Raising the profile of the Christian faith
“I think you should do something to celebrate one of your major festivals – like Christmas or Easter”. This was the advice of our Personnel Manager last July at one of our occasional meetings to discuss the activities of the Council Christian group.
Traditionally we have set out bowls of Easter eggs in the foyers of the main Council buildings as a gift from the Christian Group.
Traditionally we have set out bowls of Easter eggs in the foyers of the main Council buildings as a gift from the Christian Group.
We were reviewing our activities with the Personnel Manager and discussing how the group might further raise the profile of the Christian faith in the Council.
Organisations from time to time display their wares in the foyer of our main building. I indicated I did not think that staffing a table in the reception area with Christian literature would be an effective way of reaching out to others. However, the Personnel Manager clearly felt that there was potential to organise something in the foyer to raise awareness of our activities!
With this encouragement, the Group turned to thinking about how to create an attractive display which would engage our colleagues. We enlisted the support of Annie Spiers, creative director of local Christian arts company, ‘In Another Place’.
Changing display
We came up with a daily changing display during Easter week. Each day had a theme with a verse of Scripture or a paraphrase of what the day signified as the Easter story unfolded. Starting with the Last Supper, the display included Jesus’ suffering and trial leading to his crucifixion and resurrection.
We were able to advertise our initiative on the intranet and on Yammer (organisation version of Facebook).
When the theme was Jesus’ suffering , we invited colleagues to write a prayer on a ‘leaf’ and stick it to a branch. One of the prayers read “Let the 96 rest in peace. You’ll never walk alone”. That day coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster when there was a minute’s silence in our office.
When invited to write a thought or prayer, one of my newer colleagues asked: “Are you religious?”, and told me how she always attended Derry cathedral when she returned to Ireland.