This new addition to our church furnishings replaces the original carpet put down when the building opened in 1962. I wonder how many soles have walked upon it?!
I was intrigued to read that the largest carpet in the world also resides in a religious building. The one in the Abu Dhabi mosque is an astonishing 60,000 square feet and took the Iran Carpet Company two years to weave.
On Palm Sunday we are told the Jerusalem crowd greeted Jesus entering their city on a donkey by ‘carpeting’ his path with their cloaks.
This all sounds rather similar to that piece of English myth about Sir Walter Raleigh laying down his cloak over a puddle so that Queen Elizabeth I didn’t get her shoes muddy. It’s long been thought this incident never actually happened and is a piece of imaginative writing from the pen of the 17th century cleric cum historian Thomas Fuller. It’s still a great story!
The use of a ‘red carpet’ for welcoming guests, especially important ones, is documented in literature going back four centuries before Christ . However, the actual term, ‘rolling out the red carpet’ was first used in 1902 when the New York Central Railroad Company used a plush crimson carpet to direct passengers to the 20th Century Limited trains.
Well at AFC we’ve chosen ‘church’ blue for our carpet!
I’d like to think, whatever the colour, that our new carpet remains a symbol of welcome – reflecting those Jerusalem crowds laying their garments before the entry of Jesus. I also hope it offers a welcome to all who enter our building and come into the Sanctuary for worship.
Welcoming God and welcoming each other – laying out the red (blue) carpet for both is an important part of what we do Sunday by Sunday.
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