Stations)  no purple during Lent, nothing.  

 

I feel like a Quaker (especially on fast Sunday) sometimes. Why doesn't the Church decorate the chapels? As beautiful as the temples are, why doesn't the Church make the chapels beautiful as well?

[Dravin]

Some of the older buildings do have stain glass windows and the like, but you don't seem them in the standardized designs. I've also seen flowers for Easter, so you're talking about ward decisions in that respect. As far as purple and Lent, we don't observe Lent so why no purple is obvious. We don't share the same history and traditions, in a lot of respects, with Catholics and Protestants. While I can recognize the symbolism they place into such things I don't see the necessity of sharing them. In a lot of ways your question is akin to, "The Jones have these family traditions, why don't the Smiths?"

[pam]

Growing up and in many of the wards I've been in since, we always had a huge fresh bouquet of flowers up front.  I guess it depends on the wards and buildings.

[Guest]

Some of the older buildings have big paintings and/or stained glass or some kind of etched glass in the chapel. I don't know why it changed.

[Dravin]

Some of the older buildings have big paintings and/or stained glass or some kind of etched glass in the chapel. I don't know why it changed.

 

I suspect it is a consequence of the standardized cost saving ward building designs, the Church seems to be operating under the thinking that more chapels are better than prettier chapels. In a sense that same decision was made relatively recently about temples though the Church has decided that the more vs. prettier is different for temples than ward buildings (and by extension chapels) based on their differing purpose and dedication.

[Iggy]

I prefer the simple decor of our chapels. We stress Christ's suffering in the garden of Gethsemane more than the crucifixion anyway.

 

Those fresh bouquets of flowers are spendy - and the money comes out of the Branch/Ward budget. That money is better spent paying someones electric bill, or rent for a month. 

 

I went into total sticker shock when I had to order flowers for my mother-in-laws memorial service back in 2006. We had set aside $500.00 thinking that would pretty much fill the foyer and chapel. HAH! It paid for four arrangements!! FOUR!!!  The RS President then asked me: You are going to leave the floral arrangements for Sunday aren't you?? At $125.00 an arrangement - which each one was tailored made for her, not for the Sunday Sacrament - I am NOT. I took them home. 

 

We have one bouquet in our chapel - it changes seasonally. One of the sisters does the arrangement. The Branch pays for the dried, silk flowers, etc., and the vases. This is a HUGE arrangement - and it sits to the right, behind the Branch Presidency and the sacrament table. 

 

If any sisters have excess flowers blooming in their gardens, they will bring them in a vase for the RS room. They are to take them home at the end of the block, but generally they don't. 

[Quin]

I'm with ya.

I have to periodically restrain myself from attacking with cut glass & lead (one college course in stained glass work has given me delusions of ability inside my own head), and dearly miss carved wood & stone, textiles, symbols. I'll often still go to cathedrals and mosques, shrines and temples JUST for the beauty. Whether gravitas or liveliness.

Conversely, as someone who grew up in hotel rooms... I also like the simplicity of being in church for the purpose of people, but the world itself is where we find HF. Living in hotels one learns very quickly that the building doesn't matter. It's what and who you bring with you. Rooms are all the same. They aren't the important part. We are. And what we do with ourselves. (Every time I start living in a house, though, I start forgetting that. Putting emotional significance in the space, instead of what happens IN the space)

It's very easy (for me, myself, & I...don't know about others) to lose sight of HF being absolutely everywhere, when Notre Dame is a 20 minute walk away. I'd rather go to the cathedral, than stare out over the Seine and see the Spirit right there with me. I LIKE going somewhere beautiful, and set apart. Compulsively like. Start designing windows in my head during sacrament compulsive.

But I'm more and more growing to LOVE the simplicity that demands action.

Like a hotel room.

The building isn't important.

It's what we do outside of it that matters.

The building is functional, our lives are to be made beautiful.

Just my own opinion.

From someone who reeeeeeally misses art & tokens, so I may be overly adding meaning.

Q

[dahlia]

Growing up and in many of the wards I've been in since, we always had a huge fresh bouquet of flowers up front.  I guess it depends on the wards and buildings.

Maybe because our ward is mostly made up of broke grad & medical students who can't afford to buy flowers for the chapel. But, we do have a fair number of doctors, professors, and other gainfully employed people; why don't they buy the flowers? Maybe everyone is used to wards with no flowers.

[pam]

I prefer the simple decor of our chapels. We stress Christ's suffering in the garden of Gethsemane more than the crucifixion anyway.

 

Those fresh bouquets of flowers are spendy - and the money comes out of the Branch/Ward budget. That money is better spent paying someones electric bill, or rent for a month. 

 

 

 

The ward I grew up in we were lucky.  A lady in the ward owned a flower shop and she donated the arrangements from flowers she had left over at the end of each week.

 

And doesn't money spent on electric bill or rent come from fast offerings and not ward budget?

[Palerider]

The ward I grew up in we were lucky.  A lady in the ward owned a flower shop and she donated the arrangements from flowers she had left over at the end of each week.

 

And doesn't money spent on electric bill or rent come from fast offerings and not ward budget?

That money comes from fast offerings...you are correct.

Flowers would be purchased from the other budget money that wards receive for activities and auxiliaries etc

[Guest]

That money comes from fast offerings...you are correct.

Flowers would be purchased from the other budget money that wards receive for activities and auxiliaries etc

 

 

Which is pretty much next to nothing.  :)

 

I used to be the Ward Activities Coordinator when the calling still existed.  I had a budget of $300 to put together at least 6 activities a year.  $50 per activity...

 

But as far as Palms on Palm Sunday and the like... the LDS Church is not much into symbolism outside the temple.  There are no statues nor crosses nor incense nor ashes nor vestments, etc. etc.  And besides General/Stake Conference, we don't even have choral music.  It is not because we are a boring Church.  It is because we try to invite the Spirit through our testimonies without the need for pomp and ceremony.

 

But, there's nothing against each of us doing our own tradition things - like getting a Palm shaped cross to put in our homes on Palm Sunday...

[pam]

Which is pretty much next to nothing.  :)

 

I used to be the Ward Activities Coordinator when the calling still existed.  I had a budget of $300 to put together at least 6 activities a year.  $50 per activity...

 

But as far as Palms on Palm Sunday and the like... the LDS Church is not much into symbolism outside the temple.  There are no statues nor crosses nor incense nor ashes nor vestments, etc. etc.  And besides General/Stake Conference, we don't even have choral music.  It is not because we are a boring Church.  It is because we try to invite the Spirit through our testimonies without the need for pomp and ceremony.

 

But, there's nothing against each of us doing our own tradition things - like getting a Palm shaped cross to put in our homes on Palm Sunday...

 

Wow I feel lucky.  At least when I was Ward Activities Chairman I had a $500 budget just for our ward Christmas party.  Plus several other activities during the year.

[liberty98]

putting a flowers in a bouquet or vases in the pulpet in the sacrament hall is not just a design or  better arrangement of a sacrament meeting.. it is an evidence of  faithfullness of the members . .. ,especially when we put white roses on the vases which represents  holiness ,purity and new beginning.. it is important that we put fresh flowers in our chapels  every sacrament meeting to lift up the faith of each of us especially the new converts.. no matter what, i am bringing fresh flowers on the chapel every saturday on to the chapel in preparation for sunday sacrament meeting.. as a result, it makes me happy.. :)