In January 2003 UpLate embraced the feast of Epiphany, and went on a journey with the magi.

A pathway was marked out with masking tape, leading people from the cafe area into the heart of the church. Along the route we set up various stations, beginning with a simple display with dictionary definitions of the words ‘epiphany’ and ‘magi’ pinned up, plus a copy of the marvellous ‘Imaging the Word’ book [propped open on the pages relating to Epiphany]

Alongside we displayed some info discussing the mythology surrounding the magi - ie were there three of them? do we really know their names? where did the idea that they were kings come from? - all carefully researched, and decorated with images of the wise men cut from the previous months’ christmas cards...!

We set up a mirror and made some ostentatious-looking crowns and wise men’s hats, each with a star dangling from an armature attached to the front. Just for a laugh really.

We also had a table set with an epiphany cake and a description of the tradition surrounding it’s baking and consumption.

As you got further from the cafe, there was a cd player and headphones wher you could pause and listen to ‘Take the Long Way Round the Sea’ from Low’s excellent ‘Christmas’ album.

Next up was a ‘journey’ station. We made filmed very low-tech videos of everyday journeys [hand-held camera as one of us walked to the shops, a camcorder perched on the dashboard throughout a car journey etc] and had these playing on tvs. We set up a table with a world map and a load of objects collected by folk on their travels. On this table was a journal, and an invitation for people to write about memorable journeys that they had made...

We created a station using a projected-up slide of Jan Gossaert’s ‘The Adoration of the Kings’ [which we bought as part of an ‘Image of Christ’ resource pack from the National Gallery] This was displayed along with text asking viewers whereabouts in the nativity scene they would place themselves, and why...

TS Eliot’s ‘Journey of the Magi’ poem was displayed, with some additional questions to help folk to engage with it...

One of the group set up a ‘gifts’ table with myrrh frankinsence and gold leaf for people to touch and see and smell. There was some text about each item, to help explain it’s significance in the story of christ’s birth and death, and the opportunity to make a gift tag using the gold leaf which could be taken away and/or used later in the evening at the manger station...

A ‘stars’ station was set up, where people were invited to reflect on the names of stars, and to wonder at the vastness of the created universe. At this station we were invited to name our own [paper] stars, and to take these with us as we left as a reminder...

We are fortunate to have a couple of star-gazers as members of our group. And so we had a couple of telescopes set up on the evening. One, inside the church, allowed us to pin up our hopes and dreams and to try to focus on them down the full length of the church building.

The other telescope was set up in the church yard, and during the evening we went out in small groups to peer at what was most probably the very same star [or stars] that the magi observed and followed to Christ...

The ‘journey’ that evening ended at a small manger. Here we were invited to decide what we might offer to Christ in the year ahead, write it down, wrap our gift in a small box or parcel, and then to leave it in the manger. The gift tag made earlier could be used at this point.

Bread and wine were also provided at this station, and folk were invited to have a small, private and informal communion with God here if they so wished...

In the side chapel we had a cd of slightly discordant-sounding eastern music playing. This was brilliant, because it [unintentionally] accentuated the strange transition of the journey so well - as the babble of conversation and the familiar contemporary music playing in the cafe area became more distant, the weird and unfamiliar sound of some alien culture became more and more insistent.

Sorry, no photos from this one.

Resources

Journey - two alternate activities

Names of the stars

Letter

Wrap

Manger

Low - a musical meditation