Unity Christian High School Art Students
A reflection on worship at Unity Christian High School, Hudsonville, Michigan.
The chapel we did prior to Good Friday was excellent, but not written out. During that chapel, we had the auditorium dark and we began with a cello duet of "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," while displaying a picture of a crown of thorns. The rest of the chapel was based on an assignment given to the upper level drawing class. The class was to read Luke 22-23 and create a drawing that displayed one theme from these verses. The students then had to write a reflective paragraph about their art work.
When all the drawings were complete, I took digital photos of all the work and put them into a power point presentation. We also had the title of each piece along with the student's name in small script font on the bottom of the picture. After the cello duet, we had five students share their pictures (on the screen) and talk about them.
One of the students said that she surrounded the cross in the picture with her fingerprints in charcoal, since it was her sin that put Christ there. Another student had an incredible picture of a man with his arms around a woman, grief on both their faces. The picturein itself was wonderful, and then the student went on to share that she couldn't imagine what it would be like for a mother to see her son crucified, and how even in Jesus agony, he still showed his love for those who loved him (behold your son, behold your mother). It was so moving.
After these five students shared, the orchestra (which was onstage the entire time but in the dark) turned on their stand lights (so it was still mostly dark) and played "Fantasia." While the orchestra played, I showed the rest of the pictures from the art class. I had all the pictures timed and used a "fade through black" transition.
At first we were going to have the orchestra play with pictures from "The Passion." But I decided that playing to the student's art work was more personal and effective. It turned out to be much more than I ever imagined. Afterwards, a teacher came up to me with tears streaming down his cheeks (someone I never would have imagined to be so emotional). I think the personal aspect of this chapel is what made it so special. I am always amazed at the spiritual depth that many of these students display if only given the chance to do so.