The Millennium Angels

 

 

Gabriel and Hark, our Millennium Angels, have come to bring the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ to the world and to our congregation.

Central members and friends were treated to something special during the Hanging of the Greens service held the first sunday in the Season of Advent in 1999. In addition to the greenery that is hung in the sanctuary, the congregation saw for the first time two large Advent banners raised beside the pulpit and the lectern.The banners portray two large angels and are fabric works created by members of Central.


The angel on the left is an interpretation of an angel from the Renaissance painting The Vision of St. Bernard by Filippino Lippi. This painting has become the model for our congregational artists in depicting Gabriel, the angel who announced to Mary that she would bear a son by the Holy Spirit. The original artist for our Gabriel by the pulpit, Filippino Lippi (1457-1504) was the son of the monk and painter Fra Lippo Lippi who began painting in the early days of the Renaissance, a period of rebirth in the life of Europe. One of the interests of the early Renaissance was the painter's challenge in representing movement. In this angel, we see a very brief, but lifelike instant of movement: he stands forever in a posture that is difficult to sustain. But in this moment of awe, we see him beginning to genuflect in reverence as if he were stopped for a second by a snapshot. He greets Mary as God's favored one and is starting to kneel before her, for God is honoring her as no human being has been honored before.

Another challenge for the early Renaissance painter was representing the volume and sheen of heavy, rich fabrics such as velvet and satin. At this time in the history of art, painters had begun to try to show how the fabric draped on the human body so that the body beneath was seen to be a real human body. Again, one sees that Filippino Lippi has shown us the knees and elbows of the angel as if he were a real person. The fabric artists of Central who created this hanging have attempted to be faithful to the spirit of Filippino Lippi's painting—its sense of awe and beauty. Here we have created in three dimensions the image that Lippi saw. We have taken some liberties with his image and intention in that we have changed the texture and color of his wings. We felt that, as a messenger of good news to Mary, he would be better represented with bright, gossamer wings, rather than the naturalistic feathery wings he wore in Lippi's painting.


The angel on the right has been freely interpreted by our artists from a French tapestry called The Apocalypse of Angers, created about 1360 AD. This angel originally represented the seventh angel of the Apocalypse, but in this interpretation has been renamed "Hark," because he is our herald angel. He becomes the representative of those angels who appeared to shepherds watching over their flocks by night when Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. Our Hark, the herald angel has one wing folded and one outstretched. For Central's artists, he is also captured in one brief instant with a hand lifted in greeting, perhaps saying to the terrified shepherds, "Fear not! For behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy!"

The tapestry in France is created in tones of gold and red. We also thought a herald angel might well wear a golden garment. He carries a silver trumpet because the heralds of kings always have silver trumpets. Like Gabriel's clothes, his garment is made of quite a bit of fabric to show his importance. Hark has been endowed with sparkles because we believe that a celestial messenger would possibly have stardust trailing about him. He has come a long way to bridge the distance between God and humankind.


Those who have hand-crafted these banners over many weeks include Jody Featherstun, Donna Adams, Shirlee Johnson, and Jane Watkins. The design was created by Jane Watkins from freehand drawings from the prints of the original images. We are truly grateful for the creativity of our banner team and their many hours of hard work. We hope their effort and devotion will inspire you during Advent and Christmas with the wonders of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ our Savior and our Lord.

Construction - The angels are both made of a mixture of fabrics on a cotton background over pellon with batting between. There is use of handstitching and machine stitching. The hands, feet, and faces employ drawing with fabric pen. The herald angel holds his wing out with aid of internal wiring; his trumpet is constructed separately so that it, like the wing, can be removed for storage. Both banners are 72 inches long, the angel images being about 5 feet tall. Choice of fabric was made by the artists in agreement with each other.

Design: Design was done by freehand drawing from prints of the original images.

 

Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
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