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NmPC Stories
Sacred Spaces
Sacred Spaces
Sacred Spaces is a class for children in grades 1-5 offered at Northminster on Monday evenings, 6:30-8:30 from January 29 to March 19. Guest architect Paul Shirley, with GBBN Architects, kicked off the first night with a presentation on the basics of architecture and discussion on what makes a place sacred. Pictures or architecture form all over the world opened the eyes of the participants to the creativity of architecture. Children learned about the elements of design: size, shape, location, treatment and orientation. Guest Pastor Nancy presented slides of sacred spaces she visited during her sabbatical. She told the children about her experiences with these special places during her travels.
Students were asked to choose several words that would describe a sacred space of their own creation. After sharing their word list with the group the proceeded to draw an elevation and a floor plan of a sacred space.
Next steps: during the following weeks the children began class by gathering around a candle, centering themselves and experiencing sacred space within themselves through guided imagery and prayer. During individual work creating models they listened to very special music from sacred spaces around the world. At the end of class time was spent in the music room improvising on Orff instruments, chimes or drums to accompany flute, alto flute, bass flute, and tenor recorder. Recordings will be made of their improvisation. The class will end with video interviews of the children describing their sacred space models with the recorded music playing in the background.
The creativity, cooperation, hard work and exploration demonstrated by this group has truly been a sacred experience.
